new conditions as they arise and to unforeseen
circumstances, is often more convenient and indeed more scientific than
a code. Criminal Law, however, at least so far as it relates to
indictable offences, ought to be embodied in a definite and complete
code, and in the process of codification certain amendments might be
made.

(3) The law as to murder and homicide, for example, urgently requires
considerable amendment. The present state of the law classing together
as murder acts of totally different character and decreeing the
punishment of death for all alike is most unsatisfactory, and in some
cases revolting to the moral sense. The whole doctrine of "constructive
murder" should be done away with, and only those acts treated as murder
and punishable with death where the accused intended deliberately the
death of his victim, and was not acting under great provocation or under
the kind of mental distress or anxiety which might be reasonably
supposed to affect his--it might indicate the usual nature of such
cases better to say "her"--judgment and power of control.

There are also a number of alterations in the law relating to the
devolution of property, and to personal status which ought to be made by
the new Parliament at an early date. Most of them have been suggested
long ago, but as no party capital was to be made out of law reforms,
such reforms have generally been neglected unless taken up by a Lord
Chancellor or some other legal authority with political influence. A few
of these alterations may be enumerated.

(4) The devolution of real estate in case of intestacy should be
assimilated to that of personal estate. The present state of the law is
often a great injustice, especially to women, and women will now be in a
position to demand its amendment. If a man dies intestate, leaving a
wealthy son and half a dozen daughters quite unprovided for, the son
takes all the real property, and the daughters may be left penniless,
but if the property happens to be leasehold for 1,000 years, the
daughters share equally. The present state of the law is a survival of
the time when ownership of freehold land implied personal service.

(5) Estates tail might be abolished or at least alienation of such
estates made simpler.

(6) Copyhold tenure with its inconvenient incidents should be converted
into freehold.

(7) Both as a means of raising revenue, and to prevent useless
litigation without in any way discouraging thrift o