The Sun.
London, England, 1814-05-19 00:00:00

NS II cow.: eweiv,e.

e was,

;inns ever, pouncef

r„,, by Mesue Process.; And to how much did
their Lordships imagil..e a conscientious at-
tGrl7t V contrived to r•ol up the costs in two
months ? To 1.50.1. ! 'Was not this. scaodaloas
W,:s the authority such nefarious practice to
br permitted to rcenain orA the Statute Book An-
other person, a respectable merchant, of the name
of Maille (his woe not s`ham cases) , having gain-
ed a law-suit, gave Nis attorney power to receive
the proceeds. To Litt great surprise, however,
the attorney, witholit asking leave, 'reserved out
of the-e proceeds 301. for himself, Mr. Manic on
this applied to au honmst attArney (a plant of rare
growth), who scratehe4 out most of tile charges,
and sigoedlis name at the bottom of the
On Mr. Maule's expostulatlog With the first man
on his exorbitance, the insolent answer was, " If
the money is au chject to ynu, it is none to me ;
take it back." .The more h investigat-.d these
subjects,_the more he was pershaded, that as the
mystery of special pleaders was to annul common
sense (an opinion n'hiCh he bad I:efore advanced
in that flOuse), so the mystery of allornies was to
annul conimon honesty. Iltulihras had very justly
and very finely apostrophized them
§", i;ettrioggerg! dani.n your souls!
" 'Who With Grinvt's in cheating foh.ls

'The Mesne Process was peculiarly injorions' to
commerce. A merchant could not always corn-.
mand his capital, and if suddenly attacked, he
must frequently stop payment and be ruined ; 'fur
bail was not alWaya, to be obtained. The other
a merchant so arrested, by mistake. was ruin-
eil in con'sequenc'e;'flie- Circumstance having com-
pletely thrown him on his' bark. Anti In one of
the ablest and hest reastoned letters that he had
ever read, it %%;.as.obsteved by the writer, that lie
would rather trust a Man with a mailer capital if
there were no"lviesne Process in existence, than a
nian with a large capital if
,the Mont Process.
were in fOree; because the Mesne Process Might
haukt•upt the one, frbin which evil the other
Might be exempt. Oil' that sub:feet, inuCh useful
informatiOn; woad be flinncl in an admirable
pamphlet, written, by a barrister well linoWn
,in
Westminster and at the Westminster Elections,
Mr. Jennings; entitled, '' A free Inquiry into the
24-erits of LOH ited6stialesa Tltere w4S
Another elaS4.a pis-iins,o Whom Mesne PrOces
was very i'njuriOns';* He appealed to the Bishops; •
sonic of whOryi hail Oiice been pot' themselves, in
bthaliof their poor brethren. A Rev'eren'd Cler-•.
gynian, With, -a large `faiiill,:pppressect by illness.
and other evils, Might he sntidenly talk*n. icy
Mesne *Process, and dragged to 'gaol,' there to lie
etpOsed, perhaps, to the severest rigOnis of win-
ter, tor seven months; withbut knowing why, and
Or mouths, without a trial Of his Case..
This English SlaVe trade W.7t.1 wrirst than the Afri-
can 'stave trade. The African slave trade affected'
only inch vithial negroes, bot in this not on'y Cie
indiVidnal immettiitely affected was in all PrOba' .
bitty ruined% but When he fell, others fell in suc-
cession, like-a.set of ninepins. .AS, therefore,
their Loi•dibiPs; :in their justice, •humanity, and
policy, bad abolished the AfriCan Slave trade, he
11.ustet! they WOttld "assist him in abolishing this
English slave- trade, Which was more cruel, be-
cause applicable' to- aireater number oT persons:
ioed ELLEI,46II-oi.r&turtpeated his assertion on
a Cornier evening, that the recital in the preamble
of the Bill introduced by the. Noble Lord—name-
ly, that Aisne Process was contrary to the an-
cient law of the land, Was unfounded ; and add-
ed, that no differente Wa; made. in the question,
6.en were the three Statutes to which be had re-
lured rt!'pealed, Width he did not believe- they
Bnt' if he had only quoted the 53d of
(erraeted SO soon after Magna Charta), -
it would appear 'by'thit Statute that persons were
then, liable to be 'held to bailOn.Mesne P.rocesL..•
The preamble of the Bill stated, that attachments,
Of the nature to which the Bill referred, were,
against Magna Charta. That be -poSrt ively de
nied. They wre as 'old as- the law. Arret for
contempt was "essential to the proteCtiOn Of all
the Courts of Justice, and was coeval With the
establishment. of those Cont•ts. It was a 'per-
verted view'of Mitgua Chiirta, to-say that Mesne
Process ryas idcontradiction to it. But if it had
been so, was not a subsequent poeceiling,. that
of the 53d-Of Henly eiplally potent ? At
all averts, the Act of Henry VI. to 14'44, de-
fined 'the erode in Which 'persons al-Tested on
XleShe Process Should he 'delivered, on putting
in bail to 'the Sheriff • so 'that the :pfac-
tide which the iNOble teir'd had "Ti onouriced eon-
tra.ry 'to The add:re:it late'tlie laud, had waqttes-
tionably existed 370 year's.' Since that ,period'
certainly every thing 'l4l been dose to Mitigate
the CVII3 and ineonveniencies of arrests. 'By the
Stattite Of the 'l3th Charles 11.'6e Material altera-
tion was introduced;that unless a party stated 'the
trite cause of action, - he could not hold to bailfor
a larger 'Stint than 40/. that Act also, let it be
observed, referreitin its prefinible'to the antiquity
Of Mesne fol• the preamble coniteneed
thus :—" Whereas., by the :ancient 'and funda-
Mental laW the lan'd, • however, it ,
Was not provided that the party should' swear tO.
the Catise of action until the 12th of George I.
which efaCted,!that unles's a
.party made ailidavit
of the cause of action, he "should not 'bold to
bail for a sum less than 'lO/. iu the superior, and
40s. in the inferior Courts. By as recent Bill the
sum of 101. had been increased to 151. at Which
it stood. In actions Of troves, in which the
value was very uncertain; the judges had inter-
fered, Juid had declared that no person should in
future be held to bail in IroVer, limit under an es-
pecial order of the, Court. And it had so 'hap
petted, that few instances 1,41 occurred in which
patties in trover were allowedlo hold to bail at
all. In cases in which parties souglit their remedy
byaction, if it proved to be a nialicious proceed-
ing, if, for instance, in a ease in which 1001. was
bought only 20/. was recovered, the parties so pro-
Ceeding not atilt did not obtain their own costs,
'but xvere compelled by the Court to pay the costs
of the defendant. Se.on after he had the honour
to fill the situation. which he hell, a No-
ble Lord brought into the House a Bill similar to"
the one now proposed. On -that occasion, the
late Lord Kenyon, an individual-of unimpeached
,
justice and humanity, haying inquired how ninny.
perions 4rrest!ti nit MesneProcesspaid at oiler, "and
laVinfotind That in a g.rt:!k Majority Of cases that
.was dour, opixts-cd tile Bill, and argued as hr. (Lo d