The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1825-06-08 00:00:00


fingers (a laugh), who never opened their mouths in that House
except to cover themselves with ridicule, and prone the wiadont of
their usual silence (hear), he sew such Hon. Gentlemen sneering
it the panegyric which he had pronceinced os his Hen. Friend, and
which airmen who knew his heart and were the just judges of know.
ledge and talents must concur in. (Cheers.) His Hon. Friend the
Member for Durhara had been the individual chosen by Sir Samuel
Hominy, to consult and advise with daily upon the question of the
Court of Chancery. He in common with that lamented and great roan
had employed himself' upon the MINK', and while they confined
themselves to the general question, it was well; but no sooner did
they inquire into the causes of the delay, and talk to the Registrar
of the probable time it would take to decide a cause, than an ad-
journment was moved, just as if it had been a Private Bill Com-
mittee; and Members who had never been prevent on the previous
discussion came down., and they were outvoted by the Chancellor's
friends. In consequence of this they applied to the House, where
they were certainly defeated, but defeated by a very narrow ma-
jority. He marvelled to hear Gentlemen indulging in a panegyric
on the Commission of Inquiry ; and he was to be told, forsooth,
that the Lord Chancellor. though on the Commission, made it a rule
not to attend, except when a personal charge was brought against
himself. His answer to this was—a practitioner in the Court of
Chancery was examined four days, and the Lord Chaimellar di.
vided 4 by 2, and finding the quotient to be 2, he attended only
two days out of the four. But what did this amount to? Was it not
as gross to talk of the Chancellor's absenting himself, as if that
Learned Lord were Introduced saying, " I take care to frame the
Commission so that the inquiry shall take place in my absence, and
I absent myself in order to affoid no interruption to the exercise of
their inquisitorial Mita : in this manner I will not attend the
meetings, except when a specific charge is brouet against me per-
sonally, but I will take good care whom I name on the Com-
mission." (Hear, hear, and a laugh.) The first name on ihat
Commission was Lord Redesdale, a Noble and Learned Lord,
who bad mounted the ladder of preferment at the same
time as the Chancellor, but always one step behind bim.
(A laugh.) For when he was Chancellor of Ireland, Lord Eldon be.
came Chancellor of England. (A. laugh.) The next name warn that
o the Vice Chancellor, a member of his Lordship'e Court la laugh),
and the next in order was a Noble and Learned Lord, lately ele.
vated to the Peerage (hear,) and certainly no isidividuat could
be more fit to conduct), the present inquiry.for he ewegisothing to
the Lord Chaneator (slatigh); nor was lie indebted to him foe his
legal promotion, because he had forsooth never caught up • wig at
the Exeter Sessions, and after three mouths, been made a Solicitor.
General (laughter), nor been pushed forward prematurely, at the
instance of Lord Eldon. (Cheers and laughter.) Hut seriously
speaking, let the House consider how lewd Gifford had
been raised, and reflect how much he owed to the Chan-
cellor, who was the Architect of his fortunes, to which his
own talents bad not contributed. True, be had obtained credit
for the possession of abilities, but if so, it was on tick he had
been elevated, and his abilities had never justified the opinion en-
tertained of them. (Laughter.) This Learned Lord was a judge,
and if he (Mr. Brougham) practised in the Court where he pre-
e'ded, and though what be now spoke should be to his own lola, he
could not help saying the rapidity of hie rise was only equalled by
the ascent of a balloon (a laugh) ; and after his first elevation he
had farther tasted, not indeed of the Royal, but the Chancellarian
bounty, and been elevated to the chief seat in the Common Pleas,
where he believed he was the youngest Chief Justice on record. Sub-
sequently Lord Gifford wan made Master of the Rolls, which was
considered an easy post. and finally lie was elevated to be a Peer of
the realm.. Lord Eldon employed this learned personage
ea a sort of Vice-Chancellor and Deputy Speaker or the
House of Lords, where he did the Chancellor's business,
which he could not himself perfoim, by journeywork.
(A laugh.) Nay it was farther and openly said, that the Lord
Chancellor designed to leave him as a legacy the place of Chancellor
he was to be his Lordship's favoured heir, and the Great Seal was to
be devised to him as a legacy, when the present owner, who had occu-
pied it a quarter of a century, was done with it. (A laugh.) It
would be then traneferred to Lord Gifford, to have and to hold for
the term of his natural life. With thine prospects, with past gra-
titude and future hopes, might. not the Chancellor safely trust Lord
Gifford in the Commission. Then there was the Solicitor-General,
practising in Lord Eldon's Court, and next Mr. Courtenay, •
Master in Chancery ; then his Hon. Friend, and next several other
Learned Members who were generally supposed not to be far from
being Masters in Chancery. (A laugh.) Then there was another
lion. Gentleman, who within three months of his nomination on
the Commission, was promoted to be a Judge, to show tile remain-
ing Commissioners that they were not out of the way of pro-
motion in accepting that office, and that they were only to
to pass through the shadow of the valley of death of this inquiry into
the resurrection of judges. (Heat, and laughter.) The whole
construction of this Commission reminded hitu of a eircuinstance
that occurred in Westmorland in a trial between two parties named
Thomson and Jackson : one Thomson was discovered to be on the
Jury, and when it was asked was he any relation of the plaintiff,
he made answer, " l'n the plaintiff." (Laughter.) Here was a
Commission to inquire into the conduct of the Chancellor, at the
head of it Lord Eldon, and when it was inquired, who is this Lord
Eldon? Is he any connexion of the Chancellor? the anewn was
I precisely the same as in the former ease—it was, " the Chan.
cellar." (A laugh.) Here did the Chancellor take to himself tea
others wickeder thanhimself, and framed a Commission, the effector
which might be easily divined, and these were to enter into a strict,
close, conscientious, and rigorous inquiry. It had been said that sys-
terns were corner stones in the constitution, but they had heard that
night • saw doctrine. ft *se said men were not to blame, the eye.
tem was to blame. No man blamed the system more than the
Member for Oxford. The fact was, to screen the Lord Chancellor,
the system was to be blackened night after night. It would corn.
fort him to hear whether it really was the system or the man that
was to blame. It did not appear that Lord Eldon, with the assist.
ance of a Journeyman Chancellor, had done more business than
other Chancellors. Did the Noble Lord sit six hours in Chancery
with his mind on the full stretch ? These questions had not bees
the subject of inquiry. By agreeing to the motion of the lion.
