The Statesman. — London, England, 1821-06-23 00:00:00

THE STATESMAN. more tenderness than an Englirh Judge, as the lattera if complained of, was attacked in his own camp, while the former was dragged from his connections to an swer fur his conduct before u tribunal, to which he must be comparatively unknown. Laying down this principle, he should not be disposed to come forward as an accuser on light grounds. Nothing but a strong sense of duty would have induced him to take upon himself the task he was now about to perform. He Lad of course nothing to do with the private character of the Chief Baron of the Exchequer in Ireland. He was well disposed to believe all purity and dignity in private life : but he shoved, from the case of Lord Bacon, that purity in private life could not screen a Judge from inquiry into his public conduct. It was impossible that such a cue of delinquency could now be made out against a Judge as bad been made out against Lord Bacon, any more than it could be shewn that Members of that House now received money in the lobby for the votes they were to give in their places. Such cases grew out of the times in which they occurred, but he feared in the present instance, it would be found that many extortions—many exac tions of illegal fees had been sanctioned by the Judge, whose conduct was now called in question, though no direct bribe had been offered. He then trok a brief view of the introduction of Courts of Jus tice in Ireland, and of the measures adopted from the time of Elisabeth downwards, to guard against the exaction of undue and uereasonable fees. Coming to the year 1814, in which the Commission to inquire into the state of the Irish Court of Justice, was first appointed ; he must remark that the appointment of that Commission was wholly owing to the Right Hon. Bart. (the Member for Waterfort.) The mo tion of the Right Hon. Bart, was strongly opposed by the Gentlemen on the opposite side of the House, and was on's+ carried by a majority of one. If there were one thing in the active and useful life of the Right Hon. Baronet (Sir J. Newport) for which he envied him more than for any thing else, it was the simple and nuns entatious triumph which he had thus ob tained, by which without reference to party po litics, he had effected an important reform in all the Courts of Justice. The motion had been opposed not as improper far Ireland, but the principle bad been ob jected to as unfit to he extended to England and Scot- I end, where uo complaints were heard of the state of the Courts of Justice. The motion for appointing the Commission carrild, he was bound to say that the Go vt precut had done their best to give effect to the %%lakes of the Legislature, by naming men of the higrliest possible character to serve in that Commission. '1 he Commission had done honour to their appoint. meet, for lie would say, that for industry, for zeal, and above all, for indelible integrity, they bad never been surpassed. He now called the attention of the House to the Ninth Report, which set forth that there had been a classification of fees in the Court of Exchequer in Ireland. The total number was 96. Of these the number that remained as they were in I/34 were but • _ 13 - - Those the rate of which bad been increased was 38 There had been diminished - - • - 2 There bad been ceased altogether - • - 24 las a w Fees iatioduccd anotagei to - - 19 Total • • • - 96 Those that remained as they had been in 1794 be would leave out of big consideration. Two it would be s .en had diminished ia their amount. To the 38 that bail been increased, and to the 19 that had been introduced, be should call the attention of the House. '1 he 24 that had fallen into disuse were some of them consilerable amount, but they only attached to 4 aft% that were of singular occurrence. He then pro ceeded to shew that by an Act passed in the reign of lieorge the First, the fees to be taken by the Lord Chief Baron or his Clerks, were limited to 21 16s. 2d. They had of late years been increased to 51. 