The Sun. — London, England, 1828-02-08 00:00:00

from any mo vea bl e feast, which sometimes happ ens t oo eaxl3haxid sornet;e mes h appens too late,. and always leaves those intereet,ed in a state of uncertainty. I see no incon venienon; which could possibly arise eith er w i t h regar d to tee festival o f E as t er , or to the most pious Christian, if re term was dated after the 25th of March, which is a festival always falling up on t h e same day. I know not why, in this truly Protestant country—always truly Protestant, but never mere so—than, unders the pee : sent Commander in Chief : (A laugh)— there should le any dread of meddling with the festivals which pernliarly apPertei n to the Romislt Church.— Let Easter Teem then he . hied.. for , the 10th of April, and let an end be put' at ,i,see to that state of umor . eainty, which produces both inconvenience and confusion. Nothing can be more foolish than the vulgar but common. - -error, that - the Snore yon oppress and keep do wn th e l aw 'vera, and the feweir_boons or benefits you confer upon them, 'the more advantages you secure coo the country..., But are " act these short sighted men. r;e - norant of the poinoiple, that th e more you iera.r at , yyrOfestuou disreputable, the less chance you have of induteng moo of honour and integrity to risk chVaaotee by entering themselves among its members ? You compel unen to cuter int o the.counting house of tin- inerchent, or to betake themselves to the study of inedicien, or divinity; or to any 'other pursuit; while you fill the "Bar with bad professional Men, inferior in rank, in - fericos in character, interim- in accomplishment"; and feel ineas to those engaged in the other liberal pursuits of life. And, more than all that, these are the men out of whom you must of necessity eelect your Judges—th e men ono„ whose probity and honour, and upon whose c nnsc i ent i ous administr a ti on o f t h e l aws , your liberty and property mainly depend. 'Upon every consideration, therefore, tio;t is valuable in the era of a wise man, and still more upon principles of public b ene fit and public conven i ence, I say you ought to afford ever y facility to the study and practice of the law. Fix, then, a day earlier or later—the earlier, however, think the better, but let it he a day certain and unchangeable. if I may he permitted to speak of mYself, I would say, that I ;lid not get hom e f rom L ancaster, at the termination of the last Assizes, till the 20th or 2 2d of September, having left home in the October of the preceding year. I oSes, therefore, just about eleven months on my profesniotal du ties. The Sittings in London were, however, fixed for the 9th October, a time which would have gust left me about one fortnight of vacation; and I was vertainly one of those ' who joined in a requisition to my Lord Tenterden, entreat ing, him to postpone thew, in order to afford a slight respite to the Bar. For that disti.nguished Judge I must say, that no man who ever preeseded him in his high office—and, I may add, no man :oho ever sat on the Bench —can, or could have die played, on all occasions, a more conciliating manueo to the Bar and to the suitors of tit Coutt—a more lainrieus attention to the painfully fatigenig duties of his situation—or a more manly, honest, ant, undeviating rec titude in the dispensation of justice. Such, indeed, is the unwearied attention of Lord Tenterden to the de mands upon his time, that he seems to reap his greatest a - ratification from feeling, at the end of a long trial, that he has been enabled to devote so many hours to the furtherance of the business of his Court—(Hear, His Lordship's reply to that requisition was, no doubt, ex ceedingly consoling to those loll() had prayed a slight relief, for he declared that lie had great satisfaction in being able to do any thing which could prove a matter of convenience to the Gentlemen of the Bar ; and he would, therefore, postpone those Sittings from Tuesday the 9th to Tuesday the 16th of October, but not for one day finger. Fo - r that respite I, as well as others; was muter an obligation ; but what I Wieli to impress upon the House is, that if two Judgea were sitting at one time on these occasions, and it was rendrrerl c ompulsory upon t h em to take only one species of business in each Court, they might soon weed oet all that t rumpery mass of cases upon Bills and Pro missory Notes, and other debts of that description, which now occupy the time of the Court, and waste needlessly those hours which might, with so much advantage, be devoted to lausiuess of a very different description. With cut some such arrangement it "was impossible either for the Profession, or the Bench, with the number of hours which can be devoted to business, to get through all that 'presses upon them even dnring.an uninterrupted period of eleven months. I think if it was arranged that one Court should take nothing but one species of business—say all real actions, I mean by th at a l/ actions for real property, including all actions of ejectment ; and that another Court was to take all actions of a different descriptiot--ninch the business no te i n arrear, and much of that which usually crimples the time of the Court, might be got rid of with out retarding the settled busioews of the Term. I think too, that if the Act of the 57th ofetinelate King—l wean that which went to empower. the- court of Exchequer ta hear motions in equity—was carried, which it never yet has been, fully into effect, a great deal tvould be dime to relieve the labours of the other Courts. At present, the business of the 'Exchequer in Equity was scarcely to be mentioned, an; principally carried on through bills, while of motions there were few or none ; although it was not possible is find a more able or efficient Equity Judge than the ;:assent Lord Chief Baron. Have then, I say, the Card Baron sitting in Equity ; have another Judge of the xchequer, learned in the Common Law, to dispose of a certain description of Common Law business ; have another Judge to sit upon Exchequer cases; and so with the others. Give each of the Judges a certain d escr i p ti on o f- busi ness, with which the habits of his . life have rendered Inn conversant, and you not only relieve the King's Bench from that which now presses upon it so heavily, but you, at the same time, get that business per crmed in that greater perfection which never fails to result from a just division of labour among those best qualified for each particular departuient...--(Hear, bear, bear. )--I now pass to what is called the Civil La*, and I must confess I approach it with a tender, and, I may say, a trembling hand, nut only from the great :leery and complexity of its arrangements, but from the remembrance of what has come to my own personal know ledge, by a slight degree of practice in the Court of Dele gates and the Cockpit. Of all the observations which such practice has suggested to me, I mean to trouble the House with but a very few. The first has reference to an appointment, against which, with reference to the Learned Judge who holds it, I can have no objection, but that I consider it as strangely and dangerously underpaid. 