The Sun.
London, England, 1852-04-20 00:00:00

TUESDAY

IMRE R.I

HOUSE OF LORDS, April 19.
The LORD CHANCELLOR took his seat on the Wool-
sack at Five o'clock.
PETITIONS.
Lord MONTEAGLE presented a petition from Gal-
way and Limerick aguinst the Ecclesiastical Titles Act.
The Earl of SHAFTESBURY presented petitions
from Dumbarton, Plymouth, and other places, against
the Maynooth grant.
Lord BEAUMONT presented a petition from Dun-
stable, praying for tha retention of the Crystal Palace.
His Lordship' added, that he did not join in the prayer of

the petition.
MASTERS IN CHANCERY.
The LORD CHANCELLOR said he rose to lay on
the table of the House a Bill for abolishing the office of
place. After the speech which he had made on a
Masters in Chancery, and substituting other officers in
their
former occasion, he should not think it necessary to de-
tain their Lordships any length of time in stating the
provisions of the measure. It was one which he had
have
ave
very anxiously considered, and he had had the great
advantage of having consulted en the subject the four
judgeo equil—namely, the Master of the Rolls and
the three Viee-Chancellors, by whom the provisions of
the Bill were to be worked out, and on whom would
mainly depend its chance of being carried into succees-
distinguished judges;
fel operation. He was sure their Lordships were aware
quit:
impossibleould ttoo fienncleofuonutrerpeirnsoones
more learned, more able, or more willing to grapple with
that it would be
and he had no
doubt that with such assistance the measure would be
thematter d i floesffiteha than
th theyse
brought under the most favourable circumstances before
the public.—(llear, hear.) There was at present one
vacancy among the Masters in Chancery, so that nine
wag the actual number of those officers. He proposed
that the measure should begin to take effect from
the first day of Michaelmas term in the present year,
and that the four senior masters should then be released
from the duties of their office, while the remaining five
should be left to wind up the arrears of business which
the Lord Chancellor might think proper to reserve for
them until the new scheme should come into' perfect
operetien. Under tke Bill they would have powers
which they had never before possessed. It had always
been alleged in defence of the masters, who bad been
visited with all the sins of their offices, that they had not
had power to compel suitors to proceed with cases before
them. By the present Bill he proposed to remedy that
defect, and at once to invest the masters, subject to an
appeal to the Court, with the power of compelling par-
ties to proceed immediately with their cases. He should
also obsarve that he proposed to give to the Court itself
a similar power for the future; so that the Court would
be enabled to prevent the protraction of cases for a
period cf, perhaps, many years. He had already had
personal experience of the efficacy of such an ar-
rangement. When he had the honour of presiding
over the Court of Chancery in Ireland he had
issued, in uccordance with a power vested in
him, certain orders fur compelling parties to proceed
with cases which had been pending, in some
itistancee, for twenty, thirty, or even forty years; and
before he had left that country every single old case had
been finally disposed of.---(Hear, hear.) He had taken
great care in framing the present measure that under it
there should be no room for favouritism in the dismissal
of the masters; for the four seniors among them should
be dismissed in the first instance. They would, of
course, be entitled to receive their full salaries after their
dismissal, and the other five would remain until their
business should be wound up. Under the new scheme
the Master of the Rolls and the three Vice-Chancellors
should each have two chief clerks, and each chief clerk
should have a second clerk, and the whole of the busi-
ness which had hereto! ore been in the hands of the
masters should henceforTard be carried on in chambers
by the judges, assisted by those clerks. There would
be no references to any other officers, and no unneces
nary statements of facts, with all the expense and
delay which those references and statements occasioned.
The judges themselves, with their chief clerks and
under clerks, should transact in chambers as much
of the bnsincss before them as was not to be heard in
court. The effect of that would be that the judge would
go into chambers during any period of the day, or for
the whole day, as he might think proper, and he would
there consult with his own officers. ho might, if he
should deem it advisable, get reports drawn up for his
use, so that there might be something on which he could
afterwards proceed. It had always seemed to him (the
Lord Chancellor) that if any scheme of Chancery re.
form were to have a fair chance of success, the judges
should work it out for themselves. With respect to the
patronage to be created by the new scheme, he should
observe that he thought it right that each judge should
have the appointment of his own chief clerks, so that he
might have persons he could himself approve of for con-
ducting the business of his office. Upon the same prin•
ciple, he would give the appointment of the second
elerle'edo the chief clerks. There should be some places
in which the judges and their clerks should meet. Upon
that subject he proposed that the Master of the Rolls
and his clerks should assemble in the Rolls' Office, and
that each of the three Vice-Chancellors should have
commodious chambers farniehcd for him at Lincoln's
lan. He proposed to take a power of selling, with
the consent of the Crown, the offices in Southampton-
buildings, in which the masters at present sat; and
