The Sun.
London, England, 1859-11-02 00:00:00

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TETE SUN.
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1859

Not one among our great public men has been of
late so conspicuously before the public as Lord
-13aouGHAm. Notwithstanding his great age, and
the remembrance of those prolonged and herculean
labours of his in almost every department of
ipolite literature, and of very many of the more
abstruse among the natural sciences, those labours
which might reasonably be thought long since to
have earned for him a right to repose at last upon the
bloodless laurels of his great reputation—the noble
and learned ex-Chancellor is more active and more

energetic as an octogenarian, than the vast majo-
rity of men are disposed to be, years before they
reach tnat critical period in life, technically
known as the grand climacteric. Passing over
Lord littouGnAm's masterly oration last year
upon the inauguration of the statue of Sir ISAAC
NEWTON, at Grantham, putting altogether on
one side his customary participation last session in
the debates in the House of Lords, and referring
here only by a casual mention to his nightly-
drudgery during the session at the Law Amendment
Society's discussions at their chambers in Water-
loo-place, over the publishing-house of the Messrs.
RIVINGTON—how prominently and how fre-
'quently during the last month or two, but espe-
cially during the last week or two, the noble
and learned lord has appeared, and that, moreover,
to really good purpose, before great masses of his
fellow-countrymen ! At Bradford, as President and
originator of the Association for the Advancement
of the Social Sciences—during his labours in con-
nection with which association his Lordship spoke
very frequentlyeometimes at great length, and upon
themes wide as the poles asunder ! At Edinburgh,
where he received an ovation from all ranks and
classes and political parties in his birthplace, one of
the two grandest and most gratifying ovations, ac-
cording to his own avowal, that he has ever received
during the whole of his brilliant and extended
'career ! At Newcastle, where he found himself
but a very few days after the grand banquet given
to him in his native city by four or five thousand of I
his fellow•citizens—at Newcastle, where he found
himself but a very few days later on, addressing an I
immense and enthusiastic meeting—one that he
himself pronounces to be "the greatest by far that
he ever had the happiness of attending !" And
now, after all these notable demonstrations
n his great, perhaps his grandest role,
namely, as an orator, we have an elabo-
rate and impressive written evidence recently
afforded to us by him of his undiminished and vital
energy as the boldest, the most resolute, the most
industrious and utterly indomitable among 9-11 our
great Law Reformers.

We refer to the recent apreubarance of Lord
BROUGHAM'S last annual Leiter giving, a periodical
resume of the law reforms introduced, baulked,
thought of, or actually accomplished during the
last session of Parliament. Formerly this annual
letter used to he addressed by the noble and learned
ex-Chancellor, to Lord DENmAN. But Lord DENMAN
is now no mare—and the letter of 1859 is in conse-
quence addressed-to another—to one whom Lord
BROUGIUM designates " My dear old friend, the

