The Sun.
London, England, 1852-02-18 00:00:00

_
LORD TRURO.
There cannot be the slightest doubt or ouestivn that
the Bar—the suitors, and the great body of legal re-
„rs—wonld as glefly ore tr:reurirt.eami :voe:ll:fseeLt,tirde
form
Truro from the (Bee of Lord Chancellor es iha array,
l removalcnL)r'oir Es'aatindGrethyefri:';il:3l:hee iC"olonial-office. Notwit h-
t g his uegenial nwure and froward nutnour,,E'srl
Grey is an active, and often a useful, partisan in the
Ifou e of Lords. Though a very unfit MLitt to Cabinet
.i
Minister,
Esri Grey possesses quickness, tartness, and a cer-'
and most specially unfit to be Colonial.W.iejs-.
twin spl,..ei4s of irritable vigour, occasiooatiy useful in
party warfare. But the Chancellor, whether in court or
camera--whether in the Cabinet or the Home of Lords-_
is neither useful nor ornamenW. lie encumbers the
Cabinet—stops the progress and stream of justice—an 4
dams up the wholesome current of law reform. Useless
in council—mischievous in debate, ponderous, perplexed,
empty, and turgid, Lord Truro is, neverthelese; pos.
sesst ci with the curious conceit that he alone is practical
—that th &fate has responsibility—that he alone has
multifarious employments—that he alcee weigh out his
auriferous moments a poids de l'or, end that all that drops
from his pregnant lips is filled with absolute wisdom.
The harm so pompous and in,ino a personage is likely to
do will unfortunately survive his tenor', of office, or will
even survive that of his colleagner, should iheyi imam-
mously resolve to get rid of hita by throwing such a dead
weight of legal lumber entirely overboard the frail
bap gee ehich earries their uenrosnerous fortnnns.
How Lord John Russell is to get on with such a
t heea eti
Chancellor wo cannot for the Ma of us see; and
supoos-ug a Cabinet round-robin to be already signed
agamist tehremuNhoblteo
tidal
Lra
e
Lord,with the .6.hetretronigs
the man at the bar or on the trench foolish
cohranme:—d nogt the absolute stela
eertainty_of being
:jetted before tee ses,ion is half over? Yct a man so
bold and reckless as Lord Truro must be got rid by
y
get upon the wool-
hook or by crook, and thE 30DD. For it impossible
's Speech, made at
sthacakt aa
nd.flatly
cor r
teraand
eb
te
haelrlo riealt,tsoty
the commencement of this session, and ut the commeracc-
inent of tho last session also, on the subject of law re-
frro. At, th., Cabinet Councils Avhell those speeches
were agreed upon, Lord Truro was corporeally present
—be protested not against the report of the common law
Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, but which did
commissiooers—a commission which i,sued when ho Was
not report till he was Chancellor—he protested not
against the appointment of the first Chancery commis-
sion, consis!ing of Sirs John Romilly, George Turner,
James Parker, and W. Page Wood, of Mr. Bethel', Mr.
Crompton, and Mr. James. He protested not against
the Curia mission for extending the inquiry, dated the 31st
day of January, nor against the commission appointing
two additional commissioners, not of the profession, is-
sued so late as the 4th July last. With what face, then,
we ask, does the Lord Chancellor now set himself
individually up against the recommendations of a
commission appointed by the Government of which
he formed a part? There is not one of the Commis-
sioners, with the exception of the two laymen (and these
are both able, astute, and long-headed men) who, irre-
spectively altogether of the evidence, is not far more
competent to deal with the question of Chancery reform
than the Chancellor; and yet, against them all—as well
as against the Royal Speech—and of the deliberations of
the Cabinet of which he forms a member—the Chancel.
for sets up his own individual opinion. Insubordination
such as this was never before tolerated in the greatest
Chancellor that ever adorned the woolsack, and how can
it be tolerated in the most indifferent and, intellectually.
the least considerable Chancellor that has sat on the
marble chair in our day or within the present century?
Of the Common Law Amendment Bill one would
fancy Lord Truro would know somewhat more than
of the Chancery report ; yet even in bringing
forward this Bill, which was, on the motion
of Lord Lyndhurst, referred to a Select Committee,
it appears that the lynx eye of the ex-Chancellor of
Mr. Canning, the Duke of Wellington, and Sir Robert
Peel, discovered that th© Bill varied from the report,
and in so varying would lead in practice to great confu-
sion. To this statement, all the Chancellor had to say
was, that it did not appear necessary to him that the
Bill should be referred to a Select Committee, but at the
same time that he had no objection to its being so re-
ferred. With respect to fees, all Lord Truro could utter
was that he would consult with the judges, and then
make up his mind as to what was best to be done. But
two of the learned judges left yesterday for Lancaster,
the 16th being the commission day; and within a week
all the judges, with:the exception of Lord Chief Baron
Pollock, who remains in town, will be outon the circuit,
not to return to London till the ending of March. Unless,
therefore, the judges be consulted instanter, and a deter-
mination promptly come to, it may so happen that
Baron Truro will be out of office before the answers of
these learned individuals can be obtained. Thus, then,
is a report which Lord Campbell pronounced to suggest
more alterations in our procedure than had been origi-
nated since the time of Edward L—thus is it, we say,
stopped in transitu by the torpidity of the Keeper of the
Great Seal.

