imagine nor explain the expenses for which the grant was called for, he must persevere in his opposition to it. The clause for granting 10,000l. a-year to his royal highness the duke of York was then agreed to without a division, and the bill went through the committee without any amendment. HOUSE OF COMMONS. Tuesday, March 30. DELAY IN THE COURT OF CHANCERY.] Mr. M. A. Taylor said, he would not disguise from the House that his present motion was only a preliminary step to other measures which he meant to bring forward, some in the present, and others in a future session. The object of the present motion was to show the delay in the Court of Chancery and the appellant jurisdiction. His motion was for an account of the total amount of the effects of suitors in the Court of Chancery in 1756, and every subsequent 10th year, and in 1818. What he had in view was to show the great increase of business in the Court of Chancery, from a variety of sources, since the first of these periods. He had had the honour in 1811, to move the appointment of a committee to inquire into the delays in the Court of Chancery, and to search the Journals of the Lords with respect to the delays in the appellant jurisdiction. That inquiry was followed by the appointment of an assistant court. His object was to submit to the House whether that assistance had been effectual. His own opinion was, that it had not been effectual. In the appellant jurisdiction the appeals had diminished from 300 and upwards to 140. But there were at times in the appellant jurisdiction 26 suits waiting decision at one time. If any thing should happen, either the death of the present lord chancellor, or his removal from office in consequence of a change of administration, an enormous expense would be entailed on the number of suitors whose cases remained undetermined. In June 1811, there were in the paper of the lord chancellor 114 causes: there were besides exceptions and demurrers: the appeals were 35, and the hearings 5: the bankruptcy petitions to be heard were 203. At this moment there were 289 causes in the lord chancellor's paper, whereas before there were only 114. For hearing there were 101 causes. The object he had in view was to remove the obstacles to the determination of the causes before the chancery. For that purpose he wished to separate all the causes of bankruptcy from the great seal. The best way of remedying the evil was, he conceived, to separate the business which was superadded by statute, and which did not come within the original jurisdiction of the court, from its proper business. They all knew that lunacy cases, and those of wards had been superadded to the business of the great seal. When the great question of the law of bankrupts came before them, it was his intention to move, that it be an instruction to the committee to separate the bankruptcy business from the business of the great seal. This was the only motion which he intended to bring forward at present. The plan which had come down from the other House, and which had been adopted by this, had not relieved a single suitor of the Court of Chancery. He was sure every attention had been paid to the business of his office by the vice chancellor. The present illness of the lord chancellor might have occasioned considerable delay: but, making an allowance for this, it was certain that the relief had not been such as had been contemplated by a learned lord when the measure was brought in. He meant, on some future day, to submit a motion to the House as to the propriety of separating the chancellorship from the office of Speaker of the House of Lords. It was well known that from every court of England there were regular and substantial appeals. But for the suitors in a court of equity there was no appeal. Let any gentleman enter the House of Lords, and he would see that an appeal from chancery was simply an appeal from the chancellor to himself and two lay lords beside him. From every other court of England, Scotland, and Ireland, there was a bona fide appeal. From the jurisdiction of the lords of session in Scotland there was an appeal to the chancellor as Speaker of the House of Lords. The appeals from the chancery of Ireland were to a new person. It was the same with writs of error from that country. But the appeals from the chancellor were to the same person who ruled the House of Lords from the influence he had in it. The weight of property decided by the lord chancellor of England probably amounted to one-fifth of the whole property of the kingdom. On some future day, he should call the attention of the House also to the vice it his duty, as chairman of the finance chancellor's court. His object was to committee, to bring in the same bill, only assist the judges who sat in, and the per- omitting that part which gave any remusons who had suits before, the Court of neration to the lord president. If it apChancery. He thought it was a great peared, that a salary ought to be given evil that any suitor should be compelled it would be competent to any member to to remain 5, 6, 7, or even 10 years be- move a clause to that effect. The hon. fore his cause could be decided. The gentleman concluded with moving for hon. gentleman then moved, "That there leave to bring in a bill to regulate the be laid before this House, an account of office of lord justice general of Scotland. the total amount of the Effects of the Leave given. Suitors in the High Court of Chancery in the year 1756, and in every subsequent tenth year since the year 1756, and in the year 1818." SCOTCH POOR RELIEF BILL.] Mr. Kennedy, after apologizing for