The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-02-18 00:00:00

can purchase it at any price,

Zny quantit:

without being asked whether we are

n a condition to pay for it in gold, or any other

commodity. But it is not so with currency. The price
of gold, and the amount of circulation we

are to

have, are fixed by law; and when the wants of the
public reach the prescribed limit, they are denied

irther accommodation, the rates of interest are

advanced

and every advantage taken of ti

sign grain was cont

lary
,ed to keep up prices ; and now, when from a

y of bullion, the rates of discount range

from six to ten per cent., our fixed price is below
and

prudent man would venture to resort to law in a
case where a comparatively small amount was
involved ; while all thought it strange that
such a state of things should have been so long
tolerated, many viewed the injustice complained
of as a necessary part of our institutions, and a large
portion of the community was satisfied that the
present system were maintained for the sole benefit
of a class !

Such is the language Parliament applies to
itself, and the crimination, though cruel, was well
merited. The remedy proposed, however, was
purely such as a lawyer would devise, and we are
proud to say the House of Commons rejected
it with something like disdain. Mr. NAPIER
proposed the creation of a Minister of Justice—a
Ministerial Constable to look after the administra-
tion of justice iu our Law Courts, and the nefarious
practices which aro carried on in Chancery. Such
a functionary could find ample employment, both
in this country and in Ireland. in looking after the
proceedings in the Masters' Offices, and something
worth attending to in those where law costs are
taxed. But proposing to place such an officer over
both Houses of Parliament, was mooting a species of
despotism and abrogation of privilege which the
Legislature was not prepared for. As a remedy
for the abuses complained of by the public, it would
have been better to have gone back a 3entury or
two, and reminded the House that it was the prac-
tice to hang judges who neglected the perfect and
Mr. NA

tion (

A does

not pretend to say that such men as Lords LYND.
HURST, CILAN WORTH, CAMPBELL, ST. LEONARDS—onee
the unerring Sir EDWARD SUGDEN—or the inestim-
able and Right Honourable MAZIERE BRADY—the
present Lord Chancellor of Ireland, his Master of
the Rolls, and the staff of Masters under him, do
not know what is law, and what is not, and that
they have nut time to read the enactments placed
on the Statute Book from year to year.
The truth is our laws are basely administered,
and it is of their administration that the public
complain so loudly ; and the Reform required is
simply that which would put the poor man on a
level with the rich—some court to which Chancery
victims could appeal without cost, against deci-
sions made behind his back—some means of
bringing men who falsely personate others in suits
to, justice, and which would enable him to bring
the responsible officers of a court up for judgment'
where it could be shewn that they were privy to
any mal-practises, or sanctioned any flagrant abuse

of the la►v

The people complain, and most
reasonably, of the practises of the Court of
Chancery. There is not a man who has property
in any portion of the kingdom who does not feel
that his widow and orphans can be plundered by

trickster who can get possession of his title

deeds, or the administration of his affairs after
death. The three kingdoms are full of families
beggared by such means; and the remedy the
member for the University of Dublin proposes
is a Minister to dictate to Parliament Ivhat bills
it shall pass ! If any just and high•minded
legislator introduced a bill, making Chancellors

and their officers responsible under a

enactment for a perfect administration of jus-
tice, it would be the business of Mr. NAPIER'S
censor to tell them that the Lord CHANCELLOR had
already criminal jurisdiction, and was a magistrate
as well as judge ; and, if it were proposed to estab-
lish a Court of Appeal for the ruined litigant to
ga to without cost, when " choused" out of his pro_
perty, it would be for that high official to remind
Parliament that there was always redress for the
pauper as the law now stands ! But Mr. NAPIER

beeu, iu wie course or nis experience
that it takes something more than an

a barristc

affidavit charging forgery, embezzlement, perjury,
and years of uninterrupted fraud and conspiracy
to induce a Lord CHANCELLOR to order delinquents
into custody, or to secure their apprehension. If
the right lion. member has not heard of such
cases, it would not be difficult to supply him with
the title of a cause or two in which applications of
the kind have failed, or the dates of affidavits
which are still matters of record. lie also
knows the amount of justice a pauper can obtain
in our law or equity courts.

Now, it is against all this systemised plunder,
the public protest. In the ease of large landed
properties, the cruelty and injustice are not con-
fined to the few principals who are defrauded of
their estates. But their tenantry, who number
thousands of families. These are left to the mercy of
receivers, who can account as in some cases, at the
end of nine and twenty years, for the money they
receive, and who seldom fail to strip the
tenant of a good holding; and thus depopulate
whole districts, and drive thousands of beings
from their homes to beg their bread. If
Mr. NAPIER doubts the existence of such a system,
or the possibility of such things having been done,
it would be easy to name estates, the receivers, and
their victims. And, passing from Chancery to our
Law Courts, is it not a notorious fact that
thousands of men, with both law and equity on
their side, have failed in their efforts to obtain a
trial, much less justice? How many thousands
have sold their bed from under them in an abor-

tive attempt to get a hearing of their cause, and
failing from want of a few pounds on the
day of trial, have been compelled to pass through
the Insolvent Court, to clear off a bill of costs
incurred between lawyer and client. Our laws are
perfect enough if we could get at them What the
public require is a cheap, clear, and fair way to
justice. Simplifying, cutting down, and codifying,
' our laws, would relieve attorneys and barristers of
a vast amount of labour; but it would not correct
or remove the complaints brought against the
organic defects in our system of jurisprudence
Law should be cheaper, and the right of trial by
jury and appeal given to the poorest man in the
realm, or else how is it possible for the poor than
to cope with the capitalist—the needy trader with
the millionaire ?

It is all very fine for lawyers, to stand up in the
House of Commons, and play off the public with
futile propositions ; but the groat mass of the
people are aware of the fearful disadvantage to
which they are exposed under the present law and
equity system ; and some practical remedy for the
evils complained of must be propounded before the
present agitation ceases. The country has un.
broken confidence in the wisdom and conscien-
tiousness of Parliament, when once roused to a
sense of such wide-spread injustice. The
number of laws it enacts are called for by the
exigencies of the times ; and though lawyers may
wish to arrest the current of legislation, the people
have no such desire. The public hope yet to see
all that is wrong at present removed by the
Imperial Parliament ; and the first searching
the grave, reform they anticipate is in the law and equity
courts of England and Ireland. Mr. NAPIER
Would start us on a work which would take half
tol
a century to finish ; and in that time the interests
of the
present generation will have gone down
to
thefro mHowhence,Commonsthe r right, honourable
hthoenyo uwroaublld
find a voice to e
member
cheer them on in the work which
ho proposed!
But we must confess we would

NORTHERN TIMES.-LIVERPOOL, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1850