The Express.
London, England, 1848-11-10 00:00:00

COUNTY COURTS.

It Is now some three months since the Lord Chan-
cellor, in the House of Lords, and Sir George Grey, in the
House of Commons both gave public usurannes that the
fees in count y colas should be shortly reduced one half. As
yet nothing has been done. The fact is, we suspect that the
parties entreated with the carrying this measure into effect
feel some difficulty in so doing. And this is the more to be
regretted as the origin of this difficulty appears to be in what
very much resembles a job. It will be in
the recollection of our readers that an order was made
about two iston•he since by the Secretary of State in compli-
ance with certain provisions of the County Court statute,
piecing the judges of the county courts on a Sued salary of
1,0001. a year, instead of 'Lowing them, as had till then been
the custom, the amount of fees given by the schedule of the
eat. This was done in order to enable the Secretary of State
to reduce the scale of fees payable by the suitors—for the
amount of costs to the suitor depended in some conederable

measure upon the emoluments 'accruing to the officers. But
to effect an adequate reduction in the cost price of justice in
these courts, it became necessary not only that a portion of
the judges' lees should be sacnficed, but thine also of the
clerks sad bailiffs—and here lay the difficulty.
For the carrying out of this act the counties, as altered for
the purpose, ware divided into districts of about seven miles
diameter, and by the statute and the order in council, made
in pursuance of it, a court was ordered to be held in one fcr
each of such districts. The statute further provided that
various *Seers should be appointed to these eosins ; but, as
if to afford another instance of the way in which the legisla-
ture fulminate their edicts, whether
_parliament intended
that there should be a 'spareste set of officers to each of such
district courts, or ore set only for the whole county, though
of course a matter of the greatest importance, is precisely the
one that was left in the greatest uncertainty. The question as
to the judges, though not so doubtful as that of the other
officers, has already been raised in the Queen's Bench ; and
in reference to the treasurers the statute has been carefully
explicit. With respect to the clerks and bailiffs, however,
the greatest difficulty prevails. By the 24th section of the
statute, "for every court held under the authority of this
act there shall be a clerk;" and by the 31st section, " for
every such court there shall be one or more high bailiffs."
In pursuance of these enactments some of Vie judges of
these courts in whom the appointment of the above officers
is unedited, have construed the word court as applicable to
each of the district courts into which each county is divided,
sad have appointed separate clerks and bailiffs to each of such
nouns. In others however one person has been appointed
clerk or high bailiff for several such districts (in many cases
to the districts of a whole county), and in order to render the
performance of the duties practicable a deputy or assistant
clerk or bailiff has been appointed at each place to act for

And this is the state of things which the Secretary of State
is called upon to sanction, by ordering these gentlemen to be
paid by fixed salaries instead of fees, before he can reduce
the amount of oast' to be paid by the suitors. Is there any
wonder that there should be demur and delay ? We shall
not inquire to whom the credit of such a mismanagement
attaches. There iii, indeed, so much doubt whether the
word " court," as used in the statute, applies to the court
held for the whole county, or that held only for each district,
that it is difficult to say whether the legislature intended
that there should be a separate clerk or bailiff for each
of each districts, or one oely for tho whole county.
It would, therefore, be unjust to attach the stigma of
the appointments as now made on the legislature, tor that
may never have intended that thou appointments should
have been filled up as they have been—nor on the judges of
the courts, for each of them may fairly have considered that
he had the power to appoint in the manner in which he has
done. But so far as the public is concerned, it matters little
tow this state of affairs has arisen. It exists, and to our
minds it la aa insult to the sense and honesty of the age,
either to appoint one man to half a dozen ti enabling
I hint to keep up a semblanee of a performance Soes,
of the &thee
thereof, by employing a dozen hirelings to do the
work for him—or which is very much the same thing, to
create an office and to appoint ens man to fill it, when the
duties of that one single office are so heavy, and of such a
nature as to require the assistance of half-a-dozen other per-
sons to enable hint to fulfil them. To think that public opt-
nion should have striven eo long and ai heavily, and at last
have succeeded in putting down plurality in the church
and elsewhere, end that now the legislature, or those who
profess to eat by its authority, should convert the administra-
tion ofjustlee for a whole county into a living for one man—
should give him all the fees and emoluments arising there-
from, and deem it autlifient justification to say that
he as got a deputy or deputies at so much a
year in each district. As if the execution of justice
is a thing to be made subservient to the fattening
of a county clerk. As if the public, in allowing a liberal
salary to an once, did not intend thereby to secure en able
and respectable person to perform the duties of it—not any
hireling that an over-fed pluralist can get to do it for what
sure he may think fit to gm. Such is the fact in the cue
we are speaking of, and whether the abuse exist by the care-
lessness of the legislature in wording their edict or the
usurpation of authority of the partial more immediately con-
cerned the public neither knows nor cares, but looking to the
facts as they stand, and without trou.ling itself as to how
they hve arisen, it has a right to demand that so
unseemly a state of things be remedied without delay.
One word more. Hitherto we have considered the question
only as to the interest and opinion of the public. Let us
contemplate it kg a moment as to its effect on the parties
whom it more immediately concerns. As before observed, by
the 20th section of the 9 & 10 Vitt., e. 9.5, it is enacted that
" for every court held under the authority of this act there
shall be a clerk;" and that by the 31st section, " that for
every such court there shall be one or more high bailiffs."
Now for one moment to suppose that when the legislature
says that there shall be a clerk and bailiff for every
such court, they did not intend that each should have
for itself each an officer, or to suppose that so
long as each is served in such capacity by some One, though
be serve halts-dozen other courts as well that the statute
will be complied with, seems to us an absurdity. As if when
parliament declares that "there shall be a clerk to each
court," it can be intended to have said " you may have one
clerk to a dozen courts, if you like." Yet unless this con-
struction eta be supported it will follow as a consequence
that nearly half of the present appointments of clerks and
high bailiffs to thug courts are void, for if the word " court"
used in the above-cited portion of the statute mesas the
court extending over the whole county, then since
there is to be one clerk and bailiff to each court, it is
clear that the appointment of several persons to
that one dike as done in nearly one-half of these courts
is void. (Vid. 10 Co. Rep., 98; Cro. Eliz , 636.) And
on the other, it be held that by the word court so used in
the above sections of the statute, the legislature meant the
court held in each district, it is equally evident that the ap-
pointment of one clerk and one bailiff to a whole county,
which has been done in nearly another half of the courts, is
equally void—because, in such case, there is not a clerk or
bailiff to each court, as required by the act. So that what.
ever construction be put upon the word court as thus used,
it follows that nearly half at least of these appointments
must be nullifies. The serious consequences of this will at
once occur to legal minds.