The Sun.
London, England, 1850-12-25 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING,
__DECEMBER 25, 1850®

HIGH WATER Al LONDON BRIDGE.
THIS DAY —Morning 19 min. after 6 I Evening 45 vain. after 6
To-Moscow—Morning 15 min. after 7 I Evening 47 min. after 7

THE WEATHER.—Su OFFICE, DECEMBER. 25.
TFIERMOMETER, IN TILE SHADE.
39—highest since noon yesterday.
33—lowest this morning and during the night.
39 —this day, at noon.
BAROMETER, 30.03.
',WIND S. W.—fine sunshiny weather.

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our system of jurisprudence, and more especially to
the "grand plague-spat" of the whole, the glarirg
evil of special pleading i❑ civil cases, which, as i.e
proved in the clearest and most satisfactory manner,
made "the clearest right precarious, and the most
dishonest pretension plausible" —which, " so far from
bringing the facts really in dispute between the par-
ties to a clear, short, intelligible, and satisfactory
issue," involved " the simplest and easiest subjects in the
thickest obscurity and confusion the most hopeless." The
able and convincing arguments contained in the
" Letter to the Lord Chancellor," and the " Thoughts
on Law Reform,"t published the following year, did
not fall on a barren soil, or remain useless and unpro-
ductive. Mr. PIIILLIMORE has seen his suggestions
sink deeply into the public mind—a degree of good
fortune not allotted to evary sincere and honest Re-
former—that they have already been partially
adopted by the Legislature, in the establishment of
county courts, and the administration of cheap and
speedy justice, through these sources, in certain
classes, and that they have been brought into com-
plete practical operation by our Transatlantic brethren
—the descendants of the same forefathers,
the offspring of the same common stock as
ourselves. Mr. PHILLIMORE must, indeed, re-
gard with no ordinary satisfaction, the immense
progress which the question has made within the last
few years, and he will hail with additional delight the
adhesion of the honoured name of the Lord Chief
Justice of Bombay to the cause which he himself
had so boldly advocated at a time when it was re-
garded as little better than an act of sacrilege to im-
pugn and contemn the art and mystery of special
pleading—the hideous idol set up in our courts of
common law, before which even Justice itself, and the
unquestionable rights of many innocent victims, were
so frequently ruthlessly and unhesitatingly sacrificed.

It would be impossible to find a witness in every
respect more unexceptionable than Sir ERSKINE
PERRY, or one more competent to furnish a clear and
lucid exposition of the subject-matter under
consideration in all its varied details. As
an experienced and learned practitioner, a
sound and accurate reporter, he had obtained the
esteem and respect of his professional brethren in
Westminster-hall ; and his well-merited promotion to
the Indian bench was hailed with general approbation
throughout the length and breadth of the land. His
conduct since his elevation was worthy of his previous
reputation ; and, as a judge, Sir ERSKINE PERRY ex-
hibited a thorough knowledge of his duties, a quick
and ready appreciation of the facts and circumstances
of every case, that placed him in the foremost rank
among the many distinguished and eminent men who
administered British law in the most important co-
lonies and dependencies of the British empire,
that at once stamped him as nulli secundus. His
arduous and varied duties, added to his other qualifi-
cation, gave additional weight to his testimony.
He had no prejudices or bias in favour of any parti-
cular department of jurisprudence—for, as Chief
Justice of the Supreme Court, he had to administer
every branch of the law of the land—the criminal
law by the aid of juries, common law with special
pleading, and the "new rules" without juries, equity
according to the practice of the High Court of Chan-
cery, Ecclesiastical and Admiralty law according to
the practice of the Courts at Doctors' Commons, the
law relating to insolvents and bankrupts, and he had
also a Vice-Admiralty jurisdiction. This was,
indeed, an extensive field of labour, and the
person competent to adjudicate satisfactorily
on every point must be able to speak clearly and
dispassionately of the relative advantages and disad-
vantages of the diff-rent systems, the parts that
should be retained and those which should be dis-
carded in the attempt to form a more perfect system
of procedure, and to produce the much required and
urgently demanded ameliorations in practice, by
which what are leniently termed " the cobwebs," but
which may with greater truth be styled the "
that has accumulated during successive centuries in
the Augean stables of the law, may be cleared away.

