The Sun.
London, England, 1849-06-19 00:00:00

(5131003X-!1 *11111:

LONDON, TUESDAY, JUNE 19, 1849.

There 13 at length some prospect of Chancery
reform. Some of the most glaring and palpable
abuses in the Irish Court have attracted the attention
of the Legislature, and a measure has already passed
he House of Commons by which a new tribunal will
be created for the cheap, speedy, and effectual trans-
fer of incumbered estates, in place of the expensive,
protracted, and uncertain proceedings that have
hitherto taken place under the jurisdiction of the
Court of Chancery. The evils of the " receiver
system" have also been prominently brought for-
ward, and a Committee has been appointed to inquire
and report thereon, from whose labours the most
beneficial results may be anticipated. The point of
the wedge having thus been introduced, the
rest will speedily follow. The principle of
Legislative interference with the working of the
Court being once established, Parliament will not be
satisfied with removing some of many existing abuses,
nor will it deal with bhe Irish Court only, but will
also reform and amend the English practice, and
cleanse the Augean stables of the_ filth accumulated
during successive centuries.

The delays, expenses, and practical injustice of
what are pleasantly termed "proceedings in equity,"
have become a reproach and a disgrace to the entire
nation. The simple fact that a person is brought into
Chancery is in the great majority of instances suffi-
cient to ensure his utter ruin. No mode of escape is
available—the surrender of his property to an un-
founded demand—the total abandonment of claims to
which he may be clearly entitled—may be in-
sufficient to ensure his extinction from its meshes.
Although he may have no personal interest in the
subject-matter in dispute, be may still be a "neces-
sary party" to the suit, and thus compelled to remain
before the Court, and to submit to a heavy expendi-
ture for costs, and many annoyances while the pro-
ceedings are protracted beyond human endurance,
an-i perhaps commenced de novo at the very mo-
ment when it might reasonably have been supposed
that the y were drawing to a conclusion. The period
for great and comprehensive alterations in the ad-
ministration of the law has arrived. There is but
one alternative ; either the machinery of the Court
must be adapted to the spirit of the time, and a mode
of procedure adopted by which justice may be ob-
tained by every suitor within a reasonable time, and
at a moderate expense, or the Court itself must be
abolished, and a new tribunal erected on its ruins
suited to the wants of the people.
None can attempt to justify or defend the mode of
procedure in the Court of Chancery. Its very
judges and (,fficers are compelled to acknowledge
the justice of the compla'nts that have been preferred,
and to join in the indignant denunciations that may
be heard on every side. Many of those holding im-
portant and lucrative situations in it have come pro-
minently forward as legal reformers, explaining the
chief causes of the existing grievances, and offering
valuable suggestions for their removal. Eminent
counsel have also published their opinions, not only
with respect to the absolute necessity for speedy
changes, but setting forth the nature of the al-
terations so imperatively required. The So-
ciety for Promoting the Amendment of the Law
have considered the question in all its
bearings, and in clear and able reports have traced
these evils to the fountain head, and laid bare the
sources whence they flowed. Even the solicitors,
the very persons vvho are supposed to profit most by