The Sun.
London, England, 1852-09-08 00:00:00

LYCEUM- THEATRE.

THE NEW VICE-CHANCELLOR.
The public service has sustained a heavy loss by the
sudden and early death of the late able and excellent
Vice-Chancellor Sir James Parker. Raised to his emi-
nent position by professional merit alone, in spite of his
Conservative politics by a Whig Ministry, he entered
upon the discharge of hie high office in a spirit of en-
lightened liberality, which enhanced the respect for his
judicial powers and high legal knowledge. But, after
all, there is nothing which will tend so much to per-
petuate the public regret for the loss of this able and
excellent servant as the choice of his successor. In
these days of Reform we require that the judges who are
to preside over our courts should not only be well
versed in their procedure, but they should possess that
comprehensiveness of mind and constructive power
which enables men to demolish an obsolete and vexa•
tious system, and to raise a durable and useful fabric
in its place. They are much mistaken who think
that the recent crude and half-digested measures
which were hurried through Parliament for the sake
of electioneering popularity have solved the problem
of Chancery reform, or afforded to the suitor one-
half of that relief which he is entitled to expect
from the Legislature. These Bills are but the beginning
of a mighty change, the first symptoms of a long and
tedious fermentation through which this troubled and
turbid mixture of heterogeneous elements must work
out its own purity. There can be no greater error than
to suppose that the Bills of last year have founded a
new system, and that nothing remains for the judges to
do except to work it out as they find it. The Legisla-
tive daties of the judges in courts of equity are, in fact,
only just begun. A long and arduous investigation lies
before them ere the procedure of the Court &Chancery
can be made to answer the requirements of justice and
reason; and more than this, the success of the whole re-
form depends entirely on the sisal with which the Equity
Judges administer the new duties which are cast upon
them. Our readers are aware that the office of Master
in Chancery has been abolished, and its duties are to
be performed by the judges, with the assistance of a
chief clerk. if the Judges enter heartily into
this scheme we believe that their assumption
of the duties of Master will be fraught with great
benefit to the suitor; whereas if they work in an
indolent and narrow, or an unwilling spirit, the only re-
sult will be to reconstitute the old jurisdiction under a
new name, and vest in the Judge's clerk, with less learn-
ing and less responsibility, the powers hitherto exercised
by the Master. It is, therefore, no inconsiderable
matter to fill up a vacant Vice-Chancellorship at the
present moment. We regret to say that the gentleman
appointed by Lord Derby to fill this important place
does not appear to possess any of the requisites for such
a position. Had Mr. John Stuart been as remarkable
for his exertions in the cause of law reform as he has
notoriously been for opposition to it, his reputation as a
lawyer stands scarcely high enough to justify his eleva-
tion to a great judicial office. Bat the truth is, he
owes this preferment much more to political than
legal considerations. The late Duke of Newcastle,
the consistent adversary of all the liberal changes
which have illustrated the history of the last two
reigns, found in Mr. Stuart an exact echo of his
opinions, and selected him to represent his interest
in the borough of Newark in 1846. Mr. Stuart did not
disappoint the expectations of his patron. His politics
would entitle him to form one of a triumvirate, the other
two members of which might be Colonel Sibthorp and
Sir Robert Inglis. Mr. Stuart owes his appointment
to his opposition to free trade, and to a very indifferent
advocacy of the worst side of almost every question with
which the Legislature for the last six years has had to
deal. Such political services are undoubtedly entitled
to a reward from a Ministry which represents, so far as
its personnel is concerned, all the bigotry and obstruc-
tiveness which mighty changes and sudden conversions
have left to the English nation. We only wish that
these services could have been rewarded with a post
less imperiously requiring high talent and enlightened
liberality, and visiting the want of these qualities with
lighter loss and injury to the public.
In this appointment Lord Derby has
of
given a proof
the degree of his sincerity, so much and so loudly
vaunted, lie the cause of law reform. The measuresosi
which he passed with the assistance of the 0
during the last session, and afterwards took creditP tifo°ria as if they had been forced on an unwilling Parliament, he found all ready, at least so far as the outline was con-
cerned. To his predecessors belong the merit of the re-
form in Chancery, and the responsibility of the Common
Law Procedure Bill. This is the first instance in which
he has been called upon to do an act seriously affecting
the cause for his devotion to which he has taken so much
credit. It is not too much to say, that out of all the
persons on whom his choice could possibly fall, he has
selected the most unfit man in the country to carry out
the pending legal reformation. We speak with no per-
sonal disrespect of Mr. Stuart, but there is no one more
entirely disqualified, by the strength of his prejudices
and the narrowness of his views, to carry out the work
which the country expects from him. The duty of the
equity judges is not merely to preside in their several
courts; they form a standing committee for the reform
of the jurisdiction they administer. In that committee
Lord Derby has taken care that ono voice at least shall
be raised in favour of ancient abuses.

