The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1825-06-28 00:00:00

The Royal Assent was given by Commission to the Bucking-
ham House Bill t the Excise Licenses Bill ; the Quarantine Laws
Bill; the Colonial Intercourse Bill; the Mauritius Trade Bill;
the Distillery Bill; the Canadian Company Bill; the Lunatic
Trustees Bill ' • and several private Bills.
The Lords Commissioners were, the I.o4Chaneellor, the Mar.
quis of Winchester, and the Earl of Shaftesbury.
The Earl of 31A LMESBURY presented a petition from the
owners and occupiers of land in the neighbourhood of Bunbury, in
the county of Oxford, against the reduction of the duties on rum,
and also against the bonded and Canadian Corn Bills.—Laid on
she table.
Mr. BROODEN, and other Members of the House of Commons,
brought up several private Bills, which were rend a first time.
The Irish Bank Tokens Bill, and the Flint Glass Bill, were read
a third time and passed.
UNIVERSITIES' POLICE BILL.
The Earl of SHAFTESBURY molted the third reading of the
Univeasities' Police Bill.
The Earl of LAUDERDALE opposed the Bill. and con.
tended that the powers vested in it ought not to be tolerated by
their Lordships. There was one clause to which he especially ob-
jected, and that clause, he could not tell the reason why. referred
to Oxford, and did not refer to Cambridge. By that clause, any
woman seen wandering in the public walks after night-fall was
liable to be taken up, and obliged to give a satisfactory account
of herself. He did not know what was meant by the word "stns-
factory e' one person might understand Ig in one way and an-
other
person is another way ; and a woman could scarcely expect
to be called upon to give such acnnint without having a stain upon
her character the Bill therefore might produce the most injurious
diem. All he would say was, that if the state of the Universities
did not strongly require such enactments, it would be unjust
to make them, lie would certainly move that this clause be
omitted.
The LORD CHANCELLOR said, lhat as an Oxford man,
he must be supposed to be inclined to act leniently towards that
University. It might at first appear strange that the clause al-
luded to by the Noble Earl referred only to Oxford, but he could
tell the Noble Earl why it was so. The charter of Cambridge gave
the Via-Chancellor of that University a much greater poser than
was possessed by the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford ; and therefore an
extension of power pas not required by the former.
The Earl of LAUDERDALE explained.
The Earl of LIVERPOOL said, that the words of tile clause
were, "any prostitute or night-walker found wandering."
The Earl of LAUDERDALE said, it would be a difficult
matter to determine to whom those words applied. The Noble
Earl then cloyed, as an amendment, that the word " wandering"
should be omitted from the clause, and the words " acting in a
disorderly manner" substituted.
The House divided on the amendment of the Noble Earl, and
the numbers were—
Contents, 131 Non-contents, 01 51ajority, 5.
The Bill wax then read a third time.
JUDGEs' SALARIES' AUGMENTATION BILL.
On our readmission to the House, we fout.d the Earl GROS
VENOR addressing their Lordships on the subject of the Bills for
the regulation of the Courts of King's Bench and Common Pleas,
and complaining that certain offices which the Noble and Learned
Lord, at the bead of his Majesty's Government, bad given the
country reason to expect would have been abolished, had not been
abolished, particularly those of the Justice General of Scotland and
the Clerk of the Pella. He thought also, that the salary of the
Noble and Learned Lord ought to have been included in the ar-
rangements for a general regulation. To the proposals for increasing
the salaries of the Puisne Judges he had some objection, although
to those for abolishing the sale of offices lie had none.
• The Earl of LIVERPOOL observed, that with respect to the
office of Clerk of the Pelts, it was by no means a sinecure, but, on
the contrary, was an office of very great trust and responsibility,
and required considerable talent and attention. It was formerly
held by an officer who did the duty by depots ; but Parliament
having decided that the holder of an office should perform the
business of that office himself, such was now in this particular case
done. It was because, In the Court of Exchequer, the country had
always had able and responsible officers that there bad been no de.
Coulters is this Court. The Noble Earl (Grosvenor) must be
aware that many officers had an intermit In their offices as good as
the Noble Earl had in his estates. The Noble Earl ought to have
borne in mind that the Lord Chancellor had no power to sell
offices, but out of such sale the emolument of the Chief Justices
was gained. This was in his (the Earl of Liverpool's) opinionsin
unseemly thing. The Noble Earl (Grosvenor) could not rarely
think that the Puisne Judges were too highly paid when so many
of their Lordships bad so niu:h without labouring to obtain it.
The Earl of LIVERPOOL and Earl GROSVENOR mutually
explained.