12s. 7d. lle knew that fees to the same amount had been taken by the predecessor to the present Chief Baron ; but this he contended would not warrant his overlooking the statute. The Hon. Member read another passage from the statute, and contended that its language li tnited the fees to be received in this office to 13s. IN. and he was at a loss to know by what reasoning this sum could be expanded to the amount now received. With respect to the chamber fees, he did not intend to notice them in his resolutions, because they must be WI in a great degree to the discretion of the Judge. His second resolution referred to the signature of cer tain writs, which had been frequently left un signed by the Chief Baron. Fees thus became chargeable, although the duty had been left unperformed ; and, indeed, if the duty bad been performed the fees would not have been liable. This also was founded upon the Report. The next charge which he had to prefer against the Noble Baron was rather more complicated. It related to the fees upon the taking out exemplification of decrees; and, according to the present practice, a double fee was always charged. Yet strange to say. these double fees were charged upon documents in some eases which never had any existence. They were charged upon the commencement of the proceedings, and whether those proceedings went on or not, the fees were take., The next resolution was, that fees were formerly paid in Irish currency, whereas they were now paid in British currency, which gave an increase in their amount of one-third per cent. And bow was this justified? The Chief Baron said, that the officer had been alwayys in the habit of receiving fees from the suitor in British currency, and that conse quently the public had been no sufferers by the change of his practice. He contended, that the receiving the fee in British currency from the officer, was as bid as the first alteration from the Irish to the British currency. The Hon. Member then alluded to the increased fees upon the bills of costs, and fees re ceived by the usher and crier of the Court of Nisi Prins, upon which the Resolutions were founded. He alluded to the appointment of wee of the Chief Baron's rela tives to the taw in the Court, and which offices were, declared by the Camendisiewers to be in the receipt of illegal fees. If this were the cue, the Chief Baron was,' in point of feet, in the receipt of these fees, and became responsible for their ft ality. With regard to the is of fees, the Chief Bann stated, that by the 43d of his late Majesty, the emoluments of his situation had been nosiderahly dlemisiebed. Now, the situation of the Chive Juedee of the Mug's Been was4;cred by that At and the eaesinneetsamessend to . ; *bate of the Amities of tie Cougilwa Pleas to __ ,b ; these of the Lied Chief Dann of the Easheme.ter EGOIN/i. t that being MK IMO than the one. and above the amen of the other. The document appeared as as slow to the Report, he must my, came before them in s very questionable shape. it ' was only signed by the Lord Chief Baron, whereas, upon Winer occasions, similar documents were signed by all the four Barons of the Exchequer. There was one snh• ject to which be was anxious to call the attention of thr iionse,e - nd — widch he rorieeiredto be of the most serious importance. It had lately been matter of complaint, that returns ordered fromireland were not made with due regularity ; and if that of which he Lad received strong and positive information, should prove to be true, there would be no room for surprise if returns were not to he madeat all. Some time ago returns were ordered by tbeHouse respecting certain papers,and theßeport sub sequently made was,tloat no such papers were in existence. The person whose office it was to make returns, went and showed the report he bad drawn up to the Chief Ba ron, and was directed by him to leave out the latter part of it, as he had not been ordered to report upon his verbal, but written instructions. If such tatuperings and suggestions were carried on, ;that a colouring did the fact give of the whole charges. This Bras the case which be bad to submit to the Committee. if the Re port of the Commissioners of Inquire was not to he act ed upon, what was the prospective advantage of send ing out that Commission which was about to go out to inquire into the revenue of Ireland. lie was fully sen sible that the Gentlemen who composed that Commis sion possessed the confidence of the House, and were. resolved and capable to perform their duty. At the same time, the individuals who formed the other Conimission were equally distinguished by talent and integrity; and the subject which they were appointed to investigate, viz. the administration of justice, was paramount to all others which could come under the notice of Parlia ment. Were they then to expect that any good could arise from sending out such a Commission as that now io contemplation, if they did not possess the firmness and courage to act upon the report which gave rise to the charges lie now. laid before the House. There were cases in which the Parliament had acted, and in which the laws had been enforced. There was one of an indi vidual who sat upon the bench in the Insolvent Debtor's Court. After the House had passed its censure in that case, the individual was removed from leis situation. There was another case in which a charge was made, in the Second Report of the Commissioners, against a Gen tleman named Pollock, a Clerk of the Pleas in the Court of Exchequer. This Gentleman, be believed, Imre an unimpeachable character, with the exception of havitog committed the darling offence of receiving illegal fees. 