The Sun.
London, England, 1818-04-11 00:00:00

PARLIA MENT.

hOUSE OF LORDS, FRIDAY, APRII. 10.

The House proceeded in Appeals.
Mr. A RMITAGB presented the annual acecintit of
the London Flour Company.—Ordered to lie
upon the table.
Petitions against the additional ilay -upon
=-"Leather were presented by Lord CAW.DOt , from
Carmarthen, and by the Earl FoatEs'ctrs, froth
the &c. in Devonshire., and in the
neighbourhood of Plymouth.—Ordered to iie upon
the table. . .
Tie Four Wheel Carriages Bill and the Irish
-Corks Duty Bill were read a second time, and
committed for Monday.
On the motion of the Marquis of DOWNS HI RE,
the Letter respecting a proposed Commutation for
the Window Tax its Ireland, for. which he lately
moved, was ordered to be laid before the House
f out) with .
Lord Viscount Stn.motrtt laid upon the table
Rollie Abstracts respecting the Poor.
CURRENCY.—BANK. RESTRICTION..

The Earl of. LAUDERDALE adverted to the mo-
tion of whi.th he had given notice respecting the
Currency of the •COuntiy, and to what he had sub-
sequently said as to his uncertainty with regard to
ht inning it' on, and observed that it was now
twitter of public not►►riety (and as• such he might
allude to it, that House frequently taking cogni-
Zunces of matters of public notoriety) that pro-
positions had been made in the first place to con-
tinue the Restrictiou on Cash , Payments at the
bank of Englatn', and next to introduce what he
must call altogether a new principle into Banking,
and into the Currency Of the Country.' The last
mentioned-proposition was so completely in in-
novation upon the mode in which the business of
Busking haul hitherto been carried on, that it un-
doubtedly deserved the serious attention of their
Lordships. Under these circumstances, he felt it
his duty to bring forward for the clonsideration of
the House, the present state of the Paper Cur--
rency as well as.•the Metallic Currency, which lie

considered to be such as to require the most se-
tolls consideration of a committee of their Lord-
ships, for which he intended to move. He should
• not now
,go farther into the subject, but merely
intima,e, that nnderstanding Tuesday would be an
inconvenient day for some Noble. Lords to at-
tend, he should bring forward his (notion on
Thursday next, for which' dAy lie moved that the
Lords. be suthruoned.—Ordered. • •
FEES IN COURTS OF JUSTICE.
The Marquis Of LANSbOiVN'E rose; in pnrsuance

of his notice, to move.for.an 'Address to the Prince
- Regent, praying the communication of the Re-
ports of the Commissioners appointed by the
Crown to inquire into the fees of the Courts of
Justiee. His Lordship ,said, That that House be-
ing the -highest Court of. Appeal in, the United
Kingdom, the first in dignity, and the last in re-
sort, it was peculiarly their. prO•vince to investi-
gate the subject connected With these RePorts,

. _
and the more so fro,m the extraordinary circum-
stances which had been. disclosed in the progress
of the inquiry in one part of the United Kingdom.
No one had the sfightest itica when these Com-
missioners were appointed, that there was :any
conduct unfair or improper on the part of those
learned persons who were at the head of the re-
spective Courts, and the Reports of the Commis-
sioners had only confirmed this impression by
proving, that the Judges of the respective Courts
' where wholly free from the slightest blame. It
was not to be supposed that•these learned persons,
with the Multiplicity 'Of legal and judicial business
which they had to transact,' could attend to the
minutiae of the busjness transacted by the Clerks
and Officers.of their respective Courts. Amongst
this latter description of persons in Ireland, it was
lamentable to find that the greatest abuses had
arisen—extortions had been practised by some of
tl.tese Feisons which were wholly improper, We-
. gal and unjust, anti by which suitors in the re-
spective Courts, most of them compelled to be-
come suitors by circumstances out of their own

contront, and placed with regard to these extor-
' dons in a helpless and defenceless situation, were
grievously and shamefully oppressed. Even in
some instances the orders Made by the Courts
for the relief of suitors front a burden of
expence, were converted hy the Officers,
wholly contrary to the intent of them, into
sources of new extortion, anal in others
fees had been created by the bilkers without
the slightest authority, and which because still
more intolerably oppressive upon► the ssitors.--
Innumerable attendances • were also charged,
without a single attendance attnalty taking place.
In mentioning these abuses be was not speak-
ing of single instances, but of whole classes of
Cases. The principal of an Office, whose-salary
Was derived from fees, appointed a Deputy, who
crei;ted new fees for his own: emolument, and
that-Deputy again appointed a Clerk, fOr whose.
emolument new fees were again created, and
thus were the suitors continually oppressed by
new extortions,. Oppressive fees had also been
• extorted, arising-out of Acts of the Legislature

-which Parliament never had in its contemplation
he meant the Acts 'imposing -stamp duties upon
- law proceedings,- which were in themselves a
Heavy burden. 1-le was aware that at the present
moment no relief in this respect could be expect-
ed, but, he trusted the time would speedily come
when they should have to consider froth what
burdens they could relieve the-people, and in that
case he hoped it would. be considered;that a re-
lief the most wanted and.the most necessary, was
to diminish , the stamp duties upon law proceed-
ings, which, in fact, operated to levy a tax upon
distress, the greater part of those who became
Stqtors rn the Courts being compelled to it by un-
avnidallfe _circorristances. But the Officers to
whom he had alluded.bad contrived to create ad-
Alitional fee* arising out of the 'additional stamp
duties, far hey9nd any thing the Legislature ever
had in contemplation, by
,arrangements with re-
gard to•the'number of words in'asheet, or in other
, modes. :finis in one instance, Where the sum
accruing to the revenue was only 671. the fees
el:eared out of it Were made to amount to up-
wards-Of 400/. ln another case respecting the
Court of Error, in an appeal. lodged, the matter
in dispute in which amounted to 3001. the clerk