§ MR. ARTHUR O'CONNORasked Mr. Attorney General, Whether any complaints have reached him as to the charges made at the Middlesex Registry, and as to the officials there compelling parties to attend in Great James Street to be sworn to memorials, thus causing great inconvenience and delay; whether affidavits sworn before a Commissioner 1535 are not received in the Supreme Court; and whether there is any reason, except one connected with fees, why the Middlesex Registry should not do in like manner; and, whether he will make arrangements for the scale of fees authorized to be charged at the Middlesex Registry being placed on the back of the tickets given on deeds left for registry, and for their being affixed in the Registry; as well as for the execution of deeds and memorials being deposed to before a Commissioner in the same manner as affidavits are sworn in causes in the Supreme Court of Judicature, and for the lengths of memorials being marked on them when left for registry?
§ THE ATTORNEY GENERAL (Sir HENRY JAMES), in reply, said, the Middlesex Registry Office was not one over which he had the slightest control, nor was he officially connected with it. But the Question seemed to point to practical inconvenience existing, and he would endeavour to find out its cause. The reason why affidavits sworn before a Commissioner could not be received at the Middlesex Registry was because under the statute of Anne creating the office it was necessary that affidavits should be made in the presence of the Registrar or a Master in Chancery, and any alteration in that respect must be made by statute. As to the latter part of the Question, by the statute of Anne the Lord Chief Justice had power to make certain regulations; and if the hon. Member would communicate to him any matters of practical inconvenience which arose, they would be forwarded to the proper quarter.