The Sun.
London, England, 1827-06-02 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

HOUSE OF LORDS, FRIDAY, JUNE 1.

The LORD CHANCELLOR took his seat at
half-past four o'clock.
. Lord FEVER SH AM presented a petition from an
agricultural association in the county of York, against
any alteration in the Corn Laws. His Lordship
presented two other petitions to the same effect—
one from a place in the East Riding, and the other
from a place in the West Riding of the same county.
The Marquis of SALISBURY presented a peti-
tion from Bridgewater, in Somersetshire, against
Roman Catholic Emancipation.
The Duke of WELLINGTON presented a peti-
tion from the Corporation of Shoemakers in Dublin,
praying that the House would not_make any altera-
tion in the manner of choosing the High Sheriff.
Earl STANHOPE presented a petition from the
county of Bedford, against any alteration in the
Corn Laws.

ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE IN THE WEST

INDIES.

Lord BATHURST addressed the House at con-
siderable length, but his Lordship spoke in so low •a
tone of voice, that we could only collect but little
of what he said. He called their Lordships'
attention to the state of the Administration of
Justice in the West India Islands, and recom-
mended to their Lordships' attention the Report
on that subject, prepared by the Commissioners
appointed by his Majesty. There were five Courts
of Common Pleas, . each of which had a Chief
Justice, who was assisted by other Judges who
Were not professional men. The impoverished
state of the West Indies could not afford to pay in
an adequate manner Judges of much professional
knowledge, and he considered this to be one of the
great causes of the defects in administering the
law there. They would not get professional men to
go out from this country to rerriain for ten or twelve
years in the West Indies without an adequate
remuneration for themselves and their'family. In
addition to which, it was desirable that those who
administered justice should not be suspected of hav-
ing their execution of justice warped by local pre-
judices and local partialities, which necessarily grew
out of a local connexion in the West Indies. The
state of society was such—he might say in all the
West Indian islands, but certainly in most of them
—that it was utterly impossible for any one to reside
for a length of time in any one of those islands with-
out having formed such connexion. Owing to the
impoverished state of the West Indies, he was afraid
that the Secretary of State would be undertaking a
useless task in endeavouring to make the different
Legislatures agree to labour together, in order to have
a Court of Justice common to all. There was only
another mode of effecting a reform in the Courts of
Justice, and that was, by an act of the Legislature
of this country. The Parliament of this country
had the power of legislating, with respect to the
West Indies, upon every subject but that of taxa-
tion; but it was a power which ought to be very
sparingly used. What he had in contemplation was
to establish a certain Court, and appoint a Judge,
whose duty should be to go twice a-year to the
Court, in the discharge of his duty of administering
justice. By ouch an otablisbrnent, and with a sue-