§ MR. ALDERMAN LUSKsaid, he wished 1230 to ask Mr. Solicitor General, If his attention has been called to the length of time Jurymen in the Metropolis have frequently to wait before they are called on the trial for which they are summoned, to the inconvenience of their having three or four summonses for different courts in one week, and to the frequency with which the same persons have to serve; and, if so, whether it is his opinion that a measure could be devised to fix the day when Jurymen are actually required to attend, to make the fees of Special Jurymen more in accordance with the time they are compelled to serve, and if it would not be to the public interest that trials should be shortened?
THE SOLICITOR GENERALreplied, that his attention was directed almost daily to the time that jurymen in the metropolis had to wait before the trial was called on for which they were summoned. This, however, was unavoidable. Special jurors were summoned to try a particular case, and if the preceding cases occupied much time the jurors were obliged to wait. As to the inconvenience of having three or four summonses for different courts in a week, that arose from the existing state of the law. In London and Middlesex juries were summoned for particular cases. In the rest of the country the law was different. When the law was altered in 1852 as to the mode of summoning juries in the provinces it was allowed to remain as it was in London and Middlesex. As to the frequency with which some persons were summoned to serve, that also arose from the state of the law. In his opinion, no measure could be devised to fix the day when jurymen were actually required to attend, because the time when any trial would take place must depend on the time which the cases preceding it in the list occupied. As to making the fees paid to special jurors more in proportion to the time they were compelled to serve, he would remark that special jurors were paid a guinea each trial. It would be easy to fee the special jurymen higher; but however easy it might be, it would not be a measure of justice unless something were also done in the way of paying common jurymen, who now received only 8d. per cause. And although a guinea was the proper fee payable to special jurors, he knew a case—the celebrated Windham trial—where each special juror received thirty-five guineas for thirty-five days' attendance. As to shortening the duration of trials, his 1231 opinion was that it would not he expedient to shorten them. The complaint generally was, that trials were not too long, but too short. Nor did he think it would be for the public interest that trials should be shortened.