§ SIR GEORGE CAMPBELL (Kirkcaldy, &c.)I beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury if the attention of the Government has been directed to the multiplicity of appeals to Courts of no excessive superiority of numbers and weight as compared to the Courts below, illustrated in a recent case first decided by the concurrence of two Judges, namely, the Chief Justice of England, himself a Member of the House of Lords, and another eminent Judge, now also a Peer; then appealed to, and reversed by, three Judges of the Appellate Court, who were divided two to one; and thence again appealed to three Members of the House of Lords, who were again divided two to one; and if the Government will, during the Recess, consider the advisability of remodelling this system, so as to give fewer appeals, and those to a tribunal of overwhelming strength?
§ THE FIRST LORD OF THE TREASURY (Mr. W. H. SMITH, Strand, Westminster)A Judicature Bill has within the last few days passed both Houses, and in this Bill the question of appeals was dealt with. No increase in the numbers of the final Court of Appeal would prevent the chance of the Judges being nearly equally divided.