The Sun.
London, England, 1831-02-22 00:00:00

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LONDON,
TUESDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 22, 1831.

The Debates in both Houses of Parliament
last night were various and interesting. In the
Lords, Lord STRANGFORD brought forward a
motion on the subject of the Methuen Treaty,
which Lord ELLENBORoUGH supported, and
which was answered in all its details by the shrewd
practical sense of Lord GoDERICH, and the pun-
gent convincing eloquence of Lord BROUGHAM.
The motion, after some remarks by the Duke
of WELLINGTON, whose tenour was avowedly
hostile to the Cabinet, and Earl GREY, was
allowed to pass. In the House of Commons,
the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER an-
nounced his intention of reducing the pro-
posed duty on raw cotton from 1(1. per pound to
five-eighths of a penny. The tax on Canada'tim-
ber he proposes to retain as it is. An
animated discussion followed on the subject of
the sugar duties, which occasioned a difference
of opinion between Sir J. GRAHAM and the
President of the Board of Controul. The Army
Estimates also led to a spirited debate.

The Paris Journals contain long details of
the proceedings in the Chamber of Deputies on
the 18th, when the Minister of the Interior en-
tered into a full, elaborate defence of the con-
duct of Government with regard to the late
tumults in Paris. All parties were unanimous
in their condemnation of the frantic proceedings
of the Carlists, in whose factious manoeuvres the
tumults originated, but striking differences of
opinion existed as regarded the conduct
of the Government, some Members asserting,
that it had taken too many precautions, which
implied distrust and fear, and others, that it
had not taken sufficient, for the purpose of
putting a stop to the proceedings of the Car-
lists at the church of St. Germain l'Auxerrois.
In the course of the discussion the 11inister of
the Interior read an extract of a letter despatched
from London, at the instigation, as was sup-
posed, of the exiled family, or their agents
and strongly urging the Carlists to keep up the
agitation throughout France, no matter by
what means, provide it might accelerate the
recall of the banished BOURBONS. If this do-
cument be genuine, one thing is clear ; the
BOURBONS have no right in England—no claim
whatever on British sympathy or hospitality.
Their intrigues are dangerous to the repose of
Europe, which is leagued with that of Great
Britain, and as fak as lies in her power should
be promptly put an end to, by her expelling
the foreigners from her shores. Judging from
the present state of parties in Paris, we do not
augur any long continuance in office to the pre-
sent French Ministers. Obstinate at one mo-
ment, timid and undecided at another,—
they have neither the address to conciliate
esteem, nor the energy to extort obedience.
The KING is still popular, but it can-
not be denied that even his popularity is
on the wane. The war party
is manifestly get-
ting up in France, and we fear that no pacific
Cabinet will be long able to make head against it.

The Allgen:eine Zeitung contains some par-
ticulars respecting the late insurrectionary move-
ments at Bologna, and states that on the sch
the Russians passed the Polish frontiers at five
places. General DIEBITSCH had with him,

altogether, 160,000 men ; the Poles can o►ilc
muster 57,000 ; but these are all resolute to
conquer or perish.

The LORD CHANCELLOR'S Bill, for the es-
tablishment of Local Courts for the recovery of
small debts, is one of the most important changes
that have been sought to be introduced into our
judicial system. It seems to be regarded with
favour by the public in general, and with hostility
by those London lawyers who have, or think
they have, an interest in the continuance of the
present system. The subject is not in general,
however, very well understood, though some
able pamphlets have been published on it, parti-
cularly one by Mr. QUIN, a barrister, which
contains some useful information on the provin-
cial courts in France.

There can be no doubt of the desirableness
of cheap and expeditious justice, nor can there
be any question that the present mode of con-
ducting actions at law may be both cheapened
and expedited. The Law Commissioners have
recommended no substantial improvements in this
respect, but have confined themselves so much

to alterations of mere form, that suitors will find
scarcely any difference when all the recommen-
dations of the Commissioners shall be put in
force. At least one-third of the costs of every
action consists in payments made to the patent
officers, the legal sinecurists, by whom justice is,
in fact, sold. The expellees of witnesses, &c.,
attending trials, are usually estimated at one-third
more at least, so that the services of professional
persons are perhaps not so excessively retnune-
rated as is commonly supposed. But by the
abolition of office fees, and the better regulation
of trials, combined with a change in the Law of
Evidence, we are satisfied that (setting Local
Courts out of the question) a diminution of at
least one-half might be made in the costs of
every cause that comes before a Jury.
When every possible Reform shall have been
effected in the established system of judicial
practice, it would then be proper to consider
whether the advantages of Local Courts would
over-balance their inconveniences. There are

