HC Deb 04 June 1832 vol 13 cc398-9

Mr. Robert Grant moved the third reading of this Bill.

Mr. Baring

moved, as an Amendment, that it should be read a third time that day six months. The measure was an unjust one, and would take into the hands of that House a power which was vested in the Chancellor and the Judges.

Mr. Robert Grant

defended the Bill, and referred to the removal of the Assizes from Buckingham to Aylesbury, and to another similar instance, in justification of this measure.

Sir Robert Peel

said, that the Buckingham case was the strongest possible proof of the inconvenience of giving to the Judges the power of fixing the town where the Assizes should be held, and that House afterwards sitting in appeal upon their decision. If the House was determined to take the power into its own hands, it would be only decorous to pass a law for that purpose. It was disparaging to the Judges to sit as a court of appeal on their decision.

Mr. Hume

knew that the Bill was called for by the whole county of Norfolk, and he should support the Motion.

Lord Althorp

said, he did not think that the Judges ought to be entirely deprived of the power of deciding where the Assizes should be held, but, in some particular cases, that House might see reason to interfere, and he did not conceive that such interference implied the slightest disrespect to the Judges.

Mr. John Campbell

said, he should be the last man in the world to offer any disrespect to the Judges, and he offered none in supporting the Bill.

Mr. Ridley Colborne

opposed the Bill, as it was inexpedient to make that House a place of appeal from the decisions of the Judges in matters on which the law gave them power to decide.

Mr. Weyland

supported the Bill. He was surprised that the wishes of the people of Norfolk, so frequently conveyed to this House, by petitions upon the subject, had not long since been complied with.

Sir Robert Inglis

opposed the Bill, because the Judges were the fit and proper persons to determine on the question as to where the Assizes should be held.

Bill read a third time and passed.