'lbis case was brought into the Court of Exchequer, and tried before the Chief Baron, who, upon the charges being proved, removed Mr. Pollock from his situation. Now he contended that these charges were of a similar nature to those advanced against the Chief Baron him self by the Ninth Report of the Commissioners. It must be obviously clear to every one that it was utterly im possible for the matter to remain where it was, assuming a case of delinquency to be made out. In fact, the Chief Baron himself, in his letter, stated that he could not consent to such a course.—(Hear '.).—The Hon. Member concluded by moving a series of Resolutions founded upon the Report, and embracing all the charges which he had specified above. Captain O'GRADY rose fur the purpose of opposing the Resolutions one and all. In meeting the charges which had been preferred by the Hon. Gentleman he had to claim the indulgence of the House, because he had no claim whatever to trespass upon so much of their time as would he necess .ry for such a tack. In addressing that or any other public assembly, be was out of his element.--(llear.) Ile c,ould not accept the compliments which the Huts. Gentleman had paid to the Chief Baron's talents, when in the same breath he denied his integrity. He would always be ashamed to receive compliments upon reptation at the expense of integrity; and more particularly wheri that integrity was said to have been sacrificed for the sake of what he conceived to be such inconsiderable exactions. lie was convinced that the Commissioners had inserted nothing in their report but that which they thought to be right, and consistent with their public duty. But they were not men qualified to examine into the minutiae of the regulations of a Court of Justice. It was from the embarrassments into which they were led upon this account. that the mis-statements contained in their report had arisen, and it was his intention to impute no other motives to them whatever. With re spect to the Officer of the Court of Exchequer, whose case bad been mentioned by the Hon. Gentleman. He was proceeded against by the Attorney-General, and not upon the Report, which was pronounced by the Judges to be an illegal document, as far as the found ing of any criminal prosecution upon it was concern ed. It was illegal, because it was grounded in pro ceedings which compelled individuals to criminate themselves upon oath. There was another case which the Hon. Gentleman had overlooked, where an officer of the Court of Common Pleas hail been proceeded against in consequence of charges made in this very Report, and the allegations were completely disproved, and the officer acquitted without the slightest imputa tion being cast upon his character. This was sufficient to prove what sort of authority the Report was, for en tering into judicial proceedings. With respect to any increase of fees, the Chief Baron had a right to col lect any fees which were due by law, although his pre decessor might have neglected to do so. The fact was, that unfortunately his predecessor was very remiss in those matters. He did not think it very extraordina ry that in noticing this Ninth Report, the Honour able Gentleman had jumped over every previous one that hall been made, notwithstanding that some of them contained similar charges against the Courts of King's Bench and Common Pleas. The Hon, Member looked over the same facts in those Courts, which, when he discovered them to exist in the Court of Exche quer, were high misdemeanours. sad matters which called for the Resolutions now laid upon the table.— He would refer the Committee to the letter of the Chief Baron upon the subject of Sheriff's fen. It was there stated as a matter of law, that Snb-Sheriffs did not come within the meaning of the Act of Parliament. — For the validity of this opinion, the Chief Baron had not only his own experience and knowledge of the law, but the practice of his predecessor was also in his favour. He conceived that the construction which the Judges of the land put upon the Act, would be received as the law of the land, and not that of the Commissioners who made this report. With respect to the Sheriffs fees, said to have been reeeived by the Clerks, that was undoubtedly a subject which required investigation.