ASSISTANT JUDGE (MIDDLESEX SESSIONS) BILL. (Hansard, 4 July 1853)

§ MR. LOWE,
in moving the Second Reading of this Bill, said, that the object of it was to give to the Assistant Judge of the Middlesex Sessions an increase of salary, to which it was considered that he had become entitled by the great increase of business 1195 which had fallen upon him in consequence of the passing of the Act 14 & 15 Vict., c. 55, which restored to the Middlesex Court of Sessions its original jurisdiction, which had been taken from it by the Act of 1834. The right hon. Member for Morpeth (Sir G. Grey) in introducing that measure, had thus described its provisions:— One of the provisions of the Bill relates to the Central Criminal Court. When that Court was established, jurisdiction was taken away in a variety of cases from the sessions held within its district. The effect of this has been, that at the Middlesex Sessions, although presided over by an eminent and qualified Judge, certain cases cannot be tried, notwithstanding similar cases are tried eveny day at the sessions in every other part of the kingdom. Great delay in the administration of justice, as well as great expense, is found to result from this arrangement. I therefore propose to repeal so much of the Act as restricts the nature of the case to be tried at the Sessions. The anticipation that the effect of the measure would be greatly to relieve the Central Criminal Court, had been fully borne out by the results. In the six months preceding the passing of the Statute—from September, 1850, to February, 1851—the number of indictments at the Middlesex Sessions had been 900, of which the costs were 984l., while the number of those at the Central Criminal Court in the same period had been 465, of which the costs were 2,160l.; whereas in the six months from September, 1851, to February, 1852, the number of indictments at the Central Criminal Court had fallen to 88, of which the costs were 601l., while those at the Middlesex Sesssions had risen to 1,207, of which the costs were 1,935l. The average cost of each case at the Middlesex Sessions was thus seen to be 28s. 2d. whereas the average cost of those at the Central Criminal Court was 4l. 19s. 10d. Estimating, upon the most moderate computation, that 750 cases yearly would be transferred from the Central Criminal Court to the Middlesex Sessions, the saving upon these rates of cost would be not less than 2,700l. per annum. Under these circumstances, it was considered that the Judge by whom one-tenth of the criminal business of the country was tried, and whose labours occasioned so material an annual saving to the country, ought to be paid a salary in some degree commensurate with his important and onerous duties, and it was therefore proposed, in this Bill, to raise his salary from 1,200l. per annum to 1,500l. per annum.

§ LORD DUDLEY STUART
said, he saw no necessity for making this increase of salary. As to the present Judge-Assistant, his conduct in arbitrarily aggravating the punishment of the unfortunate prisoners tried before him, was anything but becoming a Judge, Only the other day he was strongly and most justly censured by the press for his conduct towards a woman who, having been found guilty of a theft, had been sentenced by him to seven years' transportation. The poor woman, in her excitement, rose from her knees, on which she had been entreating for mercy, and called the policeman who had been witness against her a pig; whereupon the Judge, in an ebullition of anger, actually sentenced her to three years' additional transportation. The noble Lord the Secretary for the Home Department, in defence of the Judge, said he altered the sentence because he had reason to believe that an attempt at rescue would be made. That might have been a good reason for sending for additional policemen, but was none for augmenting the woman's punishment. This, however, was the Judge whom Her Majesty's Ministers selected for honour and reward! The private character of this learned person was distinguished by this peculiarity—that he managed to succeed in what he had a fancy to. A Judge had recently said of him, "I hope he won't fancy my place, for if he did he would get it." Apparently he wanted an increase of salary, and he was getting it from the House of Commons. But 1,200l. was ample. The Chairman of the Surrey Sessions discharged duties as laborious as those which devolved on Mr. Serjeant Adam3 without any remuneration whatever.

§ MR. BOWYER
said, he objected to the proposition contained in the Bill, for he considered that the test of the number of indictments, as applied to the duties of the Assistant Judge, was fallacious, as the trial of many of them only occupied a few minutes; and he believed the Judge in question did not take much trouble with them, for they were tried in a very off-hand way. He thought the salary of the County Court Judges was a fair test by which to try that of the Assistant Judge. Every one knew that there were greater difficulties in deciding civil as compared with criminal cases: in the former, points of law often arose, while in the latter only questions of fact were to be tried. The County Court Judges had 1,200l. a year, and they sat nearly every day; they were 1197 obliged to sit every month in each place in their districts, they had no allowance for travelling expenses, and perform very onerous duties besides their ordinary duties, such as acting as Masters in Chancery, &c. He thought that comparing their position with that of Mr. Serjeant Adams, to increase the salary of the Assistant Judge to 1,500l. a year, was a monstrous waste of public money. He should move that the Bill be read a second time that day three months.

The ATTORNEY GENERAL
said, he thought the House would agree with him in one point, and that was that they ought to discuss this question with reference to its general principle, and not with reference to a particular person. His noble Friend (Lord D. Stuart) had entered into what he was pleased to term the question of the personal peculiarities of the Assistant Judge, and had endeavoured to amuse, or he should rather say to detain, the House with some idle gossip about the personal peculiarities of Mr. Serjeant Adams. It was rather hard on an absent man that his noble Friend should repeat over and over again his old grievance about the "policeman and the pig." If he had any charge to make against the learned Judge, he ought to bring it specifically before the House. The question now was, whether, as additional duties had been cast on the Assistant Judge since he agreed to accept his office at its present salary, it ought not to be increased. There had been a great accession to his duties in consequence of the number of indictments that had been recently transferred from the Central Criminal Court to the Middlesex Sessions, on public grounds, and at a great saving of public money; and that Court had sat 184 days as compared with 81 days' sittings of the Central Criminal Court. The learned Judge had accepted his office at a certain salary, since which there had been a great increase of his duties, and on that ground it was that his salary was to be raised.

§ LORD DUDLEY STUART
wished, in explanation, to say, that when the hon. and learned Gentleman charged him with repeating idle gossip, he could only say that, on the subject to which he had referred, a question had been answered by a Minister of the Crown, and in that answer 1198 the facts of the case as he had stated them were not at all denied.

§ SIR JOHN DUCKWORTH
said, he did not think that the fact of the business of the Court being increased, and also a saving in the expenditure attendant upon criminal proceedings having been effected, was any reason for increasing the salary of the Assistant Judge. If it were the case that criminal prosecutions in the Central Criminal Court cost 4l. 19s. 10d., and in the Assistant Judge's Court only 1l. 8s., that seemed to him to be only a very strong reason for inquiry as to whether a considerable reduction might not be made in the costs of procedure in the Central Criminal Court.

§ MR. ALCOCK
said, he saw no reason for increasing the salary of the Assistant Judge. It seemed to be unfair towards the Gentleman who presided over the Quarter Sessions in the county of Surrey, and who had for a long time discharged duties nearly as arduous.

§ MR. J. WILSON
said, the Treasury were influenced in this proposition by the fact that a learned Gentleman was taken from his profession to fill this office, to which he devoted his whole time, and he was made a Judge, and one of that quality that he could transport people for fourteen years. Last year the salary of County Court Judges was fixed at 1,200l. a year, with a power to the Treasury to raise them to 1,500l.; and they had applications for that increase, on grounds which they could not resist, such as the increase of business; and the same reason influenced them in raising the salary in the present case.

§ MR. MURROUGH
said, he had understood, that at the appointment of the Assistant Judge the duties of his position were very onerous, if not quite as arduous, as those which he was now called upon to perform, and he should wish to be informed if such were really the case.