The Sun.
London, England, 1839-04-09 00:00:00

COURT OF SESSION.

We have received the annual return of the num-
ber of cases instituted and decided in this Court last
year, and we think it forms a most convincing argu-
ment ag'inst increasing the Judges' salaries, and for
diminishing their number. The total number of final
judgments, in litigated cases, pronounced by the fire
Lords Ordinary, is .507 ; 312 of which were car-
ried into the Inner House. The Inner House of the
First Division pronounced 162 final judgments, in
litigated cases ; the Inner House of the Se-
cond Division 135 ; and there were 37 causes tried
by jury ; so that the real judicial business of the Court
consisted in deciding 529 causes : for the causes car-
ried from the Lords Ordinary into the Inner House
cannot be counted. The decision of these 529 causes
costs the country about 70,0001. a year for Judges,
clerks, &c., besides the expense of counsel and
agents, paid by the litigants themselves, or 132/.
each, which, we shrewdly suspect, is more than the
average sum at stake. If we look, however, to
mere matters of form, which are in reality done by
the clerks, without the Judges once looking at the
applications, we find a considerable appearance of
business ; for we have 501 decrees in absence, pro-
nounced by the Lords Ordinary, 659 mere formal ap-
plications, presented to the First Division, and 356 of
such applications to the Second. Small, however, as the
business is, all the Judges contrive to be in arrear.
Lord Moncrieff had, at the date of the return, no
less than .57 causes ready for debate, but not heard,
some of which had stood on his roll very nearly a
twelvemonth. Lord Jeffrey had sixty-three, some
of which had been on the roll since the beginning of
March last year ; and the other three Ordinaries
were all, more or less, in arrear. Both of the In-
ner Houses, also, were two or three months in arrear,
though, as every one who attended the Court must have
observed, they often did not sit more than an hour or
two. a-day. Why, with such a state of matters, the
sittings of the Court were not extended, under the
provisions of the statute 1 Gul. IV. c. 69, sec. 10,
is a question which we hope some of the Mem-
bers of Parliament will ask the Lord Advocate ;
for, if we remember rightly, there was a similar
arrear at the beginning of last year. We are,
therefore, glad to observe that Mr. Wallace is to
move, in the Committee on the Court of Session Bill,
that the sittings of the Court be extended to eight
months ; for it is plain, from what has occurred, that
no discretionary power in this matter can be entrusted
either to the officers of the Crown or to the Court itself.
Mr. Wallace is also to move for an inquiry into the
nature and extent of the duties of the Judges, and
whether one of the Inner Houses, and four Judges,
clerks, &c., may not be dispensed with, and a saving of
14,0001. a-year thereby effected. Such a reduction
would amply enable the Fee-fund, so long felt as most
oppressive, to be entirely removed. Another excellent
proposal of Mr. Wallace is, that, in future, all wit-
nesses should be examined orally in Court, instead
of the absurd, tedious, and expensive form of taking
written proofs by commission ; but of course,
all these valuable suggestions will be rejected
by the combined Whig and Tory majority, who
consider it a much better thing that the Minister of
the day should have plenty of patronage, and their
partisans plenty of places, than that justice should be
expeditiously, cheaply, and efficiently administered.
Why, when business is so rapidly declining, the
Judges' salaries are to be increased, we have seen
no explanation ; but that the business is declining
fearfully no one now disputes. An appearance
of business is no doubt kept up by employing
the Judges in making up records, and other
matters not at all of a judicial nature, but which ought
to be done by the parties themselves or by the clerks of
court. One half of the time of the Outer House Judges
is occupied in motions for an order to lodge papers, and
other mere formal business ; most of these motions arc
so much a matter of course, that no opposition, or even
appearance is made by the other party. We have, on
former occasions, given returns of the number of cases
brought into the Outer House annually sincel794, show-
ing a regular decrease of business. The last return we
gave was for 1831, when the number was 1,956 ; last
year the number was only 1,486—50 that the predic-
tion in our last Register, that in a few years the Court
of Session's " occupation would be gone," is amply
confirmed. The sooner its primary jurisdiction is abo-
lished, and it is rendered a mere Court of Review of the
decisions of the Sheriff and other inferior courts, the
better. Four Judges would be quite enough for that
purpose, and a saving of .50,000/. a year would be
effected.—Tait's Magazine for April.

LORD WARD.---A paragraph has been going
the round of the papers, alledgieg that his Lordship had
lost to a Noble Earl and a gentleman of sporting celebrity
the sum of 200,0001., which paragraph seems to have been
copied from a Worcester Paper. The same report, with
the addition of the names of the supposed implicated par-
ties, appeared in a scandalizing Sunday Paper. Lord
Ward in a letter to the Times, says—" The Earl alluded
to I have met in society, and the gentleman of sporting
celebrity in the field, but with neither have I ever been
engaged in play for one moment, nor to either have I ever
lost one farthing."
EFFECTS Or THE NEW ART.—The Dague-
roscope and the Photogenic revolutions are to keep you
all down, ye painters, engravers, and, alas I the harmless
race, the sketchers. All ye, by whom the " Flumen Rhe-
num, ant pluvius discubitur ercu.s," before whose unsteady
hand towers have toppled down upon the paper, and
the pagodas of the East have bowed, hide your heads
in holes and corners, and wait there till you are
called for. The " mountain in labour', will no more
produce a mouse; it will reproduce itself, with
all that is upon it. Ye artists of all denornina•
tions that have so vilified our nature as her journeymen,
see how she rises up against you, and takes the staff
into her own hand. Your mistress now, with a ven-
geance, she will show you what she really is, and
that the cloud is not " very like a whale." You
must positively abscond. Now, as to you, locality
painters, with your towns and castles on the Rhine,
you will not get the " ready rhino" for them now,
and we have no pity for you. Bridges are far too
arch now to put up with your false perspective.
They will no longer be abridged of their due propor-
tions by you : they will measure themselves and take their
own toll. You will no longer be tolerated. You drawers
of churches, Britton, Pugin, Mackenzie, beware lest you
yourselves be drawn in. Every church will show itself to
the world without your help. It will make its wants visible
and known on paper; and though vestry and churchwar-
den quash the church-rates, every steeple will lift up its
head and demand proper repair.

_ .
" Mox reficit rates
Quassas, indoeilis paupericm pati."
Te animal painters, go no more to the Zoologicals to
stare the lions out of countenance, they do not want
your countenance any more. The day is come for
every beast to be his own portrait painter. " None
but himself shall be his parallel." Every garden
will publish its own Botanical Magazine. The true
" Forget me not " will banish all others from the
earth. Talk no more of " holding the mirror up to
Nature," she will hold it up to herself, and present
you with a copy of her countenance for a penny,
What would you say to looking in a mirror and having the
image fastened ! As one looks sometimes, it is really
quite frightful to think of it; but such a thing is possible,
nay, it is probable, no, it is certain. What will become
of the poor thieves, when they shall see handed in as evi-
dence against them, their own portraits, taken by the room
i
in which they stole, and its the very, act of stealing.—
Blackwood.