Star.
London, England, 1822-03-28 00:00:00


thought the primate might be intended generally to
other effencet.
The Marquis of LONDONDERRY said it was
very natural that the Honourable Gentlemen who
had r•telested themselves in this subject, should each
wish that the county to which he belonged should be
first benefitted by the projected change. But he was
of opinion that the course proposed to be taken by
his Right Honourable Friend was that which would
hest Iromote the success of the measure. Ile was
of opinion that if the experiment were in the first in-.
stance made on too large a scale, the effect would be
worse than if it were tried on a scale nut too large,
but of sufficient magnitude to enable them to form a
correct judgment of the merits of the plan. Proofs
had been given that his Right Honourable Friendi
Was proceeding with a cautious, but perhaps not less
accelerating step to alter the system in the manner
Which had been recommended; but to do this with
Safety and success, it was necessary that what was
gone should be done gradually. When the addi-
tional Northern Circuit was determined on, in the
First instance, the new plan was not extended to the
whole of the district in which it was to take effect,
but it was tried in two towns where the calendars
had been larger than in any of the neighbouring
places, and by degrees the advantages of the plan
i;-ere- extended to others. A still greater degree of
caution was necessary in this instance than that, and
t good deal of nicety was to be observed in the ar-
rangement of the third Assizes. Till the plan had
been in part tried, k was difficult to determine whe-
ther the third ought to take place under precisely the
same circumstances as those by which it had been
preceded. It would be better to take time to con-
sider how this could be arranged, than to send the
measure forth without a well-digested idea of the
precise manner in which it was to operate.—
The county with which he (the Marquis of London-
ern i) was particularlyconnected, looked as anxiously
forward to a participation in the benefits of this
eiange as any county in England could do; and he
hope) when it had been tried, if (mind to succeed,
tha: it would be extended to them with the least pus-
%We .clay. Because it was proceeded with thus
caazionsly, he hoped it would not be thought there
was any reluctance to give it the fullest effect when
this could be prudently done ; on the contrary, he
trusted that it would be considered his Right Hon.
Friend could not give a stronger pledge of his anxiety
to do all that could be done, than was supplied by
his beginning on a scale which would enable them to
see how the greatest practical advantages could be
derived from the measure. Eventually be hoped to
see it brought into operation on the most compre-
hensive plan. There were cases where the numbers
affected by it in a county would be few; but where
the pressure would be as great on the individual as it
could be in the most populous places. He wished, if
it were p.issible, to frame the measure so that a great
majority of the county into which it was introduced
should benefit by it, and at present he did not know
that there would be anything in the way of making
the third jail delivery as general as the others. In the
first instance, however, he repeated it, he was de-
cidedly of opinion that the preferable course would be
to take the part recommended by his Right Hon.
Friend.—The Petition was then brought up, read, and
ordered to be printed.

ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE IN WALES.

Mr. WILLIAMS, seeing the President of the Board
of Controul in his place, wished to ask if it were his
intention to bring forward any measure•, founded on
the Report on the present Administration of Justice
in Wales, to improve Cie system at present anted upon?
Mr. C. WYNN gave it as his opinion, that in order
to bring forward any good measure on this subject,
it must be looked at with a reference to the adminis-
tration of justice here; and, to prove effectual, it must
be connected with a general measure for the improve-
ment of the administration of justice.
Mr. WILLIAMS then gave notice, that shortly,
after the Easter recess, and as soon as the professional
Gentlemen who were Members of that House had re-
tnrued from the Circuit, unless it were taken up in
another quarter, he would bring forward this ques-
tion in a Committee of the whole house, if permitted
to do so. Great advantage would result to Wales
from raising the character of its tribunals. He should,
therefore, first submit to the House a set of Resolu-
tions, and if he succeeded in carrying them, he would
then move for leave to found a Bill on them for the
further improvement of the administration of justice
in Wales.

SIARREACE ACT.

Dr. PHILLIMORE, in rising to move for leave
to bring in a Bill to amend the Marriage Act, ex-
pla:ned at some length the extent and magnitude of
the evils which had grown up out of the present taw,
and the nature of the remedy which he proposed to
apply to those evils. To meet one objection which
had formerly been opposed to his Bill, that it wasl
an innovation on the ancient law and constitution of
the country, he took upon himself to sheer that the
Marriage Act of 1753, whatever other title it mig:it
have to respect (and he did not deny that it had
some), had no claim to reverence on account of an-
tiquity, as the principle then adopted was in itself,
as Mr. Justice Blackstone had called it, " an inno-
vation on the law and constitution of the country."--
This he found by describing the law, such as it had
existed from the Reformation down to the twenty-
second of George the Second. lie eloquently set
forth the evils which grew out of the present law,
and quoted several cases in which marriages, after
20, 30, or 40 years of cohabitation, had been declared'
null and void, and all their issue made illegitimate,
on its being proved that one of the parties was under
age at the time of the marriage. Cases, however, of still
greater hardship had occurred with respect to natural
children. Persons who had been educated as the legi-
timate offspring of their parents, and their children
after them, had been deprived of property, long
considered to be their's, on its being proved, after the
lapse of many years, that they were illegitimate.—
He had endeavoured to ascertain the average num-
ber of ca es of this sort which had been decided since
1810. In those eleven years, he found the number
had been 30 in the Consistorial Court, and 20 in the
Court of Arches. But these were not the whole of
the cases which had occurred within that period, for
it V4-4$ to be remembered that all the Consistorial
Cour is in England were competent to decide on ques-
tions' which went to annul marriages. Nor was there
81:y 'mu ioi .!t which this. must stop. Centuries hence,
marriages held to be good might, under the Marriage,