§ CAPTAIN PECHELL moved for "returns of all fees payable in the several Vice-Admiralty Courts at the Cape of Good Hope and St. Helena," &c. He hoped the Government would agree with him that the scandalous abuses in those courts should be put down. By a return already before the House, out of 113 vessels there were 74 from which the captors did not get a sixpence, the whole value being swallowed up in the expenses of these Vice-Admiralty Courts. In the case of the Diana, the expenses were no less than 273l. It too frequently happened that the officers of the Admiralty Courts made a complete harvest out of every slave vessel that was captured, by a system of fees and extortions directed against the captors. As the Attorney General at the Cape of Good Hope had said, there was a general scramble to see what could be got out of the proceeds.
§ MR. HUMEseconded the Motion, and recommended his hon. and gallant Friend to add the Australian colonies, because he 1108 had a few days ago received accounts that matters were as bad there as at the places to which his Motion applied. These courts were allowed to do as they pleased, and were under no control. If ever any system called for inquiry this did.
§ MR. WARDwould have no sort of objection to giving £ill the papers which his hon. and gallant Friend asked for, and also those which the hon. Member for Montrose wished to append to his Motion. He had seen cases which showed that they were as capable of making out a long bill against the captors at St. Helena as they were anywhere else. If any better system of organizing those courts could be devised, his hon. and gallant Friend would have rendered a great service.
§ Motion agreed to.