The Sun.
London, England, 1823-06-06 00:00:00

at all injured by it. He (Mr. S.) denied that the natation had
any personal allusion to the Lord Chancellor. But the treat-
ing such a motion as personal was highly inconvenient, as well
'as unfair. Indeed an observation made by his Honourable
Friend, last night, respecting Mr. Baron Graham, had been
.misrepresented, and'had given rain to that venerable Judge;
though all who heard his Hon. Il'riend must know that nothing
personally offensive was intended to him. This alone shewed
the impropriety-of mixing up personal considerations with
such a subject. The fact was,: that many lawyers did not
like, in that Muse, to state their opinions on the present
system of the Court -of Chancery, but would do so, if the
House were to appoint a Committee. This he knew had been
the course observed by the late Sir Samuel Romilly. The
present question hail assumed the shape of a question of fact.
His Hon. Friend asserted there was delay in' the Court;
his lion. Friend who had just ;sat. down denied this—and they
were completely at issue. This he thought was a fair ground
for inquiry.. No less than three Bills had been brought in to
make changes in the King's Bench. Not one of those Bills
were passed after due inquiry, and the consequence was, they
were execrated by the whole profession. It was supposed the
'motion was made to introduce innovation. It was quite con-
trary—it was to prevent a crude Bill being brought in upon
that subject. It was intended to produce onquiry before any
rash and sudden measure was adopted. Tile Institutions of
the country ought not to be touched with a rash hand.—
The administration of justice, for instance, in a Court of
Law, was not to be suited to the capacity of a Judge far
advanced in. years. It would be better to bear the inconve-
nience which might arise from such a circumstance than alter
the rules upon which the business of the Court was conducted.
Justice Buller once said the Court of Chancery Was a nuis-
ance. He . did not say that was the case; but he thought if
there Was ground for complaint of delay in that Coma, inquiry
ought to be instituted. The appointment of a Committee of
that House would be the proper mode of seeing whether a mo-
dification in the Court of Chancery was necessary. lie thought
regulation with respect to the appellant jurisdiction of the
Court of Chancery, ought to be preceded by inquiry in that
House. The question was loudie-cidtpd. •
Mr. BROUGHAM was hot surprised at the impatience of
the House when he considered that they had arrived at the
end of a second night's debate upon what he called a dry sub-
iect. Having heard so much from the practitioners of the
Court of Chancery, which was aCknoWledged to be a Court of
pain, penury, suffering, consumption of body, and exhaustion
of the means of life itself, he was in hope that some person
who had, if possible, been benefited. by Chancery, would have
started up. ,He wished to have only one look at such a person
if Ile was within those walls. He was sure one look at such
a person would satisfy the House.--(i1. laugh.)—He had only
heard the langitage of practitioners. Who were they who
shut the door to inquiry ? They must be enemies to the
Lord Chancellor. They said stop, and proceed not a step in
the inquiry. Some might suppoee the denial came from the
friends of the Lord Chancellor. They were not his friends.—
Those persons wished to conceal abuses so old; that Gulliver
was known to speak of the ruin of his father, occasioned by
gaining a Chancery suit. lie had the highest respect for the
Chancellor, and lie was only hurt at the manner in which
Lord Eldon had been defended. If - they had concerted
means to injure him as a man, and sully his character as a
judge, they could not have done it more effectually. The or-
piment against going into Committee, he should contend, was
injurious to the Noble and Learned Judge. He defended
, the statement of his Honourable and Learned Friend, who had
said attorneys were precluded from giving information, in
consequence of being suitors in the Court of Chancery. - No-
thing could be more fair than that statement, or more friendly
to Lord Eldon. The Attorney-General had rushed into a de-
fence of the Lord Chancellor without the least necessity for
that line of conduct, and in his defence he had been as much
in distress as the suitors in the Court where the Honourable
and Learned Gentleman was a practitioner. His Honourable
and Learned Friend had shown no disinclination to do his
duty. No Attorney could come forward without the protec-
tion of that House—constitute inquiry, and many would have
evidence to point out whether they ought to proceed.—He
considered the subject of complaint a great and grievous
abuse, amounting to a nubile calamity. His Learned Friend
was represented as having mentioned matters which had never
been heard before. All the great learned and lamented Friends
who were lost to him for ever, and who had been practitioners in
Chancery, had said delay in that Court wax a gross abuse, which
weighed down the country. One lamented Friend (Sir S. Ro.
mitts/ had the candour to- describe the grievance, although he
was one of the luminaries of that Court. That lamented Friend,
and others of weight and authority, had left opinions and pa-
pers on the subject, which watt' contradict all the eulogia he
had heard. They all proved that the subject had been undet.
stood by the lion. Member for Lincoln. There was not a peg
upon which they could hang hesitation. If all the suitors did
not say his lion. Friend had understated the case, the House
ought to refuse inquiry. - Did not the equity or common Lawyer.
say, when asked to advise an equity suit for 801. or 1001., Good
God, no. Who would risk a suit in Chancery for 1001.? Was not
that a libel on the Law ? Were the rights of parties to be de-
stroyed by reason of t! IC smallness of the sum ? He was anxious
that it should not be said he kept back one thought on the sub-
ject. Every one who was a mula fide holder of property, would
prefer 'an equity suit ; and as delay was their object, they were
generally successful. Here he could not avoid a few remarks
on Equity Lawyers. He was not bound to regard the feelings
of the Judges, but fairly discharge his duty. lie had most
regard for suitors who were his constituents. In 1817, Sir W.
