9047.
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
TTTTTC.O.885
13 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO
MY LORD,
No. 68.
(GENERAL.)
LAW OFFICERS to COLONIAL OFFICE.
We were honoured with your Lordship's commands, signified in Mr. Bramston's
Royal Courts of Justice, May 24, 1886. letter of the 30th March last, stating that he was directed by your Lordship to transmit to us the accompanying copy of a letter which was addressed to your Lordship's predecessor in October last, and of a revise of the draft Bill to which it related.
That your Lordship approved of the principle of that Bill, though your Lordship was disposed to think that it should not, at any rate at first, be extended to the judgments of Inferior Courts.
That Mr. Bramstou was to request that your Lordship might be informed whether we saw any objection to the measure either in principle or in its details, and that your Lordship might be favoured with any observations upon it that might appear to us desirable.
In obedience to your Lordship's commands, we have the honour to
Report
That we agree in the principle of the proposed Bill, and we see no objection to the proposed clauses, subject to the following observations.
We agree with your Lordship in thinking that it would be better not to extend the operation of the proposed Bill, in the first instance at any rate, to judgments in the Inferior Courts of the Colonies. We doubt whether such an extension of the Bill would have much effect, and the difference which no doubt exists in the constitution and jurisdiction of Inferior Courts, where they exist, in the Colonies, would tend to make the Bill unworkable without complicated provisions.
We doubt also whether it is worth while to extend the Act to grants of probate and letters of administration. Colonial wills are usually proved, not by the executor named in them, but by his attorney for that purpose in this country, through whom the business of administration is done. It would in fact be inconvenient to send the original probate or letters to this country to be sealed.
Clause 3 purports to impose duties on the officers of Colonial Courts which, in the case of Colonies with representative Legislatures, should be avoided. Clauses 3 and 4, such as suggested by us in the accompanying print, would meet this An alteration in difficulty.
Clause 10, we think, should be in the same form as section 8 of 45 and 46 Victoria, chapter 31.
We see no objection to the extension of the proposed Bill to judgments in detinue
and bankruptcy and winding-up orders.
The Right Hon. the Earl Granville, K.G.,
&c.
&c.
&c.
We have, &c., (Signed) C. RUSSELL.
HORACE DAVY.
A
20491-83. 25.--6/86.