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best adapted for dispensing justice to the inhabitants. For many purposes of police and criminal investigation, as well as to secure tribunals sufficient to meet the demands of a trading community, it is important that, independently of the County Courts properly so called, there should be a sufficient legal magistracy resident in the towns, and towards which the Burgh revenues should contribute at least a proportion.

With the least departure from that uniformity, which it is desirable to preserve, and with the least interference with approved judicatures, the following course is suggested as practically obviating all difficulties, and as being not without precedent.1

Let any burgh or district of burghs desirous of a Court of Local Jurisdiction, petition the Queen in Council, and let Her Majesty be empowered, after reference to the Judicial Committee, if such petition be opposed, or without such reference if unopposed, by order in Council, to constitute such burgh or district a separate Sheriffdom, to assign the limits of a convenient territory in and near such burgh or district, within which such local jurisdiction may be exercised; and to declare all other concurrent jurisdictions within such limits to be abolished. Let Her Majesty also be empowered to appoint a sheriff to administer justice therein, having the qualifications now required by Law for Sheriff-Substitutes, such Sheriff to be exempt from any Statutory requirements as to practice at the Bar, and to be resident within the bounds.

In conclusion, the suggestions now advocated for the amelioration of Civil Procedure in the Scottish Courts, may be summed up in the following resumé : —

1. That the mode of preparing Records by summons and defences be abolished.

2. That it be no longer necessary to annex to the summons a condescendence of the allegations of fact and pleas in law in support of the action.

3. That (except in special proceedings for which distinct

1 Vide 15 & 16 Vict. c. 54. s. 7.

forms may be appointed) the summons be a simple writ or warrant for citation to appear or suffer decree by default, with a notice to the defendant annexed or indorsed, of the amount and particulars of the demand, or relief claimed.

4. That no further Record be required, unless appearance be entered for the defendant.

5. That on entering appearance, the defendant may dispense with a Record being made up, and intimate his assent to any agreed course of proceeding; and the case may then be disposed of in such manner as the Court or Judge on motion may be pleased to order.

6. That if no such consent appear, a Record be prepared, consisting of a "case," or single paper on each side, framed in articulate numbered allegations, answered by admission or denial under corresponding numbers, according to the existing rules for the preparation of condescendence and answers.

7. That at any stage before or after making up a Record, the Court or Judge may order the examination of either or both parties, in general, or on any particular points.

8. That in ordinary civil causes before Sheriffs, the procedure be entirely assimilated to the practice of the Supreme Court.

9. That all applications now competent by Petition, and all maritime causes, be disposed of by vivâ voce summary hearing and procedure in the manner now used in the

Small Debts Court.

10. That the Small Debt Jurisdiction be extended in amount.

11. That the Ordinary and Small Debt Courts be amalgated, with power to the Court to remit from the "Ordinary" to the "Summary Roll," and vice versa, such causes as from special circumstances may be deemed more adapted for one or the other course of procedure.

12. That ordinary causes before Sheriffs may pass for review to the Inner House direct, in like manner as causes originating in the Court of Session from the Lord Ordinary.

13. That summary causes may be appealed to the next Judge of Assize, or to three Sheriffs, as in the Registration Appeal Courts.

14. That the Queen in Council may, on the petition of any burgh or district, erect the same into a distinct Sheriffdom, with convenient limits. And Her Majesty may appoint a Sheriff, to administer justice there, without condition of practice at the Metropolitan Bar, but to be resident within

the bounds.

On closing this cursory survey, the writer will now take leave.

Before these observations can meet the public eye, in all likelihood he will be far from the scene of controversy; but present or absent, he will view with unabated interest the advancement of his profession and his country. And though the chosen and appropriate sphere of his labours must be distant, yet, if he can carry with him the cheering reflection, that he had in his wanderings planted or watered to the yielding of good fruit, he will go forth on his way rejoicing.

ART. II.-COUNTY COURTS AND THEIR CLAIMS.

