Note 75 — CHAP. XXXI. VISIT TO THE ADMIRALTY COURT AT MALTA.
Reading edition
This charge contained a wilful falsehood, viz. that the table of fees was hung in “the Registry;” the perversion of truth being proved by the remarks in Parliament of the King’s Advocate, Sir John Nicholls, on the authority of the Maltese Court, as follows:—
“Lord Cochrane went to the court-room of the Vice-Admiralty, for the purpose of comparing the charges in his bills with the table of established fees, which, according to Act of Parliament, ‘should be suspended in some conspicuous part of the Court.’ After looking for it in vain in the Court, and in the Registry, whither he was first directed by His Majesty’s Advocate, he was told that he might see it affixed on a door leading to the adjoining room. The table was certainly not in its place—but it was as certainly not concealed!” (Speech of Sir J. Nicholls in the House of Commons, June 6th, 1811.)
It was equally false that the King’s Advocate directed me where to look for the table of fees; the whole affair having taken place as narrated in this chapter.