The Sun.
London, England, 1841-02-10 00:00:00

COUNTY COURTS.

Mr. FOX MAULE in moving fur leave to bring in
a Bill to improve the practice and extend the jurisdic-
tion of County Courts observed, that he approached
the subject with great diiii,leuce, when ha considered
that the measure had received the attention of such
men as Lend Althorp, Lord Brougham, and the Reght
lion. Gentleman opposite (Sir R. Peel). The House
would, however agree that, connected as he was with a
department which had the surveillance of the adminis-
tration of justice, he could not shut his eyes to the
measure or to the extent of the demand the public
had made on this subject. Year after year, the table
of the House had been crowded with petitions, and
there was scarcely a district in England from
which applications for private Bills to authorise
the recovery of small debts had not emanated. He
thought that instead of that piece-meal lezislat.on
they should assimilate the law in all parts of E ,gland
and Wales. He would not enumerate all the evils of
the present system, he would only rater to the fifth
Report of the Law Commissioners ; all the grievances
which had been so long complained of were there de-
tailed, and most of the remedies which he now proposed
would be found there recommended. The principles of
his measure were first to extend the jurisdiction of the
County Courts to debts amounting to twenty pounds.
This was not the time to discuss the details of the bill,
but he would state some of the most important. It
was his intention to propose that the Courts should be
ambulatory—that the Judge having a fixed court in
a central part of his district should visit such other
parts from time to time as her Majesty should please
to appoint. He proposed that the Judge should have
a fixed salary, and be removable at the pleasure of the
Crown only. He proposed that the deficiency of salary
above the amount of the fees, instead of being paid out
of the county rates, should be paid out of the consolidated
fund. He next proposed to render those Courts more
simple in their forms and process, and more easy of ac-
cess. The first process should
be by summonsili
calling
on the defendant to appear, and if he sot: to
answer that summons judgment should be given
against him. But on showing cause for his
non-appearance he might have a new trial. In
oi a
l costsd e eshould d
decide
alone be
paid. In
all eases he should give the Judge the power of
sumsperemptorily(lecbi(eliiongw
by ice .h1;ul pta tes ythlud
and summarily. But in cases where the amount in
dispute was above 51. and not above 20/. the action
should be referred to a Jury of five persons. He
upon
proposed that both parties should be examined p
oath. Since this measure was first introduced, no less
than twenty-two local Bills had been framed upenas
similar principle, and in each of them the power of ap-
evregsetdedininthtihsf'e general m e
cpcoliinotri.ng
Allthe tliolocsael
wJuotulgldesbeevains Lord Caan-
sure, should it pass. The patronage thiss measure-
could not be vested in other hands tnoth
tA,lbannto Manorial
merely
Courts,to i
m
responsible to both Houses of Parliament.e w\h'V? 17erree
sppreoeptostoo
ttoheinpteartfroorneawgeithof
whole administration of
justice. He proposed that the
Judges should receive he
r improve tnhoe-t.
a salary commencing at 8001. a
year, and increasing as business increased, but not to
exceed 1,5001. a year. The Judges were net
to practice as barristers. These were the outlines
of the measure he proposed. Its great principle was
to establish in this country local Courts of a peremptory
character, to which the poorer classes thould have im-
mediate access, and which, instead of sitting in one
part of the county, calling them, with their witnesses,
and all the apparatus of legislation, a distance from
home, should be near to it, and by rendering justice to
all give them that confidence in the administration of
justice which, he was sorry to say, lie feared they did
not now posscse. In the county with which he was
more immediately connected, similar Courts were esta-
blished to those he now sought to establish by this
Bill. Three years ago a measure passed that House
which certainly attracted little notice, but which gave
her Majesty power to declare in what parts of the coun-
ties of Scotland Small Debt Courts should be estab-
lished, and this measure had given great benefit and
satisfaction to the people of that country. He hoped,

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