The Sun.
London, England, 1847-05-05 00:00:00

METROPOLITAN BUILDINGS ACT.

Mr. DUNCOMBE then proposed the appointment of
a Select Committee to inquire into the operation of the
Metropolitan Buildings Act ; and also to move that the
petition of John Todd Merrick, paper-stainer and manu-
facturer, New Oxford-street, which was presented on
the 29th of March last, be referred to the said Com-
mittee, to report their opinion thereon, with the evidence,
to the House. He said, as he understood the Noble
Lord (Morpeth) intended to introduce a Bill to
amend the Metropolitan Buildings Bill, he had no ob-
jection to withdraw it.
Lord MORYETH said it was his intention to do so;
but he had no objection to bring forward the Bill in the
shape of an amendment to the Hon. Gentleman's motion.
He said when he came into office, he found that ob-

jections prevailed against this Bill, and it was referred
to a learned counsel, under whose supervision an
amended Bill had been prepared ; and he, therefore,
begged to move, as an amendment, that leave be given
to him to introduce a Bill to amend the Act for regu-

lating the construction and the use of buildings in the
metropolis and its neighbourhood.
Mr. DUNCOMBE then withdrew his motion, and
trusted that the amended Bill would remove the ob-

jections of which the persons mentioned in his motion
complained. The petitioner was a paper-stainer, and
if the provisions of the Act were carried out, he should
be wholly unable to carry on his business.
The motion was then withdrawn, and the Bill was
brought in and read a first time.
FEES IN THE COURTS OF LAW.
Mr. WATSON moved the appointment of a Select
Committee to inquire into and report to the House on
the taxation of suitors in the courts of law and equity
by the collection of fees, and the amount thereof, and
the mode of collection ; and the appropriation of fees
in all inferior courts, and in the courts of special and
general cessions in England and Wales ; and as to the
salaries and compensations and fees received by officers
and retired officers of those courts ; and whether any
and what means could be adopted, with a view of
superintending and regulating the collection and appro-
priation thereof. He said. the question was one of the
greatest importance to all classes of suitors, but particu-
larlytot
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motion, he should briefly confine himself to the object.
for which he sought the appointment of this Committee.
At every step a suitor was called upon to pay fees which
often were not levied for any specific object, but which
had simply grown up and tolerated from time to time,
and in this way the greatest injustice was frequently
perpetrwed. Over the four hundred or five hundred
persons allowed to collect fees in Westminster Hall,
no check or control was placed. Often they were col-
lected by the parties for themselves, bat in some
instances they were handed over to the Consolidated
Fund. At any rate there was no efficient check, and
suitors often scarcely knew for what they were paying.
The moment a person set his foot in the Court of
Chancery ho was compelled to pay fees, and he was
compelled to do so at every stage he took, and they had
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the salaries of persons connected with those courts, and
as there was no check, the officers were allowed to col-
lect the fees, and to pay themselves and others just what
sums they pleased. In 1846 a considerable reduction
was made in the fees, but still the fee fund amounted to
137,9951, and the suitor's fund to 112,276/., still making
a total of 250,0001., which was spent upon the officers, a
great proportion of the money being extracted from the
pockets of suitors. Fees were also collected in the
common law courts; but more were levied than were
required to pay the expenses for which they were
avowedly collected, and to such an extent had this sys.
tern proceeded, that there had been collected, over and
above all the expenses, including salaries, and other de-
mands, and paid to the Consolidated Fund by the Queen's
Bench, for the three years ending in 1843, 50,128/., by
the Exchequer, 46,127/., and by the Common Pleas,
4,7311., snaking 100,9861. in the course of three years.—
(Hear, hear.) Yet they had not a greater number of

judges now than during the reign of Elizabeth; and
whilst these large sums were collected and expended in
the way he had pointed out, they had not a sufficient
number of judges to dispose of the great quantity of
business which came before those courts. The suitors
who paid these large sums, had a right to speedy justice,
but they were now denied it. Then the question naturally
arose how far it was right and proper to levy fees for the
purpose of carrying out the administration of justice,
and whether it was not the duty of the nation to dis-
charge the cost of dispensing it. To him no principle
seemed so obnoxious as taxing the suitor for the dispen-
sation of justice. Another part of his motion proposed
an inquiry into the fees and salaries of the various
officers in the courts of justice. Ile considered that they
should have necessary officers, but he deprecated the
paying of enormous sums to persons who held
useless offices, or those who were enormously re-
munerated for the performance of insignificant duties.
Inquiry was therefore necessary in order that the duties
.
of the different officer, in the various courts might be
all easily defined, arid specific salaries fixed for tho du-
ties they had to perform. At trials by jury, criers and
other officers of the court levied fees. In his opinion
there could be no more objectionable thing than paying
officers in the courts of justice by fees.—(Cheers.)- If
he were to refer to the salaries paid, and the fees re-
ceived by marshals, criers, and judges' clerks, the House
, would be astonished. Fees were also collected in the

Court of Session, and the criminal courts, and as abuses

existed in them all, inquiry was absolutely necessary.
He had, on a previous occasion, brought forward the
question of compensation, but many objections had been
raised to the appointment of a committee to inquire into
the mode in which persons who had been employed in
connexion with the courts of law were compensated.
On that occasion Le brought forward an outrageous
case of compensation—namely, the receiving of 7,5001.
a year by a person for simply taxing costs ; and also
that between 70,0001. and 80,000/. a year was paid in the
shape of pensions to parties whose ages were between
thirty and forty. The Hon. and Learned Gentleman
concluded by proposing the appointment of the Com-
mittee.

Mr. ROMILLY seconded the motion. It is a com-
mon thing to suppose that those who received the benefit
of courts were to be the only parties benefited. It was
the country at large who derived the greatest benefit of
the cheap and accurate administration of justice. If the
subject were searched into, they wonld find the benefit
of such by the improvement to which it would lead by
the protection of the suitor. Cases in which there
was a belief that there was no moral wrong
committed by them, and it was not till the legal opinion
on the question was obtained, that parties saw it in its
proper light. It was necessary to have in this country,
a minister of justice to look after the administration of
the law, and to see from time to time such reforms as
were necessary ; for the system would always require
improvement. He considered that an officer, such as
he described, who would devote all his energies to the
subject would carry the law into effect properly.
Lawyers were not competent to make laws on this
subject , and that was an evil that was incident to
their avocation.—(Hear, hear.) It was a notorious fact
that upon the death of an officer of the Chancery Court,
his successor was in the haLit, without any increase in
the business of the Court, of handing in a considerable
increase in the fees to the Consolidated Fund.
The ATTORNEY-GENERAL—It was nut his in-
tention to offer any opposition to the motion of the Hon.
and Learned Member, though lie did not wish it to be
understood that he assented to the principle of the
. Hon. and Learned Member in reference to the fees.