to inform the house whether he meant to bring forward any motion on the Mahratta and Carnatic papers. Lord Folkestone replied, that his purpose was, to move a resolution or resolutions, expressive of the opinion of the house, relative to the nacob of Oude; but without moving for any impeachment or criminal proceeding.

As to the Carnatic

charge, a right honourable gentle. man (Mr. Sheridan) stood pledged to support it, if not taken up by any other person, and the opportunity of redeeming his pledge, he rather thought would be afforded him. Mr. Sheridan said, with some emotion, that he had never forfeited the slight est pledge on this business. The ground on which he had acted, he was ready to repeat again and again, and on those grounds he confident. ly rested for the justification of his conduct.* And he was now prepa. red to declare, that if any other person, whoever that person might be, should bring forward the Carnatic question, he would distinctly pledge himself, to give that person his most zealous, active, and cordial assistance. Lord Folkestone declined to enter into any controversy with Mr. Sheridan on the subject of his former pledges. But he did recol. lect very accurately, that the right honourable gentleman did promise to bring this question of the Carnatic before the house. As to the grounds on which he had been induced to abandon that question, he really was not apprised of them. He had

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able gentleman's unwillingness to excite unpleasant sensations among his colleagues in office. That was, in plain English, that he was not willing to lose his place. He was however glad to hear his fresh pledge that evening: for his strenuous and sincere assistance, wherever he should be strenuous and sincere, would no doubt be a most important acquisition indeed.-To some wishes expressed by sir John Anstruther, lord Folkestone replied, that all he would pledge himself to, was the Oude charge. And he supposed that, in about a month or five weeks after the printing of the papers, he should be ready to make his motion. Sir John declared himself to be perfectly satisfied with this explanation. Mr. Whitshed Keene thought it was for the honour and dignity of the house, that the proceedings of the last session should not now be dropped. The papers moved for were then ordered to be reprinted: and on the motion of Mr. Wellesley Pole, a similar order was made respecting the other pa. pers connected with the Oude charge.

January 28th.--The solicitor-ge. neral, sir Samuel Romilly, agreeably to notice, moved the house of commons for leave to bring in a bill, for making the freehold estates of persons dying indebted, assets for the payment of simple contract debts. The injustice of the law in this case, appeared to the solicitor-general, so glaring, and the remedy for that

VOL. XLIX.

injustice so obvious, that he should have thought it unnecessary to do more than barely to state the object of his motion, if a similar measure had not been formerly proposed unsuccessfully. By the law, as it then stood, a man might contract debts to any amount, not evidenced by bond or other legal instrument; yet dying with property amply sufficient to satisfy those demands, his estate would pass to his heir at law, and his creditor would remain un paid: or, were the proprietor of such estate to make, before his death, a testamentary assignment, however capricious, to a stranger in blood, that stranger might, if he chose, look with indifference on the ruin of the creditors. It was very surprizing that this evil should have been allowed so long to exist; more especially when the extent of commerce in this country was consider. ed, and when it was recollected, that all debts on negotiable security were merely simple contract debts.--Sir Samuel, after a farther illustration of the injustice and hardships flowing from this law, and the inadequacy of the means occasionally resorted to for palliating those hardships, de. clared his opinion, that the law as it then stood, was pure, unmixed evil. He therefore made a motion, to the purport already stated: and leave to bring in a bill was granted. --- On the question being put, February 18th, for the second reading of the bill, it was opposed by Mr. W. Herbert, on the ground that it would change the whole law of landed property; lower the value of freehold property; and interfere with the elective franchise, which depended altogether on freehold property. He would have no objection, he said, to the measure, if it were confined altoge.

ther to the cases of persons who die suddenly or violently. Mr. Fellowes thought that the bill should extend to copyhold, as well as freehold property, because, in many cases, these were so blended, that it might be difficult to sell the one, without selling the other. The master of the rolls (sir W. Grant) thought that the effect of this measure, would be to do away that solemnity which the policy of the British law re. quired in transactions affecting free. hold property. By the principle of this bill, the security of entails would be destroyed. The fact was, that the parties, by their own act, decided the terms of the contract. The creditor who trusted to the sim. ple contract, knew that he was not in the same situation as if he had a bond; and vice versa.—But one of the objects of the measure, he understood to be, to prevent frauds by persons who might involve them. selves in debt, and, with money bor rowed, purchase freehold property, which would descend to their heirs without becoming responsible for these debts. This was a case, which had sometimes occurred, and which ought to be prevented. But the measure proposed went in one re. spect beyond its object, while, in another, it fell short of it. Such cases of frauds were confined to property purchased by the debtor, and the bill, by extending to all freehold property, went beyond its object. But, by being limited to freehold, and not including copyhold property, it fell short of its object. It was not, however, his intention to oppose the second reading of the bill, or even its going into a committee, when his honourable and learned friend would perceive the necessity, for the attainment of his

own object, of making some altera. tions in the measure.

