Star.
London, England, 1817-03-12 00:00:00

other should be instituted ; and .especialPy as he did
not consider a Committee of the House of Comm Ons
would be thebest mode of inquiry. Let the Honourable
Geotlemaa first see whether the present Commission
would not do its duty. The Noble 1.-nd at present
at the head of the enure of Chancery had the subject
now under his consideration. \Vitae o ly lair own
particular fees were concerned,, that Nobl • Lord hid
nut hesitated a moment to pot an eod to them ; and he
would as soon as possible adopt some stirs 'l3 the whet
parts of the Report: That be had not do ie so yet
would not astonish any Gentleman, when the diifi-
culty or the subject he had to digest WAS coosiee:ed.
A similar Commission was appointed in 1749, at
which time Lord Hardicke was Ch.incell r. A more
Active or able man perhaps had never filled the mice
of Cl.ancellor ; yet that Noble Lord had ramuired two
years to prepare his Report. Upon these grounds it
was that he should oppose the present m uiu .. "With
respect to the practice of expedition fees bring taken.
he certainly must condema it. He thought such
practice should exist no longer, and so thought the
Commissioners ; for in the Report they load made to
the House, they had recommended that this particu-
lar practice should cease. Under all the circumstances
•of the case, lie hoped the Right Iloneurahle Baront t
would for the present withdraw his motion, reserving
his right to bring it forward again when he should
find that the Officers of the Crown did not do their
duty. The Noble Lord moved, as an Amendment,
the previous question.
Mr. PONSON BY ttriught the Hiroo. should adopt
his Right Hon. Friend's motion, and 31!11331( a eiim.
mittee to :Ake into consideration the It tly t already
before the House. If, however, the N )!.le Lori
would new name a time at which the I louse might
expect a .Report from the heads of the Departmeot,
he would advise his Right Hint. Friend to widniraw
his motion; but if no time was fixed, be would him-
self vote against the motion beilig withdrawn.
Mr. L. FOSTER. defended tlre conduct of the
Commissioners, and contended that more time was

necessary to enable the Chancellor to adopt any mea-
sures on their Report. . With respect to the increase
of fees, a slight increase had taken place in the Six
Clerks Office ; but no advance since 1743 in the
Sworn Clerks Office, except a slight additional fee
given by Lord Erskine's order whilst Chancellor.—
He was ot opinion, that a Committee Gt. the House.
if appointed upon this Report, would ultimately be
to give it up, without coming to any conclu-
sion upon at ; whilst, if left to the Lord Chancellor.
be was persuaded he would, by his general order, re.
move nine-tenths of the difficulty. The House might
theri take up that which remained, and a supplemen-
tary Act of Parliament might perhaps be necessary.
With respect to the lees of the Lord Chancellor, they
were all ancient. There were some fees nominally
paid to the Purse bearer and S. cretary, but which.
were, in fact, received far leis Lordship; this was the
well known practice of the last eighty years, and all
the difference which the present Chancellor had
made, was, that he had voluntarily given up above
,el,OOO elem to those why actually did the duty.
Sir JOHN NEWPORT briefly replied. He said
that if the Noble Lord (Castlereagh) would appoint
a time at which the objects sought for by the propo-
sition now before the House could be attained, he
would be most happy to withdraw his 'notion ; but
he could not by any means agree to an indefinite
delay. He added, that those who consbated the in.-
stitution of an inquiry in the first instance, now came
forward to propose delay. He observed, that per-
mitting fees in Courts ot Justice to remain so enor-
mous as they were at present, amounted to nothing
less than the total exclusion of the poor from the let-
nests et law and justice, and confining those advan-
tages to the rich. .11in (said he) it the Noble Lord
(Castlereagh) promises, that 111 a eclectic space of
time the Report will be acted on, he (Sir Jahn New-
port) would trot press the question.
Lord CASTLEREAG id said, that it was impos-
sible for him to give any such pledge.
A division then took place, when there appeared,
For the Motion, 16—Against it, 63—Majority, 47.
Mr. V. FITZGEKALD* seeing a Right Hon.
Gentleman in his place, who had stated that the
duties on timber in Ireland were higher than in Eng.
land, wished him to explein in what manner it aloSe,
for he (Mr. Fitzgerald) had originated those duties,
aid was not conscious ofethe charge, having .rather
favoured Ireland in ;respect to duties on timber.
Mr. PONSONBY, in reply, observed, that the
duties were unequally levied, and explained the dif-
ference to have arisen in consequence of the freight of
a particular species of timber which was iniportd Into
Ireland.