165 Bills of Exchange and tion was one of great importance. {Nov. 16, 1852} Notes (Metropolis) Bill. 166 not a Commission, under the Board of Ad- was in the hands of a British subject, who miralty now sitting, to inquire generally had to look to the foreign endorser in deinto the state of the manning of the Navy, fault of the English acceptor, or suppose and embracing everything connected with the English holder got payment from the the condition of our seamen. It had been foreign endorser, but that endorser had to sitting for several months, but no report look to a prior endorser, and that that rehad yet been made. The Committee was medy had to be enforced in a foreign court of a private nature, for the purpose of in--the effect of this Bill would be to alter forming the Admiralty, and was composed the nature of the contract which had been of many most distinguished officers, in made abroad between the parties to the whose judgment the greatest confidence bill. Now a bill of exchange drawn upon could be placed, and who would ever have a British subject, so far as concerned a prominently in view the good of the ser- British subject, enured according to the He entirely agreed that the ques- British law. Although, however, the general principle of the law was that contracts depended on the law of the country where they were made, there was an exception. If a bill was drawn in one country upon the subject of another in that country, the law of the country where the bill was to be paid was that which regulated the liability of the acceptor. But in this case the foreign endorser had engaged that the acceptor should pay if the bill was presented according to the tenor of the bill; and it was very doubtful if the foreign courts would enforce the contract as altered by an ex post facto law in this country. wished therefore to suggest that it would behove all holders of bills due on the 18th, whose bills were not paid on Wednesday, to present them again on Friday. Generally speaking, presentation was excused for a reasonable cause, and it had been held that, where there was a physical restraint on the party holding the bill-such as riots on the day when the bill was due LORD BROUGHAM said, when he spoke of the expense, he had in his eye the undoubted fact of the wages being so much better in other branches of the sea service than in our Navy; and, not only in our own mercantile marine, but in the American service. BILLS OF EXCHANGE AND NOTES (METROPOLIS) BILL. The EARL of DERBY then moved the Second Reading of the Bill with respect to the presentation and payment of Bills falling due on Thursday next. He LORD CAMPBELL said, that, entirely approving the Bill, he wished to make one observation with a view of removing some apprehensions which had been expressed with respect to it. It had been suggested that foreign acceptors and endorsers of bills might be released from their liabilities if the bills due on the 18th were presented on any other than the day on which they origi-nonpresentation on the day on which it nally became due. He apprehended, however, that it was a maxim of modern law that that which was done in each country must be taken according to the law of that country. Now, the 17th inst. would be the day for the presentation of bills falling due in England on the 18th, according to the law of this country; and he thought, therefore that the acceptor and endorser would be as much liable if the bill were then presented as if it were presented on the 18th. fell due was excused, provided the bill was presented as soon as the physical restraint was withdrawn, and at the earliest practicable moment. Now the effect of this Bill was, if not to render the presentation of bills on the 18th instant unlawful on the day on which they fell due, at least to show that the Legislature intended they should not be presented on that day. That might not be considered equivalent to a restraint by force by the foreign courts. It was therefore important that holders of LORD TRURO said, he did not intend to foreign bills falling due on Thursday should offer any opposition to the Bill; but he was present them on Friday, as the earliest afraid that some inconvenience might arise. period possible after they fell due, in order There could be no doubt that the provi-to place themselves in the best possible sions of this Bill, by which bills falling due situation, on the 18th instant might be presented the day previously, would be attended with no evil consequences in relation to British bills. Let them, however, take the case of bills drawn in foreign parts on British subjects. Suppose that one of these bills LORD CAMPBELL said, that he must express his confidence that the foreign endorsers and drawers were liable, according to what would be a good presentation by the law of England when that presentation had to be made. Now, as there were three days of grace there was no necessity for a presentation on the day when the bill fell due; and, therefore, according to the law of England, the presentation would now be good either on the 17th or 19th inst. LORD TRURO said, he referred only to foreign contracts. LORD BROUGHAM said, that when two Judges gave opinions not exactly the same, he hoped they would not consider themselves bound by the opinions which they might there express, if the point was ever brought before them judicially. Bill read 2a (according to Order); Committee negatived; and Standing Orders Nos. 37 and 38 considered (according to Order), and dispensed with; and Bill read 3a, and passed. FUNERAL OF THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON. LORD