The solicitor-general regretted very much, that the master of the rolls, to whom he had submitted a copy of the bill, had not favoured him with his objections to it sooner. If his right honourable and learned friend had not been present when, on a former day, he stated the grounds of that measure, the fault did not lie with him: he had on that occasion stated, that the law of landed property had been framed with a view to a feudal state of society, which no longer existed: it was to pay too great veneration to the wisdom of our ancestors, as it was called, to continue that law analtered, when the state of society had undergone a change that rendered it inapplicable to its existing state. This had become a great commercial country, and therefore it was necessary to adapt the law of property to such a situation of things. As to the objection, that the principle of the bill would involve, in its operation, entailed estates;, why should it not? It was a maxim in our high courts of equity, that men should always be taken to do that which they ought to do: and certainly, as the tenant in tail, by suffering a common recovery, might have made the estate liable to his specialty debts, there was no good reason why the principle should not extend to such estates. It would indeed be extremely desireable that copyholds should also be made lia. ble to debts; but it was best to proceed gradually this bil!, as a sin gle measure, would be highly bene. ficial, and as a first step of a system, an important measure; for he trusted, that if the house adopted his measure, they would not stop

there. He stated cases, in which the children of simple contract creditors to any amount, night be driven to the support of casual benevolence or parochial relief. The state of the law, respecting freehold estates, was a reproach to the country: it was peculiar to this country, and to Ireland, Neither in Scotland, nor iu the rest of Europe, could property descend to the heir without being chargeable with all the debts of the ancestor: nor was the law, on this head, in Scotland attended with any diminution in the value of freehold estates. It had been said, that credit had already been carried to too great extent in this country: if this was the case, there was an effectual mode of check. ing it, and one that would be attended with mutual advantage, which was, the abolition for imprisonment for debt. Mr. Canning, after repeating the arguments of the mas ter of the rolls, expressed his conviction that the general doctrine of the adaptation of laws to the supposed state of the country, would open a door for all reformation. After a review of the reign of the philosophers of France, he said, he would undertake to prove to the conviction of speculative men, and many others, that there was nothing so venerable in our law as not to require reforma. tion. If they should begin with such notions, there would be no end of them.

The attorney-general, (sir Ar. thur Pigott) supported the bill, on the grounds of justice and morality; and his only wonder was, that a mea sure of this nature had not been brought forward sooner. Mr. Perceval was, on the whole, rather disposed to fa. vour the bill. Mr. Morris favoured it decidedly, and replied to Mr. Can

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ning's.

ning's reasoning from the French revolution. The bill was then read a second time, and ordered to be com mitted to morrow se'nnight; but it was thrown out on the third reading. If great respect was paid by England to Scotland, in the discus. sions arising from the measure proposed by Mr. Whitbread for promoting industry, and relieving or preventing the necessities of the poor on the score of education, that respect was amply repaid by the homage almost the whole of the Scotch mation paid to the mode of administering justice, the grand basis of in. dustry of every kind in England. It was universally admitted, that justice was better administered by twelve judges in the whole of Eng land, than in Scotland, so much inferior in both extent and population, by fifteen. There was not, nor is there yet, at the time of writing this, any trial by jury, except in criminal cases. In the court of session, formed very much on the mode of the parliament of Paris, causes may be brought again and again under the consideration of the judges, whose decisions are not so tightly bound down as in England by the anchors of rules and precedents, but float more on the waving surface of abstract reasoning. And the great number of judges, with the debates and alterations which this occasion

ed, instead of a leviating, only increa sed the weight of business, and rendered it more cumbersome These were the principal sources of the evils with great reason complained of in the course or forms of process in the administration of justice in Scot and; of the aw's expence and the aw's de ay. Concerning the introduction of juries in civi trial, there was a difference of opinion; though it was general y admitted, that it would be a very desireable improvement in certain cases, and in certain cases ony. But what had been always considered as a grievance by all, was the great number of judges sitting together in the supreme court of civil judicature. And that grie vance must have been very palpable, since it had been able to draw into one opinion, a nation so abundant in lawyers, authors, and so many other classes, neither under-rating their own powers of reasoning and invention, nor at all remiss in the exercise of them. For remedying the evils here stated, lord Grenville had, in the preceding session, laid before the house of peers, a plan in the form of resolutionst, which were printed and ordered to lie over til next session of parliament, for consideration. The same nobleman presented his bill for the better re gulation of the courts of justice in Scotland, to the house of lords,

Feb.

same time, any intention or wish to assimilate the law of Scotland to that of England. It must be obvious, he said to their lordships, that Some measure of this nature was ab. solutely necessary. Their table was now loaded with appeals, the greater part of which were from the court of session in Scotland, and which increased so much faster than it was possible for their lordships to decide upon them; that their house, with respect to the administration of justice, had nearly become bank. rupt. He now proposed to carry into effect the measure, the outline of which had been proposed last ses sion, with such alterations and im. provements as had been suggested by a farther consideration. The leading point was the division of the court of session into three chambers, of five judges each. With the smal. ler number of judges, much less time would be taken up in delivering opinions, and there would be a less chance of difference of opinion. It would be, besides, of the greatest advantage that there should be two or three courts of justice of co-ordinate jurisdiction, the decisions in which openly made, and opinions openly delivered, would be imme. diately canvassed by an en ightened bar, and would be soon examined by public opinion. The suitor ha. ving his choice to commence his suit in either of these courts, public opinion would soon point out, by the preference given, in which, if in any, there was the superiority of learning, or enlightened decisions. The next point to be considered, was, the extension of the trial by jury in Scotland to civil cases. Nothing was more conducive to the due

This could be effected only by the trial by jury. In extending this institution to civil cases in Scotland, it was proposed to confine it to suits respecting what he would call personal rights, and not to extend it to suits respecting Anded estates: the rights to which, from the nature of the law of Scot land, became wholly questions of law, and did not involve any question of law on which a jury could decide.

The only remaining point to be touched upon, was the institution of an intermediate court of appeal. The necessity of some such arrangement was obvious. In order still further to prevent too frequent appeals, it was proposed, that appeals to that house should lie only against final judgments, and not against interlocutory decrees. The mode in which this intermediate court of appeal, or court of revision, was proposed to be constituted, was, to empower his majesty to appoint a president of that court, and also to appoint the lord chief baron of the exchequer in Scotland, a lord of session, and a member of the court of appeal. The three presidents of the three chambers into which it was proposed, that the court of session should be divided, were also to be members of that court. Lord G. proposed that in order to give time for the due consideration of the subject, the second reading of the bill should not take place until that day