1 think that such an office as that of the Judge of the High Court of Admiralty—the highest in point of rank, and the most important in station, if we look to the immense, the fearful amount of property upon which he is called upon to adjudicate—is wofully underpaid upon the salary of 2,5001. a year, fo r th a t i s th e so l e amoun t of his stipulat e d sa lery—the remainder, whatever it may be, arises out of feet. These fees are not regulated upon any limited scale, but I have heard that the. average amount in time of war is about 7,500/. a year. This, however, is in war only; in peace they are nothing. Now, Ido not like to see a Judge, who is called upon to decide upon so many nice and ,delicate questions connected with our Foreign relations; who is called upon, in fact, frequently to give his advice on mat. ters involving the most important and eventful results in reference to our friendly connexion with Foreign Powers; I d o not think it right or safe, 1 say, that any such influence should act upon that Jud ge ' s mind, or by any, even the remotest, possibility affect the counsel he gives the Government, as the difference between 2,5001., the extent of his income in peace, and 10,000/. the amount of his receipts, if that peace should happen to be br o k en. (Hear, hear, hear.) I do not mention this with reference, ' I re peat, to the Judge who now holds that situatu?n, still less do I me n tion it with reference to auy thing which hashap- Pened ; but Ido say again , thatit is not seemly —it is nut decent, th at t h e sa lary of a Judge deciding Property " such value and extent, should . be control .ent uponcr ennostance3 within his own possible contro l , and still loss that the great increase of that salary should ie . made to de pend upon : 'IV such condition as the extension and pro traction of the horrors of war. (Hear.) The next ob servation I appointment of have to offer upon the Civil Law relates to the a Judg e holding a im portant as that of th e ' situation almost as We have now, at least Admiralty I hope, no fear of Popery retain, in the case of Court of Arches, one of the (hear y. and a laugh) ; and yet we silliest and worst renmane, - „ f thing where all tive ceru l i dereil Po pery,bad. The called upon . to take into eeusideration all questions of M.ar riq;e and Divorce, and to a..; Judge who is --de upon eti - estions of Wills, iiirolving . the largest amount of PrOp&ty, both real and I , creen al—questions often the d i ffi cu lt; that Judge is appointed-- tby most delicate and the most the authority of the Crown —not even upon the responsibility of the Lord Hi g h Admiral, for he appoints the Judge of th e - Ad 'ralt • of the •Gn'''''e Court, and is therefore, it may be said, ek ,,, 0 in fo i r his rliament ; but can Ttfernment or actions-:—not on the responsibility under the authority upon the authority of the Archbishop of Ci: l nt b e :b eredited, th e Bishop of London. (Hear, and a latigh.)--- u o r e Y it is dicial situations, not only ; 1 : also with many other . high Londan but in the country Court of The Consistorial C York is in the same manner at the disposal of the Arch... bishop of Y or k,. an d many o ther important ° Court, f . Judicature are i n t h e same situation. ~ To be sure th e y might he told there was always a Co m ( S lott of , who Appeal fro any erroneous jud gments pronounce d pre sided over these C ourts. There was an a ppeal to e by those .the Court of Delegates. B ut di d the House un d ers tand tn nature of the constitution of that Court ? Were they aware of its being one of the wo rs t const i tuted Courts, an d o ne of the greatest pieces of mockery of appeal which could well , be imagined for the purposes o f d ecept i on ? Th e ve ry nature of its construction shews, I think, beyond all gun, tion, that it works mischief throughout the whole of its proceedings. Let us see how it is composed. You take in the first place three Judges from the Common Law Covirts, and three Advocates, who might perhaps the clay be fore have beers pleading in the Courtbelow; but, as a matter o f course, not in any of the eases which formed the subject of appeal, for that must amount to a disqualification. But mark the consequence of this. In order to decide upon the propriety of the judgments• of such - men as Lord Stowell, Sir John Nicholl, and Sir Christopher Robinson, man distinguished beyond all others for their profound knowledge of the-questions .which Caine before them ; in order, 1 say, to decide u pon the appeal from the decision sof these luminaries of the law, you array a number of -Doctors, the first employed, as'a matter of course, in their respective Courts ; because, as I have observed,, if they pleaded in any of the causes, they cannot sit ; atid this is what is called thelighest Cent of Appeal: The effect, in every point of view, is lust shout the same as if you were about to take three junior barristers out of Westminster hall, in order to constitute them a Bench for the purpose of sitting in Error. This is the species of correction which the Court of Delegates presents as a Court of Ap peal from the Courts below, and these are the conse quences which result from Ecclesiastical appointments.._ And now I ask leave to say, speaking to you, Sir, whom I have the pleasure on this occasion to address, that I wish to be considered as making these observations free from any thinFteordering, even the least, upon disrespect to the honourable person with whom you are so traielv umnected. I have always entertained for that distinguishe,J individual the highest respect, both in public and in privat e life ; and I may assert, with confidence, that no man esti mated more highly his actions as a prelate, or his liberal endowments as a gentleinen.—( Hear, hear !)-s—l now come to the Privy Council—that most important Court ; im portant, not only because it has the power to decide in all cases of appeal referred to its consideration from our nume rous and exteesive Colonies, but because it is the standing Council, we may say, for the Crown. From the lualitt , of its members, and at the same time the Court of Appeal as ilie last resort in all cases arising Cast of prizes —not to speak of the immense interests at stake in Plantation Appeals, the whale of the population of the almost un bounded territorial possessions of the East India Com pany, population of seventy or eighty millions of sords-: and if you add to those situated i❑ the sea of the East all who occupy the Archipelago of the Wests-sell cif them, be it remembered, prone to litigation, fiery in temperament, wealthy in means, and vehement in zeal— you may conceive some faint idea of the nature and extent of the subjects of contention which come before his Ma jesty's Privy Council. Litigious as the children of the New World are proverbially known to be, with properties eternally risked in desperate adventure, from Which, by skill and boldness, those returns are produced which send them home rich and affluent; all these, scattered and prone to litigation, arc brought in all their multifarious objects of contention before the appellant jurisdiction of the Privy Council, This jurisdiction, difficult and delicate as it would he at any tinie, has yet still greeter difficulties from the difference between the law Of one Colony and that of another. The Dutch leW is to be considered one day— the ifindoo or Mahometan another—the Pundit, or me darn Hindoo, differing in every respect from the Law of Getion, on another ; all these conic before the necessarily ignorant Members of the Privy Council. 'to supply the ' wants of this necessary ignerance, its Members ouelit to have time ; and net only time, but an exclusive and un ceasing devotion to the practice, as well as the principle, of all the laws of all the Courts upon whose sentence they Were called to decide. All these must, I know, prove in adequate to what is required; but because it would be inade quate, therefore its Members do nothing--(A laugh.) No thing do they ever attempt to supply as a remedy for this unavoidable ignorance. To decide all the appeals fron► all the Colonies of India and America we have the Members of the Privy Council. Now let us just see what progress they make in the task which has been assigned them. The Privy Council meet only on certain stated days; o❑ the 30th of January, the 2d of February, Midsummer_day, and one or two others. From a Return which I Lave ob tained, it appears that from the twelve years up to 1826, they sat, upon the average, fur exactly nine days in the year. Nine days in each year, to dispose of all the appeals of all the Colonies of India and America.