In the reign of Henry VIII. the first English abridgment of the statutes was printed by 'timbal ; and during that reign and in the succeeding half century there were numerous impressions published of the old and recent statutes in the original Latin and French, or in English transla tions. Barker, about 1587, first used the title Statutes at Large.' In 1618 two large collections of statutes, ending in 7 James I., were published, called Rastall's and Pulton's. Pulton's collection was several times reprinted with additions.
In the eighteenth century an addition, in six folio volumes, was published by Mr. Serjeant Hawkins in 1735, contain ing the statutes to 7 George II. Cay's edition, in 1758, in the same number of volumes, contains the statutes to 30 George II. Continuations of these works were published as fresh statutes were passed ; and another work in 4to., of the same kind, was begun in 1762, well known by the designation of Ruff head's ' Statutes at Large.' Pickering's tion is in 8vo., and ends with 1 George III.
None of these collections had ever been published by authority of the state, and though able men had been employed upon them, they have been thought by many competent judges not adequate to the im portance of the subject, and to be liable moreover to some serious objections. This led a committee of the House of Commons, who, in 1800, were appointed to inquire into the state of the Public Re cords, to recommend, among other things, that " a complete and authoritative edition of all the statutes should be published." When the commission was appointed for carrying into effect the recommendations of this committee, they proceeded to the execution of this project ; and finally, be tween the years 1810 and 1824, they produced, in a series of large volumes, a critical edition of the statutes (including the early public charters), ending with the close of the reign of Queen Anne. This is what is now considered the most authentic edition of the statutes, and it is supplied with a valuable index. It forms ten folio volumes. In the large intro duction to that work there is a more par ticular account of the former editions of the statutes and of the means for making such a work as this complete.
The statutes passed in the Imperial Parliament of Great Britain are printed by the queen's printers, in foolscap folio, and sold at the Act Office, near Gough Square, Fleet Street, London, in separate acts, at the rate of three halfpence a sheet (4 pages) for public acts and three pence a sheet for private acts. An 8vo. edition is also published, which is sold at the rate of one penny a sheet (16 pages 8vo.), at Richards's, in Fleet Street, London, and any sheet or sheets may be purchased, so as to include one or more acts. The acts are not published separately in this edition, as they are in the folio edition.
The statutes of the realm are generally divided into two classes—Public and Pri vate [PcrtmeniENT, p. 468j; but they may more conveniently be distributed into three classes—Public General, Public Lo cal, and Private. The two former only come within the term " laws," in the pro per acceptation of the term. The private acts embody special privileges conferred on individuals, or the sanction of the le gislature to private arrangements regard ing property ; and before they can be enforced, they must be pleaded before the courts of law, like contracts, or the titles of estates. The Public Local sta tutes, though published separately, and though the standing orders of the Houses of Parliament require that on account of the private interests which they are often likely to affect, certain preliminary notices and other proceedings should take place before they are passed through their stages, are yet, in contemplation of law, in the same position as the Public General Statutes. Formerly all the public sta
tutes, local and general, were published together and numbered consecutively ; but from the year 1798 downwards, the local acts have been separately enu merated in distinct volumes. The legis lation of a session generally fills one volume with general, and three or four with local statutes. The latter are not always the more numerous, but from- the quantity of detailed arrangements regard ing local places and circumstances, and the rights and obligations of parties em bodied in them, they are generally much larger than the general statutes. As, from the quantity of railway and other joint-stock schemes this branch of legis lation is rapidly increasing, the means of simplifying and abbreviating it have oc cupied the attention of law reformers, and some steps have been taken to accomplish this end. It had been observed that there are some clauses that are or might to be common to all local acts. In embo dying the matters which should be of the same character in every one of the local statutes, different draftsmen used dif ferent expressions ; and the courts of law had on this account often to give a prac tically different effect to clauses which were intended to accomplish the same thing. Great intricacy and confusion were thus gradually finding their way into the institutions of the country; and in a considerable department of the law of the United Kingdom, Voltaire's sar casm on the provincial laws of France, that a traveller changes laws as often as he changes horses, was likely to be veri fied. During the session of parliament of 1845 an effort was made to remedy this defect in local legislation. Three public general acts were passed, of which the following are the titles: An Act for consolidating in one Act certain Provi sions usually inserted in Acts with respect to the Constitution of Companies incor porated for carrying on Undertakings of a public Nature;' ' An Act for con solidating in one Act certain Provisions usually inserted in Acts authorising the taking of Lands for Undertakings of a public Nature ;' and An Act for conso lidating in one Act certain Provisions usually inserted in Acts authorising the making of Railways.' To prevent con fusion, a distinct series of these acts was passed applicable to Scotland. In each of these Acts there is a provision that it shall have reference to all local acts for the undertakings to which it applies. " And all the provisions of this Act, save so far as they shall be expressly varied or excepted by any such act, shall apply to the undertaking authorised thereby so far as the same shall be applicable to such undertaking; and shall, as well as the clauses and provisions of every other Act which shall be incorporated with such Act, form part of such Act, and be construed together therewith as forming one Act." It is hoped that this arrange ment may in some measure economise local legislation; but its most important influence will be in the production of uniformity in the law of joint-stock com panies authorised by statute.