5362. _Chairman._] Do they appoint the proctor?--The proctor petitions to be admitted; and latterly, for the last year or two that I was there, I made them undergo an examination, for I found that one or two were applying to be admitted as proctors of the court in order to escape serving on juries, and I therefore made them submit to an examination on the treaties, and on the decisions of the Mixed Courts, and it checked the practice. 5363. At what time were those charges made which are specified in Dr. Madden’s Report?--The five cases out of the nine that I have referred to occurred in 1839, the others subsequently to my leaving the colony. 5364. When were those modifications made which would affect the statement which Dr. Madden has made?--They came into effect after the five cases occurred on which there are those high charges; they came into effect in December, 1839. 5365. Previously to Dr. Madden’s visit to Sierra Leone?--Yes, some time previously. 5366. Have you any further observations to make upon Dr. Madden’s Report?--In page 35 is a passage to which I was referred at the last examination: “The intervention of the whole present establishment of marshals, collectors, surveyors, interpreters, harbour-masters, agents, storekeepers, canoe-hirers, and victuallers of captured ships’ crews, might be dispensed with without inconvenience to the public, and with some advantage to the individuals who are interested in the disposal of the effects.” A great many of those persons do not exist in connexion with our court at all. 5367. Can you state what is the real establishment connected with the adjudication of slave vessels?--There is one marshal; he is paid by fees, on the principle of the schedule that was drawn up in England for the regulation of the Vice-Admiralty Courts in the colonies, and which are very low, I think almost too low; the collector we have nothing to do with; he is the Queen’s officer: as regards the surveyors, we have two surveyors in cases of vessels which are prosecuted for equipment to examine the equipment of the vessel, and to report, and they get a fee for that examination; in cases of vessels taken full of slaves no surveyors are required; it is only in cases of vessels seized for equipment. 5368. That is an officer absolutely necessary for the ascertainment of the facts?--Yes, because we could not allow a man to give evidence in his own case upon such a point as that. 5369. What is the fee?--I think the fee is two guineas a day during his employment; and in order to obtain the services of a respectable man who will go through the disagreeable duty which is imposed upon him in examining a vessel equipped for the slave trade, overhauling her in every part, and whose testimony can be positively relied upon, I do not think that a smaller fee ought to be paid. 5370. Does the survey occupy more than one day?--If it occupies more than a day, he gets another two guineas, but I do not recollect any case of that kind.