The Sun.
London, England, 1830-03-22 00:00:00

a million. When We see that the whole number of
causes tried in the half-yearly Northern Circuit, fl
section of England containing a population of be-
tween three and four millions of the most active and
intelligent people of the world, amounts only to a
few hundreds, it is clear that there is a complete
denial of justice to all but the very rich, and that the
description of causes decided in local Courts in
France and Scotland (amounting, in the latter
country, to twenty thousand a year) has no tribunal
in England, except an occasional Court of Con-
science in the horrible County Courts. When the
sum is large, a suitor will in England brave the
delay and the expence; but the injustice of half-
yearly delays, and the being compelled to travel
with witnesses to a distance, and to maintain them
' for weeks at the Assize town, when the whole might
often be settled at a small expence in a local Court,
are not the less evident. "It might be supposed,"
' said Sir James, " that as the expence to the Go-
vernment was so great that the expellee to the
suitor was less. He had directed an irquiry to be
' made on this subject, and he had derived some accu-
rate information from a celebrated Avocat at Paris.
When a cause went through all its regular stages, and
taking an average of ten causes, he found that the
average cost of each cause was 1401., he believed
that the average of ten causes tried in London would
be found not to amount to so much." We should
like to know what is meant by cause here. A cause
may commence in a Sheriff's Court in Scotland, be
from thence removed to the Court of Session, and
thence again appealed to the House of Lords, and
the costs may be two or three thousand pounds. This
may be called a cause going through all its regular
stages, for every cause commenced in a local Court
in Scotland may be carried to this extreme. Yet it
would not be fair to say that a Scotch sauce going
through its regular stages costs 2,0001. It appeared
from a Parliamentary Return, that only one out of
every 118 causes tried in the local Courts of Scot-
land were carried to:the Court of Session, and of
that number comparatively few are appealed to the
House of Lords. In like manner, no doubt, the
great body of causes in France are finally decided in
the local Courts. But we admit that the judicial
procedure of France, according to the accounts of
their own writers, quoted by Feuerbach, an eminent
German Jurist, is execrable. As little is known in
this country of the manner of French procedure, we
shall here extract from the author above named an
account of some of its chief defects. " The above
interruptions, which may and usually do take place
in an ordinary trial, from the instruction, through
the hearing, down to the decision, are far from being
the only or principal causes which lengthen the pe-
riod of the suits, and of which chicanery avails itself
to exhaust the patience of the litigants, and exhaust
their purses. The principal causes, originating in
the very nature of French proceedings, are—
" 1. The almost inexhaustible abundance of what are
called incidens, which furm so many preparatory or inter-
vening trials, which interrupt the course of the main issue,
and must he separately instructed, pleaded, and determined;
so that a single main issue cannot often be decided till a
multitude of collateral suits, the number of which cannot
be previously calculated according to any theory, are
brought to a successful or unsuccessful terminatisu. Of
the incidens there are two principal classes. First, those
which precede the entering on the defense; the issue as to
the fins-de-non-proc>dcr ; then the issue as to the excep-
tions peremptoires de forme; further, the dilatoires ;
lastly, as to the exceptions peremptoires of the second class,
or the fins-de-non recevoir, properly so called. For that
an advocate should avail himself of the permission to con-
nect these different issues, defendre a Joules fins, is a rare
example in French practice. The second class consists of
those which may be thrown in the way after the question
has been entered on ; consequently, during the written in-
struction, or after the matter has already come to a hearing,
or after it has been debated, or even after the Court has
ordered the deliberation, Sze. They are divided into six
principal classes, of which the most fall again into several
subdivisions, of which subdivisions each comprehends a
number of separate points. Without attempting to reckon
up all these, without speaking of those kinds which may
occur in one trial, as, for example, Interventions, .Recusa-
tions, and the like, I shall merely glance at the first class,
the so-called demander incidentes, as to which Pigeau
makes the general observation that their source is altogether
inexhaustible. It is enough to remark that they are com-
petent either to the plaintiff or defendant, or to both, and
that they may be engaged in every stage of the suit. The
plaintiff can make a fresh addition to his main claim by a
demande ineidente (as, for instance, the demand of inte-
rest, fruits, &c.), or he may limit his former claim, or he
may vary the grounds of it, &e. ; the defendant can raise a
counter-claim ; either party can throw his opponent, whom
he has hitherto combated with quite different weapons, by
a demande incidents of false documents (inscription en
faux), by a complaint to be replaced in his former condi-
tion (for example, as he was a minor during the time of
the execution of the document), by an actio doll and the
like, interrupt the principal proceeding., till the intervening
issue is instructed and conducted to a hearing. _ _

" 2. What perplexes the issue adds to the duration of
it. It would be difficult to invent a mode of procedure
which could give greater facility to chicanery, to involve
the simplest matter, and to pervert order into the wildest
disorder, than the French. It knows nothing of an ac-
curate firing of the issue—nothing of a regulating of the
status cause et contruversice, before the decision ; it is
not till after the judgment is pronounced that the fact
(qualites) on which it is grounded, is drawn up by the
Advocates, which gives again occasion to an after-issue.
