[BILL 33.] SECOND READING. (Hansard, 17 March 1868)

§ SIR ROUNDELL PALMER
said, that if it were the opinion of the Government that this measure ought to be read a second time he was far from objecting; but he thought it would require very great alteration in Committee, if, indeed, the House would not eventually have to consider whether it ought at all to become law. He had already presented a Petition from the Incorporated Law Society against the Bill, and he knew that two, at least, of the solicitors of Liverpool most largely conversant with this class of business were also adverse. The Bill proposed to give a general Admiralty jurisdiction up to £500 to the County Courts. At present, Admiralty business proper was confined to the Court of Admiralty, and it would be a very considerable anomaly if Parliament gave all the County Courts a jurisdiction up to £500, when it had not yet been thought convenient to give any general jurisdiction in this class of cases to the Superior Courts of Law or Equity. He wished to ask the Attorney General, whether the Government were of opinion that the Bill ought to be read a secondtime?

§ MR. STEPHEN CAVE
, in explaining the action of the Government upon the subject of the Bill, stated that the provisions of the measure were similar to those contained in a Bill which was introduced last year, but not passed. There was no doubt great truth in the objection of the hon. and learned Member, and it seemed, in the first instance, advisable that no change should be made until the Report of the Commission. During the present year however deputations from most of the principal seaports had waited upon the Government, and had expressed a very strong opinion upon the inadequacy of the present local Courts and the expense of taking small shipping cases before the Court of Admiralty. Such an expression of opinion could not fail to command the attention of the Government, and therefore, when the hon. Member for Hull brought forward his Bill, the Government determined to consent to its second reading. The proceedings in rem were no doubt peculiar to the 1829 Court of Admiralty, but salvors could now seize ships through the receivers of wreck, and, as a matter of fact, the decisions of the present local Courts were so unsatisfactory, and the delay and expense of the Admiralty Court so great that shipowners submitted to any extortion as the least evil. These malpractices had prevailed to such an extent as to become a scandal, not only in this country, but on the Continent. Any objection to the measure which might come from so high an authority as the hon. and learned Member for Richmond would, of course, receive full weight. In assenting to the second reading of the Bill, the Government merely wished to show that they fully recognized the want of proper tribunals to determine small shipping cases, and the necessity for giving, he would not go so far as saying to County Courts, but to some reliable local Courts, an Admiralty jurisdiction in such cases. The hon. Member for Hull had consented to postpone the Committee upon the Bill until the Friday after Easter, which would afford ample time for consideration of its details.

§ SIR GEORGE BOWYER
, without opposing the second reading of the Bill, pressed upon the House the advisability of abolishing the present Court of Admiralty, and of transferring its jurisdiction to the Common Law and Equity Courts.

THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
said, that the hon. Baronet who had last addressed the House would be glad to hear that a Commission was now sitting which had power to determine the advisability of giving a general Admiralty jurisdiction to the Courts of Common Law and Equity. The want of proper tribunals for determining minor shipping causes was, however, so pressing that it was deemed advisable for the Government to assent to the second reading of this Bill, by which power would be given to the County Courts to determine them. Of course, the power of arrest which it was proposed to bestow upon the County Courts required to be watched with a great deal of care and jealousy, and he should do his best before the Bill went into Committee to make such Amendments in it as would make it work, at all events, for the present, in the hope that hereafter some steps would be taken to confer a general Admiralty jurisdiction upon the Superior Courts.