bringing forward a measure connected with so important a subject as the poor laws, moved for leave to bring in a bill to regulate the relief granted to the poor in Scotland; the object of which was to. prevent the progress of evils in Scotland, similar to those which had arisen in England. The Solicitor General believed the hon. gentleman was mistaken, when he represented the arrears of business in the Court of Chancery to have increased. The number of appeals, indeed, had multiplied, as might have been expected to be the case, from the institution of a second inferior court. The arrear of bank. rupt petitions had, however, been considerably reduced. The number of cases heard and determined by the lord-chancellor during the last three years ex ceeded all precedent, and was to be attributed to the practice, which was before-Leave given. unusual, of deciding important questions upon motion merely, instead of a formal suit. The confidence reposed by the public in the lord chancellor's learning and judgment had led to the introduction of this useful practice The motion was then agreed to. LORD JUSTICE GENERAL OF ScorLAND.] Mr. Davies Gilbert rose to move for leave to bring in a bill to regulate the office of lord justice general of Scotland. The duties of the office were usually performed by deputy. The reason why this office had not hitherto been abolished, was, that by different acts of parliament certain acts were appointed to be done, and certain writs to be signed by this officer. A bill had been submitted to the House last session for the abolition of this office, which went through several stages, but the subject was finally put off. By this bill the duties of the office were transferred to the lord president of the court of session, and a certain salary was given to the lord president for such additional duties. One gentleman had opposed the bill on the ground that the salary was more than ought to be given, and another on the ground that no salary at all ought to be given. He had thought Mr. Hume said, that thanks were due to the hon. mover for his attention to this subject. The object, he understood, was, to settle who the persons were by whom the funds raised for the relief of the poor in Scotland should be managed. HOUSE OF COMMONS. Wednesday, March 31. COAL DUTIES.] Mr. Sinclair said, that he held in his hand a petition very numerously and respectably signed, from the town of Thurso, in Caithness, against the imposition of any fresh duty upon coals. The anxiety and alarm, which even the unauthenticated rumour that such a measure was in contemplation, had excited in every part of the kingdom, and which particularly prevailed in the manufactur ing districts of Scotland, had extended to the distant county, which he had the honour to represent. He was happy to find that his own sentiments were confirmed by those of the petitioners-and should, if necessary, give every opposition in his power to a tax so cruel and impolitic; a tax which would press so severely upon all classes of the community, but especially upon the indigent and industrious-a tax which, by increasing the price, would necessarily diminish the consumption of many important articles of manufacture and would thus prove very injurious to the commerce and revenue of the country. Ordered to lie on the table. BREACH OF PRIVILEGE-MINUTES OF COURT MARTIAL ON THOMAS STINTON.] Lord Althorp moved, that the Minutes of the Court Martial on Stinton, the man tried for attending a committee of the House, be printed. Mr. Beckett justified the proceedings of the court-martial, and contended, that no breach of privilege had been intended or committed in point of fact; the order produced by Stinton was dated on Thursday morning, and the arrest by serjeant Hardy did not take place until Saturday afternoon. Mr. Tierney thought that the court ought to have inquired, whether the presence of Stinton had been required on the morning of Saturday, before they found him guilty, although they had followed up their sentence by no punishment. He did not impute to the courtmartial any intention to infringe the privileges of the House; but the subject ought to be investigated, for the sake of the precedent. Lord F. Bentinck said, that if the soldier was wanted by that House, it was merely necessary for him to mention it to the serjeant, and then to go. With respect to any expressions in the sentence, he could not see how they could be construed to involve any breach of the privileges of the House. That sentence was worded as the sentences of courtsmartial generally were, and went expressly to show that it was not meant to incur any such breach of privilege. Colonel Barry conceived, that had the sentence of the soldier been for absenting himself without leave, it would have been fully justified. Undoubtedly the man had been guilty of a military crime in so doing, and the sentence was quite regular. Mr. Tierney thought the man was perfectly justified. If he was wanted by that House, it was enough for him to say, "I am wanted, and will go." Mr. Brougham rose to protest against the doctrine which had been advanced by an hon. member on the other side. The hon. member admitted, that if the soldier was refused leave, he might come notwithstanding; he did not now contend that point, but said that he was bound to ask leave. Now he (Mr. B.) meant to dispute that doctrine altogether. On the warrant of that House being issued to any person whatever to attend them, whether it was to a servant under a master, a sol(VOL. XXXIX.) dier under his officer, an officer under his superior, it signified not which, except that the