The Sun.
London, England, 1830-03-23 00:00:00

points in a short time, and these points were the pre-
cise and distinct questions—if of fact, to be decided by
the Jury ; if of law, by the Judge and the Court. To be
sure, special pleading, like every thing human, was liable
to abuses, but it did not therefore follow that it ought to be
altogether abolished. The Commissioners had acted with
more discretion and wisdom ; and whilst they stript the
science of idle, cumbrous, unnecessary, and complicated
form, they retained the essential part, p being most use-
ful and even essential to the due administration of the law.
With respect to this subject, also, he hoped that when
their Lordships should have the measure distinctly hefore
them, and see what it was, they would be of opinion that
en this branch of the improvements the Commissioners
had done essential service to the country. He ought to
mention, also, that the Commissioners had recommended
the enacting of some subsidiary provisions in aid of Courts
of Law, which in many cases would supersede the neces-
sity of applying to Courts of Equity at all. To this ex-
tent, then, matters had gone, and were now in progress
to a conclusion. But this was not all; for the Commission
and the Government had paid attention to a matter of great
practical importance—namely, the actual state of the Supe-
rior Courts of Law as to the quantity of business before
them. It appeared that during the last five years 11,000
causes had been tried at the Court of King's Bench, 3000
at the Court of Common Pleas, and at the Exchequer
only 500. During that,..paiod,,lse_Jaelioved, that in the,
City of London not a single Specia.Jury..cause had been '
tried by the Court of Exchequer. When he was Attorney-
General he had brought a Bill into Parliament, which
was passed into a law, which enabled three of the Judges
of the Court of King's Bench to sit under the King's
warrant for some days out of term, for the tdispatch of
term business. That measure he always, however,
contemplated as a temporary, and not a permanent one.
But it must be permanent, unless some other kind of as-
sistance wal provided for the Court of King's Bench.
Although additional facilities were given for the dispatch
of business in the Court of King's Bench by the plan which
he had proposed, yet additional business flowed into it in
proportion. The Court of King's Bench was the favourite
Coui t, and all crowded into it who thought they could
get a hearing in reasonable time, so that it was over-
whelmed with business constantly. But the three Judges
sat in a separate apartment from the ordinary Court
where the Chief Justice sat; and, what was a matter of
considerable importance, they sat in a great measure apart
from the public, whose presence had a good effect both on
the Bar and the Bench. He knew that a young man
when at the bar was proud when he had a special case to
argue in the presence of the public in a crowded Court.—
This was a great stimulus to young men, and encouraged
them to exertion. He did not mean to say that they ne-
gleCted the business of their clients, but certainly they were
deprived of a great stimulus to exertion when they were
withdrawn from the view of the public. It was, there-
fore, desirable that the business in the Law Courts should
be conducted in the presence of the public, and in the
open view of the whole profession. It • was one great ob-
ject of the Commissioners that the business of the Courts
should be as much equalised as possible among the whole
of the Courts, and that no Court should have too much,
or rather that each Court should be able to despatch the
business that came before it. The Court of Common
Pleas had full as much business as it ought to have ; for
he was convinced that neither Judges nor Counsel ought
to have their time so totally occupied in the duties
of their profession, as to have no time to attend to
any thing else. He thought that Judges ought to
have some time for relaxation, and for attending to
objects of science and literature, and general knowledge,
so as to be able to keep up, and even to add to what
they had before acquired ; and in this view he was
satisfied that the Judges of the Common Pleas did as
much business in their profession, as any Judges could rea-
sonably be called on to do. With regard to the Court of
Exchequer, it was well known that it sat in a double ca-
pacity, both as a Court of Common Law and a Court of
Equity. Properly speaking, they might be assisted by the
Lord High Treasurer and the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
But of late years these had not attended, and the conse-
quence was, that in both the Barons only sat in Court
both at law and in equity. From the inconvenience sup-
posed to result from this, a regulation had been adopted by
which one of the Lord Chief Barons sat in Equity, while
the three Barons sat at Common Law, and in both they