—(Hear, hear.) Among these are to be included all the appeals from the superior Courts Of Bombay, Madras, and Calcutta—Courts in which an Honourable Baronet I ace opposite me (Sir Hyde East, we believe) once presided—and from all the:in ferior Courts, in which are determined all the causes of contention of natives as well as foreigners and English ; for English subjects are as amenable to the Courts as the natives. All these subjects of litigation, arising anion; seventy millions of people, of whole caste and half caste, English and Hindoos--all the causes from Ceylon, the Mauritius, and the Cape—all the decisions of the Courts of North America—are brou g ht in tlint,c nine - cu r , before the Court of the Privy Council. But do these nine days suffice for that purpose? No, they do not even half suffice. The appeals entered in these twelve years—and I do not at all marvel they were not more—for the whole constitution of the Court, and its system of proceedings, amounts to a plain denial of justice ; the marvel being ra ther that they were so,many ; the whole of appeals in these twelve years entered for hearing were 467; but, with the addition of 44 from India, 517. Of these, 243 appeals have been disposed of in one way or other. In the 12 years, 129 have been heard, the remainder of the 242 have abated, or been compromised by the parties, from a feeling of the ruin of delay. All except the 129 have been dismissed for the want of prosecution. In each of the 12 years to which I have alluded there were, therefore, ten hearings ; that is precisely one hearing and a ninth part of a hearing in each day in which the Council sat. But let us go a little further :—Of these 129 appeals which were heard in the 12 years, the decisions in 56, or something less than one-half, were wholly reversed.—(Hear.)—This is a very large proportion. and it shows that the appeals were not made to the Privy Council from any want of a necessity fora revision of the decisions. It is true that part of these were appeals from the decisions of a Noble Lieutenant- Governor and Lord Chancellor in one colony.—(Hear, and a laugh)—and some more were from a Worthy Captain, or Major, I believe, sitting in his capacity of Judge-Advocate in another Colony.—(Laughter.)---These things, however, only tend to show how much more of necessity there . . existed than we were aware of for the union of the Civi] and Military Functions in the same individual here.— (Loud laughter.)—t . The Honourable and Learned Gentle man was proceeding with some further observations upon Appeals, wren the Solicitor-General, we understood, was observed to yawn, as if wearied.]—l see, said the Learned Gentleman, thA my Honourable Friend opposite, is yawn ing already ; the subject is, doubtless, a tiresome one, and dull, and perhaps tedious; but nothing I can say is likely to be so tedious as the proceedings of which I speak. Of those Appeals now before the Court, forty-eight have been pend ing for upwards of ten years, and one hundred and four have been in a similar situation for more than five years. This High Court of Appeal, called upon to consider cases of so much importance, is, as is well known, composed of Privy Councillors; but of these persons it has never been my lot to see many who are lawyers in attendance. There is only one Judge regular in his attendance; all the others, with a solitary exception now and then, are laymen. The Judge constantly present is the Master of the Rolls, and with him I have sometinses seen the Judge Advocate and a certain elderly Gentleman, who has at one time, I believe, been an Ambassador somewhere or other—(A laugh)— but who is now placed in the situation of a Lord of the Admiralty; and equally fit to fill either situations with credit, having been educated for both.—(Loud laughter.) —This is the way In which this Court makes up for its distance from the suitors ; and these are the per sons who are to compensate for its want of all learn ing, and the absence of long habits of practice. They make, however, very short work of it sometimes— (A laugh) —for I have known an Appeal in a cause, involving property to the amount of 30,0001. a a year, and which had been argued in the Courts below for 19 days, disposed of most unceremoniously, after little more than five minutes' conversation ; and this, I beg the House again to recollect, is the last Court of Appeal in the admi -snstration of justice to eighty millions of our fellow sub jects. And here I cannot avoid mentioning a case which came under my immediate knowledge in the course of my practice in this Court. The Queen of the Musnud died in the year 1809, and as there was some dispute about the succession, the India Company took possession of the coun try. Many Gentlemen of this House may not, Which aware that the Musnud is a place of considerable ' t impor - perhaps, be ant•e, containing more than 400,000 inhabitants, and important from its being the country through all Pilgrims pass on their way to Elisaum. On the death of her Highness many claimantsnaippeeafroed ftohrethceosouccession, doubly and an appeal was consequently lsl or ad lBlrs7 low and entered in the year before thel belo w and Council, where it is of course still pending. But look to the en. nsequence. The east India Company, who have at all tunes strewn an extremely tender care of the revenues of those States, the succession to which is disputed, imme diately took possession of this kingdom by a process, somewhat resembling that of a Sheriff's officer, and have held it and its ever 'nee the death of its last revenues sr owner, or, at least, certainly ever since the lodging of the appeal. This, however, is only one case out of many which could be produced of the same nature, to chew the working of the Present system of appeal to Privy Coun cil. It a r nount 6 ) in fact, to little less than a denial of justice ; for the attempt to grant any thing but justice, cheap, easy to be obtained, and speedy in its execution, amounts, I assert again, to an 'absolute denial of that jes , tice. The way in which you remove the evils, resulting from the distance, the expense is not by removing that ignorance which prevails upon the subject of the Colonies, by appointing separate Judges, whose attention may be exclusively devoted to their affairs, but by placing the whole of the property of se many millions in the hands of men notoriously incompetent, and from absolute necessity irretrievably negligent. I say then, in God's name, do not any longer delay or hesitate as to the nature of the relief you will affitrd these Colonists. Give them, I say, justice cheap, speedy, and decisive, for I would say still more, that the situation of India and of its people well deserves 'rota' attention. The itnprovetnent of its system of justice must well repay yotir toil. By the continued exclusion of natives horn jury - trials in civil causes, you have done mtich to perpetuate a state of igno sstnee and misrule. I have yet to learn upon what principle of wisdom or sound policy the natives are excluded from those juries. In the Courts of the first in stance, as they may be called—in those Courts where the facts are elicited, I cannot see the policy of the exclusion. I knew that the natives have been proved to he as capable of applying themselves to the elucidation of truth and the establishment of fact, as any of their English contemners. And I also know, that they have beets found, on many oc ssasions, most Useful and successful associates to out Indian adventurers. Those who venture their fortunes abroad, set out with an intention to make money well and safely for the natiVes, if they can make it so—but at all events to make money. They go out at the same time totally igno rant of the manners and customs of those with whom they are brought into contact; and I cannot but think, that those men arearery bad judges of their own interests, as well as the interests of their country, Who seek to keep up arti ficial distinctions; and prevent the settler from availing him self, for their mutual advantage, of the skill and knowledge of the natives. The efforts made by the Governor sf Cey lon, Sir Alexander Johnson, to introduce into that colony the British system injustice, boldly and manfully supported as those efforts were by the Government at home, have been attended by the most signal success. In one of the trials in that colony with a jury composed of twelve of the inhabitants, eleven of thtm had determined upon their ver dict; but one, a young Brahmin, held out, and showed