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London, England, 1866-11-16 00:00:00

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THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 16, 1866.

kJOLONEL STODARE. -EGYPTIAN-HALL,
Piccadilly.--Madame STODARE, widow of the late
Colonel Stodare, announces that, baying taken a very p:o-
-micentpart in all her late husband's inc nuparable Feats of
Magic, she has made ARRANGEMENrs (with the assist-
ance of Mr. Firbank Burman, Papa of the late Colonel
Stodare) to RESUME the ENTER VAIN3IENT which has
been given by Colonel Stodare at his Theatre of Mystery.
Egyptian-Hall, with such remarkable success for a period of
nearly two years. The FIRST It EPREeENTATIUNS will
take place on SATURDAY MORNING and EVENING,
Nov. 17, at 3 and 8. and will be repeated every evening at 8,
and on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons at 3. The sur-
prising illusion of the SPHINX, the famous INDIAN
BASKET TRICK, and the MARVEL Ut' AIECCA, all
originally invented and introduced by Colonel Stodare, will
be produced in the varied entertainment. Admission-4s.
and 28.; stalls, 35., which may be secured at the Box-office
Egyptian-Hall, from 10 till 5, and at Mitchell's Royal
Library, 33, Old Bond-street.
MR. JAMES WEAVER, Manager.

THE , MAD LAS IRRIGATION AND
. ' , CANAL COMPANY.
• Notice is :hereby given that the Fifteenth Ordinary
General Meeting of the Shareholders of the Madras Irri-
gation and Canal Company will be held at the Company's
Offices, 8 and 9; Queen-street-place, Southwark-bridge, in
the City of London, On Thursday, the 29th day of Novem-
ber instant, at 1 o'clock precisely. .rw.0...,,,,„
The Trander Books of the Company will be closed from
the 19th to the 29th'instant, both days inclusive.
By order of the Board. of Directors,
, • ' . JOHN WESTWOOD, Sechtary.
8 and 9, Queen-street-place, Southwark-bridge,
London, E.C., November 1, 1866.

keley, and the degraded slaVes 'of Totnes on the
other, who are driven or corrupted by a Whig Duke,
or his not less unscrupulous opponents. Then the
speaker changes his tack again, and concludes by
saying, "Would they tell him that the £5 holder
was not just as liable to that sort of corruption as
the £lO holder? , Would they tell him that if
they lowered the franchise they did not at the
same moment give a greater opportunity to the
tempter? How was it that they remained quies-
cent under that state. of things? How was it that
they submitted to the degradation, and still cried
out for Reform, when it was quite certain that
Reform would give them an increase of intimida-
tion and an increase of bribery ?" It may be that
this reasoning was connected in the speaker's mind
in some way with the question of the ballot, but it
is certainly rather a singular argument for a popu-
lar Liberal M.P..at this moment. We must have
the ballot, because the working men who would be
brought into the constituent bodies under the new
franchise would be more easily intimidated and more
accessible to bribery than the present ten-pound
householders. Are the working men to frame and
glaze and hang up in their sitting-rooms this dictum
of the veteran Liberal ? On the whole we are in-
clined to see in the speech of Mr. Berkeley the re-
flection and the doubts which beset even the most
stubborn minds when a great decision is to be taken.
The foundations of the political structure under
which we have lived in honour and prosperity are to
be relaid, and all who value the edifice are inclined
to seriousness and moderation. " Compare this
country with any other country," exclaims Mr.
Berkeley, "and they would find a better state of
things here, and that more liberty existed, and re-.
volution, therefore, to them would be ruin." This
is the spirit in which an honest Member of Parlia-
ment ought VI speak, and though it is "difficult to
connect the sentence with Mr. Berkeley's argument,
he is entitled to commendation for having uttered
it. Sir Morton Peto was frank in his acknowledg-
ment that he was not anxious for a Reform Bill last
Session. He had recommended a Commission, and
that the Reform Bill should be postponed for a year,
because with seventeen years' experience of Parlia-
ment he knew thatin a newly-elected House of Com-
mons, with 200 new men, no measure would be re-
ceived with favour which tended to send them back
to their constituents. There was not, he thinks,
any strong feeling in the country for a bill at the
beginning of last session, and the feeling in the house
was quite the other way. To turn to the future,
Sir Morton Peto, like his colleague, will accept a
bill from the Conservative Government. Though
he does not expect a sound Reform Bill from such a
source, yet if such a bill be produced he is pre-
pared to accept it, and where it is wanting he is
prepared to,add to it what is wanting. Thus with
sufficient reason and moderation speaks the second
Member for Bristol on the eve of one of the most

important periods in our national history, and we
have reason to believe that he expresses the
opinions of the great bulk of the Liberal party.
POST.—The rumours which float iu the atmo-
sphere of our courtsare occasionally as unsubstantial
as the meteors which the other night flashed across
the heavens. We do not know what amount of truth

