The Sun.
London, England, 1852-11-17 00:00:00

EpicE SD,

and they said they could do it better if it was left to them.
The solicitors were now to furnish copies themselves, and
this was not a saving to the suitors, because they would
have to pay their own solicitors. This charge was not
imposed by the court in any manner whatever. Taking
this 10,0001. off the 44,439/., the actual saving would
be 34,439/. for the coming year. Now, it was necessary
for him to state the particulars of the great fund under
the care, and which stood in the name, of the Accountant-
General of the Court of Chancery. In the first place,
some arrangement had been made, and justly enough too,
as regarded the officers, because they had been inclined
to give every facility. The Accountant-General's office
had been shut during the whole of the vacation, and
this was a great hardship to those persons who had
small incomes payable from funds in the Court of
Chancery. The Accountant-General had at this moment
standing in his name a sum of 48,015,8561., an enor-
mous amount to be under the jurisdiction and care of the
Court of Chancery; but he had the satisfaction of telling
their Lordships that there was no claim which might not
be fully answered from that fund. During the last
year the cash and stock which had been turned over ex-
ceeded 21,000,0001. The cash received by the Court
last year, including dividends on stock, was 5,173,6751.,
and the cash paid 5,993,5391. The stock was of two
kinds—stock purchased or sold by the Court, and stock
accepted or transferred by the Court. The stock pur-
chased by the court last year amounted to 2,181,249/.,
and that sold to 1,829,0091., making together 4,010,258/.
The stock accepted in the same period amounted to
2,382,591/., and that transferred to 2,964,089/. Their
Lordships would be struck by the similarity of the
amounts in the two cases. Putting all the transactions
together, the result was that the Court had not occa-
sion to buy more than 230,000/. worth of stock to
meet the all those arrangements ; though the real
arrangements amounted to upwards of four millions.
Two descriptions of persons were engaged in carrying
on those transactions—the broker and the jobber.
The latter bought and sold stock all day long, and
had the turn of the market each way, and that was his
Cii- "PL.,. A ~.:...-..-...a... -4et _ i t_ • AL• .A.

orfoity-eight millions of stock, went every yon
Stock Exchange, and bought all the stock required to
be bought, and sold all that was required to be sold. In
dealing with this immense fund he hoped to be able to
effect a great saving. The matter had been considered
by a Committee of the House of Commons, who, in their
second report, in 1848, made this observation :—That
the system of charging brokerage on the suitors'
funds ought to be discontinued ; that the Accountant-
General should be paid by a per centage ; and that only
the balance of stock required to be bought or sold each
day should be bought or sold, whereby the brokerage on
the remainder would be saved to the suitor. This re-

commendation had never been carried any further. He
differed from that Committee as to the appropriation of
the saving. There was no necessity whatever for the
Accountant-General to go and buy and sell every day,
or any day, unless the capital was actually wanted for
the occasion. Therefore, by an easy arrangement, by
transferring the funds backwards and forwards to the
different accounts, everything would be kept perfectly
right and regular, and a clear saving of at least 12,0001.
a year to the suitor would accrue. But he would not

throw that saving into the general fund. He proposed
that it should go to the suitor himself, and not to the fund.
In taking a whole year's transaction it would only be ne-
cessary to take all these amounts, and dovetailing them

properly in harmony, to sell or buy some 290,0001. or
300,0001. worth of stock. The effect would be to save a

vast expense, and the suitor would be as well secured as at

_ .
present. There was this difficulty in the way : it might be
asked, " How can you ascertain the proper price to be
paid or accepted by the different parties when there is
no longer a real transaction, but when it is only made
on paper ?" Fortunately he was enabled to meet that
in a most satisfactory manner. The Bank of Englan d

took the prices of every species of fund every day up to
one o'clock, and then it struck the average. He pro-
posed, therefore, to take that average at one o'clock as
the price at which every one bought and sold that day.
That would be fair towards all parties ; and it would be
attended with this further benefit. Very often sums
were ordered to be transferred to different parties ac-

cording to the price on a given day. This same scale
of the one o'clock average could be adopted for these
transactions ; and a very considerable sum would thus
be saved to the suitors. Then there was the fund of
111,0001. a year, arising from cash belonging to the
suitor, but in which he had no interest. The Court

acted quite differently with this fund, of which it was
the trustee ; the monies were invested and the interest

and dividends were appropriated at last. The argument
in favour of this was, that the Court acted as banker ;
and as ordinary bankers were entitled to use balances
for their benefit, so the court was entitled to use

them for the benefit of the general suitor. What he pro-
posed was, that, for the future, where any unemployed
cash should be laid out by the Court, where it was not
required by the parties to be invested, the Court should
have the benefit of that investment for two years ; at the
end of that period, if there were no opposition, the party
amti4&—lpiau4—ur-tigeub-11- ienevt
suitor in another way. An account had been laid
before the House in 1851, in the shape of a return from
the Accountant-General, showing the amount of cash
standing in different accounts in his name, not dealt
with for ten, twenty-five, or fifty years ; also the stock
in his name on which dividends had not been claimed.

