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The Criminal Code, 1892

The Library of Parliament’s collection contains several copies of the original edition of Canada’s Criminal Code, 1892. These documents are an excellent example of how the Library has always focused on building a core collection of legal and parliamentary texts for the use of parliamentarians and parliamentary staff. 

On 8 March 1892, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada John Sparrow David Thompson introduced Bill 7 to the House of Commons. This document consolidated and organized (or codified) most of the country’s criminal law. Arranged under Title I to Title X, the single sprawling text contained 1,007 sections.

Bill 7 was drafted by Robert Sedgewick, Deputy Minister of Justice, and George Burbidge, Justice of the Exchequer Court of Canada and former Deputy Minister of Justice. Burbidge was also the author of A Digest of the Criminal Law of Canada, a compilation of Canadian case law and statutes arranged by subject, published in 1890. Sedgewick and Burbidge modelled Bill 7 on the English Draft Code of 1879, which never became law in the United Kingdom. The Canadian bill, however, proved politically successful – it passed through the House of Commons and Senate quickly. After it was whittled down to 983 sections, the bill received royal assent on 9 July 1892, and came into force on 1 July 1893.

The Library holds several copies, in English and French, of the Criminal Code, 1892. One copy in English preserves more than the printed pages: it includes extensive handwritten annotations relating to later amendments, status of laws and explanatory notes made by an original holder of the volume. These were likely written by the Law Clerk of the Senate or a staff member in their office. The dates inscribed in the notes range from 1893 to 1906, at which time the 1892 version of the Criminal Code would have become obsolete, when a consolidated law was published in the Revised Statutes of Canada, 1906.

The Law Clerk of the Senate at the time was James George Aylwin Creighton. Creighton served in that role from 1882 to 1930. His 48-year tenure makes him the longest-serving senior parliamentary official in the same position since Confederation.

Details

• The Library’s annotated copy measures 26 cm high and contains 403 pages.
• The book still has its original leather binding and brightly coloured marbled end papers. The gold lettering stamped on the spine includes the title and a barely visible “Law Clerk of Senate.”
• The book was printed by Samuel Edward Dawson, Law Printer to the Queen’s Most Excellent Majesty. Today, his title would simply be King’s Printer for Canada.
• The full title reads: The Criminal Code, 1892, 55-56 Victoria, Chap. 29, Together with An Act to Amend the Canada Temperance Amendment Act, 1888, Being Chapter 26 of the Same Session.
• A digital reproduction of the annotated copy is available.