REDESDALE brought up the First Report of the Select Committee appointed to consider the best mode in which the House could assist at the ceremony of the funeral of the late Duke of Wellington. The Clerk at the table then read the Report: "1. That the House be represented in the Procession by the Lord Chancellor only. "2. That the Lords attending the Ceremony in the Cathedral do appear in Mourning in the Places reserved for them. "3. That arrangements be made for such Lords as desire to go to the Cathedral by Water to proceed from the House to Paul's Wharf, at a Quarter past Nine o'Clock. "4. That Tickets be ready for Delivery to all Lords proposing to attend the Ceremony, 'till Five o'Clock To-morrow, at the Earl Marshal's Office, No. 1, Parliament Street; such Tickets will be required by all who go to the Cathedral, whether by Land or Water. "5. That similar Tickets be also delivered to all Peers of Scotland and Ireland." Ordered to be printed. Moved to resolve ment propose to adopt for the further prosecution of the objects which your Lordships and the other House of Parliament had then in view. My Lords, the Acts which your Lordships passed last Session with regard to the proceedings of the Court of Chancery were three in number. One Act was for the abolition of the office of Master in Chancery, and for introducing an altogether new system of Chamber practice with regard to matters which, up to that time, had been prosecuted by the Masters in their own Chambers. The next Act was for the Improvement of the Jurisdiction in Equity; and the third Act was called the Suitors in Chancery Relief Act; and it certainly did afford a great relief, by the reduction of salaries and the abolition of useless and unnecessary offices. Now, my Lords, it has been very much the practice of Parliament, and it is a very easy mode (whatever other difficulties it may involve) of getting through the business of legislation on such subjects, not to fill up in detail the outline of the Bills, but to leave almost everything beyond their leading subjects to be carried into execution by Orders to be made by the Court after the Bills themselves have passed. This was the course adopted by Parliament with respect to the measures of last Session; and I can assure your Lordships, therefore, that my vacation has been principally occupied in a species of legislation-sometimes with and sometimes without the assistance of my what was necessary to give full effect to learned Colleagues in order to supply these Acts of Parliament. My Lords, they are now in full operation; and I think I can assure your Lordships, from what I have already seen, that they will fully effect everything which the country and Parliament have had in view. And I think I may venture to assert that the celerity with which matters will be decided in Chancery "That this House be represented in the Pro- will be such as to make the old proverb cession by the Lord Chancellor only." On Question, agreed to. IMPROVEMENTS IN THE ADMINISTRA TION OF THE LAW. entirely forgotten, and to lead to the introduction of a new one. I think there is no Court in this country in which questions of property will be decided with such rapidity as there-and by rapidity I do not mean The LORD CHANCELLOR: My haste, which above all other things is to be Lords, I rise for the purpose of stating to deprecated in the administration of justice; your Lordships what steps have been taken I mean really good speed-speed so far as since we last met for the purpose of car- is consistent with the most mature deliberying into operation the Acts which were ration; and that such speed can now be passed last Session having reference to given to matters coming before the Court of the Court of Chancery, and various matters Chancery I hope to show your Lordships connected therewith. I rise also to state before I sit down, as well as that the exto your Lordships what are the further pense may yet be greatly diminished, so as measures which Her Majesty's Govern- to render that Court, and every portion of it, at once rapid in its operation and truly cheap to the suitor. time to prevent different decisions, and keep the subject closely within the time within which he ought to appeal. Therefore, my Lords, there will henceforward be a statute of limitations, as it were, within the Court, as well as one without the Court. My Lords, the Act for the Relief of the Suitors in Chancery, as I told your Lordships, has also been followed out by orders of the Court. The fees under these Acts have been settled, and they have been greatly reduced in number, and very considerably simplified. A great burden was imposed upon the suitors in having to pay a great many fees upon every occasion at many offices. That evil has been corrected, and the parties will have fewer fees to pay, and the whole system is exceedingly simplified, which in itself will be found to be a very great benefit. I mention this, because I wish clearly to show your Lordships the state of the funds which we have in our Court, and the purposes to which they are applied. My Lords, independently of the general objects of the Acts in question, there was a very crying evil which has been remedied by the Orders which have been issued by myself and my learned Colleagues. It is a subject which I always had very much at heart and respecting which I carried my views into effect as far as I could in Ireland. It is this-that there should be a statute of limitations, as it were, within the Court, as well as a statute of limitations without the Court. You pass an Act of Parliament to prevent the bringing forward