h the welfare of millions may,
during a long series of years, depend. The cost of the Commission is
as nothing when compared with the importance of such a work. The time
during which the Commission has sat is as nothing compared with the time
during which that work will produce good, or evil, to India.

"Indeed, if we compare the progress of the Indian Code with the progress
of Codes under circumstances far more favourable, we shall find little
reason to accuse the Law Commission of tardiness. Buonaparte had at his
command the services of experienced jurists to any extent to which he
chose to call for them; yet his legislation proceeded at a far slower
rate than ours. The French Criminal Code was begun, under the Consulate,
in March 1801; and yet the Code of Criminal Procedure was not completed
till 1808, and the Penal Code not till 1810. The Criminal Code
of Louisiana was commenced in February 1821. After it had been in
preparation during three years and a half, an accident happened to the
papers which compelled Mr. Livingstone to request indulgence for another
year. Indeed, when I remember the slow progress of law reforms at home,
and when I consider that our Code decides hundreds of questions, every
one of which, if stirred in England, would give occasion to voluminous
controversy and to many animated debates, I must acknowledge that I am
inclined to fear that we have been guilty rather of precipitation than
of delay."

This Minute was dated the end of January, 1837; and in the course of
the same year the Code appeared, headed by an Introductory Report in the
shape of a letter to the Governor-General, and followed by an Appendix
containing eighteen notes, each in itself an essay. The most readable of
all Digests, its pages are alive with illustrations drawn from history,
from literature, and from the habits and occurrences of everyday life.
The offence of fabricating evidence is exemplified by a case which may
easily be recognised as that of Lady Macbeth and the grooms; ["A, after
wounding a person with a knife, goes into the room where Z is sleeping,
smears Z's clothes with blood, and lays the knife under Z's pillow;
intending not only that suspicion may thereby be turned away front
himself, but also that Z may be convicted of voluntarily causing
grievous hurt. A is liable to punishment as a fabricator of false
evidence."] and the offence of voluntary culpable homicide by an
imaginary incident of a pit covered with