The Sun.
London, England, 1824-04-30 00:00:00

jeat of the new- arrangement,: tir which' thtet Peers have Ice
balloted, to sit each day with the DepUty'Speaker for the hair--
ing of Appeals. .Periodical - tviettets'hate admitted into their
F pages,' ard newstisper ieporters haVe put into the mouths'of
;Peers, the mutt gioss•rnierepresentations Of this matter. Is
ee-
it to be borne,' say thoSe objecttfrs, that thejudges of
`-peals shall be seeded b'ballot, witliotit discriminatien.of
.any personal qualities` ,iiielitnaylit or' may .aisable a Peer to
perform so nice and ;cotiacientiotis ' a • duty ; and under such
' absurd regulations theethere Must be a new set of
these l;;I-
-loted judges every day ; so that those who bear the cause
‘•pleaded one day ate not to decide upon it the next, and these
• , who are called upon to the decis'on of to-day can never be the
Ranee who heard the arguments of yesterday ?' This -Objec-
tion, which we baie stated in, its full strength, is platOble
only to those who are whollyAmorant of the ineaning.of the
individual propesition, and:: of the general custom arid Con
stitution of the Houses of Parliament. In each of them a
certain number of Members is necessary to constitute a
House—forty Members in the Commons, and three 'the
Lords: -without the preseneebf the requisite number of Mem-
bers the 'louses cannot proceed to any business,* and are -ipso
facto adjourned.
To the ordinary Meetings tirthe Honees; -the Members, In-
duced by duty or curiosity, or party, generally come in sufEcient
number, and if they happen now and then to fail to make a
house, as it is called,-no great inconvenience, public or private,
ensues. But if the Rouse of Lords *ere to attempt to meet
every morning at ten -o'clock, and
-to sit bn law business till
five; and then on public husinees indefinitely longer, it is, luite
certain that, without some emnpulsatory regulation, no House
would lie nzade at ten o'clock, and the suitors Who had feed their
lawyers and incurred the necessary expences for any particular
day, would be disappointed, and, we add, defrauded, by the •
adjournment of the flouse The time of the Law-lorci ap-
pointed to preside mould. be equally wasted, for Eeniust sit from
ten till four, waiting to see whether. any extraordinary accident
should bring three Peers deiwn and constitute the Court. In or-
der therefore to ensure the dispatch of business, which no one
would voluntarily attend, and to secure the suitors from the ruin-
ous effects of adjournments. for which no Peer would be indivi-
dually responsible the Ileuse'of Lords resolved to compel,un
der a heavy penalty, the attendance, durine the whole daq, of it
sufficient number of Peers. They are chosen by ballot, to obviate
any suspicion that the Court could he paCked for any individual
cause, and their attendance is compelled for one day, and not
for one case, because, the cases being of Verious and in&fitfite
lengths, the Peers might be unequally subjected to this-duty, to
the obvious derangement of their private concerns, and even of
their public occupations. Moreover, as the duration of each case_
world be douhtful; how was the attendance of the next :et of
Peers to be ensured ? if a case appointed for one morning should
go off by compromise or early decision, how were the Peers ap-
pointed for the next case to be collected ? and Wafter a case
was once begun, one of the Lords, by death, or by sicknesS, or
any other uncontroulable cause of absence, was interrupted in
his aAtendance, what was to become of -the case ? and how we
the waste of time, the expence, and the anxiety to be repaid to
the suitors ? The House of Lords, -therefore has judiciotsly
provided by a compulsatory attendance for the daily existence
of the Court; but the compulsatory attendance of the three
nominated Peers, does not interfere with the voluntary attend=
ance of any others ; and if those who have been compelled to
hear the beginning of the cause feel themselves inclined and
able to give their attendance during its continuance, they may
and ought to do so—their right and their duty to sit as Judges
in every *use is not impaired by their being obliged to attend
one or two days in the session to constitute the Court. Persons'
may object altogether to the constitution and practice of the.
appellate • jurisdictiOn. With that question we have at pre_.
sent' nothing to do—it affects' the ancient constitution and
practice of the House, and is in no wise connected with the
new arrangement; which makes no kind of change in the tri
&final, but only ensures to the suitors that the tribunal shall:
exist: • •

We have thus laid before our readers incontrovertible prOof
of the vast increase of business which must be perforrnediere
the Lord Chancellor,—an increase that the assistance of a Vice,-
Chancellor, or a Master of the Rolls, (which can apply only
to one branch of his labours and that not the most urgent)ee
does not and cannot countervail ; and we trust that our.
