SCOTLAND.

Great dissatisfaction prevails in Scotland, among 1/141H of all parties, at the rejection of the Sheriffs Small Debts Bill, introduced last ses- sion by the Lord Advocate and Mr. Wallace, passed by the house of Commons, but thrown out by the Peers to please Lord Haddington. The Glasgow Herald, a respectable Tory ;paper, expresses its regret and mortification at the neglect of Scottish business in Parliament ; and adds, in reference to the Small Debts Bill- " Any person whose interest is affected by a bill, has only to persuade some influential Peer, by a specious though untenable representanon, that the mea- sure is objectionable ; and upon this nobleman's statement to the House, it is rejected, there not being time to inquire into its merits."

The same paper contains an able article descriptive of the incon- veniences which the Small Debts Bill would have remedied, and the loss to suitors which its rejection must occasion. The pretences on which the bill was rejected are exposed effectually in the following letter, addressed by Mr. Peter Campbell to Lord kladdington, a copy of which has been sent to us by the author.

COMPARATIVE MERITS OF SHERIFF SMALL DEBT AND JUSTICE 07 PEACE SMALL DEBTS BILL COURT IN SCOTLAND.

" EdinLurgh, 310t August 1836.

" Mr LORD—I observed from the newspapers, that on your Lordship's amendment being moved in the House of Lords, the Sheriff Court Small Debt Bill for Scotland was thrown out at the end of last session.

" I regret, with many others, to observe the line of conduct the House of Peers is following in rejecting bills calculated to confer great benefits on the people of Scotland.

"I was editor of the Law Chronicle for three years; and in conducting tbat publication, and from my professional practice, I was led to turn my at- tention and to direct public notice to the niatty evils which exist in tile adminis- tration of the law (not justice) in Scotland ; and I became convinced, and satisfied others, that the outlines of the system were excellent, but flea in almost all the details, and in the machinery and practice of the Courts in such administration, amendments or improvements to a great extent were required. Society in Scotland since the Union with England lias very much changed ; and a great increase of wealth and of knowledge, by means of education, have also taken place amongst the middle and productive classes of the pcople. Ilut a corresponding and progreJsive improvement in the laws atol rat:rice of Se0t- latul has been negiected by the Lot ds and Countious in Parliament ; and ail details of the procedure in the Courts of Judicature have been left at th., tender mercies of the Lords of Council and Session for regulation since the said Union. Now it so happens, that the whole system requires revision, anti that the details of procedure more esperially should be improved and adapted to the present state of society. The public mind was too ntuch occupied fir some time to direct much of its attention to such matters ; but latterly the public mind in Scotland, and even in the cot porations connected with the College of Justice, has become alive to the necessity and importance of inaproviug the laws and practice in the Courts of Judicature in Scotland. At the Edinburgh Dinner to Earl Grey, the present Lord Advocate said—' Now that Scotland bad fair anti free elections, the improvement of the law must be one of the first objects oilier Representatives.' That the Representative Peers for Scotland should be the last to engage in such putt iotic objects, is very much to be regretted. These ought not to be regarded as party questions; but all parties ought to unite in the promotion of such laudable and praiseworthy objects. "If your Lordship thinks that the desire of improving the laws which has lately been shown on the part of the people of Scotland, is to be traced to any other source than the defective state of the law and the delay and expense of obtainin,g the benefits of it, your Lordship will find you are mis- taken. Nothing can be more erroneous. than to suppose the Small Debt Bill, and other law reform bills lately brought into the House of Lords, have ori- ginated chiefly with certain lawyers in Edinburgh: it was so alleged, I believe, by your Lordship in the House of Lords; but you could not have selected a more inappropriate example, because the Sheriff Small Debt Bill contains a clause debarring parties from obtaining professional aid in the Small Debt She'd Court ; yet lawyers are virtually accused by your Lordship—according to the vulgar custoin—.that they cannot do any thing beneficial to others unless for their own benefit ; and your Lordship thus becomes the trumpeter of such an funfair prejudice. "As I have the honour of knowing something with regard to the objects of those who prepared and assisted in the preparing of the Sheriff Court Small Debt Bill, I cannot allow your statement to remain uncontradicted. It so happens, that the bill was chiefly prepared first of all by a Sheriff's Substitute, who it is publicly reported prepared the original Sheriff Court Small Debt brought into Parliament by Mr. Home Drummond ; (for it is believed few of She Scotch Members of the House of Commons or Lords are qualified them- selves to prepare an Act of Parliament, although Mr. Drummond was a dis- tinguished exception in that respect ;) and that Sheriff Substitute could have no vie* towards his own personal emolument, although it might very much increase his own labours as a judge ; and all others who assisted in the preparation or settlement of the bill had just as little regard to their own emo- luments. In short, no set of men engaged in any public business could be actu- -ated by less interested or more patriotic objects. So much for the origin of this bill, and of its being, as alleged by your Lordship, part and parcel' of cer- :tam bills promoted by eel tain lawyers.' I wish some of the members of the Rouse of Lords could in truth say they have on all cases legislated with such patriotic objects and disinterested interests in view as these imaginary lawyers ALI the present instance. The share the Lord Advocate has taken in filially settling the Sheriff Court Small Debt Act does him infinite honour. "Something was said in the House of Lords about the law bills regarding Scotland being ill prepared; and this assertion has been loudly trumpeted by the Conservative press, (few of the editors of which could frame an act of Par- liament, if the circulation of their trash depended on 'their success in such a task,) but without any foundation. Pray, which of these bills has been ill- prepared ? That they were rejected in the House of l'eers without considera- tion, is no proof of the assertion. The Small Debt Bill alluded to was