The LORD CHANCELLOR said the subject of the salary of
the Lord Chancellor has been so often before the public, and has
been commented upon
.in the House of Commons over and over
again, that I am astonished to find any ignorance existing as to
what that salary really. is. Vet I can go no where without hearing
it asserted to be four times its actual amount, and I believe that no
man would be considered as adhering to truth who described it to be
three-fourths less than what it is generally affirmed to be. I was,
myself, in company a short time since, and I heard a gentleman
amen that the salary of the Lord Chancellor was 40,0001. per an.
num; another gentleman got up, and said, that this statement was
not exactly correct, for he knew it to be 35,00 W. and no more—and
that that war, in truth, the whole amount. Now this variation
amounts to very little, as to the emolument of the situation I have
too long held-1 say too long held, because if I had been done
common justice to, I should not have been Lord Chancellorof Eng-
land this day. I say to those who have endeavoured to turn me
out, that they have not hit upon the right method, and I add, treat
me with common justice, and you will fini that you can dispose of
me as you wish by fair means. I have an account—indeed I be-
lieve it is at this moment in my pocket, of the income of the Lord
Chancellor for the last three years, and if that account be drawn up
with accuracy—and I have every reason to believe it is, the income
of the Lord Chief Justice at 10.0001. a year, has been more than
that of the Lord Chancellor during the last three years. Ido not
mean to say that the income of the last three years is a fair average
of the receipts of the office during the twenty-three years (that
period will have been completed in six months) that I have held
it, but I say that no year during those twenty-three years, have I
received the same amount of profits that 1 was in the habit of re-
ceiving while I practised at the bar. In this calculatiou Ido not
include what I receive as Speaker of the House of Lords. The
amount then that I have received during the 23 year' I have held
the high office of Lord Chancellor has floated at between 14,500
and 15,0001. annually. Let it not be said, then, that the Lori
Chancellor's receipts are 35,0001. I think that what I have said is
sufficient to repel the charge, that my object has been to sceumu-
late wealth. Such an object I should much batter have attained,
if I had kept my situation at the bar; not that I mean to say that
I should have kept it ; the probability is, that I should not. For,
as I grew older, I must have expected to have been shoved out by
younger men ; but I think 1 could easily prove to your Lordships,
that the individual who addresses you would not, if he had re-
mained at the bar, have been a poorer man than he is because it
has happened to him to be Lord Chancellor of England. Whether
this be, or be not the case. I hope I shall never forget—l hope no
one connected with me will ever forget—the honour I have received
from this country, and the kindness with which 1 have been treat-
ed. Feelings ofa nature very different to three that hare been im.
puted to me, have enabled me, and will enable me, to bear up
against all the alumnus and all the slander that may be heaped
upon me. [The Noble and Learned Lord was here much affected.)
The Noble and Learned Lord, after passing some remarks on the
general topics of the Bill before the House, the propriety of aug-
menting the salaries of the Judges, and the necessity or having re-
sponsible principals in public offices, whether the duties of those
offices were, or were not performed by deputy, proceeded to say.—
the Lord Chancellor is placed under circumstances different to the
Lord Chief Justices of the Court of King's Bench and Common
Pleas. He has no offices to sell ' • and. for my part I have no he.
sitation in saying, that if I had had, I would not have sold them.
There is new sitting a Commission to make inquiries relative to
the Court of Chancery. I trust they will shortly bring the sub-
ject before the House, and before the public ; and no one is
more anxious than I am, that that inquiry should be close
and extensive into all that belongs to that Court. It would
be a most pailful sacrifice, but I would niak .1 that sacrifice,
if that Commission blamed me; and if I suffer wrong, my
consolation shall be this—that I have done my duty to the best
of my power, and I pray to God that those who succeed me in my
office may execute the duties of that office better than I have done
—more sedulously, or with more anxiety, I am sure they will cot
attempt to do it. But it would be an important thing if any per-
son holding a high and responsible situation were sacrificed to that
popular clamour which lam every day obliged to suffer. If it be
attempted to pull down the character' of men in any judicial situa •
tion—and if men, however high in Church or State, be not safe
from calumny that directly attacks them, I will tell your Lord-
ships that the Peers of this country can no longer exist if such per-
sons be sacrificed to such calumnies.
East GROSVENOR, in explanation, observed that he had not,
on thgt or on any former occasion, made any remarks as to the so.
lacy of the Note and Learned Lord. He was glad, however, that
what he had said had drawn forth the Noble and Learned Lord's
explanation.
Lord REDESDALE thought the Noble Eszl (Grosvenor)
used terms vary disrespectful tot
the Members of the Committee
upon the Court of Chancery, when he asserted expressly that no
good was to be elpeeted from them. (Earl Grosvenor said " No.")
He said. Yea ; sod be repeated that his expressions were very die-
respectful. The members of that Committee had no emolument
for there labeima—nothing to gain but trouble ; and be thought it