date

20 May 1807 A3 Letter V
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.
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    In the three years in question, sent out of the Court of Session the supreme Court of original jurisdiction within Scotland, viz: to the House of Lords, Appeals 75, as above: out of the four English Courts on the same level Appeals under the name of Appeals, viz. to the House of Lords as above, 6: to d o under the name of Writs of Error, 125 more, together to the House of Lords, 131: add from the Common Pleas to the King's Bench in its appellate capacity 550; from the King's Bench (in its original capacity) to the one sort of Exchequer Chamber, 1,253; from the Court of Exchequer to the other sort of Exchequer Chamber, 1: total to the three intermediate Courts of Review 1,810: add those to the House of Lords as above 131; grand total 1941:

    ratio of the number of appeals sent out of the English Westminster Hall Courts to d o sent out of the Scottish Court of Session at Edinburgh, as 1941 to 74: being between the ratio of 25 to 1 and that of 26 to 1.
  • Title: [1 May 1807 B2 8 (2) (8)]
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    II. Finance Supply

    Thus much, my Lord, as to the masses of Appeals flowing from Scotland and England respectively into the House of Lords.

    I come now to the masses of Appeal flowing out of the supreme local Courts of judicature in the two kingdoms respectively into receptacles other than the House of Lords: receptacles intermediate between these supreme local Courts and that ultimate seat of judicature. Here of such intermediate Courts of Appeal the numbers are - for Scotland, 0: for England as above 3: the King's Bench in its appellate capacity, with its 8 Judges to hear under the name of Writs of Error, appeals from the Common Pleas: the Exchequer Chamber with its 8 Judges to hear under the like name appeals from the King's Bench: a Court differently composed, under the same name of the Exchequer Chamber, also with 8 Judges, 4 of them the same, 4 of them different from those of the other Court of the same name, to hear under the same name, appeals from the Court of Exchequer.

    So much as to the manufactories of delay; now as to the produce: viz. the comparative amount of it.

    Taking the four Courts in Westminster Hall as standing all of them in their respective capacities of Courts of original jurisdiction on the same level, and with the Court of Session in Edinburgh, let us observe the number of appeals of all sorts sent out of the several respective Courts: a distinction being made, but not any exception, grounded on the nature of the Courts into which they were sent, viz. the ultimate receptacle the House of Lords, and the respective intermediate receptacles.
  • Title: [2 May 1807 C1 1 Letter V]
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    III. Deficiencies in the Finance Report.

    Taking the same period of time, pursue the enquiry into the House of Lords, the proportions exhibit a very different appearance.

    How unfortunately the data fail us.

    In the Lords Accounts of 11 March 1807, the Appeals commonly called by the name of Appeals - viz. the Equity Appeals not only are inserted, but exhibit the ear-marks by which the malâ fide may be distinguished from the bonâ fide ones: but the Common Law Appeals, the Appeals called Writs of Error, are, as already observed omitted altogether and their place is not to be found.

    On the other hand in the Finance Committee's Account A o 1798, the Appeals called Appeals are not inserted: while the Appeals called Writs of Error are. But here unfortunately, so it has happened, the distinction - the circumstance by the light of which the malâ fide was so easily distinguished from honest litigants, does not extend itself to the Writs of Error presented to the House of Lords.

    As little information in this same case does it give us concerning the terminous a quo; from what Court in each instance the Appeal last issued in its way to the House of Lords. This cause may have issued directly from the Westminster Hall Court of original jurisdiction: it may have previously made its way through one of the above intermediate Chambers of Review.