The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1826-04-19 00:00:00

*gas Vie Moat dolleented to advisee it. If he wee an indivi. 1
end es unhappy ea net to be able to do even that, he would err.
nil* be mush to be pitied; but he would fearlessly assert, that he
ono Ire any individual imprisoned tee contempt if he was die.
Mss
iese ndaet honestly (hear, hear), and hem that circumstance he
se derivee his belief that poverty was not the real grnund
AO oillliiidding the answer to the bill in the case of the petitioner.
terer.) From everything -That cad been stated. It appeared
'mortgagee had proceeded in every step that he hail taken
eerie* seenrding to law. (Hem.) Surat was the fact, and he
mi.' vesture to assert that there was no person in that House but
minim the habit of proceeding to the same mangier. In what other
wraaaer could they proceed ? If an answer wee not put in. they
wield have too other resource but to put him in prison, for other-
wise the ends of justice would be detested. The petition before
the Hosseliad induced the Hon. Member for Montrose to cast re-
proaches on the Court of Chancery, and in doing an he had been
unsparing in the selection of hie expreseintee The lion. 31ember
alleged as a reason for using strong expressions, that lie did not
Ike to use milk and water language, but that was no justification
Me his having personally vilified the Lord Chancellor, as if he was
the authnr of the proceedings complained of, when, In point of fact,
they could not be justly attributed either to that Noblemen or to
tote Court itself. (Hear, hear.) He (the Solicitor-General) would
say to the Honourable Alernber—what can be done when a man
will not pat in his answer ? leo you find an adequate remedy for
the evil, and then there can be no objection to give up the existing
practice. Under all the circumstances of the cue, he believed
MOM conecientiously, that of all the petitions which had ever been
presented to that Howie. and many had been presented, against
the Chant'ellor, there was not one which was so totally devoid of
deltiliable ground of complaint as that which was than under the
unsideration of the House. (Cheers.)
Mr. BARING said that no doubt could exist in the mind of any
reasonable man that evils of an enormous nature existed in the
proceedings of the Court of Chancery ; hut there was one point
which he wished to explain. Nobody complained of the Loyd
Chancellor, and he exceedingly regretted that any eenreattion
against him. personally, should have fallen from any ...Honourable
Member; and he should still moral turret it if th expression
vttis
should indispose the House to examine into the grle nature of
n *beds which certainly pervaded the Syetein of the Co tof Chan.
any: (Hear, hear, hear.) A case hid fallen with hie own
It owledge, which exemplified in a striking manner the nature of •
portion atheist evils. A man had two or three eottagee, with a few
*MN of garden attached to them, which he agreed to sell to a
wealthy person in his neighbourhood. The wealthy man todk the
tides to the property, and then refused to pay for it, alleging that
!here was a flaw in those titles. The poor man then requested to
have the titles back, but this was also refuted, and so the poor
man wee cheated out of his property. (Hear, hear, hear.)---
Too poor to go to law, he applied to him ( Mr. Baring), and he went
to a solicitor, an honest and respectable man, and stated the eir-
aurnataitees of the case. This worthy man, after hearing the whole
state of the case, said that, beyond all doubt the poor man was
right; hut in order to assert his right, it was necessary to proceed
in the Court of Chancery, and before he could take three steps
them the cottages and gardens would be gone. (Hear, hear, hear.)