readers must be, as we ourselves most conscientiously are,
convinced that the wonder ought to be, not why there ie so'
mach arrear, but that there is so little. But that which is little,
when compered with what the Chancellor has done, is,. we ,
admit, too much, with regard to the interests of the public
at large. It is clear from the experience of •past yearsatiti
the future promises to increase rather than diminish tlie
convenience—it is clear that the time and strength of any 'one
man are unequal to accompliSh all that is now expected from
a Lord Chancellor. It has beceme therefore the duty of Lord
Eldon himself and of the Government, 'to consider how this
evil can be remedied Our reformers Would fir dno 00414 y 4
Separate,'_ they say, the judicial from' the, political. func-
tions of the Chaneellor,'—or take away his guardianship
wards or lunatics,'—or • relieve him from the cases of bank-
ruptcy,'—or abolish his appellate jurisdiction over the Vice-
Chancellor and the Master of the Rolls,'—er • separate the bench
from the reoo/eade,'—in short, do any thing that may lowers
dismember and degrade this great office, and the reforrners
promise that all the evil they complain of will vanislre-evii.
verily believe it would t Let.the: office be shorn-of its dignity'•
and circumscribed in its authority,—let it be no longer neces-
sary for Ministers to fortify themselves with the King and with
the people by their choice of a Chancellor—let that officer be no'
longer the keeper of the conscience of the former and the fliir
guardian of the rights and properties of the latter—lowefein
short, the scale by which Chancellors have been hitherto chosen; •
and we are perfectly satisfied that this new officer will hayeno
arrear of causes nor accumulation of appeals ! That respect, .
that confidence, which has loaded with petitions for justice the •
desks of Hardwicke and Thurlow, and overloaded that of Eldon; 'e
will cease to operate ; and either some new authority ninsiebe
constituted in the state, of rank, ability,' and weight equal'e6
those which'now distinguish the Lord Chancellor, or the coin- '
plaints (not of 'party rivals or petty practitioners, hut) of the
whole nation thirsting after the purest fountain of justice, War
oblige us to retrace our mischievous innovations and to re-ere:he
in' •if possible, his pristine authority, a Lord Nigh Chancellor-
of England.
But without essentially impairing the office, something may '
perhaps he done by simplifying processes, by curtailing plead=
trigs, by abridging forms, •by diminishing the intrieacieslit'e 4
which obstinacy and bad faith will try to escape, and from
which it is so difficult to dislodge them.
We have lately seen a case in which the Chancellor desired •
to be furnished with an abstract of -the proceeding-4 to enable.
him to give, judgment—the case was one in 'which the solicitere
on each side might in two hours have agreed•en nproper NtAii.47
El
7n tiri e*ar periods of
ment—the abstract however sent to the Clianeelloreeias'o fit::: ,
load of papers, which actUallycovered the floor ofhis:ehtimier -
and would have consumed at least a whele month of his time._
These are the real evils of the practice of the Court of Chan-
ce
Reorlyl;
inatiudttho(b-yy toruelyucrhtehserViinecer-etas'
ierhape even if he give. his whole time to them,) cannedafeC'e •
eually remedy. They are connected with tool:flan)" "letailseand, •
the Chancellor himself (While he' ahteteantnhctle2sni°to7ltni his other duties. or
4rtifith Off into toemany minute considerations
produce all` that ''
a t t
11.
yeraigisototrounstdo,ecinisqiuonireaiatoTtlhitiesie.n. iipa,otrlenritcsthie
may
wq
tp future• Chancellors the Vol
te
nhdannthccerdyi.masb -.7r.fect
ctedy any.m nwi
wisely
l;
y. andin advisingve therefore
his
mt
ahpji
;NI ideskstoeyeoptcftl
ooi am
ainu4ntni
losiasbtrh3r:o;l, Ena't. rrati
ivew'ocn ef,ig.o
cel. ill •
learning ant' acute
soatfi:tuCtio can e, namely, the '
,4,iscri.nlinatiou of
thaen.:o4lo:
p is itsi,
r ieviiasi
tint
rctaianttpioonnt oaosi
fntaainkl
those
theearlier
eye of the Judge
and. which
from their nature never meet Judge and even eetve •
time when the cause conies under to postpone- the irrirriee
diate cognizance. All that a Chancellor could do in thiatriatter •
Lord Eldon has done, and the practice of hearing and deciding'
tee much on petition and on motion has had a great tendency
this way, and has been a Mahe cause why the arrear has not
et-ices which oceuhlrm"aene:
been greater. These things a Commission' may contiibute to • •
do—at least the experiment (might to be tried—we trust that it
may be successful, and' we are the more anxious for this result, •
because, with all our respect for the elder professors of the law,
and all our hopee fie= the younger, we confeve we are not san-
guine that another 'Eldon will be speedily found; and we are
satisfied that whoever destined (and lite may it be !) to suc-
ceed him; wilirequire all,the' concurrent assistance 'which can
be given, to enable him 'to occupy with any' degree of •credit
that station Which Lord Eldon has alreadyfilled for more yearete:
ebith greater diligence and.a more establighed rePtitation, than
any of his predecessors.