WESTMINSTER LAW COURTS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LVI, Issue 6503, 30 December 1881, Page 5

WESTMINSTER LAW COURTS.

The old Law Courts on fche west tide of Westminster Hall are to be polled down. This terrible legal bee-hire ha> long been a (tending grievance to litigants, to witnesses, to member* of the legal profession, and, we may even add, to the Judges themselves. West* minster Hall itself, formerly the dining-room of the Palace of our Kings at Westminster, was preserved by Barry as the vestibule of the sew House* of Parliament. It was originally built in the man of William Boms, but was repaired towards the end of the reign of Bichard U. The early Parliament* were held in it, and the Law Courts used to sit in it. There is a famous old woodcut, much in favour with practising barristers, which re* Kessnts the interior of Westminster Hall in II term. Against the wall ate four little wooden pews, of which one contains the Lord Chancellor and the other three respectively the Justices of the Queen's Bench, the Justices of the Common Pleas, and the Barons of Exchequer. On the opposite ride are stall* for the sale of lace* and gloves and perfumery ; and, singularly enough, a relic of these still lingers in the shape of aboard, at which a venerable lady, by immemorial custom, exercises the right to vend apples and bans. Up and down the Hall are pacing serjeants and members of the Outer Bar, apparelled in their robes, while litigant* are also looking about in quest of attorneys or of counsel. Such was Westminster Hall before the Law Courts were built, and when it was visited by Peter the Great, who, asking the business of the gentlemen in wigs and gowns, and being told that they were lawyers, replied (hat he had only two such thieves in bis whole Umpire, and that it was his fixed Intention to hang one of them at least when he returned. The Courts thsmselves are cramped, ill* lighted, ill-ventilated, and they all have a most inadequate access. The corridors and passage* that lead to them are dark and narrow. Some of the Courts are higher than the roof of Westminster Hall itself, and are so badly arranged that if fresh air Is wanted Judge, jury and audience are frozen with an fey draught ) while, if warmth is needed, the atmosphere approximate* to that of a Turkish bath. The rooms set aside for the Judges are dismal little dens, receiving light through grated apertures in thick stone walls. Counsel have to be content with stony dungeons, for the use of which they pay an exorbitant yearly fee. For jurors, for witnesses, and for litigants there ie literally no accommodation whatever. They have to etray up und down Westminster Hall, no matter what may be the time of the year or the nature of the weather, and to accept their chance of finding themselves, when the time comes, in the particular Court in which their services are likely to be required.