— But bow could it apply to the conduct of the Chief Baron? It was certainly a most insignificant and futile ground for the impeachment of one of the Judges of the laud. He shmald now address himself to the complaint respecting the Fess of the Secoodaries Olice; and upon this part of the rise he thought it sulkiest to observe, that there was no case in which a fee was taken by the Lord Chief Baron in which there was not else taken by the Chancellor of dm Exchequer. The oath of the Chief Baron was by so means inconsistent with the practice of his predecessors. This he sub mitted troitld be obvious to any Honourable Member who would gibe himself the trouble to read the oath. With respect to the complaint arising out of the charges for copies of Bills and Decrees, this stood upon the same ground. It was a right enjoyed immemorially by the predecessors of the Chief Baron. The charges made upon transfers appeared to be a crime in the Court ! of Exchequer, and no crime in the Court of Chancery. This was a charge justified even by the Committee, and would be, if the Chief Baron waved it, an injustice to himself and his successors. He now came to the tines- tion of English and Irish money. The fees in the first instance were received in English, and paid to the Judges in Irish money; but the Judges made an order that the fees should be paid in the same money in which they were received. The complaint on the ground of a commutation of fees, was certainly novel. In Ireland it had been the subject of compensation, but in Englanu it was made the subject of impeachment. The book of 173.1 was generally considered time standard for fees ; and it had been resorted to by the Judges, and adopted by the Committee. Some variations had been made, but the Committee declared themselves incompetent to decide upon their propriety ; and surely it would not be proposed to decide the question in the shape of an im peachment. One of these variations Consisted of an ad dition of sixpence halfpennyupon affidavits its the Court of King's Bench. This alteration had been made by the verbal order of Lord Kilwarden, and this order was considered sufficient to justify the addition. The charge of a guinea for Commissioners for taking bail had re mained six years unnoticed by the Committee, and it I was not unfair to conclude either that it was not con sidered improper, or that the Committee had not paid sufficient attention to the subject ; and if the latter, it took away the weight of their Report. The Hon. Member then concluded by thanking the House for the patient attention they had shewn him. The task he load undertaken he kne►► his incompetency to perform; and in fact be bad approached the subject unwillingly. —(llear.)-11e was sensible he had committed many errors, aid overlooked many topics, but he trusted such lion. Nleamhers as belonged to the Learned Profession would supply his defects. It must naturally be sup posed that his feelings were warmed to the highest de gree, as he was engaged in the defence of every thing be held most dear, a name which, he trusted, would de scend unsullied and which so unsullied, he considered as the proudest inheritance.—(Cheers.) The Marquess of LONDONDERRY said, the charge had been opened very distinctly, and bad been answered in a manner which evinced a desire to give the House every explanation which it might require, in order to any future proceedings. The case, however, necessarily led to much detail ; and for himself be was free to say, that he was compelled to look at the ques tion under many disadvantages from his want of legal acquirements. At present he could not come to any dis tinct conclusion, and he thought every Member ought to be enabled to see his way through this important sub ject. He would suggest, that in order to bring the whole of the facts clearly before the House, the Com mittee should be kept alive ; and that for that purpose the Chairman be directed to report progress, and ask leave t• sit again. He wished for no tannecessarydelay• He thought it would be improper. But be repeated, that he was not able without further elucidation either to affirm or deny the resolution.