The Sun.
London, England, 1850-03-29 00:00:00

C:411X6

LONDON, FRIDAY, MARCH 29 1850.

The present age may indeed be regarded as the
era of legal reforms. Vast improvements have been
effected within the last. twenty years in our system
of jurisprudence, and the anxiety for amelioration has
,by no means flagged or abated. The parties to whom
we are chiefly indebted for these beneficial changes
are proceeding with increased zeal and energy, and
they are sustained and strengthened in the
course on which they have entered by the
voice of public opinion, which has proclaimed that
the Augean stable must be thoroughly cleansed
~and purified—that the existing anomalies in
the system of procedure in our legal and equitable
tribunals must be removed, and the enormous delays,
..expsnses, and practical injustice of our Courts of
Equity and Common Law obviated with all con-
venient speed. The subject is of such magnitude
and importance, involving so many conflicting inte-
iiistS; that we can scarcely hope for any compre-
hensive measure embracing all the points requiring
amendment. We must be contented to accept the
necessary remedies by instalments, to have one nui •
• sance fairly abated before another is grappled with.
-After the legislation of a few years, such as
1840 was, and 1850 promises to be, we may look for-
Ward to the establishment of codes suited to the ad.
• v_anced spirit of the age and to the wants and exi-
gencies of the nation, and to the adoption of a system
of practice and procedure calculated to carry our im-
proved laws into beneficial operation.
Lord BROUGHAM has deservedly attained the fore-
most and most prominent poaition among the legal
reformers. his Lordship has applied himself to the
arduous task with an energy and ability worthy of
the highest eulogiums, and the success he has
already attained affords the most favourable
augury as to his future achievements. In his great
speech in the House of Commons in 1828, he com-
plained of more than 70 serious defects in the prin-
ciples or practice of the law; and, happily for the nation,
he. has lived to behold the correction of more than
60 of these glaring evils, and we trust he may still be
spared to witness the full realisation of his most san-
guine anticipations, and to carry out the various pro-
jects of useful reforms that have been originated in his
active mind.
On MOnday he explained the principles of another
measure which he recently introduced, and which he
justly describes as "by far the largest practical reform
ever attempted in Chancery." It strikes at the root
of perhaps the greatest grievance still remaining, the
laws relating to the administration of deceased per-
sons' assets, which have remained wholly unaltered.
While vast !improvements have been effected in other
branches, the decree must still be pronounced for the
destruction of property in due form of law," for the
swallowing up ley legal harpies of the funds that
would amply provide for the comforts and necessities
of hQraavad families, if judiciously and equi.
tably administered. Lord BROUGHAM clearly and
ably exposed Alla folly and absurdity of
the existing system, end depicted in glowing terms
the great hardship to which all parties in any de-
gree concerned, although claiming no beneficial in-
terest, are subjected. Ile described it as "a scene
ofintolerable pre-sure on parties, of the most cruel
injustice to individuals, of an enormous amount of
property prevented from being enjo3ed by the per-
sons to whom it really belonged, and of an abuse of
enormous extent in the Courts of Chancery, for which
neither the Courts, nor the Judges, nor the Masters,
nor the practitioners were responsible, but
for which the law, and the practice founded
on the law, were alone responsible." The truth and
accuracy of this description will be at once acknow-
ledged by all who liaOostiispe within the precincts of
those gloomy portals,' where " all who enter may

leave hope behind." The st ate of the law, with re-
spect to executors and administrators, is such that a
person who accepts of these onerous and thankless
offices must, for his own safety, apply to the court
for assistance and protection. He may otherwise be
subjected to the most vexatious and harassing
litigation on account of claims of which
he was wholly ignorant, although he adopted
every practicable mode of ascertaining the
full amount of liabilities. He may be compelled
to satisfy unrighteous and unfounded demands, or to
contest them at his own risk and peril, and being
ready to pay the costs of the plaintiff if he fail de
bonis propriis. He may be unable to accept a fair
and reasonable compromise, and to release or give
any indulgence to an insolvent debtor to the estate,
for if he do so, however judicions may be the act, and
although a considerable amount be thereby realised
which would otherwise be wholly lost, he will be held
guilty of devastavit, and liable to make good the
full amount of the claims from his own resources.
He may have to part with every shilling that
has come to his hands in order to liquidate the de.
mand of some pressing creditor, without retaining
anything to provide for the expenses to which he
will inevitably be exposed in the administration of
the estate.

These and other similar points—for we have only
alluded to a few out of many pressing grievances
—render every honest executor or administrator
anxious to obtain the protection of the Court of
Chancery, by having the estate managed under the
control and superintendence of its officers. But he is
frequently deterred by a consideration of the ruin which
he will bring upon the family of his deceased friend or
relative by the adoption of such a course, and the
great probability that he will thereby • incur evils
even greater than those which he is desirous of avoid-
ing, that in lying from Scylla he may plunge into
Charybdis, or, to use a more homely illustration, may
be falling " from the frying-pan into the fire." He
is, therefore, but too often prevailed upon to submit
patiently to the annoyances and vexations which he
can only avoid by rendering himself liable to still
greater, and the result is " that nine-tenths of the
cases are kept out of the court by the delays and
enormous and intolerable expenses of its proceedings."

