The Sun.
London, England, 1853-04-11 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, APRIL 11. 1853

also must all wills be proved, and all letters of ad- j
ministration granted in the case of persons having I
no fixed residence, or dying abroad. Cave ats,
moreover, are to be lodged only in the Metropo-
litan Court ; indeed, the spirit of the whole pro-
posals are to centralise and simplify as muelt as
possible this important department of the at lmi-
nistration of justice.
But what is to become of Proctors, Judges, Re-
gistrars, and sine,cwrists? The whole staff, the
last excepted, are to be transplanted bodily to
Chancery—are to doff the ecclesiastical and to don
the Royal livery, whereat we, as loyal subjt 3cts,
of course greatly rejoice. The public, howemer,
has learned with indignation that, while o ther
sinecurists are got rid of easily enough, Mr.
MOORE is secure of his disgraceful gains, and -even
the reversion of tile office is secured too. Pa rlia-
ment (as Mr. DISRAELI would justly say) "ii a its
wisdom," has solemnly guaranteed it ! ! The
almost only deserving parties in the whole ;affair
—the Proctors of Doctors' Commons—are to have
what strikes us as but imperfect compensation.
They are to have, for a time (it ought to be ten,
if not twenty years, at leas') the exclusive con ,duct
of the business of proving wills in common fi arm.
They will, of course, lose much of the practis ,e in
contentious jurisdiction. It may be hoped, how-
ever, that the vast improvement of the mod'e of
conducting testamentary business, and the ge-
neral tendency of these measures to attract
it to Londoi, will lead to a great in-
crease of business in the department reserved
to them. In all the evidence taken, the high test
testimony is borne by the highest legal authori ties
too, to the efficiency of the Judges and practiti ni-
ers of Doctors' Commons in the Testamentary de-
partment. Cases of fraud have occurred, tnd
lately too, in the Diocesan Courts, but in Doctt
Commons the vast amount of the duties has be en
regularly collected for the Government, and fraud
utterly unknown. It is to be remembered tl tat
the education of a Proctor is a costly one. ;He
must be articled for seven years, must pa 3 a
premium of from 6001. to 1,0001., besido s a
stamp duty of 1201. on his articles, and expenses
of admission amounting to 1001. or nearly so.
No doubt there has been something too like 3 a
" Proctors' Union" among them, tending to re-
press " unrestricted and even wholesome com pe-
tition." The practice of permitting only the
thirty-five Senior Proctors to take articled clew ks,
and that but once in five years, combined v‘'ith
the seven years' articles, and requiring the appli-
cant to be under eighteen years of age, are all
arrangements intended to make the professiol I a
close one. Still the cost has been considerab/i to
those now engaged in it, and their average inec me
being no doubt in proportion, their claim fen • a
large compensation, either in money or i n a
large exclusive practice, cannot be denied. ' The
Solicitor-General has wisely preferred the Ia titer
mode of compensation, since the cost of pecuniary
compensation for a whole profession (and. the
Proctors alone of Doctors' Commons amount to
about one hundred and fifty) would haraly be
endured. The more it is investigated, the zno r
clearly it appears that they have done their Juty
well. Quite as cheaply, if not cheaper than ~the a
Law Courts, and with much greater expeditiog on
the whole (we speak of course of the Testamerr tary
department), they have acquired, moreover. , an
amount of knowledge and skill in this departn lent
which will be for a long time unequalled ; ye, t, as
Mr. HENLEY observed, the Proctors are not . in a
position to compete with the Solicitors and Bar rris-
ters of Chancery. The Solicitors of the cowl rtry
have, in fact, hitherto been the Proctors' alp lost
only clients, and the former would natty •ally
endeavour to retain in their own hands the pr )fits
of both professions. They, too, have access to the
ear of every man ; they actually make the • vast
majority of the wills ; and hence have e' rery
opportunity to take the double business into. i ,heir
own hands, if permitted. It will, however, al 3we
have just ob-37. Jed, be long before they can. pos-
sibly equal the Proctors in knowledge and ski 11 in
their particrlar department. We have no d. oubt,
therefore, that Mr. BETUFLL will do full juiti ce to
that class of men which alone merits considevs tion
in these soon to 13 abolished Courts. The
curists he can hardly be unjust to. They 4.11 Light
to think themselves richly compensated it not
called upon to refund.