sat without much business. One cause of this, no doubt,
was that the Court of Exchequer was in some measure
closed to the general practitioners, and that the business
must be conducted through the medium of a Law Officer of
the Court itself. If the Court should be laid open, and if
the Court of Equity should be detached from the Court of
Common Law, then there might be a hope that they might
take off the surplus business of the Court of King's
Bench, and that the existing evil might be remedied. That
was one of the suggestions of the Commissioners; and if
an additional Judge in Equity should be appointed, for
a time at least, there would be good reason to believe that
the other Courts of Equity would be relieved from the
pressure which they at present labour under. There was
another measure of great importance whch had engaged
the attention of his Majesty's Ministers, and one which
would be attended with but little additional expence, or at
least less than was commonly imagined. This was the
subject of the Welsh jurisdiction, and the appointment of
an additional Judge to each of the Courts. The subject
of the Welsh jurisdiction lead often been the subject of at-
tention to Parliament, and two reports had been made on
the subject ; and he believed that the general opinion was,
that it should be made the same as that of England. That
separate Welsh jurisdiction had been established in the
reign of Henry VIII., and the object was to extend to the
Welsh the same law, and the same mode of administration,
which prevailed in England ; and the only reason for
creating the separate jurisdiction was the difficulty of com-
municat'on between the one country and the other. But
that difficulty had now been removed, and the reason no
longer existed ; .and it was proposed that two of the addi-
tional Judges should be appropriated to that jurisdiction,
and hold the ASsizes there in the same manner as in Eng-
land. By doing this they were only following the object
of Henry the Eighth, which was to have the laws admi-
nistered in the same manner in Wales as in England.
He would not enter into the details of the Bill
for carrying this proposed measure into execution,
as the Bill was in the other House, and would
soon be before their Lordships. He merely now stated the
general scope of the measures in contemplation and
in progression, that their Lordships, from understanding
the general system beforehand, would be more prepared for
the consideration of the particular details, when they should
be called upon to decide upon them. There was another
subject which had engaged the attention of Government,
and that also was one of very considerable importance—he
alluded to the subject of Jury Trial in Scotland. Com-
missioners bad been appointed, at one time, to consider this
subject, and a considerable difference of opinion prevailed.
Many thought that Jury trial was not at all adapted to the
law, and to the proceedings in the Scotch Courts; and it
was resolved, and be thought wisely, that, in the first
place, the system should not be incorporated with the
Court of Session, but tried in a separate Court, by way of
experiment. A great portion both of the lawyers and
people of Scotland were prejudiced against it, but it was
tried in a separate tribunal. The experiment was made;
and the result, he had reason to believe, was, that many of
those who had felt the strongest prejudice against it, and
thought it utterly incompatible with the due administra-
tion of the Scotch law, bad now changed their opinion,
and now thought that it might be incorporated with ad-
vantage into the general system of the superior Courts
of Scotland ; and a measure was in contemplation
for effectuating th _t object, and the general improve-
ment of the mode of procedure in that country. An-
other subject of great importance had also engaged the at-
tention of his Majesty's Ministers, although they were not
prepared to bring any specific measure on the subject-be •
fore Parliament : that was the law of real property, parti-
cularly with respect to the branch of cenveyancing. Com-
missioners hail been appointed thoroughly to consider the
subject, and among these were some of the most eminent
Members of the Bar connected with th it particular branch
of the law. They had paid the greatest titt, nt
ion to the
inquiry, and had met with considerable difficulties in the
course of it. Tlieyliad
that makeou a report
its itios ypertes;enbtuat they expected
Their object was not to change the
nature and
I substance of conveyances, but to strip them of
cumbrous anti unnecessary forms, whit-h only served to
render them more unintelligible, and added so much to
the expence. Another measure of great i tuportance,which
bail also engaged the attention of his Mtv ajes's
t -l)
l ld
w be atrl
was the Commission appointed to inquire istu the state of
the procedure and adiniuistration of the law in the Eeclesi-