such exquisite skill in the examination of evidence, and such power in the detection of fact, that by dint of perse verance he eventually succeeded in bringing his eleven fellow jurors over to his opinion, after all the efforts of the Court and of the Counsel had failed in the accomplishment of that object. Thus by the introduction of the Trial by Jury, which was new in the Colony in criminal cases, and by an individual such as the one I have described having been on the Jury, justice was done, and innocence pro tected. Nothing would be more calculated to conciliate the minds of the natives of India, and to endear to them the British Government, than to make them a part of the ad ministration of justice, to give them an interest in the ad ministration of justice in their country. The effect of such a proceeding would be, that in India, as in Ceylon, in the event of a rebellion, the great mass of the people, in stead of joining the rebels, would give all their aid and sup port to the Government. That, Sir, will be the course pursued under such circumstances by the natives of India, if you establish a good system of justice there—if you establish a cheap system of justice there—if you establish a system of justice there, in which the natives themselves may participate, and in the administration of which they will therefore feel personal pride and interest. Without such a system all your army of Sepoys may one day be unavailing to you. With such a system you will have every heart in India with you ; you will gain the affection—you will conciliate the good wishes— you will cement the attachment of above sixty millions of people ; while at present your only means of security consists in an armed force;—an armed force, composed too of the very persons whom you hesitate to bind to you. I come now, Sir, to the last part of this subject—l m ean of this division of the subject; and I proceed to make a few observations on the appointment of Justices of Peace in this country, and on the character of their jurisdiction. Sir, I do not beliese that any intention of doing wrong is contemplated in the present mode in which that appoint ment takes places ; but I must say, that considering the extraordinary strides which a knowledge of the principles of society has been making in this country, considering the daily and almost the hourly improvement which is going on in that respect, it does appear to me to he very ex traordinary that it has not yet been thought worth while to inquire whether some amendment might not be intro duced into this part of our system. In the first place, Sir, it would be well worth while to inquire whether Justices of the Peace ought to be appointed simply by the Lord Lieutenant of every county. It is true that it is the Lord Chancellor who issues the i;onitniaoon. but it the Luta Llc u t rodut wl l O es the viduals to be comprehended in it. Such a thing is hardly ever known as any interference with respect to individuals on the part of the Lord Chancellor. He looks to the Lord Lieutenant, or rather to the Custos Rotulorum, which the Lord Lieutenant most frequently is, for the names of the proper persons. The Lord Lieutenant, there fore, as Custos Rotulorum, absolutely appoints all the Jus tices of the Peace in his county. He does more—he also removes them from the commission at his sole pleasure. It has been laid down as a rule by Lord Chancellors—it is a rule from which Lord Eldon, when he was Lord Chan cellor, declared he would never depart--tbaco;everun fit a man might be for the commission, however much party and other undue motives (and God knows those mo tives are sufficiently numerous) might have influenced his appointment, he would never strike hint out of the com mission, however unfit, or however corrupt lie might he, until his conviction of some offence had been entered in a Court of Record. Now, Sir, let the House consider, not only the way in which Justices are sometimes appointed, but the kind of Justices which are sometimes appointed. I must fairly own, that I have long entertained, and that I still entertain, a strong and decided opinion against the ap pointment of a Clerical Magistrate. My notion of such an appointment is that it does harm to the individual in both his capacities ; you spoil him as a Clergyman, and you do not make him a good Justice of the Peace ; you render him a tertium quid, divested of the good properties of either of the characters which go to his composition. He cannot possess all the activity which ought to dis tinguish the Magistrate, and he does possess all the lo cal prejudice, and the somewhat of narrow-minded- ness, which result from his habits as a Clergyman. What has been the consequence of the union of the two offices in one person ? Why, that some of the worst acts of subserviency to power, some of the most striking instances of over-activity (and there is no quality of a Magistrate more pernicious than over-activity) have Leen exhibited by Clerical Magistrates. So well known is this fact, that in some counties the Lord Lieu- tenant very properly makes it a rule never to recommend a Clergyman to be included in the commi ss i on —b ut that rule is far from being general—although I am convinced that a deviation from it is always attended with evil conse quences. The Magistrates, as I have already shown, are appointed by the Lord Lieutenant of the county in which they act, and are never removed by the Lord Chancellor, however gross their conduct, unless their conviction of some offence is entered in a Court of Record. Let us now see what is the authority of men an appointed and so se cure. In the first place they have the privilege of granting or witholding licence,. "'As we all know, it frequently lies in the breast of two Justices of the Peace to give, or to re fuse a licence. It is in their power to give a licence to one of the most unfit persons possible ; and it is in their power to refuse a licence to one of the most fit persons possible. It is in their power to continue a licence to some person who has had it but a twelvemonth, and who, during that twelvemonth has contrived to make his house a nuisance to the whole neighbourhood, and it is in their power to take away a licence from a house to which it has been attached for a century ; and the enjoyment of which has not only been attended by no evil, but has been productive of great public convenience and be nefit. And all this, be it observed, they do without even the shadow of controul. It is true that in the case of alleged impropriety in the conduct of a Magistrate in this respect, a mandamus may be moved for in the Court of King's Bench, to compel him to grant a required license. I remember once moving for one, and my motion was granted. I believe my Hon. and Learned Friend, the Solicitor-General, also made a similar motion. But I know that great astonishment was expressed on the occasion; and that the rule for a mandamus was afterwards discharg ed as a matter of course. What other controul is there over the conduct of a Magistrate? I shall be told that he may be proceeded against, either by a criminal information, or by impeachment. As to the latter, no ma n o f common sense would think of impeachine . a Magistrat e , any more than he would think of impeaching a Minist er .. Then, as . . to proceeding by criminal information—in the first place it is necessary in order to obtain the rule, to support it by affidavits, that the Magistrate in question has been influ enced by wilful and corrupt motives; that he has been guilty of o o f f th m e al jvuerdeotpo sagtion n the ea subjectole T an h d en u co nleoo m es th th e e alieged medi tationfacts are made out as clearly as the light of Heaven, the rule is discharged with costs. The difficulty of proving the facts is rendered almost insuperable by this circumstance, that all the Magistrate has to do, in order to defend him self from the consequences of not granting a licence, is to adopt the short course of saying nothing—..of keeping his own counsel---of abstaining from any statement of his rea sons. Let him only give no reason for his conduct, and no power on earth can touch him. He may grant a li cence to a common _brothel, or he may refuse a licence to one of the most respectable inns on the North road ; let him Withhold. his reasons, and his conduct remains unques tioned ; although the only real motives by which he is ac tuated may be because he is in the habit of using the one house, and becermse the landlord of the other has refused to allow him to use it in the same way as the former.