The Express.
London, England, 1850-05-06 00:00:00

gite entreoo•

profession are alike interested. To the latter an
increased busked will compensate a atuainiahed
profit, and if increased and proper facilitka wen pro-
vided in the Masters' offices, the waiter would be awed
from the sickening feeling of delayed hopebt tb• ter-
mination of his suit, would also be.:enalded to;
affix a certain value to any rights or inteiusts to which
be might be entitled, and would be enabled to dis-
pose of it without that heavy loss to which he is now
often subjected owing to the uncertain period of its
realisation.
Surely these are objects sufficient to arouse even
the indifferent, much more some of those sincere
reformers who are to be found in the ranks of the
legal profession, and we shall look with interest for
some measure of real chancery reform to spring.either
from tie junior members of the bar or from intelli-
gent solicitors. What dome the Law Institution ?

OUTGOING MAMA.
The seas for Liebe.. Ards, and Gibraltar will b. made
up ea to money morning.
The mails yid Maresillee, to tbe Mwditerraneam, NW,
ledia, lions• Kong, te., will be made up to-
Merrow emit.
TM mails toe. Braila North Amalie& sad the (Imbed
Bastes will be smile up es tke evening of May 10.
TII• Wee India Mails • **lading Berated', Harannab,
Idesesu, Hurdling, New Orleans, and Waite, mad luelnding
these few Madeira, St. Jusn.dt.Niearapisa„ New Granada,
ChM, bad Pere. will be made up on the moraine of May 17.
/be mails tow Gibraltar, Malta, Grease, tbe LOWY Wands,
Daps, Gybe, leant, and Chios, via Southampton, will
be made up es Us storming of May 20.
TM malt' for Iladswia.tbe Brae* sad Deimos Ayres, will
be made up es thiamine of June 4.

TO COMIGSPONDIMIrII
AffwiMerges tad Ilir . TY lasms.“ Loam ~we paper. ims l
Mat the simile llonsile-slwit. W ?WO 'Midi le OW Wet 'Wnds...

rNf WAIIIII AT LONDON MIMI.
Das—Mmorit. 11. The.
fl.ness..—Elersill& Iva Affiimaima. /at

LONDON, MONDAY, MAY G.

