The Express.
London, England, 1851-11-25 00:00:00

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LONDON, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 23.

A nonsereo contour wary who claims to represent
the opinions and dispositions of the tory party, ad-
mits that the scandals laid bare by the recent inves-
tigations at St.:Albans and elsewhere render some
measure of electoral reform unavoidable, and pro-
fesses to believe that the only difference between
political parties will practically be found to consist in
the efficiency of the rival remedies which they may
respectively propose.
ntt ict lug rumours meanwhile prevail as to the
extent to which ministers are prepared to go.
On the one hand we are told that having
pledged himself to bring in • general mea-
sure of reform during the approaching session,
and having thereby plainly staked the existence
of his cabinet on the. question, Lord Joust Russet',
will *noisily fall into the obvious and irretrievable
blunder of bringing forward a peddling or paltry
bill. At least, say these somewhat sanguine ad-
mirers of his lordship, we shall have a 101. occupa-
tion franchise in the counties, household suffrage
tested by liability to rating in the towns, and the
ballot in both, to secure the lawful exercise of these
privileges without menace or intimidation. On the
other hand, we hear it averred that there are two
parties in the government on the subject; and that
while some of its members arc willing to go the
length above stated, their colleagues are very
strongly disposed to demur to anything which implies
a real change of pewee; and that sooner than agree to
a new Schedule A, or a Sono fide constituency, they
would fume Lord JoilN to abandon the pledge be has
given of dealing with the whole subject in a compre-
hensive manner during the session of 114.12, or to
themselves and him to the ridicule and scorn which
the proposal of a small and pettifogging scheme
would be certain to evoke. The apparent apathy of
the country is relied upon by all the hangers-on of
the official oligarchy as Justifying the insidious policy
of paltering with popular rights, or adjourning sine
die their statutable conaromon. The tranquillity of
the realm, and the silent confidence of the people
that these in authority will at length yield to reason
what they would confessedly surrender upon the
first heave of the popular ground-swell—these
are inistuken for indifference by the fops
and Uncle Femmes of bu eaucraey ; and if they
had their way, we believe that the next QUEEN a
speech would appear without any distinct or indica-
tive announcement of an amended reform bill. Nor
would anything arouse them to a sense of their
stupid folly in a selfish point of view, unless some
Tory leader were to seise the golden opportunity,
and boldly undertake to supply the deficiency thus
shamefully left.
How for either of these contingencies are possible
or probable, we do not profess an ability to say. It
may be that the spectacle of an ultra-conservative
assembly in Francs., elected by universal suffrage,
supplanting an unmanageable chamber elected on
the Windsor and St. Albans principle—it may be
that the twenty years' experience of • household
municipal franchise at home whose results have cer-
tainly proves' anything but revolutionary—it may be
that these and other instinctive lessons in the passing
history of their own time have taught the whigs the
safety and prudence of satisfying the greatest pos-
sible number of the community, and convinced them
that the most serious danger to the maintenance of
order, or the stability of the existing state of
things. lies in the postponement of just reforms until
some easuulty abroad, or some crisis at home, has put
the masses of the people thoroughly out of temper,
and tempted them to force their rulers to give a
summary account of their stewardship. It may be
that Lord lons will abide by the promise he made
in the month of March last upon the faith of which
his supporters who had helped to carry
the first reading of Mr. LOCK', Kiseis County
Franchise llill, agreed to have it thrown out on a sub-
sequent stage; and that having made up his mind to
keep his mold to the letter, we shall read some eight
weeks hence in her MAJESTY'S opening speech to par-
liament the funned recommendation that the great,
gates of the constitution should at length be thrown
open, and that all men who contribute statedly and
regularly lie the public burthens should be declared,
by law lobe rightfully entitled to have a voice in the I
national representation. Or it may turn out that
falling short of the mark, which the million-handed
industry and worth of the nation requires, we may
hear of Mr. lineetaxi.t's having at length surprised
his followers into doing something reasonable and
sagacious, by suffering him to out-bid the lagging
Premier in his offers of reform.

