The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-07-12 00:00:00

(Lord Lyndhurst) should shrink from opposing it, or why he
should hesitate to state openly and with confidence to their
lordships those reasons which he thought should induce them to
reject this bill. (Hear, hear.) In doing so, he wished, in the
first instance, to direct their lordships' attention to the com-
mencement—to the very first clause of the-bill, and he was sure
that it would appear to their lordships on reading that clause,
as it did to him, that this bill was founded on a principle that
was liable to the greatest possible objection. It was not stated
in that clause that it was his Majesty's wish, by and with the
advice and concurrence of both houses of Parliament, to create
a certain number of judges of defined and limited jurisdiction,
with certain emoluments, and also to create a certain number
of subordinate officers connected with the courts in which the
said judges would *side ' - that was not the shape in which the
clause had been framed. The clause as it stood gave unlimited
and indefinite power to hi Majesty, or rather to his (Lord
(i.
Lyndhurst's) noble and lea ,c 1 friend on the wooLsack, to cre-
ate any number of new offs• s that in his discretion he might
think fit—any number of ju ges with salaries of £2OOO a-year
and upwards, and any number of registrars under those judges
with salaries of £7OO or £BOO a-year, and, in fact, any number of
subordinate officers that it might seem fit to attach to those courts.
Now, he would be bold to say, and that too without the fear of con-
tradiction, that such a principle of legislation as that Was one that
had never before been adopted by the Parliament ofthis country.
Let their lordships for a moment advert to the patronage and
consequent power which the Lord Chancellor at present pos-
sessed. The Lord Chancellor had the disposal of church pa-
tronage to an immense extent, and he thereby posseSsed im-
mense influence over the clergy of the country. He appointed
to the magistracy of the country, and he in that way possessed
a strong influence over the whole of that powerful body of per-
sons. In addition to all that, their lordships should bear in
mind that the Lord Chancellor had the direct nomination of 13
out of the 15 judges of the land—that he had considerable in-
fluence and control over the appointment of the other two—that
he had an absolute influence over the appointment of the two
equity judges, and that he held in his hands the sole appoint-
ment of the judges in the new Court of Bankruptcy/ with all
'the subordinate officers attached to that court. The Lord
Chancellor, too, possessed the power of selecting for the honours
of the profession; that gave- him enormous influence over a
powerful and ambitious profession; and if, in addition to all
that, they were to throw into the scale the appointments of 30
or 40 judges, as proposed by this bill, with 30 or, 40 registrars,
and if, in addition, they were to suppose the office of Lord
Chancellor filled by a person anxious to pervert it to private
purposes and personal aggrandizement, what more desirable
means could any such individual wish to unite in his own per-
son to extend and consolidate his power than would be afforded
to him by the bill which his noble and learned friend on the
woolsack., with, no doubt, the most honourable and disinterested
motives, now proposed for their lordships' adoption ? (Hear.)
It was upon such grounds, amongst others, that he (Lord Lynd-
hurst) felt it his duty to oppose this bill. He objected to it be-
cause it went to place in the hands of an individual, powers that
would he inconsistent with the constitution of the country, and
that might, in the hands of a crafty, able, and designing minis-
ter, be employed for the most unconstitutional purposes. He
gave his noble and learned friend full credit for an anxious de-
sire to divest himself of such immense patronage. His noble
friend had told them, in a former debate on this bill, that he hail
for a long while turntd it in his mind whether he would vest this
patronage in the hands of the judges, but that lie found that he
could not do so. It at length occurred to his noble and learned
friend to intrust those powers (and no where, certainly, could
they have been with more propriety intrusted) to his own hands.
(A laugh.) He objected to it on account of the great—he would
say enormous—expenditure which it would entail on the country.
An act of Parliament having lately passed to regulate the court
in which he (Lord Lyndhurst). presided, he was enabled to
state precisely the expenditure, including the judges' salaries,
and other expenses connected with that court. That expendi-
ture amounted to £35,000 per annum. He did not suppose that
the other two courts in Westminster-hall exhibited a larger ex-
penditure than that, and he therefore thought that he estimated
the whole annual expenditure of those three courts pretty accu-
rately when he stated it to be no more than £lOO,OOO a-vear.
