tained and designated in lists, and marked on maps for the direction of inquirers.

"V. That as the worst places are known to the Union Medical Officers and the Union Relieving, Officers, it is to the Boards of Guardians of the Poor Law Unions and their officials that the public must look for the earliest information to other bodies charged with the care of the public health, as to the first cases of the diseases referred to.

NOTE.-Whereas the authority of municipal corporations is often limited to portions of towns, all civic and rural populations are under the jurisdiction of Boards of Guardians, who, being themselves responsible to the Central Board and to Parliament, are charged with the relief of destitution occasioned by sickness and premature mortality, and with the supervision of the Union Infirmaries and of the Medical and Relieving Officers.' "VI. That the attention of the President of the Poor Law Board be called to Resolution I.; and that he be requested early to direct the attention of Boards of Guardians to the rates of mortality in excess of known standards afforded in the same counties, as shown by the Supplement to the 25th Annual Report of the Registrar-General. That he be also requested to direct the guardians particularly to inquire into and ascertain by their officers the seats of the most rife miasmatic discases, and to publish them without delay for the information of the ratepayers and others, and that the local authorities should be especially reminded of this fact-that local registrars have in their books records of the places and houses actually visited by cholera, typhus, &c., in previous epidemics.

"VII.-That it be submitted to the President of the Poor Law Board, that inasmuch as the proposed course of action, by averting or lessening the mortality from miasmatic diseases, will prevent claims for relief on account of widowhood, orphanage, and premature disability, the necessary incidental expenses may be fairly charged on the poor's rates throughout the country.

"The following are recommended to Poor Law Guardians and other authorities, as the best means of carrying out the foregoing resolutions :"(a).-Poor Law Inspectors should induce the medical and relieving officers to mark on maps of their districts the places they had occasion to visit for diseases of the iniasmatic class.

"(b).-Union clerks, as superintendent registrars, or the other officers acting as such, should mark on the same maps the places from whence deaths from diseases of the miasmatic class have been registered.

"(c). The seats of diseases of the miasmatic class should be marked with red ink; and of deaths, with crosses in black ink; and the places where cases of cholera have occurred, should be marked with blue ink.

(d).-The medical and relieving officers should be requested to make notes and observations on the conditions of the places affected by miasmatic diseases, and the classes of persons who suffer most from them.

"(e).-The courts, alleys, and other places which are undrained, or badly drained, and which have no proper water-closets or self-cleansing house Irains or sewers, and no proper pavement, should be marked on the proposed district map.

"(f).-The police having constantly to traverse all districts, and being well acquainted with those which are physically in the worst conditions, the heads of police should be requested to aid the local inquiries, by directing each policeman to make out descriptive lists of the places characterised by foul smells, by common nuisances, and by overcrowded and badly constructed tenements; and that weekly tenements, and the like places, where over

crowding exists in connection with disease, should be distinctly marked in the district maps.

“(g).—The marks on district maps should be transferred to general

maps.

(h).-In the metropolis and in other towns, where ordnance surveys have been made, copies of the ordnance maps on the largest scale be used, and, in other cases, tracing of town surveys.

66

"(i).—In aid of such maps, the chief seats of the miasmatic diseases should be accompanied by lists, with observations by the registrars or other union officers, and a statement of the density of the population.

"(k). That maps and lists constructed and marked in the manner recommended should be published without delay for the use of all concerned in sanitary inspection.

"VIII.-That it is desirable that local associations should be formed to visit the places pointed out in the maps and lists, and to organise a system of voluntary house to house visitation, to ascertain the conditions which require removal or mitigation.

NOTE. The following are among the effects which may be reasonably expected from the proposed local associations and examinations, viz., more accurate information as to the extent and nature of defects of the sources of water-supply of many districts, of such injurious defects as sewer-tainted wells, water kept in uncovered butts and tanks over privics or dung-beaps, and defects in the ordinary qualities, quantities, and methods of the distribution of the water supplied-as means of house and street cleansing, as well for personal cleansing, for clothes washingespecially for the poorest classes-as also defects of sinks, drains, and means for removing foul or waste matter, the extent of existing defects of house and street drainage, the extent of cesspools and of house drains, and of sewers of decomposing deposit, which are only extended cesspools. "IX.-That special local inquiries be directed to the state of the existing provision for receiving and treating cholera cases in union-houses, hospitals, houses of refuge, &c., and as to the means provided for the immediate removal not only of the dead, but of the sick, from rooms which are at once the living and sleeping rooms of the poorest classes, to places specially provided for the purpose.