The able pamphlet now under notice, will neces-
sarily be read with intense interest by all persons at
all acquainted with the subject—by the enemies as
well as by the friends of legal reform, by the sup-
porters as well as by the oppuntnts of the " fine jun-
• • , . _ _ __!L.
production of an issue, simple and certain in I's
nature, has occasioned greater evils and more pal-
pable injustice than the inequitable and unwarrant-
able decisions of all the corrupt and infamous judges,
that ever disgraced the bench of justice. It will,
indeed, well repay a calm and attentive perusal, going
as it does to prove that " Special pleading has always
been a cumbrous and unsatisfactory instrument in
the administration of justice, and that it ought to be
abolished from every court of common law in the
British empire," that, in fact, what has been fondly
termed " the perfection of human reason," may more
justly be regarded as the triumph of human folly.
Sir ERSKINE PERRY does not merely pull down—
he does not content himself with exposing the errors
and deficiences of the existing system ; but he ex-
plains the nature of the substitute which he proposes.
It is one which guards alike against the evils of the
old system which led to the introduction of the " new
rules"—rules which were found to produce greater
mischief, and evils far more intolerable than those
previously complained of, which they were intended
to remedy.
There are two objects at present sought after by
our equity and common-law tribunals. The former
aims at " completeness," and thus occasions the
tedious delays and enormous expenses that have made
the very name of Chancery " stink in the nostrils"
of the people, a very byeword and reproach among li
the nations of the world. In order to render per-
fect justice it is guilty of the greatest practical in-
justice, wearing out and disheartening the suitors by
its sickening delays. The latter, on the con-
trary, endeavours to obtain " speed," and thus
it makes the subject-matter in dispute fre-
quently turn on comparatively trivial and unimpor-
tant issues, perfectly beside the real merits of the
case. The great problem to be solved, then, is to
discever a system of procedure which shall combine
these objects, generally incompatible, with as little
sacrifice of either as is possible.

With this view, Sir ERSKINE PERRY suggests a
scheme involving the total abolition of special plead-
ing, and founded on the following principles:—

Ist. Summons with notice.
2nd. Early appearance before the judge.
3rd. Power of mutual discovery.
4th. Oral pleadings recorded by the officer of the

court.

sth. Judgment moulded by the Court to meet the
Lets of the case.

We have gone at such length into these matters
that we are unable to devote space sufficient to enter
into the reasons advanced by the learned author in
favour of each of these points. We refer our friends,
however, to the pamphlet itself, in which the argu-
ments are contained, and which, as we have already
stated, will interest the unlearned as well as the
learned readers, and will be peculiarly acceptable to
legal reformers.

THE FRENCH REPUBLIC.

\Ve have received the Paris journals of yesterday.
Prince LUCIEN MURAT has been appointed officer
of the Legion of Honour.
Monsignor GARIBALDI, the new Papal Nuncio,
presented his credentials to the PRESIDENT of the Re-
public on Monday.
The Petrie quotes the following from a Paris letter,
published by a provincial journal :
" I was not willing to believe that the honourable and
clever President of the National Assembly had carried
the forgetfulness of his ordinary habits to the extent of
striking out the name of M. Carlier from the list of in-
vitations for the dinner given to Louis Napoleon. I
was, however, in error. An eminent personage, per-
fectly acquainted with all the details of this faux pas of
M. Dupin, related to me this evening the following
account of the curious incidents to which it gave rise.
He was in the saloons of the Presidency when M.
Carlier was announced. M. Carlier instantly
walked up to the arm-chair in which Madame Dupin
was seated, and who, on seeing before her the Prefect of
Police, was so put out of countenance, that she rose
twice to reply to his salutation—an excess of politeness
which is never manifested on ordinary occasions. Satis-
fied with this first success, the Prefect of Police then
proceeded towards M. Dupin, who was at that moment
conversing with the President of the Republic. M.
Dupin could not conceal a momentary confusion, which
manifested itself in the trembling of his hand, which he
hold out with a certain degree of hesitation towards the
high functionary. M. Carlier did not respond to this ad-
vance, but took the hand of Louis Napoleon, which was
held out to him with mark, d cordoility. Most of the
Ministers then came forward, and also shook M. Carlier
warmly by the hand."
The Constitutionnel announces that the Minister of
the Interior has written a letter to the President of the
Assembly, suggesting that M. Yoe; ought to be removed
from the situation of Commissary of Police at the Palace
of the Assembly, and that M. DUPIN has merely replied
that he has referred the letter te the Qia.tors.
It will be seen by the above extracts from the
Pouvoir and the Constitutionnel, that the schism be-
tween the majority and the Elysee still continues, and
that the PRESIDENT of the Republic supports for the
present MM. CARLIER and BAROCEIE against M,
DtipiN, as he formerly supported General D'HAUTPOUL
against General CHANGARNIER. It is nor, however,
improbable but that they may be reserved as a pro-
pitiatory sacrifice to secure the increased dotation
which is to be proposed in January, and which the
Assembly at present seems disinclined to vote.
M. GUIZOT, finding that a restoration of the Count DE
PARIS would end in the appointment of M. TIMERS
as Prime Minister, in which case he, himself, would
stand no chance of office, has joined the party of the
fusionists, that is to say, he has ratted from the
Orleanists, and gone over to the Legitimatists.
The Bulletin de Paris, which is published under
the auspices of the Burgraves of the Elysi.'T of whom
the Jesuit Count MONTALEMBERT is the leader, has
the following paragraph :
" If we are to believe the correspondence which we
receive from Switzerland, the Roman ex-triumvir has
contributed a great deal, by the aid of intelligent agents,
in exciting the religious movement in England against
the government of the Holy Father. He is certainly
the bearer of the sum of nearly a million, which has
been paid to him as part payment of the loan which he
has sueceeded in opening in Lendon;"
We thank the Jesuit Count for the hint, and per-
haps individual Protestants could not more effectually
retort the insult offered by the POPE than by sub-
, scribing their mite to MAZZINeS loan, and present-
ing Pm Norio the Triumvir Mantra in exchange
for the Cardinal WISEMAN.

