HC Deb 23 June 1854 vol 134 cc637-8

Order for Committee read.

House in Committee.

In reply to Mr. ADDERLEY,

MR. FREDERICK PEEL

said, the Court of Vice Admiralty in the Mauritius Lad for the last twenty years been presided over by a gentleman who was Judge of the Supreme Court, and it had recently been discovered that at certain periods he had acted without due authority. During the twenty years frequent changes had taken place in the government of the island, and some of the Governors had omitted to grant Commissions to the Judge of the Vice Admiralty Court; the object of the Bill, therefore, was to provide that any decisions which had been given by the Judge of the Court during the time he had acted, without regular commissions from the Governors, should be valid in the same manner as if such commissions had been issued.

Bill then passed through Committee. House resumed; Bill reported without Amendment.