Our business is not now with the merits of the
men, or thu nature of their motives. Those are
their affairs. Our business is With the thing to be
got, nut with the means, how. We know that upon
the narrow end the cone will not for ever stand. We
know that whichever of the great parties in the state
goes to the country on • dissolution of parliament,
with " llousehold Suffrage and the Ballot" inscribed
en its standard will be sure to win the race for
power; and we are convinced that, as compared
with this paramount and all-engrossing topic of ex-
citement, every minor question will before long sink
into insignificance. What we chiefly desire to ace
impresied upon the minds of party men on both sides,
is this great fact, in presence of which, as soon I
as they come to realise it fully and deli-
berately, all charlatan plans fur evading the main 1
points at issue will die a natural death of weakness,
and be heard of no more. It will serve no ,
far example, to spin fine political cobweLlurril.es
writer in the Murniny Herald seems disposed to do) I
about the expediency of inventing an electoral
machine fur winnowing the aggregate folly of the i
nation periodically in order tort at a small residuum
of peculiar wisdom. The people have a right to
choose for themselves what manner of men they
think the ablest, the wisest, and the most to be
depended upon fur making the laws under which
they are to live; and this prerogative they will
never consent to have qualified or restricted
within some arbitrary limits pre-determined
by the privileged orders whose usurpation
they are resolved to overthrow. Legiilative
wisdom we too well know is not the attribute
peculiarly or pm-eminently of the °palest or high- I
born. Yet these are just the clamss who new psalm
• monopoly of power, and by whom the proposed tort ,
for determining who are "the wind ass" is the
community. must be formed and hilissid. How
they would fashion and form it, we may eadly
gine. It would be under anodise piss the ski
system of exclusiveness stilL We Asa' have the
&roe enacted of abrogating an oligarehy of wealth
and birth, only to see it continued sadly • nand pre-
tence of eapalillity and Ilteees. Mewal.fertellsetnal, and
political worth are ether sew le=ffishmeole which
con only be discovered bygone prassmsr they
arc qualities which maks tbsesslves shrines by
that practic.il modes which, in truth, is the sole
proof of their existence at all. To elect men to
make laws obese wham is so undemonstrative that
people in general how tithing about it, would be to
choose very unfit to discharge that difficult
tumefies. The qualities for • legislator are
certainly not those which are in general possessed in
secret. The chief of dam is a profound and inti-
mate knowledge of the complex being whose wants
are to be provided for. But how can such knowledge
be attained otherwise than by contact in the realities
of active life with individuals, and classes, and ,
sections of the community ? And how can
soeh contact take place without the minds
of the man being impressed favourably,
or otherwise with the qualities of the mind of the
individual ? Either they will t oder him their rut-
frages as the fittest person to represent them in the
legislature, and in that case there is no need of any
artificial interference to direct them; or they will
come to the conclusion that from some deficiency of
temperament or judgment be is not suitable to their
wants and a iaies ; and then any interposition bar-
ring or defeating their free choice would be •
poiative and direct infringement on the popular
riOntlewhich is in words conceded.
truth in moat great things is simple, and its

reiteration is the best argument. Household suf-
frage has become inevitable, brows it is msAfestly
just; and all attempts to prstpuse,dairat, or
lise its fall and free development 'ill only.
disappointment and discomfiture on dliose whotiantio
them. t-
Tux canoe of law refork has tjan
tielly impeded by the want of a proper understand-
ing and unity of action between the two branches of
the legal profession ; and it is a public duty to inquire
into, and endeavour to adjust, any differences which
may binder so important an agency. A question hilt
recently been raised with reference to the boundaries
between the province of barristers and attorneys; aid,
grave and extensive as at first sight this question ap-
peers to be, its proportions become much reduced upon
alba ineestiption. Fusion of the two branches of the
preemies is at present impracticable; and until this
sheep tale place there cannot be any interferenceof
the bar with the attorneys, or rice reran, in the eon-
dart of actions at law or suits i i equity in the supe-
rior courts, or in the tratuaction of general basinful..
It is therefore mainly, if not exclusively, in regard
to county courts that the discussion has arisen as
to the policy of barristers receiving briefs without
the intervention of attorneys, and here both parties
are entitled to consideration. The legislature has
jurisdiction