— (A laugh.)—Unless, howev e r, y ou can s h ow th a t h e h as himself stated his motives, you are prevented from institut ing an inquiry on the subject. Thus absolute is the autho rity of the Magistrates with regard to the existing system of licensing. With the permission of the House, I will read to it a letter that I received some time ago on the subject' of the licensing system, from one of the most worthy and learned individuals iu this country—a man of large fortune, and of most pure and estimable charac ter.—[The Honourable and Learned Gentleman here read, in a low tone of voice and rapidly, the letter he alluded to, which pointed out the evils resulting to private property, from time system of licensing, as well as the evils endured by the public in conse quence of the monopolies to which it gave rise.] —It fre quently happens that where there is a powerful interest connected with any particular house, the license to that house is continued, although it is the resort of the most abandoned of society; and a 'change is merely made in the landlord ; and this on the principle that brick and mortar cannot be guilty of an offence. Now, it is evident that when bad company have flocked to a house, it is impos sible for any landlord, although he should be an angel, as well as have one for his sign —(A laugh),—to induce'per sons of a different description immediately to resort to it. Another vicious consequence of this system is, that it in duces so many questionable persons to take:means of having themselves comprehended in the commission of the peace, that respectable individuals, whose servie:es would be most available to the public, are deterred from wishing to act as Magistrates. The influence of the great brewers in the licensing of houses is notorious to the whole world. Many of the publicans who occupy houses which directly or in direotly are the property of these brewers, are familiarly called "brewers' backs ;" and the porter which is sold in such houses goes by the name of " justices' juice"—(A laugh.)—The consequence of the monopoly of which the system I have been describing is the parent, is, that there are about 12 great brewers who serve the public at their own prices, and with beer of whatever quality they think proper to make it. When the Golden-lane Subscription Brewery was established, for the purpose of entering into a competition with the general brewers, the latter imme diately improved the quantity of their beer, and lowered the price a penny a pot; thereby making a difference of a million a year to the inhabitants of London and West minster. The advantage of the competition was therefore evident. Nevertheless, time Golden-lane Subscription Brewery were never able to procure a license, or to open a house during the long period of eight years ; and at length were borne down by the weight of this system of arbitrary licensing. I have received a variety of other information upon this subject, all of which leads to the same result. That which I have already described is perhaps the most crying evil connected with it ; but who does not know, as I do, that licences are frequently granted, and frequently refused, from election motives? When, some time ago, I brought the Beer Bill into this House, I had of course an extensive correspondence, on the subject ; and I was. assured by many highly respectable persons, that the evil of this system is by no means confined to the neigh bourhood of London. Nor is the licensing power of the Magistracy' that in which alone great abuses exist. , They prevail in all the cases in which their autho rity is exercised ; in the commitments for offences against the Game Laws, and in the discharge of all their functions —all affecting the lives and liberties of the subject; and yet for their conduct in all of which they are not amenable to any superior power, provided, as I have said before, they only keep their own counsel, and abstain from stating the reasons by which they have been actuated. There is not a worse constituted tribunal on the face of the earlh than that at which summary convictions on offences against the Game Laws takes place before a bench of sport ing Magistrates. lam far from saying, that on such sub jects they are actuated by corrupt motives; but they are undoubtedly actuated by their abhorrence of that caput lu pinum, or, as an Hon. Friend of mine called him, that fera 'infarct --a, poacher.—(A laugh.)—From th e i r d ec i s i ons on all points there is, as 1 have already remarked, no effectual appeal. And let it be considered that they can sentence to almost unlimited imprisonment, and to transportation for seven and fourteen years. I have shuddered to see the way in which these extensive powers are sometimes exercised by a jurisdiction not responsible for its acts. It is said that the Magistracy ought not. to be responsible, because it is not paid' but we ought not to forget that even go ld it se lf May be bought at too dear a rate. Mark the difference of responsibility between a Court of Quarter Session and one of the superior Courts of the kingdom. In the Court of King's Bench, the name of the Judge who pronounces the judgment is known and stated. It is Lord Tenterden, or it is Mr. Justice Bayley. In the other case, it is merely the Quarter Session. The names of the individual Magistrates composing it are not known, or not published. It is a fluctu ating body. If the same individuals always sat in the Court, there might be some approach to responsibility.— At present there is none ; and where there is no responsi bility, injustice will occasionally be committed, as long as men are men. It would be some correction of the evil, if the number of Magistrates was fixed and limited ; if they were always responsible for their acts ; and if they were more easily removable on proof of their misconduct. Then comes the question of pay. We are told that we cannot hold them responsible, because they volunteer their ser vices, and receive no remuneration for them. But although they receive no money, they may frequently have money's worth. Cheap justice, Sir, is a very good thing ; but costly justice is much better than cheap injustice.—(Hear.) If I saw clearly the means by which the Magistrates could be paid, and by which, therefore, a more correct discharge of the Magisterial duties might be insured, I would cer tainly prefer paying them in money to allowing them to receive money's worth by jobs, and other violations of their duty. I have heard of a Justice of the Peace in the country, who, having a clerk whose emoluments he wished to increase, appointed him a Surveyor of Weights and Measures, with a salary of a guinea and a half a week.— This person appointed a deputy, to whom he gave five shillings and sixpence a week, and who did all the duty. These circumstances came under the conside ration of the Magistrates. Notwithstanding, when, after a strenuous opposition, and among others, on the part of the' gentleman who communicated the occur rence to me, it was decided by a considerable majority, not only not to remove the first appointed person, who it was proved was doing nothing, but to swear-in the other as his assistant ! My friend is not entirely without sus picion that this person, having so small a remuneration as ss. 6d. a-week, may be tempted to increase it by some un derstanding with the people whose weights and measures it is his duty to superintend. The operation of pecuniary motives in matters connected with the Magistracy, is more extensive than may at first sight appear. There is the Bill which was introduced by the Right Hon. Gentleman opposite for paying the expences of witnesses and prose cutors out of the county rates. It is scarcely doubtful, that that Bill has greatly increased the number of com mitments, and has been the cause of many persons having been brought to trial who ought to have been dischar ged by the Magistrates. Nor is this a trifling evil.