The Sun.
London, England, 1854-08-08 00:00:00

ERIAL PARLIAMENT.

HOUSE OF LORDS—(YESTERDAY.)
ROYAL COMMISSION.
The Royal assent was given by commission to the
following public bills :—Acknowledgment of Deeds of
Married Women, Convict Prisons (Ireland), Indian
Appointments, &c., Admiralty Courts, Registration of
Births, &c. (Scotland), Sale of Beer, Reformatory Schools
(Scotland), Court of Chancery, County Palatine of Lan-
caster, and Oxford University Bills.
The Royal assent was also given by commission to a
number of railway and other private bills.
The Lords Commissioners were the Lord Chancellor,
Earl Granville, and the Duke of Argyle.
BILL OF EXCHANGE BILL (No. 2).

Lord BROUGHAM presented a petition
t fro
tom tmer-
chantsake of the city of London, praying e house
up the consideration of this measureeearlyonnethxtofseNvssioon:
He said, a conference was held in th
1352, composed of delegates from partsm of the coun-
try, and from all the great trading
led to the appointment towns in England,
Ireland, and Scotland, and which
of a committee, and there was no subject which more
occupied the attention of the members of the conference
and the committee than the assimilation of the law of
England to that of Scotland, with regard to the sum-
mary process on bills of exchange and promissory notes.
That had been the law and practice in Scotland for 120
years, and under it the mercantile community of that
country had greatly progressed. It was at the request
of these respectable men, and he might say, as their
organ, that he presented a bill to their lordships which
they favourably received, read a second time, and which
they afterwards referred to a select committee, there
being some doubt at one time whether it should form
part of the Common Law Procedure Bill. It was sent
to the House of Commons on the 2d of June, but he
lamented that after the principle of the bill had been
affirmed in that house by a majority of 50 to 30, on Fri-
day night the course was taken of not pursuing the bill
on account of the late period of the session, and the
state of public business. He had no complaint to make,
however much he might lament the result, but the
ground of its being postponed was said to be that they
had in the House of Lords adopted a rule that none of
the bills which were sent np to them should be read after
a given day, namely, the 25th July, and in consequence
a bill which did not reach their lordships till the 4th of
• August, could not pass this session. Therefore they
• would not pass this bill which was sent down to them
• on the 2d of June, because their lordships would not pass
a bill which did not come to their lordships' house till
the 4th of August. They had given the House of Com-
mons two months to consider a bill, but the House of
Commons would not allow tbina a single day. (Hear.)
The bill in question made considerable changes in the
law, and could not be passed without due consideration.
But there was another interest opposed to this (the Ex-
change bill), and that was the interest of persons, who
having accepted bills, or endorsed them, had rather not
pay them when they became due, and they said, " what
a horrid thing it is to compel a poor man who has only
put his name to a bill at three months, not to allow him
three or four months longer before he is made to pay."
The law applicable to bills of exchange in Scotland was
not confined to that country ; it was the law of the whole
mercantile world except England ; and in Holland the
law went further still, for in that country the moment a
bill became due the person, goods, and lands of the ac-
ceptor were liable to he taken in execution by the holder.
And that was the law of this country 600 years ago.
Notwithstanding, however, there were some persons
who laboured under what he would venture to call a
monomania on the subject of currency, and they were
called the Brummagem school. They considered that
anything that tended to diminish the amount of cur-
rency was an evil ; they did not care about the value of
it. This bill increased the value of every bill and pro-
missory note in the market. " Oh," said these currency
doctors, "that does not much signify ; the strong point
is to have an immense mass of currency." And ac-
cordingly he found that one of these worthy persons
who was labouring under a delusion, and who was an
object of compassion, discovered that the reason for
this bill was, not to carry out the opinion of the great
mercantile community, of the delegates from all Eng-
land, Scotland, and Ireland. No such thing ; but they
said the bill was to create a job—not the job of making
debtors pay their debts to their lawful creditors, but
somebody, they said, wanted to appoint a registrar.
A NOBLE LORD—Who said that
Lord BROUGHAM—The currency doctors in the
other house, and if his noble friend looked at Saturday's
journals he would find who it was that made this charge.
Who wanted this bill, and who asked for it ? His noble
friend, the member for the city of London, presented a
petition in favour of it, signed by 309 of the first houses
in the city of London. There was no attempt to palm
it upon the public. What if there was nothing thought
of in respect to the office, what if it was not only true,
but it was impossible it should be true that this bill
originated in any such desire, or any conceivable or
imaginary interest connected with the desire to appoint
such an officer. This bill was presented by him to that
house, and read a first and second time, and referred to
a select committee without anything in it respecting a
registrar. It was intended that the three courts, the
Common Pleas, the Queen's Bench, and the Exchequer,
