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

briening

LONDON, TUESDAY, JUNE 19, 1849.

There is 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
the 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 este.blished, Parliament will not be
satisfied with removing some of many existing abuses,
nor will it deal with the 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 perscn 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, he 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,
and perhaps commenced de novo at the very mo-
ment when it might reasonably have been supposed
that they 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 officers are compelled to acknowledge
thejustice of the complaints that have been preferred,
and to join in the indignant denunciations that may
be heard on every side. Many of those holding
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.
ot Eminentonly
counsel have also published their opinions, not
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 who are supposed to profit most by

the continuance of the nuisance, have joined in the
general outcry, and declared that " owing to this de-
fect in our institutions, wrong is without redress,
frauds and breaches of confidence in the most sacred
relations of life are committed with impunity, and
even encouraged, while the far greater number of
suitors are driven to the miserable alternative of
compromising their suits on terms the most disad-
vantageous, or of allowing them to remain for an in-
definite number of years entirely unadjudicated ;"
while novelists have detailed cases of deep and
bitter suffering, but which are more than
paralleled by the terrible realities of every-
day life. " Boz" has graphically depicted
the miseries of the Chancery prisoner of thirty years'
standing, who had long been forgotten by the world,
and whose dying moments were only soothed by the
sympathies of his fellow-victim—the cobbler who has
been ruined by the bequest of a considerable legacy.
The picture was by no means overdrawn, for many such
cases existed, and still exist, where the unfortunate
suitors, having bad their entire revenues eaten up by
protracted litigation, their spirits crushed by the
" hope deferred that maketh the heart sick," and all
their prospects in life blighted and destroyed, were
ultimately consigned to a prison to linger out the re-
mainder of their days in melancholy and hopeless
confinement. By all classes the intolerable nuisance is
denounced and execrated—judges, masters, and officers
of the Court, barristers and solicitors. Plundered
suitors and disgusted spectators are for once unani-
mous in deploring the grievance and demanding a
remedy, but literally nothing has been done to meet
the public wishes, or to provide adequate remedies
for the acknowledged abuses. Some time since we
noticed an exceedingly clear and well written
pamphlet, by a solicitor, on the inherent defects of
the Court as exhibited in its system of procedure
and fees, with suggestions for a remedy. The
writer was manifestly thoroughly acquainted with
his subject, , and he brought a sound and vigorous
intellect to bear upon it, and to apply his knowledge
to the best purpose. We gladly hail the appearance
of a second edition of this valuable little work,
with considerable additions and emendations,*
and with the name of the author on its title-page. It
is dedicated to that uncompromising veteran Re
former, JOSEPII Hume, who has devoted his life to
the removal of every species of abuse under which
the nation suffered. The facts of a case in which
the writer was professionally concerned are detailed,
as affording the strongest illustrations of the vicious
system, and the inherent defects of the Court are
pointed out with a master hand.

Amid the fears of non-content Lords and the
anxiety of Protectionist Commons, we would read
them a lesson founded upon the principles of common
sense and practical religion. There are certain Etate
sermons preached in St. Paul's Cathedral by the
Chaplain of the Chief Magistrate, which are not un-
frequently worthy of public attention. One of them
was delivered on the anniversary of the " Restoration
of the Royal Family," and another will be preached
on Wednesday morning, to celebrate her MAJEsTY's
accession. In turning over our memorandum we
find the following sensible observations of the Rev.
STEPHEN REED CATLEY, the Chaplain to the Loan
MAYOR, delivered on the 29th of May, showing how
a Christian minister can calmly view events which,
perhaps, may not be in entire accordance with his
own views and feelings. The Chaplain's text was
from the 2 Sam., chap. six., verse 10. In

urging the importance of religion being recog-
nised in the councils of the state, and of our hoping
the best for measures which have passed into laws,
he says—" Nor ought we to suppose, however they
may be viewed through various and opposite media,
and however some may conscientiously differ from
them, that all measures are not founded upon honest,
even if mistaken, principles; and that GOD who rules
above, if he be faithfully served, will overrule enact-
ments which appear to many complicated, venture-
some, and unsound, and will bring peace and plenty
cut of measures wbich seem to threaten even an op-
posite result. If it he difficult, amongst the most
talented statesmen, to define what will be the precise
effect of some legislative proposals, let us endeavour
to rest our faith upon that very doubt; and, in confi-
dence and prayer, leave the results in the hands of
our KING of Kings, who can change curses into
blessings, raise a nation to glory, or trample it to
ruin. If this principle actuated the hearts of all, how
often should we see the best and surest foundations'
laid by his power, beneath what some might think frail
and futile arts of man ! If national prayers are really
considered as prayers, how might dissatisfaction, and
confusion, and party spirit end in peace and happi-
ness r Measures opposed to our earliest feelings, and
to our calmest and most unimpassioned deliberations,
would often result in the establishment of truth sad
justice.' Enactments which seem to threaten some
section of the Church of CHRIST would prove but the
removal of bonds, and- limits, and distinctions, of
human contrivance, but which, blessed and sanctified
by GOD, would tend to the establishment of an end-
less reign of national religion and personal piety."

We recommend these sentiments to the considera-
tion of timid and troubled statesmen, and while we
have all reason to congratulate the City upon their
selection of the LORD MAYOR, we cannot but con-
gratulate the LORD MAYOR, upon his selection of a
Chaplain.

