THE NARRATIVE. JURISPRUDENCE AND AMENDMENT OF THE LAW. In this Department are discussed the science of Furisprudence and the amendment of the law; including the principles of law and legislation, Comparative Jurisprudence, International Law, Municipal Civil Law, and Criminal Law, together with the treatment of criminals, and questions connected with Prisons and Industrial and Reformatory Schools. INTERNATIONAL AND MUNICIPAL LAW 1. Law Reporting.'—Among the early subjects of inquiry before the Law Amendment Society was that with respect to the promulgation 1 Law Review, vol. x., p. 395; vol. xviii., p. 313. Transactions, 1858, p. 52; 1864, p. 26. Sessional Papers, 1865, p. 241. See also two Letters published and addressed in 1863 and 1864, by Mr. Daniel, Q.C., to Sir Roundell Palmer, Her Majesty's AttorneyGeneral. of the law laid down by judicial decisions. It is a fact, though not well known, that the reform in our system of law reports, now so ably carried out by the Council of Law Reporting, originated with these inquiries. The subject was first taken up and brought under the notice of the Society in 1849 by one of our members, Mr. Serjeant Pulling, then a junior barrister, whose report on the subject in that year goes elaborately into the whole question, giving the early and modern history of our law reports, and pointing out the manifold evils and defects and costliness of the so-called system of law reporting then in use, and making suggestions for a remedy. A Committee of the Society was again, at Serjeant Pulling's instigation, specially appointed to consider the matter in 1853, when the views and opinions expressed in the Report of 1849 were confirmed, and additional reasons were given showing the importance to the public of establishing a proper system of reporting. In 1858, the subject was brought before the Association at Liverpool by the Right Hon. Joseph Napier, Lord Chancellor of Ireland, in his address as President of the Jurisprudence Department; and again in 1854 by Sir James Wilde, now Lord Penzance, in his address at our York meeting. In the Juridical Society the 42 Law Reporting. subject was also frequently considered and discussed, especially in papers read by Mr. Westlake, Q.C., our Foreign Secretary, and Mr. George Sweet. Our old members, Mr. Daniel, Q.C., and the late Mr. Edward Webster, also contributed papers on the question, which were published in our Transactions, and elsewhere. In 1863, the inquiries of the Law Amendment Society were revived with so much success that, at the suggestion of the then Lord Chancellor (Westbury) and the late Sir William Erle, a meeting of the bar was held, and, at the instigation of Mr. Daniel, Q.C., an influential Committee was appointed, and a scheme adopted, resulting in the establishment of the existing system, by which, in lieu of the old outlay, estimated at 40/. a-year, every subscriber is now supplied with the whole of the Reports, Statutes, and subsidiary publications for five guineas yearly. The reform has been well carried out by the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting, including among its members Sir Roundell Palmer, Mr. Daniel, Q.C., Mr. Serjeant Pulling, and, though last not least, the present able Chairman and our Treasurer, Mr. Joseph Brown, Q.C. It may be that there are improvements still to come; but it is only right to call attention to the fact that the |