Page:Select Essays in Anglo-American Legal History, Volume 1.djvu/617

 18. BRYCE: THE EXTENSION OF LAW 603 the India Charter Act of 1833, of a clause declaring that a general judicial system and a general body of law ought to be established in India applicable to all classes, Euro- peans as well as natives, and that all laws and customs hav- ing legal force ought to be ascertained, consolidated, and amended. The Act then went on to provide for the appoint- ment of a body of experts to be called the Indian Law Com- mission, which was to inquire into and report upon the Courts, the procedure and the law then existing in India. Of this commission Macaulay, appointed in 1833 legal member of the Governor-General's Council, was the moving spirit; and with it the work of codification began. It prepared a Penal Code, which however was not passed into law until 1860, for its activity declined after Macaulay 's return to England and strong opposition was offered to his draft by many of the Indian judges. A second Commission was ap- pointed under an Act of 1853, and sat in England. It secured the enactment of the Penal Code, and of Codes of Civil and of Criminal Procedure. A third Commission was crated in 1861, and drafted other measures. The Govern- ment of India demurred to some of the proposed changes and evidently thought that legislation was being pressed on rather too fast. The Commission, displeased at this resist- ance, resigned in 1870 ; and since then the work of preparing as well as of carrying through codifying Acts has mostly been done in India. The net result of the sixty-six years that have passed since Macaulay set to work in 1834 is that Acts codifying and amending the law, and declaring it ap- plicable to both Europeans and natives, have been passed on the topics following: — Crimes (1860). Criminal Procedure (1861, 1882, and 1898). Civil Procedure (1859 and 1882). Evidence (1872). Limitation of Actions (1877). Specific Relief 0877). Probate and Administration (1881). Contracts (1872) (but only the general rules of contract with a few rules on particular parts of the subject).