The Sun.
London, England, 1851-07-31 00:00:00

uN,

CHANCERY REFORM.
It may well be questioned, if the professors of the
common law had some ten years ago introduced a certain
amount of substantial reform into their methods of pro-
cedure, whether they might not still have retained the
business of the country. We were perfectly willing to
have received changes at their hands, end pretty much in
their own way, so they had given but a freer course to the
administration of justice. No layman willingly takes
upon himself the character of a law reformer. The doc-
trines with which he is called upon to deal, the circle of
ideas into which he must transport himself, are so alien
from his ordinary habits of thought, that he reluctantly
undertakes and gladly relinquishes the repulsive task.
Nothing but the direct necessity, nothing but the con-
tinued spectacle of cumulative injustice, could induce
any other than a professional man to broach or carry
through inquiries of such a nature. It was not until
the three superior courts at Westminster had clearly
shown that even justice might be purchased at too high
a rate, and not until they had manifested a de-
termination to persist in the most dilatory modes
of procedure, that the people of this country took the
matter into their own hands. The returns of the
number of causes, and of the amount of property annually
adjudicated upon before the newly constituted tribunals,
afford the most satisfactory comment upon the admons-
tiona of those reverend sages of the law who bade iu
beware how we laid the axe to the root of the tree.
We have before us the warning, the inroad, and the
result. That result is well calculated to inspire
us with confidence for the future, if the remedies
introduced are of a sufficiently definite character to meet
the wrongs complained of in their entire extent.
It is not, however, just now our object to write an
epitaph upon the buried hopes of those learned gentle-
men who had pinned their fortunes to the immortality
of the common law system of procedure, but rather
to bid their brethren of the equity side take warn-
ing by the result of their pertinacity. The amount
of misery inflicted upon the country by the chicaue
of the common lawyers under the new rules has
been of slight account by the side of the almost total
negation of justice consequent upon the forms of proce-
dure in Chancery. Iu the class of cases submitted to
the decision of the common law courts there were
ways and means by which prudent men, not inclined to
push matters to extremes, might stave off the calamity
of a protracted lawsuit. But in the great bulk of Chan-
cery cases this is not so. Into court the reluctant
suitors must go, and there they must remain until the
most astute and practised brains in England have ex•
hausted upon the property at issue all the resources of a
perverse ingenuity. The equity lawyers reply that
wellnigh all this delay, and wellnigh all this expense,
must be accepted as inseparable from litigation. They
slay introduce, to be sure, a few changes of no great mo-
ment, but substantially not much can be dune. A negation
of justice is the inseparable incident of property in dispute.
This appears a very fatal argument as tar as their own
interests are concerned. It has been already heard, aed
heard. again, from one side of Westminster-hall, and for
a certain time it prevailed to atop all improvements. The
time, however, has at last arrived when those who made
use of it have been roused from their dream of security to
find that they had made a miserable mistake as to the
extent of human credulity.
The best answer that can be given to the gentlemen
of the Chancery bar who thus endeavour to maintain
the credit of their system is to point to its results.
Is it absolutely necessary that their forms of proce-
dure should be so tedious that a Chancery suit
remains in a family like au heirloom, genera-
tion atter generation? The other day, a case was
brought before the Musters of the Rolls iu which judg-
ment was prayed upon a bill which had been originally
filed in the year 1748, more than a century ago. We
have to turn back through two or three volumes of
Lord Campbell's " Lives of the Chancellors," before we
meet with the came of the judge who made the ori-
ginal decree in the cause. It uppcars that there
was a Mr. Pope, who died in Madeira in the
year 1743. Five years afterwards—in 1748-3 bill
was filed for an account of the dealings between this Mr.
Pope and a certain Mr. Jasper. in 1753 Lord Hard•
wicke made a decree in the cause, and directed that ac-
