The Sun.
London, England, 1830-03-23 00:00:00

were the foundation of decrees partaking of the same want
of brevity. The Commissioners had very wisely stated
that some course of this kind must be pursued in the first
instance, and other changes could be made as they appeared
by circumstances to be required. When he stated that an
additional Judge ought to be appointed for the Court of
Chancery, he begged to add that that appointment would
not entail any fresh expence upon the p'ablic, and it was
very gratifying to him to be able to give this assurance.
There was a large fund in the Court of Chancery which
he could not liken to anything better than to unclaimed
dividends; its first formation took place about a century
ago ; and it had now accumulated to such a degree as to
produce an income of 50,0001. or 60,000/. a year ; part
of it had been applied to the building of new offices, and
part to the salaries of the Vice-Chancellor, Masters, Regis-
trars, &c. ; but there was still a clear surplus of nearly
30,000/. .a year applicable to any purpose. He proposed
that the new Judge should be paid out of this fund. What
he had said of the Masters would apply also to the Regis-
trars. who had to draw up decrees. It was material that
this duty should be discharged quickly, and the Commis-
sioners had suggested the expediency of appointing two
new Registrars. He had prepared a bill for that purpose,
and the two new Registrars would be no expence to the
public, for the fees of the four Registrars would be divided
among six. The House would perceive, therefore, that lie
had strength to hear and decide cases, and that he had car-
ried into effect some of the most important recommenda-

tions of the Commissioners, but tLere was another proceed-

ing connected with the Masters' offices, which it was his
intention to adopt. The Masters had told him that the
book ordered to be kept by the Commissioners of the his-
tory and progress of causes, had been attended with the
most salutary consequences ; and he proposed, in addition,
that at the end of every six months a return should be made
to the Lord Chancellor of all cases on which no reports had
yet been made. The Lord Chancellor would thus be furnished
with the means of inquiry, and, in case of necessity, in-
formation might be given to the parties themselves. There
was another subject connected with the jurisdiction of the
Court of Chancery to which it was necessary for him to
advert—he referred to Lunacies. It was supposed that
commissions of lunacy were necessarily attended with
great expense : the fact was, that in general the expence
of such a commission was very trifling, although there had
been cases where the costs were most enormous. He re-
ferred particularly to the cases of Lord Portsmouth, Mr.
Davies, and of a gentleman of the name of Bowles; in the
county of Leicester. A Bill had been brought into the
other House to remedy this evil, enabling the Lord Chan-
cellor to issue a Commission to a Judge, before whom the
inquiry was to take place. He was persuaded that such a
• measure was altogether unnecessary, as the Lord Chancel-
lor already possessed the power thus intended to be con-
ferred, and instances of his directing commissions to the
Chief Baron and to the Attorney-General were to be found
as far back as the reign of Henry VIII. It might be
wise and prudent to exert this power in future, and the
costs might thus be considerably reduced. The chief ex-
pence arose from the attendance of witnesses, and it would
he in the power of a Judge who was in the habit of pre-
siding at nisi pries, to shorten the inquiry when he
found that it bad proceeded a sufficient length to arrive at
the truth and justice of the case. The Bill, therefore,
intended to be brought into the other House was wholly
needless ; and he believed that he had persuaded the
Honourable Member that it was so. One other subject
remained—that of bankruptcy. He had over and over
again given his attention to it ; and as far as related to
the metropolis (for he confined his observations to that),
he thought that it could not be placed in better hands,
or upon a better footing than at present. The business of
the Commissioners of Bankrupts fluctuated enormously—
sometimes it was trifling, and sometimes burdensome, and
the tribunal was well calculated for the purpose, as it met
both extremes. He had also made diligent and anxious
inquiry as to the mariner in which the Commissioners
executed their duties, and the best test was the number
of appeals from their decisions, and the number of rever-
sals. Considering the number of cases, it seemed to him
quite surprising how few was the number of appeals, and
still fewer were the reversals where a decision was come to
contrary to that of the Commissioners upon the same
state of facts. He proposed, nevertheless, to diminish
the expence in various particulars, into the details of which
he could not now conveniently enter. He also intended to
enlarge the jurisdiction of the Commissioners of the me-
tropolis ; at present it extended for forty miles round
London, but he wished to extend it to eighty
miles ; and with the present improvements in travel-
ling, SO miles now were, perhaps, not more than 40
miles when the institution first took place. In the
time of Lord Rosslyn, commissions were established in
some of the great commercial cities and towns of the king-
dom ; why that plan had been abandoned he did not know,
unless it were from a fear of the imputation of a desire to
increase the patronage of the Great Seal. No man, how-
ever, ought to be deterred from the discharge of an im-
portant duty by any such apprehension, and he therefore
proposed that the Lord Chancellor should exercise the
power of establishing such commissions. At the same
time, his patronage would not be increased, as the total
number of Commissioners would remain as at present.
He was quite sure that effective service would be done if
these suggestions were pursued. He had thus taken the
- liberty of going through the whole course of the improve-
ments contemplated by Ministers. Some were already
matured, some had almost arrived at maturity, and others
must wait for a more distant period before they were com-
pleted. e attention of the Government had been per-
severingly directed to the subject : they were anxious only
to du good by diminishing expence, and by increasing pre-
cision and certainty ; and if the House concurred in their
recommendations, it would be a great gratification to him
personally, and to those who had co-operated with him.
He concluded by moving the first reading of a Bill to faci-
litate the administration of justice in the Superior Courts
of Westminster.
The 13i11 was accordingly read a first time, and ordered
to be read a second time.
The LORD CHANCELLOR added, that the Real
Property Commissioners bad yet made no report : they
bad, indeed, delivered in a partial report regarding some
special tenures ; but the inquiry was by no means com-
pleted.—Adjourned.