That was the amount which the present administration by those
courts of the whole civil and criminal law cost the country.
His noble and learned friend was now about to introduce a new
system of local judicature, the entire expense of which no one
could calculate, but which, taking it at a very low estimate in-
deed, would cost the country at least £150,000 a-year. It thus
appeared that the business which was at present performed by
the superior courts, and which it was proposed to transfer to
those new local courts, would not be performed by the latter
at a less expense than One-half more than the whole ex-
penditure incurred for the superior courts of Westminster-hall.
Another great objection which he had to this bill was, that it
went to establish a number of local judges throughout the coins.-
try, and he was sure that their lordships would agree with him
in opinion that nothing could be more pernicious than the
establishment of such local judges, subject to local influences,
partialities, and feAings. And then let their lordships only
consider the immense number of such local judges which this
measure was calculated to spread throughout the country. His
noble and learned friend bad stated that four of these judges
would be established in the ridings of Yorkshire, and thus they
would have four judges established in a comparatively narrow
district, permanently residing there, subject to the influences
arising out of the private friendships and private partialities
which they formed in their neighbourhood, and exposed thereby
to the charge of partiality, and liable to the suspicion of mis-
conduct in the cuscharg,e of their public and official duties.
(Hear, hear.) That would be the case with all the other local
judges which it was proposed to establish in the other districts
of the countrY. It was, as he had stated in a former discussion,
on the principle that local jurisdictions were liable to such
abuses, and had generated such evils, that the local judicatures
that had formerly existed in this country had been abolished.
It was the abhorrence of such abuses that should induce their
lordships now to resist the establishment of such local judicatures.
What did the present bill propose with respect to juries ? The
local judge was to sit, assisted by a jury of six individuals. He
argued that the more you diminished the numbers of the jury,
the more you increased the authority and influence of the judge.
Was it proper that a judge, with six jurymen, should have the
administration of justice, in all the various cases proposed to be
intrusted to those local courts, and that without the possibility
of the proceedings being reviewed, except in the event of gross
errors in point of law? How were the Julies to be summoned?
At present judges had nothing to sdo with juries, hut 'here
the provision was widely different. Who was to be intrusted
with the duty of summoning juries ? The registrar, who wa s
the travelling companion of the judge. (Hear, and laughter.)
Bettei enact that the judge himself should select the jury, you
would then have a responsible person to discharge the duty.
The present provision was so monstrous, that he did not think
it could have been seriously contemplated by his noble and
learned friend. But this was not all : the jury were to be taken
from the places nearest to the tribunal and the locality of the
causes of action, so that a registrar might, without the least risk,
pack a jury, every facility being afforded for that purpose.
( Hear.) And this was the poor man's law. (Hear, hear) In
the courts at Westminster the rich could rely upon having an
enlightened judge and an impartial jury, but the poor man
went into the local court and took such a judge and jury as he
could get under the poor man's law. (Cheers.) The judge
made a mistake in a point of law—well, there was to be an ap-
peal on a case drawn up by the counsel on either side, or, if
they disagreed (which they were sure to do,) by the judge
Whose decision was appealed against, and who' had to state in
his own way the error which lie had himself committed. Was
this a very satisfactory provision ? He thought. not. "But,"
said the Lord Chancellor, "the same thing
.occurred every day
in Westminster-hall ;" however, the superior courts were en-
lightened tribunals, and besides, if parties disapproved of a
judge's case, they had the option of tendering a bill of excep-
tions, to which there was no analogous provision in the poor
man's bill, where it was most required. (Hear, hear.) He
had now discharged the duty which he thought he owed to
his station and office, which he owed to their lordships, which
he owed to the country, which he owed to the profession to
which he was proud to belong. He had stated the arguments
which struck his mind forcibly in reference to the bill; he had
stated the reasons why he should vote against its third reading.
It was for their lordships, after hearing what his noble and
learned friend had to urge in answer to the statements and ar-
guments now brought forward,—it would be for the house to
decide on the subject. For himself, he had no personal end to
answer, no private motive to actuate him in his opposition to
the measure ; and whatever might be their lordships' decision,
he should cheerfully acquiesce in it. It only remained for him,
in conclusion, to declare his assent to the amendment proposed
by the noble lord (Wharncliffe). (Cheers.)
