18. That for want of an express enactment to determine what is necessary to render an Act of Parliament binding on the Island, and when its operation commences, Parliamentary legislation has hitherto been evaded, when found convenient, because it is held by the local authorities that not only must the Island be particularly named therein, but that the Act must be transmitted to them, accompanied by an Order in Council, commanding its observance; which Order must be ratified and registered in the public rolls to give it force of law; and that the omission of the former formality in England, or of the latter in Jersey, renders both the one and the other a dead letter, the Act having force only in virtue of the Order, and the Order having force only in virtue of the registration; hence that the suspension of the latter necessarily nullifies the former, and renders it of no effect whatever.

19. That this system of nullifying the laws, enacted by the supreme Legislature, is pregnant with the most alarming consequences, being calculated ultimately to sever the compact betwixt the Crown and its dependency-stabs the vitals of constitutional government, renders the law uncertain, and places the lives, liberties, and properties, of the people connected with it, in imminent jeopardy.

20. That the said States of Jersey have also for many years, usurped the prerogative of naturalizing aliens, without the consent of the Crown; and have thereby induced great numbers of Frenchmen and other foreigners, to purchase landed property in the Island, upon the faith of their being thus made British subjects, by Acts which have never received the Royal Assent, but have expired through lapse of time.

21. That the only Court of Justice in the Island is composed of the Bailiff, appointed by letters. patent from the Crown, and twelve Jurats, elected by the people, from among the farmers, shop-keepers, and merchants, and without any regard to their previous qualifications; having cognizance of all causes, civil, criminal and mixt, arising within the Island, treason only excepted, and is immediately dependant on the Privy Council, by appeal or doleance, which is a tardy and expensive means of obtaining justice.

22. That neither the Bailiff nor the Jurats are sufficiently qualified for the responsible situations they hold, and being members of the local legislature for life, thus exercising political as well as judicial functions, and residing within a juris

diction of small extent, are in constant communication with the inhabitants, and subject to local prejudices; and having scarcely any written laws to govern their decisions, the lives, liberties, and properties of the people are almost at their absolute disposal, which renders the former despotic, and the latter mere slaves.

23. That these prejudices are so notorious, and the latitude allowed them so great, some of those who have the conducting of legal matters, get the Jurats packed for certain causes, so as to ensure a judgment in favour of their clients, by which the form of a trial is become a farce.

24. That this system of packing the Jurats is adopted in all causes of importance, for although by the customs of the Island they are required to sit in turn to hear causes, yet certain of these Magistrates sit day after day, by which others are virtually excluded, and which has been recently made a matter of complaint to Her Majesty's Government, in the case of Le Breton v. Ennis, but without any redress.

25. That the Bailiff and Jurats are so notoriously unqualified for their duties, that they frequently suspend their judgments, in order to consult a party on the framing of them, and alter and revoke them, after they have delivered them, as may be proved by numerous examples.

26. That the judgments of the Court are sometimes prepared before the trials are heard, as was the case in the prosecution of the Crown, at the instance of the late Lieutenant Governor, Major General Thornton v. Le Breton, Colonel of Militia, when one of the Jurats, after the pleadings were closed, produced a judgment already written, which was adopted by the Bailiff and Jurats, and rendered against the said Lieutenant Governor.

27. That their oath of office does not require them to give judgments according to evidence, but according to conscience, and that when a Jurat sits in the place of another, he shall govern his decision by the opinion of the absent Jurat, who does not hear the trial; and that in all cases when the bench is divided in opinions, the minority shall conform to the majority, whether they approve of the judgment or not; a striking example of which recently occurred in the case of Godfray v. Romeril, when two Jurats were compelled by the other Jurats to adjudge defendant to damages and costs,

when the full Court discharged him, on the ground that the offence was committed out of their jurisdiction.

37. That persons are seized and committed to prison for alleged crimes and misdemeanours, without oath or affirmation of the facts charged being previously made, and without a warrant, and are denied the benefit of the great constitutional remedy for false imprisonment, the Writ of Habeas Corpus, the Acts of Charles 2d, and George 3d, for protecting the liberty of the subject, in which the Islands are specially included, being held to have no force, in of the local authorities having neglected to register them, in breach of the faith reposed in them by your honourable house, in the assurance given to you by the Government, through the Under Secretary of State, in 1832, that "the authorities of both Islands, though reluctantly, had consented to register the Habeas Corpus Acts."

consequence

38. That persons are seized for debt, even for so small an amount as a few shillings, without oath or affirmation being previously made, of the justness of the demand; are denied facilities for procuring bail, but instantly incarcerated in dungeons, destitute of every convenience and comfort, and even at midnight, at the peril of their lives, where they can be detained at the suit of their creditors, on the miserable pittance of two pence three farthings per diem, for an unlimited period, as was the case with one Houbon, who was kept in actual custody for a period of five years and upwards, there being no law for the relief of Insolvent Debtors, but only for the adjudication of property to mortgagees.

