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blies, to throw out insinuations against him and other honourable gentlemen who might find it difficult to reply with equal fluency to a charge so unjustly made. He had, however, felt it due to himself to seize the first opportunity of denying altogether the truth of that charge, and of vindicating himself from the imputation which had been cast upon him. The honourable member went on to say, that he approved of the proposition of the right honourable gentleman, and particularly of his intention to introduce the warehousing system into the colonies.

On the motion of Mr. Peel, the house resolved itself into a committee of the whole house, to take into consideration the subject of the salaries of the police-magistrates of the metropolis.

Mr. Peel requested the attention of the committee to the subject upon which he proposed to address them—namely, the pecuniary allowance which the police-magistrates of the metropolis received for their services. It was his intention to propose that those individuals should receive an addition to the salary they at present received, which he trusted would not be considered at all unreasonable. He held in his hand papers, from which, if he chose to enter into any detail, he could prove, to the satisfaction of the committee, that since the institution of police magistrates, the business which devolved upon those individuals, had, owing to various acts of parliament which had been passed, independently of the increase of population, greatly augmented. Although that circumstance would of itself be a sufficient reason for

increasing the salary of the magistrates, he rested his proposition upon grounds which he hoped the committee would consider even more satisfactory. When the police-magistrates were first appointed, it was the practice to select individuals to fill the office, who, he must say, were utterly incompetent to discharge the duties which devolved upon them. He found, from the papers which had been laid upon the table, that out of 12 police-magistrates appointed at a former period, there were only three barristers; the rest were composed of a major in the army, a starch-maker, three clergymen, a Glasgow trader, and other persons who, from their previous occupations, could not but be considered as utterly unqualified to perform the duties of magistrates. The law had fixed no limitation with respect to the previous education of persons appointed to the office of magistrate; but he thought the committee would be pleased to hear that a limitation on that point had been prescribed by the secretary of state. Neither his predecessor in office (Lord Sidmouth) nor himself had ever appointed a person to fill the office of magistrate who had not been a barrister of three years' standing. was a rule to which, in his opinion, it was most desirable to adhere. But in order to enable the secretary of state to abide by that rule, and to carry it into practice, it was necessary to augment the present salary of police-magistrates. He implored the house to consider whether 600l. a year (the present salary) was sufficient to induce a barrister to give up the emoluments of private practice and the hope of preferment in his profession, to

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undertake the duties of a magistrate, which required his almost constant attendance. It could not, hé thought, be considered an unreasonable proposition, that in future the secretary of state should be empowered to give to each police-magistrate the sum of 8007. per annum. He hoped that he should not be told that individuals might be found, who would be willing to undertake the magisterial duties for a less sum. It was very true that such was the case. He was constantly receiving applications from persons who were anxious to be appointed policemagistrates. Those applications proceeded principally from country magistrates who had discharged the duties of their offices ably and satisfactorily; but whom, nevertheless, he did not think it right to appoint to be police-magistrates in the metropolis. He held the unpaid magistracy in as high respect as any man, but he could easily conceive that a gentleman might, in consequence of the influence which he derived from local circumstance the relations of landlord and tenant, for instance -be able to discharge the duties of a country magistrate in a satisfactory manner, who would be incompetent to undertake the very important ones of a police-magistrate. "Police-magistrates" was the name generally given to the magistrates to whom he alluded, but those persons were mistaken who supposed that the duties which they had to perform were merely executive. They were called upon to administer the law in a great number of complicated cases which were submitted to them. Out of some recent acts of parliament some very important

