The Sun.
London, England, 1828-03-01 00:00:00

When cone ar al against the Crown. As to the objection
of his Homy able Friend (Mr. Fergusson), to what he
had said ahe t Ram of Ramnad, he had been snisunder-
atood—hed I not object to the keeping of the kingdom in
the bands f sheriff's officers, such being the law of the
country, to the delay in the decision. That Gentle-
man also el listed the propriety of the introduction of Ju-
ries into I; 'ia. But as he (Mr. Brougham) liked autho-
rity for ar statement, he would give hie. (Here the
Learned C it. referred to the case of the Brahmin at Ceylon,
who had, y his intelligence, succeeded in procuring a legal
verdict m r when the rest of the jurors were prejudiced in
favour of • .e party against whom they decided.) He then
read an e: ract front an address published by, we believe,
Sir Hardi: Giffard, the successor of Sir A. Johnston, who,
after stati, , that during the Canadian war the maritime
districts n": re greatly disturbed, said, looking to the period
of the last-two years, no instance of sedition or trouble
had occur? el, and asked to what was that attributable—
not to ar ' charge in the Government, which had been
uniformly, nild, but to the true causes, viz.—a long and
steady adr nistration according to British principles, and
above all trial by Jury." He (Mr. Brougham), did not
Possess th document when he had last spoken, and it
Rent on tc state, chat " that happy system had acquired the
esteem ane admiration of the country, and was as much
beloved b the people as their own old institutions ; and
he would • re to assert, that through it the British settlers
had an in rest with the natives, which the Portuguese or
the Dutch never possessed." He (Mr Brougham), had
before salt' that it would be better to trust to the hearts of
the native than 450,000 Sepoye, whose swords might he of
excellent • mper, but whose spirit might he doubtful, As
to the inn lucticn of the Jury system in India, he had
only to ob rve, that it was by no means a novelty in that
country. lie had reason to believe that a practice pre-
vailed ther of referring disputed questions to five men.
This they light call decision by a Jury, or not, as they
thought p per—or arbitration if the word pleased the Hon.
Gent. bet. But whatever name might be given to the
tribunal, i. was used to decide cases between man a.-rd man.
It might p haps be necessary for him to say one word on
the subject f Magistrates, so often referred to in the course
of the press t discussion. He very much wished to guard
against beinl, understood as pronouncing upon the country
Magistrates condemnation so sweeping—an attack so
unsparing an• headlong, as that which had been attributed
to him. Not vg could be more unjust, than when a
Member feels his duty to make a general charge, upon a
system, that is imediately to be considered, as making an
attack upon the individuals concerned in the maintenance
and operation I that system. It has always happened
that persons ma ng such charges are peculiarly obnoxious
to the imputation of making personal and individual attacks
upon the parties terested. Nothing could have been fur-
ther from kis in ntion than to make any charge of such
vague and general rnputations. He entertained the highest
respect for a very seat proportion of those voluntary and
unpaid administra rs of public justice. He thought them
of the greatest use n the community, and entitled to the
highest praise, sti it was his opinion, that unless some
great change was e .cted, either in the mode of their no-
mination, or in the nature of their responsibility, he must
say that the cysts: would continue to work in a manner
pregnant with misc ef; but though such were his delibe-
rate convictions on t a subject, it was not thence to be in-
ferred that ho meant doggedly to adhere to every general
declaration of his, applying to each particular indivi-
dual of the body; h merely contended for a change in the
mode of nomination nd the nature of the responsibility.—
He thought it the more necessary to- be precise and
minute upon this sub. •t, as reports of his speech on a for-
mer night had gone f th which were incorrect in many
imPerl ant particulars- incorrect from many causes—most
of them, no doubt, um oidable from the very nature of the
subject, and the circu, stances under which his sentiments
were delivered. Whin he stated on that occasion was this
—that the mode of ap• iintment by the Lords Lieutenant,
be it right or wrong, a is liable to this objection, that it
Ought to be under a w re effective control. It might not
be possible to find abe er mode, but the absence of suit-
able responsibility and mtrol was what he chiefly objected
to. It would sometirn a if not generally, be found, that
Lords Lieutenants wel subject, as men placed in their
circumstances must nes wilily be, to local prejudices and
private feelings, and th ; they were often found to appoint
individuals to the Magi racy under the influence of a desire
to gratify men powerfu in the county—under also a wish,
by mutual accommodat n, to obtain similar and other fa-
vours from other Lor. Lieutenant of Counties. If he
continued to acquiesce i the appointment of such a Judge,
it was because he could not find better or safer ; but still
he contended that his a; ument was perfectly irrefragable ;
nor was it for a monies, to be denied that many and ex-
tensive abuses existed, .1 the snore frequently that power
and authority-was used, the greater was the necessity for
an alteration in the re onsibility of the Lords Lieute-
nant. That wee his Lrgument. If Lord' Tenterden
erred in his judicial cap icy, or Mr. Justice Holroyd, Mr.