— People do not come out of gaol as they enter it. A boy may enter a gaol merely as a robber of an orchard ; he may come out of it " fit for"—l will not say "treasons"— but "stratagems 'and spoils." Many are the induce ments to these commitments. The Justices think they gain credit by them. They have the glory of being consi dered by the Lord Judge, and by the Sheriff at the Assizes, as very active and valuable Magistrates. "Heis a mon strous good Magistrate; no man commits so many persons." Then there is the less glory which they acquire among their neighbours; into whose pockets they are the means of put ting money, by making them prosecutors and witnesses in petty criminal cases. The reputation of activity is very seducing to a Magistrate. I knew a town which has the singular misfortune of being composed of one-half Scotch and the other half Irish ; it is their practice to fight regu larly upon every market day, and to make extra exertions at fair ti gistrates of th at town i s, at seasons of popular exc i temen t, mes•—(A laugh.) Now, the practice of the Ma -Ito have a punch-bowl full of assault warrants placed before them on the table, the whole of which they never fail t., get through in the course of the day. The Irishmen are sure to swear one-half of the warrants against the Scotch, and the Scotch set to and finish the remainder against the Irish—one side of the street against the other side. Even handed justice, of course, demands that what- has been granted to the one party, should not be denied to the other, and 'thus is the bowl emptied, and the fees supply the liquor for r e filli ng i t.— (A l aug h.) Th e tax-g a th erer i s not more univ ersa l i n hi s i nter f erence w ith privat e lif e t h an i s the Justice o f th e P eace. Wh e th e r sitting in the p ar l our and filling up summary convictions, by virtue of what was called Mr. Nicholas Calvert's Act, " Si quid in its est glories toilet ;" or sharing in the lesser glories of the Ses sions, or committing offenders against the Game Laws, he has the same irresponsible power, he is never ostensibly or knowingly before the public and amenable to public opi nion, as are the other Judges ; yet, upon the other Judges is all responSibility heaped, notwithstanding that their ap- pointment takes place with every security for their inte• grity. They are men learned in the eyes of the profesiion, and necessarily few - in - number as to the high station they occupy among the ranks of th e pr o f ess i on . Th e y are responsible before the- public and to the Law ; and yet, with all these. chances in favour of the due administratioc of justice, there is an appeal from every one act- to a tribanal above. From the de cision of the Magistrates, on the contrary, although they have to deal with sonic of the most import ant interests in the country, there is no appeal ; they are not even removable from office except their conviction of some offence is entered is a Court of Record ; or unless they voluntarily state their misdeeds to the Court of King's Leach. I am new about to enter on the consideration of the administration of justice in those Courts, in which it has been my fortune to practise during my professional life.— The first consideration to which I wish to advert, is the inconvenient differences of the modes in which property is held. Is it fitting or consistent with substantial justice, that merely crossing the river, or the distance of a few miles, should make so great an alteration in the law in that respect ? The next subject to which I shall call the atten tion of the House, is the situation of copyhoid property in this country. Before I enter upon this subject, I would observe that a great improvement has been introduced into the nature of this property by a measure carried through Parliament by my Honourable Friend the Member for Durham (Mr. M. A. Taylor.)—There are some Manors in this country, respecting which it is necessary that the wills disposing of them should be renewed at the end of every second or third year. To some Manors again, the eldest daughter succeeds to the exclusion of the male heir. In others again, Manors are distributed in co-parcenary. With respect to other 31anors, they are so' entailed that one-half of them went in dower to the exclusion of the heir-apparent There is no end, in short, to the variety of modes by which mano rial holdings are entailed. There was a similar evil in the mode by which in London, and some other parts of the country, the property of the debtor was made subject to the process of the creditor in a different way to the prac tice in other parts. There was not in this, or in other re spects, that uniform system throughout the country which prevailed in France and throughout Scotland. Thus eter nal changes in the nature of property only served as a trap to the unwary, and the object of the Legislature should be to reduce it to one uniform and consistent system, as far as the establishment of that system was practicable.-- At present the impediments to the transfer of property— the obstacles in the right adjustment of property were, even to the most circumspect, almost insurmountable. In reference to copyhold property, this grievance was also to be complained of in addition to what I have already stated—namely, that in raising money upon it, money can not be procured to the amount of the full value of the se curities which that property afforded. If a man were to go to the possessor of a copyhold estate, who wanted to borrow money from him—the possessor of the copyhold would stand in a worse condition than the holder of any other species of property ; and for this reason, because the copyhold estate would not be subject, after his death, to his bond- debts. Other descriptions of property were not liable, to the simple contract debts, but here the bond-debts were not recoverable. This tended very much to the de preciation of this species of property, for the purpose of obtaining money, as I have said, to the amount of the securities which the property could properly bear.— Passing from the consideration of this species of property, which bears all the inconvenient characteristics Of the feudal times, and which requires'ample and thorough re vision, I come next to the consideration of a position laid down by Mr. Justice Blackstone, and strenuously main tained by all upholders of our judicial'ifystem, from his time downwards, that the Crown and the subject come into our courts on perfectly equal terms. Mr. Justice Blackstone considers this one of the noblest features which characterise the institutions of this land of liberty; and, no doubt, so it ought to be considered, if it were not, as it was, a legal fiction. That it is but a legal fiction, lam prepared to shew—first, from the fact, that when the Crown and the subject come into court, even when it is pretended they appear as equals, no such equality, in re ality, exists. Secondly, there are many occasions, in which their adverse interests come into court, when it cannot be pretended, fora minute, that any terms of equality are preserved, either in form or in practice, between the Crown and the subject. The indulgence and favourable conside ration of the claims of the subject by the Crown, when ever its interests and those of the subject come into col lision, have been matter of eulogy with Mr. Justice Blackstone, and those, who, like him, have lauded the theory of our judicial system. Now, how was this great favour and indulgence shown' I speak here from what has occurred within my own experi ence. The highest remedy which is within the attainment of the subject for obtaining possession or restitution from the Clown is by petition de droit, or petition of right. It is presumed by Sir William Blackstone, that " though no action will lie against the King, yet the law bath furnished the subject with a decent and respectful mode of removing that invasion by informing the King of the true state of the matter in dispute ; and as the law presumes that to know of any injury, and to redress it, are inseparable in the royal breast, it then issues as of course in the King's own name, his orders to his judges to do justice to the party aggrieved. The Learned Judge proceeds to state that the inconvenience of a mischief that is barely possible, is well recompensed by the peace and security of the Government, in the person of the Chief Magistrate being set out of coer cion. Now, giving credit to the Crown for the disposition towards the subject which Sir William Blackstone eulo gizes, it remained to consider in what did this grace and favour consist. They solely rested in the breast of the King's Attorney-General, and it was entirely; a matter of consideration whether or not the Attorney-General should subscribe his fiat, that a commission should issue to try the truth of the suggestion. The Learned Gentleman pro ceeded to detail the circumstances of a case in which the Attorney-General refused his fat--a necessary step in the proceeding, without which the subject had no remedy.