counts should be taken. In 1764 there was a report to the
effect that something more than 9,5001. was due from the
representatives of Jasper to the estate of Pope. Mark
the course of tho transaction. In 1772—that is, about
a quarter of a century after the filing of the original
bill—certain moneys were paid into court, and a certain
amount of stock was transferred. There it has remained
ever since—how or why we are perfectly unable to
say, for the application to the Master of the Rolls
the other day was an ex parte one from Jasper's repre-
sentatives. The suit, so it was stated, had been revived
in due form, and as the Master of the Rolls exercised a
very proper caution in not dealing, upon a mere one-
sided statement, with so large a sum as 10,0001., it bids
fair to flourish for another century. The ease is now re-
mitted to the office of one of the Masters in Chancery,
and so it may be considered in a promising way for dis-
patch. In a case of this kind, and when the report is
so meagre, we cannot of course undertake to say that the
neglect of the litigants eine° 1772 may not have
been in some measure the cause of the delay;
but with our previous knowledge of Chancery
procedure there is little necessity for any
explanation of this kind. It seems strange
than when Pope's representatives had obtained a report
in their favour in 1764, and money had been paid into
court in 1772, they should not have taken steps to ap-
propriate the property bad it not been guarded by the
Chancery ;Dragons with all their usual care. There
is, however, nothing extraordinary in the case that we
should lay much stress upon it. Nothing would
be more simple than to produce a series of similar illus-
trations of' the procedure in the Court of Chancery.
Here, then, is a specimen of the system in its results.
We cannot, with such an instance before us, but doubt
the statement of those gentlemen connected with the
Chancery bar who inform ua that very little is to be
done is the way of amendment. To be sure we have an
occasional order from the Chancellor which effects a few
formal changes in the practice of his court, but so slight
an alleviation of the evil scarcely deserves the name of
even an attempt at reform.
It would almost appear as though the time had ar-
rived
when we may entertain some well-founded hope of
definite improvement. The final settlement of the great
principles on which the commercial policy of this coun-
try is henceforth to be conduced has left the minds
of men tree for inquiries of another nature. Ques-
tions of law reform during the last two sessions of
Parliament have been approached by Members
and by the public out of doors in a very different spirit
from heretofore. It is no longer possible for a law officer
of the Crown, or an eminent lawyer in either House, to
poobpooh or browbeat his fellow-senators into silence.
We meet every day with cases in which lay members
wrangle throughout the duration of a Committee upon
paints of detail with an Attorney-General, and will not be
put down. More than this—the recalcitrant members are
cheered on by the great body of the public, who have
at last become aware that law need not of neces-
sity consist of a mass of confused technicalities.
Alt of us who have had any practice of business
are perfectly aware that an inquiry into the owner-
ship of property of any kind, in any part of the
world, or held upon any form of tenure, can be
carried through without a century's delay, and
without a very serious deduction from the value of the
estate. There must be something radically wrong in a
system which throws so much power into the hands of
those who would delay or defeat justice. The very
form of the bill, the method of taking evidence, the
puerile pretexts under which a suit is shelved to be
again commence& and commenced to be again shelved,
the technical necessity for making Shem and Japhet par-
ties to an inquiry in which merely the interests of the
Ramsbottoms are at stake, the dilatory
defectspro proceedings
besides,dingsin
the Masters'-offices, and twenty principal
could be readily enumerated which must all be amended
before we can look for any real administration of
justice from the Court of Chancery. Let the equity
bar look to it in time. The gentlemen engaged in that
department of the profession have all the advantage of
a practical warning before their eyes. Let them be very
ssuerrelouthsla
seriously
aiffietchteed by the
of their court be not entirely
remodelled their own personal interests may bo very
the delay.—Timer.

