Star.
London, England, 1820-05-16 00:00:00

FIFTH BARON OF THE EXCHEQUER IN SCOTLAND.

Lord A. HAMILTON rose, in pursuance of
notice, to bring this subject under the consideratiim
of the llouse and in doing this he thought it unne-
cessary to preface his motion with any circumstances
which might impress the House with a sense of its
importance. There was no circumstance in his mind
which could add to its own weight more powerfully
than the remembrance of the deep distress s hid)
prevailed throughout the country. When he had
first introduced the subject to the notice' of the
House, he certainly was not awa: e of the variety of
considerations or persons that have since b,ta colla-
terally connected with it. But since the Noble and
Learned Lord opposite had introduced to the atten-
tion of the House a paper containing the opinions
of the law officers of Scotland upon the. appoint
ment in question, that. circumstance materially added
to the importance of the motion. To come then tol
the facts connected with the case, he would remind
the Hotise that it was six years ago -since an"Flon.l
Friend of his proposed the appointment of the. Ccim-
missioners to inquire into the state of the Courts of
Justice lit .Scotland,- 'and to recommend such' alte-
rations in the number and emolument of the officers
as to them should seem meet. Their first Report
was dated in 1815, the motion for their appointment

the present moment, not one of the recommenda-
tions dated in the previous year. From 1815 until
tions which they had made have been carried into
effect—(blear, hear).—"lle sixth Report was made
last year, two other Reports had since been made,
but to this hour no recommendation had been made
by his Majesty's Ministers to the House to carry into •
effect one of their suggestions. It was particularly
unfo:tunite, that the very first intimation upon the
subject should be the effecting of a measure in
direct contradiction to the recommendation of the
Commissioners..—(Hear, hear).—Last Session he had
moved for papers containing any references to the
judgment of•the Law Officeis of the Crown with
respect to these ,Reports, and he obtained one paper,
which at that time he thought of little importance;
but if it were considered now, it would be found tits
prove the futility of the argument of the Learned
Lord, as well as of the document produced by the
Noble and Learned Lord. It was referred to the
Commissioners to see what reductions were practi-
cable in the Courts of Justice, and undoubtedly it
was no fault of theirs, if, after five years' labour, no
measure was taken to carry their suggestions into
effect. He disclaimed any direct hostility to the
officer wl-o had been lately appointed ; hut he
thought it most discreditable to his predecessor and
to his Majesty's Ministers, that such an airTointment
I should take place at all—(hear, hear).—lle Com-
missioners concurred that five 11;trons of the Exche-
quer were more than enough ; that four were quite
sufficient ; and with this recommendation it was his
object to move a Resolution that the House should
agree. If the House would sanction not only the
appointment, the mode in which it was made, the
breathless haste with which it was hurried on, the
next thing they ought to do, would be to save to the •
country the expense of all such Commissioners, and
to confide to the Ministers alone the duty, suggest-
ing . •
what reductions ought or ought not to be car-
ried into effect. It appeared to hiot, that it would •
be almost ludicrous that he should stand up in such • _
an assembly for the purpose of arguing that the • - •
appointment of a fifth Baron of the Exchequer was
unnecessary, if he did not recollect the extraordi- •
nary resolutions which that House had sometimes
sanctioned—(Year, hear).—Among the most extra-
ordinary of those resolutions, was one proposed by
the Right Hon. the Chancellor of the Exchequer, to
the effect, that Bank paper was not depreciated, at
a time when it was actually suffering a great depre-
ciation(Hear, hear 1 and laughter).-1 he question,
however, was not limited to the present measure;
for if this, the first appointment, after eight reports,
was sanctioned by the House, the House would not
do their duty to the country it they allowed any fur-
, ther expenses to be incurred by the appointment of
Commissioners for purposes such as these. Commis-
sioners were ordained to execute—(Hear, hear).—
' The House would recollect that, in making their
Report, the Commissioners proceeded upon what the
Barons themselves stated as to their duties, and the
time which those duties occupied. Upon those Ba-
rons devolved, of course, the knowledge of what
they had to do, and their testimony was of more
weight than the opinions of the Lord Advocate, or
of the other Law Officers, who were consulted. It ,
appeared then, that in the whole of the four Terms
the Barons of the Exchequer were employed in legal
business 65 or 66 days. Deducting the Sundays and
the Mondays, on which they never sat, it appeared
that they sat altogether about two months in the
whole year—(Hear, hear). It was true, indeed, that
they sat also as a Board of Treasury. But the ave-
rage number of Petitions, which were presented to
the Board, did not exceed 100, and the practice was
to refer these Petitions to the Remembrancer, soh.
handed them over to his Deputy. The Deputy made
his Report upon them, and the Barons had only to
approve, or disapprove of his Report. This was alb
they had to do as a Board of Treasury—(Hear, hear).
Now what, he might ask, whin was the labour of
the Barons of the Exchequer in Scotland, as com-
pared with that of the Barons of the Exchequer in
England ? In Scotland, the barons never went
Circuit—in England, they did. In England, the
Court of Exchequer was also a Court of Equity,—in
Scotland, that was not the case. Here too, the Ba-
rons not only. went the Circuit, but took their rota-
lion at the Old Bailey Sessions, and acted on Com-
missions—in Scotland, the Barons had nosuch duties.
Here also they
.had to examine and Report on Bills
in Parliament, referred to them—in Scotland, the
Barons had nothing of the kind to do. In fact, there
was no Compaiison between the labours of- the W-
ilms in Scotland, and those of the Barons of the Ex-
_chequer here—(Hear, hear). The five Barons in
Scotland had to perform.less'than half of the duties,
which were performed by the fear Barons in Eng-
land—(Hear, hear, hear). It was well known and
felt, that when the late Attorney-General, Sir Samuel
Shepherd, was appointed to one of the seats in the
Exchequer Court of Scotland, it was understood to
be a kind of retirement for him from his labours-..
not to say, that it. was a sinecure. But if anything
further were wanted to prove the little extent of la-
bour which devolved upon these Barons, it would be
found in the fact that the Lord Chie£ Commissioner
of the Jury Court in Scotland undertook the duties
of-that office in addition to those which he had al-
ready to perform as ooe-of the Barons of the Exche-
quer—(Hear, hear). This latter office, without much
increasing his trouble, adde4 two . thousand pounds
a-year to his salary—(fear; hear). The Noble Lord,
proceedeci.to,argue that the situation of a Baron of -
the Exchequei
.tn. Scotlaqd was locked upon as- a .
there. X.,paltril,fiage,„fet 3%.1..i.c.h no distill-
guirsehe situation
icagtiaolukqpwie4ge was requited, as appeared -
eitu
horn the skjection that was, made -to making that
''Conit 'a Court of A pp,als,,froni the impression that. •
' was felt that the Barons were already in 4 state ppm.
tiremens ; hilt' particularly froni the fact that the
late Lord Chief Baron was absent, fin account (~.
i bad health, foi three years, Two of these he :pant