However the cause may be commenced, it may always he
moved out of its course, and receive an altered shape. To
what abominations do not these so called conclusions
afford a handle. The conclusions which have been taken
in the proceedings may, as has been shown above, be mo-
dified at the opening of the hearing (in the qualith), and
these again in the course of the hearing sur le barreau,
again in the appeal, and finally may be quite changed when
the sentence has been casse before the Tribunal de
Renvoi. Then come also the new mnyens in the .Appel-
lations-Instance ; anti finally, as the most certain and
productive means of perplexing a well-introduced incident
—complaint.
" 3. Suds is the abundant harvest which is offered to
chicanery by the numberless, trivial, and often entirely
useless formalities with which a French trial is so thickly
strewed, that a step can hardly be taken without incurring
the danger of overlooking or failing in soma scarcely per-
ceptible trifle, which may annul the whole proceeding,
lay a foundation for an intervening action of declaration
of nullity, and necessarily compel a repetition not only
of the steps already taken, but of all the actions founded
on it," • &c.
_ _ _

A more barbarous mode of conducting a trial can
hardly well be conceived than that of the French,
according to this well-informed writer, who cites
French authorities for every sentence, and has
studied at Paris the working of the system. The
Scotch system of procedure is bad, but perfection
compared with that of France. The truth would
seem to be, that lawyers in all countries are
equally hostile to reform, and equally success-
ful in defeating the attempts at it. It does
not follow, however, that because our neigh-
bours have a barbarous system of procedure that
ours should not be improved. " The proceedings
before the French Courts (observed Sir James)
were more prolix than those in the English Courts.
Much of the superiority of our proceeding was due
to our trial by Jury, which was not understood by
many persons who derided it. The institution of a
Jury enabled the Judge to separate the law from
the facts, facilitated the administration of justice,
and gave a certainty, to our law, such as was nit
to be found in other countries. Those who were
not well acquainted with the effect of Jury
trials ridiculed them, but it was from not know-
ing their operation." Here Sir James displays
his usual ability to separate the accident from
the substance. It is probable that without a Jury,
the English would never have stumbled on the dis-
tinct adjustment of the facts to be ascertained pre-
vious to the trial; but. would have gone on rambling
from facts to law arguments, and from law arguments
to facts, like their neighbours the Scotch. A Jury
being confined to facts, and time being limited, it
became necessary to lose as little as possible, and to
fwhat charm
the matter
ahtavisesauec.orßreuctt
tphreesveipouarsautinodneorsntcaendminagde:
Jurytrmy oirsesutehsanasinwaellasthe
Judge, that the
former ?
He would do so much better, and moreover there
liasttt her erseho in
should a
not
would be this advantage in the alteration--.that the
• Perrin—Traite des Nullitee de Droit en ilatiere
Cinle,....Pane, 1819.

Judge would not be obliged to open up verdicts
again and again till he find one to satisfy him. As
far as we can see, the Jury is merely a stalking
horse for the purposes of the Judge, that he may
throw the responsibility of what he does not like to
be charged with on them, and yet leave it in his
power to alter the verdict. Sir James Scarlett re
minds 113 of an illustration given by Dugald Stewart
in his Chapter " on the Influence of Casual Associa-
tions on our Speculative Conclusions." He would
repeat every step of a process, because he is unable
to distinguish between what produces the result and
what is unessential. The essential in a trial is the
fixing the issue distinctly; the means by which the
discovery was made that law and fact ought to be
kept separate are a distinct consideration from the
means by when it is known that law and fact
can be separated, the fact may be best astertained.
" Let us suppose (says Dugald Stewart) that a
savage, who in a particular instance Isad found
himself relieved of some bodily indisposition by
a draught of cold water, is a second time afflicted
with a similar disorder, and is desirous to repeat the
same remedy. In his situation it would be impos-
sible for him to determine whether the cure was
owing to the water which was drunk, to the cup in
which it was contained, to the fountain from which
it was taken, to the'particular day of the month, or
to the particular age of the moon. In order, there-
fo: e, to ensure the success of the remedy, he will
very naturally, and very wisely, copy, as far as he
can recollect, every circumstance which accompanied
the first application of it. He will make use of the
same cup, draw the water from the same fountain,
hold his body in the same position, and turn his
face in the same direction; and thus all the ac-
cidental circumstances in which the first experiment
was used will come to be associated equally in his
mind with the effect produced. The fountain from
which the water was drawn will be considered as
I possessed of particular virtues and the cup from
which it was drunk will be set apart from vulgar
uses, for the sake of those who may afterwards have
occasion to apply the remedy." We have now out-
, grown a little the state of this savage, and can dis-
pense with some parts of the process, if the equally
good result can be obtained without them. If Sir
James look at the evidence as to the Assistant
Barristers' Courts in Ireland, he will see that an
issue can be very well tried without a Jury, and
that the parties in ninety-nine cases oat of a hun-
dred (for they have an option) prefer a learned and
experienced Judge to an ignorant set of Jurors.—
ilforning Chronicle.
