The Sun.
London, England, 1831-03-15 00:00:00

been applied to public purposes. He had not made up his
mind as to whether the objections against dealing with the
suitors' fund as public property ought to prevail, all he
meant to say of them at present was, that they deserved
time for consideration. Another objection against this
Bill appeared to him, as at present advised, to he this—
that it constituted too many Judges, and that those Judges
were not co-ordinate. It produced a species of tribunal.
which had no similarity to any of the tribunals which we
hail at present in the country : it would produce some-
thing more like to the Courts in France, or to the con-
stitution of the different Courts of Session in Scotland.
The four senior Judges in these new Courts of Bank-
rupts), were to be entitled " Elder Brothers," and the six
junior Judges were to be entitled " Younger Brothers." 11,
hid heard of elder brother of the Trinity-house, but he
hail never yet heard of any elder brothers on our benches
of co-ordinate Judges ; and he must say that in his opinion
the introduction of these terms was very impolitic. He
was convinced that if the Bankruptcy Court were consti-
tuted as the other courts of law were constituted in this
country, five Judges would be sufficient to perform all the
business which would come before it. Three of them
might sit regularly in Court for the despatch of serious
business, and the two others might, like the Judges of the
ordinary Courts, sit at chambers for the purpose of de-
spatching ordinary business. He would undertake to
prove that these five Judges would be equal to all the
duties of their situation, and that thus a saving of 10,0001.
a-year might be effected to the public. He must also
observe, that there appeared to be a very plentiful allow-
ance of officers to this new Court. In the Court of Corn.
mon Pleas, when he had the honour of presiding there,
there were only three prothonotaries and three secondaries.
He therefore could not see any necessity why this new
Court should have two registers and two deputy registers, to-
gether with seven clerks and seven clerks' deputies. If it
had such a staff of officers, it would have more officers at-
tached to it than the Court of Common Pleas, which ad-
ministered justice throughout all the counties of England;
and yet the jurisdiction of this new Court would not ex-
tend mush further than the limits of the metropolis !
There were also some other objections to the Bill, which
he would take that opportunity of stating. There was to
be a Court of Appeal, he believed, from this Bankruptcy
Court. Now if there was to be such an appeal, be thought
. .

that it ought not to be to the Lord Chancellor. He k;1 a
great respect for all Chancllors, and as great a respect
for his Noble and Learned Friend then on the woolsack as
for any Nob!e and Learned Lord who ever sat there. He
had heard that—
" Judges are wise, but Chaisclors wiser still ;"

•
but even allowing them all credit for judicial wisdom, he
never could allow the propriety of admitting an appeal
from four Judges to one. In all such cases the appeal, if,
indeed, an appeal were to be allowed, should be to that
House. What he should recommend would he, that the
appeal should be to as great a number of Judges, at least,
as the Court consisted of. Their Lordships were well
aware, that until :he Act of a late Session was passed, a
writ of error lay from the Court of Common Pleas to the
Court of King's Bench, and vice versa. The conse-
quence of that arrangement was, that in case the two
Courts differed from each other in opinion, the parties
knowing that it was only the decision of four Learned Judges
in one Court against the decision of four equally Learned
Judges in another Court, appealed, as a matter of course,
to their Lordships. To obviate the litigation which arose
from this source, their Lordships had passed a law, by
which it was provided that the writ of error from the
King's Bench or the Common Pleas should be to to the
Judges of the Court of Exchequer and the Judges of one
of the two other Courts from which the writ of error did
not come. That alteration was much approved of by the
Commissioners who were appointed to examine into the
administration of the common law in this country. Now
their Lordships would be absolutely retrograding in the
career of legislative improvement, if they permitted an
appeal to be made to the Chancellor alone from a large
holy of independent Judges. Perhaps, when he had
heard all that could be said on this part of the case, he
might be inclined to change his opinions, but in the mean
time be trusted that he had laid down sufficient grounds
for granting the delay for which he asked. As yet there
had been no debate on the second reading of this Bill.
He did not mean to insinuate that there had been any thing
unfair on the part of his Noble and Learned Friend on the
I,Voolsack ; but somehow or other it had happened, that
no notification had been made as to the period at which
this Bill was to be read a second time. His motion was,

that this Bill be not re-committed till the 15th of April,
and he was the more encouraged to hope that his motion
would succeed, from his knowing that the public interests
would not suffer from the delay which be now asked.

