§ LORD HATHERTON, seeing that his noble and learned friend opposite (Lord Brougham) had brought forward some Resolutions declaring the need of a more speedy administration of justice, which Resolutions had been postponed, begged leave to inquire when he would proceed with them? Even the all-absorbing interest of the war ought not to prevent the immediate consideration of his suggestions, to many of which he (Lord Hatherton) attached the greatest value. He (Lord Hatherton) being connected with one of the most populous counties of the kingdom (Staffordshire), had had opportunities, during forty years, of remarking, to his infinite pain, the inefficiency of the present system. Nothing could be more lamentable, nothing more dreadful than some of the evils it caused, and it was impossible that it could be longer maintained. He cordially agreed in the general principle, though not in all the details, of the Resolutions which Lord Brougham had proposed.
LORD BROUGHAMregretted to say, that at present, from the absorbing interest of the war, in which we were unavoidably and necessarily, but most unfortunately engaged, it was very difficult to obtain, either in Parliament or out of doors, the attention due to other subjects, of a different kind, but of the greatest importance. Not the least among the evils of that most unhappy conflict in which we were engaged, was that it tended to check the course of improvement in our internal affairs. But he thought it his duty to press these Resolutions on the attention of their Lordships. From letters he had received since they were moved on Friday, he found a great mistake prevailing as to their object. More than one person, magistrates in the country, supposed they related wholly to the want of a public prosecutor. That was only one of the subjects they included. What appeared to him to be most urgently necessary was the more speedy administration of justice to prevent the enormities he had described, when persons against whom there was really no shadow of an accusa- 1170 tion were sometimes kept in prison for six or eight months, and perhaps not even then were brought to trial. He had intended to move that the debate be resumed after the holidays; but he now doubted whether a different course would not be more convenient. In 1828, when he made a statement to Parliament of the defects of our system of law, and jurisprudence, the result was the appointment of Commissions, to consider the method of civil procedure, and valuable improvements, including the establishment of the county courts, arose from their suggestions. He doubted now whether he should move the House to call upon the Crown to appoint such a Commission, or whether he should ask their Lordships to appoint a Select Committee. He should himself prefer a Commission, and hoped the result would be improvements of our criminal procedure as extensive and as valuable as those which from the Commissions of 1828, 1829, and 1830, had been made in our civil procedure.