The Sun.
London, England, 1829-05-28 00:00:00

would be the same in.the public mind if they both

remained.
The twießight Hon. Gentlethen having yleidel,
the list of the Camittee was agreed to.
JUSTICE; OF THE PEACE, BILL.
On the motion of the cliAtctuJoßof the
EXCHEQUER, the Order of the Day was read ro
the House going into a Committee on the Justice of
Peace Bill; arid the House went into the Committee.
Mr. Secretary PEEL—It is my sole object, in
going into Comrnii:tee Bill; to make those al-
terations and modifications which I propose, In cn-
sequence of the suggestions I have received in regard
to it from various parts of the country. I propose to
except all these chums which are connected with the
removal of the poor, and the passing of them to their
parishes. They are nometimes alleged to be detained,
and there are cases in which it is scarcely possible to
except from the operation of this Bill. The next
alteration le of this suture t a Justice of the Peace,
with summary jurisdiction, hes no ether poeeer but
to dispose of the case, or to remand the party if he
have doubt. It very often happens that there is no
proper place in which the defendant can be put, and
he is left at the public house in the charge of the
constable. I purpose to give the Justice of the
Peace the power to admit the party to bail, provided
he is eatisfied with the security offered. I shall im-
pose no obligation to admit buil but where it meets
the discretion of the Magitrate, in a case which is of
a doubtful nature. The Right Hon. Gent. moved
amendments to this effect.
Mr. BERNAL suggested that the jurisdiction of
magistrates in cases of assaults should be extended,
to prevent the escape of parties. He knew a case
which happened at Gravesend, and before it could
he adjudicated the offending redly had taken a pas-
sage by steam in the course of the next day.
Mr. HUME wished to ask the Right Hon.
Gentleman how far it was intended that Petty Ses-
sions should be held in open Courts. It would
certainly be a great ielprnvement that this should
be the case always; but us doubts existed on the
point, he wished to call the Right Hon. Gentleman's
attention to it. He would suggest a clause like
this--" That ell such Petty Sessions shall be open
Courts," or something to that effect. lie had also
other questions to ask the lieght lion. Gentleman.
On the evening when this Bill was introduced by
the • Reght Hon. Gentleman, he would remember
that he (Mr. Hume) had expressed a doubt whether
by raising the qualification he would not narrow the
power of selecting tit magistrates. lie had not
changed his opinion, that if it were raised to 3001. or
5001., income was not the proper qualification for a
magistrate, but character. Ile had moved for Re-
turns of the number of Justices of the Peace, and
they had been laid on the table, but were not yet
printed, and he could not refer to them. In 1817,
the whole number, it appeared, was four thousand
one hundred and nineteen ; and if the House looked
at some tables to which he was going to refer, they
might be able to ascertain the inconvenience of limit-
ing the power of selection. He had adopted two
modes of obotinitig, as far as possible, a knowledge
of the proportion from which the Justices would be
selected, as at present and as under this Bill. By re-
turns laid on the table in 1814, there were state-
ments of the annual incomes of persons, of 100/., 2001.,
3001., and so on in succession, derived from funded
property end from possessions. From these he
found the immense difference in the proportion of
persons of 100/. u-year a.id persons of 300!. a-year.
Of those who had incomes from funded property
theme were for every 20,000 tvorth 1001. a-year,
e,lOO worth 300/. a-year ; of those who had in-
comes from possessions, there were for every 26,000
worth 100/. a-year, 4,500 worth 300/. a-year. The
Right Hon. Gentleman must see that he had much
limited his power of selecting good Magistrates; he
thought it should be always requisite that some
individual learned in the law should sit on the
bench ; there should be an Assistant Barrister, or
some gentleman who had studied a course of law for
three or five years. There was the more danger in
limiting the number, because some counties were so
coloured with one class of opinions. that it would be
difficult to select proper Magistrates out of the our-
rowed circle. He objected also to the qualification
being confined to landed property : why not extend
it to funded property
Mr. STURGES BOURNE objected to the qua-
lification being raised to 300/. a-yesr. He knew
that had that been the case two years ago, two gen-
tlemen, now Chairmen of Quarter Sessions, would
not have found their tray into the Commission of
the Peace. He objected also to the clause that pre-
vented Magistrates from acting at the Quarter Ses-
sions, unkss they had attended at the Petty Ses-
sions during the whole of the last year. Many Ma-
gistrates might live 40 or 50 miles from the town
where the Sessions we:e held, and there might be
no particular business to call them to the Petty Sea-
Eioni. It would have the effect of throwing all
questions into the hands of the Magistrates in the
neighbourhood of the town where the Sessions were
held.
After a few words from Mr. HUME, Mr. Wnrr-
moitE, Mr. PEE(., and others, the Report was
brought up, read, and ordered to be taken into con-
sideration that day three months.—The Bill, as
amended, was ordered to be printed.
SUGAR DUTIES.

The Report on the Sugar Duties' Bill was brought
up, the Atnendments were agreed to, and the Bill
ordered to be read a third time to-morrow (this day.)
The other orders being disposed of, the House
adjourned at Seven o'clock.