LAW REFORM. (Hansard, 30 June 1852)

LORD BROUGHAM
rose, and said, that having on the previous day recommended Her Majesty's Government to issue a Commission for the purpose of inquiring 1412 into the practice and jurisdiction of County Courts, he begged now to suggest further, that the frame of that Commission should be similar to that which was issued last year on the subject of the Court of Chancery. He would now read what he submitted should be the frame of it; the whole subject of fees and salaries as well as costs should be included, and he would hand to the noble Lord opposite the paper now read. His noble Friend would find that it extended to all Courts of Local Jurisdiction as well as County Courts. He begged also to take that opportunity of expressing his regret that County Court Judges, who were enabled to act as magistrates in counties without any other qualification than their Judgeship, had not been chosen as Chairmen of Sessions. He believed that great advantage would be derived from the justices in quarter-sessions being enabled to avail themselves of the assistance of the County Court Judges, in the same way as the magistrates in Ireland were enabled to avail themselves of the services of the Assistant Barristers in that country; and both in the Bill of 1833 and the Bill of 1846 the provision respecting the qualification was inserted in the hope that such a course would be taken in the different counties of England. There were several serious defects in the practice not merely of the local judicatures, to all which as well as the County Courts the inquiry should extend, but of the Superior Courts, which he hoped and trusted not many years, he hoped even not many months, would elapse before he saw a remedy applied to them. He particularly alluded to that most grievous omission to which he had often adverted in the practice of our Criminal Law whereby we are left without a public prosecutor. The present system had met with the universal condemnation of the Judges, who were all agreed that nothing could be worse than the present arrangement, by which the Judges performed the incompatible duties of both prosecutors, counsel for the prisoner, when he was without legal assistance, and Judges. He would read what had been recently said on the subject by some of these learned persons, as reported in Mr. Cox's Criminal Cases—Mr. Justice Cresswell, Mr. Justice Maule, Mr. Justice Coleridge, and Mr. Justice Williams. [The noble Lord read the opinions of those Judges, and their complaints of the want of prosecuting counsel.] Mr. Baron 1413 Pennifather, in Ireland, expressed himself in similar terms. Such a scandal must now cease, and the remedy for this great evil was a reform which it required no legislative measure to effect, at least to begin. It merely required the direction of the Secretary of State, and the concurrence of local authorities. When he (Lord Brougham) held the Great Seal, in 1834, his noble Friend Lord Bessborough (then Home Secretary), and himself, had arranged to introduce the matter gradually, and had intended to commence with the Central Criminal Court, which has jurisdiction over a population of 2,000,000; but their arrangement, unfortunately, was not carried into effect, owing to the change of Ministry which soon happened. In some counties the clerk of the peace supplied the want of a public prosecutor by having a standing counsel to superintend the criminal business. Thus, in the West Riding of Yorkshire and in Northumberland, he remembered the same counsel used always to be employed. The admirable manner in which the business was prepared and conducted, prevented both improper prosecutions being commenced, and failure in those fit to be instituted. There were many other matters connected with the local jurisdiction in its various braches, which imperatively required attention. He trusted the Government would give the whole subject their early and most careful consideration,

The MARQUESS of SALISBURY
said, he could only repeat what bad been said on the previous day by the noble Earl at the head of Her Majesty's Government, namely, that the subjects to which the noble and learned Lord had called their attention should not be lost sight of. But he must observe that the present was not a very convenient opportunity for bringing forward these subjects.

LORD BROUGHAM
thought, on the contrary, that the Motion for the Third Reading of the Appropriation Bill was a most fit occasion. That Bill was at all times considered as opening every matter of complaint; it was State of the Motion.