The Sun.
London, England, 1824-03-04 00:00:00

[MORNING HERALD.

The Court Of Chancery, as a subject of Parlia-
rnentary discussion, increases in interest every
Session.; and, what is something strange, the fair
and real merits of the question seem more and
more. lost sight of, in the manner of treating it.
It is made almost exclusively a personal question,
which is not only unjust, but defeats the end of
reform. It is indeed scarcely. in reason to be
expected that Hon. and Learned Gentlemen
'should pursue the'subject in the right line of dis,
cussion. -The crying evils,which are acknowledged
.to exist, and some peculiarities.existing in, or only
imputed to, the judicial mind. of the 'Noble
holder of the Great Seal, are resistless incentives
to declamation and pleasantry, which are never so
piquant as when the run into personality. View.'
jag the question fairly, the individual Lord Chan-

cellor can enter into the subjact matter and
merits only in two ways. The accumulation of
business can arise only from either or both of two
causes—the mode in which the Chancellor per-
forms the duties and goes through the business
of his Court—or else the constitution and forms
of the Court itself. Now as to the former, no
one will have the folly to propose or to expect
any thing so utterly absurd as to apply any ex-
ternal stimulus to the conscience or discretion of
the Judge—and as little is it probable that any
one in his senses could suppose the distribution of
justice would be advantaged by his removal or
retirement. To throw down, then, an iron for-
mula of proceeding, to which a Chancellor must
screw into conformity his intellect and his con-
science, so as to dispatch a given quantity of
Chancery litigation in a given time, is too grossly
foolish even for a jest : and yet it is upon some
such supposition that the individual Lord Chan-
cellor can be hitched, on this view of the sub-
ject, into the debate. But it may be said,
that the Chancellor might dispatch causes
more expeditiously without injury to the ends
of justice. The only answer—and it is a
conclusive one, to this is, that he does not
think so ; and it is further to be observed, that
by deliberation or delay, he but imposes addi-
tional fatigue upon himself.—ln the second
place, suppose the evils to proceed from the
constitution and forms of the Court, how
can the individual Chancellor be fairly made
a party or an ingredient in the inquiry ? He
is not in the House of Commons to resist any
change that may be proposed in the organisa-
tion or jurisdiction of his Court. lie has not,
that we are aware of, publicly expressed any
opinion which could be combatted, or of which
cognizance could be taken in the House of Com-
mons. What his private opinion may be is no-
thing to the matter. That opinion has not been
marshalled against the motion, or any of the
motions made in the House of Commons,
and therefore it is a question purely between
a portion of the House of Commons and
itself. If the foregoing observations be correct,
the Noble and Learned person referred to has
been not only unfairly, but absurdly dragged, as
an individual, into this remarkable inquiry. It
requires no great effort of good taste to abstain
from urging the unnecessary and hacknied topic
of the sound equity of his decisions—his patient,
impartial spirit of inquiry—his unassailed and un-
assailable integrity. When somebody proposed
to compose a panegyric upon Hercules," who,'
said an honest Spartan, " ever thought of blam
ing him ?"

[MORNING CIIRONICLEd

The Chancellor of the Exchequer's trial is
now commencing. He was, no doubt, prepared
for great clamour, on the part of all those in-
terested in the change in our Commercial Sys-
tem which he has proposed ; but, whatever firm-
ness he may possess, we are certain he will have
occasion for all of it. Already certain Meetings
of the persons engaged in the Silk and Woollen
manufacture have been held. There was one on
Wednesday, the sth Feb., at Weavers' Hall, of
the Manufacturers,
Merchants, Dealers, and
i
others engaged n the Silk trade ; a series of
Resolutions was Passed at an adjourned Meet-
ing of Ribbon Manufacturers resident in London,
held yesterday. The latter contend, that the
of this
Manufacturers country are subject to
great di Iv:rfitages, in comparison with the Ma-
nufacturers countries, in the price of
labour, not merefoiyreig fo. foreignr
the actual manufacture of
silk goods, but also In the price paid on the dif-
ferent processes through which the raw material
must pass, before it is ready for manufacturing
purposes ; and that, 111 the manufacture of fancy
ribands, in particular, a very large proportion of
the prime cost in this Country, in many instances
to the extent of two thirds, is expended for labour
only. They state that upwards of 100,000 per-
sons are now employed in the various depart-
ments of the riband manufacture ; that, if the mea-
sure be adopted, this numerous body will be
thrown out of employ) and that it will have the ef-
fect of destroying the extensive property embarked
in this trade, under the positive protection and
sanction of the Legislature. As we have always
advocated the system of free trade, and called on
the Chancellor of the I,xchequer to remove the
existing obstacles to it, with as little delay as
possible, we should be abandoning our own prin-
ciples w ere we to turn round on the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer, and take part with
those against whom he has now to contend.—
What we complain of in the Chancellor of the
Exchequer is, not that he endeavours to remove
restrictions on trade, but that, by removing
the restrictions in one case, and not remov-

ing them in another, he deprives himself of
the best justification of his measure. For in-
stance, the Ribbon Manufacturers say, that not
less than two-thirds of their outlay is for labour,
and that there is a great disproportion between
the price of labour in this country and in France.
This leads to the question, why there should be
Such a disproportion ? Because the trade in food
is not free ; because the Land-owners are pro-
tected against competition, till food in our
market attains a famine price. This is the
most important of all the restrictions ; and by
leaving it untouched, the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer deprives himself of the best arguments
for the alterations he now proposes. The Silk Ma-
nufacturerS, theWoollen Manufacturers, the Linen
Manufacturers, and all others whose interests'
are about to be touched, are entitled to ask the
Chanceller of the Exchequer, why he does not
carry his principles through and through ? why
he lets in foreign goods on theM, 'while the
price of food is forced above the level of
other countries, by the monopoly given to the
Landowners ? why he expects them to compete,
,while the means by which a successful com-
petition can be carried on are denied them ?
Place'all classes of the community on an equal
fOoting—do not protect one and leave another
defenceless. We know this is an unwelcome
subject to the Members of the Legislature, but
for that reason the -Press is more peculiarly.
called 'on to exert itself. They would
l'ingly allow the, food monopoly to he continued,l
because they are all, ' or nearly all of them, I

land-owners. So long as the country remains quiet
ander the monopoly, they will not be disposed to
agitate the matter. But the country will not be
quiet, and the question will soon be forced on
them. Already, in the manufacturing towns, the
effects of the monopoly are visible in the pallid
looks of the working classes.