1 Everybody at all interested in the system atic
cultivation of ArL in F9gland, appears to be de-
cided in the conviction that the time has at Am 'gill
arrived when the count:; should possess an isisti-
tution worthy in all resr ects of being design ated
a National Gallery. tie unanimity of fee ling
upon this matter is being every day more des trly
and unmistakeably demonstrated. An ills tra-
tion of the fact was very recently rendered vin ible
by an agreeable coincidence. M-. DYCE'S pa= ph-
let—already referred to thrice in these cohn ans
in deserved terms of commendation—was scar cely
prepared for publication when the majority cd its
suggestions was anticipated by an intelligent; re-
viewer in the Edinburgh. This circumstan. se we
regard as singularly propitious, because sing (early
significant. The simultaneous arrival at the . same
conclusion of two writers, in no other part ieular
associated with each other, indicates very pl airily,
we conceive, that the necessity of the d esired
change had become rather apparent in its el ia,rac-
ter. The evil complained of by both wi Lb. so
much earnestness had come, indeed, to be at
last, according to an odd expression now
popular, patent to the meanest compreher ision.
It could scarcely, in truth, by possibility have
been otherwise. The symbol of the me drifter
grievance was staring us in the face every day in
the centre of our most populous and frequ, ent ed
thoroughfares. Nobody could enter Trafa blga ,r-
-square either from Pall-mall or the Strand, frc dn
St. Martin's-lane or Parliament-street, from Coc :k-
-spur-street or Spring-gardens, without seeing ?be-
fore him the monument of our disgrace as a ua-
tion incompetent to advance the real interests.' of
Art, whether pictorial or architectural. The ex Ac.nt
of that incompetence was visible, in fact, in e Tory
stone of that odious building—poor Mr. WILK 'Nes
abominable masterpiece. It was small comic at to
know that, with a view to remedy this annoy. alive,
the surplus left by the Great Industrial Ex hihi-
tion had been dedicated to the purchase of ce: rta in
market gardens situated between Brompton &ad
Kensington, as the site of a new galley projc,cted
by the Royal Commissioners. Experience Inade
us tremble for the consequences. Therefore., lye
began to consider the chances of escape :from
any repetition of our previous blunders in the
arrangement of a national collection. We beg=
—that is to say, every individual really interested
in the redemption of our character as a race ,of
civilised men seriously interested in the develop-
ment of Art, began—to d read the possibility- of
the new establishment proving in the end merely
a disgraceful repetition of the old establishnaent
on the site of the Royal Mews of the Georges.
Hitherto we had seen no recognised system in
paintings to be added to the Na-
the purchase of
tional Gallery. We say that that Gallery WOs in-
complete in a thousand 7--ticularc, and that what
there was in it was jumb .1 together in a state o:
bewildering confusion. Therefore, we say, every
sincere lover of Art in Fn 'and dreaded the possi-
bility of having all these errors reiterated in the
new structure about to be erected in the vicinity
of Kensington. Remembering that these views
have for some time past been very prevalent, it is
in no way surprising that similar suggestions. as
to the future should have been almost simul-
taneously adduced by Mr. DYCE and by the
Edinburgh. Nevertheless, though the circum-
stance is thus perceived to be very account-
able, it is not the las remarkable for that
reason, as indicating the necessity for some
speedy and well-ordered innovation. It is
really to be hoped that the matter will in this way
force itself upon the judgment and candour of her
MAJESTY'S Government. Everything has proved
heretofore that the great want in regard to the
management of the National Gallery has been that
of concentration. , Entrusted as the power has
been to a cluster of unpaid Commissioners, it has
naturally, or rather we might say inevitably, been
until now most loosely exercised. It is an old
saYing that "what's everybody's business is no-
body's business ;" and so it has unquestionably
turned out to be in reference to the working of