The Sun.
London, England, 1851-07-15 00:00:00

MISSION AT FLORENCE.

Ie reply to Earl Fl I.Z A ILLI d. el,
The Nlerquis ef LIN N E said that there was
no found eion for the rep.at that Government intended to
diseontinue the tniesion et. Florence.
COURT OF CHANCERY AND JUDICIAL COM-
MI f PEE BILL.
The Marquis of LANSDUWNE moved the first
reading of this Bill.
L ,rd BROUGHAM said his Noble Friend had
moved the first reading of this 1111. which, eccordiug to
the practice of their Lord-hips' House with regard to
Bills brought up from the Commons, would otherwise
have been read a first time without remark, in order to
give him an opportunity of saying a few words on this
Bill, and of addressing their Lordships for the last time
this session. He entirely approved of this Bill, hut the
change to which he wished to advert was with respect
to that branch of the Biil which referred to the adminis-
tration of justice in the appellate triburfal of the Judicial
Committee of the Privy Council. The first question to
be carefully considered was whether the quorum ought
to be reduced {rum four judges to three. His opinion
was that tour was the best number, and the experience
of Westminster-hall was strorgly and clearly in faveur
of four judges in preference to three. Toe reason was,
that on nil occasions of cliff-lance you had the great
authority of a msj irity of three to one in favour of
the judgment of the Court, and if such a maprity
was essential to the courts of the first instance, how
much mere necessary it was to give effect to the deci-
sions of an appellate jurisdic:ion, deciding in the last re-
sort the most important questions, and which decisions
nothing short of an Act of Parliament could over:urn.
He agreed in the propriety of a change in the presi-
dency of this b .dy. The president of such a body
should be answerable for the regulation of the proceed-
ings, for the attendance of the members of the court, and
the distribution of its business, duties which a lay pre-
sident could not well undertake. The propriety of ap-
, pointing such a president was admitted 18 years age,
when it was proposed by him. It it were said that there
was some inconvenience in four judges being equally
divided in opinion, be had only to reply that during the
last 18 years the judges bad only divided two and two
upon one occasion, and the incouvenience was ea .ily re-
moved by calling in one teber member. the appoint-
ment of a vice-president of the court had been recom-
mended, and he thought well of it. There were other
parts of the Bill of which he approved, and he re-
garded the measure altogether as a step—not a great
or a long step, but still a step—in the right di-
rection. He ought to add that one want still
retsiained to be supplied. No provision was
made in this Bill to eueply another very ma-
terial defect in the appellate jurisdiction, in cases which
rarely Occurred, but which had occurred, and which
were likely to be of more frequent occurrence, namely,
cases involving spiritual questions of a highly important
nature, of an exceedingly difficult nature, and which very
often, with reverence be it spoken, were of an exceed-
ingly obscure nature. They of the Judicial Committee
were admirably adapted to deal with the common law,
with questions of colonial law, with cases from the Con-
sistorial Court, and embracing the learning of the civil
law. It was a tribunal well adapted to deal with ques-
tions of evidence, whether that which was deserviue of
the name, the evidence taken at common law, or that
which passed under the name, which was taken, or
which appeared to be taken, in courts of another descrip-
tion. But with regard to iho e other matters which his
Noble Friend the Lied High Commissioner of the Ge-
neral Assembly of the Church of ectelanci, who d fired to
hold an episeopa,lian conversation during this non-sitting
of the session—(Lord Belhaven was at this moment
conversing with a Right Rev. Prelate)—would admit
were spiritually diffi ult questi ns, the Judicial Com-
mittee had a confused authority, and his brethren
had authorised him to confess that with those
subjects they felt themselves wholly unfitted to deal.
Upon this class of subjects they desidereted control.
The y did not want to be dictated to. but they wished to
have what it was right they should have, the aid, the
in. stitnable benefit of the assistance of learbei men in
that. branch of the law. The present measure, then, was a
step—but not a stride, not along step—in the right direc-
tien; but if any man thought that this or any other struc-
tural alteration in the Court of Chancery—if any man
dreamed that each a measure laid the axe to the root of
the greyest and most grievous of the many crying evils
that afflicted the subjects of this country, not the judges
or the practitioners, but the unhappy suitors of the
court, although he admitted that it would, nevertheless,
do justice to the suitor, and enable him to obtain that
which he had a right to obtain. at a reasonable cost of
money, of trouble, and of time—if any dreamer, he
rep ated, believe d that any structural alteration of
the Court of Chancery would do alt that was wanted,
such a dreamer was in a tool's paradise, and would
awaken in the moron g to a sad reality that would belie
all that he had fancied in his blucotwr a. It would
alarm their Lordships to hear the proofs that bad been
brought before the Committee as to the state of things
iu all the courts of equ ty and in all the branches of
those courts. Their Lordships had victims among them-
selves, and be saw a Noble Friend of his who went into
Chancery for a debt of 5001., and who had the misfor-
tune to deal with a somewhat insolvent party and his
professional adviser. 1,2001 was the cost of obtaining
that 500/. His Noble Friend had succeeded, and to
might believe him he ought to consider it very che.p.—
(Rear, and a laugh.) At any rate, his Noble Friend
would have been 7001. better off if he had left alone his
5001 and made up his mind to its loss. But nineteen-
tw- ntietha of the cases were not those of contested debts
for 5001., but cases where parties were perfectly ready
to wind them rip and arrange them without going
into the Court of Chancery. One case of infancy had
lasted four years. The estate was of moierate amount,
the income being 1551. in stock. The infant was placed
out, orders were wade, considerable expenses were
incurred, and 681. 4s. was the cost that the estate had
to pay in order to get the infant's own money laid out
for the infant's own use and benefit. The deduce
tion of 70/. a-year from the income of the in-
fant was incurred for orders of Court where there
was so contest or dispute whatever.—(llear, hear.) In
another case, where a simple contract debt was claimed
against the estate, costs amounting to 1,200/. or 1,5001.
