The Sun.
London, England, 1852-03-26 00:00:00

COUNTY COURTS EXTENSION.

Lord BROUGHAM presented a petition from Dol-
gelly and other places in Wales, in favour of the County
Courts Extension Bill.
EXTENSION OF COUNTY COURTS JURISDIC-
TION TO BANKRUPTCY CASES.

Lord BROUGHAM said he had a Bill to lay on the
table, to which he besought their Lordships' attention.
They must remember that the County Courts Acts, im-
proved as they had been by successive legislative
enactments, and received with such favour by the
public, applied as yet only to solvent claims,
and that there was, in cases of insolvency, the
same denial of justice which there had been before
in all other cases.—(Hear, hear.) The consequence
was, that in all the districts there were two distinct and
independent local jurisdictions, that of the County
Court and the Bankruptcy Court. How far it was
possible to amalgamate the two jurisdictions, their
Lordships had had an opportunity of consider-
ing last session, when he had brought before
them a Bill to effect this purpose—a Bill which made
considerable progress last session, but, owing to the
state of the public business, was not then passed into
law. The Bill to which he had now to call their atten-
tion, and for which he bad to ask a first reading, was of
the same nature, and had for its purpose to extend the
jurisdiction of County Court judges to bankruptcy oases.
—The Bill was then read a first time.

The NODLE LORD mentioned, in reference to the
Bill which he had laid on the table the other night with
regard to the shortening the time between the dissolu-
tion and the assembling of a new Parliament, he had
heard some discontent expressed as to his having named
thirty-five days as the minimum space to elapse between
the two events. It appeared to him that this was the
shortest apace in which a new Parliament could be got
together after a dissolution.
DISTRESS IN IRELAND.

The Earl of GLENGALL presented a petition from
the South of Tipperary praying that the House would
take means to relieve the present state of distress exist-
ing in Ireland.
The Earl of WICKLOW presented a petition from
a place in the North of Ireland to the same effect.
THE WAR IN AVA.

The Earl of DERBY rose to ask the Noble Earl op-
posite (Ellenborough) to postpone a question of which
he had given notice with respect to the war in Ava. It
appeared to him that this question was, to say the least
of it, premature, and as it appeared to him incorrect in
its terms, as relating to what the Noble Earl called the
war in Ave. Undoubtedly hostile collisions had taken
place between her Majesty's forces and the Governor
of Rangoon, but no actual war had broken out, and he
was not without hope that such a misfortune
might be averted. The first account of what
had taken place had only reached this country
by the last mail, and though accounts of a second colli-
sion had reached this country it had been by the medium
of the Admiralty, and no account had yet reached the
Board of Directors from the Governor-General, conse-
quently the information which the Government possessed
was very imperfect, and they were not in a state to give
anything but a very imperfect account of these
transactions. Under these circumstances he would
propose that his Noble Friend should postpone
his question until the arrival of the next mail,
which would probably put them in possession of what
the state of affairs was at present, and what opinion the
Governor-General had formed upon them.
The Earl of ELLENBOROUGH said it was impos-
sible for him to refuse to postpone his question; but he
hoped that he should be allowed to bring it on before the
departure of the next mail. While he was upon
the subject of this war he would call the
attention of the Noble Duke at the head of the Admi-
ralty to the relations existing between the Governor-
General of India and the Commodore of the blockading
squadron. The Commodore was in the position of the
commander of an allied squadron, and though he might
receive a suggestion from the Governor-General, he was
not bound to act according to his instructions. In feet, the
Governor-General might advise,but could give no orders to
the Commodore. This was an anomalous position, and he
hoped that orders would be issued from the Admiralty to
remedy it.
The Duke of NORTHUMBERLAND said that Com-
modore Lambert bad received instructions from the Go-
vernor-General in Conncil, and had acted upon them
strictly and carefully.
The Earl of ELLENBOROUGH said that might be,
but it was in the Commodore's option to have neglected
and disobeyed these orders altogether if he had chosen.
That was a position of responsibility in which the Com-
modore ought not to be left.
Lord MINTO said that he apprehended that the oom•
mender on this station was placed in exactly the same
position as all other commanders on foreign stations: he
was obliged to act according to the instructions of the

Admiralty.
Lord BROUGHTON confirmed the statement of the
Noble Earl behind him (Ellenborough). Shortly before
he had left office he had received a letter from the Go-
♦ernor-General complaining of this anomalous position,
and hoping that when the East India Company's Char-
ter again came under the consideration of Parliament
some provision would be introduced to remedy it.
The Earl of DERBY said with reference to this sub-
ject he had to give notice that on Friday, the 2d of
April, he should move for a Committee to inquire into
the operations of the Act under which the East India
Company held their Charter.
LAW OF WILLS AMENDMENT.

