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

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the: corn/arr." the anlowity of the Lord stilvornte„ fur
it -.vas a question of authority. wish that of the tow-
lisisetonert. c toms Ur highly oralsed, with the excep-
tion of Sir lice Campbell. • red, a rreonenten.:ation
for reds:eft. n of mittecessary °Sees would rads,
trout fir Hey vetta peculiar weight, because he inigi.t
just 4{14 llffoi a per& fei —(Hear, hear. and
regar 1 to the appointment of M:r P.
lolaccay, it was well Icemen to have been a long time
pr./pissed helots. it took place. lie came how to the
palwr staid, was produced ily the Learned Ler.' .
and whi h SnIS supposed to tr;a his jaw
.n. Hut seat 1111.ent, if it proved soy thing,
1.- ! hit three Barons, not f ve, would Se ,tiffirient
ter Ex. hequer, hor his argument te.nt upon the
novo.' that the nutuber should not be roux!, because,
ii 090114, they nil* lit never decide. Nov, the mitt.!.er
.•:* three world t lice to that end at well as the
e nosier of ker.—(ttear, hear!)—ln Fill:La:al, too, it
wostol he ree 'fleeted that the decisions in the Ex• lie-
quer were all made by foots. lwar:)—
tie shoull now proceed to sh..w whet extraordinary
r tcoustuendations could emanate from (formals of the
highest nothority. The Commissioners tool given it
a; th it opinion that Ca.m face of one .4 the t lerks of
Session was inexpedient. and that the p.incipal Clerk
relS stalliatie:at to do the tatty. Now, would the House
it wren he told them that, although there
vas n b I•GA:3I•Si in the. Court than one Clerk
•v aide to periorm, Sir 11 rimer ?Grunt km orris ap-
poosted a l jerk of atsat t—(llear. hear, Lear
•;••titio.n ct was ar,..iinted to an othoe, no. part IA the
it cies of whiell it was to Lb' expecte.' he eelai;tl vier
1.111:1;—a k tat tern.l) o hose time, as every body knew,
WAS so 111111'h Orf 10141 in other reaiFerts. To burthen
the country with tinneeessary expenses of this kind
slots an act which ought to be vowed front the Ork-
neys to the Lau l'N-end ; it was trilllitlZ with contempt
tl:e opinions of those persons whit had !wen appointed
i,e Parliament fo: the purpose of inqUring into, with
a view to tit.• correction of pitfall,: abuses. While
sons in authority talked .f retrenchment and ecomouty,
Cie) scent 91 deterndneti ne..ei to tench any by which
th,ir own pairanage was like:v to be affected —:llcar,
h....az!)--Mr Walter Scutt was employe.' in very dif-
t trent pursuits front those of the bot‘itte-s of a Court
of Justice ; he MIS writimsK Inure than any man
',odd read ; stud while his time was so occupied, how
could he perform the duties of a public Whine"! Ile
•e is sore that many of the appointments to u Mat
be alluded were mai. nnkuown to the 3linisters
themselves; and he slid not heliese that the liatis-
tsri nould have made such aFpointineuts. here
tie,. nu Court which abounded with so much systematic
n'Atie as the. Court of Ex..lisgater in Scotland. 'I he He-
na tnshrancer of that Court acted by a deputy, he char:tett
h sterer hr might consiaier a suitable remuno.ration
f.r his trouble; awl there was no contronl over his
t barges. Whatever cute the 1.1..u5e might come to on
this question, wird.' not be a matter of anyeonsequenre
Linos, r. ; hut this lie was certain of, that, if the
r ,te should be in favour of the haus:it:thins to whist
alluded, they would not carry conviction to the
public—who would still eontlnue to entertain the
same opinion of them that h.• himself did ; and the
time might not he far distant when !melt a vote would
a ontribute to ens-reuse that ferment that already unbar-
tanately pees ailed in Cie county of Lanark; when it
w.suld even be in the titou:hs of those whose duty it
was to repress the sliststo hers of I:.e public peace in
that part of the kinplow. How could he himself go
forth as a Deputy Lieutenant to repress them, without
feeling sum • totoponction with regard to these trans-
actions.—(llear, hear :)—Sume of the persons engaged
ism those tumultnons procrediaggs wear a disgrace to
their country ; hut would not their numbers he multi-
plied when they heard that thr !louse of Couunnos
sanctioned such transactions us those in question.—
(Hear. hear :)—The House had passed laws for the
suppression of public mretings, but if the people were
not allowed to express th. it opinions openly, they
would give vent to their feelings in some other way.
He etiticluded pith moving, that the House do at7rce
with the Report f the Comma sioners who had been
appointed to inquire into the state of the Courts of
Justice in Scotland, so far as the same r•lated to the
l'ourt of Exch-quer, in which they stated that five
Barons w,re more t!.au were necessary, and that the
blisinetot of the Court might be dune by four Berlins.
The LORD ADVOCATE declared that his consci-
entious ovinion was the very reverse of that op itaimd
in the 'keel.% lle hiaase!f and all u-hona he bad con-
sulted un the subject cotacurrel is opitfion, is at an in-
stitution whi .h the experience of inure than a century
had proved to be useful, ought not to be hastily alter-
ed. Thercf,re, if olny alteration were to take place,
it should require long and tuatove deliberation, before
the tame were attempted. Wilt reeard to. the insti-
tution of the Jury Court of Scotland, it was first taken
as an experiment. All rases a: first were to go to the
Court of Session, bef we they came into that Court ;
and a prejudice had lung prevailed against the l'ourt.
An A. 4 was, howellr, passed, which ale.:l;tred that
the cases should first come berme the Jury Court; a
great deal of bus:ness was thrown into it, and the
Judges in that Court were necessary, for they had a
great deal of business to do in the Conrt of Exchequer
and the Courtof Session. As to the Cominissionerast
so often spoke of by the Ni hle lord, be declared flask
they had no ;Iowa; or right to make the report which
they With respect to the fourth Baron of the
Excheiner, the appointment of that officer was cons-
rletely justifiable. '1 he officer dial unifo:•inly for years
attend a•-• King's Itenunuf.ranccr of the Exchequer in
Scotland. lie alluded to Sir P. Aiurrvy ; and no man
cull,' he better qualified to till time office of a Baron.
He had been appuintonl becamoc he was perfectly well
seituinted with the pr-etice of the Court. The saute
;liner could be said of the appointment of Mr. Ikatin
Parrott. By the appoointtnen• of the firs*, a consider-
We saying accrued to the public, because the °thee
of King's Itenictukirxneer ceased on his retiring from
it. .as to the question, whether this office ought to
be filled up, he declared there was no foundation for
asserting that it was unnece..ssary. At the time of
the union with Scotland, it was declared that there
should he a Court of Exchequer in Seotland, and that
it 'honk' not consist of lrss th n five members: and
it was thought that the linsiness of the t. wart (solid
sot be carried on with less. Such bad been the prac-
tice upwards of a hundred years in Scotland, where
she prludlces were as touch in favour of five, as the