CHANCERY reform is se the rainbow, always to
appearance near, tut ever eluding. From time to
time a long string of "orders" have been issued, but
still to perceptible relief is afforded to waiting credi-
tors or expectant legaters. And yet, since the days
of the "doubting" Chancellor, a suit is brought to
bowleg much more rapidly, and the lists of the two
arbordinat• Vice-Chancellors would frequently be
exhausted if not replenished from other seuroes.
The expense and dilatoriness of Chancery proceed-
lags are, notwithstanding, the occasion of urgent and
justifiable complaint.
English reform is, however, oftentimes too serious
for the power. and too great for the audacity, of mi-
nisters. Tney try their 'prentice-band on Ireland
first. Offi.ial motions for reform of the Irish fran-
chise and the Irish Chancery have been made this
session. But the SOLICITOR-OZNERAL, in confining
his bill to Ireland, must have intended a satire upon
English adminisation. Be this as it may, an ex-
Chancellor sought to introduce a plan of reform based
on the suggestion of a relative. Fired by this attempt
to intrude upon his functions, the actual Chancellor
with the advice and consent of the chiefs of the other
Equity Courts, prepares with secresy and publishes
unexpectedly • series of Orders unparalleled for the
daricg of their innovation, and throwing quite into
the shade the propositions by Lord BROUGHAM.
Lastly, Mr. GEORGE TURNER introduces into the
House of Commons "a bill to diminish the delay and
expense of proceedings in tho High Court of Chan-
oery in England " As this bill followed the Orders of
the LORD CHANCELLOR, we awaited, hoping that it
might prove a corollary to, or an expansion of them,
sad that, tskett together, they might result in or
point to that effectual reform which we could supp:Tt.
We were doomed to be disappointed. The bill distributed
on Saturday might truly bo designated by the motto of
slat nonaints emilwn. We therefore turn from CHAN-
CELLOR, Ex CH INCELLOR, and Queen's counsel, in
despair of obtainicg from s.urces so tainted with pro.
fessional feeling, or co ignorant of non-professional
wants, any substantial and comprehensive remedy.
The bill of Mr. Geoece TURNER has now only one
material object. It empowers persons interested in
any question, cognizable in equity, to state it in the
form of a special case far the opinion of the Court of
Chancery, withcut the formality of a bill and miser;
but it expressly provides " that if upon the hearing
of such special case the court shall be of opinion that
the questions raised thereby, or any of them cannot
properly be decided urn such case, the court may re-
fuse to decide the same." It contains certainly some
provisions of importance to enable executors at any
time more than one year after the death of their
testator to obtain on their own application a certificate
as to outstanding debts and liabilities, but these pro-
visions are rendered unimportant by the Orders of
the LORD CHANCELLOR.
At the beat, the measure brought forward by Mr.
TURNER is a halting, hesitating, and incomplete
amendment of a partial and limited grievance. The
title may be taking and the Tearable imposing, but
little es the bill would contribute to the removal of
the defects complained of in the Court of Chancery,
the uncertainty with which parties will apply to the
coact for a decision, deprives it almost wholly of any
practical utility. All who are acquainted with courts
if equity know the unwillingness with which a judge
decides any point of law milers assured that all parties
affected by such judgment are represented before him;
and while the power to referee to decide may be essen-
tial as a protection against injustice to absent and un-
reprevented partits,the existence of such a power will be
a great if not a complete hindrance to may benefit which
might possiWy be derived from this bill, inasmurt as
the decision of the court most he sought by parties in
the prescribed mode, at the risk of being themselves
personally liable to all the expenses of preparing the
cue, and bringing it before the court for a refusal.
From such a bill very Hell diminution of the delay
and expense of otoceedings in the High Court of
Chancery can therefore be expected.
Disappeinted in our expectation from Mr. TURNER
and his project, let us co- sder those Orders of the
LORD CHANCELLOR which have been hailed as satis-
factory and complete. We must confess we cannot
consider them such. We doubt their being calculated
to save mach of either time or expense in the pro-
gress of a chancery snit; reliance upon them will
prevent the elaboration of more efficient and perfect
reforr, and the subsequent disappointment cannot
but excite such a general feeling of disgust against
the whole system, that reformers may be provoked to
pall down altogether and rebuild what might have
been repaired, if honestly and timely set about.
What do these Orders prosae ? They dispense, in
a large class of suits, with the formality of bill and
answer, and provide that on the observance of certain
simple forms, the questions submitted to the meet
shall be referred at once to a Master is CMassew.
It is certainly a bold and a strong measure fee tie
Chancellor to decide that, in a vast proportion of the
causes brought into his court, such as Creditor and
Administration suits, the subtleties of bill and answer
are not needed for the correct statement of a suitor's
case. Such a doctrine would have been legal heresy
a short time since, and these Orders almost
justify the assertion made in the Roam of
Commons by an eminent practitioner, and then
doubted, that the object of the Irish Encumbered Es-
tates Act might have been effected by the Chancellor
of his own authority. The alterations in the practice
may well be called "a revolution" by the legal ' jour-
male, for they tend to annihilate a large part of the
business of the junior counsel. The main question
is, however, whether the result is likely to yield any
important benefit to the public? We see but little
reason to expect it. The effect of the change
can only be to lessen the delay and expense incurred
between filing a bill end obtaining a
decree. The gain to the public would be apparent,
if, upon reference to the Master under the new form,
parties stood in the same position as upon a reference
under the present system, but this will not be the
case. For instance, in a creditor's suit, the executor
is now required by his answer to state fully upon
oath the meets of his testator, and all receipts and
payments by him up to the date of the answer, while
under the new mode of procedure this information
mast be obtained in the Master's office, and according
to the forms there prescribed. It follows, therefore, that
any saving of delay depends upon the possibility of ob-
taining, through the Master's of this account more
readily than by the answer of the defendant ; and it
is on the belief that in these offices a greater power
of merest ination will exist that one dour chief doubts
as to the advantage of them Orders rests.
The other objection which we entertain to this
measure of reform is MO it deals simply with a suit
up to the Master's offices, whilst it is in those recesses
that the greatest delay and expense is now caused.
No ref Atm of the Court of Chancery which leaves these
subordinate tribunals and their awkward modes of
procedure untouched is worthy of the name. It is in
this, the secret hidden portion of the Court of Chan-
cery, that abuser; most do, p!y burrow ; and we donbt
the I filmey or calm o' no.) Orders, whatever seeming
chat go they may effect in the present course of busi-
ness, which do ant sodress themselves to the amend-
ment of this, the administrative department of the
court.
lit' in th. se d y s v, i I men sit with folded hands
quietly a quiese in a grievance which is
cap.ble of remedy ? Assuredly not—if neither the
judges of the court nor tint suporiur members of the
bar will grapple as ith the evil, there are very many
competent to Negro et a rercedy, and parliament will
listen to their sligde ItiOr.ll. The public and the legal