—(Hear.) Mr. RICE said belted not the slightest wish to throw any obstacles in the way of information, or to urge the question with undue precipitancy. He was happy to meet the suggestion of the Noble Marquess; but he begged to suggest that some course might be taken without involving the Committee in an opinion on the merits. !air. ABERCROMBY cordially agreed with the Noble Marquess, that every information should be obtained before deciding on this important case. Justice alike to the individual accused, as to the public interest, de mended this caution, and he therefore thought the House at present should abstain from expressing any thing like an opinion. He could not sit down without observing that the Hon. Member for Limerick (Mr. Rice) had conducted the proceeding in a manner which reflected the highest honour on himself. and must so w* the conciliation of all. Mr. WYNNE said, the House was under the greatest obligation to the Hon. Member for Limerick, for the temper with which he had opened the question. He had divested it of all party feeling, and of every thing likely to inflame the passions. It world, he (Mr. Wynne) thought, be highly disadvantageous to come to a decision in so thin a House, and he really trusted that Hon. Members would in the future stage of the ease pay more attention to their public duty. He should not like to give additional currency to the charge, ►y pronouncing an opinion in its present stage; but as *very day was now of importance in the Session, he wished to know what day was proposed for reneger the question. The Marquess of LONDONDERRY said, he would, with the permission of the House, same Tuesday next. He therefore moved as an amendment, that the Chairman do report progress, and ask leave to sit again on Tuesday. Sir JOHN NEWPORT said, he so fully agreed in the suggestion that no opinion should be pronounced , hastily, that ).e would propose that the Resoletion should not be printed. They were taken from the Re port itself, and every Member bad access to that. Mr. ELLICE thought it would have been better to decide on the case at once if every Member could have formed his opinion; bat as that appeared to be imprac ticable, he thought the charge was likely to remain un decided for the present Session. In that case he thought it impossible that the Chief Baron could discharge his official duties in the interim. .. cease Mr. BATHUILST agreed in the propriety of obtain ing further information, and concurred in opinion with. the Right Hon. Gentleman (Sir J. Newport) that the Hesitation engin mot to be prialed. Mr. NOLAN thought it ispeoliMe for the Hone* to to anydeelsion in the present Session. Nothing, however, appeared is the charge, whisk maid in his opinion ineapaeltate the Chief Bares trosap_orfonoi agile judicial dads. in the interim. No (Mr. N.)_ mold ass avoid somplainlog oi the allusion tie Non. Number bad made Whim, assuming that he was to be the the Chief Baron. The Marquess of Losnoximuay tail, oat t h e House wonid on Tuesday be enabled to judge nlietla l they could decide the question this Session. Mr. RICE, in cxplanatinn, disclaimed. any offensive allusion to the lion. Member (Mr. Nolan.) Re beggei to acquiesce in the Amendment. The Amendment was then agreed to, and the Homo resumed. The Chairman reported progress, and obtain: ed leave to sit again on Tuesday. The Marquess of LONDONDERRY moved the first reading of the Bill for making a provision for the Babe of Clarence. The Noble Marques. said he was ilistruct: •d by his Royal Highness to convey his thanks to th 4 House for the Resolution. The Bill was then read a first time, and ordered to W read a second time on Monday next. AUSTRIAN LOAN. The Marquess of LONDONDERRY moved, th a t ! hi Hoarse do resolve itself into a Committee of Supply . Mr. R. SMITH said lie had to move for certain Pape" connertesl with the Austrian lean. The pape r , for th produriioo of which lie was most anxious, as s a I n: patch from the Anstri a n G o ver nmen t in Meng, ig lu It contained the reasoning of Count Metternich, up o n nhich Austria contended she w a s justified i n not treat col.. sidered the money in question as a lo a n. Th at i t was sidered as a loan by thi s cou n t r y, w as evident frouttti:. declaration of Mr. Pitt in that House. said that it was a loan in the face of all the world, and th a t t i,„„ was no reason for supposing that Austria wneld have idea h hono that a a t " i o c r c hdo y une o eefs n b btp s e y tt, oneo i d. d: l iw e pir P r litli g i e elhoi d i l reiot e th: e f a r t ie. i ii l Es :: : : i s ti.igen n si lea a w u,nl a widd i io s i l os i wcapuocreriedhdnozrafie:renr St ew art , gnmpi i l aan e d tiy i i l snihen h zur y T e and4l e:s c ,i3nn o itoitr r eswe. r r e ate s itsoo po otrnat n ,oow d fne e hin n ei ce : away by feelings of misplaced liberality. He (WS.) thought it was the particular duty of the House, in the present distiessed state of the country, t o g i re its attention to the übjpc t That distress was proved ton clearly