were incurred on one ride, and, in all, costs to the
amount of 3,0001. were incurred to recover 1,000/. In
the case to whicn he alluded the suitor was a gentlemen
residing in India. In July, 1840, his case was before the
Rails; in 1851, when he came over to ask tater his
cause, he was odd it was still uudecided, and that it, was
before the Rolls again, where he had lett it 11 years ago.
This gentleman was mte sewer told that his had tour or
five years more to wait It might be expected that this
gentleman would say that in India they hid the cobra
capells, the jungle fever, the tiger, and various other
evils anti dangers, but that at I- ast they had net a coon
which be (Lori Brougham) dared not to name—(.a
laugh.) Tne taxing-mister, Me. Follett, had a case be-
fore turn in which 90/. costs were incurred in deciding
whether la should be laid out in repairing a necessary
and convenient part of a house, but which he should no
more dare to name to their Ler letups than the court in
eureaion. In one edge a reference was made to the
ylaster for impertinence—that was for putting irrel. -
vent anti unnecessary matter into an answer, and the
Master had to inquire whether a number of documents
had not been so put upon the answer. The case was
glaring and gross, and the master decided, sf er hearing
counsel, who were not prolix—they were never prolix
hut ouly fall—that relief must be given to the amount of
201. The party thus d coed against appealed to the
Vice-Qoancellor, who agreed with the Master. Another
appeal was made, and the decision again affirmed, and the
expenses of getting this 201. struck off amounted to 800/.
—(Hear, hear.) But the wrongdoer bad to pay that?
ys.., almost the whale, but not quite the whole. Between
401. and 59/. of hese expenses he never received. so that
he would have been 301. the richer if he had submitted
to pay the 201., which the taxing-master decreed he
ought not to ply; and this dispute lasted for two or
three years. In the Day and Martin case, which was
psr:ly litigated and partly administrative, the value of
the estate was about 400,0001. Ile h..,(1 head that the
bill of coeta in this case araounted to between 70,000/.
and 90 000/.—(Hear. hear.) Now, was it possible that
their L irdships could much long- r resist the conclusi n
at which the people of this country had arrived, that
the axe must be laid to the root of this crying and
unbearable evil, and that, to use the words of Lerd
Chatham upon another subject—if they did not reform
themselves, the people would come in upon them
and reform them from without with a vengeance? Ha
wished for no rash and imprudittit changes. He had
constantly maintained that to make reform wholesome
it must be safe, and that reforms of the law, to be safe,
must be left in the hands of skilful and well-informed
men, without cuff-ring the rude and the ignorant to in-
terfere. But in propel Lion as that reform was delayed
which was wanted and, indeed, exigently required, it
their Lordships should no longer do their duty in ad-
ministering relief where it might safely be given, then
he said that the result would be inevitable, that the good
would be swept away with the bad, and that (as he had
once before said). hevine the good and the bad swept
away together, the juiieprudence and the judicature of
the country would be put in a state and reduced to a
coedition of ruin such as to afford a sad spectacles of the
vanity of human plans and the instability of institutions,
and to supply a wholesome warning t i those who, from
a fear of granting moderate and tide reform, exposed
their Lordships to the dangers of a violent revolu:ion.
—(Hear, hear.) Re trusted that, instead of stopping
at this measure, the other House would adopt the valua-
ble measures sent d 'ern from that House, and particu-
larly one of the most important weasares that had ever
passed through Parliament—he meant the County
Courts Extension B:11, to which might ba add-•d the Law
of Evidence Bill. If these Bills were adopted by the
wisdom of the other House of Parliament, they would
greatly diminish the evils of the present system. To
those measured might be added a reform to which
the public mind was beginning to be directed,
and which had the sanction of home of the most learned
men, v.s., the adoption, as far as possible, of the com-
bination of the two systems oft quity and law, by what
what was called, after the experience elsewhere obtained
of its working, "the fusion of the two branches of the
thatib"
system." He hoped that those who were younger would
gharevitetetsh.teihmapPrP=seni'tfs
they might at length say that a real and effectual pro-
gress
.hed been made towards the amendment of the law.
ships
sinogn sthhoeumldothi
usual
and unprecedente.d, a course as to address their L ,rd-
but that during the last five or six weeks be had with
with the utmost difficul y, and against the opinions of
his medical advisers, attended the service..f their Lord•
&lupe' House. During the last week or ten days this
difficulty had increased and become more severe. In
the hope of assisting in the passitig of this great noes-.
sure in a cause to which his life had been devoted—
(Cheers)—be had struggled to the last, until he found
that he could struggle no longer. It was with great
pain that he was compelled to withdraw himself from
their Lordships' Howe, when he considered that the
tempted
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