;s to be attachad to the statement which has recently
appeared, that her Majesty's Ministers intend to
divide some of the circuits and to appoint three addi-
tional common law judges. These changes, how-
ever desirable in themselves, cannot be effected
without the intervention of Parliament, and there-

fore the question will no doubt receive ample discus-
sion. It may be admitted the existing arrangements
of the circuits is inconvenient, and that with the
progress of population and wealth the fifteen judges
are oppressed with an amount of labour which it is
Unfair to impose upon men who have generally passed
the meridian of life before they reach the Judicial
bench. The question, however, must not be con-
sidered solely in reference to the comforts of the
judges or the interest of the profession. The public
are the great sufferers. Cases which have been pre-
pared for trial at great trouble and expense are de-
layed from one assize to another, or arc referred to
arbitration, because the judge has no time to hear
them. It may, therefore, be desirable on every
ground to make the proposed change; and if the
Government were to let it be known that the three
additional judges would be selected from the most
eminent men at the bar, without regard to political
allegiance or party services, we think the House of
Commons would not begrudge the annual sum of
£15,000 for so useful and beneficial a purpose. But
if the claims of the common law courts for addi-
tional judicial strength are thus to be recognised,
there are other tribunals of equal importance
the judges of which are quite as much over-
worked—tribunals in which arrears are accumu-
lating to an extent almost unknown in recent
times. We allude, of course, to the Court of
Chancery, with its six separate branches, presided
over respectively by the Lord Chancellor, the Lords
Justices, the Master of the Rolls, and the three
Vice-Chancellors. Notwithstanding the industry
and energy displayed by these judges arrears have
accumulated, and must continue to accumulate
unless some relief be afforded. The arrears are not
confined to the appellate business, but extend to the
ordinary business taken by the Master of the Rolls
and the Vice-Chancellors in court and in chambers.
The pressure arises chiefly from the multitude of
winding-up cases which literally choke up the
court. It would seem as if voluntary or compulsory
liquidation is to be the Nemesis of the rash and wild
spirit of speculation which the system of limited
liability has facilitated. In saying this we do not
depreciate limited liability, but we only condemn
the manner iu which it has been applied by design-
ing persons to foist upon the eredulous public under-
takings which never -had the slightest chance of
permanent success. The great panic which occurred
in the spring of this year has brought to the court
a vast crop of these visionary undertakings, the only
valuable portions of which will be gathered by soli-
citors and official liquidators. The latter are almost
invariably professional accountants, and it may be
hoped that early next session some patriotic mem-
ber of Parliament will call for a return showing the
sums actually received by these gentlemen. The
Judges' Chambers and the courts themselves are
filled with these winding-up cases. UnfortUnate
shareholders who are made liable for calls either
engage in litigation (that is, appeal from the chief
clerk's decision) to postpone the day of payment,
or, if they have no property, adopt the short and
convenient mode of filing a petition in Bank-
ruptcy, and thus get rid of the call altogether.
The ordinary business of the court is neces-
sarily seriously impeded, and the glut which pre-
vails in the Judges' Chambers extends even to
the Appellate Court. We therefore would urge
that the present condition of the Court of Chan-
cery requires the attention of the Government just
as much as the state of the common law courts.
Another evil quite independent of the arrears arises
from the circumstance that the chief clerks are
most improperly permitted to exercise judicial func-
tions. When the office of Master in Chancery was
abolished by the Act of 1852, Parliament never
contemplated that the office would be restored only
under another name. The Masters in Chancery were
lawyers of position at the bar. The chief clerks are
only attorneys. No doubt they are respectable and
intelligent men: They were intended to make in-
quiries and to perform other ministerial duties as
mere clerks to the judges. They have, however,
been permitted to decide cases, and the judges, as a
rule, almost invariably confirm their clerks' certifi-
cates. These persons, therefore, now discharge the
duties which formerly belonged to the Masters.
They are practically entrusted with the conduct of
the winding-up business—they make orders for and
suspend calls—they settle the list of contributories,
and all this in addition to the usual business which
passes through the Judges' Chambers. The late Sir
James Graham and Mr. Henley, who were members
of the Chancery Commission, stated several years
ago that they never contemplated that the chief
clerks would have been permitted to assume and
exercise such powers, and that it would be infinitely
better to appoint an additional Vice-Chancellor than
to sanction the settlement of important questions
by a clerk in Chambers, before whom, of course,
no barrister would appear. Under these circum-
stances her Majesty's Government may well consider
whether it would not be desirable to act upon

the suggestion just referred to, and to appoint an
additional Vice-Chancellor to have exclusive pri•
mary jurisdiction in winding-up cases, and to act
as judge of the Court of Bankruptcy. The experi-
ence of the last five years has proved that a chief
judge in bankruptcy is absolutely necessary to give
consistency, uniformity, and dignity to the admi-
nistration of the bankruptcy law. The winding up
of the estates of insolvent joint-stock companies
and of insolvent persons are matters so cognate as
naturally to fall within the jurisdiction of one tri-
bunal. \Then it is proposed for the benefit of the
public to appoint three additional common law
judges, we cannot refrain from putting in a plea
for an additional Vice-Chancellor whose services
under that name, or as judge of the court of com-
mercial causes, arc urgently required to relieve the
Court of Chancery from its present oppressed state,
and thus to confer a benefit upon the community at
large.