soldier under his officer was the most important case, when the control of the officer over the soldier was in question, it was that soldier's duty to come before the House immediately, without regarding any other order. Mr. Wynn agreed with his learned friend, that any person receiving an order to that effect was bound to attend the House. He considered that the soldier was also bound, not to ask leave, but to state that he had received such an order, and must attend. He had in such a case, no leave to ask. Mr. Brougham expressed his concur rence in what had fallen from his hon. friend, as to there being no necessity for a person so summoned to ask leave. Sir James Mackintosh was perfectly satisfied, that there was no wish to make out the infringement which had occurred a breach of privilege. With respect to what had been said about asking leave, whatever degree of confusion that expression might have produced among hon. members, it originated on the other side of the House. It seemed in the highest degree necessary to protect the individual from the consequences of the step he had taken. As to the observations of a right hon. gentleman, that such protection would open a door to every soldier who chose to do so, to leave his quarters, nothing could be more futile. Soldiers were bound to do their duty. The motion was agreed to. SCOTCH DUELLING ACTS REPEAL BILL.] Mr. Boswell rose to call the attention of the House to a subject which he felt to be of great importance to that part of the country with which he was connected. He wished it to be understood, that he meant to throw no imputation on the laws of his country. He was confirmed in his veneration for those laws -no man could feel more. Indeed, he had never met with a Scotsman in his life, who would change the laws under which he lived, for those of any other country. But that very veneration led him to look with greater anxiety and more fear, to any thing objectionable connected with those laws. They had heard that a revision of the laws was idle and visionary and impracticable. That it was idle and visionary he would deny; for it was not idle to remove from the Statute Book, (4 M) statutes which the courts of law had pronounced to be in desuetude. As the doctrine of the power of the courts to determine what statutes were, and what were not in force, had long been held to be the law of Scotland, and had even been sanctioned by the other House of Parliament, it was not his intention to interfere with it. But he wished the statute laws of that country to be in a more determinate shape-that those statutes which were declared to be in desuetude should be repealed, and that those which were partly in force and partly not, should be put in a more determinate shape. He wished for no innovation in the law; for the removing from the Statute Book statutes which were not held to be law, was not an innovation. It had been said, that the people of Scotland were going on very well under their present laws, and would go on very well without the interference of the House-that the court of session could pronounce hereafter, as they had hitherto pronounced, what laws were and what were not in force. But, how was this done? By a pertinacious and expensive litigation between individuals; for an act could not be pronounced in desuetude till it had been decided to be so by a court. It had been said that it was impossible to determine what part of a law ought to be struck out of the Statute Book and what not, without a most laborious inquiry. He had never thought it an easy task; but he was clearly of opinion that if it was competent to the legislature, to enact new laws, it was competent to them also to correct the old. Though it had been stated that, by the law of Scotland for more than 300 years, laws by contrary custom were abrogated, he was prepared to show that this had not always been the case within the period in question. In the Harleian miscellany there was a case which was decided in 1634. This was the case of lord Balmerino, in which the lord advocate Hope, of Craigie-hall, the author of a work on Scots law, called Minor Practicks, was the prosecutor, and Nisbet, of Duleton, the author of another book on Scots law, with a quaint title, was advocate for lord Balmerino. It was then objected to by lord Balmerino, that the act on which he was tried was in desuetude, but it was argued by the lord advocate, that there was no prescription against statute law. The court repelled the objection to the statute on which lord Balmerino was tried," in respect the act of parliament stands unrepealed." The statutes of Scotland might be divided into four classes: 1. Such as were totally inapplicable to the present state of society. 2. Statutes of which parts were in desuetude, and parts in force. 3. Statutes held to be in force, and which were of an unexceptionable nature. 4. Statutes held to be in force of an exceptionable nature. He wished to confine himself at present to moving the repeal of one statute of an exceptionable nature--a statute with respect to Duels, on which an individual had lately been tried. By this statute, a person sending or bearing a challenge to fight a duel, forfeited all his moveable property, and suffered banishment, whether the duel took place or not. He had it in view to move the repeal of two other statutes. One on the old system of monopoly, by which a butcher could not have more than one acre for grazing; the other declaring, that if two individuals who had a law-suit should happen to quarrel to the effusion of blood, the party who provoked the quarrel, de facto, should be considered to have lost his cause.