The Statesman.
London, England, 1820-05-16 00:00:00

ought or ought not to be carried into effect. It ap-
peared to him, that it would he almost ludicrous that
he should stand up in such an assembly for the iiiirpose
of arguing that the appointment of a fifth Ilar,oi of
the Exchequer was unnecessary, if be did not rel ollect
theextraordinary resolutions whi. h the• House had a. tile-
times sanctioned.—(Hear, hear !)—Among the most
extraordinary 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
the time when it was actually suffering a great dere-
ciation.—(Hear, hear! and laughter.)-1 he question,
however, was not limited to the present measure; f
if this, the first appointment, after eight reports. was
sanctioned by the House, the House would not do
their duty to the country, if they allowed any further
expences to be incurred by the appointment of ttifil-
missioners for purposes such as these Commi,sioners
were ordained to execute.—(Hoar, hear !)—The I fo.e.e
would recollect that, in making their report, the Com-
missioners proceeded upon what the Barons them-
selves stated as to their duties, and the time which
those duties occupied. Upon those Barons devolved,
of course, the knowledge of what they had to do, and
their testimony was of more weight than the opinions
of the Lord :Idvocate, 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 husincas 65 or 66 days. De-
du. :::ag the Sundays end the Mondays, on which they
never sat, it appeared that they sat altogether abort
two months in the whole year.—(llear, hear!)—ft
was true, indeed, that they sat also as a Parard of
Treasury. But the average number of petitions whidi
were presented to the Board, did not exceed one hu:.-
deed (if we rightly understood the Noble Lord), and
the practice was to refer these petitions to the Re-
inembrancer, who handed them over to his Derut.
—The Deputy made his report upon them, and tl:e
Barons bad only to approve or to disapprove of his
report. This was all they had to do as a Board of
Treasury.—(Hear l)—Now vi hat, he might ask, wrs
the labour of the Barons of the Exchequer iii Scotland
as compared with that of the Barons of the Exchequer
in England: In Scotland, the Barons never went
rireni•—in England they did. In England, the ('our:
of Exchequer was also a Court of Equity--in S.ut-
land that was not the case. H. re, too, the Barons
not only went the circuit, hut took their rotation at
the Old Bailey Sessions, and acted on Comnilssi
in Scotland, the Barons had no such duties. li. re,
also, they had to examine and report on Bills in Pal •
liansent. referred to them—in Scotland, the Barons
had !milling of the kind to do. In fact, there was ito
comparison between the labours of the Barons of Se.►t-
land and those of the Barons of the Excheqner he,
—(Hear, hear l)-1 he five Barons in Scotland had t.•
perform less than half of the duties which were per-
formed by four Barons in England.—(Hear, hear !)
It was well known and felt, that when the late Attar•
ney-(general, Sir Samuel Sheppard, was appointed to
one of the seats in the Exchequer Court of Scotland,
it was understood to be a kind of retirement for
from his labours; not to say that it was a sinecu,...
But if any thing further were wanting to prove the
little extent of labour which devolved upon these lit•
eons, it would be found in the fact that the Lord ('Lie'
Commissioner of the Jury Court in Scotland unde
the duties of that office in addition to those whirl. he
bad already to perform as one of the Ba-one of tli •
Excheyter.—(Hear, hear:)—This Litter office, with-
out much increasing his trouble, added 20041/. a year
to his salary.—(Hear, hear!)—The Noble Lord l.r•-
ceed►d to argue, that the situation of a Baron in the
Exchequer to Scotland was looked upon as a 0.. re_
situation of patronage, for which no distinguished le-
gal knowledge was required, as "petered fano the
objection that was made to making that Court a Colic t
for Appeals, from the impression that was felt, that
the Barons were already in a state of retirement;
but particularly from the fact that the late I ord Chief
Baron win absent, on account of bad health, fir three
years. Two of these he spent in Italy. When he re-
turned he was not able to attend. He was as much a
seseentity as the door-porters of this House. If tht..o
Ills Chief Baron could be spared for three years, nhy
Oat spare a junior Baron altogether ?—(liear
did not advocate this ass party question, or for the pure
wee of perplexing the Ministry. The present were times
when no man who would consult the welfare of his co:m-
iry would stand up against any thing which was I : t.ly •
venerable in its institutions. He had no earthly
wo-
dye in coming forward than one, which he thouelit
perfectly correct, when he saw an appointment made
Injurious to the Courts of Justice in Scotland, and '
_likely to make a general unfavourable Imre' •
Never was a time when it was more necessary to up-
held the character of the Courts of Justice than at
present ; and hr %%Add add, that never was a time
when a person inspecting those Courts could give them
greater praise than for the last few weeks.---(Cr:ss of
Hear, hear !)---They showed a signal example of per-
severing patience in investigating, and of perfect im-
part►ality in deciding.--(Cheering, and hear !)--The
Noble Lord proceeded to remark, that the Commis-
sioners all concurred in the report to which he goat. n
Interred, with the exception of the Commissioner whose
Imo was at its head--he meant Sir Iley Campbell ;
aqd be added, that the opinion of that Connuissiosier
aimed less weight than any one of the others. lhe
individual appointed to the situation of fifth kla,ot,.
was fir P. Murray, whom the Noble lord described
So have been recommended to that office leas by
acquirements than by his ',otitis-al exertions.
01111 way, indeed, Sir P. Mur►ay was well button..
and that was as a troublesome cano eeate for the touuty
of Perth. Indeed, no person could adopt a I...:ter
node to recommend himself to tiovernmetit thau
pow himself as a candidate at an e•lectiorn :.ga*.r.s
she soadidate who stood on the popular tuts rest, ~nd
in man in the lfr•use knew this i•.•t•er than t'.-- Lord
!Registrar.—(Hear, a::: a ieigh ) -i!. ,s La:sa

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