Remarks on Government Bounties to the Superior Courts, with Observations on the Claims of the Suitors of the County Courts to an equal Participation in the Public Funds appropriated to the Support of the Administration of Justice. In a Letter to the Editor of the Law Review by a Judge of the County Courts.

DEAR SIR,-It is with much satisfaction I have learned that the attention of Lord Brougham has been directed to the subject to which this letter relates. Within the entire range of our institutions there is no greater abuse; and it is one of which the continuance cannot be extenuated, because there exists a power at present (without further legislation) of equalising or removing those burdens which are now so unequally, and therefore so unjustly, distributed; for the fees of the County Courts are open to be regulated or reduced by the Government authorities.

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Were any European Government to establish simultaneously two Jurisdictions, one having cognisance of the complaints of the poor, and the other possessing authority over the claims of the wealthy; and to endow the rich man's tribunals with ample resources out of the revenues of the State, but to leave the Courts of the poor to be maintained by themselves, what judgment would be formed by enlightened and impartial men of such a transaction? It must be superfluous to suggest what that judgment would be.

In the delineation I have just given, I have literally described the actual relative positions of the Local Jurisdictions of this country on the one hand, and of the Superior Courts on the other; which (viewed in relation to financial considerations) present anomalies and contrasts characteristic of the middle ages, when popular rights were habitually and openly trampled under the feet of the privileged few. Will it be readily believed, even a single generation hence, that in the age in which Lord Brougham and Lord Denman lived-in which the enlightenment and elevation of the mass of the people had become an object of general concern—in which the equitable equalisation of taxation had become the declared aim even of the original advocates of protective duties, and the reform of the laws the pursuit of the leading members of the legal profession,-will it be believed, that at the period at which I write, such things could have been!

Inequalities, which in the feudal times the spirit of tyranny might have created, have been permitted in our days through oversight on the part of our rulers, and imperfect information on the part of our people. But it will be obvious, that the further continuance of grievances so flagrant as those to which this communication relates, is utterly inconsistent with the impartiality of our Government, the purity of our laws, and with that sense of justice which governs the public opinion of the British community. Though it must be superfluous for me to mention that fact to you, there are doubtless many of your readers who are not aware, that while the Judges and Officers of the Superior Courts of Law are supported out of the public treasury, the funds by which the

system of County Courts is maintained are derived exclusively from fees exacted from the suitors in those Courts.

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A mere general statement of the nature of so palpable an injustice must suffice to ensure for it the condemnation of every unsophisticated mind.

It is, however, my intention on this occasion to go a little into detail: as, in some instances, the fees or Court Taxes levied in the County Courts are of a peculiarly objectionable character. Of these I shall furnish a few examples.

1. The costs of imprisonment.-I need hardly remind you that the Law of Imprisonment for Debt, as regards sums under 20., has gone through many phases. At one time, the power of imprisonment in such cases was abolished altogether, to the injury of the creditor and with great detriment to the morals of the community - for the majority of those who contract small debts are labouring men who have often no tangible property except such as might be easily secreted; and for that reason mere executions against their goods were easily evaded by fraudulent defendants. Hence, in the County Courts Act, imprisonment for debt was partially revived by a clause which seems to me to hit the proper medium, and is, in my humble judgment, the very keystone of the Act; for it is against fraudulent debtors that the provisions of such Acts are chiefly needed.

The measure alluded to gives the Judge of the County Court the power of imprisonment, confined to those cases in which the debtor, who has failed in payment, has been guilty of some act which brings his conduct within the category of crimes; such as obtaining money under false pretences, fraudulent assignments to evade executions, contracting debts without having any reasonable prospect of paying them, &c.

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Will it be credited that the County Courts Act throws on the plaintiffs the expenses of these proceedings for the imprisonment of fraudulent debtors-proceedings which belong to the class of criminal prosecutions-as plainly as do indictments tried at the Assizes or Quarter Sessions? When the plaintiff is poor and the defendant tricky and roguish, the

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