-- The ground on which the refusal was made was, that the tenant in possession, to whom a grant had been made by the Crown, was not in possession more than for five years, and that an action of ejectment should be brought in the first instance. The right of the first grantee, for whom he (Mr. Brougham) was concerned, was established as clearly to his satisfaction, and to that of the Learned Counsel who were concerned with him, as it was possible for a case of pedigree, on paper, to be established ; but the refusal of the fiat, by the Attorney - - General prevented the petition of right from coming to ad judication, or a full investigation. Ido not now (said Mr. Brougham) contend for the merits of the case in which I was engaged; in the pedigree on which the right rested there might be an instance of illegitimacy, or same other invalidating circumstance, but that has nothing to do with the matter of which I now complain. What I complain of is, that whilst there exists this power by the Attoiney- General—whose conduct I do not blame, as it may proceed from the most conscientious motives—to defeat and frus trate the mode of redress pointed out to the subject, it is a mockery and an insult to talk of the Crown and the sub ject standing upon equal terms in a doubtful and litigated case relating to their respective rights. So much for cases in which it was pretended that there was an equality sub sisting between the Crown and the subject--but where, in reality, no such equality did exist. There was another class of cases in which it could not be even pretended that this equality existed. A suit, the parties who were the plaintiffs to which resided in Cornwall, was removed into the Court of King's Bench, where a trial at Bar was prayed on the part of the Crown. The witnesses were all brought up to town, and great expellee entered into—hut the Attorney- General removed the case from the neighbourhood of the place where the parties resided and were known, and by a mere suggestion to the Court of King's Bench removed the case to London. The inordinate expences to which the subjects were put was a crying grievance. In the case of to pay his costs but a peculiarity obseived on the part of the Crown' was, that the Crown was above receiving —it was also abov e pay i ng costs.—(A laug h. a plaintiff, a n d n onsu it e d, he was compelled a subject being )....-The Hon. and Learned Gentleman proceeded next to advert to a cross-ex amination, conducted by himself in the Court of Exchequer, out of which a strong suspicion of perjury arose--he failed in the suit; but another similar was tried, in which the same witnesses were examined ; and whether the suspicion that his cross. examination had raised in the minds of the Jury was converted into certainty, or through whatever other cause, his Learned Friend (Mr. Serjeant Jones) suc ceeded. In consequence of this a prosecution for perjury was instituted against the pull" whose evidence appeared to be impugned o n the trial. Out of thi s p rocee di ng gre w to eighteen indictments, which Were removed by cer tiorari into the Court of King's Bench, wh ere t h ey were be tried on application, by Special Juries. The first of these cases was tried, and the accused party was convicted of perjury; but the remaining sev en t een i n di c tments failed in consequence of the Attorney -G enera l h av i n g refused his warran t to pray a tales. Th e consequence wa s, that the parties having lost thousand s o f poun d s -i n expences, and having hundreds of witn esses i n a t ten d anc e to give their t e stimony, justic e f a il e d . S uc h an expen diture worked no tat a absolute ruin. It was no t to b e expec t e d, after such a rui nous couldln'oerwksehuirite;famrmoreerosver,when they knew no t be prepared ag a i n to prosecutes loss, h but that mi g ht terminate in a like 'unfortunate result._ This case was attended with another sad circumstance - W ;, namely, Mead, th e false witness, 'who bad beep convicted, in a moment of temporary excitement Cu some alight ;vie tation, took a gtni and shot : Laves, who was party in the suit originally. instituted. Mead was.subsequently, tried and sentenced to two yeari'imprisonment for manslaughter. The complicated injustice, which the whole history of this case afforded, was almost without parallel. It .warranted and sustained the propriety of the position, thatsin instane ces where the Crown and e the subject came into collision, i t could not be pretended that they met on equal terms. It was idle to talk of our excellent institutions—it would be far more meritorious in us to apply ourselves to the task of making them admirable and excellent: It would more coos tribute to create respect abroad, and establish security at home, so as to keep pace with at least, if not to surpass, the judicial institutions of other countries. To . accomplish this desirable end, it was necessary to apply ourselves to remove some of the many anomalies which belong to the feudal system, and which have been too strictly transmitted down and adopted by us. To accomplish .this end, it would be necessary to promote, as much as possible, the diminution of unnecessary litigation. With this vied —to discourage proceedings by unnecessary suits, and one mode of preventing this would be to adopt the principle of the Declaratory Bill which prevailed in Scotland, the ob ject of which was, to obviate prospective suits by calling c upon all persons who had any claim to property to put for ward that claim within a certain time. Another course to be recommended was, the abolition of all actions which merely brought profit to the Court, or to the practitioners of the Court, by the parties standing in the same relation to one another, as if application had been made to the Court in such cases. Another mode of obviating unne cessary and vexatious litigation would be, to prevent cases from being removed from a cheaper and more expe ditious Court, to a worse and more expensive, and more dilatory one. Again—all obsolete proceedings insti toted only for purposes of vexatious delay should be discouraged. All those obsolete proceedings, which are but traps for the unwary and tools for the litigious, should be abolished. The Learned Gentleman next sug gested an alteration in the law respecting actions on bills of exchange, with a view of rendering resistance to actions of this kind less frequent and vexatious. The whole of the respective contingent remainder., so intricate and scarcely intelligible to many who were members of the legal profession,es well as to those who were no t mem b ers o f it, should he materially simplified. Then, with respect to levying fines and suffering recoveries, I would propose to abolish that proceeding altogether. I know not that this abolition would be quite acceptable.to conveyancers, but 0 greater absurdity was not to be found in the law—a more useless remnant of the abuses of feudal practices did not