The Sun.
London, England, 1825-07-02 00:00:00

PARLIAMENT.

4101iSE OF LORDS, PRIDA Y, JULY 1.

Earl PITZWIILIAM presented a petition from Sheffield,
apatite. the Combination Laws Bill.
(iii the motion of the Earl of LIVERPOOL, the Combine-.
t,ea Laws Bill was read a second time. The Noble Earl sug-
.gtted that the discussion on the Bill should take place on
.111 re ay,. on the question for going into the Comniittee.—To be
ceremitted on Monday.
On the roothin of Earl GROSVENOR, certain accounts re-
/et:ere to the office of the Clerk of the Pells were ordered to be
laiti• before the House.
The Earl of I;AODEItDALE presented a petition from an
individual in Birmingham,, gninst the Combination Laws Bill.
• He said, howererr, that he approved of the bill before the House,
and did not agree with the petitioner in his objections.
Earl BA 4IURST moved the second reading of the West
ledia joint• Stock Company Bill.
Earl GROSVENOR regarded this measure an one of consi-
derable. importance. Ile was convinced that the Noble Earl
opposite was friendly to emancipation, but he was afraid . that
the paean of this Bill would make the condition of the slaves
worse than it now wes. However, as on the - other hand there
wsre many good reasons to be urged in favour of the Bill, he
should riot oppose it. He hoped that the subject of free labour
we ukl be taken into consideration by Parliament at an early
period of the next session.
Earl BATH uRsT would not give the Bill his support if he
supposed that it would create any obstacle to the improvement
• of the situation of the slaves; but, on the contrary, he conceived
tit would be highly useful. While the West India planters
were in distress, their slaves must be in distress also; and as
this Bill would alleviate the distress of the planters, it was to
be presumed that it would also ameliorate the condition of the
slaves.
leerti CA LTHORPE said a few words, as we understood, in
favour of the Bill.
The 31arquis of LANS DOWN concurred with the Noble
Earl opposite in expecting that the improvement of the situa-
tion of the West India planters would have a beneficial in-
fluence on the condition of their slaves. He supported the bill,
'because he had only a choice of evils ; but thought that its ope-
ratioa would require the vigilant attention of. (iovernment.—
The Bill was then read a second time.
APPELLATE JURISDICTION.
The Earl of LIVERPOOL rose to call the attention of their
Lordships to the state of the jurisdiction of the House with re-
yard to appeals. In consequence of the immense arrears of
ropeals which had accumulated, their Lordships found them-
selves, a few Sessions ago, called upon to consider whether some
means could not be devised for facilitating the administration
of justice. A Committee was appointed to consider the sub-
ject, and that Committee made a report in the Session before
last. What the state of things then was, would be seen by re-
ference to the first paragraph of the report. It appeared that
the number of appeals and writs of error then existing in am ar
was 225, out of which 150 appeals were from Scotland. This
number, in consequence of the accumelation which was to be
expected in the course of each succeeding Session, rendered it
probable that the !louse in the ordinary course of its proceed-
ings would not be able to dispose of the appeals in arrear in a
less period than five years. With respect to appeals, the Corn-
mittee found that those from Scotland were not only the most
numerous, but that they were of the description which occupied
the greatest portion of the time of the house. The question of
, =rear was, the difficulty which their Lordships had to encoune
ter ; for if the arrear could be got rid of, it would be easy to
decide future appeals in the ordinary course. To facilitate the
decision of cases from Scotland, an endeavour had been made
by a change in the legal proceedings to separate questions of law
from questions of fact. This measure, the effect of which must
he very advantageous, was just cominginto operation ; so that
their Lordships might be confident, if they once got rid of the
arrear, that they could go cn prospectively without any diffi-
culty. The report of the COmmittee contained a number of
valuable suggeStions. Amon; other things it was recommend- j
cd, that a certain number of their Lordships should attend daily
from nine o'clock till five, for the purpose of hearing appeals.
Objection hail been made to compulsory attendance; but this
course was finally adopted, .and their Lordships had had the.
.advantage of the able assistance of a Noble and Learned Lord
Witihrti), who had devoted much of his attention to proceed-
ince in appeal, and in particular to the law of Scotland, on
which it was so often necessary to decide. The beneficial
elects of this arrangement were soon felt on its coming into
operation in the course of last year. At the commencement of
last Session the number of appeals was 232, and of writs of
error 74, making altogether 356. During the Session, 186 of
these appeals were gone through, above 40 of them having been
-struck ofF, so that at the end of the Session there remained only
1.70 Undisposed of. But-their liordshipe had to look, not onlyto the
- number of appeals they decided, but to the nu m e'er orneW ones
which were brought forward in asession.' The number which
had come in on the commencement of this session was 52. The
autreber of appeals then standing was 201, and of writs of error
23, making only 229, instead of 356, as at the beginning •of
the preceding session. Of this number. 229, their Lordships
had already disposed of 126 ; so that there' remained only 103
undecided. If their Lordships proceeded in this manner, by
the end of next session there would be left only 26 or 2iap-,
peals undecided ; but whether that number or 30, or a few
more or less, it was evident that by going on they would corn-
pletely conquer the difficulty. which once appeared insurmount-
able, and that this would be done independently of the improve-
ment of the law of Scotland, which would render less probable
_en great an accumulation of appeals from that country in. fu-
ture. It had been said, however, that this arrangement would
only give ercasion to more appeals being brought. He did not
talk so. If their hardships once showed that they were ca-
pable of promptly discharging all the judicial business which
tame before them—if no delay was expected, so many appeals
would not come before them. The decrease of appeals during •
the two last sessions fortified him in his opinion. In 1823: the
number brought was 59. In 1624, the number was 39, and in
the present sessem of 1825, only 29: He now proposed, that
of the five days of every week which a part of their Lordships
sett to bear appeals, one day should be appropriated to the
beating of those which should come in the course of the exist.:
log session. If this arrangement were commenced next year,
it would probably have a considerable effect both in disposing.,
of appesds, and in taking away the inducement to the bringing
of them. The result of their Lordships' decisions might•also
be stated. It appeared that out of 86 appeals brought during
the session, 63 had beer, affirmed, 17 reversed, and 6 remitted.
The arrangement which had been adopted, his Lordship said,
lied, generally speaking, given great satisfaction in Scotland,
• awl after expressing his sense of the credit due to the.Com-
raitose for originating the plan, to the House for carrying; it
into effect, -and to all persons who assisted in its execution;
he Concluded by moving for certain papers relating to the state
of appeals, which were ordered.
The Earl of ROSSINN expressed his great satisfaction at
the measure which had been adopted.
The Stauggling.Prevention Bill, the Customs' Consolidation
gill, the Customs' Deities Bill, the Newspapers' Stamps Bill,
the Ships' Register Bill; the Colonial Trade Bill, and several
others, were cennei tted, ,e.
Colonel CAtVT II !t s: and others from theCommonsbrought
up a copy of the report of the Committee on the state of Ireland
• and the Customs" Temporary Duties BilL—Adjourned.