The Sun.
London, England, 1860-09-28 00:00:00

has probably now come when our feudal fictions might THE VOL .17IIEAD MAIL STEAMERS.
cease and our tenures be freed, as those in England so long
have been, of the sub-infeudations and mid-sups riorities
which so much complicatdour conveyances. (Applause.) I
hope in the course of the discussions which we are promised
some useful practical hints on this subject may be thrown
out, and, in particular, that some views may bo suggested
as to the best mode of securing vested interests in the pro
secution of what otherwise would be a great public benefit.
(Applause.) It has always occurred to me that the Ord-
nance survey, now nearly completed in-Scotland, on a large
scale, might be made very available in the way of cheapen-
ing conveyancing. It is, as you know, on a scale of an itch
to the acre. In a map of that scale there is scarcely any bit
of land that could not be clearly and accurately delineates',
and as a science has now given us the means of multiplying
these maps with great economy, it is obvious that in the
matter of boundary, instead of those extraordinary unintel-
ligible descriptions which every one of yOu who has the
smallest particle of land must have seen, it would be a very.
simple thing to say that we sell such and such a bit of land
as marked on the map, to which we put our signatures.
I turn to another subject to which your noble president last
night invited our attention. I mean the subject of a Minis-
ter of Justice,• or public prosecutor, in the criminal depart-
ment of the law. Now, this is a very large and very impor-
tant matter, but more fitted to be dealt with by English
hands than by mine. As regards ourselves, I am hardly an
impaftial witness as to the usefulness of a public pt osecu-
tor. (Laughter and applause.) At the same time I think 1
am entitled to say—because I speak now from very consi-
derable experience of that office—that every year that I have
had theopportunity of seeing the working of the system has
increased my conviction that it would be very difficult in-
deed to devise a mode of prosecuting criminal business
which would accomplish the twofold object which the pro-
secutor ought to have before him—the detection of the
guilty and protection of the innocent. No eoubt a public
prosecutor in an arbitrary State is very dangerous to the
liberties of the people ; but a public prosecutor under the
influence of public opinion and Parliamentary responsibi-
lity is, in my opinion, as far as the practical working of it is
concerned the best mode in which the criminal affairs of a
country can be conducted. It is impossible to deny that as
crimes are crimes against the public, so the public should
be at the expense of prosecuting and punishing them.
(Hear.) And whatever may be the practical operation of
the system in England, of which I say nothing, because I
do not know much—whatever maY be the practical opera-
tion of it, it has no right to leave upon a private prosecutor
—who may be supposed to prosecute only for the injury
done to himself—the vindication of the great public law,
the breach of which is truly at the groundwork of the pro-
ceedings. (Applause.) And, accordingly, it has been the
desire in England for many years to accomplish, if possi-
ble, this most desirable change. Again we are beset, how-
ever, with the same difficulties that I have alluded to in
speaking of other subjects. We work here upon a small
scale—we can keep everything within bounds—the public
prosecutor and his deputies are cognisant of every offence
that takes place in all parts of the land. He knows the
proceedings that have been going on, and therefore he can
judge personally fur himself on his personal responsibility,
of the things that are done. Well, a great Minister of Jus-
tice in England would find it difficult to overtake the work
to this extent, and it is quite true that withou t direct per-
sonal responsibility the office is one unquestionably exposed
to danger and risk. Then, again, from the enormous mass
of the English population, it would be a very difficult thing
to keep within the Crown-office, as we do, the whole records
of crime—of such crime as requires public prosecution ?
Well, there is another question that has been raised. If we
are to give a public prosecutor to England, are we to take a
coroner's inquest and grand juries from England ? All I can
say is that if a coroner's inquest is intended for the protec-
tion of the subject—if it is intended for the purpose of taking
'care that the cases shall be investigated and examined, I
think that object may be attained without the necessity of
importing so large and wide a system from, England. But
I own I do not very well see how the administration of
criminal law can proceed much longer in England without
somo institution like that of a Minister of Justice. The
next branch of inquiry to which I will allude, though
it is a very important one, is alluded to in the interesting
letter from Russia, read this morning. I mean the interna-
tional law ; and that not much between us'and continental
nations as between ourselves and England—these two fo
reign countries, as they aro termed hi the legal courts, an(
which sometimes seem to lie in wait for each other, in order
that they may enforce their jurisdiction, that foreign coun-
try which supposed to know nothing of the principles of
law and justice. (Laughter and cheers.) A great deal more
I think, can be done to bring the two countries out of that
relative position of foreign conntries, the courts of which
consider themselves entitled to look at the decision of the
foreign court and confirm or disregard as they themselves
approve. There are many things in the judicial system of
