18. New Gaol, in the Borough.
Nothing, perhaps, can manifest, in a greater degree, the increased commerce and population of the Metropolis of the Empire, than the following summary detail of the different classes of professional men connected with the various departments of the Law.
It appears from the preceding Statements, that there are in the Metropolis
| 9 | Supreme Courts; to which are attached | 270 | officers[183] |
| 4 | Ecclesiastical Courts | 54 | do. |
| 18 | Inferior Courts for small Debts | 146 | do. |
| 1 | Court of Oyer and Terminer, and Gaol Delivery | 27 | do. |
| 4 | Courts of General and Quarter Sessions of the Peace | 46 | do. |
| 10 | Courts and Petty Sessions for purposes of Police | 190 | do. |
| 5 | Coroners' Courts | 20 | do. |
| 753 | |||
| King's Serjeants, Attorney and Solicitor General, and King's Advocate | 8 | ||
| Serjeants at Law | 14 | ||
| Doctors of Law | 14 | ||
| King's Counsel | 25 | ||
| Masters in Chancery | 10 | ||
| Barristers at Law | 400 | ||
| Special Pleaders | 50 | ||
| Proctors in Doctors' Commons | 50 | ||
| Conveyancers | 40 | ||
| Attorneys at Law in the different Courts | 1,900 | ||
| Clerks, Assistants, and others, estimated at | 3,700 | ||
| Notaries Public | 36 | ||
| Total about | 7,000 | ||
It is impossible to contemplate this view of a very interesting subject, without being forcibly struck with the vast extent of the wealth and commercial intercourse of the Country, which furnish advantageous employment for such a multitude of individuals in one particular profession. Every good man, and every lover of his country, must anxiously wish that the advantages may be reciprocal; and that men of talents, integrity, and ability, in the profession of the Law, while they extend their aid to the removal of those evils which are a reproach to the criminal jurisprudence of the Country, would also assist in procuring the removal of the inconveniences at present felt in the recovery of small debts. This is peculiarly irksome to every well-disposed person, who, in the course of business, having transactions with the mass of mankind, cannot avoid frequently meeting with bad or litigious characters, by whom disputes are unavoidably generated.
According to the prevailing System, if the debt exceeds 40s. the action may be brought in a superior Court, where, if contested or defended, the expence, at the lowest computation, must be upwards of fifty pounds. Prudent men, under such circumstances, will forego a just claim upon another, or make up a false one upon themselves, as by far the least of two evils, in all cases where they come in contact with designing and bad people; and hence it is, that the worthless part of mankind, availing themselves in Civil as others do in Criminal Cases, of the imperfections of the Law, forge these defects into a rod of oppression, either to defraud the honest part of the Community of a just right, or to create fraudulent demands, where no right attaches; merely because those miscreants know that an action at Law, even for 20l. cannot either be prosecuted or defended, without sinking three times the amount in Law expences; besides the loss of time, which is still more valuable to men in business.
To convince the Reader that this observation is not hazarded on weak grounds, and that the evil is so great as to cry aloud for a remedy, it is only necessary to state, that in the County of Middlesex alone, in the year 1793, the number of bailable writs and executions, for debts from Ten to Twenty pounds, amounted to no less than 5,719, and the aggregate amount of the debts sued for was the sum of £.81,791.