39. That both person and property is attached to secure payment of debts before they are due, and that when they have been paid, or can be disproved, the Court does not possess the power of issuing process to compel the attendance of witnesses living out of the Island, or of issuing a commission to take evidence abroad, which operates greatly to the prejudice of strangers and others, whose debts were contracted out of the bailiwick.

40. That fraudulent attachment for debt is also practised to a great extent, and enables creditors living on the spot, to acquire an unjust preference over absentees, by levying an arrest on the effects of a debtor, and getting the same confirmed by the Court, and the effects sold before an officer of Justice, by which they obtain payment in full to the

exclusion of the English claimants, as was done at the demise of the late Mr. W. Davies, of the Musical Repository, when all his stock in trade, which had been supplied on credit by manufacturers and merchants in London, was arrested at the suit of his Jersey creditors, and sold before the officer of Justice for their benefit, by which they obtained payment in full, and the English creditors, whose claims amounted to nearly a thousand pounds, were excluded from all participation in the same.

41. That the adjudication of property by Décret operates most unjustly towards English creditors, who generally are the principal claimants in cases of bankruptcy, because it passes all the real and personal estate of the debtor to a judgment creditor, for the benefit of himself alone, subject only to his being liable to satisfy judgment debts of a prior date, by which the great body of creditors, living in England and elsewhere, whose claims are founded on simple contract, are excluded from all participation in the estate.

42. That by this system the Tenant under a Décret gets not only payment in full, but a large surplus, to the prejudice of other creditors, and that immense fortunes have been made by the lawyers and other attachés of the Court, who upon some small demand, usually get themselves declared Tenants, or purchase the interest of their clients and others, for that purpose.

43. That separation quant aux biens, (separation as to property,) betwixt husband and wife, is practised to a great extent, among all classes of the people, and that secret transfers of estate and effects, are made under cover of the same, to defraud creditors, to the great injury of English merchants and dealers. That many persons in trade are also placed under Curators or Guardians, and others appoint Procureurs général, by which they are exempt from all liability for the debts and contracts they subsequently enter into without the consent of the same; and that others place their affairs in the hands of Justice for a year and a day, to obtain time to arrange with their creditors, without sufficient notice being given to the public, and which is generally the means of preserving the property for the benefit of some judgment creditor, who shall be declared Tenant to the estate.

44. That the Benefice d'Inventaire is a process by which the heir at law, on the demise of an intestate, and before he

them to be remedied by other means. That you will pass a declaratory statute as to what shall render an Act of Parliament binding on the Island-that you will give the inhabitants a voice in the debates of your Honourable house, where laws are enacted for their government— that the English language be adopted, and the statute laws of England be extended to the island in all cases, save and except wherein there are written laws already provided, and such as concern the imposition of taxes-that the local legislature be reformed and its powers defined—that a greater number of representatives be returned, and that vote by ballot be established-that the Court be remodelled and an English barrister appointed president, of not less than seven years standing that the Jurats be taken from the bar, and that the bar be thrown open to all qualified persons— that the jurisdiction be better defined both in civil and criminal cases-that the island be included in the Hampshire circuit and that the Judges of Assize do visit it twice a year, and cause a general goal delivery-that all civil causes of a certain value and capital cases be reserved for their cognizance-that the sheriff's be appointed annually and a paid police be established-that no arrest be made but by warrant that imprisonment for debt be abolished—that trial by jury be adopted in civil as well as criminal casesthat evidence be taken viva voce, and that punishments be graduated according to crime-that the Jurats sit as Justices in Quarter sessions-that a Court ofrequests be established for the recovery of small debts*—that the Insolvent and Bankrupt Laws of England be extended, and such other remedies applied, as according to the wisdom of your honourable house shall appear fit and proper.--And Petitioner as in duty bound will ever pray.

your

*For want of this, the petitioner has lost nearly £2,000, during his residence in this Island, party lawyers and political judges having virtually excluded him from obtaining his dues by course of law.

ERRATA p. 392, line 5, instead of 1830, read 1839.