exist than what was understood by levying fines and suf fering recovery. The heir who was tenant in f ee - s i m ple could dispose of the estate vested in him, whil e th e h e ir who was tenant in tail was obliged to have recourse to the levying of fines and suffering a recovery, which was only a fiction, enabling him to pass the estate from him as if he held it in fee-simple. Let it not he understood, that in any change which might be introduced for the abolition of these fines and recoveries, I intend to interfere in any way with the law of entail. No such thing. But this absurd m o de by which fines were levied, and recoveries suffered, would by no means tend to any such interference with it. There was a sufficient line of demarcation already drawn between the aristocratical and commercial classes of this community, which preserved to the hereditary aris tocracy of the country its legitimate weight and authority, at the same time that ample opportunities were afforded for the purchase of land by those who were enabled by a course of successful industry to expend the fruits of that indastry in purchasing it. 1 would not disturb that well-balanced relation now subsisting in'England between these classes ; but the abolition of useless forms, of levying fines and suf fering recoveries, of complicated trusts introduced into con tingent remainders, will not disturb it. The principle to be observed in all legislation was an intermediate one, which, without too much encouraging too great entail on the one hand, should prevent too great alienation on the other.—(Hear, hear. )—The Hon. and Learned Gentleman proceeded to state, in whatever measures he proposed to introduce, he would not interfere with those regulations by which dower was properly secured, and by which en tails were settled. His grand object was to cut off those fanciful trusts which were retained, and unnecessarily in troduced into wills and other legal deeds, for no object that he could discover but to puzzle the unlearned.; and what, in his opinion,was worse, to defeat the interests o f justice,. and be attended with consequences frequently th e ver y reverse o f what was contemplated by those making bequests by will. Hit object in this, and throughout most of the improvements he proposed, was more to simplify than to alter the exist ing law. I would wish to extend -the Statute of Uses, and to take away all equitable jurisdiction in tent cases. Our ancestors had taken the greetest pains to effect this latter object. The Courts of equity were constantly obliged to send these cases to be tried by the Courts of Law, in order to get the opinion of the Judges on the case. Another source of evil arises from the practice of the Equity. Courts with respect to agreements for leases. A man may be pos sessed of a written agreement fora lease of'lo years, but this is not held to be equivalent to a lease e and although he has a right to go into the Coate of Chancery upon his agree ment, his claims are not recognized by the Courts ef Law. If an injunction be granted, the expenses are multiplied. Why should not an agreement be 'just a s goo d as a l ease , salve exceptione? 1 would allow the legatee to sue the administrator or executor, and the mortgagor to sue in his own name, although the mortgagee be in possession. In cases involving matters of account the Law Courts have not tools to work with, and it is only by Means of the .ap pendage of the Master in Chancery that the Chan cery C ourt can decide them. I wish the Court of King' s B enc h to h e supplied with an adequate set of Auditors and Exami ners to enable the Court to settle all matters of long accounts, of th e wea k ness or strength instead of by reference. It would be most desirable to establish a Court of Arbitration before w hi c h persons might come without Counsel and witho u t Attorneys, to state s. wo uld infor med be the cheapest t o be refor mation ever made in this conntry. It would take away all trifling disputes about words, and oust t h eequitable juris diction in nine cases in ten in which it i s - now necessary. Thus the Court of Equity wo u ld b e left to its ordinary their case, jurisdiction in matters of accou n t i n l ong trusts, and in such cases as those of infants and idi o t s. No man ought to be their a s n u d i t driven to two suits or actions for the same remedy. • Why should not the jury that tries the question, of right, at once assess the amount of damages. Mr. Tennyson's •Bill gives no power in this case. It is . only recommendatory, and its recommendations are not always attended to, fbr it is not the interest of Attorneys to attend to them; When the number of suits are reduced, the 'question will he, how those that are brought can be terminated in the shortest time, with the ut most certainty; at the least 'POSsible' ex pellee? This leads me to consider the principles which ought to guide the law in affording relief. On this head, I may quote the Scriptures for advice and as an authority —" Agree with thy adversary quickly, whilst thou. art in the way with him, lest at any time the adversary deliver thee t o th e J udge, an d th e Judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. Veril y I say unto thee. thou shalt by no means come out thence till thou hest paid the Uttermost farthing." God knows, this latter partsis appli cable enough - 6 the English law.—(A laugh.)—ltis true that in our Courts the parties are allowed to impetrie, but this is after the arrest, and when it is too late. The prin ciple l a id. down in the Scriptures ought .to be 'observed before the arrest. Whatever tends to bring parties to their senses, and to a consciousness of their reel strength or weakness, ought to be observed. The seeming interest of parties, in many'cas es , is different from the interests of jus tice, although their real interests will be found the - eaUle. If parties are litigious, their objects are different from these of the Judge,who ought, however, to make both sides come out with the whole case, 0,5,04 possible - A hint of what the ev id ence is, mig h t shorten a cause very materially. Ia SCotland, no man - can' prOduce in Court a: Written instru- Ment unless he has 'thews' it,' before trial, 'to his adversary,. I was once engaged in a cause where the sum.in'clisPute was only 201.,• a nd the costs amounted to 75/. One of the parties unexpectedly. produced a receipt for the sum claimed, -and thus obtained the verdict. ln Scotland, the . . action could not havebee m been maint a i ne d , for the receipt mist . have been show n to t he adversary before trial. Tare u all - greatest . eee ourageenent ought, i tlilea,sto he given. to It's allow • a ll owed, in certain cases , to pay money compromises. , into Court; but when parties have their passions raised, and their feelings inflamed, the earliest opportunities ought to be given to th em to cool. But our law allows ofcotel pro mises only in cases of contracts. Not only Might:Money to b e paid into Court in cases of contracts, brit motley ought to be paid in tender of amends. , thl s i s allowed,in cases of Justices and Excise-officers, and some others, by the Act of Geo. 11. Why should we never think of adopt- . ing these pl ans , so use f u l i n f ore i gn C ourts, and io evidently founded upon sound principles, and so , highly beneficial to . all perso ns , excep t th ose of the professiMi of whic h thave the honour to be a member? I .supper. I niey 64't.' sidercd 'ass peaking disinterested, Few persons mektes More by law 'than I do; a nd if a b ese e in the : tinue, I shall have a large sha re of gains.: be Nun.. try Courts ought, to be revised. A.; . great objet;t,. ought ; . to be, to keep out of Court all actions Which, do Jails really require to be brought into Court, and in banish. these suits which - do no 'good but 'to affiai's - at 2 , law. • Hew 'often have I traced I >anttr4iciee insolvencies to a lawsuit which . has rnittecl tie, no feinunate' parties. This reminds me "of story' 'of the ran who in*. itui4 by, on :tag law Par out • sh e - Fr: am wei vroi Men arb cou oth in i pre poiE den vent the the cor the