The Life of Sir James Fitzjames Stephen, Bart., K.C.S.I; A Judge of the High Court of Justice (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1895 edition. Excerpt: ...for example, a kind of bankruptcy law, under which large amounts of property had been distributed; although, according to some opinions, the whole process was illegal. Conflicting views were held by high authorities. As many as six or seven degrees of inspiration had been attributed to different parts of the code, said Fitzjames (March .26, 1872), as to the relation in which they stood to the rest. In short, a book originally intended as a guide to administrators of the law had come to be a sort of semi-inspired volume, with varying degrees of infallibility. Moreover, as it led to much litigation and many discussions, it had swelled from a small volume into one of those enormous recep tacles of notes, comments, sections of Acts, and general observations which pass in England under the name of legal text-books. (September 5, 1871.) In order to clear up the confusion, Mr. D. G. Barkley had been directed by the Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab to prepare a volume containing all the regulations which were supposed to have actually the force of law. Many of these were only accessible in official archives. This volume filled 408 closely printed pages, besides various schedules. When carefully examined by Fitzjames this was reduced to an act of fifty-eight sections, and the question as to authority finally set at rest. A still more important part of the Punjab administration dealt with the land revenue. This, of course, touches the most vital part of the whole system of British government. A famous Regulation, VII. of 1822, had laid down the general principles of land-revenue law. But it was in itself ambiguous, and there were great doubts as to...