478 Welsh Jurisprudence. [Nov. 
that justice should receive even the suspicion of a stain—the wants of a 
country be left unheeded—and its moral advancement kept back, only 
that the judicial cushion may be turned into a pillow of repose, to 
reward the political subserviency of a few unlearned, untalented, 
unknown lawyers. The system has indeed found an excuse in the 
cheapness with which it provides justice to the suitors. Thirty-eight 
pounds per cause, we humbly suggest, is, however, rather a dear rate at 
which to purchase the species of adjudication which the Court of Great 
Session doles out ; and with respect to the whole, we cite the authority 
of Lord Colchester.—“ If it be urged, that all or any of these disad- 
vantages are compensated by the cheapness with which justice is so 
administered, the fact itself may be well doubted, as a general propo- 
sition, and the reverse of it may in many cases be demonstrated: and 
if the fact be admitted, there still may remain a doubt whether the pur- 
chase of injustice (in so many instances) even at a cheap rate, be an 
advantageous privilege.’”’—Preface to the Companion to the Chester Cir- 
cuit, p. 29. 
The Committee of 1821 reported,—-“ It appears to your Committee, 
after a diligent consideration of the evidence taken before them, and of. 
the objections which have been urged against the judicature in its present 
form, that, although some of the minor difficulties might perhaps be done 
away by new regulations, yet that others, most essential to the right 
administration of justice, could not, without such fundamental changes as : 
would amount to the institution of a new jurisdiction.” With this strong 
declaration in their teeth, how idle was it, in the legislature, to put forth 
their late statute as a remedy! When all is rottenness, little good is to 
be expected from palliatives—a system which hangs together only by 
the harmony of its evils, must be revolutionized and not patched up. 
But what is true with respect to the component parts of this lesser 
system, is an equal truth with that larger one of which it is only a mem-- 
ber—the judicial organization of the whole kingdom ; and so many are 
the obstacles which ignorance, prejudice, and interest conspire to oppose 
to the renovation of this larger whole, that, in urging the remodelling 
of any of its fractional parts, the jurist always feels that sickness of the 
heart which arises from the consciousness of wasted effort. He resembles 
the surgeon, whose utmost skill can scarce achieve the care of a few local 
sores, while he beholds his patient wasting away under the influence of 
an aneurized aorta. To abolish the whole jurisdiction of the principa- 
lity as a separate jurisdiction—to consolidate it with that of England— 
to include Wales within the circuits of our judges, and to make all its 
proceedings triable only in our tribunals—are, however, the measures 
which have been recommended for the improvement of the Welsh sys~ 
tem: and consistently with the existing frame-work of the rest of our 
judicial establishment, we confess they appear to be the most rational 
that can be adopted. Lord Cawdor’s proposition for the arrangement 
of the circuit is, by dividing the Oxford circuit, to make two new 
ones, to one of which South Wales, to the other North Wales might be 
annexed—to take Lancaster from the Northern Circuit (which he says, 
truly enough, is now too large), and to add Oxford to the Midland, so 
that the two circuits would stand thus :— 
1. Lancaster. Shropshire, 
Lancashire, Staffordshire, 
Cheshire, North Wales. 
