We do trust that the Premier will find time this
Session to give an hour's personal attention to the condition of the Judicial Com- mittee of Privy Council. It is a scandal to the Empire, and as ite can alter it at once, if he does not he is tolerating a distinct refusal of justice to helpless subjects of the Crown. The Com- mittee is the highest Appellate Court, appeals involving enormous amounts of property come up to it from India and the Colonies, its decisions constantly involve the prosperity of entire trades, and it is compelled by the meanness of the Government to re- fuse judgments. It has not even one paid judge ; its members are either unpaid judges with other Courts to manage, or un- paid retired judges too old to work hard for nothing ; business therefore is left undone, and there are eighty-six causes set
Clown for adjudication next sittings, of which the majority can- not be decided for years. The expenses going on all the while are crushing ; but we venture to say the mere loss of interest on the capital sums involved would pay half-a-dozen judges like Ministers of State. If England is too poor to exercise even the prerogative of the Crown in a decent manner, the Indian sui- tors who form the bulk of the appellants, would gladly consent to a tax of 1 per cent. on the property involved, which would be amply sufficient for the pay of a Bench of three judges. Whole counties in India may be half ruined because the Em- press, while professing to be final Judge, will not settle to whom their property belongs.
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