§ CAPTAIN PECHELLrose to ask the Secretary for the Admiralty what steps had been taken to reform the proceedings in the several Vice-Admiralty Courts, and to remedy the complaints made last Session of the gross abuses that had taken place at St. Helena, Sierra Leone, Cape of Good Hope, and Sydney, New South Wales?
§ MR. WARDsaid, that the subject was one of considerable difficulty, the facts being anything but clear. There were two subjects of complaint: the one was the high scale of fees charged in the courts, and the other was the practice of making extraordinary charges. It was found that 1101 the remedy of the first grievance lay entirely with the Lords of the Admiralty, who had the power of ordering a new scale of fees, and that was now in course of preparation. With regard to the other grievance, of overcharges, the difficulty lay in the fact that they could only he remedied by appeal to England, and then it became necessary to get sworn copies of the whole proceedings, which was attended with considerable expense. The Admiralty had been in consultation with Sir Stephen Lushington upon the subject, and they had now instructed the Vice-Admiralty Courts to send home the whole of the papers in every case; this would greatly facilitate appeals in future, and he trusted that it would be found a sufficient remedy.
§ MR. HUMEsaid, in New South Wales the abuses of the court had risen to such a height that the Supreme Council had passed an ordinance to check them. What he wished to know was, whether the Government intended to give their sanction to that ordinance; but as no Member of the Government was present who could answer the question, he would on some future occasion again put the question.