Mr. Justice Denman having made some very just and weighty
remarks during his circuit on the mischievous economy,—to whomever it was due,—of not allowing for Crown prosecutions a sufficient expenditure on maps and plans, where these are essen- tial for the purposes of justice, Mr. Lingen was instructed on behalf of the Treasury to deny that the Treasury objected to pay the proper costs of such prosecutions ; whereupon Mr. Alison, Treasurer of the County Palatine of Lancaster, writes to the Times to say that, while " prior to the year 1868, the Treasury paid with- out demur all the costs of Crown Prosecutions," since that date " £850 has been deducted by them from the, costs of prosecutions at Assizes, such costs Jiaving been, taxed and allowed by Mr. Shuttle- worth, and paid by me, as bound by law to do." And he gives par- ticular cases,—one in which £10 out of £15 for plans was dis- allowed by the Treasury, one in which £24 15s. out of £30 was 'disallowed by the Treasury (the original costs before taxation by Mr. Shuttleworth, having been £89), and so on. Mr. John Lloyd, Jun., Justice of. the Peace for Breconshire, gives similar evidence. It seems, indeed, pretty clearly demonstrated that the Treasury disallow a great part of the costs allowed by their own taxing- , masters, and a more penny-wise and pound-foolish policy we cannot imagine. Economy is all very well. It is not economy to give rascals a chance of escaping the hands of justice by per- suading your own subordinates that they will be personally fined if they take the proper measures to secure a conviction.
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