conferred upon county courts a .. con-
currently with the superior courts over matters in
difference where the value exceeds 201. but does
not exceed 501., and the natural effect has been
to diminish the business of the superior courts. The
object of the legislature was to establish a more
cheap and expeditious remedy for claims of corn-
' paratively small amount; and one mode by which
it sought to effect this object was by fixing the fees
payable on the proceedings on a very low scale, and
not allowing a larger amount to be recovered against
the defendant. The legislature appears to have sup-
posed that the cases would be of so simple a character
as not to require legal assistance, and to have sought
to induce' the parties to tell their respective tales to
the judge, and to abide by his award. This part of
the plan, adapted rather for primitive times, when
the dealings of men were for the most part restricted
to their neighbours living with-n the same hundred
or county, than for the more extended commercial
dealings of the 19th century, has failed, and the pro-
minent feature remainin g in these courts (we speak with
especial reference to questions of more than 20!. in
value) is the establishment of free trade in advocacy.
Now, it is cot unnatural that junior members of the
bar should desire to obtain in the county courts a
share of that business which has gone from West-
minster-hall; but, seeing that the additional expense
of counsel may be a hindrance, they have thought
that, by undertaking. the entire case from the
claimant in the first instance, they might remove
this objection, and attract the business to thus-
selves. We doubt much whether this course wadi
answer in a pecuniary sense, and, at all meta. k
must act injuriously on the parties who adopted
it, by lowering the tone and altering the re-
lationship in which the bar has hitherto stood, and
ought to stand, in the profession, and to the puha".
But still, if by act of parliament a large portree
business be removed from the superior courts, sed by
the same act attorneys obtain the right to plead as
advocates in cases in which they could not otherwise
have pleaded, it is reasonable that the barristers
should make all fair and proper efforts to regain
a portion of that business which has been so sum-
marily taken from them. The question is precisely
one of that description which ought to bo settled by
the Attorney-General, as representing the bar, on
the one aide, and by the Incorporated Law Society,
on behalf of the attorneys, on the other; and if the
subject were so taken up, there is no doubt but that
the difficulty might be arranged so as to ensure to
each county court the advantage of a bar, and also
protect the members of that bar from having recourse
to practices detrimental to their position and future
prospects. We commend this suggestion to the atten-
tive consideration of the legal profession. It is not,
however, of importance only with reference to this
particular case, but it would establish the principle of
an unity of action between the two branches of the
profession, and there cannot be a doubt bat
that the most extensive, and, at the same time,
the most efficient reform of our courts and prac-
tice of law, could emanate from those who are
practically acquainted with the working of the ex-
isting system in all its ramifications. If the heads
of the profession were to take up seriously the ques-
tion of law reform, they would propose remedies in-
stead of the palliatives (often mischievous) which
emanate from time to time from parliament or from
the bench. It is not, for instance, by the transference
of a portion of the equity business to county courts
that the Court of Chancery would be improved—the
root of the evil would still remain in the costly and
cumbrous machinery by which the simplest order
must be obtained—in the delays, expense, and
incompetency of the Masters' offices, and in the
costliness as well as the insufficiency of the mode
of taking evidence in the Examiners' office. On the
other hand the report of the Common Law Commis-
sion shows that alterations are possible in the supe•
nor common law courts, by which they might be
rendered so cheap in their procedure, so simple and
expeditious, as to offer to the public advantages equal
to the countycourts ; and if this be so, it is clear that
the public and the legal profession have both- bees
losers by the apathy which has failed to originate
these alterations earlier. It is the duty, but it is so
less the interest, of the bar as well as of the attorneys, to
combine to effect the greatest possible simplicity In
our mode' of legal procedure, for there is no doubt
but that in proportion as the portals of justice are
flung wide open, and the cobwebs of technicality see
removed, a full compensation forany lessening orprollt
will be found in the great increase of business which
won't arise. Until such a course as we have thus
shortly indicated be taken; until the bar and the
attorneys feel that in their corporate capacities they
have respectively duties to fulfil towards the public,
we have little hope of sound, efficient, radical, legal
reform.

Patchwork amendments of greater or less value
there ma, be, but these are mere temporary expe-
dients. There may be wide and extensive altera-
tions; or, under the belief that existing abuses are
incurable, the experiment of a new code may be
adopted, but the present system cannot be improved
and adapted in all its parts to the exigencies of
the present time, except by the earnest endeavours
of men thoroughly conversant with its principles
and working, and determined to eradicate the abuses
and cure the defects which now impede its effi-
ciency, and subject it to justly merited censure.
The task is great, but it is honourable, and if
honestly undertaken by lawyers, public sympathy
and epprobation would support them in it. There is
still gm for the endeavour, and by success, to raise
the legal profession as an entirety higher in public
opinion whilst, if the opportunity be neglected, and
men, or unpractised dikilatoli re-
former, abatis nuisances which the profession have
mot endeavoured to amend, the public will here-
after reams to listen to any remonstrance, however
just, and will probably: sanction changes and innova-
tions more iniurions in their effect than the evils
I which they were intended to correct.

DrIONTORT, Nov. 23.—The Caine, 8, Commas_
der J. J. Donnell, having been towed oat into the harbour,
wee on Friday mustered and ialieeted by Capt. A. Lowe, of 11.11.'s Impreenable. She was paid wages yesterday, and I
is expected to sail twday for the e oast of Atries, ;
taking oat Mr Gabriel, Arbitrator at Lased°. The
Spartan was taken out of dock on Thursday, and the
Trincomalee was taken into dock. Yesterday the Sanspa-
rid ems taken out of deck. Thezeugines exhibited in j
the Crystal Palace are to be bro tto Dosonport to be
placed is the James Watt new • .
THE Lama' Tatra.—On Friday evening Mr.
Satiehdt, a hairdresser, of 21, New-read, St. GeOfit-ill-
the Fie, wm ninth alarmed at a wars of glass
smashed in his shop Ilindell. sag on ix the canoe
discovered a Was lying ea the bar DUI his
feet. Appeeltmadiag that ha ins the innamlod victim of
nese assassia ha mind into the street lassiortabr by whom
the attempt hal boss mean his impeenisn at the time
being that the bullet had been dinereged *em a large
bone pi n& On gods, at he was emereended by several
ysung we, who, appormtly atasolod tithe discharge,
W the cause of his alum, which explained to
j this, bat w usable to discover the perm who bad min-
i mined dm mange Oa retaining to his hence be found
that his gold ward', which was worth abseil IL, had been
stolen. Perceiving that he was tie Melia of a new trick,
be gam information at tho Lammemrsot pollee Medea,
when Mr. Steed, the wapsnintindest, assampswirdlay soma
oaken of the Ell dittoes, esminisil the preadver. Tb.
sok of their inquinee sheared that the ballet, instead of
heiag Seed, had bees mot through the window with great
forte. No Cleo has yet bass bend to file parties engaged
in this adroit stratagem.