The Sun.
London, England, 1860-11-08 00:00:00

We believe that it is the intention of her Ma-
' jesty's :Government, immediately after the meeting
of Parliament, to introduce a measure for the pur-
pose of giving effect to the recommendations of the
Commissioners who, a short time ago, were ap-
pointed " to inquire into the expediency of bring-
ing together into one place or neighbourhood all
the
supreme courts cf law and equity, the 'Probate
and Divorce Courts, and the Court of Admiralty,
and the various offices belonging to the same, And
into the means which exist and may be supplik'd
for providing a site or sites for carrying out thitt
object." The Commissioners were Sir J. T. Cole--
ridge, Sir W. P. Wood, Sir George Cornewall
Lewis. Lord Wynford, Dr. Phillimore, and Mr.
John Young ; the last being of considerable expe-
rience and standing in the profession as a solicitor.
After a careful and laborious inquiry these gentle-
men came to the conclusion that the interests of
the profession, as well as that of the public, would
be subserved by giving to the administration ofjus-
tice in the superior courts a local and permanent
habitation. Every student of constitutional history
knows perfectly well that provision of Magna
Charta which declares that justice shall be admi-
nistered in " certain fixed places." The practice of
English law in modern times has, however, evinced
a most unaccountable departure from the wise deter-
mination of our ancestors. We take the metropolis
as a case in point. There is little difficulty as to
the certainty that a particular Court will sit in a
particular place on a given day; but the different
tribunals are distributed over an enormous area,
which places one at the west-end and the other at
the east-end of London, and, as a necessary conse-
quence, interferes most serious y with the conve-
nient administration of justice and the ordinary
conduct of legal business. Mr. Gregor)", a most
intelligent and experienced solicitor, in his evi-
dence before the Commission, has pointed vut the
inconvenience and costliness of the present sy:stem•
Starting from the City, you have in Basingkall-
street a tribunal which dispenses one species ,of
insolvency law with respect to traders, and in.
Portugal-street you have another tribunal which
deals with insolvent non-traders and bankrupt
traders whose debts do not exceed £3OO. Trave-
ling westward you come to the Probate, Divorce,
and Admiralty registries, at Doctors' Commons,
which are connected with courts which sit at West-
minster, in rooms lent by the Lord Chancellor and
the Master of the Rolls. Lincoln's-inn, we all
know, is the home and centre of Chancery admi-
nistration, and that the common law courts 2n term
time sit in Westminster, and out of term in the, city.
But this is only a small part of the evil. The (aces
attached to these several tribunals are distributed
in the most absurd and arbitrary way all over the
metropolis—at Lincoln's-inn, the Rolls-yard, th.
Temple, Staple's-inn, Lincoln's-inn-fields, Ser-
geants'-inn, and Lancaster-place. The Commis-
sioners state—" The superior courts of common
law and equity are very commonly sitting in 11
places, and often in more, at the same hour, and
single judges are frequently required to be sitting'
at two places at different hours in the same day.'
A common law judge, for instance, although sitting
at Westminster, has to attend at chambers in Ser-
geants'-inn at the bottom of Chancery-lane. The
inconvenience of such a system to the judges, to the
bar, and to the solicitors and attorneys, cannot be
exaggerated ; but we will not rest the case upon
merely professional grounds. The public, who con-
stitute the body of suitors, have to pay for these
changes not only in the shape of innecessary rent,
and increased costs, and augmented delays, but the
general administration of the law is injured by that
unwholesome separation of business, which cannot
be excused, even on the ground of the division of
labour. On this point a great authority, the Attor-
ney-General, states—" I regard the concentration
of the courts as likely to lead to great public ad-
vantage by making the different courts of law
and equity familiar with the procedure of each
other. Cases constantly occur in which a judge
sitting in a court of law is desirous of having
an opportunity of consulting a judge sitting
.in
a court of equity, and vice versa.' If this in-
tercommunication could take place parties would.
often be spared the expense of issues at law to
ascertain matters of fact, and the common law
judges would have no excuse for refusing to enter-
tain, as they have hitherto done, equitable defences.
But whilst everybody, on professional and public
grounds, has been in favour of the concentration of
the courts, two difficulties have presented them-
selves. How was the site and how were the neces-
sary funds to be obtained ? The late Sir Charles
Barry many years ago proposed that a Palace of
Justice should be erected in Lincoln's-inn-fields ;
but this idea was speedily given up because it was
thought that in a sanitary point of view it would.
be extremely inexpedient to build over an area
which is one of the most important lungs of the
metropolis. The Commissioners, whose decision
has by personal inspection been confirmed by Lord
Palmerston, are in favour of a more eligible site.
They propose—disregarding the historical memo-
ries of Westminster, where, in fact, no available
land is to be obtained—to devote to the concentra-
tion of the law courts a block of buildings which
comprises " close and ill-built streets, badly venti-
lated, and drained, and which, in respect of part at
I least, is very discreditably inhabited." The pro-
posed site will be bounded by Carey-street on the
north and the Strand on the South, Bell-yard on
the east and Clement's-inn on the west. The sum.
required for the purchase of land is estimated at
£675,000, and the same, it is stated, will be required
for the erection of the Palace of Justice—making,
in the whole, £1,350,000. The Commissioners,
with the exception of Sir W. P. Wood, have recom-
mended that this expense should be defrayed by
the suitors' fund in Chancery—a fund which now
possesses a capital of £1,291,629. We believe thatt
this charge may be incurred without the slightetsa
risk to the Chancery suitors, who already p.boss,che
another fund which is more than sufficient the
ordinary ent
ordinary expenses of the Court. The
has acted wisely in having determinedGthclvue
I and
to carry out this great measure of
fille ;nearly-
cipal improvement—one which wi gnaot only tend
to improve the administration of the law, but can
any appre-
happily be effected without entailing
ciable charge either upon the anmcgery suitors or
We may add
the general public of this country.
that the site now about to be adopted was originally
suggested by Mr. Commissioner whose advo-
cacy of every measure of practical and useful reform
is beyond all praise.—Norning Pest.