of old claims; but in the Court itself when once made they may be kept alive and brought forward at a period highly inconvenient and unjust. Your Lordships have an order regarding appeals, which is to this effect-that there shall be no appeal from a decree or order of the Court of Chancery after the lapse of five years after enrolment. Under the early orders of the Court of Chancery, the arrangement was such that the enrolment was intended to I want to draw your Lordships' attentake place at once. The intention of your tion, and the attention of everybody in Lordships' House, therefore, at a very the country, to the state of our funds, the early date, was to compel the party to come nature of the fund out of which the costs to this House, if he wanted relief, within of the Court are paid, the costs of the five years after he or the other litigating administration of justice, and the means party had first actually got a decree. But, by which I hope still further to reduce so far from this being practically carried those costs. Your Lordships must bear in out, the course, up to this last twelve- mind that the additional sum of 9,0007. month, has been that parties have been a year in the shape of compensation has allowed in the Court of Chancery to enrol been thrown upon the funds by the late nunc pro tunc, and then the party de- improvements. You have given large comsiring to appeal to your Lordships' House pensations, and at the same time created himself enrols the order, though adverse to new offices, so that, although the fees are himself, and at the end of, it may be, fif- greatly reduced, yet the immediate expenteen or seventeen years, he comes to your ses have also greatly increased. But, notLordships' House, and presents an appeal withstanding that, my Lords, the saving to the House at that distant period; all to the suitors between the fees which were which leads to great evils and great injus-imposed last year, and the fees which will tice. There should be no taking away of now be imposed under the scale which has a man's right to appeal; but there should just been issued, will be not less than be no door left open to him for unneces- 30,000l. a year. That is accounted for sarily continuing a long and irritating liti- in some measure by the sum of 26,000l. a gation. This evil has been met by Or-year, for the salaries of the several Judges ders to this effect, and I believe they will of the Court, having been transferred to work most beneficially: In the first place, the Consolidated Fund, upon the ground nobody is to have the right of appeal with- that the Judges ought to be paid by the in the Court of Chancery itself after five country, and not by the suitors. And so, years. In the next place, every man is unquestionably, the administration of justo enrol a decree or order within six tice ought to be paid for by the public months; and after five years have elapsed funds, and not by the funds of the suitors. he is not to be at liberty to enrol at all, But then there is this clear distinction: except by a special order of the Lord Chan- the costs of the administration of justice, cellor, so as to meet what may be a case properly speaking, ought undoubtedly to sometimes of necessity, yet at the same be paid by the country; but the costs of the administration of the property of a party within the Court ought not to be paid by the public. Every man ought to have a right to go into the Court itself free from expense, if it may be, and to have the decision of the Judge. But, if he has accounts to be taken-if he has estates to be guarded and watched, and kept in order, he is no more entitled to have the expense of that paid for him in Court, than he would be if the operation had taken place out of Court. Keeping in mind that essential distinction, I must call your Lordships' attention a little to the state of the funds, as I shall have occasion afterwards to call your Lordships' particular attention to the operation of them. There are two funds upon which the Court draws for sums for which it has occasion. One is called the Suitors' Fund, and the other is called the Suitors' Fee Fund. The Suitors' Fund arose in this way-there are in the Court sums of money sometimes of a large amount, which the persons interested in them never require to be invested. The Court, therefore, under the authority of various Acts of Parliament, has been in the habit of itself investing from time to time that portion of the Suitors' " unemployed cash," as it is called, which the Suitor has not required, or directed to be invested on his account. The consequence of the party not requiring it to be invested is, that of course he cannot be entitled to the dividends upon that which he has not had invested, and he is not liable to any loss; but he can demand the amount simply of his cash whenever he thinks proper to do so. The dividends on the stock thus procured are partly applied by the Court in payment of the salaries of officers and expenses of the Court, and the surplus of those dividends is again invested on a separate account, though as part of the same Fund. Nearly 4,000,0007. has been invested in this way, and the sums standing on these two accounts constitute what is called the Suitors' Fund; and the result is, that at this time there is a fund producing an income of 111,000l. and a fraction, which is appropriated to the payment of the expenses of the Court and of the administration of justice. Now, my Lords, the sums which by Parliament have been thrown upon this fund amount to 48,3201. a year. The annual dividend of the fund is 111,8437.; that leaves a surplus