Ile exceedingly regretted, on looking over the Report of the Com.
mission/re for inquiring into the abuses of the Court of Chancery,
that he could find no suggestion of the necessity of establishing
boom mode of summary justice, in cases where the property which
might be the subject of contention was small. As matters stood, it
Was abautd to resort to a Court of Equity fur justice, if the Property
&t issue was leis than 100 W. Let even a less perfect system be adopted.
tieut let it be summary. As the law at present stood, nothing that
the Hon. and Learned Gentleman opposite (the Solicitor-General)
*mild advance, could persuade any man of common sense that it
was not a nuisance of the worst description. (Hear, hear.) Any
parent of property, under existing circumstances, Gould with the
most perfect impunity annoy, if not totally ruin, any poor person
wile might have the ill-fortune to excite his enmity. And with
respect to the Court of Chancery, if the property a man wished to
protect did not exceed five or six hundred pounds, he hail better not
defend his property, for he could not do so without the expenditure
of • still larger sum. (Hear, hear.) He thought it a fortunate
circumstance that that Court was st last to undergo • revision, and
he hoped it would be such as to satisfy the hopes and expectations of
the country. (Cheering.)
Mr. Secretary CANNING then rote, but from the noise in the
House we lost his first sentence. The petition. he slid. set forth
*slain matters, which it complained of as if they were the result of
the peculiar practice of the Court of Chancery ; but was such the
case ? No such thing. On the contrary, it appeared upon the very
feu of the petition that the whole of the proceedings had been ac-
wiling to the practice of a Court of Common Law. (Hear, hear.)
Did not the petitioner speak of his having received • nonsensical
piens of parchment, which he chose to treat with the greatest eon.
temple and the consequence was, as might naturally have been ex-
pected, that the plaintiff was placed in possession of his property.
(Hear.) The Hon. Member (Mr. Hume), however, had drawn all
his inferences as against the Court of Chancery. which he accord-
ingly dealt with rather unsparingly (hear); but why had he not
drawn those inferences against the Courts of Common Law ?
(Ileac, hear, hear.) The arguments of the Hon. Member for Mon-
trose, and also those of the lion. Member for Taunton (Mr. Ba-
ring), went to this, and he admitted that no state of things could
he toms lamentable, that a poor man had livle chance of obtaining
justice by going to law with a rich man. This was, indeed, an
'TO which all men must regret, and it the wisdom of man could
dfvise a remedy, it would doubtless be a blessing to the country.
I Hear, hear.) The complaint, however. which he had to make,
and which, in his opinion, every impartial man must acknowledge
to be just, was, that those evils were made the grounds of charge*
against the Court of Chancery in particular, and personally against
the Noble Lord who presided in that Court. (Cheers.) He thought
that such charges were preferred with gross unfairness and mani.
lest injustice. Mete, hear, hear.) If such were the means
which Hon. Members thought proper to adopt, in order to dispose
the country to join them io their outcry, he felt bound to declare
that in bill opinion they would fail in their object, because such a
AMMO must hold up the individual in question to the protection of
every man of honour. ((heat cheering.) The Hon. Gentleman
had also stated, as matter of aggravation of the case he had brought
before the House, and the circumstance of itself would show the
spirit with which the petition was grit up. that a child of seven
years of age was imprisoned with him. This was too palpable an
attempt at misrepresentation. (Hear, hear.) Every body knew
that a child of that age could not be imprisoned under such circum-
stances. (Hear, hear.) The fact was, that the petitioner was im-
priaor.ed, and he hail got his child with him (hear. hear), and
egiS must probably because he knew of no persons in whose care he
mold leave him. (lieu, hear.) To assert, therefore, that the child
was imprisoned for contempt was so uttetly absurd, that he (Mr.
reveinel absolutely deemed the statement Minutes% from the very
Anse:rude of its obeunlity. (Hear, hue.) So much for the first
Lau of the ;petition, every statement of which applied so entirely to
site proceedings of the courts of common law, that it would have
been just as wise, or rather much wiser, if the Hon. Member for
Montrose had indulged in a tirade against the venerable Lord
Chief Justice of the Court of King's Bench. in the case of the
petitioner, a Bill had been filed against him which he had not
entrain to answer, and the Court proceeded to award judgment ac-
cording tilts ordinery course. Now he would suppose a case, for
the sake of illustration ; suppose the plaintiff in the action was the
complainant, and suppose him to be as poor as the peti-
tioner before the House. He would suppose his complaint
to be that the defendant owed him • sum of money upon
mesegage. that he had gone to law to recover it that
be hail filed a Bill in Chancery, and that the defendant hart
refused to put in his answer to it, in order to keep him out of pos.