"X.-That a special fund be raised to defray the expenses of the Committee in printing, correspondence, obtaining and distributing returns, and otherwise, and that a subscription be invited for this purpose.

The above resolutions were presented to the president of the Poor Law Board by a deputation on the 20th of November last, and were also extensively distributed among various public bodies. A Metropolitan Sanitary Association has since been formed, which meets at the office of our Society, and is actively engaged in practical efforts for the improvement of the health of London.

The Council resolved, on the 30th of November last, that the attention of the Government ought to be called to the expediency of forming a digest of the case law of England, which was so forcibly expounded by Sir James Wilde, in hist

address to the Association at York, and has been so frequently advocated by many of our members. The following memorial to Earl Russell was accordingly prepared by a committee. appointed for that purpose, and was presented to his lordship, who has informed the General Secretary that the subject is under the consideration of the Government.

"Memorial to the Righi IIon. Earl Russell, K.G., First Lord of Her Majesty's Treasury, &c., §c., §c., from the Council of the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science.

"THE Council of the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science (with which is united the Law Amendment Society) desire to represent to your lordship the expediency of issuing a Royal Commission, or of taking such other steps as to Her Majesty's Government may seem advisable, for the purpose of framing an authoritative Digest of the Case Law of England.

That portion of the law is scattered over many thousands of cases, printed in more than 1,200 volumes of Reports, which contain the decisions of the judges for several centuries. A number of these decisions are obsolete; many, in fact from one to two hundred yearly, are impeached or overruled, many are of doubtful authority; many are conflicting; many might be gathered under distinct heads, in a concise form, and be recognised by the Legislature as settled and substantial law.

To effect this object, it would be necessary to do with the Case Law what has been done and is doing with the Statute Law-to discard what is obsolete or superfluous, to condense and arrange what is effective; in short, first to expurgate, then to consolidate and revise.

"This subject has frequently and for many years past been under the consideration of the Association and the Law Amendment Society, and the Council trust that the time has arrived when Her Majesty's Government may be induced to take some active steps in the matter.

"The considerable progress that has been made in the revision and consolidation of the Statute Law; the work already done by the Commissioners appointed to prepare a code for Her Majesty's Indian possessions; and the remarkable success of the Commission employed by the State of New York, in America, to codify its civil and criminal laws-laws founded on our own, and to a great degree identical with them-suggest that a similar course should be immediately taken to reduce the unmanageable bulk of English Case Law to a clear and concise Digest.

"The need for condensing the Case Law into some moderate compass, and arranging it clearly, increases with the extension of the business of local courts. The County Courts have for some years possessed considerable jurisdiction in common law, and Parliament during the last session has invested them with extensive equitable powers. The judges of these tribunals, sitting for the most part without the assistance of a bar, at a distance from the libraries of the Inns of Court, and having to decide rapidly on the emergencies of the case, cannot be expected to master the intricacies of equity and common law in their present state of dispersion through law reports and text books; and the authoritative promulgation of a Digest would immensely aid them in the administration of that large and increasing

share of the civil justice of the country which has been so beneficially intrusted to their hands.

"Several of the eminent men who have at our annual meetings presided over the Association, or over the Department of Jurisprudence and Amendment of the Law, have dwelt forcibly on the importance of this subject.

"Lord Brougham, in his address to the Association in 1860, says :"All men are now agreed that the only question is, shall there be consolidation or not, parcel of and preliminary to a complete code or digest of the law? In other words, shall the Government of this country perform its high and imperative duty of making the people under its rule acquainted with the laws made to protect their rights, but also the laws to which it requires their obedience, enforcing that obedience by the severest penalties?' "The Right Hon. Joseph Napier, late Lord Chancellor of Ireland, in his address to our Department of Jurisprudence in 1861, advocated the carrying out of Lord Bacon's 'outline of a great reform; the statute law to be expurgated, classified and consolidated; the common law to be digested and methodised; a standing commission to be set up in aid of current legislation.' "In 1864 the Right Hon. Sir James Wilde, Judge of the Court of Probate, devoted his address as President of the same Department, to a consideration of the practicability of forming a Digest of the Case Law, and the following sentence, among others, shows his confidence in the work, provided it be adequately undertaken :