Many of these sums, it might easily be supposed, could
never be called for. He proposed that the Lord Chan-
cellor should be directed to go through those accounts,
not affecting any surplus which had been less than ten
years without being dealt with, and to select those sums
which in his opinion might be dealt with, and invested
without injury to the parties interested—the investment
to be so arranged that if ever an account should become
a living account, the party interested should find his
fund with all the dividends upon it. At present these
moneys were invested so as to produce interest to the
suitors' fund. What he proposed was, that the Chan-
cellor should have power to direct that the dividends,
from time to time, instead of being invested, should be
applied to the administration of justice so as to relieve
the suitors. The other fund of two million two hundred
thousand pounds to which he had referred, was invested
when the funds where at 76 ; they therefore had the
benefit of the difference of price. He proposed, also,
that at the expiration of a certain number of years this
fund should be again examined. He not only believed that
it was impossible for justice to be administered more ra-
pidly in the proper sense of the word, than it would now
be in the Court of Chancery, but also that the time would
come when the suitors in Chancery would have no costs
whatever (as we understood the Noble Lord) to to pay.
In dealing with this fund, which he called a sacred fund,
he should consider it necessary to exercise the greatest
care. The time might come when the Consolidated
Fund would be relieved from certain of the charges for
salaries, &c., to which it was now liable ; if this fund
were sufficient to pay those salaries, there was no rea-
son why the State should not be relieved from their pay-
ment. The Bill for effecting these changes was in pro-
gress, and he should shortly lay it on their Lordships'
table. Another small Bill was connected with the sub-
ject of the Masters Extraordinary in Chancery. At pre-
sent this appointment was sought as giving to a country
solicitor the aspect of being a person very much trusted
by the Court of Chancery. He proposed to have a regis-
try for transacting this kind of -business, and to sweep
away the fees now charged by these gentlemen. He would
now state what he proposed to do, in order to carry out
the wishes of their Lordships and the other House as to
lunatics in Chancery. The Government thought it
right that there should be a new Commission, to which
certain Members should be added, including one
of the Vice-Chancellors° and other legal function-
aries. The object of the Government was, not only that
the reforms already commenced should be prosecuted,
and in the same able course, but that there should be
an inquiry (for which purpose the learned persons he
had last named were added to the Commission) into the
working in testamentary matters of her Majesty's Courts.
(Hear, hear.) At present one kind of Court had juris-
diction in one place, and another in another, and the
utmost confusion prevailed. (Hear, hear.) The Noble
and learned Lord then referred to the case of a Mr.
Scott, a lunatic (as we understood), the particulars of
which he detailed at great length, but in so low a tone of
voice that they did not reach the gallery. He pro-
posed an extended investigation into the working of those
courts, and the establishment of one simple rule for the
Courts of the whole country. Another small Bill which
he should introduce was connected with the patent laws,
substituting stamps in lieu of fees. The Noble and Learned
Lord then referred to the subject of lunacy generally,
and said that the great difficulty would be to reconcile
the several authorities having jurisdiction, which it would
be impossible to give up, and to put the business into a
shape in which no unnecessaryexpense should be incurred.
At present several authorities were exercised over
visitors
Besides Great Seal, the Ccommissioners, and the vi
Besides those, the Act called Lord Shaftesbury'siA_Ls.i.tsohiande
appointed eleven commissioners,
legal,—whose duty it was to license the asmyelduimnas:
had come to require
those asylums, and to look after their m
the course of time, the existing Acts to visit
several amendments. Those amen einmperont.grelssn,
waanneadrgethe
and with the assistance of the NobcliernEelltri
Tlliee Masters in Lunacy were
Commis-
sioners,whiehh had hitherto
hhaditheevrteoryimrepasedoendttoi bellvieeivi!wtohtnevgeoryf
tohbeseotacmle.
mission would be removed.
Chancellor were to referq
attached more particularlmyattotetrshetoChthaennice,llaonrd,•
tbhuetyiwf the
e
(,) doubt a very considerable ex-
pensetoof
necessarilysaenndesttfthershbmaeciklt,,—_an. for instance,. the enlargement
must i.ch bite iviacusrrpeeyderfr..
perfectly
tyhhThe
s.absurd Again,g
respect
thereeesapt etcot
te
callndwereb e
ur
a t.
many cases in w
rl outnnh
undf
ue
ei.lbupeir liberty of the subject had been
jury tot. trryaritihaemequutesot
cases where parties would be pronounced, on
the mere sight of them, to be drivelling idiots. He pro-
posedranileewsssa. yo
always against
de oa
(Hear,
away, ra s. farTh easohn
.object
tofbet,hwie
33thinthwesheieihnqtthde-
there were cases givingf
)
Noble Earl (Lord Shaftesbury) had brought in last Ses-
sion, was to provide by shortinsane might andltbe
taken summary
care of n.
processu
tthilaptrpoepresronsinetiviute evidently ycould illan
be made, and also to provide
for the maintenance of persons in lunatic asylums who
had no friends or funds, and who might, therefore be
turned out in the streets. The object of this proposed
enactment was to prevent the danger that might arise to