questions arose, which the police magistrates were called upon to decide. Several nice cases had occurred under the building acts. He knew one case of that description which had occupied the attention of the magistrates for a couple of days, during which surveyors were examined on both sides. He thought that a salary of 800l. a year was not more than a fair remuneration for the practice which a barrister must abandon when he undertook the duties of a magistrate. It appeared to him that the individuals appointed to administer justice in this country were more parsimoniously dealt with than in almost any other country in the world. He thought this was poor economy to give an inadequate remuneration to individuals selected to administer justice, whether in the highest office of judge, or in the less important but still very important office of policemagistrate. He might, he did not doubt, get persons-those who could not succeed in their profession, the refuse of the bar- to fill the office of police-magistrate, at a lower salary than he proposed to give; he could save 100l. or 2001. a year by such a proceeding, but the public would have cause to lament it. The present policemagistrates were of the highest personal respectability, and performed their duties to the satisfaction of the country. They were 30 in number, only four of whom were not barristers. The right honourable gentleman concluded with moving, "that it is the opinion of the committee that each justice appointed, or to be appointed, under the act for the more effectual administration of the office of justice of the peace, shall receive a yearly

a yearly salary not exceeding 8001."

Mr. Hume did not think that 800l. per annum was too much for a magistrate to receive, but he was of opinion that the present number of magistrates might be reduced. He understood that each magistrate attended to his duties only for a very limited time during the day.

Mr. Peel said that the question of the propriety of reducing the number of magistrates had been considered in a committee which was appointed at his suggestion two sessions since to inquire into the state of the police of the metropolis. In 1792, London was divided into nine districts, to each of which three magistrates were appointed. Notwithstanding the great increase of population, and the consequent augmentation of business, no addition had been made to that number except by the appointment of magistrates to the Thames police, a most useful institution. A great part of the business transacted in the policeoffices was done in the presence of two magistrates. He thought that a good arrangement, as one magistrate acted as a check on the other. This being the case, it was necessary to have a third magistrate attached to each office to provide for the relaxation of the other two. He could assure the house that the periods of relaxation were very short. The office was open from ten in the morning till eight in the evening; and during that time the magistrates were compelled to be in constant attendance. The jurisdiction of the magistrates of Unionhall extended over a district containing not less than 243,000 inhabitants. In one month, July, 1823,

not less than 176 cases of assault came before the magistrates of that office; and in July, 1824, the number of assault cases was 150. This was independent of all other cases. It was evident, under these circumstances, that the number of magistrates could not be reduced without great inconvenience to the public, and prejudice to the administration of justice. That, at least, was the opinion which the committee, to which he had alluded, came to on the subject.

The resolution was agreed to; the house resumed, and the report was brought up and received. Adjourned at one o'clock.

House of Commons, March 24.Mr. Huskisson moved for leave to bring in a bill to make farther provision for the payment of the crews of his Majesty's ships. Among the inconveniences which the present system of payment entailed upon the service, the following was not the least:-If a squadron, at Yarmouth, were ordered to the North Sea, and the exigency of the case required it to be sent off instantly, it would be necessary to send it round to the Nore to be paid, as there was no commissioner at any nearer port to superintend the payment. Now it was a much less operose ceremony to send the commis sioner to the fleet, than the fleet to the commissioner. One of the objects of his bill was to provide for the better payment of his Majesty's ships in those ports where no commissioner resided. It would enable the commissioners to go to those ports, or in their absence would appoint another officer to superintend the payment. He should not enter into further detail at that moment, but would

move for leave to bring in such a bill as he had given notice of.

Mr. Hume could not see any reason why the pursers in the navy should not pay the crews of his Majesty's ships, just as paymasters in the army paid the men of their different regiments. Such a system would obviate at once many of the inconveniences which now pressed most heavily upon the service.

