Lords Sitting of 8 March 1853

MINUTES.
PUBLIC BILLS.—la Mutiny; Marine Mutiny; Slave Trade (Sohar in Arabia); Slave Trade (New Grenada); Copies of Specifications Repeal.

BANKRUPTCY COUNTY COURTS.
LORD BROUGHAM presented a petition from Merchants, Tradesmen, and inhabitants of Margate and of Brighton, in favour of the District Courts of Bankruptcy Abolition Bill. The petitioners complained of the expenses and vexatious delays occasioned to them in their trade by the present state of the administration of the bankruptcy law; and of the great distance they were obliged to travel for the purpose of resorting to the bankruptcy courts. The distance they had to travel was sometimes 70, 80, or even 90 miles, and they prayed that their Lordships would give their assent to a Bill which was now before their Lordships for vesting in the County Courts jurisdiction in bankruptcy. It was impossible for him to present these petitions for the purpose of extending the jurisdiction of the County Courts, without calling the attention of their Lordships, and once more entreating that of his noble Friends of Her Majesty's Government, to the immense importance of the system of local judicature. He would only mention one circumstance, for the purpose of illustrating that which, indeed, no arguments were required to prove, but which was itself a proof of the vast importance of that jurisdiction. By the Superior Courts of Westminster-hall, in the course of one year there were somewhat under 2,000 writs issued and sent to be tried in all the circuits including the sittings for London and Middlesex. More than half of those cases, all of which were tried, and on which verdicts were given,

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and judgments entered up, were for amounts under 50 l., which was the extent for which local courts could issue process; consequently more than half of the cases tried by the Superior Courts in that one year in those circuits might have been tried much more expeditiously and infinitely more cheaply in the County Courts. The County Courts had a concurrent jurisdiction to the extent of 50 l.;and how many causes did those Courts try, during the same period of time, where the cause of action was between 20 l and 50 l? He would say nothing of the 100,000 causes under 20 l. Why, the number of cases which the County Courts tried, where the cause of action was between 20 l. and 50 l., during the same period of time, was 6,000. Let him repeat, that while the number of causes tried by the Supreme Courts under 50 l. in a given space of time was under 1,000, the number of causes tried by the County Courts was 6,000 during the same time, and for the same amount. Anything more monstrous than the present state of the law upon this subject he could not conceive. The whole salaries of the Judges of the Supreme Courts were now most properly and most justly paid, not by the suitors, but out of the Consolidated Fund. It was the bounden duty of Government and of Parliament to provide for the people of the country the whole expense of the administration of justice; but in the County Courts, where that immense mass of business was conducted to the infinite relief of the suitor, even saddled as he was with the expense of which he (Lord Brougham) complained—in the County Courts, instead of the county paying the expense, the poor suitor paid the expense, and because he was less fit and less capable of enduring the burden, it was therefore, as it would seem, that he was saddled with the expense of the administration of justice. This was an anomaly which he trusted he should not long have occasion to press upon the attention of Parliament. No less than 174,000 l were extorted, he might say, from these poor suitors in the County Courts to pay the expenses of administering the law to them, besides which sum they had to pay near 100,000 l more to the General Fee Fund; and what made the case more monstrous and anomalous was, that after all the expenses of the Court had been paid, there was a surplus left, and that surplus went to the Consolidated Fund.
House adjourned to Thursday next.