-The hon. gentleman concluded with moving, "That leave be given to bring in a bill to repeal certain acts of the parliament of Scotland regarding Duelling." Mr. Mackenzie thought some of the hon. gentleman's observations calculated to produce a wrong impression with regard to the present state of Scottish jurisprudence. The practice of regarding some statutes as fallen into desuetude, was dictated by the first principles of the law of Scotland. He was not desirous of opposing the motion, but must protest against the doctrine, that established contrary use could not outweigh an unrepealed enactment. These partial repeals operated as ex post facto laws, and might serve to revive other statutes which were at this moment sunk in oblivion. Whether the principle of desuetude was originally good or bad, it was now too late to inquire; it was a principle interwoven with the whole theory and practice of the law, and could not be abrogated without producing the most injurious effects. Lord A. Hamilton considered the course now pursued as extremely inconvenient, with reference to the general object in contemplation. The hon. gentle. man proposed to repeal one or two particular statutes and leave to any other hon. member the task of proposing the repeal of others equally obnoxious. The effect must, in the mean time, be, to give new validity to all those which, though fallen into desuetude, had not hitherto been repealed. Lord Binning said, that had the motion been of a general nature, he should have wished it to be postponed, but he felt no objection to the particular question before the House. He did not mean, however, to pledge himself to the support of the measure. Mr. Brougham said, if he rightly understood the hon. gentleman, the subject of desuetude was not in question. He wished to repeal an act of parliament which was not in desuetude, but in force two years ago; he merely proposed an act to repeal another act, and the whole discussion would turn on the merits of the act proposed to be repealed. His opinion on the subject of desuetude was, that it was as much the law of Scotland that statutes fell into desuetude as it was that a man's eldest son succeeded to his landed estate. Leave was given to bring in the bill. respecting the petition which on a former night he had presented, from WilliamWeaver. He considered it his duty on all occasions to endeavour to ascertain the merits of every petition which he presented. In the present case, he had made inquiries into the statements of the petitioner, and the result was favourable. Since that he had learned that he had been engaged in smuggling transactions. But he did not think that, even if these charges were true, they constituted a reason for the persecution he had undergone. He had seen the landlord of the petitioner, and from him he had learned, that even after the goods first seized in execution were purchased by him, they were again seized as belonging to Weaver. He was, in consequence of his present imprisonment, wholly unable to meet his honest engage. ments with his creditors; and had actually laid his petition before the insolvency court, in order to be relieved. His main object in the present motion was to get at the whole of the system-to show, that while the party sued in the Exchequer was ruined, the resources of the country were misapplied in defraying the expenditure. He had therefore to move "That there be laid before the House an account of the expenses incurred, and the amount of penalties recovered, under the prosecution of William Weaver, by the Solicitor of the Excise." CHIMNEY SWEEPERS TRADE REGULATION BILL.] Mr. Bennet brought up the report of the committee appointed to examine the Lords' Journals respecting any proceedings in that House upon the Chimney Sweepers Regulation bill. Af Mr. Lushington said, there was one ter which, he rose to move for leave to thing which the worthy alderman had yet bring in a bill for the better regulation of to learn, namely, that a member of parthe trade of chimney sweepers. After liament should not allow his credulity to what had passed it was not his intention be practised on by the tales of unto propose any measure for the abolition principled persons. There never was a altogether of the use of climbing boys. case founded on more deceptious grounds Whatever might be his own private opi- than the present: instead of being a case nion on the matter, the result of his for- of hardship, it was a case of fraud commer endeavours had been such, that he mitted by a notorious offender. The precould not think such a proposition admis-sent motion was founded on the petition sible. His object therefore, now was to regulate the trade, and to put the parties under a better charge, and in a better situation, than they had heretofore been. He was happy to inform the House, that he had had several consultations with the master chimney sweepers, and that the bill he should propose to the House had met with their entire approbation.-Leave granted. of Weaver, in which he said that he had been prosecuted for selling a quantity of Spanish juice, and that that was his first offence. Of the truth of this allegation the House would judge, when he informed them, that this man had formerly been twice convicted by the board of excise, once for smuggling tobacco, and once for smuggling tea; that he had been three times convicted of smuggling by the Thames police, and twice by the Shadwell police; and that in the course of the last month, and since his petition was presented, smuggled tobacco had been found in his house. While under the execution |