ST. HELEN'S.—An inquest was held on Thursday
last before Charles Driffield, Esq., coroner, at the house of
Mr. William Forbor, the Sefton Arms, on view of the body
of John Hunter, a glassmaker, aged twenty-five years. The
deceased worked at the Union Plate Glass works, and, on
Wednesday last, he was carrying a large sheet of plate glass
from the kiln to the packing-room ; the glass broke, and the
top part of it fell on the deceased's neck, and cut through
the jugular vein. The deceased survived only an hour after
the accident occurred. He had been cut on the neck once
before, through carrying the sheets of glass carelessly.
Verdict--" Accidental death."

STATE OF TRADE
(From the Manchester Guardian.)
MANCHESTER, TUESDAY.—By the Africa, which ar-
rived in the Mersey on Saturday night, we learn that cot-
ton had lost from 1 to 1 cent per lb. at New York during
the week, and that rarely has a growing crop presented a
more healthy or vigorous appearance, or a better stand
than the present one does. In Liverpool, a considerable
business continues to be done, and prices are reported
to be about id. above those of Friday; but
buyers find an anxiety to sell which enables
them generally to do as well as on that day. In
our own market, the operations in yarns have been on
a fair scale for India and Russia; and the prices paid are
about the same as on Friday and Saturday. The Ger-
mans still show much backwardness, and complain of
the dull state of their markets, yet they continue giving
out moderate orders. Mediterranean yarns, and low
counts generally, remain scarce. There is still a good
demandthere hasfr wbaerepns,aupfatior nbumusbineres2Boo'se, boa pthfroerucvontginenenertaall
and home consumption, but particularly the latter; and
the makers are, in many instances, supplied with
contracts far several weeks to come; yet higher prices
cannot be obtained, and those who are open to
orders take them on the terms which have lately
prevailed. Medium pin-eop weft is quiet. In goods,
character. Some manufacturers of stout fabrics and
printing cloths have entered into renewed engagements,
of rather considerable extent. The Indian buyers,
seeing an unfavourable telegraphic statement about
piece goods, have held aloof, waiting for their letters,
which will be received this evening. Oa the whole,
i there sno decline to-day iu any descriptions of yarns
or goods, neither is there any advance; but there is
more steadiness throughout, and many articles exhibit
what is called an increased stiffness.
ROCHDALE, MONDAY.—The peace market has under-
gone little change since last Monday, either in price or
demand. In wool the demand is steady, and prices firm,
with a scarcity of that quality of wool varying from 9d.
to 13d. per lb.
MACCLESFIELD, TUESDAY.—Our manufactured goods
trade is, if anything, less active than of late; owing, in a
great measure, to the interim which usually takes place
at this season, prior to preparations becoming general
for the autumn trade. The demand for thrown silk re-
mains quiet. The appearance of the market is, however.
satisfac, ory; prices maintaining their firmness, which
operates favourably with producers, who are gradually
extending their operations. The raw silk market re-
mains very firm, with as upward tendency. The delive-
ries continue good.
HALIFAX, SITURDAT.—III our piece hall to-day there
has been rather more doing in light fancy goods; but for
heavy fabrics there is hardly any inquiry. Yarn remains
in the same condition of extreme depression. The de-
mand is far below the production, and the quotations are
consequently in a drooping state. Scarcely any wool is
changing hands, and the turn is still in favour of the
buyer.
HUDDERSFIELD, TUESDAY.--Our market continues
much the same as last week. A pretty active trade has
been dono during the week. It seems to be generally
expected that we shall have a good autumn trade. The
wool warehouses have been rather more active today.
LEEDS, TUESDAY.—The market at the cloth halls has
been good, and a fair quantity of goods continue to be
delivered to order. Prices remain firm, and business in
he warehouses is brisk.

DOGGETT'S COAT AND BADGE.
The following are the competitors for Doggett's Coat
and Badge, and other prizes, on Friday next:—
George Daniel Weggett—Somer's-quay.
Salter Martin Milford-lane.
Alfred G. Andrews Battle-bridge.
John Lashbrook Old Swan.
George Bean Custom-house Lower-stairs.
Joha Webb Wapping.
in addition to the coat and badge for the first man,
41. 10s. for the second, and 21. 10s. for the third, be-
queathed by the late Sir W. Jolliffe, the Fishmongers'
Company have liberally added a guinea for the first
man, a guinea and a half for the fuurth, and a guinea
each for the two last. The race
.will be started, under
the able direction of Mr. Dards, at five in the evening.

MR. SALOMON&
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
SlR,—There appears to be considerable difference of
opinion on the exact position of the question as to the
admissibility of Jews into Parliament, and believing that
as the House of Lords have chosen not to pass the Bill, it
is not possible for that question to be more favourably
situated than it now is, perhaps you will spare room for
the following observations.
My own opinion is, that Mr. Salomon* has taken the
oath and is entitled to take his seat, but I should be most
wanting in candour wore I to contend that the question
is entirely free from doubt; and then the point is this,—
in an admitted doubtful case what mode of proceeding is
open to the least practical inconvenience.
Much obloquy has been thrown, and in my judgment
very unjustly, upon the Master of the Rolls for the reso-
lution of last session in the Baron's case, which, however,
differs legally from that of Mr. Salomons; but, suppose
that the Master of the Rolls had recommened the House
to adopt a diffent course, and to pass a resolution de-
claring that the oath was well taken! Lee us reflect
upon the great inconvenience which might have arisen.
Suppose in some score of actions raised to recover the
penalties the Court of Queen's Bench 6ad held that the
oath had nut been taken, and that the penalties were re-
coverable' we should have a direct collision between the
House of Commons and the courts of law—the former
deciding that a Member had taken the oath, the latter
convicting him in penalties for not having taken the oath.
The House of Commons must have given way.
From this unfortunate position the Master of the
Rolls—worthy of the name of Romilly—has saved the
House. No collision can now take place; for suppose
the Court to decide that Mr. Salomons has not taken
the oath, then they agree with the House of Commons.
But suppose the Court to decide that Mr. Salomons
has taken the oath required by law, and therefore the
penalties are not recoverable, surely it is as clear as the
sun at noonday that the House of Commons would ac-
' cept that decision as the constitutional solution of a
I legal question, and immediately admit Mr. Salomon'.
Lord John Russell is clearly of this opinion, for al-
though the point was not directly raised, he said, " If in
a discussion in a court of law new light were thrown

