§ SIR JOHN SHELLEYsaid, he rose to ask the first Commissioner of Works when 1609 proper accommodation will he provided for Her Majesty's Court of Probate, and what steps have been taken to acquire the property for which powers were given under the Act of last Session, and for the purchase of which a sum of £60,000 was granted. The present offices were in every respect inconvenient. The accommodation was not sufficient for the gentlemen whose business it was to attend at the offices; and in one place a gentleman was put into a room where any Member would be ashamed to put one of his servants. The inconvenience and insufficiency of the offices had been the subject of long correspondence with the Treasury, but the only result as yet arrived at had been that portions of adjoining houses were hired, and openings bored through the wall to connect them with the Probate Office. The consequence of this state of things was that gentlemen holding important offices, such as registrars, and receiving high salaries, found themselves on the second floor of a house, the floor below being hired by somebody else, and the floor above by a third party. One of these registrars occupied an office in the room above which lived a gentleman with a zoological taste, who, by way of amusement, kept from fifty to sixty rabbits. He would leave the House to judge what the condition of the official gentleman was who had to discharge most important business in the room below. In 1857, such was the crowded state of the offices, that an effort was made to increase the accommodation, the chief object being to enable persons who wanted to examine or prove wills to do so without the assistance of lawyers. This was, to some extent, carried out; but it frequently happened that 80 or 100 people were waiting who could not get up to the table when the examinations bad to be made. In addition to this, there was not room for the papers and wills deposited, and the result was that many of them were dispersed all over the country, while a loss of fees to the revenue, amounting to about £15,000 a year was sustained. By way of remedy for this evil, many very valuable documents had been sent to St. Paul's, where they were deposited in what was called the trophy room; but the Dean and Chapter would not allow a fire or candle in the room; so that they could only be examined during the summer months, and were, besides, being destroyed by damp and mildew. Last year a Bill was brought in giving powers to acquire property on which to 1610 build a Court of Probate, and a vote of £60,000 was taken towards the purchase of the ground. It was said that the College of Advocates asked a fancy price for their property, but Mr. Pennithorne stated that, if the property were bought merely as a temporary arrangement, such was the growing value of property in the City of Loudon that be had no doubt it might be sold in five or six years without loss to the Government. It was said to be in contemplation to concentrate all the law courts on one sue, but the House bad already some experience of the delay that was likely to take place in carrying out such an object. The Keeper of Records had declared that after last Thursday there would not be a room in which a single will or any such paper could be placed in a state of safety. This was a subject which required the immediate attention of the House. Hon. Members would not sleep in their beds if they knew that in consequence of a dispute between the Board of Works and the Treasury the title deeds of their estates might at any moment be destroyed by fire. He paid a visit to the building the other day, and found, in a room four feet square, three gentlemen each with a companion, who were reading wills aloud. He could not understand a word that was said, yet it was evident a vast amount of property might depend on the correctness of a single word. Seeing that the Government had the power of purchasing this property at a valuation and that it adjoined the Probate Office, be begged to ask the First Commissioner of Works when proper accommodation would be provided for Her Majesty's Court of Probate, and what steps bad been taken to acquire the property for which powers were given under the Act of last Session, and for the purchase of which a sum of £60,000 was granted?
MR. COWPERsaid, that his hon. Friend bad prefaced his question by a good many remarks; but the actual question might be disposed of in a very few words. The real question was, whether the Board of Works were prepared to purchase the property that belonged to the College of Advocates. He would shortly give the reasons why he thought it better not to do so. The present Probate Registry was, no doubt, an inconvenient building, but it was only temporarily retained. It was expected that the Commission now sitting for the concentration of the law courts would recommend some plan for placing all the law courts on some convenient and contiguous 1611 site. It was, therefore, very desirable that the Board of Works should not go to an expense that would stand in the way of uniting the Probate Registry with the law courts. The Registry ought to be in contiguity to the Probate Court itself, the Divorce Court, and the Admiralty Court. He had, therefore, to consider how temporary accommodation could be supplied most conveniently, and at the least expense. That might be done in two ways—either by buying the property belonging to the College of Advocates to which his lion. Friend had referred, or extending the present accommodation by means of hiring the houses on the other side of the way. He had preferred the latter plan, because it involved a saving of £20,000. He should thereby provide seven times as much accommodation as was now found in the registry of wills and documents, whereas the officers of the court stated that it would be enough if they had five times the present space at their disposal. The plan he had adopted would be economical, and would provide the necessary accommodation until a larger and permanent building could be provided.