Lord BROUGHAM having read, on Tuesday, a paper
on light before the Academy of Sciences, immedi-
ately left Paris for London.
PARIS BOURSE, DEC. 24. —Latest Prices. The
Five per Cents., 95f. 50c.; Three per Cents., 57f.50c.
Bank of France, 2,335 g.

BUSINESS DONE IN FOREIGN RAILWAYS AT TriE
LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE, DEC. 24.

Boulogne and Amiens, 9 %—Central of France (Orleans and
Vierzon), MIA - East Indian, 124—Luxembourg, I!,i
Ditto, 2%—Namur and Liege, 9—Northern of France, 153/4
—Orleans and Bordeaux, 3%—Paris and Orleans, 36 —Paris
and Rouen, 2714. Paris and Strasbourg, 9%—Rouen and
Havre, 1 I%—Sambre and Meuse, 334—Tours and Nantes,
5 sx div.

MAILS TO AMERICA

The Post-office authoEities have issued a table show-
ing the days on which the British and Unitei States
mail packets are appointed to be dispatched from this
country during the months of January, February,
and March, 1851. All information on this head will
be found in our table of seaborne mails. Appended
to the Post-office table are the foilowieg in trued ,ns
—All letters addressed to the United States, alrl not
directed to be otherwise sent, will be tran,mitted
by the first packet, whether British or United
States, which is dispatched after they are posted ; but
letters specially directed "by British packet," "by
United States packet," or by any particular vessel
named, will be forwarded in accordance with the de-
sire thus expressed by the writers. The Bi itish mail
packets on the New York line will proceed (as before
announced) direct from Liverpool to New York and
from New York to Liverpool, without calling at
Halifax. Letters and newspapers, however, for Nova
Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island,
may still be forwarded in closed mails by these packets,
if specially addressed " via New York," or "via the
United States;" but letters and newspapers not so
addressed will be sent in the regular mails to
Halifax by the packets proceeding from Liverpool
vie/ Halifax to Boston. The United States mail
packets leaving Liverpool and Southampton, as
well as the British packets, will convey closed
mails for Canada, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia,
and Prince Edward Island, and letters
,and news-
papers will be forwarded in such closed mails, if
specially addressed " via New York," or "via the
United States." Letters fur Canada, however, must
in addition, bear the words " by United States packet."
The postage upon letters and newspapers is precisely
the same, whether they are conveyed by British or
United States packets. Letters, &c., for Bermuda and
Newfoundland will be forwarded only by the packets
proceeding to Boston ; the mails for Bermuda will be
dispatched from Halifax immediately after the arrival
of the packet at that port, and those for Newfound-
land will be dispatched on the arrival at Halifax of
the homeward packet from Boston. Postmasters will
bear in mind that all letters to be transmitted by the
packets which start from Southampton must be for-
warded to London, and not to Liverpool.