IT is seldom that agriculturists will condensed to
answer nplain question, and yet Lord HARDWICKE,
we
most render him justice, has not shrunk from doing so.
When asked how was it, that in these times of dis-
tress, when farmers alleged they were paying rent
out of capital, not profit, there were plenty of bidders
found for every farm, Lord IIanDwICKE replied, that
ia times of cheapness there was always plenty of
competition foe land, which then required so much
lees capital to enter upon. Happy landlords, sure
to gain, whatever happens. If corn and stock be dear,
high prices afford them pretext for asking high rents.
If corn and stock be cheap, it increases competition
for land, and rents are kept as high as ever. So that
the landlords are in the happy condition of those who
can say, whoever loses I win.
If tim holders of capital are so eager to invest in
the culture of land, is not this a conclusive ign, quite
conclusive and potent enough to It gislate from, that
capital affords no greater remuneration in other kinds
of employ than in that of agriculture ? Is it not
proof, that however farming people may have come
down, they have not come down more than skill and
capital employed in any other species of industry ?
The fact is, that neither farmers nor traders can make
the large profits they used to do. The increase of capital
has diminished tho rate of profit, and the mercantile
class, obliged to look closely to the items of cost, have
roved unable to continue that tribute which they so
long pa'Al without a murmur to the landed interest
for bread. Because a law has passed, which was but
the fulfilment of a pressirg want, the completion of
inevitable neces-ity, the landlords abuse the trading
interest, for looking to the items of their outlay, and
squaring their accounts so as to continue to gain.
The reproach is a blind and a selfish one. For, if the
trading interest did not gain, did not practise this
economy, effect a real profit, and produce its con-
sequence, continued accumulation, the landed interest
would soon feel the effects of such imprudence
in diminished capital, in a waning demand or
land, and a consequent diminution of rent.
Ms loss occasioned to the landed interest oy the
lower price of corn, brought about by free imports,
is not one-twentieth so great as the loss that must
have accrued to the landed in'erest from the mercan-
tile and manufacturing interest ceasing to realize
profits. We may depend upon it, that as far as price
and rent go, the farmer depends upon the rectory,
and that the landlord and the cotton or moneyed
lord, are embarked in the same boat, though they
may slt and weigh on diffeieat sides of it.
Every. one, who reads or listens, has two lemons
dinned into him from opposite SA( 3. One preacher
nays we are ruined and desolate ; the entire wealth
of the nation and its purchasing powers are gone.
The other points to the returns, and asks how is it
that never were so many necessaries eaten, so many
luxuries consumed, so many taxes paid, so many
marriages with their burdens undertaken, and so
many births ensued. Although there is but a grain
of truth in one to the bushel in the other, there is still
a grain, and it ought to be allowed fur. the nation
has been undergoing,
.perhaps, the most sa'ut cry
change that could befel it—a diminution of the in-
comes of the rich, and an increase in the comforts of
the poor. Thousands cannot be so reck-
lessly gathered in, and spent in luxury ss
formerly. The facilities of accumulatico, the extra- I
vaganee of profits are not so great. Although fair
and moderate rents have not suffered, and need not
fear diminution, those calculated on famine prices are
so longer to be sustained. There is more abundance
',necessaries and more people earning and command-
ing them, there are less purchasers however for luxu-
ries, as all trades who cater for them unfortunately
know. We do not say this is a good, but at least the
evil is compensated by another and a still greater
PM.
There is no use, therefore, in denying is tut* all
that the protectionists allege. We cannot again have
famine prices, nor can the landlords enhance the vale.
of the food which they sell by a sum that Lord HARD-
WICKE estimates at 130 millions sterling, and which
was a tribute raised on the rest of the community.
If the community was able to pay that tribute, and
the non-agricultural portion cf the people able to
afford it, it would no doubt give princely fortuses
to a limited clue, and these princely fortunes
could do a great deal of good in their way.
But it is with tributes to an aristocracy as a
class, os it is with taxes to a king—what cannot be
paid cannot be exacted. And those princes and thewl
dominant classes who will go on exacting, produce
one of two results equally fatal. They either provoke a
revolution, or they eat up the sources of production,
es we find to be the case with all the fiscal despotisms
of the East.
To be sure, the protectionists promise that if the
non-agricultural portion of the community wit' con-
sent to pay for corn a price double of that for which
lit can be brought from another hemisphere, they will
lin turn legislate and procure higher prices, as far as
the home market goes, for all the productions of the
non-agricultural clay. And truly, if a nation were
walled round and hermetically sealed, if the English
population consisted of merely owners and tillers
of the earth, and of artisans supplying these
owners and tillers with articles of manufac-
turing industry did there exist but these two
classes within the Chinese wall of the island, it
would be little matter what prices were. High prices
or low prices were altogether the same. But as
three-fourths of the wealth and development, and
power and population of Great Britain could
never have existed, except from Great Britain's
relations with the rest of the world, and
dominion over a great portion of it, in
legislating for Great Britain we can never put the
world out of the account. Now, what the protec-
tionists, and especially the protectionist writers in
Blackwood,dtmaad, is precisely this—to put the world
out of the account, forgetting that this cannot be
done without annihilating all that enhances, cha-
racterises, and distinguishes the countiy. The pro-
tectionists would have their England that of the
PLANTAGENSTB, or of the Heptarchy. But the 19th
century they can nowise comprehend or be recon-
ciled to.

