The Sun.
London, England, 1824-04-29 00:00:00

the busineSs in the courts of law generally; and we shall now
proceed to state some circumstances which proVe that the busi-
ness in the Court of Chancery is proportionably increased ; we
shall begin by ionic general observations, as to the increased
wealth of the country, and then show, by arithmetical state-
ments, the actual quantity of work done by the Lord Chancellors
at the periods which are the objects of coMparisons.
It is not perhaps possible to estimate the increased, value of
real property within the last 70 years, but it will be admitted,
that, since population has doubled, the general produce must
haVe greatly increased. Sonic writers assert, that population
and wealth always advance hand in hand, and we think that,
at least as to England, we may s.ifely admit the general justice
of the observation. But the species of income, which, from its
nature most frequently becomes the subject of applicatiOn to
Chancery, is that which accrues.froin the public funds, 'and as
to them there is no difficulty in making the calculation. In
1750, the national debt was 72,000,000, and the interest on it,
2,700,0001. • At present the debt is 800,000,0001. and the in-
terest annually. paid upon it is 30,000,0001.—a tenfold increase
in direct amount; producing .a probably equal increase in the
importance of Chancery business, when we consider the,ten-
dency
jof this kind of property to become subject to the Chancel-
lor's urisdiction, in matters of trusts, wards, infants, wills,
bankrupts, partnerships, &c. &c.
The principle of these observations will apply to the increase
of Bank and East India stock, both in value and amount.
1760. I 1324.)
X.
Bank Stock -
{ Amount - 14,553,000
Value per cent. 134 - . 224
East India Stock I
k Value per cent. 18ti - 220
Amount - - 3,260,000 - 6,000,000
Another branch of this subject, which applies thole general
calculations immediately to the Court of Chancery and which
affords the best pecuniary measure of the increase of busi-
ness is, the amount of monies accumulated in the hands of
the Accountant-General of the Court; this information we
collect from Mr. Peel's speech of the 24th Feb. last, in the
House of Commons; of which we may be allowed to say, that
excellent as it seems to have been in all points, it is peculiarly
valUable in the numerical, and therefore incontrovertible proofs
of the Lord Chancellor's dilligence in the discharge of his ins-
menso duties.

In 1750 the balance in court was - .£1,645,160
in 1323 - - - 38,938,369

We are quite aware that this pecuniary measure of 'value is
by no means a conclusive measure of the business—we know
that a case of 10,0001. may be as hard to explicate as one of
100,0001., and that the value or the stake does not always (nor
even frequently) increase the difficulty of the decision—we ac-
cordingly do not pretend that the business in Chancery has in-
creased, with its pecuniary responsibility, thirty-fold—our ar-
gument is only that, so immense an increase of the property
lying in the Court indicates a vast (though not a proportionate)
increase of, business: we shall prove from other arguments
(all of which concur in their results) that the business of
Chancery, properly so called, is about doubled, and that the ge-
neral business to be transacted by a Lord Chancellor is at least
tripled.
Having thus argued a priori what the increase of Chancery
work was likely to be, we shall now proceed to shew, as well as
our materials allow, what it really was, in arithmetical amount,
which taken in combination with the general value anti import-
ance of the matters decided, will give the true view of the real
business of the Court.

The duties of the Lord Chancellor, as such, may be reduced
to four great classes :-
1. Chancery suits properly so called.
2. pankruptcy.
3. Lunacy.
4. Petitions and references to the Court, arising out of public
and private Acts of Parliament. . .
In the three former of these branches, -wf shall offer a com-
parison of the proceedings in the times of Lords Hard-
wicke and Eldon; but the last class, which is numerous and
complicated, scarcely existed, in the times of the former, and
is therefore an unbalanced weight in the scale of the present
Chancellor.

1. As to Chancery suits', properly so called, they commence
by bill, they are pursued by motions, petitions, and hearings,
up to final judgment, but there are none of those stages in which
the real point of the case may not be sometimes decided, and it
happens in a large proportion of cascs,that they are decided and
brought to an end long before they are brought to, what is tech-
nically called, a hearing, and consequently, as causes, they are
never heard at all. What was formerly the business of the Court,
in the hearing of causes, is of late often done by motion, and the
orders on motions have become (at one-third of the cost) as
useful to the parties as the decrees made on the hearings of
causes used to b..* It is therefore clear, that in order to afford
any thing like a fair view of the amount of business, all the
kinds of proceedings ought to be taken into an aggregate ac-
count. _ _

e begin with submitting calculations of the number of
judgments pronounced by Lord llardwicke in three years, (viz.
1749, 1750, 17510 with those pronounced by Lord Eldon in
the years 1808, 1809, 1810. AiTe have selected those periods
from the' ParliaMentary Report, because the latter preeedeS the
appointment of the Vice-Chancellor, and the search after other
dates would be too voluminous anti laborious.