Lord WYNFORD opposed the Bill.
The LORD CHANCELLOR said that he rose with very great
anxiety, and that axiety was increased by the vast importance
of the subject. By the suggestion of the Chief Baron, the Bill
was referred, with his (Lord B.'s) assent, to the discussion of
the Commissioners. It was postponed a year to await the event
of that discussion. They investigated its principles and details
—they considered the subject, and amassed this body of evi-
dence upon it. They came to a conclusion favourable, and
nothing but favourable to its principle, and the Bill was altered
to meet their suggestions, and was now such in its essential
principles as the Commissioners had reported in favour of. His
noble and learned friend said, " You do not go the length of
the Commissioners." He was at issue with him upon that point,
and came to trial before their lordships. The evidence was the
report which he held in his hand ; it proved that he was correct
in his statement, and that his noble and learned friend, inno-
cently no doubt, had not attended to- the report, or if he had
ever attended to it, had utterly forgotten it; but the fact was;
that he had grossly misstated it—stated what was directly the
reverse' of the statement and report of the Commissioners.
Now, first, he would address himself to the local residence of the
Judge. He had on a former occasion moved a resolution-that
no local Judge should reside except in a large, and populous dis-
til& He went entirely with the committee, who, after the
most minute inquiry, not blinding themselves to the probable
inconvenience of a 'Judge residing permanently in a place where
he had to try questions of torts, still felt that the advantage of
such an appointment by far outweighed its inconvenience, inas-
much as it brought justice, and that ton cheap justice, home to
the doors of all classes of society. On this, ground it was that
they decided the balance of eviis was in favour of the measure.
It was true that there were evils, or at least inconveniences, at-
tendant upon this as there were upon all other human institu-
tions, and he should be glad to see any measure introduced
free from that imperfectton attendant upon human infirmity.
But he repeated the balance was in favour of the measure;
and he would venture to state that, when their lordships
came to sift it to the bottom, they would come to the same
conclusion that he and the commissioners had come.—
When the noble lord asked him about the pernicious etfect °fa
local Judge being appointed to try cases between £5 and £2O,
and certain petty transgressions, he begged leave to ask, in his
turn, whether such a Judge was not as fit (or may be more fit,)
to try such a case, he being ignorant of the parties, than the
magistrate who uniformly resided in the same locality, who
tried cases in his own mansion; or he would go further, the
JusticeS who tried eases in threes and fours, or even at the
Petty. sessions, where they were likely to be mixed up with, and
prejudiced by, the feuds and jealousies, the political and reli-
gious opinions of the neighbourhood ? And vet these persons
tried, not only for smaller offences, but even: for transportable
felonies, and were looked upon by the law of England as the
most cherished body in the country; And he beiieved there was
no man in the assembly he had the honour of addressing, or
any other assembly, who would venture to find fault with the
jurisdiction of the Magistrates on the ground of their local resi-
dence, or breathe a thought of their unfitness for the discharge
of the duties imposed upon them, or a suspicion of their acting
with the slightest shade of prejudice or partiality in their judi-
cial capacity. And yet they were of necessity essentially local;
whether a man was a Magistrate in the county of York or in the
smallest county in Wales, out of that county he had no juris-
diction. Here, then, were judicial persons exposed to all the
feelings of friendship or enmity, to political and party feelings,
to religious opinions, and, above all, to those parochial dissen-
sions so common in most districts, and yet they were thought
the most fit and proper persons to discharge the 'duties imposed
on them ; and no matter what might be . their decisions, the
aid of the Court of King's Bench was seldom called in.
The proposed measure, however, was not without appeal; and
further, there would exist another, a great check and control
upon the conduct of the local judges—the check of public opi-
nion ; for, so placed, the eyes of the public would be constantly
upon them. For himself he had no muse fear of such judges
than he had of the appointment of judges on the bench; he had
no apprehension of an improper appointment, or an abuse of the
trust conferred by that appointment when made. The public