England and Scotland that could be put on a proper footing
by special legislation, defining tho limits. Last year there
were a good many Englishmen came down to Scotland,
having a great admiration for our bankruptcy system par-
ticularly in the west, and living for 40 days -at some agree-
able residence—Tobermory or elsewhere—and then claimed
the benefit of the bankruptcy law in this country.
(Laughter.) And a great deal was said in England as to
the barbarous state of the law which could permit such a
thing. I am happy to say that among the small number of
useful measures passed last session, we have put an end to
that, and have provided that in such a case the courts of
Scotland shall simply send the debtor back to England,
where he came from. But how is the law of England in this
matter ? I rather think that notwithstanding their suspi-
cion at the state of our law, if a Scotchman found himself
in England, and was clapped into Whitecross Prison, an
Insolvent Court will make no scruple of taking him up,
without even the interval of 40 days. Now, I would sug-
gest that if we are to assimilate our bankruptcy laws, we
should have a clear line of distinctionbetween the two courts
so that you will not have both judging the same matter.
There is another matter which has very lately arisen, and
which I shall only allude to, becauseit is a case which is still
going on—l mean as to the jurisdiction of the Court of
Chancery in one part of the land and in the other. Thero
was a case in which a pupil under trustees in Scotland was
seized by the Coprt of Chancery, and retained by them.
That court maintained that the pupil being in that part of
the kingdom they had jurisdiction, and were entitled to see
that the estate was properly administered. The trustees
consequently found themselves in the awkward position of
accepting a trust and.having no ward in whose behalf to
administer the trust. (A laugh.) The other day a case of
the same kind occurred hero. A pupil :under the jurisdic-
tion of the Court of Chancery came down hero ; his guar-
dian followed him, and went to the Court of Session. But
they, mindful of the lesson read to them by the Court of
Chancery, did not at once deliver up the pupil, but said,
" This is a decree of a foreign court, we will look into the
matter and see what is to be done." 'Now, that is not a
state of tkings which should be allowed to go on between
England and Scotland. (Cheers.) There is no reason why
the ono court and the other on either side of the border
should be watching for unwary pupils. (A laugh.) The
inconvenience is so great that it should be put an end to by
Act of Parliament. A still more serious matter is the sub-
ject of marriage. (A. laugh.) It is certainly very extra-
ordinary, that a man should be married en one side of the
border and not on the other, and very awkward that one
man himself should not be able to say with certainty whe-
ther he was married or not. (Laughter.) A good many
years ago a decision was given in one of the English courts
that a divorce granted by a Scotch court was not one which
they could recognise, and the unfortunate man was actually
tried for bigamy because he had married again after being
divorced. I made an attempt to remedy that matter in a
bill 'introduced into Parliament this year, but there was a
difference of opinion as to whether the mode in which it
was proposed to regulate that matter was the best or not.
Many nations have good systems of laws, but there is a
stage and a progress 'in which we have now to a great
extent outstripped the rest of the world. Thero have
been many great and beneficent systems of law an-
nounced by despotic rulers—the next stage in a nation's
history is the potent, free, rued independent administration
of them, and for this, more than anything else, have come
the bloody wars on which the freedom of nations has been
gradually built up, judges rising against-the power of the
Crown if it I equired them to decide contrary to the spirit of
the constitution and the laws under which they lived. It
is to England that we owe it chiefly, and it is a great boon
for which we never can be sufficiently thankful, that even
in the very worst of times, and when political principles
were forgotten, the noble spirit of her judges stood upright
amid the crash of everything else that was noble and free in
that country—(applause)—and asserted there for the first
time, I believe, in the history of the world, the majesty of
the law above every other power in the country. (Applause.)
But we are past that stage, the thing is done, we have vin-
dicated the power of administering the law, unawed by
terror from ony side ; and now we stand in the position,
—and few countries can say the same—happy is the country
that can—that in perfect security, the law, be what it may,
will be administered with honesty and vigour. (Applause.)
We can call such an assembly as this of those who are
lawyers and those who are not—those who have transactions
and those who have to regulate the law by which they pro-
ceed—we call such a meeting as this to deliberate what the
law ought to be, in the perfect conviction that if, in the end,
public opinion shall come to think that there shall be a
change, that change will be effected by the most constitu-
tional mown+. (His Lordship sat down amid loud applause,
his address having occupied above an hour and a half in the
delivery.) -
Dir. W. BUCHANAN, M.P., then rose and proposed a vote
of thanks to the Lord-Advocate for his able address, when
leftthfoer right
htlahstond.ym,
Lord BROUGHAM, with considerable emphasis, which
the
somee y()t e
sl aoufg ht
ht earn, k informed
were
sempbroer-
ceedings.
ethauatse
The various departments were
then constituted, and the
discussions proceeded with. .