The LORD CHANCELLOR, in moving that this Bill be
committed, said that the first clause in it was the great ob-
ject which he wished to carry at present. He should move
in Committee that the second and third clauses should be
struck out of the Bill; but he should afterwards introduce
them as separate Bills, and take the sense of their Lordships
upon:them.
The House then went into Committee.
The first clause was then read. It is in the following
terms :—" That whereas, by an Act passed in the Ist year
of the reign of her Majesty Queen Victoria, entitled 'An
Act for the Amendment of the Laws with respect to Wills,'
it is enacted that no will shall be valid unless it shall be
signed at the foot or end thereof by the testator, or by
souse other person in his presence, and by his direction;
every will shall, so far only as regards the position of the
signature of the testator, or of the person signing for him
as aforesaid, be deemed to be valid within the said enact-
ment, as explained by this Act, if the signature shall be
so placed at or after, or following, or under, or beside, or
opposite to the end of the will, that it shall be apparent that
the testator intended to give effect to the writing signed as
his will by such his signature, although the same shall not
follow or be immediately after the foot or end of the will,
and although a blank space shall intervene between the con-
eluding word of the will and the signature, and although
the signature shall be placed among the words of the
testimonium clause or of the clause of attestation, or shall
follow or be after or under the clause of attestation, either
with or without a blank space intervening, or shall follow,
or be after, or under, or beside the names, or one of the
names, of the subscribing witnesses, and although the
signature shall be on a side or page or other portion of the
paper or papers containing the will whereon no clause or
paragraph or disposing part of the will shall be written
above the signature, and although there shall appear to be
sufficient space on or at the bottom of the preceding side, or
page, or other portion of the same paper on which the will
is written, to contain the signature ; but no signature shall
be operative to give effect to any disposition or direction
which is underneath or follows it, nor shall it give effect to
any disposition inserted after the signature shall be made in
any blank space in the will."
Lord CRANWORTH was afraid that this clause, as now
worded, would create as many difficulties as it was intended
to correct. The fault at present did not arise from the state
of the law, but from the decisions of the judges upon it. As
to the regulation which his Noble and Learned Friend had
made for the case of persons making wills in extremis, he
thought that their case should be made the exception, and
not the rule. He repeated that the language of the existing
law was clear. Here the Noble and Learned Lord read the
following clause from the Ist of Victoria, c. 26 :
" And be it further enacted, that no will shall be valid
unless it shall be in writing and executed in manner here-
inafter mentioned ; (that is to say), it shall be signed at the
foot or end thereof by the testator, or by some other person
in his presence and by his direction; and such signature
shall be made or acknowledged by the testator in the pre-
sence of two or more witnesses present at the same time, ant
such witnesses shall attest and shall subscribe the will in the
presence of the testator, but no form of attestation shall be
necessary. "
It was the judges of the ecclesiastical: courts, and not the
judges of the courts of common law, who required that
the signature of the testator should be at the toot of the
will, and who declared that whenever a large blank was
left at the foot of it the will was invalid. Perhaps they
might be justified in this; but the subsequent cases had
gone much further—ay, even to the length of saying that
if a testator signed his name at more than an inch below the
will itself that will was thereby invalidated. His Noble and
Learned Friend's clause provided that, "if the signature
should be se placed at or after, or following or under, or
beside, or opposite to the end of the will, that it shall be ap-
parent that the testator intended to give effect to the writing
as his will by such signature, although the same should not
follow, or be immediately after the foot or end of the will,"
it should be deemed valid; and then followed a long string
of althoughs, which the Noble and Learned Lord read,
which showed that his Noble and Learned Friend on the
Woolsack had carefully read through all the existing deci-
sions, and had framed his language to meet them. Now,
was not his Noble and Learned Friend opening a door by
such a profusion of-language to further difficulties? lle
thought that it would be an amendment of the clause to
make it stop before the first " although" (so, at least, we
understood).
The LORD CHANCELLOR had not expected any ob-
jection to this clause, especially after he had agreed to in-
troduce the two other clauses of this Bill as separate mea-
lobe correct as it stood.
mea-
sures. His Noble and Learned Friend said that this first
cllmau:sdeowveoruhldisincrease a hundred times over the present diffi-
culties about wills. If that were so, he (the Lord Chan-
cellor) must be a very bad draughtsman indeed, and ought to
measure for improvement to his Noble and
Learned Friend.
obi ection
duced, bad not But h heHe
believedhad onlyth
onean language uoabgj
object
oft i
nthe
bringingclause
forward this clause, and that was, to make all wills signed
with due solemnity valid. If his Noble and Learned Friend
seat with this subject
it, and he had car
could improvethe language of the clause he should have no
to
mull, carefully
care,
his doing so. This Bill, though recently pro-
altered
whicha
got up in haste. He had been conver-
j:fcut all his life ; he had written a book upon
impartiality, perused and reviewed
endiewe dal
precision the
adeci-
sions with as
srflhaourconversation, in which Lord LYNDIIIISST and
assured
had in
Noble and Learned Friend
that the claus
would by no means ac-
he
complish in view.
eou
After
ecromat h e objectas
Lord CRANIVORTH took part, but of which the reater art
was inaudible in the gallery, g p
The Earl of ELLEN BOROUGH suggested that the Noble
and Learned Lords should meet in
Select Committee to-
morrow Morning, atid there settle the language of the clause.
After making himself merry for some time with the multi-
plicity of adverbs somewhat contradictory, contained in the
first part of this clause, he concluded by stating that they
ought to be carefully considered, as the omission of one of
them might jeopardise the inheritance of Many.