The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1807-03-17 00:00:00

—AI enntos;0111 Cat that country. His toed-
____,, therefore, woad Wish to propose, that the
Court n Session should be divided into two Courts,
and that the Lord President should sit at the head of
each ; and, during his absence from the one Court,l
the Vice -President, Lord Justice Clerk, for the
time being, should preside in toe other ; this he
considered would occasion much greater solemnity
and regularity in the proceeding-4, and be of very
considerable athototages upon the whole. Atter
shortly r:capitulating these several argnments, has
Lordship concludea by moving, "1 hat Instinc-
*ions should be given to the Committee to divide
the present Bill into two or mote Bills, separating
that part relating to the Judicature, from that te-
nting to Trial by Jury."
Lord ItEDESDALE considered this Bill as a
" species of juggle, as a kind of keeping the word
of promise," as a measure which will not remove
the evils compl_itotd ot, but may infringe, and did
in fad violate the At of Unioe, and amounted to a
breach of contrad between the two couotties ; he
could not see the necessity of the measure, and asked,
why it could not be left to the Court of Sessions it-
self to make delegations from its own body, and
form. them into three Courts or Chambers ? By
doing that, the House would adhere fully to the
principles of the Unton. His Lordship thought
the introduati in of the Trial by Jury, its civil cases,
into Scotland, should form a separate Ball, and
should be fully considered first, by persons who
were conversant with the Coutts of Scotland. In
elucidating this suhjea, his Lordship adverted to a
French Lowyer, who Carne to this kingdom some
years ago to study the English laws, for the purpose
of introducing the Trial hy Jury into FfAiiCd ; it
tell to hi; Lordship's lot to be his loin udar and ad-
wiser ; but alter giving the utmost attention to the
subject, no ratursted to his own country, impressed
with the extreme impossilsiiity of adopting such a
measure. Has Lordship, therefore, wished the
I louse not to go into tie: 1311, until the at rival of the
Scotch Judges, whose assistance. would be of the
utmost importance ; otherwise they would be pro-
ceeding to apply a remedy without having the pro.
per istlormation before them ; atoi tor these seasons
he i tjectod .o going ioto the Committee.
the Eorl of SELKIRK differed materially
from the N .ble and Learned Luis' in the opinion
he had advanced as to the present Bill. That
Learned Lard had said, that it went to violate the
Articles of Union, but he had forgotten to state to
their Lordships the reasons si.d argument: which
warvanted such Li assertion. It the House should
examine into the history of that compaO, it would
be found, that 4 lorospeaive view was taLen of those
regulations, which, in the course of time, the Ad-
stsinistratian of Justice in ocoiland might no:lithe.
Of the principle and necessity of an alteration in
the Somiso Judicature, every man who knew that
coua.try must be aware; and, in nis opinion, the
Bill submitted by the Noble Lord, was calculated
to produce the henetici il and necessary effects.
Lora ELDON I+ t e important duty which the
House was that night called on to discharge ; and ,
though he was convinced of the absolute necessity
of doing something, he still could nd conceal his
e opinion, that in the digestion of the present measure.
sufficient caution was not used, nor was there suffi-
cient resped paid to the sentiments and judgment
of the Bar and Bench in that couutry. Wilt re ased
to the arguments advanced by the Noble troposer
of the manta: e, as arising from the number and
pressure of Appeal Couies, he could only say,
that whatever regalatiotis this bill might make on
that heat, the inconvenience would still continue.
It was not a right criterion to regulate the number
of Appeals from Scotland, i y a comparison with the
numuor presented from this part of the Island.
It was to be recolieded, that the Scottish Courts
had no Representortve io the :louse, a circumstance
which naturally tended to increase the number of
such aiiplieeti ins 1110 prooadi us and tedious-
ness which marked every stay;e of their progress,
in a ;peat degree arose horn tae inability of the
Scotch Lawyers to attend at the Bar of the
House, until late in the Session of Parliament ;
and, consequently, a number of causes of that
description, were, of necessity, deferred ; whilst
such CallbtS continued to operate, she House
would never be able to overtake the business sub-
mitted to its judicial decision. That the ne-
cessity for some regulation existed, no person
could deny ; the point at issue was, whether the
measure proposed by the Noble Baron, was the one
most likely to remedy the admitted defeas ? In the
present state of that measure, be could not Absent to
many parts of it, for the clearest of all reasons, be-
cause many of its provisions and eaaaments were
at present unintelligible to him. He was bold to
say, that to render it beneficial in principle, and
comprehensive in detail, it would reclaim the often-
ton, diligence, and wisdom of the Holum, aided by
the talents and infoimation of the ablest and moo
experienced Scoteh. and English Lawyers. roohis
own part, he was free to admit, that under the pre-
sent view of the subjea. if he was placed oo the
Bench of the Court of Session, be would, from an
ignorance of its provisions, be unable to expound
the meaning and context of the present measure
Relative to the Trial by Jury, friendly as he cer-
tainly was to its utlity and principle, yet he could
conceive cases in the system of jurisprudence, where
the inundation of that measure would rather be at-
tended with evil than produltiveot benefit. It was no
rargunont' in his mind, because the people of this
part of the empire were justly attached to such a
valuable privilege, that, therefore, it should be in-
troduced in the laws and regulations of another part
of the nation, where the salutary principle would
not be opera: ve, but may he attended with unser•
viceable consequences. the framers of the pre-
sent measure appeared to forget, that they were to
regulate a Court, which combined in its investig44
t on, pleadings of Law and Equity ; and a conse-
quence was, that, by the present Bill, whilst the
performance of one duty called a Lord of the
Court of Session to the I lighlands, the same Judge
would be wanted to perform another duty at Edin-
burgh, under the provisions of the present Bill. The
Noble Lord entered at large into thev.arious processes
of the Courts of Scotland, o ith a view of proving, that
the measure submitted by tOe noble Baron, was nut
competent to the cede propoood ; and that, whilst
it was loaded with oloedious, it did, in no manner.
remedy. the defeats ss loco he slammed to exist
1..3 the good intentions of the advocates ut the Mel.

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