prepared

with the greatest possible care aud attention, and afterwards settled and muck improved by the Lord Advocate, whose talent for cotnposition is well-known, and who is the author of many important articles in the Edinburgh Review, if public report be correct ; anti the bill will stand a comparison with any bi3 that has been carried through Parliament even when your Tory allies formed the Government.

" But what is the objection to the bill ? Your Lordship did not state any, as far as I could discover, except that the same jurisdiction and machinery. were

not given to the Justices of Peace. But that, with deference to your Lutd-e

ship, was not a good reason fur depriving the people of Scotland of the benefit of this bill ; for a separate bill was in progress in the House of Commons to give the Justices of Peace a similar jurisdiction in civil debts not exceeding 101. A noble lord (the Marquis of Bute) admitted he had no other objection to the bill than that its improved machinery ' was not exteuded to the Justices of Peace Courts.

"Now, is it expedient to give the same jurisdiction and machinery to the Jus- tices of Peace Courts? The Justices of Peace have seldom got a legal educa- tion, and in Scotland they have no legal assessor. Where, then, is the certainty or the safeguard that they will not pronounce erroneous, or, in the language of the law, iniquitous' judgments? In cases where they have jurisdiction, ex. gr. in meditatione fryer warrants, and an appeal is competent to the Court of Ses- sion, the general presumption is, that the judgments of Justices must be wrong ; and so the Lords of Council anti Session, with all their aristocratic connexions, find in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred. Anil is it any wonder, as the Jus- tices are so grossly ignorant of the laws of the land, and so incapable of exer- cising the powers of sober and impartial reasoning and judgment. Would their give impartial justice to any Radical ? Ask any Radical if lie would trust them, if lie had any choice? Ask any, even an Ultra.Tory, if he would select any Justice of Peace to be a sole arbiter in a disputed matter exceeding W. No person in sound mind could be found who would agree to such a reference. This shows the estimation in winch Justices Shallow' have been held since the time of Shakspeare. 'fire present race of Justices would require to be bora and educated again before they would be qualified to supersede the Sheriff Smaa Debt Courts.

"But the Sheriff is a very differently qualifiedjudge. He receives a legal edu- cation, and is engaged in daily practice in more important cases than disputed debts not exceeding RV. The country has confidence in his legal knowledge and acquirements and integrity ; and his judgment is treated with respect even by losing parties. Theie seems no danger in allowing Idea a sunnuary and absolute power in cases of a disputed civil debt under 10/. " But no Justice of Peace ought to be permitted to sport with the interests and rights of the middle classes of the eeople to the extent of a sum above 51. Even to that extent they are not qualified to judge justly ; and they ought to be ashamed to attempt to till an office for the impartial and sacred discharge of which they are not qualified. Incurable and helpless as they are, they ought never to be allowed to judge in any case unless they have been educated as bar- risters or solicitors, and been in practice, or have the assistance of a legal asse•sor. " Yet these are the men, out of undue partiality and sympathy for whom, the Representative Peers of Scotland dare, in the lace of the couutry, to reject the Slacriff.Court Small Debt Bill, in the year i36! " Nor is the expense of the Sheriffs going on circuits any good objection. Those expenses would not be grudgetl by the country. And bills regarding money :natters, it is believed, are not within the provioce of the Peers. " Fur theee reasons I shall he happy to find thas your Lordship can state any good cause for rejecting the Small Debt Bill in the House of Lords. Suck conduct. and other it cent proceedings iti the [louse of Loids, have.given the greatest dissatisfaction to tile people of Scotland, who have been hitherto warin1y attached to the British Constitution,—and its theory is excellent, but it may ba refiwincil in so Lir as reginds the House of Lorila, and thereby improved in strength. Everybody now sees more than suflioient reason for this reform. The house of Co lllll ions was in a worse state, hot it has been reformed, for the manifest advantage of the people. History informs us that Kings and Aliaii- tera of State have beau 'nought before the tribunal of public justice, and sig- nally punished. The Representative Peers of Scotland ought not to deceive themselves by thinking they are powerful enough to set public opinion at de- fiance. But the • per/ere/dem itegenium Seotorum' inust not be trifled with; lest they should be driven by the aggravated injustices of the Peers to pronounce their 'fiat,' that for the benefit and security of the lieges, the House of Lords must be reformed. " I have the honour to be, Sre.

PETER CARIBPELL.

"The Right Honourable the Earl of Haddington, &c. &e. &c."