The Sun.
London, England, 1862-02-18 00:00:00

THE SUN.

LONDON, TUESDAY, FEB. 18, 1862.

Yesterday the Lords certainly had enough of it.
Five distinct Bills in regard to the Transfer of Land
being laid upon the table in succession. The Go-
vernment Bill, as a matter of course, taking prece-
dence. But the four others following suit, imme-
diately after the close of the LORD CHANCELLOR'S
speech, with exemplary rapidity. Four of those
supplementary Bills came from the Ministerial
side of the house, the product each of them of the
recess - meditations of the ex-Chancellor CRAW-
WORTH. The two other Bills emanated, on the
contrary, from the legal acumen of the Opposition
—ex-Chancellor CHELMSFORD claiming the parent-
age. All five Bills were pro forma read a first
time, and were then collectively set aside for detailed
examination before a Select Committee. Even
then—when that next ordeal shall have been passed
—the discriminative judgment pronounced upon
them by that Select Committee will be merely
preliminary. That, of course. Yet—though "of
course "—the fact is deserving thus, even now,
of a momentary consideration. Meanwhile, at this
early stage of our Parliamentary proceedings in
reference to the vast and complicated legal reform
now proposed, there is one, at least, of those Five
Drafts or outlines of an Enactment, which has
already been fairly put before the Legislature, and,
through the Legislature, before the country. If
the merest glimmering has necessarily been afforded
as yet, both by Lord CRANWORTH and by Lord
CHELMSFORD, in regard to the twin Bills each noble
lord in succession took courage to lay upon the table
Ot the House of Peers las' evening—the Government
/ill, which had been previously laid there by the
hand of LordIVEsTnuRY, had been unfolded, though
in itself a scheme of very ample dimensions, and,
in Some respect, of wholly unavoidable involution,
in a
al'oeeh of singular lucidity and of masterly
comprehensiveness, by
the noble and learned
framer of it himself, speaking in his supreme and I
responsible position as the Lord High Chancellor
of England. It is true, no doubt, that almost im-
mediately after the completion of Lord WEST-
Bußy'S brilliant and really pelucid explanation,
Lord CRANWORTH remarked that he himself,
though listening to it with strained attention, from
its exordium to its peroration, had failed to catch
the meaning of the Lord Chancellor's speech as
a whole ! That in other words, looking as he had
been throughout looking, with eager solicitude to
the measure as explained by his noble and learned
friend, he had himself after all failed to under-
stand it ! Lord CRANWORTH'S remark to this
effect, it should be remembered, was uttered last
evening but e very few minutes after Lord WEST_
BURY had resumes: his seat upon the woolsack. The
explanation had been submitted there and. then
among others to Lord CRANWORTH'S judgment
merely vice voce, and that, moreover, in the dull
and muffled, 1.,:t still confusing echoes of the House
or Peers. Certain are we, that upon consideration
this morning, having "slept well on't," and having
refreshed his memory of Lord WESTBURY'S speech
by glancing down the record of it preserved by the