Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 33.djvu/163

Rh Countries’—fifty-nine are enumerated, in alphabetical order, from Anhalt to Würtemberg—‘and the Institutes of Justinian,’ London, 1850–2, 4to. The publication was recognised as an event of national and international importance. The king of Prussia, the emperor of Austria, the Society of Arts, and College of Physicians awarded Levi gold medals or prizes. At Levi's suggestion Lord Harrowby, to whom the book was dedicated, arranged with Brougham, then president of the Law Amendment Society, the congress of 16 Nov. 1852, in order to discuss practical measures for harmonising the laws of the three kingdoms. A royal commission was issued, and resulted in the Mercantile Law Amendment Acts of 1856 (19 & 20 Vict. cc. 60 and 97), by which some of the more glaring discrepancies between English and Scotch and Irish law were removed (see Parliamentary Papers, Reports from Commissioners, 1854, vol. ix., and 1854–5, vol. iv.) The commission also considered the expediency of introducing the principle of trading with limited liability into the law of partnership, and Levi, who had already given evidence in its favour before a committee of the House of Commons in 1850, was examined by the commissioners, who, however, reported adversely to the proposal. Levi also gave evidence before a committee of the House of Lords in 1853 in favour of the collection of agricultural statistics, which was not earnestly taken in hand until 1866. He also attended the International Congresses of Statisticians at Brussels in 1853 and 1855, in the latter year read before the Law Amendment Society a paper ‘On Judicial Statistics,’ and at Brougham's request drafted a bill on the subject which Brougham introduced into the House of Lords, but eventually withdrew.

Meanwhile in 1852, on the recommendation of Lord Harrowby, Levi had been appointed to the newly created chair of commerce at King's College, and removing to London had taken chambers in Doctors' Commons. He discharged his duties with conspicuous ability and zeal in spite of inadequate remuneration. The close study of English mercantile law which his lectures involved was proved by his ‘Manual of the Mercantile Law of Great Britain and Ireland,’ published at London in 1854, 8vo. Of the Statistical Society he became fellow in 1851, one of the council in 1860, and vice-president in 1885, and contributed sixteen of the papers in its journals, frequently representing the society at foreign congresses. He was also elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1854, was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1859, and received from the university of Tübingen the degree of doctor of economical and political science in 1861. Levi was also a member of the Society of Arts, of the Law Amendment Society, of the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science, of the Royal Geographical Society, of the International Statistical Institute, honorary secretary of the metric committee of the British Association, and of the International Association for Promoting one Uniform System of Weights, Measures, and Coins, and a knight of the Italian orders of SS. Mauritius and Lazarus, and of the Crown of Italy. He was a friend and enthusiastic admirer of Cobden, to whose memory he paid a warm tribute when advocating the establishment of an international lectureship on economics in 1865 (On Richard Cobden, an Introductory Lecture delivered in King's College, London, 22 Oct. 1865, London, 1865, 8vo). He disapproved of capital punishment, and believed in the practicability of settling international disputes by arbitration. These views he ventilated in ‘The Law of Nature and Nations as affected by Divine Law,’ London, 1855, 8vo; ‘Peace the Handmaid of Commerce, with Remarks on the Eastern Crisis. An Introductory Lecture delivered at King's College, London, 12 Oct. 1876,’ London, 1876, 8vo; ‘War and its Consequences, Economical, Commercial, Financial, and Moral. With Proposals for the Establishment of a Court of International Reference and Arbitration,’ London, 1881, 8vo, and ‘International Law, with Materials for a Code of International Law,’ London, 1887, 8vo. He was also a warm advocate of the Channel tunnel. His principal work on statistics was a periodical summary of parliamentary papers, entitled ‘Annals of British Legislation, being a Classified and Analysed Summary of Public Bills, Statutes, Accounts, and Papers, Reports of Committees and of Commissioners, and of Sessional Papers generally of the Houses of Lords and Commons, together with Accounts of Commercial Legislation, Tariffs, and Facts relating to Foreign Countries,’ London, 1856–1865, fourteen vols. 8vo, continued on a larger scale, under the title ‘Annals of British Legislation, being a Digest of the Parliamentary Blue Books’ to 1868, 4 vols. 8vo. He took a lively interest in the working classes, and investigated their economic position and prospects in the following works: 1. ‘Wages and Earnings of the Working Classes, with some facts illustrative of their Economic Condition, from Authentic and Official Sources, in a Report to Michael T. Bass, esq., M.P.,’ London, 1867, 8vo. 2. ‘Estimate of the Amount of Taxation falling on the Working Classes of the United Kingdom. A Report