" Attend to the neglected, and remember the for-
gotten. "t These beautifully expressive words form
an appropriate heading to an appeal for the Ragged
Schools, for the principle which they inculcate is
the principle to which these Samaritan institutions
owe their rise. For the sole and express purpose of
giving attention to those (and, unhappily, they may
be counted by thousands) to whom in this enlight-
ened age, and in this enlightened country, no atten-
tion whatever had hitherto been given, and of whom,
although under our very eyes, no cognizance what-
ever had been taken Ragged Schools were established.
During the five years of their existence they
have done much, but that which they have accom-
plished sinks into insignificance when compared with
what is still undone. Let any dispassionate inquirer
bestow half-an-hour's attention upon the reports; or,
better still, let him give ten minutes of personal
investigation into the appearance of the Ragged
Schools and the characters and conditions
of their inmates, and he will wonder not
that such institutions have been established, but
that such an awful necessity for their establishment
should exist, and, moreover, that it should have existed
so long without meeting with any attention.
The destitution and depravity of the children of
London is almost incredible. Would to heaven we
might disbelieve the painful and revolting records of
those who have investigated their condition. Would
that
we might convict of exaggeration those who
reckon up the thousands and tens of thousands of
children in this Christian land who live like savages
and die like heathens. Would that we might dis-
credit their veracity who picture to us the ignorance
and vice, the squalor and wretchedness of the children
of the metropolis, and the filth and misery of their
horrible abodes. But we cannot do so. Our daily
experience affords to these details a sad and convincing
confirmation. Who can walk through the streets of
London morning, noon, or night, and venture to dis-
credit any records of crime or destitution ? And yet
the daily lesson is ineffectual, the daily exhibition is
unheeded. Destitution haunts our footsteps and
crime flourishes before our eyes, but we turn aide—
we close our ears to the voice of supplication, and
madly exclaim with ALEXANDER, " Give us other
worlds to conquer !" This dangerous infatuation has
been very forcibly set forth in a recent sermons on
behalf of Ragged Schools, which we earnestly com-
mend to the attention of that numerous body
who give their mite to the missionary, and think
they have done their duty. They will there learn,
to their astonishment, let us hope, that nearly one
hundred and fifty thousand pounds has been sub-
scribed iu one year for the missionary, and the
Ragged Schools have had difficulty in obtaining more
than a hundred pounds by annual subscriptions.
Without in any way disparaging their philanthropy,
who so strenuously support the heathen missions, we

* " The Court of Chancery; its Inherent Defects, as
exhibited in its System of Fees and Precedure: with Sug-
gestions for a Remedy. By W. Challenor, A. 8." London,
Stevens and Norton. Pp. 56.
"An Appeal for Ragged Schools." By T. Beau-
champ Proctor. Second edition.
" The Expostulation of the Neglected." A Sermon
on behalf of the Lamb and Flag Ragged Schools. By
the Rev, J. F. Denham.

cannot but lament the direction, or rather the mis-
direction, of that philanthropy. True, the ruling
principle of the Christian religion is to spread and
diffuse itself among all nations, but he it never for-
gotten, that the same MASTER who bade his disciples
" preach the Gospel to every living creature," also
commanded them to teach their own people
.first
(" to the Jew first"). " Charity begins at
home" we are told, by way of excuse, by
the parsimonious. This rule, which is too
frequently acted upon in domestic life, finds its sad
" exception" in the 'cases of heathen missions and
home neglect. As we have already said, we do not
wish to discourage the Christian ambition which
would diffuse throughout the world "the glad tidings
of great joy." 'We do not say to the charitable "De-
sist from benefiting the heathen," but this we de
say," In GOD'S name suffer not our little ones at home
to perish !" 'Assist both the English and the
heathen savage if your means permit ; but
if not, remember your first duty is to look
at home. Helpless infants dying of destitution, or
growing up in villany, crowd your doorsteps. Re-
fuse to give them schools to teach them to work, and
what are you the richer ? The law will compel you
to build prisons and fit out convict ships, and erect
the gallows for them hereafter. You may be sure of
that. The alternative is simple enough. Give a
little to-day to teach them how to live and fit them to
die—to make them useful to the commonwealth here,
and fit for happiness hereafter ; or to-morrow give
much to punish the crimes you might have prevented
and destroy the men you might have saved. We shall
again recur to this subject, for it is one that we would
fain believe only needs to be known in order to be
cared for. It requires not the aid of eloquence to
enforce its claims ; for, as the lamented CHARLES
BULLER so beautifully said on one occasion, " If the
tale of wrongs suffered does not excite our sym-
pathy, the tongue of an angel would be powerless
to persuade."

THE FRENCH REPUBLIC.

......-...4t111...-..-

We have received the Pyxis papers of yesterday.

The Ilioniteur publishes the following telegraphic
dispatches from Lyons.

TIIE PREFECT OF THE RHONE TO THE MINISTER OF

TIIE INTERIOR.

" LYONS, JUNE 16, EIGHT, AM.
" The night has been goozi, the troops are masters of
all the positions at the Croix Rousse and in Lyons.

"If the conflict should recommence, force wilt remain
with the Government."

LYONS, JUNE 16, lIALF• PAST NINE, A.M.
" The insurrection of Lyons iy subdued; all is over.'
The National, the Presse, and the Siecle publish the
following circular :

4-41' ..'" .
: '4'
.;4 . ' • *
~ dit- ~ . ~,, 6UI Mkt, '.!: / , 4
/4.....• . , ' •,'' ...: ii---.- - • _):.ii,ft .. ~..-.,„7.,
..f
er ° ' .. • - :Xlitt, ' . _ ~,,,,,
....N.likao
~.,,
'', '''', ,to. ' -
. ' ' ROT . -AI , -, f-
-4., ~', e ni 1., i
j- , ~.„ „4_, r-Al 0, , 40•,0
'.3.r'