"I cannot resist the belief that within the bounds of reasonable labour and time, the general principles and broad bases on which our common law reposes, and which tacitly guide the decisions of our courts, might be brought to the surface, grouped together, subordinated in their several relations, and contrasted in their differences. An attempt of the kind, and not without great success, was made by the late Mr. Smith in his Leading Cases. And those who have studied the notes of that book will not fail to perceive how easily and with what success large groups of cases treated and handled together have been made to yield up short and succinct propositions of law. What I desire to see is a similar attempt made with authority and on a much larger scale, to be finally confirmed by Act of Parliament.'

"But the Council would especially quote the words employed by your lordship, when presiding over the Association at Liverpool in 1858, as expressing at once the need for commencing this labour forthwith, and the certainty of its being brought to a successful termination :—

"No one can doubt that it would be a great public benefit if our laws could be set forth in a clear style, and contained in two, three, or four volumes of moderate compass. If we proceed to consider what has been done in this country we shall find that, from the days of Lord Chancellor Bacon to those of Lord Chancellor Chelmsford, the revision and consolidation of the law have been a consummation devoutly to be wished. Five years ago the enactment of a code was held out to our expectation; each year we were said to be at the beginning of the beginning. Three administrations and four sessions of Parliament have promised, undertaken, and dropped the work. Is it not time that we should set about the task in earnest? I will venture to say that if four or five persons of competent qualifications were appointed as Commissioners, they would in a few months make an actual commencement, and in a few years present to Parliament a complete code worthy of the country, simplifying and improving our laws, on principles fit to be adopted in an enlightened age, and founded on the solid masonry of our ancient legislation. Nor can I doubt that such a work would be sanctioned by Parliament, not, indeed, without debate, but without serious delay,'

"The Council must observe that not five but thirteen years have now elapsed since the project of forming a code was spoken of by the then Lord Chancellor, and that though the work of the revision of the Statute Book has since been ably carried on, nothing has been done towards the formation of a Digest of the Case Law. The same distinguished lawyer, who so long since gave promise of a code, now again holds the Great Seal' ; your lordship, who so well understands the subject and appreciates its vast importance to the whole community, is the First Minister of the Crown; and the Council trust that the moment is therefore favourable for urging on Her Majesty's Government the expediency of at once taking the necessary steps for commencing the preperation of a Digest. That Digest, like an expurgated and revised Statute Book, would form an important step towards the enactment of a code; but taken by itself it would be invaluable, and it is on its own merits that the subject is now urged on your lordship's consideration. BROUGHAM, President.

66

"G. W. HASTINGS, General Secretary."

The loss of life and property from shipwreck having been brought before the Association by Mr. Edwin Chadwick, in his address on economy and trade, the Council prepared the following memorial to the Board of Trade, which was submitted to the President of the Board by a deputation on the 24th of February last.

"Memorial to the Right Hon. T. Milner Gibson, M.P., President of the Board of Trade, from the Council of the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science.

"THE Council of the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science having had under their consideration the facts and arguments set forth in the annexed address of the President of the Department of Economy and Trade, which relate to the present condition of our mercantile marine, would submit:

"That the terrible amount of loss of life and the vast sacrifice of property from shipwreck, and their continued increase, notwithstanding the measures taken for their prevention under the authority of the Board of Trade, and the improved constructions for the preservation of life and for saving vessels from utter loss, constitute a case for careful and solemn inquiry as to the causes of failure of the existing means, and as to what other means appear to be available for efficient prevention.

"But the safety of the subject and of navigation, and the special interests of the large body of mariners, appear to involve another and distinct topic of inquiry; namely, the proper elementary education and training of seamen for safe, good, and intelligent service and conduct.

"It was set forth as an axiom by the late Captain Basil Hall, and it is confirmed in general by other professional testimony, that in nautical affairs nothing is so wasteful as ignorance; while captains and masters of the greatest experience in the mercantile marine declare that they can work a vessel more safely with fewer men, if these are educated, than with a larger crew, if, like the bulk of common seamen, they are uneducated, ignorant, and untrained.

"It is adopted as a principle of legislation in relation to children and young