Such, however, seems to be the leading policy of the
present Government. They are willing to carry out
every principle which they have denounced and decried
for so many years, provided only the task be reposed in
the hands of men always most hostile to its accomplish-
mPnt. Their mission seems to be the reconciliation of
contradictions and antipathies. Every cause, according
to these strange principles, is best served by placing
it in the hands of its mortal enemies. Free trade ceases
to be an evil when no longer intrusted to the hands of
Free-traders, and law reform itself may be endured
when confided to the keeping of its bitterest antago-
nisti. No argument in favour of the present Ministry
is so frequently put forth in conversation as the sug-
gestion that they can carry more liberal measures
than their antagonists, because they can command
the support of those who would oppose those mea-
sures if proposed by any other Government.
The Liberals may besiege the fortress, but the
Tories can compel the garrison to lay down their
arms and to surrender at discretion. Such a suggestion

has undoubtedly some truth, but is very discreditable to
the party on whose behalf it is made. According to
this reasoning, that Government is most entitled to

confidence which most effectually destroys in office that
policy which it advocated in Opposition. The days are
gone by, apparently, when this country could find two
parties conscientiously differing on subjects of great po-
litical importance. There is but one set of opinions
consistent with the possession or retention of office.
The only difference between parties is, that one holds
the same opinions in Opposition as in office; the other
directly the contrary. We confess ourselves to be no
converts to this ingenious system of contraries, and we
shall persist in believing, till convinced by experience to
the contrary, that free trade is safest in the hands of
Free-traders, and law reform in those of law reformers.
Nor shall we consider it a proof of the sincerity of Lord
Derby that he has selected a gentleman professing the
principles of Mr. Stuart as the fellow-labourer of Sir
John Hominy and Lord Cranworth.— Times.

,aaanbdeenno
identified for a considerable. townh
little pride was
NORWICII.—TI
of the Gold Medal.
manufacture
period with o f
vinegar
this
to Messrs. Hills and Underwood.
occasioned by the award. of the Royal Com-
mission Commission, as
Lancet,ex_
pounded has followed close upon this distin-
guished by
honour;the this most useful body has fully con-
firmed and
he
The inquiry of the Analytical Sanitary
is thus pronounced
and Underwood
made by Messrs. Hills
al
former decision. The vinegar
firmed the justness of t
by both commissions freefrom
are so strongly embued,
acids with which most vinegars
aroma of the finest white
while it possesses the taste and .
sulphuric or other miner
wine vinegars of France,
of pyro igneus acid—
called, is too often a horrible compound
We are naturally
an acrimonious distillation from wood.
publicity of
desirous of giving our fellow-townsmen all the
and which latter, byr the way, so
these two important decisions, at ,d our
have a
information that Messrs. Hills and Underwood
Eastcheap in
branch establishment of some magnitude in '
that city.—Norfolk Paper. London readers the
EXHIBITION or 1851.—We are requested to pub-
lish
the following notice :—" Many exhibitors of the city of
London having made personal and written application to this
office for the medals, certificates, and copies of the Jurors'
Reports presented to them by her Majesty's Commissioners,
notice is herehy given that the late Local Committee for the
City of London have undertaken the distribution of the
medals and other articles in question, and the honorary se-
cretaries will shortly announce their arrangements for this
purpose. By order of her. Majesty's Commissioners, HENRY
C. OWEN, Captain, R. E.-1, Old Palace-yard, Westminster,
Sept. 7."

The highly-meritorious entertainment of Mr.
Henry Russell, entitled the Emigrant's Progress
from the Old World to the New, still continues to
draw very crowded houses. It is impossible to spend
two hours more agreeably or profitably than in just
now visiting the Lyceum, for in that brief period of
time the audience is nightly enabled to take a journey
to the provinces of the Ear West, under an able and
experienced guide, who not only points out all that
is striking or interesting on the way, but delights
the voyagers with his music, both vocal and instru-
mental, and excites their risible faculties to an inor-
dinate extent, by his witty anecdotes and droll
delineations of Yankee and negro cha-
racter. He is, without doubt, a most plea-
sant companion, and we could almost wish that
the journey were a little prolonged. He is quite an
adept in blending instruction with amusement, and
the emigrant may obtain from him as much judicious
advice and correct information as could be gleaned
from grave authorities of far greater pretensions.
Mr. Russellis an old traveller, and, having frequently
visited the scenes he portrays and mixed in the so-
ciety he describes, he vouches for the accuracy of
his pictures. The panorama it a very beautiful pro-
duction, and is painted, as he tells us, from sketches
taken by himself on the spot. His negro life, in
freedom and slavery, which is also illustrated by a
panorama, is very effective, and will perhaps do more
to convince the public of the iniquities of the slave trade
than scores of publications and speeches. It is gratifying
to perceive that Mr. Russell has a moral as well as a
pecuniary object in giving these entertainments. He
denounces slavery in strong, but far from inappro-
priate terms, and looks upon it as a huge blot on the
otherwise glorious flag of the United States. He
recommends emigration, as the salvation of those poor
and overworked artisans and labourers in this
country who are wholly unable to support themselves
and their families. It is unnecessary to speak of Mr.
Russell's songs ; they are famed far beyond the
boundaries of the United Kingdom; and it is well
known that none can sing them in so stirring and
effective a manner as himself.