Star.
London, England, 1828-02-08 00:00:00

FRIDAY EVENING, F

. .
litaproreaseot should be much snore extensive.than was

yet in contemplation. The late Sir. Samuel Romilly,
and the Honourable Member for Knaresboroogh (Sir
James Mackintosh) made many attempts to alter and
amend them. but -they effected - nothing practical,
though the discussions to which they gave me were
et material advantage to those who were subsequently
more successful. He alluded particularly to the Right
Hon. Member for Oxford (Mr. Secretary Peel), who
deserved the thanks of. the country fot what he. bad
dOne, though still much more remained to be effected.
That Right Holt. Gentleman had lent his countenance
and suppost to many necessary alterations, and that
again would prove of material service for the future, as
it would have the effect of silencing the clamours which
might arise from ignorance, or, intetest, or prejudice,
even against a salutary and a necessary reform in the
law. He bored the Right Hon. Gentleman would go
farther than be has done, and apply his mind and Ms
power—for official power was of great value—to
larger scope of subjects, which time and change had
rendered absolutely necessary. Another reason why
he would not touch the criminal law war, that he was
;not iasensible to the danger which' Might arise to a.
large and ignorant body of people, if any wholesale
change were sought or effected. Mae emamercial 1•••
he would also leave out of the qoestioo, for as it was the

newebt and the freshest, so was it the freest and the

purest. Its growth was not old,. and therefore it was
not loaded with the:sins of many centimies on its back.
However, in the course of his observatior he would
be able to derive some clear illustrations from it,

and with whatever defects it might be now char-
ged, he felt some confidence that no great length
of time would be allowed to pass before some remedy
was applied, and their reform he effected. If the House,

said he, viewed the whole of the establishments ;o

this country—whether in its civil or military decisions;
whether they looked to the King's Civil List—to the
Constitution of both Houses of Parliament—to the Naval

or Military system ;—whether they looked to the regu-
lations of our foreign or domestic policy—whether they I
looked to one or all of those important subjects, he
would venture to say, that though highly important as
he admitted them to be.r-the subject of the most vital
importance was the full and fair Administration of
Justice. Neither could he be called a rash innovator

or a speculative theorist who said—that all your esta-
blishments were established and supported by you as
iuvented by yoor ancestors, and that to continue their
support you were obliged to bring twelve. men into a
box to deal justice between man and man. The fair
and impartial Administration of Justice could . alone
justify those restraints which are and have been imposed
upon the liberty of the subject—(Hear). He now in-
vited the House to come with bun into the different
Courts, to see the failing; produced by time, and then i
to say, if, n their judgment, they might not be wisely
and temperately remedied. In the first place, let them,
go into the Cotirts of Westminster Hall, which were
originally only three in number ; but inconsequence of
eke assumption of various jurisdictions, might now be
stated as seven. The Court of King's Bench was ori-
ginally confined to. actions of trespass by force; but in
consequence of various fictions introduced into its writs,
,sucls as that eves), person was is the custody of the
Marshall of the Court, though in reality he was not, the
jurisdiction of the Common ?leas was drawn to it. The
et:mignon Pleas was not so fortunate, though a great
egOlt was made by the Lord Keeper Guildford to bring
it back, or, at all events, secure a portion of their former
,aistbority. By way of devertisement he would just
allude to a passage in Roger Aorlit's Memoirs, in which
the history of „that matter was treated at considerable
length, and which skewed clearly how well the oat
Court brad out-witted the other, by the profitable fiction
of an sc elia4l. Tire Court of Exchequer was originally
confined to Crown cases ; but there again by another
fiction it carried away several other species of causes
from the Court of Common Pleas. In addition to these
drawbacks, the Court of Common Pleas shuts itself up
against certain practitioners—they claim a fee, which
though small in amount, only l2s. 4d. is still an addi-
lion to what is paid in the King's Bench ; and, in the
seat place, a certain proportion of other fees must be
advanced at an earlier period of a cause than is the
,custom in other Courts. These advances come, in the
first instance, out of the hands t f the town agents, and
though they are ultimately repaid, the grievance is hit
and complained of. He meant to speak with all be-
coming reverence of the very Learned Personages who
practised in that Court—it was only open to Sergeants,
who, great as might their talents and experience be,
should not for that reason be allowed the engagement
of a monopoly. Here then were three obstacles to busi-
ness in the Common Picas; and is the Exchequer, as it
was now constituted, it could by no means be so good
a Court as it might he made. It was in fact a Court of
all sorts—it was one of equity and one of lass; it was
one between subject arid subject—it was one for Crown
cases; in short, it was su..h a Court as induced one to
think that where so much business of different natures
and descriptii ns was to be disposed of—that no one of
them could be very well done. He admitted that able
mien were now on the Exchequer Bench ; and in
speaking as he did, he only did so, because it was
the expression of public opinion. But if there was a
monopoly of Counsel in the Common Pleas, so was
there a monopoly of Anomie: in the Exchequer.—
'the number of Attornies was but few, and they must
be employed ; so that if a suitor wishes to bring a case
on before that Court, his own confidential Attorney
cannot appear.7-for one of the Court Attornies must of
necessity be.engaged, thus entailing a double expense
upon the suitor. 'I 'he consequence of this was, that the
Court of Exchequer had but little business, and where
there was but little business, the strongest and the ablest
Judges would not be sent there. This again would re-
act, and business, before little, would continue to dimi-
nish. He begged it to be understood that be was now
only speaking of past times; but it was notoriously
known, where a Minister was applied to for the di:trial
.ution of legal patronage, sod the unfitness of the pro-
posed candidate for die sitoation were objected to the
grant, it ssai, he said, perfectly well known in such
cases, that the claimant met it by sa) sag, " Well, tbes,
send him to the Eschequer—(Hear, and a laugh).—
From this combination of causes, it so happened that
the Court of Exchequer did not sit one hour in a morn-
ing, while he remembered Losd Ellenborough to have
in hit list .588 causes in one day's paper, and Lord Ten-
terden no less than 848 in the Cent of King's Bench.
lu 1821, or somewhere about that year, as experiment
was tried to relieve the Court of King's Bench of the