with
interest.[38] Commissions were appointed to investigate the procedure
of the Common Law Court and the law of real property. Another
commission, intended to codify the criminal law, was appointed in
1833. Brougham says that of 'sixty capital defects' described in his
speech, fifty-five had been removed, or were in course of removal,
when his speeches were collected (_i.e._ 1838). Another speech of
Brougham's in 1828 dealt with the carrying into execution of a
favourite plan of Bentham's--the formation of local courts, which
ultimately became the modern county courts.[39] The facts are
significant of a startling change--no less than an abrupt transition
from the reign of entire apathy to a reign of continuous reform
extending over the whole range of law. The Reform Bill accelerated the
movement, but it had been started before Bentham's death. The great
stone, so long immovable, was fairly set rolling.

Bentham's influence, again, in bringing about the change is
undeniable. He was greatly dissatisfied with Brougham's speech, and,
indeed, would have been dissatisfied with anything short of a complete
logical application of his whole system. He held Brougham to be
'insincere,'[40] a trimmer and popularity-hunter, but a useful
instrument. Brougham's astonishing vanity and self-seeking prompted
and perverted his amazing activity. He represents the process, perhaps
necessary, by which a philosopher's ideas have to be modified before
they can be applied to practical application. Brougham, however, could
speak generously of men no longer in a position to excite his
jealousy. He says in the preface to his first speech that 'the age of
law reform and the age of Jeremy Bentham' were the same thing, and
declares Bentham to be the 'first legal philosopher' who had appeared
in the world. As the Chief advocates of Bentham he reckons Romilly,
his parliamentary representative; Dumont, his literary interpreter;
and James Mill, who, in his article upon 'jurisprudence,' had
popularised the essential principles of the doctrine.

The Utilitarians had at last broken up the barriers of obstruction and
set the stream flowing. Whigs and Tories were taking up their
theories. They naturally exaggerated in some respects the completeness
of the triumph. The English law has not yet been codified, and it was
characteristic of the Benthamite school to exaggerate the facility of
that process. In their hatred of 'judge-made law' they assumed too
e