Sir George Cockburn said he would give his reasons briefly to the house, why he could not consent to put the navy on the same footing as the army in regard to wages paid them abroad. The seamen, under the present regulations, were induced to make over a portion of their pay for the maintenance of their families, to which the measure proposed would, if extended to them, make them much less inclined. He was the last man to say any thing hard of the navy; but they were men of a peculiar character. Only let the house imagine a ship's crew on a foreign station, full of money, with sufficient opportunities of going ashore, which the captain could scarcely refuse them. They would spend it all, and when they reached England they would have nothing to comfort themselves with. At present they always had something left, by which they were able to go home and see their relations. This circumstance alone induced men to enter the service. He prayed the house to consider that considerable alterations had lately been attempted to improve the condition of the seamen, which had very much increased their comfort and accommodation. They had, in fact, turned the tables upon the merchantmen; for if the latter

did not give better wages, they might depend upon it the king would have all the seamen, whenever the interests of the state might happen to want them. Much had been said about abolishing harsh punishments. The new regulations would do more, they would render those punishments unnecessary. The most severe punishment at present was to turn offenders out of the service. Leave was then granted to bring in the bill.

Mr. Peel said, that the intent of his motion was to obtain leave to bring in two bills to amend certain points in the criminal law, and he would take this opportunity of stating the objects of both. The first regarded the law for sending threatening letters, which imported a charge of attempting to commit abominable offences. An illegal threat to charge any individual with an unnatural offence was punishable with transportation for life. But if, instead of the crime itself, the charge should be limited to an attempt to commit that crime, it was only misdemeanour. The moral offence, and the danger to the individual wrongly accused, were precisely the same, and there could be no reason for keeping any offence of that nature out of the statute.

The other bill was to facilitate culprits in obtaining the benefit of the royal mercy on grants of pardon being made to them. At present they must pass the great seal-a proceeding of considerable expense and delay— before the pardoned persons could be restored to what the law termed their credit and capacities. Nothing could show the difficulties more than the fact that a very few were enabled to obtain the full

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benefit intended by the crown in the grant of a free pardon. And until the grant had passed the great seal, their testimony could not be received in a court of justice, however necessary to the cause in action. The bill would therefore have the effect of restoring parties to their full privileges as free subjects, upon a pardon being extended to them bearing the sign-manual, countersigned by the secretary of state, to all intents and purposes as if the same pardon had passed the great seal. The same principle would be applied to conditional pardons-such, for example, as where a party convicted of a capital felony had his sentence commuted to imprisonment for a few months. It was intended to give him, as soon as the conditions of the pardon were fulfilled, a full restoration to all his rights as a subject. In both cases the credit of the parties would be restored, and the great fees now leviable for assuring a full pardon, which of themselves deprived many thousands of the benefit of that solemn sanction, would be spared. He took the opportunity of noticing a considerable omission in the law with respect to clergyable offences, and the altercations of the law in regard to their punishment. The punishment of death to those who successfully pleaded their clergy, was formerly branding on the left thumb. This was not considered open enough to common observation, and the left cheek close to the nose was substituted. This punishment becoming incompatible with the enlightened state of the age, power was given to the judges to impose a slight pecuniary fine or other

punishment, according to their discretion: but the law which authorized this alteration did not give that complete restoration which was before attainable by parties so impleaded and punished. By this bill, compliance, or in other words, the fulfilment of the punishment, whether fine or whipping, or imprisonment, would restore the parties to their civil rights. The application of the principle was the same with regard to females, the whipping of whom had been prohibited by a statute; which, however, did not effectually restore them after suffering the punishment substituted. The offences of clergymen or clerks in orders formed an anomaly in the law. A clergyman for highwayrobbery might be hanged; if he committed a misdemeanour, he might be transported; if a clergyable offence, he could not be punished at all. For his own part, he thought that the ground of distinction, if ever it had been good in policy, had long ceased to be so, and should have been done away. It was an obsolete principle, totally at variance with the present state of society; and, much as he inclined to support the proper privileges of the clergy, he could not uphold them in this instance. The bill would put the offences of clerks in orders upon the same footing with other of fenders. These were the main objects of the bills, to the investigation of which he invited the attention of the house, being ready to give his earnest consideration to any suggestion for the improvement of this or any other part of the criminal law.

Mr. Bright asked some questions as to the retrospective effect

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