The Sun.
London, England, 1831-01-20 00:00:00

LORD BROUGHAM AND SIR E. SUGDEN

TO THE EDITOR OF THE MORNING
CHRONICLE.

Slll,-It is with considerable reluctance that I join in
the same letter the name of Henry Brougham (as the Lord,
Chancellor still continues unpretendingly to style himself)
and that of Sir Edward Sugden. The first belongs to
England, to Europe, and the whole of the civilized world,
and will go down to future times with the names of the
scholars, the statesmen, and the orators who have most
adorned and benefitted the human race. The last is
known only to the Society of -Conveyancers and Equity
Pleaders—s respectable class of persons, of whom Sir
Edward Sugden, although certainly not the most intelli-
gent or the most learned (he is immeasurably inferior to
Mr. Preston and Mr. Bell), is, perhaps, at the present
moment, the most successful.* The memories of those
gentlemen will probably retain the name of Sir Edward
Sugden so long as his juridical publications shall form the
best digests and indices upon the portion of Chancery and
real property jurisprudence to which they relate, and no
longer ; and Sir Edward Sugdeu will then be forgotten, or
remembered only, as future litigation may draw forth from
its resting place in an attorney's office, some draught that
he settled, or some brief that he held.

But, Sir, unseemly as it is to associate in the same page
names so unequal, circumstances have occurred to over.
come my scruples; that those circumstances are not of a
political nature, it will be readily conceived. Nothing
can possibly happen to render it necessary, upon any
question of State or Government, to mentien so obscure a
person as Sir Edward Sugden. The circumstances to
which I allude are not, however, for that reason, of less
itnportance : for they are connected with the sacred sub-
ject of the administration of justice in the principal Civil
Court of this kingdom; I mean that Court over which
Lord Brougham presides, and in which Sir Edward Sug-,
den has the honour to practice--the High Court of Chan-
cery. The whole, Sir, of these circumstances are too
numerous to form the topic of a single letter, and I shall
therefore, for the present at least, confine myself to some
observations upon one which must be still fresh in the
recollections of your readers.
I have been told, Sir, and the newspaper columns of the
past week show my information to be correct, that Sir
Edward Sugden lately thought proper, peevishly and petu-
lantly, to refuse to proceed in the argument of a cause,
for no other reason than because he suspected that the
Chancellor was occupied in writing a note ; and a certain
portion of the press has found in this gross and absurd vio-
lation of professional decorum and professional duty,
matter of accusation against Lord Brougham, and would
induce the public to believe that a Judge, than whom,
hitherto, none ever evinced greater assiduity and promp-
titude in the discharge of his judicial functions, turns a
deaf ear to the statements and remarks of the far, and
devotes his time to matters altogether foreign to the duties
of his high and laborious office.
Now, Sir, it is not my intention to restate that Lord
Brougham bad been sedulously employed in the irksome
task of noting the points and authorities to which his at-
tention had been drawn ; and that, at the moment unhap-
pily chosen by Sir Edward Sugden for exercising his
spleen, his Lordship was merely engaged, after the neinner
of all his predecessors, from Lord Ellesmere to Lord Lynd-
hurst, in the mechanical operation of putting the initial
letters of his title and his office to certain formal docu-
ments. I say, Sir, I will not augment the present dis-
comfiture and mortification of Sir Edward Sugden, by
again placing this plain and unanswerable fact before the
eyes of your readers ; but I shall suppose that Lord
Brougham, tired of hearing the same narrative and the
same comments five or • six times repeated (ut mos est
Cancellarice), took the opportunity of penning an answer
to some written communication from his Majesty, or the
Treasory, or the Home or the Foreign Office, which Chan-
cellors are in the habit of receiving at all hours of the day
and of the night too ; and I will ask Sir Edward Sugden,
it such an act is unusual, and if, until now, it was ever
considered unbecoming or iwproper in those eminent indi-
viduals who have held the Seals since the commencement
of his profeasional career?
It is notorious, Sir, to the whole bar, that Lord
Eldon habitually practised that, for the single com-
mission of which Sir E:lward Sugden has the pre-
sumption to arraign Lord Brougham. The very solicitors
and their clerks are aware that that celebrated Judge
commonly gleaned the knowledge of the case he adjudged
from the perusal of the documents, and not from the
speeches of the Counsel, and that he invariably divided the
hours of his judicial sittings between the examination of
papers and a daily co: respondence with a favourite daughter. t
You must not understand me, Sir, as blaming Lord Elden
for this mode at least of fulfilling a part of the many and
discos dant duties of the Chancellorship. I only raise my
voice to protest against that being censured in Lord
Brougham which was not considered to be a fault in Lord
Eldon.
It has been said of a renowned Roman that he could
employ at the same time his ears to listen and his eyes to
road, his hand to write and his mind to dictate. This
may appear incredible to capacities even less naturally and
artificially bounded than that of Sir Edward Sugden; but
that a portion of these qualifications was possessed by
Lord Edon, and that at least an equal portion has fallen
to the lot of Lord Brougham, every unprejudiced person
will readily e.dinit ; and it is not therefore improbable
that the Chancery suitors never suffered any detriment
from the exuberance of Lord Eldon's parental affection;
and I think I may venture to affirm that they will never
experience any injury from any such distraction as Sir
Edward Sugden finds it convenient to impute to Lord
Brougham. But it is time to close this long letter. The
topic of it, although apparently trifling, is not undeserv-
ing of notice. It has been pronounced and proclaimed in
the dining parlours, and in the withdrawing rooms of
Guilford-street and Mecklenburg-square—at Westminster,
and in Lincoln's-inn—in the very coffee-houses—in com-
pitis et triviis—that Sir Edward Sugden was to take by
storm the entrenched camp of the Chancery. The first
movement of aggression was made• in the House of Com-
mons, and ended in the noted splash. The plan was as
It should be observed, in justice to Chancery draughts:-
men and conveyancers, that in general they have received.
an acadetnical education, and have acquired some know-
lcdAe of otie history and constitution. Sir Robert Peel
was once quite right when he asserted that Sir Edward
Sugden was not a fair specimen of the order.
1- The effect of a passage from one of these paternal
epistles was once related to me, unless my memory de-
ceives me, by Sir Ed ward Sugden himself. " They sup-
pose I am listening to their arguments; they little
imagine I am writing to you, lice."