he hoped that the sum to be derived from that sale
would be sufficient, or nearly sufficient, for the con-
struction of the new chambers. He thought it very
desirable that the clerks should not meet in the building
hitherto used by the masters, and that they should not
be led is think by the associations of the place that they
had succeeded to the situations of those officers. Under
the existing law, if the senior Vice-Chancellor should
cease to occupy his cffice, there was no power in the
Crown to appoint a new Vice-Chancellor; but he pro-
posed that by the now Bill there should be a power given
to the Crown, if it should think fit, to appoint succes-
sors from time to time to that judge. He fervently hoped
that the system woul I be found to work without the ap-
pointment of any additional judges. The Master of
the Rolls and the three Vice-Chancellors already con-
stituted a powerful judicial staff, and he should be very
sorry to see any necsseity for its increase. Then
would undoubtedly, h.iwever, be this inconvenience in
the proposed new arrangement, that while a judge was
engaged in chambers, no business could be transacted in
his court; for there was not in Chancery, as in the
common law courts, an extra judge in each court, who
could attend in chambers. But he hoped that the in-
creased facility for obtaining cheap and speedy justice
would more than cemp3neate that inconvenience.
He would for a moment draw their attention to the
present state of the procedings in reference to the
reform of the Court of Chancery. He was sorry that,
while ha was alluding to that subject, he did not see in
the House his Noble and Learned Friend (Lore
Brougham, we believe), to whom their Lordships and
the country were so much indebted for his very impor-
tant services in the cause of legal reform. His Noble
and Learned Friend had introduced in that House a Bill
for extending the jurisdiction of the county courts, to
which he (the Lord Chancellor) had had no time to de.
vote any attention previously to the third reading; and
he had not, therefore, thought proper to interfere with
its progress. It had received their Lordships' assent,
and it was at present before the other House. He wise
aware that the passing of that Bill might interfere very
much with the regulations of the measure he was then
hying on thedabfe of the House, and he felt that it would
be neces.ary to consider carefully how far the two mea-
sures could be worked together. But, as there was no
man in this country more anxious than his Noble and
Learned Friend that the present Bill should pass, be was
sure that his Noble and Learned Friend would be the first
is agree that his measure should be allowed to stand over
until the present Bill should have become law. The
Bill related solely to the masters' offices, and the new
jurisdiction to be vested in the judges, assisted by their
clerks. There was still a very important portion of the
report of the Commissioners to be carried into effect,
and that was all that related to what was termed the
procedure, as distinguished from the practice, of the
Court of Chancery, and the means of rendering it more
easy and cheaper to obtain justice in that court. The
Bill for carrying out that portion of the recommendations
of the Commissiouers was at present under his (the
Lord Chancellor's) consideration, and he hoped that, in
the course of about three weeks, he would, with the as-
sistance of the other judges of the courts of equity, be
able to lay it on the table of that House, and by that
means to carry into effect all the suggestions made by
the Commissioners for improving the jurisdiction of the
Court of Chancery. He would not detain their Lordships
any further. He was sure that it would be needless for
him to go into all the details of the Bill. lie believed
their Lordships would agree with him, that, as far as
that measure went, no time had been lost in its prepare-
tiom—(llear, hear.) He would also undertake to affirm
that, as far as legal improvements were concerned, the
assurance given by the Noble Earl at the head of the
Government that no time should be lost in forwarding
those improvements would be fully and fairly fulfilled.
Lord CRANWORTH was glad to 500 that the Noble
and Learned Lord had shown such readiness to comply
with the recommendation of the Chancery Commission,
for the abolition of the Mestere' offices. The present
Bill had his full approval.
Lord CAMPBELL said that he considered the
Master's office the root of all the evils of the Court of
Chancery, and he was glad to see that the first step taken
towards Chancery reform was the abolition of these
offices.
The Bill was then read a first time.
BISHOPRIC OF QUEBEC BILL.
This Bill passed through Committee.
On the motion of the Earl of DERBY, the Mutiny
Bill and the Marine Mutiny Bill were read a third
time and passed. •
Their Lordships then adjourned.

HOUSE OF COMMONS,
The SPEAKER took the Chair a few minutes before
Four o'cloiik.
CHARITABLE TRUSTS BILL.
The Sheriffs of London appeared at the bar and de-
livered in a petition agreed to by the Corporation of the
City, pr.,yieg that the City charter may be exempt from
the operatieu of the Charitable Trusts Bill.
NEW WRITS.
On the motion of Mr. P. MACKENZIE, new writs
were ordered for East Suff)lk and 'favistock, the
former in the room of Lord Rendkaham, deceased, an d
the latter in the room of Mr..Trolany, who had ac-
cepted the office of Steward of the Chiltern Hundreds.
PRIVATE BILLS.
The following Bills were read a third time find
passed:—
Barnstaple Markets and Fairs.
Great Munster Fair.
Ilkley Waterworks. •
gelvin Bridge (Glasgow) and other Works.
Lyndon and Southampton- Road, through BishOp's
Waltham.
Medina River Navigation.
Rhyl Improrion4ent.