COUNTRY MARKETS.

BIRMINGHAM-SEAT. 27.

THE WEATHER AND THE HARVESTS.—AIthough
the wheat crop has now been fully secured in Norfolk and
Suffolk, a large quantity of barley is still in the fields, and
wet and unfavourable weather during the greater part of the
current week has rendered the chance of saving it rather
remote. The appearance of many fields, in which the sod-
don, discoloured crop is lying about, is truly distressing,
although a change which took place in the weather yester-
day rendered the aspect of affairs a little more cheering.

SourrtamPToN, Thursday.—The official trial of
the Connaught, Captain Williams, another of the
new Dublin and HolyhE ad ma 1 steamers, took
place to-day in Stokes Bay. Great interest was
taken in the result of this trial, as contrasted with
that of the Leinster, which came off about nine
weeks ago. The latter vessel was built by Messrs.
Samuda, of Loudon, and the former by Messrs.
Laird and Sons, of Birkenhead, both being engined
by Messrs. Ravenhill, Salkeld, and Co., of London
the engines being identical in every respect. The
Connaught
,left the docks at noon, with a large
party on board, including two of the directors of
the Dublin Steampacket Company, the Admiralty
and Board of Trade surveyors, and several gentle-
men connected with the different mail steampacket
companies of this 'port. The four runs at the
measured mile were as follow :-Ist run, 3 min. 20
sec. or 18 knots per hour ; 2d run, 3 min. 18 sec.,
or 18.181 hots per hour ; 3d run, 3 min. 21 sec.,
or 17 910 knots per hour; 4th run, 3 min. 16 sec.,
or 18.367 knots per hoar. Average of the four runs,
18 079 knots, or 21 statute miles per hour. Revo-
lutiOns, 251 ; pressure of steam, 251 b. ; vacuum, 261.
On the occasion of the Leinster's trial here, nine
weeks ago to-day, the result was as under :—Ave-
rage of four runs, 17.977 'knots, or 20 statute
miles per hour ; revolutions, 26 ; pressure of i
steam, 251 b. to the square inch (2641 b. n the fourth
run) ; vacuum, 251. It will therefore be seen that,
comparing the two trials together, the palm must
be awarded to the Liverpool-built ship, she having
beaten her competitor by half a mile per hour, with
half a revolution less of the engines. The Con-
naught's extreme length is 350 ft.; breadth, 35ft. ;
2,000 tons burden ; engines, 700 nominal horse-
power. Her draught of water during the trial was
12 ft. 9 in. fore, and 13 ft. 2 in. aft. The rate of
speed attained to-day is the highest ever yet
reached on the measured mile. The engines
worked up to about six times their nominal rate,
and the action of the machinery was beautifully
smooth and easy, scarcely any vibration being felt
in any part of the ship. After partaking of a
sumptuous dejeuner in the capacious saloon, over
1 which Mr. Ravenhill, sen., presided, the customary
loyal toasts were drunk, followed by " Success to
the Connaught and the health of the Builders and
Engineers," " The Dublin Steampacket Com-
pany," " The Peninsular and Oriental and Royal
Mail Steam Navigation Companies," " Mr.Samuda,
the builder of the Leinster," &c. In the course of
his remarks Mr. Watson, the chairman of the
Dublin Company, stated that the service under the
new contract was fully to commence on Monday
next, two of their fast vessels—the Leinster and
the Ulster—being already on the station ; the
Connaught would leave here to join them early
to-morrow (Friday) morning, and the Monster
was rapidly approaching completion. He highly
complimented the Messrs. Laird, Mr. Samuda,
and Messrs. Raveahill and Co., on the success
ful and satisfactory manner in which they had
severally completed their contracts, and expressed
the perfect satisfaction felt by the directors with
the three ships which had been handed over to them.
In proof bf the excellent qualities of the Leinster
he mentioned that the shortest time in which she
had made the run between Dublin and Holyhead
was three hours 21 minutes which she had accom-
plished several times, whilst on one occasion she
made the passage in three hours 50 minutes against
a very severe gale, thus showing her great sea-
going qualities. He believed the Ulster had run
across in a little less time than the Leinster. From
these facts the public would see that vessels of a
first-rate character were now being placed on the
station, and all parties would have reason to be
proud of them, and the manner in which the wants
of the Government and the public were being pro-
vided for. The toasts Of " The Ladies," and "The
Press" were also drunk, and the good ship Con-
naught returned into dock in time to allow of
London visitors returning by the 5 p.m. train.
The Connaught is to leave here at 6 a.m. on Friday
for Dublin.
A -

There was a fair attendance to-day, and a moderate
business done. Prime dry English wheat was at an ad-
vance of is to 2s per qr, and is on damp qualities. Barley
held for is advance. Oats firm, but no higher in price.
Beans unaltered. Peas 6d to is per qr dearer.