‘Oh Man of Learning! Victorian Public Education in Matters Legal

Abstract

Needing to Know the Law. With the unremitting expansion of legislation enacted during the nineteenth century together with the prolific development of the common law, the Victorians faced an explosion of legal initiatives that were continually altered and extended: ‘so many new jurisdictions and tribunals have been created during the reign of the present Sovereign’. It became apparent that there was a need for this new body of law to be published and disseminated to the widest possible audience. Ignorance of the law was no defence to a criminal charge and everyday transactions were increasingly regulated by a host of legal rules and requirements. The principle, ignorantia legis non excusa is identifiable in the eighteenth century2 but hardened substantially in the nineteenth century. The maxim emanated largely from the criminal law but it applied equally to disputes under the civil law including matrimonial suits, breach of contract, and disputed wills. Justice Blackburn confirmed, ‘The rule is that ignorance of the law shall not excuse a man, or relieve him from the consequences of a crime, or from liability upon a contract.’