“Good gracious!” exclaimed Ficker, his face expressing envy and indignation; “what a benefit would have been conferred upon society, if all this property had been got into the legitimate Law Courts! What a benefit to the possessors of all this wealth! I have no doubt whatever that during the past year the suitors, who have recovered this million and a quarter, have spent the whole of it, squandered it upon what they called “necessaries of life.” Look at the difference if it had only been locked up for them—say in Chancery. It would have been preserved with the greatest possible safety; accounted for—every fraction of it—in the books of the Accountant-General; and we, sir, we—the respectable practitioners in the profession—should have gone down three or four times every year to the Master’s offices to see that it was all right, and to have had a little consultation as to the best means of holding it safely for our client, until his suit was properly and equitably disposed of.”
“But, perhaps, Ficker,” I suggested, “these poor clients make better use of their own money after all than the Courts of Law and Equity could make it for them.”
“Then the costs,” said Mr. Ficker, with an attorney’s ready eye to business, “let us hear about them.”
“The total amount of costs adjudged to be paid by defendants on the amount (£752,500) for which judgment was obtained, was £199,980,” was the answer—“being an addition of 26.5 per cent, on the amount ordered to be paid.”
“Well,” said Mr. Ficker, “that’s not so very bad. Twenty five per cent,” turning to me, “is a small amount undoubtedly for the costs of an action duly brought to trial; but, as the greater part of these costs are costs of Court, twenty-five per cent, cannot be considered inadequate.”
“It seems to me a great deal too much,” said I. “Justice ought to be much cheaper.”
“All the fees to counsel and attorneys are included in the amount,” remarked the clerk, “and so are allowances to witnesses. The fees on causes amounted to very nearly £300,000. Of this sum, the Officers’ fees were, in 1848, £234,274, and the General Fund fees £51,784.”
“Not so bad!” said Mr. Ficker, smiling.
“The Judges’ fees amounted to nearly £90,000. This would have given them all £1500 each; but the Treasury has fixed their salaries at a uniform sum of £1000, so that the sixty Judges only draw £60,000 of the £90,000.”
“Where does the remainder go?” I inquired.