LORD BROUGHAMwould take the liberty of putting a question to his noble and learned Friend the Chief Justice of the Queen's Bench, relative to the proceedings of a Commission which had been issued some months ago for the purpose of 534 revising the Practice and Pleadings of the Courts of Common Law in this country. He should like to know whether his noble and learned Friend was informed of the progress made by those Commissioners, and whether their Lordships might expect to have their report soon?
LORD CAMPBELLwas sorry that he could not inform his noble and learned Friend that these Commissioners had made their report. In common with the rest of the public he entertained the highest hopes from that Commission. There could not have been a better selection of individuals to form a Commission of revision than that of the learned and able gentlemen who composed it. They were most able and indefatigable men, and well versed in the knowledge of their profession. He had been looking from month to month for their report; and he had been informed three months ago that their report on the Practice, Pleadings, and Fees of the Courts of Common Law was ready for their signatures. He regretted exceedingly the delay which had occurred in the presentation of it, for it prevented the Judges of those Courts from doing that which they could otherwise have done of their own power. It would be in the recollection of their Lordships that some time ago, when he was first appointed to the high office which be then held, he had proposed a Bill giving the Judges further power with respect to alterations to be made in practice and in pleading; but he had not proceeded with that Bill, because, in common with the other Judges, he thought it better to wait until the Commissioners had introduced their new code of Practice and Pleading, than to proceed at once upon ideas of their own, for it might otherwise have been discovered hereafter that while the Judges were proceeding in one direction, the learned Commissioners were proceeding in another. He hoped that there would be no long delay in the presentation of their report; for, if there were any long delay, the Session would in all probability come to a close without their doing anything. He believed, that as it was, justice was better administered here than in any other country in the world; but still he thought that it could and ought to be rendered more economical. He hoped that before long the latter object would be accomplished; but before it could be accomplished their Lordships must have before them the Reports of these Commissioners.
LORD BROUGHAMadmitted that there was already much good in our system, and that the good predominated over the bad in it. But, to save what was good, we ought to get rid at once of what was bad, or else we might see all the good and all the bad parts of our system swept away in one common ruin. He should now proceed to lay upon the table of the House a Resolution declaratory of the benefits to be derived from adopting a system of reconcilement and arbitration. He was sorry that he could not have the satisfaction which he could have wished to derive from the concurrence of his noble and learned Friend (Lord Lyndhurst, we believe), and of his noble and learned Friend on the woolsack, in his Resolution. He then read the terms of it, which declared that the great advantages of a system of reconcilement and arbitration appeared to their Lordships to be clearly made out from the experience derived from its adoption in the dominions of the King of Denmark during the last twenty years.
§ LORD REDESDALEthought, that in point of form, this could not be done. He did not think that the noble and learned Lord had any right to lay a Resolution of this kind on the table, though, beyond all question, he had a right to move it.
§ THE MARQUESS OF LANSDOWNEwas understood to say that his noble and learned Friend had a right to lay his Resolution on the table at present, but not to divide the House upon it that evening.
LORD CAMPBELLcontended that it was the right of any Peer to lay information upon the table for the instruction of his brother Peers. With that view Lord Mansfield had on one occasion laid his note book on the table of the House.
§ Subject at an end.