Grant retired from the Rolls with time unanimous voice of the
Public in his favour. No charge of delay was brought against
him; no incorrectness marked his conduct as a Judge. Ills
brilliant legal career being at an end, Sir W. Grant was sue-
ceeded by the present Master of the Rolls, whom he considered
a better Advocate than Sir W. Grant, but a worse Judge. When
Sir J. Leach became Vice-Chankllor'
the bills, petitions, ex-
ceptions,The total- further directions, pleas, and demurrers increased...-.
l- of increase in - the Court of Chancery and the Vice-
Chancery was 1,500 causes, This increase was, in his opinion,
owing to the change of Sir W. Grant for Sir T. Plomer. The
slowness of business in the Rolls Court forced causes into
the Vice-Chancery and the Court of Chancery. - It was said,
the Lord Chancellor sitting upon appeals from his own Court
might alter his 'opinion; and -no doubt could be entertained
that he would. give the parties the benefit of any change in Isis
mind. Mr. ,Brougham .knew that Noble and Learned Lord
Was justly esteemed for integrity and his high talent. lie bad
not the least doubt the Chancellor would give appellants the
benefit of any change in his mind, but the ..Noble Lord did
seldom or ever change his mind, and the suitors justly felt that
they were appealing to the Judge who had decided the very
cause against them. Much of the arrear of appeals but shed
to be Occasioned by
.the influx of Scotch appeals, but they
heard nothine. of Irish appeals. The state of judicature was
so defective in Ireland, 'that fifty out of one hundred decisions
in the Irish Court of Chancery were reversed. With respect.
to Scotch appeals, a Scotch Judge in his time, always looked
on himself as raised for political subserviency, and he became a
Political Judge from an Election Barrister. - Thus constituted,
the decision Partook of the influence, and appeals multiplied.
Fortunately Government had corrected a principle so adverse
to the principles of
Bench in Scotland would improve, and that they might follow
jurisprudence. His trust was, that the
the example of the Judges in England, by- giving up all
political feeling, the moment they became Judges. All must
allow that the • greatest danger was to be expected from a
political Judge. Delays in the Court of Chancery with
respect to appeals had long been the subject of complaint;
and Tie had heard of a project to release the Lord Chancellor
from the duty of hearing appeals in the , House of Lords, and
send him to his own Court. Lord Colchester, as he had heard,
was to be-the V ice.. Speaker. The arrangement might be made
without much increase of expence. as that Noble Lord received
1,0001. a pear. His Honourable Friend, the Metilber for Aber-
deen reminded- him that the Noble Lord also held a patent
place. The Noble Lord's talent, as a lawyer, was admitted;
but having been souse years out ,of practice, was he duly qua.
lilted for • the business of a Vice-Chancellor ? He never could
essent to such a • man as Lord Colchester a good speaker,
but no lawyer, being appointed to decide the appellant juris-
diction of two ancient hingdoins of the empire like Scotland
and Ireland. ,Yet this was one of the schemes ventilated
about this matter at present. - Another-was that two Scotch
' Judges should be appointed -for this purpose. This was
equally objectionable, as it went to place two Judges of
the Scotch Court arbiters over the decisions of all the rot. It
was these various plam e to none of which some objection might
not be urged; that impressed upon bins the necessity of adopt-
ing the inquiry proposed to them by his Hon. and Learned
riend. By that means they would have the opinions of
learned men in every branch of the law, and in every depart-
ment of science if necessary. Before he concluded, however,
he must. say, that had the line of his argument called upon
him to frankly declare adverse sentiments towards- the Lord -
Chancellor himself, he should have had to apprehend • the
hostility and exasperation of his friends only in that Houseiliis
experience -of that Noble person led him to declare, that he would
be the last person to feel enmity towards him, but that he would
at once forgive him. - •
-ThcSOLICITOILG-ENERAlroasured thellouseheehould
not have intruded upon their attention at that late hour-of the
night, had it not been for the painful sense of duty he felt im-
posed upon him to rescue from tidimit the characters of those
great and learned persons whom his Hon. and Learned Friend
(Mr. Brougham) had attacked.—tilearlY— His ' 11011 and
Learned Friend had tsiadc Moat obnoxious observations on the
present Master of the' Rolls. -affirming that the hosiness of' his
Court had considerably fallen off' since Iris appointment to it.
His Hon. and Learned Friend had founded this attack tipen
that learned and industrlons GenticMan, upon the fact of the
great increase of the business of the Vice.(!hancelicir. Bdt to