These are the evils which Lord Baouousu pro-
poses to remedy by the new kill, which was read a
second time on Monday evening, in order that the
profession and the country may be fully enabled to
digest and understand its provisions, before its " next
stage in the progress of legislation." The chief fea-
tures of the Bill are, Ist, that "consent administra-
tions " may be at once commenced in the Master's
office without delay or expense, and when there that
they may be adjudicated on according to the system
introduced by the winding-up Acts, giving
all parties immediate notice by a judicial adver-
tisement, that. the Master bad undertaken
the administration, and giving a cheap and speedy
appeal to the Court by any parties who might be dis-
satisfied with any decision of the Master ; 2dly, To
induce the solicitors to get through their work expe-
ditiously, and without unnecessary prolixity, by
paying them, as far as practicable, by the " job,"
and thus rendering it their interest to expend the
smallest possible amount in the proceedings ; and,
3dly, To give the Master power, wherever a so-
licitor was guilty of any malversation, or im-
proper conduct in the management of a suit,
to mulct him, the really guilty party, of the
costs thereby occasioned, and to exonerate the
comparatively innocent clients, who were led into
error by the sinister recommendations of their pro-
fessional adviser. These are important matters, and
if Lord BROUGHAM should succeed in effecting his
object he will have earned for himself the thanks and
blessings of many a sinking heart, sickening under
" hope deferred," and the approbation and gratitude
of the community in general.

During the whole course of his existence the
Right Rev. Dr. HENRY PHILLPOTTS, the now Lord
Bishop of Exeter, hath never suffered an opportunity
for indulging in "pamphleteering slang" to escape
him ; it was, therefore, to be expected tbat his recent
defeat in the Gorham case would give occasion to
various exhibitions on the part of this Right Reverend
Letter-writer ; and, accordingly, we find that he hath
recently published two letters, the first addressed to
Dr. Spar, in the " pauvre honme" vein of the
TARTUITE of the first three acts of the comedy; the
second addressed to the Archbishop of CANTERBURY,
in the bullying vein of the TARTUFFR FURIBUX of
the last. At the time he was consecrated Bishop of
Exeter Dr. HENRY PHILLPOTTS made oath upon the
Holy Evangelists that he would always pay due
reverence and obedience to his Metropolitan Primate
and his successors, and Dr. lISNRY PUILLPOTTS
thinks it no violation of his oath to address to that
Metropolitan to whom he has sworn to pay due reve-
rence and obedience language such as the following :
" Meanwhile, I have one most painful duty to perform.
I have to protest not only against the judgment pro-
nounced in the recent cause, but also against the regular
consequences of that judgment. I have to protest
Against your Grace's doing what you will be speedily
called to do, either in person, or by some other ex-
erci.ing your authority. I have to protest, and I do
hereby solemnly protest, before the Church of England,
before the Holy Catholic Church, before Him who is its
Divine Head, against your giving mission t) exercise
cure of souls, within my diocese, to a clergyman who
proclaims himselt to hold the heresies which Mr. Gor-
ham holds. I protest that any one who gives mission to
him, till he retract, is a favourer and supporter of those
heresies. I protest, in conclusion, that I cannot with-
out sin—and, by God's grace, I will not—hold commu-
nion with him, be he who he may, who shall so abuse
the high commission which he bears."
The Archbishop of CANTERBURY, after the perusal
of the above passage, may probably be of opinion
that the Devonshire special jury, who returned the
verdict of Not Guilty in the case of the " Queen v.
Latimer," were not far wrong in the estimate
which they formed of the regard of the Right
Rev. Prelate for an oath, and he will be confirmed in
that opinion when he finds, on perusing the report of
the proceedings in the case, that according to the
statement made by Dr. ADDAMS, the counsel for the
Bishop of EXETER in the Court of Arches, the Bishop
himself bad offered to do the very thing which he
solemnly protests, " before the Church of England,
before the Holy Catholic Church, before him who is
its Divine Head," against the Archbishop of CAN-
TERBURY'S doing, viz., to give mission to exercise the
cure of souls within his diocese to Mr. GORHAM.
Dr. ADDAMS distinctly stated (and had he not been
so instructed he never could have made such a state-
ment)—Dr. ADDAMS distinctly stated before Slr
HERBERT JENNER FUST, that the Bishop had
offered to stop the further examination of Mr. Goa-
HAM, and to institute him to the living of Bramford
Speke, if he (Mr. Gounass) would pledge himself
not to publish any portion of the examination he had
undergone, or anything relating to it. It is evident,
therefore, that this vehement protest, this grandis et
serbosa epistola is merely an ebullition of the ungo-
vernable and unreasoning fury of a baffled controver-
sialist. The Bishop found that in Mr. GORHAM he
had met with more than his match, and defeated
in every argument, and fearing that his opponent
would publish that defeat to the world, he turns
round and accuses him of heresy. " Whenever," said
the late WILLIAM COBBETT, " a parson finds matters
going wrong with him, the first thing he does is to
accuse somebody of blasphemy ;" and Dr. PIIILLPOTTS
in this instance appears to have acted on CORBETT'S
theory. "I protest against the judgment pronounced
in the recent cause, says the Bishop; and there is
nothing very original in his making such protest.
Dr. HENRY PMILLPOTTS is, in this instance, the mere
plagiarist of the late Mrs. Mum. MArnsueo. She
also solemnly protested "against the judgment pro-
nounced," which, however, was carried into execu-
tion, such protest notwithstanding, as will be, doubt-
less, the judgment in the present case. The objec-
tions which the Parson-party have made to the
competence of the Judicial Committee of the Privy
Council comes too late. Having taken his chance of
a judgment in his favour, it does not now lie in the
mouth of the Bishop of EX.ETER to object to the com-
petence of the tribunal. He should have mooted that

objection before the commencement of the arguments
in the case. But instead of protesting against that
decision, the Bishop of EXETER ought to rejoice

greatly at it, to cling to it as his only plank of safety,
relieving him from the most awful responsibility
which it is possible that any man entrusted with Epis-
copal superviNion can incur, and alone saving him.from
the pains and penalties of deprivation. Had the
Judicial Committee of the Privy Council decided that
the doctrines held by Mr. GORHAM are heretical,