upon the subject, there was no reason— why the House
should not avail itself of that new light." A Russell
could not have spoken otherwise.
If a majority of the House of Commons were to be so
silly as not to avail themselves of that new light, and
again turn Mr. Salomons out of the House of Commons,
he would immediately commence an action against the
Sergeant-at-Arms, and a British jury would give such
damages as would induce the veriest bigot to cry, Hold,
enough!
For these reasons it appears clear to me that it is not
possible for the question to be raised i❑ a more favour-
able manner. Penal laws must be construed strictly,
and in favour of the liberty of the subject.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
R. W.

HOP INTELLIGENCE.
(From the Maidstone Gazette.)
BARMING.—During the past week some of the strong
grounds have shown a rather better appearance than
they did before the rains came; as they keep growing
and putting forth burr, they are likely to bear a fair
crop, but there is a good deal of very slack bine, which
has given way with an increase of vermin, and are not
likely to do anything, or,at best, but very little.
MEREWORTH.—The hops in some grounds are mak-
ing a favourable progress, but where they are struck
with the blight they daily get worse, and the vermin is
as vigorous as ever.
HADLOW.—The hops are generally improving, though
the vermin is thick in some grounds.
HOLLINGBOURNE.—The late thunder showers have
produced a slight improvement.
MALuNo.—If some grounds have slightly improved,
others have gone back more than an equivalent.
YALDING AND HUNTON.—OUr hops for this week past
made little or no improvement.
BRENCHLEY.—A great portion of the hops in this
parish have completely given way, and cannot recover;
in other grounds there is a shade of improvement since
the rain.
GOUDHURST.—We are of opinion that three-fourths
of the p Aish are very bad, with but very little bine, and
in many gardens no lateral shoots ; among the largest
plantations may be found one or two gardens which we
may term splendid for the year. Unfortunately we have
had no rains till this last week of any consequence, so
that there is no visible effect at present; it is very evi-
dent they are past recovery.
'WITHAM AND SEAL.—Within the last few days the
hops nave slightly improved. Mould has made its ap-
pearance in a few gardens.
SMARDEN AND BIDDENDEN.—The bine still remains
in an unhealthy state in most grounds; the fly was seen
in some gardens on Saturday as lively and brisk as over.
LAMBERHURST.—The hops in this parish are still very
foul, and the vermin follow up the young shoots. The
late rains have washed them, and they certainly look
better.
TENTERDEN.—The hops have improved daring the
last week, where they are free from vermin; but upon
the whole not more than half a crop can be expected.
ORPINGTON.—The hops in our parish and St. Mary
Cray aro going daily from bad to worse. Our land does
not appear to suit hops, and the only wonder is that
hops are cultivated about here.
FARNHAM, ALTON, AND COUNTRY DISTRICTS, JULY
28.—Since last Thursday we have a decided improve.
ment in most of our grounds, and the very worst are cer-
tainly looking better.
(From the Maidstone Journal.)
MAIDSTONE, JULY 28.—As far as OUT observations
go, the variable and wet weather of the past week has
not but in a very few instances improved the hop planta-
tions of this neighbourhood, and though there are
many gardens, especially about Farleigh, still free from
blight, and which continue to maintain their healthy and
vigorous appearance, we cannot announce that the pros-
pects of the hop-growers generally aro improving—
many of the gardens that were foul with vermin have
alit ady turned black from the growth of the usual fungus
on the honey dew.
AYLESFORD.—Notwithstanding the heavy rains we
have had during the past week, the vermin still are as
numerous as before. A very short crop this year.
BIRLING.—We are very indifferent here—rather worse
than last week.
LINTON.—Our bine has grown considerably since the
rain, but we have also an increase of vermin in our up-
per grounds—some of them are getting worse every day.
MARDEN.—In some grounds a decided improvement
is observable, in others the hops appear stationary.
STAPLEHURST.—The effect of the late rain is visible
in a few places in this pariah; but speaking generally
the plant is weakly, owing to the ravages of the vermin
I with which they are still infested, and precludes the
I possibility of growing anything like a crop.