The report of the Royal Commission upon delay in the
King's Bench Division, appointed about a year ago, was published on Monday night. The chief proposals are as follows : The number of King's Bench judges should be maintained at eighteen for a period long enough to test the various recommendations of the Commissioners. It is pro- posed that judges of the King's Bench Division should be required to retire at seventy-two or after an absence of six months, unless requested to continue by a Special Committee. The Commission also propose to reduce the Long Vacation to two months. To remedy the drawbacks of the Circuit system, which they condemn as dislocating the civil business done in London, they propose that no civil business should be done, at any place unless there are at least four civil cases entered for trial. Amongst other suggestions we may note that which recommends that the Court of Criminal Appeal should, like the Court of Appeal in civil cases, have the power to order a new trial, and the proposal to abolish the Grand Juries. No doubt Grand Juries cause a certain amount of delay, but we are by no means convinced that they are useless.
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