SPEECH ON FEES FOR COPIES. 251 - Second: It knows the way out of the House; for in the XII. 6. xxxv Eliz. the like bill was preferred, and much called upon at the first, and rejected at the engrossment, not having twenty voices for it. Third: It is without all precedent; for look into former laws and you shall find that, when a statute enacts a new office or acts to be done, it limits fees, as in case of enrolment, in case of administration, &c., but it never limits ancient fees to take away other men's freeholds. Fourth It looks extremely back, which is against all justice of Parliament, for a number of subjects are already placed in offices: some attaining them in course of long service; some in consideration of great sums of money; some in reward of service from the Crown, when they might have had other suits and such offices again allied with a number of other subjects, who valued them according to their offices. Now, if half these men's livelihoods and fortunes should be taken from them, it were an infinite injustice. Fifth It were more justice to raise the fees than to abate them, for we see gentlemen have raised their rents and the fines of their tenants, and merchants, tradesmen, and farmers their commodities and wares; and this mightily within c. years. But the fees of offices continue at one rate. Sixth If it be said the number of fees is much increased because causes are increased, that is a benefit which time. gives and time takes away. It is no more than if there were an ancient toll at some bridge between Berwick and London, and now it should be brought down because that, Scotland being united, there were more passengers. Seventh: Causes may again decrease, as they do already begin; and therefore, as men must endure the 1620. Nov. XII. 6. prejudice of time, so they ought again to enjoy benefit of 1620. Nov. time. Eighth Men are not to consider the proportion between the fee and the pains taken, as if it were in a scrivener's shop, because in the copies (being the principal gain of the officer) was considered ab antiquo his charge, his attendance, his former labours to make him fit for the place, his countenance and quality in the commonwealth, and the like. Ninth: The officers do many things sans fee, as in causes in forma pauperis, and for the King, &c., which is considered in the fees of copies. Tenth: There is great labour of mind in many cases, as in the entering of orders, and in all examinations. All which is only considered in the copies. Eleventh: These offices are either the gift of the King or in the gift of great officers, who have their office from the King, so as the King is disinherited of his ancient rights and means to prefer servants, and the great offices of the kingdom likewise disgraced and impaired. Twelfth There is a great confusion and inequality in the bill, for the copies in inferior courts, as for example the Court of the Marches, the Court of the North (being inferior courts), are left in as good case as they were, and high courts of the kingdom only abridged, whereas there was ever a diversity half in half in all fees, as Chancellor's clerks and all others. Thirteenth If fees be abridged as too great, they ought to be abridged as well in other points as in copies, and as well in other offices as in offices towards the law. For now prothonotories shall have their old fees for engrossing upon the roll and the like, and only the copies shall be abridged; whereas, if it be well examined, the copies are of all fees SPEECH ON FEES FOR COPIES. 253 the most reasonable; and so of other offices, as customs, XII. 6. searchers, mayors, bailiffs, &c., which have many ancient fees incident to their offices, which all may be called in question upon the like or better reason. Fourteenth The suggestion of the bill is utterly false, which in all law is odious. For it suggesteth that these fees have of late years been exacted, which is utterly untrue, having been time out of mind and being men's freehold, whereof they may have an assize, so as the Parliament may as well take any man's lands, common means, &c., as these fees. Fifteenth It casts a slander upon all superior judges, as if they had tolerated extortions, whereas there have been severe and strict courses taken, and that of late, for the distinguishing of lawful fees from new exactions, and fees reduced into tables, and they published and hanged up in courts, that the subjects be not poled nor aggrieved. Sixteenth The law (if it were just) ought to enter into an examination and distinction what were rightful and ancient fees and what were upstart fees and encroachments, whereas now it sweeps them all away without difference. Seventeenth It requires an impossibility, setting men to spell again how many syllables be in a line, and puts the penalty of xxs. for every line faulty, which is xviiil. a sheet. And the superior officers must answer it for clerks' faults or oversight. Eighteenth It doth disgrace superior judges in court, to whom it properly belongeth to correct those misdemeanours according to their oaths and according to discretion, because it is impossible to reduce it to a definite rule. Nineteenth This being a penal law, it seems there is 1620. Νον. XII. 6. but some commodity sought for, that some that could not continue their first monopoly might make themselves whole out of some penalties. 1620. Νον. These arguments prevailed. A committee being named to report on the bill, they reported against it, and the bill was laid asleep. 7. A few years later, mainly through the speeches and the writings of Bacon himself, a feeling began to show itself against the payment of judges, registrars, and clerks by uncertain fees. Each new Parliament saw the subject stirred. In the sessions of 1610 and 1614 bills were introduced and dropped. But the argument for a great and just change of the old system grew under debate. The business of the courts increases daily, and the private causes have long ago become more numerous and important than the King's causes. A plan, therefore, which may have done very well under Edward or Henry, may be a very great evil under James. An unpaid Bench, though all that society wished for its defence under feudal or Brehon law, may obviously become a dangerous power in a highly artificial and litigious age. Such is the reasoning of many wise men. Not that justice is less purely dispensed under Bacon than of yore; the reverse is a conspicuous fact. The improvement has been slow and safe. Hatton danced through his duties with more credit than Bromley; Puckering surpassed Hatton, and Egerton eclipsed Puckering. The last Chancellor of all is the best; in character as in intellect Bacon tops the list. A desire to change the fee system is not the child of discontent, but of growth. Under Edward or 7. Com. Jour., i. 427, 489. PLOTTINGS OF LADY BUCKINGHAM. 255 1620. Nov. Richard the Commons would have refused a salary to the XII. 7. judge; for a magnificently paid Bench would have seemed, and probably would have behaved, as the ministers of a despotic prince, eager only for their master's work, contemptuous of the intrusion of private causes, callous to the concerns of common men. The profits from private suits quickened the stream of justice; helped to maintain the independence of the upright judge. Yet many men see that a time must come, some think it has come, when, through the growth of riches and the purification of law, the system of various and precarious fees may be wisely abandoned for a system of payments by the State. 8. An old lawyer like Coke knows how to turn this war between an old system and a new sentiment to account. Time has neither cured his jealousy of Bacon nor cooled his resentment towards Yelverton. If the alliance with Buckingham has not yet brought him the Mace and Seals, nor even the barony of Stoke, it has given him the favourite's mother for a friend. Lady Buckingham is busy for her kin; her son John married and made a peer, she wants an heiress for her son Christopher, two or three rich husbands for her penniless nieces, a suitor, may be, for herself. A wife for Kit she may buy with honours, just as she bought Frances Coke for John. But husbands for her nieces, men of high rank and wealth, she can only tempt into the noose with offices and power. She has bought Sir Lionel Cranfield up for one niece. For another she has fixed her eye on James Ley, the rich Attorney of the Court of Wards. Cranfield's wooing 8. Harwood to Carleton, Feb. 6, 1619, S. P. O.; Brent to Carleton, May 29, 1619, S. P. O.; Nethersole to Carleton, Jan. 18, 1620, S. P. O.; Chamberlain to Carleton, July 14, 1621, S. P. O.; Sign Man., Nos. 44, 53. |