*lesion. (Hear, hear.) It would be quite as logical thr the Hon.
Member to suppose such a dile in the defence of the Lod Chan-
ceries', aa to presume that all the hardships lay upon the other side
of the question for the purpose of attacking him. (Iluch cheer.
lag.) It was, he admitted, a grievous misfortune thqt the law was
in merry instances out of the reach of the poor ; but in the instance
*kith was then before the house the charge of corruption, if such
g charge could at all be maintained, applied altogether to the Court
W' King's Bench. (Hear, hear.) The Hon. Member for Taun-
ton (Me. Ranee) had disclaimed any thing like personal observe-
win, but the term " curse to the country" had in his opinion been
personally applied. Those, however, who had read the petition,
/11 Mut be aware that every allegation it contained might with equal
(Pieties, he applied to )he Courts of Common Law, where the ex-
perms, though not so great as in the Court of Chancery, were still
alifficiently beyond the reach of the poor. He sincerely wished
tied a tetnedy could be devised for an evil of such magnitude, but
he wee Offlai:t that no retnedy could be found in peramial tempera-
tun. (Great cheering.) One observation be wished to puke he.
thee he sat down, which was, that if it wan the object of Hoe.
tientiremen upon the ether el le of the House to remove the Noble.
istau who had so often been alluded to from his 'tattoo, he could
suture them, that every speech such as that which had that night
been matte by the Hon. Member for Montrose. would only tend to
riser hint in his piece if he possessed the feeling of a man. (The
!Light lion. Orodernan then sat down amidst continthd cheers.)
Mr. hi' IliLI A M S said that he readily admitted that no Mem.
her of the profession was ever rdmitted to the presence of that No.
writnap without experiencing from him marks of the greatest cour-
Iftr and kindness. and so tar from personally alluding to him in
what ,he what he was about to address to the Moue, he would truly
aid cohscientiously say, that wherever he may be, he wished him
well. Sill. however, he reserved to himself the right of declaring
trusty his opinion. whenever the practice of the Court over which
that Nobleman presided became the subject of Jamie. It was re-
markable that the only two Members of that house who had been
ever patients in that emir' had adopted the expression which was
so much complained of, that it emu those very two individual' who
asserted that they deemed the Court of Chancery a curse to the ne-
uron. (Hear, hear.) Ile deemed it rather unfortunate that the pre.
awning of the petition had in some measure anticipated- the motion
es the Hun. Burolet (Sir F. Burdett), which he perc:ived upon the
parr, as upon that motion the subject might hate been Wait eopi.
'achy diectissed. When, however. he heard lion. Members ex.
pieraiungeir sentiments upon that petition, he could not help ful-
-1 ta a deal astonished at the change which had taken place
is their opinions upon the very subject of the abuses of the
Court of Chancery. (Hear, hear, hear.) 'What had been
and by the lion. Member for Surrey ? (Mr. Holme Sumner.)--
Did he not blame the lion. Member for Alontrose (fir. flume),
sit I the (lon. Member fur Peurhyo (Mr. Orenfell), for not having
ssught to remedy the abuses of the Court of Chancery, rather than
oelulge in vituperations against the Lord Chancellor ? Did he not
Mao blame himself for not having done so, and yet he (.)Ir. Wil.
halite) would ask where was the vote of that Hou. Member in the
year than? (Cheers.) When a moths.) was then before the House
t w the purpose of inquiring into those abuses, did lie not oppugn
in? (Much cheering.) Did he not vote from time to time that
there was no delay in the proc.crtinge of the Court (chew.); that
there was only • prudent pause? (Continued cheers, and laughter.)
Did he not runt the motion ora the ground that inquiry imputed