Of the manner in which the Common Law Proce-
dure and Practice Bill is drawn, we do not care to speak
to-day. But we know the opinion in the profession is
general, that anything more slovenly and slip-shod
never proceeded from the penny-a-liners in Acts of
Parliament, employed by the authorities who job
away these snug berths. To be sure the Lord Chancel-
lor is no judge of style, and knows little of logi-
cal precision, or the philosophy of language, or legis-
lation; but one might suppose that a man who has
been reading huts of Parliament all his life, and
arguing upon their effoct, would not present to
the House such a crude and undigested abortion as this
bantling of a Bill. But, alas! poor man, what with
Cabinet Councils, end Chancery sittings, and two able
Lords Justices 01 Appeal to help him, he is ao over-
worked that ho has not time to think of anything but
those heavy and responsible duties which he does not
perform. Bat; notwithstanding the deep devotion of the
Chancellor to important and essential duties," he
cannot make up his mind as to fees at common law—as
to masters in equity—or as to the report of the Chancery
Commissioners.

The Solicitor-General, a Scholar, a lawyer, and a
gentleman, misunderstood, if he fancied the Chancery
Bill could be ready so soon—or the Premier misunder-
stood. No wonder the honest impetuosity of Lord
Brougham could not stand this—no wonder he " talked
of the thick and palpable darkness in which the Chan-
cellor was enveloped."—Herald.

ERRATUIII.—In our third leading article yesterday, for
" Yet a mon so bold and reckless as Lord Truro," read
" Yet a mon so bold and reckless must bo found,"__
lit

Vi
u.nnoyances, were very
DRURY-LANE THEATRE.
A new farce, by Mr. J. Maddisc.,n Morton, was brought
out here last evening, under the title of Too Late for the
Train. The principal part. was sustained. by Tilbury,
whose tribulations, on being interrupted in a projected trip
101/'l. Vining d
atom
aCsrinogy.donmbiyssacos
Tuecnceeyss,
e" and k-i"bY under-
took Played capitally. The
piece
pt ha
se s
eo
dt h
oft'
ffr
wc
tahr ascut
ee
er
es ,s
Ea. n d