many objections to them arising out of the diffi-
culty of preserving an uniform system of juris-
prudence, and even a consistency of law,
throughout the country, if there are to be forty
or fifty Judges, each laying down the law after
his own fashion. Then, again, the salaries of
these new Judges would be a heavy public
charge, and they could not, in any event, be
fixed high enough to tempt barristers of good
practice to quit the bar for rural Judgeships.
Barristers of no standing, or eminence, must
therefore be resorted to, and it would be vain to
expect that their decisions would in general in-
spire the public with confidence in the new order
of things. The increase of patronage to the
Government would be also a consideration •f
some weight in a constitutional point of view, as
well as in reference to the independence of the
bar, which is supposed at present not to be
wanting in its powers of scent towards the dis-
pensers of loaves and fishes.
We are fully sensible of the evil of holding
the Assizes only twice a year, but it should be
remembered that a very small number of the
actions that are brought ever go to trial. The
proportion of actions tried, in which the defen-
dant succeeds, or any defence is offered, is also
very small, perhaps not one out of ten. Where
costs fall upon a defendant, they are, for the most
part, a just punishment upon him for the with-
holding of what he knows to be due. By the

present rule, it is true, the plaintiff is often put
to expence, though he recovers his debt, which is
not as it ought to be. Our law is, in all respects,
except as to arrests, favourable to fraudulent
debtors, but unless the principle of it be alto-

;ether improved, the only advantage to creditors

from the Local Courts would be, that the sit-
tings would be more frequent than those of the

Judges of Assizes.
Lord BROUGHAM is entitled to better praise
than ours, for his zeal for Reform in the law,
as well as elsewhere ; and the clamour against
him of those who talk of his undermining the
respectability of the attorneys, and so forth, is
mere fudge. If the Local Courts Bill be de-
sirable in itself, the interest of the attorneys

ought not to weigh a feather in the scale against
the public good. Nevertheless, there is nothing
in which greater caution is necessary than in Ju-

dicial Reforms. For the people reverence the
law of England notwithstanding its abuses, and
would be slow to confide in a system which
would withdraw them, to a certain extent, from
the protection of the Judges of Westminster
Hall. Without, therefore, going so far as to
say the Local Courts Bill is impracticable, we
should wish that the abuses of the King's
Courts should first be thoroughly rooted out
and certain laws, such as that of arrest, be put
on a new footing, before a measure of doubtful
expediency is put into practice.

In the time of Queen ELIZABETH the river
Thames was looked upon as the great nursery of the navy.
Every summer 2,000 of the watermen were employed in
her ships; the total number of whom employed between
Windsor and Gravesend were said to be not less than
40,000.

The late Sir JOSEPH BANKS used to com-
plain that tortoiseshell tomcats were the plague of his
life, because every ignorant man or woman who hap-
pened to possess one used invariably to favour him with
the first offer of it, at a sum as immeasurably below the
fancied, as above the real value of so great a supposed
curiosity.

A Frenchman, in his recently published
" Tour through England," remarks that " punch in all
shapes is a great favourite with the English :—punch is
his favourite liquor—Punch his favourite ent ertainrneut—
and a punch on the head his favourite argument."

A French artist, who had in vain endeavoured
to awaken the public of the capital to a sense of his merits,
which were by no means small in his own eyes, revenged
himself on their want of taste and feeling, by exhibiting a
blank canvass, as a picture of the "Judgment of Paris."
" FERDINAND the Seventh," said a distin-
guished diplomatist, " is decidedly Priest-rid—but his
people are absolutely governed by lunatics." What else
could be expected," replied a friend, " when' thel very
capital itself is Mad-rid !"

LAW INTELLIGENCE.-(THIS DAY)•

COURT OF CHANCERY.

JACKSON v. FORBES.
importance as affecting the revenue law.
The LORD CHANCELLOR said this case stood before ,
for judgment. It had been very fully argued, and was of
asorll
upon a petition presented on the one side, praying to have..., r
duty allowed upon the administration of a tine under a
a counter-petition praying that it might not. The testor died
cited in the East Indies. In truth, he died on his pa,sage
part of India to another part of India—hut this was quite ortit
terial, because the Court regarded him as having died sttl'sta!' g
while domiciled in India. He had the intention of returneln t
this country—he was not expatriated for life, but tzin`gi,
have come here, as was clear from the language, contain
in his will, from having sent the objects of his at
f o
(illegitimate children) to this country, and we
circumstances. His will he made in India ; the exectne ; b
persons residing in India, and the will was proved W• to tb
the money found its way, by some means or other, MD, tl
Court, and the Court's interposition was called I.°_,„' gape
administration of it. Question—under these ciretill',,s
was the legacy duty payable in this country r caw
question was of importance, of more novelty, and less fr°,war,
by the cases that had hitherto been decided, than at tiot wa
to the Court to be. The inclination of the Court's oPinerit
that the legacy duty was payable out of the fund, but coiislo di
the nature of the case his Lordship did not wish finallY
pose of it until it had been sent to the Court of Excholu"
that Court had certified upon it. f Ott
The SOLICITOR-GENERAL wished to know the -,?eque
which the Court might be disposed to send it to the e•Nc-..,iiit
The to
viol
and whether his Lordship would also add, the question at
upon the probate duty also? Id liitn'e
The LORD CHANCELLOR observed that he shoo 0,3 d
draw the case for the Court below, and he should certain
the question of probate.

VICE-CHANCELLOR'SCOURT nßrul
His Honour the VICE-CHANCELLOR took lb-re tl
Petitions, but nothing of any public importance came
Court previous to our reporter leaving.