by the joy arliieh Lai been sloe's by the repeal of a tax of 500,1100/. a-year, and by the sos gestion which had been made to affect our national credit, by increasing the interest of our national debt. Upon the latter question he should not presume to give an opinion. Ile merely referred to it to slew hew great must be our distress, the existence of which bad been admitted by the celebrated Agricultural Repor. In fact, no country had suffered by the-war so used as England ; and no country, he believed, bad gaited by it so much as Austria. The latter had paid off a cm. siderable part of her national debt; but the justelsie of this country she denied altogether. The elm,/ poverty therefore could net be made available, ems if it existed, for Austria denied the debt is &tins. Is Isecure the payment of this debt, Austria in the ant instance had professed to give the Netherlands as a pledge ; and Lord Grenville on this part of the subject had informed his Imperial Majesty, that the indivi duals who had advanced the lean considered they bad eqnitable claims upon the security. The fact, bow ever, was, that Austria, on being applied to fee a quantity of timber in part reduction of the Lou, re fused the limber, and denied the debt altogether. Any one who should hereafter trust to the faith of the en• gagement of the Austrian Goverment would only meet with derision for his pains. The withlaeldiagef the paper he was about to move for would be as act of injustice to the Austrian Cabinet, by leaving the world to form those unfavourable conclusioas which per baps this document might remove. The Hoe.Gettle man concluded by moving that an humble address be presented to his Majesty, praying that be will be gra ciously pleased to order to be laid before the Haas the Copy of a Dispatch from the Hon. Robert Gerdes, mentioned in a Dispatch from Lord Stewart, dated Vienna, the .sth of September, 1818, which contains the Declarations of Prince Metteraich to the Bender Ambassador, to the effect that the debt contracted by Austria to England in 1798, was never expected to reclaimed by this country. The Marquess of LONDONDERRY said, as is Hon. Member had not concluded with a motion which at all involved the merits of the question, he would ash abuse the patine' of the House by entering into a es mission of those merits, but merely state the growls upon which he should oppose the motion. It ought set. however to escape the recollection of the House that somethnis in palliation of the conduct of Austria might be urged in the period at which this loan was made, gad the struggles she bad since been engaged in; in com► queueseebofnn a state which it might to repay th easilybohse money.thatewn I tmi shelud never itt also be shewn in favour of Austria, that the Oovassiest of this country had frequently, since the termittaties the war, for the maintenance of which this less vow required, made payments of subsidies to Austria Isith" t any deduction on the score of the loan. Pk IS 1 0 4: 1 hesitation for his own part in saying, that be ad this money as a debt due by Austria to this Ogr e a i n and he did not think that Austria would ' and e h n o t n e o r n ed r a b i a l e to po so i o ni t e o f ar eiew ::: ; e s:f e e : e t amount of its principal and interest pride* from us for debt. d tw ebt es . trow ns twhiethwoarklis, acountintlitrys, regularly received a ba ssi cmoiallniotrnys did d n no t is t eared co fe neto t " bat the w large asu ho m le , fm and an tha ces b e ee f l ee k should be able to obtain for an iinasediate denoted et o pli th r e a r. enti He wo W n a l li d rebseday(*teinaUti,natoftremsesatkeiDdtinteor , that the question had never been discussed with the Amule t Cabinet, with that formality which its nature demsolled• It was his intention, however, to press the matter is a proper form. The question was of a natore mete fit for discussion in the Cabinet than in Parl iament, which he thought would rather operate as an impediment fs the isegociation instead of placing it u p on a hettes footing, Mr. WARRE acknowledged the trnth of all the his. torical facts relative to this Austrian loan. 'dated bY t he Noble Marquess; bat as the Noble Martinelli spoke of tks dismission of the subject is that Honge being ill diluent to negoriation, at the same time that be objected to the provost dismission, lie wished to know whetkr the House might be permitted to flatter themsehes fro those espressions that a negotiation was actimili pestling ? The Marquees of LONDONDERRY replied ( 0 " astlentood) that no negoeiation had a< yrt bero• Mr. WARD did nag think that A mina nag thit ft' E t lii ~,~ 1