§ MR. WALPOLEwished to put a question to the right hon. Home Secretary with reference to the fees received in the county courts. In the schedule to the Act by which those courts were established, numerous fees were specified, and it was provided that the officers of the court should receive fees for every order, or application for an order. Now, it appeared that in some cases, where debts were ordered to be paid by monthly instalments, the officers had maintained that the first decree, and the order to pay, were separate orders, and they had accordingly charged two fees. He (Mr. Walpole) considered that this proceeding was contrary to the intention of the Act; and, as the Government contemplated paying the officers of these courts by fixed salaries, instead of allowing them to continue to be paid by fees, he wished to ask whether they would permit the continuance of the practice to which he had referred?
§ SIR G. GREYreplied, that his attention had been called to the practice to which the hon. Gentleman had alluded, and which had been adopted in some, though not in all, of the county courts. He fully agreed with the hon. Member that that practice was contrary to the intentions, if not to the express provisions of the Act. It would, however, be necessary to have a new table of fees established for these courts, which was now under consideration, and he would take care to provide against the continuance of the practice.