oldest now left tne"—the Earl of RADNOR. In
glancing down this, the latest of these deeply inte-
resting documents, we marvel not, of course, to find
Lord BROUGHAM lamenting with great grief, and
with some little and certainly very natural impatience
the waste of last session for the most part, as far as
legal reforms, and for that matter as far as any re-
forms of any kind, but especially legal reforms, were
concerned. " Certainly," he says, "we have a
right to complain of the late session in comparison
with almost any of former years, both for the im-
portant measures of law amendment which were
suffered to drop, and for those which were abso-
lutely opposed and rejected." Among those we
observe with some degree of surprise that Lord
BROUGHAM makes no mention of Sir HUGH
CAIRNS' dropped project for the Registration of
Estates—though conspicuous mention is made as of
a loss, the most of all to be regretted, that, namely,
of the provisions agreed to by the House of Lords for
improving the procedure in the Divorce Court.
After expatiating at some length upon this as a
grievous source of regret, Lord BROUGHAM observes
very impressively and strikingly as follows. He
writes to Lord RADNOR—" You may recollect that
your objection to the action for criminal conver-
sation, now put an end to by the new course
of procedure, rested in part upon the indelicate
nature of the evidence generally adduced ; but
the details of the Divorce Court, especially in
suits of importance, very far exceed all that the
trials at Nisi Prim used to exhibit. Accordingly, the
Consistorial Court was always in the practice of
hearing such cases with closed doors; and the
Chancellor very naturally considered that the
Divorce Court, having succeeded to their jurisdic-
tion, the same leave should be given to it of ex-
cluding the public. He merely proposed to vest a
discretionary authority of this natuje in the judges,
and it was taken for granted that they would exer-
cise the power with a found discretion. Unfortu-
nately, from an over-jealousy founded on a sound
principle, but carried to an unreasonable excess, this
provision, which he had, after much discussion,
adopted, was rejected in the other house, and I will
add that Sir R. BETHELL received very little of the
support which he had every reason to expect,
either on this or on the provision respecting the
Attorney-General." Reference is soon after this
made by Lord BROUGHAM to the imperative need
there is of an " Act to remove the stigma on our
law, of its being the only system of jurisdiction in
the world which regards breach of trust as no
offence"—au act the urgent demand for which Lord
BROUGHAM reminds us has of late been only too
often and too frightfully demonstrated.
Towards the close of this comprehensive epistle
upon law reform, the noble and learned lord alludes
most feelingly to two matters of serious import not
directly connected (he acknowledges as much him-
self in commenting upon them) not directly con-
nected with the subject of his correspondence. In
one he pleads powerfully, as he has often done
before now, in behalf of the coloured race, with a
view to their elevation generally to a level with
the white people—his claim being now, that a
young negro, a native of Barbadoes, should not be
denied the realisation of his own ambition, namely,
that of being admitted to the bar. Applied to by
this young negro to know whether there would
be any probability of an impediment, Lord
BROUGHAM observes emphatically, "I hate at once
answered that obstruction there will be none; and
that I can almost undertake for one or other of our
equity draftsmen, or special pleaders, receiving him
as a pupil." The other incidental subject touched
upon at the close of Lord BROUGHAM'S epistle to
the Earl of RADNOR is suggested to the mind of the
ex-Chancellor by the perfect latitude allowed to
himself as well as to other citizens of this free coun-
try, the perfect latitude for speech and writing—
" perfect freedom," he goes on to remark, " from
the constituted authorities of every description,
spiritual and temporal, civil and military, to discuss
without restraint, subjects of all kinds, affecting
the well-being of the community, often, it may be,
giving umbrage to princes, principalities, and
powers ; sometimes, peradventure, giving offence
to the people in their various classes. Now, I can
hardly think of this liberty and security (for such
it is) which we enjoy, and not wish, with the same
earnestness with which we ourselves prize the
inestimable blessing that other nations shared it,
especially our nearest neighbours. Sincere respect
and affection for them is, I confess, only the second
reason for this wish. My first is our own deep
interest in their possessing it. My confidence is
entire in. the good sense and right feeling of the
great bulk of that renowned people ; and with a
constitutional government they never would en-
counter the hazard of being overpowered by the
multitude, armed and unarmed. Even in the pre-
.sent state of things we must trust the Government
and the nation—and we do trust them ; but we
trust our own Government and our own selves
more, and we must be content to undergo such
heavy burdens for defensive preparations by sea
and by land as shall make attack not only impos-
sible to succeed, but impossible to be attempted."
As Lord BROUGHAM adds, the burdens caused by
this weigh heavily both upon ourselves and upon
our French neighbours ; adding, with only too
much reason—that "it is devoutly to be hoped "
they may both be relieved from it eventually—pray
Heaven that it may be thus and speedily !

Song-making is not our profession, but when
we read the description of Toryism as given
us by Lord DERBY and Mr. DISRAELI, and com-
pare it with the promises and acts of Whiggism in
office, a certain old story occurred to us. It is said
that once on the occasion of a few minutes' silence
in the House of Commons, when every one -was
looking as demure as silent senators ought, and the
President of the House in his robes and wig was
sitting in his chair with the solemn majesty of a
Constitutional Jupiter, a wag in the gallery, in
whose mind the associations of contrast were irre-
sistibly strong, could not avoid calling out, " And
now, Mr. Speaker, give us a song !" Of the grave
inquest by the Sergeant-at-Arms which followed
we need say nothing now, but it did strike us that
if Mr. Speaker should ever give us a constitutional
song, adapted to parties as they are, we could,
though no poet, at least furnish the chorus. The
present Treasury benches should "We're all
good Tories together," " We're all good Tories, to-
gether"--and the responsive bpposition should
alternate, " We're all good Whigs together,"
" We're all goodjjgstogether." Of course, now
good Mr. Blur, azaToN is no more, to the air of
" We wott' go home till morning."
t
It 'seems to us, as it did to Mr. Du CANE, that
" what they killed each other for, we never could
make out." One party does its best to prove itself
Liberal, the other its best to prove itself Conserva-
tive, till what is left between them but a hair's-
breadth line of demarcation, it is hard indeed to
say. The great body of Lord PALMERSTON'S sup-
porters certainly, if they could help it, would go no
further than the great body of Lord DERBY'S.
They equally wish to keep things as they are ; are
equally chary of granting any greater measure of
independence to the present electors, or any consi-
derable increase to their number. " The Reform
party is the Ballot party," and judged by this test