should appoint each a master in each court for the pur-
pose of registering the protested bills. But when the
bill was in select committee it was found it would not
do to have an officer of each of the three courts acting as
registrar, but that it was necessary to have one officer
who could be at his office all day to register these bills,
and the committee made the alteration. In the various
measures that he had had the honour of proposing for
the amendment of the law, he, with his colleagues, 113,1
been exposed to no inconsiderable obloquy. By one
class they had been charged with going too slow, and it
had been said they were mock reformers ; and by another
class they were charged with carrying all before them,
with endeavouring to sweep away all land marks by
wholesale changes of the law. By some they were
said to be acting as slumbering volcanoes, sending out
nothing but smoke and noise ; but, nevertheless, as long
as they were favoured by Divine Providence with the
means of rendering some help to the cause of improve-
ment, they must continue in their course, but their lord-
ships might be perfectly assured that no charge was
more groundless than that of heir", too rash and too
headlong. But when they were charged with such an
odious job as altering the law fur the purpose of creat-
ing a place to be given to some favoured individual, all
he could say was, that without blaming the individuals,
who, no doubt, believed what they said, but had been
imposed upon by others who knew the truth • but to
suppose that this charge should operate upon them, that
they should feel anything but contempt for it, that it
should in the slightest degree abate or accelerate their
progress, or cause them to deviate one hair's breadth to
the right or the left was absurd.
Falsus honor juvet et—
but he begged pardon for speaking to these doctors in
what was an unknown language to them. He would
speak to them in English.
False honour charms and lying slander scares
Whom, but the false and cowardly.
Lord CAMPBELL said he would not allude particu-
larly to currency doctors, or any other class of the com-
munity, who stood in the way of improvement, but ex-
perience taught them that there were always obstacles
to improvement. There was no doubt it would be an
improvement that the commercial law of the three United
Kingdoms should be the same. Having the honour of
presiding over the Queen's Bench, he bad frequent oppor-
tunities of knowing that men who had accepted bills did
not pay them, but when they were sued pleaded a number
of pretences, and when the day of trial came there was no
attempt at defence. At the last Guildhall sittings there
were 16 undefended causes of this character. There was
no reason why the commercial law should not be the
same in England as in Scotland, and as it was in every
other commercial country in the time of Edward the
First. He hoped that this bill would become law.
The LORD CHANCELLOR assured his noble and
learned friend (Lord Brougham) that, as far as they were
individually concerned, the Government gave all the sup-
port in their power to this bill, and it was only in conse-
quence of the gentleman who had charge of the bill—
in concurrence with a mercantile gentleman—thinking
it would be better to withdraw it that it was withdrawn.
He could only say that he hoped it would be introduced
again, and that it would be carried, With regard to
the Common Law Procedure Bill, he hoped that it would
be in that houseUeither that night or to-morrow, and
that they would be ready to give it a favourable recep-
tion.
The petition was then ordered to lie on the table.
WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.
The Earl of STRA.DBROIKE asked the Government
whether, in the next session of Parliament, it was their
intention b
to
of trin United
bill to regulate the weights and
very great difficult he Kingdom. He admitted that
difficulty was not soy existed, but still he hoped that the
fconstitute any serious
y great -
impediment to the introduction
The Earl of ABERDEEN
soaida bill.ia
culty surrounded this most importantt sat veect
b , whichdiffi re-
quired much more consideration than it had
yet received ;
he was not prepared to say at this moment whether
any measure would be introduced next session upon the
subject.
Lord MONTEAGLE acknowledged that the introduc-
tiondecimal system of weights, measures, coin
of a
4te., was surrounded by great difficulties • but he
thought that the difficulties and objections had been
greatly overrated, compared with the enormous adeee
tage and convenience to
everybody in the community
it,
which would arise from and which advantages had
been underrated by those who had discussed the matter
out of doors. The difficulties contemplated in any
alteration of the copper coinage w ero as nothing com-
pared with the great advantage which would be derived.
The decimal system had been adopted already in certain
branches, and he had been informed that the whole of
the calculations at the Bank of England as to the pur-
chase of bullion were made according to the decimal
system ; and, if so, certainly the practice might be in-
troduced in reference to other matters.
The subject then dropped.
BENEFICES AUGMENTATION ACTS REPEAL
BILL.
The Commons amendments in this bill were considered
and agreed to.
LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC INSTITUTIONS
This bill was
meats proposed byread BILL.
Lerae ivithirod time, after some amend-
to. NTEAGLE had been agreed

CHANCERY RETURNS.
Lord BROUGHAM moved for some returns in
reference to the Court of Chancery, which returns were
ordered.
THE COMMON LAW PROCEDURE BILL.
Lord CAMPBELL inquired what course it was in-