Justice Bayley, or Mr. fustice Littledale erred—he was
responsible to his own p, per person—his judgment in any
ease was open to be revived. If he declared an errone-
ous opinion at Nisi Priu it was liable to be,considered by
his brethren of the Cou ;in Term. If the whole Court
erred, its judgment was open to revision by the Court of
Exchequer Chamber, an in the last resort, by the House
of Lords itself—they an known by their proper names—
every thing they do and yis open to revision and correc-
tion. They are not chot nby the Lord Lientenant of the
County—they aye chosen ,y a responsible Minister of the
Crown. They are select I for their skill and knowledge
from the whole profession But in making these observa-
tions he was not to be un 'erstood as meaning to say that
tile whole of the unpaid fagistracv were to be abolished
at once. He thought, he ever, that some limitation of
the number at Sessions m it be desirable, and that those
sittings at Sessions should not be so frequently changed.
The Sessions had no res insibility—nobody out of that
House cared what was N. lof the Sessions. The Hon.
Member for Duugarvan, ore nimble than he (Mr. B.),
said he jumped at the offer of setting free the Magistrates
from the toil and respons ility of Licensing Alehouses—
he, too, jumped at it—p laugh)—so would the country
jump at the offer, and 1 glad to see it thrown over-
board. If he bad known his before he would have been
glad to jump at it. He wish I now to make some explana-
tions relative to what fell from hint on a former night,
and respecting which he h I received several letters—one
amongst the number was ono an eminent brewer, in
which he stated the fact of .e Golden-lane Brewery not
having raised its beer a pens . There was no foundation
for the statement which he ( 'r. B.) had formerly made on
the subject--in his own jus: ication, however, he must
take occasion to say, that the information, which led him
to make such a statement, w I derived from a letter on
which he had reason to place sliance, but which the result
bad proved was misplaced. Ile did not wish to say
any more upon the subject of sewers, or their connexion
with Magistrates--he had no loubt that many respectable
individuals belonged to both c ases. Again he would re-
pest that nothing was more re cote from his intention than
to impeach the character of tilt country gentlemen; and as
to the brewers, he was equally desirous of not being sup-
posed to impute any thing iml oper to them as a body.—
He still confessed, however, tb t. his objection to the cleri-
cal Magistrates continued in f• I force. The two scru-
ples, excellent in themselves— he Parson and the Jus-
tice—formed, when united, a lost nauseous compound.
—(Great laughter.) This, 1. observed, was often the
case ;be did not say it was xays so ; he knew ex-
ceptions were to be found. The Honourable and
Learned Gentleman then refers, ' to the number of letters
which be had received, and tl impossibility of his an.
swering them all ; and which he trusted the writers
would attribute to any thing 11' er than want of proper
respect. Many of those letters ontained the most satis-
factory declarations from Magist rtes of their full persua-
sion of the necessity of a thorou} reformation in the law
as respected their own class, an others were from prac-
titioners of the law, also express: a of their assent to the
positions which be had advanced He then went on to
express his concurrence in the an ndment to his motion,
which had been suggested by th Hon. Gentleman oppo-
site, and proceeded to enumera the points which he
meant to exclude from the inqc ..ies of any commission
that might be appointed—for ex nple, the criminal law,
the commercial law, the law of merchant and factor;
though he was perfectly ready to !mit that much of our
commercial law was as bad as bad ould be, especially that
branch of our commercial law wh Is related to partner.
ships' To determine whether A ,vas the partner of B,
was arnongst the most difficult clue ions that could be sub-
mitted to a lawyer. The whole of this required re-
vision, as did likewise the bankrui laws ; but, as he had
already said, he would leave them at of the consideration
of the Commission.—(Hear, h r.)—He also conti-
nued to think that the Court of C sneers' ought to be ex-
cluded only so far as the prop ed reformation in the
Courts of Common Law might etre - it. As to the Court
of Chancery he would say one wor : he hoped and antici-
pated from the Commission, shoul it be appointed, that
much of the business which had be t drawn into the Court
of Chancery, would be restored to the Courts of Common
Lava. He saw no reason why tie tees should not be as
easily sned in a Court of Commt Law as in a Court of
Equity. Why should not a Court, of Law also take cog-
: nizance of cestui que trusts; ne her should mortgagees
be prohibited from acknowledging in a Court of Law, as
veil
as mortgagees. Having said so much on the subject
Cortl of Equity, be would, f
C"Pes PA desire to