0 .A T
andz I To
,/rt . /) \ 7 -
"Ge s
lte)rodaTyVDa I:m4 ol!t.
deplore IVh
o °.
ir
's
o- Df
- Eone
tile accident took place in the C. ity, which nig
involved the loss of several lives. A short time —l'
Ain Jones Crofts, a mining.agent,
of
,_
E Xl3
e 1
t) L 00,SiIhOe
Cheapside, had several charges
for blasting purposes, left with him
sequently finding them l '
rected one of his men to put them
of
detonating g-street,
powder,
as samples,
ying about in •
the man incautiously enough C
bin in the cellar. The charges, and sub-
his way, he di-
" out of the we. ,"and
threw them into a rubbish
powerful, were made up in thegs,'which were exceedingly
needle-case, and when form of something like a
ing were capable of appliedetd to the purposes of blast-
During the week anu b o ging many tons of stone.
about Mr. Crafts' Di er of painters had been engaged
one of them, named B premises, and yesterday forenoon
some paint, when arefield'
was in the cellar mix-
ingwere lying in the be.eyed one of the charges which
rubbish. Picking it up, and sup-
posing it to he a can
needl - •
e , he put it into his
pocket, and at the time he went
with the rest of the workmen previously
to
d mentioned
at the
Fountain
and Star public-house, Castle-court,inner Lawrence-lane,
Cheapside. In
the course of the meal Barefield took
the charge out of his pocket, and a discussion arose as
to what it really was. One of the party cut it in half
and found it to contain a substance which they supposed
0
to be brick-dust. With a view, probably,f
ascertain-
ing more satisfactorily its character, another of the com
my, a man named John Canfield, a waiter, living in
the Canal-road. Camden-town, then took up the pieces
of the charge and commenced rubbing tham on the tap-
room table, when almost immediately they exploded
with tremendous force. Every man in the room (some
half-dozen) was thrown down by the concussion and
more or less injured. The unfortunate creature in whose
hand the charge exploded presented a most shocking
spectacle. Both his arms, from the elbow joint, were
shivered to pieeer, and some idea may be formed of the
poor fellow's mutilated condition from the circumstance
that portions of his hands and fingers were picked up off
the floor. He was at once placed in a cab and conveyed
with all haste to St. Bartholomew's Hospital, and in the
course of the evening it was deemed expedient to ampu-
tate both limbs above the elbow. He continues in the
most distressing state. The police, we are informed,
subsequently searched Mr. Croft's cellar, and found the
remainder of the charges which had been thrown in the
rubbish, and which they took possession of.

----- - HEARTS AND AND ALTARS. BY THE
popularity
t..,
arn
"TnE LADDER ()F GOLD.,,--The new work by Mr. Robert
Bell, with its suggestive title of " Hearts and Altars," is
exciting au unusual degree or curiosity and attention. Cha-
racterised
, are not its
racterised by remarkable vigour of conception, felicity ao-f
diction, and fidelity to nature, it promises by the peculiar
at-
tractions of the narrative to attain a wider
any previous production from his pen. But, perhapys, the
graphic delineations of character, or the vivid pictures of
society which give such animation to the work
bringing in a
its blunders
greatest charm ; and its mystic associations nt
still more powerful impression.— Evenimi Pape.ay produce
THE PAIESENT MINIATRY.—sad it f
been literally
sleiltteraatllayr(o)trieig:ntgegrouerssti°:y
the heterogenous nature of our present Iliniissttroy
letter() effect, null and void,
its shortcomings. First, we have a Premier
measure directed against Catholic
Then we have an
a pose law, and yet a dead
;comthpeonsinga
masses for the service of the very ,
niiiineba:ussraedwo:iaiciilliulisains
Lintel], whose aggressions
his coileagues have been legislatingdomestic against. Then we have
cer-
tainly not favourable to Protestant circumstances are
terests; lastly, we have an security, or Liberal in-
blunders are of such a nature Admiralty direction, whose
tongue. Why should we that they are on everybody's
consistency, weakness, and go further into that mass of in-
country, has so long slumbered?—Morning nepotism, under whose spell our
ered?—Morning Advertiser.
COURT OF COMMON COUNClL.—Yesterday a court
was held for the purpose
Waterworks Bill. -N„ of petitioning against the Chelsea
o other business was done.