Tus Nsw MAIL CONTRACTS FOR BRAZILS AND
THZ WHIT INDiez.—The Lords of the Treasury have
jut sanctioned the contract with the Royal West India
Mail Packet Company for the conveys's*, of the Brazilian
mails, and a new mail route scheme (or the West India
mails. The Brazilian ail route scheme is sa follows:
Steamers are to run between Southampton and Rio de
Janeiro, touching at the Cape de Verd Islands and Pernam.
buoo. Branch mail 'examen are to run between Rio de
Janeiro and the River Plate. According to the terms of
the new West India mail route scheme freemen are to ran
twice a month between Southampton and Chaves, calling
at Madeira and St. Thomas. These steamers are to return
by the same route. Bt. Thomas is to be the foreign packet
station at which the inter colonial mails are to be deposited,
and from which they are to be distributed. Thera arrange-
ments are to come into operation hi WOO as the necessary
ships are complete.
EMIGRATION UPON MRS. CHISHOLM'S PLAN.—On
Saturday evening the first preliminary meeting took place of
intending emigrants under the superintendence of the above
mentioned lady, at Caution-terrace, Winston, for the pur-
pose of the various families being formed into groups. Ur
wards of 200 persons were pri sent. The Hon. Versos
Smith, M.P., the Right lion. Sidney Herbert, M.P., sad
Mr. Sidney severally addressed them as to the plan of fur-
nishing the means of emigrating, and explained at consider-
able length the duties incumbent on all these intending to
proceed to the colonies. 2,0001. has been already subs•ribed
by the working classes, as also the following donations :
Hoc. Sidney Herbert, M.P., 2001, and Lefty Pembr,ike, 26i.
At the termination a the proceedings it was announced that
in the course of the week the committee would meet to de
side as to the best means of raising the required capital, and
zip to appoint trustees to receive subscriptions. The first
ship upon this plan ill sal about June nest —.Sunday
Times.

THE EXPRESS, MONDAY EVENING, MAY 6, 1850.