LORD BROUGHAM, in moving for Returns connected with County Courts, called the attention of the House and of his noble and learned Friend on the Woolsack to the enormous amount of business which was performed, and he believed satisfactorily performed, by the Judges of those Courts. From 1854 to 1857, three years, there had been an increase in the number of plaints from 536,000 to 744,000. The number of causes tried, and where the parties complaining obtained their purpose, either by a judgment or by the money having been paid into court, had increased from 250,000 to very nearly 400,000. The sums received had increased from £1,500,000 to nearly £2,000,000. The number of suits for sums between £20 and 552 £50 constituted by far the larger proportion of this increase, and these were the causes in which the Superior Courts had concurrent jurisdiction in point of fact. For lower sums the number of causes had not increased in the same proportion, but still they had very largely increased. By the last Returns the number of causes actually tried, and where the parties had obtained the fruits of the trials, amounted to 400,000, and the sums actually received to £1,200,000. He had tried to discover how much of this was for causes under £20, and how much for causes between £20 and £50, and on no calculation that he could make did the amount received for the larger class of causes amount to a less sum than £200,000 of the £1,200,000. This was an important consideration with respect to the labours of the County Court Judges as compared with the Judges of the Superior Courts. There were ten circuits over England and Wales, and two in the metropolis, in the course of the year. The number of causes adjudicated at these circuits in the course of the year were about 1,200, but the amount covered by these causes he had no means of ascertaining; but they must be much less—greatly less—than the lower of the sums he had mentioned as adjudicated upon in the County Courts—the sum of £200,000; he had no doubt at all that they were very far below the larger sum. Under these circumstances he looked to his noble and learned Friend to assist him in his endeavours to extend the jurisdiction of these Courts still further, not only by adding equity jurisdiction to them, but also by extending their jurisdiction beyond the sum of £50. He would also wish to call the attention of his noble and learned Friend to the consideration that the labour of the County Court Judges had very greatly increased of late years; and it was said that they did not afford such relief to the Superior Courts as had been expected, and in consequence of changes in procedure the labour of the latter had increased, for no doubt the number of causes tried had diminished; the change which permitted two counsel to plead for each party had greatly increased the time occupied in the trial. The change, he believed, had tended greatly to the furtherance of justice and to the elucidation of the cause before the Court and jury, but it caused considerable delay. On the other hand, he considered that the alteration he introduced by his Bill of 553 1851, by which parties were allowed, and in some cases compelled, to give evidence in their own causes, had tended greatly to shorten the proceedings, to diminish the number of causes, and to lessen the time consumed in each case. The noble and learned Lord concluded by moving an Address for—
Return of the Total Number of Plaints entered in each County Court for Sums above £20 and not exceeding £50, from the 14th August, 1850 to the 31st December, 1857; and also a like Return of the Number of such Plaints in each Year from the 1st January 1858 to the 31st December 1858, and from the 1st January 1859 to the 31st December, 1859.