The National Register.
London, England, 1821-03-04 00:00:00

METROPOLITAN LAIV SOCIETY.
A numerous meeting of the members of the Me.
• tropolitan Law Society was held at the Globe tavern,
in Fleet-street, on Friday evening, for the purpose
of taking into consideration the Bill recently intro-
.duced into the House of Commons. entitled, " An
Act for the more convenient recovergaf moll debts
.iu England and Wales."
_Mr. Goatee having been called to the chair,
Mr. W RIIIUT proceeded to address the meeting.
.He said he rose with diffidence, but that diffidence
merged into the anxiety which he felt for the com-
mon interest of the profession. The Bin was not
.the production of one individual, but emanated from
s committee of the Lords, by whom it had been
altered and amended to its present shape. In every
view he considered it enjust, absurd, inapracticable,
and impolitic. It was unjust, because it went to
.dep::ve cumin ildividuals of their freehold as well
.as hereditary .1:glue; he alluded to the Duke of
,Grafton, who held his office in the Sad Office, by
.bareditary sight,.granted under a charter of Charles
and. the clerks of the tales and common papers,
.who purchased. their situations, and who had by law
.the same right to dispose of them as if they were
.their freehold estates. It was impolitic too, because
.the wsits issued for sums under 151. constituted at
Ilesuat.wo-thirds of those which were actually issued;
and the loss to the revenue, by the r•rungements of
the new Bill, would not be less then thirty thousand
pounds per annum. It was absurd l'om a variety
• of reasons, but principally because it would operate
al an encouragement to litigation. There were
other points not less open to reprehension—among
• these ,mere the mode in which Jo •es were to be
•aeleeted. .Although by the ordinary rules of law, a
freeholder of 40s. a yetir um considered sufficient to
.decide a question in which the title to a whole county
raightle involved; yet by this Act, it was necessary
to decide a debt of 151. that a Juryman should be
possessed of a freehold of 51. per annum. The
Judge must, under this Act, be a sort of ambulatory
being, for his fees would be utterly inadequate to
enable him to ride, and would scarce even afford
him the means of procuring good shoes to walk—
for in order to obtain 1501. he must try 1500
causes ! He would give a specimen of his fees --
for every plaint of 40s. his fee was be ad.—about
40s. and not exceeding 51. it was to be 4d. and
above 31. ! For a judgment lie was also to
receive the enormous sum of twopence! (Laughter.)
slut what appei.red still more singular, was, that
the bailiff was, in point of payment, better oil than
the Judge, for he was to be allowed a whole shil-
ling for executing a tapirs. This, however, was
yeriemly consistent with the opinions of Black-
stone, " that execution was the highest department
of the law.' If the framers of this Bill merely
wanted to attain celerity and dispatch in litigation,
.be could have recommended a Court quite suited to
.their purpose—he meant the Pied l'oudee Court ;
and as this was generally held at fairs and markets
the Judges .might have gone round with the shew.
men , and, by way of =aunty, have been accom-
modated with half the bed of the baboon, while the
Axial, and other officers of this Court, in their
leiture hours, might assitt in taking care of the lions,
Men, and other animals belonging to the person
,who . bad :contacted for their removal rnarn plaits
to plaee. , (Laughter.) Mr Wright then proceeded
to rent out other absurdities in the Act, among
which he classed the following fees to be paid to
*Wales :--

TWee a,Plaint and Copy, without notice
of gie particulars of the demand Font pence.
For a Plaint cod Copy, with notice of
the pat ti.:ulars of the demand Sixpence.
Ear a.P.lza and Copy
iota Plea with Se? off mud Copy
racattc.....lng the Heating of a Cause, One Shilling.
Fut Cali, at Sitranoons to each Witness, Twopence.
For hes-elec. of eauh Witness
Foe attcading a Motion in Court
For these pitiful sums it would be impossible to
obtain ..t le Attendance of any respectable Solicitor
upon theCuitrts in question, and thus the object at
which they had been so long aiming, the exclusion
of persons of an opposite character from their holy,
would be frost:std. (Hear.) Having enumerated
some abut .objectionable parts of the Bill, he con-
eluded t 9 moving the following Resolution, which
Wr s mined unanimously :
" That the bill now in progress in the house of commons,
entitled,' A 811/1 for the more convenient Recovery of Small
Debts to England and Wales; is, in the judgment of Ibis
eaestiag, uiljuot, absurd, impolitic, and linings. nimble. con-
trary to the principles of our laws, and all sound legislation ;
ad, if pawed lira a law, will create much more siischiet
than it is kneaded to prevent."
The following Resolution was also carried una-
nimously :
" That this Bill is at valiance with the principles of
English law, sal of sound legislaison. Because it substitutes
the oath of a party f.r•• that of a i toebbes. la 21.1106111 g damages
against an absent defendant ; and allows ;natl.., generally,
to be witnesses for themselves in their own causes—thus
. .

holding eat a strong indite emeut to perjury. because, by
naltiog a Judge's remunerotron to depend mien the number
of actions be tries, it becomes his inter, Ilmt cau4e..linuld
be berried ever rather thaa tuveetiguted, and that plaiutll6