date

PRIVATE 20 May 1807 H 1 +
PRIVATE

20 May 1807

H 1 + A1

Scotch Reform

Letter V

Ch.12. Appeal list mutilated

Ch.XII. Lords Appeal Account - its deficiencies - supply-

§.1. Deficiencies in the Account

Among the incidents which have intervened since these letters were began, is one which in my humble view of the matter, may serve to throw upon the subject some useful lights. I speak of the Accounts that, in obedience to an Order of the House of Lords bearing date the 11 of March last (A o 1807) have been printed respecting the number of Appeals presented to the House in the course of two contiguous periods of seven years each, the last of them ending at that time.

Copy her parallelism, if more comprenhensive, more instructive.
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  • Title: [20 May 1807 A3 Letter V]
    Description: 20 May 1807

    A3

    Letter V

    VIII. Appeal list mutilated

    I. Deficiencies

    But the English part of the account ( let alone the Irish) presents a very different picture. Upon the same level with the one Court at Edinburgh (taking the Inner House of the Court of Session for that one Court) stand in London no fewer than four Courts in Westminster Hall alone: viz. the Chancery, the King's Bench (in its capacity of a Court of original or primary jurisdiction) the Common Pleas, and the Exchequer.

    In the case of the Scotch Appeals whether you call for the Appeals to the House of Lords, meaning from Scotland, or for the Appeals from Scotland simply, it makes no difference: you have one and the same list in both cases.

    Very different is the case with the English Appeals. Call for the Appeals to the House of Lords from Westminster Hall, you get the Appeals called Appeals presented to the House of Lords, and moreover, unless you suffer things to be hidden from you by names, You get the Appeals called Writs of Error, returnable, (as the word now is) to the same supreme seat of appellate judicature.

    Call for the Appeals from the four Westminster Hall Courts above mentioned, you get it is true the same Appeals as those mentioned in the last sentence. But moreover along with these you get the cloud of others brought to view under the last head. You get the Appeals presented under the name of Writs of Error, to the three intermediate Courts of appellate jurisdiction, already depicted under the aforesaid last head of the English Courts of Review.
  • Title: [20 May 1807 A4 Letter V]
    Description: 20 May 1807

    A4

    Letter V

    VIII. Appeal list mutilated

    I. Deficiencies

    From each of these three English Chambers of Review, the complaint of misdecision, after taking a year or so, (as hath been seen) to rest itself travels on and goes up to the House of Lords. And, of the Appeals so presented from the Courts of primary jurisdiction in Westminster Hall, such as are not stopped in any of those half-way houses, form thus a second division of the Appeals from those primary Courts set down in Westminster Hall standing upon the same level with the Inner House at Edinburgh to the House of Lords.
  • Title: [20 May 1807 A2 Letter V]
    Description: 20 May 1807

    A2

    Letter V

    VIII. Appeal list mutilated

    I. Deficiencies

    The question being whether on this occasion any and what documents shall be called for, it seems to me that had it been my lot (pardon the extravagance of the supposition) to have stood in the place of Your Lordship's learned Adviser, I should have reasoned in some such manner as the following -

    1. If we are to form comparisons, and to have the English and Irish Appeals to confront with the Scotch Appeals, let us not be misled by names, but to match with the Scotch Appeals, let us bring forward all the English and Irish Appeals without exception, howsoever they may happen to be denominated - Appeals, Writs of Error, or by any other name.

    2. Appeal supposes necessarily two Courts: - the Court à quâ (as they call it) the Court from which the appeal is made; and the Court ad quam - the Court to which the Appeal is made.

    Confining our view to Scotland, and in Scotland to the Court of Session, both these objects are necessarily comprehended in an account: call for the list of Appeals presented to the House of Lords, (viz. from Scotland) call for the list of Appeals presented from Scotland (viz. from the Court of Session) the return will be the same.