The LORD CHANCELLOR had listened with no
ordinary feelings of wonderment to the speech of lila
N,ahle and Learned Friend,—a speech than which, one more
skilful, more judiciously adapted to damaging a measure
in the eyes of this House and the public, without directly
opposing it, he had never heard, and which, when taken
into consideration with the most unprecedented motion with
which his Noble and Learned Friend concluded,—emotion,
which umler the pretext of delay would do away, to all
practical purpos' a, altogether with the present important
Bill,--would, he was sure, be felt as justifying a few re-
marks in reply to it. His Noble and Learned Friend, in-
stead of following the usual mode of opposing measures
pursued in both Houses of Parliament, and boldly and
gallantly coming forward with a decided motion to get
rid of the Bill by moving that it be read a third time that
day three months, by which it weuld, iu a manner, be
defeated far ever and a day, asked their Lordships to con-
sent to the next stage being delayed till that day four
weeks. By this delay all the purposes of those interested
in the defeat of the measure would be obtained, and a
stigma would be fixed on it equivalent to its ignominious
rejection,—which, aided by the artful statement of his
Noble and Learned Friend that would go forth to the
public, would give birth to feelings of a most disastrous
nature on the part of a most important portion of the com-
mercial community. llis Noble and Learned Fa ientl's
statement bad indeed amazed him a little,—it was so art-
ful,—so skilful,—so cunningly (he used the term in its
ancient sense as synonymous with knowingly) skilful for
its object, and was, besides, so timed, as to take him com-
pletely off his guard. And what, after all, was the grava-
men of his charge? Why, that we (the advocates of the
Bill) were hurrying it too rapidly through its stages, and
by so doing, they should be depriving themselves of
• the advantages of the observations which a Noble and
Learned Lord (Eldon) was prevented by indisposition
from offering on the present occasion, and another
Noble and Learned Lord (Lyndhurst) by his judi-
cial attendance on circuit. But it should be recol-
lected, that neither of these Noble and Learned per-
sons had urged any objection—at least any that he ever
heard of—to the principle of the Bill, long as it had been
before the House, though they had expressed their dis-
sent from the provisions of a Bill not yet before their
Lordships, for regulating the examination of witnesses
before the Court of Chancery; so that it would be too
much for his Noble and Learned Friend to ground his
motion on what those Noble and Learned Lords might
possibly have to say, were they then present. It was now
theca, weeks since he had fully—indeed, be feared at a
tedious length—explained the principle features of the
present Bill ; and sir.mi that occasion it had passed through
several stages, each affording a convenient opportunity for
a discussion, if his Noble and Learned Friend felt himself
called upon to provoke any; and yet his Noble and
Learned Friend, neither on the evening on which he hail
made his lengthened statement, nor when the Bill was in
Committee, nor when the report was brought up, nor on
the stage when the further consideration of that report
stood as an order of the day, had made a single objection
to its principle or chief features. Even now, he must
say, he did not understand where the objection of his
Noble and Learned friend actually lay, unless, indeed, the
;Mee objection summed up in what his Noble and Learned
Friend stated to be, not a change, but a modification of
his opinion, with reference to what he termed the whole-
sale sweeping away of the seventy Condnicsioners of Bank-
rupts. This, after all, was, he was sure, the nucleus,
though carefully wrapped up, of his Noble and Learned
Triend's objection ; his Noble and Learned Friend was,
perhaps- unintentionally, the advocate of these seventy
gentlemen, iniestated alp preserving what the Bill went t a
remove altoge her. The sets& nty—theseptuagint of the Bank-
rupt Commission—had evinced an activity of opposition
to the present measure which their Lordships were little
aware of; they were the assiduous cotnmentators—the
translators, nisiaah more laborious than faithful, if its
tendency and provisiona ; and had employed every
means in their power out of joara, and as far as they
went, peradventure in the House, to have it thrown aint alto-
gether. hence the present !notion of his Noble and Learned
Friend to have the Bill delayed for four weeks, his
force, he supposed not basing equal to the more open and
decided negative of a motion, that it be re-committed that
day three months,—all in obedience to the unremitting ex-
ertions of the seventy Bankrupt Commissioners : be should
correct himself, rot all of them, but the large majority,
who were personally interested in the existing machinery,
with all its abuses and imperfections. He was himself
actually besieged by these gentlemen, hourly beset, either
by letter or in conference with themselves, or some friend,
counsel, judge, attorney, wife, cousin, aunt, or relation—
(A laugh)—all endeavouring to influence him to abandon
or modify the provisions of the Bill, so far as they affected
their individual intereat, without any reference to the still