We have already denounced, on more than one
occasion, the iniquity of the measure proposed by
the Chancellor of the Exchequer, of throwing open
the trade in beer, and while any hope remains of
either defeating it in told, or of procuring such a
modification of it, as to render it less ruinous, we
shall denounce it by such fair argument as may duly
bear upon the question. The great argument on
which the advocates of the measure rely is the de-
crease, for some years past, in the consumption of
beer, which they hold to be a proof of such bad
management on the part of those entrusted with
it, as to render it imperative on the Legislature to
transfer it to other hands ; but how stands the
fact The sale of beer has indeed decreased, or
at least been nearly stationary ; but then, on the
other hand, while the duties have been greatly
diminished on all articles which could possibly come
into competition with its sale, the duty on beer has
remained the same to the present moment ! The
intermediate brewers and retailers have, le the first
place, shared, not unfrequently by a recourse to
fraudulent expedients, no inconsiderable portion of
the trade of the licensed victualler ; in the second,
the reduction of the duty on coffee gave rise to the
introduction of an immense number of coffee-shops,
which have also diminished, in some measure, the
sale of beer ; in the third, the duty on British
spirits has been greatly lowered, and, in consequence
of the heavy duty on beer, caused a much greater
consumption of British spirits; and, finally, let it be
remembered, that, for years past, the country has
been in a most deplorable state of distress—and
that the deteriorated condition of the middle, and
the low wages of the working, classes, have rendered
the use of beer a matter of comparative luxury in-
stead of a general necessary of life. All these things
have tended to prevent an increase in the con-
sumption of beer; and all these things ought to
be taken into consideration before a sentence of
condemnation be passed on those who have been en-
gaged in it. Had the duty on beer been either re-
pealed, or reduced in proportion to the reduction of
the duties above alluded to, there can be no question
that its consumption would have kept pace with, if
it had not actually outstripped, them ; but the Legis-
lature, as if determined to lay the foundation of all
argument, which it might afterwards bring forward
to palliate the ruin of a meritorious body of men,
repealed or reduced the duties on all other articles,
and most benevolently left the beer duty unrepealed.
One other point, and we have done for the present.
In the case of all other monopolies established by
law, the Legislature has deemed it just to give due
notice to the parties who might stiffer by its being
broken up, that after the lapse of a certain number
of years the system would be abolished ; and thus
has the ruin, in which great numbers would other-
wise
have been involved, been so modified as to be
only pa: dully felt ; but in the case of the licensed
victualler this ceremony is to be dispensed with, and
the whole body to be ruined at " one fell swoop."
It might be difficult to persuade the Chancellor of
the Exchequer that even the public good, though in
most cases the SUMMUM jus, may in particular in-
stances be the sumnia injuria ; but we will put a
case in point—a short argumentuni ad hominem,
which Will at all events have the merit of being com-
prehensible, even if it should fail in persuading. It
is this. Mr. Goulbern and his colleagues are all en-
titled to retiring pensions, for having served his Ma-
jesty in their several capacities,--which retiring
pensions the country would no doubt cheerfully pay,
as in strict justice bound, while it could; but sup-
pose that, owing to the pressure of the debt, and
the distressed condition of the country, it was found
more for its good not to continue the payment of
these pensions than to pay them, we put it to Mr.
Goulburn, whether lie would riot consider himself
most unjustly dealt with by such a proceeding ? Yet
what difference there is, if any difference there be,
between the two cases, is all in favour of the licensed
victualler; for while the latter has not only spent
his time and labour, but laid out his capital
in the improvement of his property, at great
risk of loss, the former has merely given the
country the benefit of such talents as Providence
has been pleased to grant him, and for which he has
been duly remunerated. We trust, therefore, that
in the event of its being finally determined to throw
open the beer trade, it will be done in such a man-
ner as to do as little injury as possible to existing
interests—that the Act will be prospective, and not
take effect for several years. The injury might be
thus very greatly mitigated ; and as similar regard
has been invariably paid to existing interests in
other cases, we can see no reason why it should not
be paid in the case of the licensed victualler. We
are glad to see, in reference to the above subject,
that not only are the country brewers and licensed
victuallers fully alive to the injurious tendency of
the proposed measure of the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer, but that the proviacial Press is also
strongly in favour of impartial justice being admini-
stered to the licensed victuallers. " On Friday,"
says the Leeds .illercury,
A numerous meeting of the Licensed Victuallers in
the borough of Leeds was held at the Saddle Inn, in Brig-
gate, Mr. David Kirkman in the Chair, when it was re-
solved to send a deputation to London immediately, to act
in concert with the Licensed Victuallers of London, Bir-
mingham, &c. in attending to their interests in the mea-
sures contemplated by Government respecting the Licensing
System."
On Friday, also, says a Manchester Paper,
A meeting of the Brewers of this town was held at
the King's Arias, in King-street, for the purpose of con-
sidering what measures should be adopted with the view
of opposing the extension of the trade in Beer, as proposed
by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Mr. John Hardt:llan