The Sun.
London, England, 1831-06-30 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES.

B'll,-1 perfectly agree with your Correspondent
"A. B." in his remarks on Retnanet Fees. To exhibit
the abuse in its most odious light he should, however, have
shown not how vexatiously and oppressively it operated on
the attorney, but on the suitor, out of whose pocket the
money is paid. To demonstrate how beautifully the sys-
tem works, I have enumerated the remanet fees on an ac-
tion brought in the King's Bench for the recovery of 81.
for work and labour, and which was three terms on the
paper of causes :
lIILARY TERM. X. s.
Itemanets to first sittings
Ditto to second 0 15
to last U 15 .
to sittings after term U 15

3 IS
The like remanets for Easter Term
The like for Trinity Term 3 15

£.ll 5
The whole bill amounted to 401., consequently upwards
of one-fourth was incurred by these identical fees. The
above, estimate is taken from the bill of costs, in which
way it is usually added to that document by the Master• on
taxation, as a kind of excrescence rather than as a part
of the bill itself. The profit of the attorney is included
in the charges, as he must be paid for his loss-of time and
the interest of his money, so that the evil operates in two
ways against the unlucky client—first, in having to pay
the fees, and then to have to pay for the trouble of paying
them ! Thus it is that an attorney's bill is swelled to an
enormous size and amount; he gets the' whole odium at-
tending the iniquity, while be is but the jackall to a score
of hondurables and Noble Lords, who take the " lion's
share" of the plunder.
But suitors are not without a remedy in this solitary
instance, which is indeed only one of the briers and
brambles which choke tke poor man's path to the course
of justice, and give his rich opponent an immeasurable ad-
vantage over him. In the two other Courts (the Common
Pleas and Exchequer) remanet fees are seldom heard of:
in the latter, I may say, they are never known. It is
scarcely a twelvemonth since, when I pointed out, in your
columns, the necessity of opening the Excht quer as the
only means of preventing accumulation of arrears in the
other Courts, and the consequent evils of such arrears. The
Court is now a free Court, that is, not as hitherto, mono-
polized by about 20 attornies ; and let every suitor mark
the effect. In a cause in which I, as the plaintiff's at -
Virney, had occasion for the assistance of three counsel,
and which I hail to support by a number of witnesses, and
wherein the cause of action only arose on or about the last
day of May in this year, a verdict was obtained last week,
—thus scarcely allowing three weeks from the time the
injury was committed, until the law had afforded its fullest
redress. Thus was saved to the party paying costs (for
he is the real sufferer) all the heavy fees of rema-
nets, the expenses of witnesses, refreshers to counsel,
and the whole train of useless and abominable ex-
penditure attending the " law's delay;" and, what
is still of more innate importance, the racking state
of suspense, and that " sickness of heart" which is
the inevitable result of legal procrastination. The effect of
making the Court of Exchequer a free Court is visible in
the Court of Common Pleas, which is now exactly what
the Exchequer used to be. During last term " the Judges
were no sooner down than they were up ;" and it is well
known that the officers have not received sufficient to pay
their deputies ! Is not this " a sign of the times"---a
placeholder actually losing try his sinecure ? The prefer-
ence shown to the Exchequer may be attributed to the fact
of its being free from the payment of certain fees demanded
of the practitioners in the Common Pleas, but principally
to the universal satisfaction afforded by the Noble and
Learned Lord, the Chief Baron, in his judicial situation.
Instead of ruling the bar with a snappish, captious, and
petulant hauteur, his manner combine: that rare union of
dignity with mildness, and firmness with suavity; while
the rich stores of his legal knowledge, and the searching
acuteness of his comprehensive mind, must render him not
only one of the most able, but also one of the most popular
Judges that ever graced the sacred ermine.
uel‘riTngdheeignnpeiartatiion even of those not personally
While on this subject, I carlivniolitcohmiatpnpleaakrintghesoamdveentof
men-
tion
these roles, no one's rights are iniaded—
fieusl:arbitrary, and partial spirit,
retrenchments have been carried into effect,
ai,nnhl
interested.
which
l rihte. the
fuet.ohsreremestget.
By
d
invaded—
no one's income is ilimitaished--.no one's interests are
affected—save attornies and their dirks: not one unneces-
sary counsel's fee—not one oppressive and useless tax, stuck
like a toll-bar in the path of justice—not one of those fees
extorted front the pocket of the needy suitor to fill that of
the titled sinecurist—not one is interfered with; all these
enormities are protected with the most sacred regard, and
those who could least afford an abridgment of their in-
comes, the attorniea and their clerks, have to bear thq

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