Member for Westminster, they might confer a great benefit on the
country.
Dr. LUSHINGTON, in explanation, could not admit that the
Lord Chancellor had exercised any influence whatever during the
inquiry. Ile put it to his brother Commissioners, whether the
Lord Chancellor had been present at the examination of more than
three or four witnesses out of the whole number examined. They
had followed up the inquiry according to the plan arranged by the
Committee. The proper time for inquiry into the conduct of the
Lord Chancellor would be when the jurisdiction of the Court was
examined. In case they had gone further in the examination than
the rules of evidence allowed, they could not have discharged their
duty fairly.
Dlr. TIN DAL whaled to say a few words on the question.
Whether the Report ought to be laid on the table would depend on
what had been the course of proceeding in the Committee. From
the beginning of the Commission they had directed their attention
to two points :-Ist, they inquired into delay ; and, Idly, the ex-
pense in a suit, from its commencement in Chancery to the termi-
nation. If they could prevent delay and expense, a great object would
be answered. In the eitamiustion of witnesses they had proceeded
fairly and to the best of thtirability, being desirous of applying a re-
medy for expense and delay. They had gone on gradually, and
he would pledge himself that his individual exertion, should not
be wanting to get the Report ready to be presented to his Majesty
before the next Session. If the ordinary course had been taken,
what was there to induce the House to oppose the proceeding. He
wished to know from the Hon. Member who proposed the motion, I
whether it was intended to found any Resolution upon it. If such
was the intention of the Hon. Member, lie might ask whether the
Commission could do their duty as well es if they were left
to their own judgment? The Commissioners would be
lout to inconvenience if the evidence was brought forward.—
There certainly was amongst the Commissioners a diversity of
opinion as to whether separate Reports should be made, or a single
one which would embrace the enure subject; and amongst the
advocates for publishing separate Reports was the Lord Chancellor,
(hear, hear), so that r.o delay could be imputed to him t to others
it occurred that it was better, even though it occasioned a delay of a
few menthe, to fbrnith s full and satisfactory Report; such was his
own opinion. On the whole he hoped the House would not depart
From the ordinary course, and as it were take away the evidence on
which the Report was to be founded.
Mr. Secretary CANNING said he should detain the House bnt
for a few minutes, whilst he shorly stated the grounds cn which
he opposed the motion. Through the whole of the very clever
and entertaining speech of the Hon. and besotted Gentleman op.
polite (Mr. Brougham), there ran one fallacy, and when that was
exposed the entire fell to the ground. Ile seemed all through to
conceive that the Commission was appointed. by the House to in-
stitute a criminal inquiry. No other man in that House thought
such were the grounds of las appointment. The country did not
think so, and he was sure the very respectable ,individuals who
composed the Commission never entertained such an idea. The
Hon. and Learned Gentleman said, that in former times the usual
course was to attack the man, and not the errors of the system, but
that now it was the fashion tii shield the man and attack
the system. He assured him that there was no wish entertained
to shield any person, nor was the Commission instituted with such
a view. The duty of the Commission was to put the )louse it)
possession of such prima facie evidence as would show whether
the system itself or its administration were in fault. (Hear, hear.)
The Hon. and Learned Gent. (Mr. Brougham) Resumed, at setting
out, that the fault lay in the man, and therefore contended that the
whole inquiry fell to the ground. As it was ditected solely In scru-
tinize the conduct of one man, there Were no grounds for charging
the Commissioners with shrinking from the inquiry, unless it was
shown that the fault did not exist in the system. The Hon. and
' Learned Gentleman, in a speech remarkable for its great ability
and ingenuity, as well as for its little candor, describes the Colo-
r minioners as not having done their duty. But they might
be said to shrink ia their places, if they did not cure the
evils, when the seat of those evils was found. The dhow-
, tion of the evidence by the Hon. and Learned Gentleman would
have been great indeed, if he could affix any criminality on Lord
Eldon ; but so long as there was on that Commission one individul
who did lot wish to screen that Noble Lord, the charge was with-
out foundation ; but it was quite evident, from the speech of the
Hon. and Learned Gentleman, that his wish was to alter the
ground of inquiry, and criminate Lord Eldon. What was to fol-
low from agreeing to the present motion ? If this motion were
adopted by the House, it was impossible that the Commission,
which had already sat seventy days, should sit one day more.—
Mrhat good could result from such a motion ? 11'hat benefit could
be derived from throwing away rashly what had hitherto been done
by the Commission ? ['hat advantage could compensate for such
a manifest and positive disadvantage? Was the Homes asked to
act so unwisely for the purcose of avoiding delay ? Were they, on
such a pretence, to stultify all those concerned id the inquiry, and
nullify all that had hitherto been done in it ? (Hear.) 11 hat would
they avoid by delay, when they did not give date to the Com.