of 63,5231., which by the Act of last Session-the Suitors' in Chancery Relief Act-was directed to be carried over to the next fund, that is, the Suitors' Fee Fund. My Lords, the Suitors' Fee Fund is a fundas the very name of it intimates-which arises from fees imposed by the authority of Parliament, and payable by the suitors. That balance of 63,5231. came in aid of that fund, and the sum which this year will have to be provided for as charges upon the fee fund will amount to 157,450l. Then, if you take the balance which is to be carried to the credit of the fee fund, 63,5231., that will leave an amount of 93,9271., to be levied upon all the Suitors in the Court of Chancery. Now, my Lords, I have no occasion to tell your Lordships that that is a very large sum; yet it is a small sum compared with the actual business done. My Lords, the amount of fees levied last year was 133,8421. The estimated amount, I have told your Lordships, of the fees this year is 93,2417.; that is, a saving of 40,6017.; and then there is to be added 3,8381. to that for fees hitherto received by the officers for their own use, which have been abolished, and which the suitors will not have to pay. That makes a sum of 44,4391., which would be the saving in the year. But, my Lords, the Court have received copy money; they have had to copy documents, and have charged a certain amount per folio as copy money, and that sum altogether has produced 10,000l. a year. The solicitors have complained very much of this. They thought it was taking their own proper business from them, and that they could do it better as between themselves and their clients, if it were left to them. My Lords, it is now left to them, and they will have the benefit of it. The solicitors are themselves to furnish the copies, the expense of which will, as heretofore, amount to 10,000l. a year. Your Lordships will see it is not a saving to the suitors, because the suitors will still have to pay for copies; but it is not a sum raised by the Court in any manner upon fees which the Court imposes. The result is, that, taking that 10,000l. off the 44,4391., because the suitors will still have to pay it, there is a saving of 34,4397. in this year's estimate between the costs to be paid in the coming year by the general body of suitors, and the costs paid in last year. My Lords, it is necessary, in order to show to your Lordships what I propose, to state to your Lordships, in some little detail, the particulars of the management The of the fund under the care and in the name | by the Court, and stock transferred by the of the Accountant General. In the first Court, from or to the accounts of different place, I will observe that there has been parties. The result of that is as folsome complaint made, and justly enough-lows:-The stock purchased by the Court not as regards the officers, because they last year was 2,181,2491. The stock sold have been inclined to give every facility by the Court was 1,829,0097., making and to do more than officers generally have together 4,010,2587. The stock accepted been in the habit of doing-but complaints was 2,382,5917., the stock transferred have been made that the Accountant Gene- was 2,964,8691. Upon a comparison of ral's office is shut the whole of the long vaca- these figures, you will find that by keeption, and that when there are persons who ing that stock together in one great achave moneys to receive, it is a great hard-count, instead of keeping the accounts in ship that they cannot receive them. I have no doubt we shall be able to make arrangements which, without pressing as we ought not to press-improperly upon officers who are already sufficiently worked, will enable us to meet the just demands of the public, and to clear the Court from that imputation. I must now draw your Lordships' attention particularly to the state of the Funds standing in the name of the Accountant General. The Accountant General has at this moment standing in his name the sum of 48,015,8261. stock-an enormous sum to be under the jurisdiction and under the care of the Court; and I have the satisfaction of telling your Lordships that no human being has a claim upon that fund which it is not fully sufficient to answer. With all the burdens thrown upon them, the funds of the Court are more than sufficient to meet them. With a view of seeing whether I could not make an arrangement which should further ease the suitors and very much simplify the management, I have taken great pains to understand the accounts, and to see what further could be done. Taking this last year, the stock and cash "turned over exceeded 21,000,000l. of money, and the accounts are upwards of 17,000 in number. Your Lordships will suppose, therefore, what without great care would be the difficulties incident to the management of such vast accounts. The amount of cash which was received by the Court during last year, including that received in respect of sales of securities, was 5,973,7691.; the amount of cash paid by the Court, including that paid upon purchases, was 5,993,5391., and I invite your Lordships' attention to the consideration how very nearly those two sums are balanced. Then we come to the stock. The stock, considered with respect to the dealings with it, is of two classes.jects which I have to mention, that I have The first class comprises stock purchased by the Court, and stock sold by the Court; the second class comprises stock accepted the different causes separately, the Court not had occasion to apply to any officer of the Court, from the highest in office to the lowest in station, who has not most readily |