Star.
London, England, 1830-04-30 00:00:00

estraiAtinent of local judicatures in certain districts in j
England." In the p; inciple of the nieasure, men of all
parties are agreed ; and though some eltjections may be ;
raised to the means by which the great Legal Reformer i
proposes to achieve such substantial improvements in the.
administration of justice, vet the necessity has been ad-
mitted—and by none more unequivocally admitted, than
by the Ministers and Law Officers of the Crown—for ex-
tending to the people the great, the incalculable, advan-
tages of" a tribunal where cheap, speedy, and certain
justice, should be administered."

That passage of Mr. BROV0I( A M 's speech in which he
eloquently exposed the abuses that have so long rendered
the law a disgrace to the country—a curse and not a
blessing—a scourge of the honest and the injured man,
rather than a corrector of the profligate and unprincipled,
—cannot be too strongly or too frequently impressed upon
the attention of every man by whom the subject may
henceforth be considered :
" if there was any country in which a man, is order to recover a
debt of Gl. or 71. must begin by expending 601. or 701. where, at the
outset, to use a common expression, he had to run the risk of throw.
ing so much good money after bad, it would at once be said, that
whatever other benefits or advantages that country enjoyed, at least
it was not fortunate in its system of law. But it' it were added, that
in addition to spending 601. or 701. a man must endure great diffi-
culties, anxiety, and uncertainty, infinite bandying to and fro, and
moving about from province to province, and from court to court,
before he could obtain judgment, then our envy of the country where
such administration of the law existed would be further diminished.
And if, in addition to all this, after spending 601. or 701. in looking
after the recovery of Gl. or 71. a man's adversary should have the
power of keeping his property out of the way and beyond reach, so
that, after all, the plaintiff should not receive some part of his debt,
the case would be still worse. And, further, in addition to this, if,
in the same country, in eases where a man was so circumstanced as
to be able to recover and receive his debt, and where the debtor was
solvent and prepared to pay, the individual should receive (it
was true) his Gl. or 71. but should not receive the whole 601.
Of 70L which he had spent in costs, although there was jag.
ment in his favour, but should receive the amount wanting 201.
so that he should have spent 131. or 141. out of his pocket over
and above the amount of debt which he recovered, after being
exposed to a variety of plagues and the annoyance of these pro-
ceedings:--If he were told of such a case, would not the natural
inquiry be " whether it was possible that such a country ex-
isted ?" We should immediately pronounce that, if so, that tours.
try must be in a most barbarous state; that it must be a
poor country ; for no commercial country, having interests
extensive and important, would endure such a state of things.
Neverth:rless, the country where there was such state of things
existed. That country was England."

But the groat evil of the whole system—and that to
which the Legislature must, sooner or later, apply the only
effectual reniedy—Radical Reform—is the want of some
fixed, undeviating, universal principle, that shall apply in
all times, in all cases, and to all men; and free the tribu-
nals of justice from the reproach of such decisions as only
show us, in the language of Mr. BROUGHAM, " the
danger of having one law in one place, and another law
in another place." What England wants, and what
England must eventually have—if we would save her
from the imputation of being " one of the most barbarous
and unenlightened countries in the world," is a CODE of
FIXED and PERMANENT LAW. That, however, must
be the work of Time ; and whilst the task of gradual and
effectual reform proceeds as it has done of late years, we
may confidently look forward to the accomplishment of
such a code as will ultimately exalt the character of the
country as much as, we are reluctantly compelled to ad-
mit, it is now debased by the fictions and the abuses of its
legal institutions. The remedy which Mr. BROUGHAM
proposes, is not to be found in any departure from con •
stitutional principle ; but, like the Marquis of BLAND
FORD'S project of Political Reform, is based upon those
principles, and to be effected, not by the institution of
new, or the importation of old, laws, but by reverting to
the ancient laws of the kingdom. "I do not ask you,"
says Mr. BROUGHAM, " to import the law of Scotland
into England, but to revert to your own ancient laws—to
those laws which were the laws of England before they
were the laws of Scotland," The mode by which he
proposes to attain that object, which " it is admitted on
all hands that the country has long wanted—a tribunal
where cheap, speedy, and certain justice, should be ad-
ministered," is the general establishment of County
Courts, and the appointment in each county of a Bar-
rister, who should " act as a Judge in the last resort, in
cases of civil actions for sums under a certain amount ;
and a Judge in the first instance, in actions for sums
above that amount." To this proposal, it may be,
and it has been, objected, that it must become the
mans of increasing ministerial patronage ; but, al-
, though the objection be well-founded, yet we cannot
conceive it possible to devise any mode to which
some still stronger objection may not be opposed.,
It is, however,—as Mr. BROUG 11 A M admits—" a choice
of evils." To the power of appeal, which be proposes,
we cannot so readily assent ; because it must inevitably
militate against the great purpose of the Bill, which is,
professedly, the attainment of " cheap, speedy, and cer-
tain justice ;" whereas, the appeal cannot be made or
prosecuted without expense and delay ; and, what is
equally bad, without divesting the whole proceeding of
any claim to the merit of enhancing, the " certainty of
justice."

Mr. BROUGHANI's speech—apart from its excellence,
as developing the only practical remedy that has yet been
devised for redressing the grievances to which the law has
hitherto subjected suitors—has been rendered remarkable
by two extraordinary passages : the first, as the Morning
Chronicle remarks, was that in which " the change which
has taken place in the sentiments of public men respecting
Mr. BEN'rii A :":•• manifested by the warm and well-me-
rited tribute paid by the orator to that eminent man —" the
most distinguished as a lawyer, as the foremost amongst the
advocates for legal reform, whose name would go down to
posterity with an honourable remembrance of which few,
if any, was more deserving."—And the second
was that emphatic assertion, in which, whilst boldly
vindicating his own character and conduce from the
aspersions and calumnies of antagonist objecters, he de-
clared—and " the declaration was made" says the He-
rald, very pointedly to some member of the government,