The Sun.
London, England, 1850-11-21 00:00:00

THURSDAY EVENING, NOV EMUR 21, lB5O.

Chinese soil will no', after so many centuries of
insulation from the rest of the human family,
be opened to the desecration of our footsteps for any
light reasons or under any ordinary circumstances.
Of this we may rest satisfied. The customs conse-
crated by the practice of so many successive genera-
tions will not be abandoned at the first glimpse of
peril, at the first blast of the horns of a body of free-
booting insurgents, no matter how formidable they
may be intrinsically and numerically.
Without desiring to witness the commencement on
our part of a system of Chinese spoliation, we may
yet be permitted to look forward with hope to some
remarkable turn of events such as would lead to our
closer intimacy and more frequent intercourse with the
Chinese population. The moral, political, and
intellectual stagnation of that ancient and, in many
respects, distinguished race, has been now of too
long continuance to admit of its wholesome perpetua-
tion. At a period when the whole genius and ambi-
tion of mankind appears to be fermentating prepara-
tory to some great and hitherto unprecedented ad-
vancement, it is melancholy to witness the continuance
of their ancient torpor among the Chinese multitude.
To behold its abandonment we must now, more than
ever, aspire : and, as a possible step towards this ens,
the revolutionary movement in the interior of the
empire is, to a certain extent, a source of satisfaction.

The Society for Promoting the Amendment of the
Law has rendered many valuable services to the
community. Numbering among its members parsons
of profound learning and Vast experience, who have
attained the greatest eminence in the legal profession,
it is by no means surprising that the existing abuses
are clearly exposed, and suitable remedies suggested
fur the consideration of the Legislature. These
abuses may be sufficiently obvious to persons of all
classes in society. It requires no great degree of
legal lore to understand the enormous injustice per-
petratedunder the_existing Chancery system, and the
harassing delays and ruinous expenditure to which
the suitors are subjected ; but it is easier to de-
nounce the evil than to provide a fitting substitute.
The utmost caution, the calmest deliberation, must
be used, or the remedy may prove worse than the disease.
A new system, hastily and rashly adopted, might prove
more mischievous, more intolerable than that which
has been so generally complained of—so unequivocally
condemned. When an eminent judge of the Court
of Chancery, in pronouncing a decree, declared
it to be " the usual decree
,for destroying
an estate according to law," no controversy
can exist as to the imperative necessity for the intro.
&action of large and comprehensive measures of
Chancery reform. Bat to what extent shall the
pruning knife be applied ? Where shall the intended
innovations stop? Is it intended to overturn the en-
tire edifice, to abolish the Court altogether ? or is it
merely desired to cleanse and purify it from the filth
and excrescences that have grown up during succes-
sive ages, until at length they have arrived at such
rank luxuriance as to convert what was intended to be,
and which, under a judicious system, might have been
a blessing to the community, into a curse—what should
have been a means of relief into an instrument of oppres-
sion and persecution ? These are interrogatories that
must be seriously pondered over before any fitting re -
sponsescan be returned—problems, in the due solution
of which the interests and welfare of society are in-
volvedin no ordinary degree, and the modern CEDlrus
who undertakes the arduous duty of unravelling the

mysteries of the legal Sphynx must be thoroughly
acquainted with the subject in all its varied ramifi-
cations, so as to trace each abuse to its
source, to ascertain the fountain whence it sprung,
and the means by which it might be diverted from its
usual channel. The probable consequences of any
new rule of principle or practice must also be accu-
rately calculated, so as to ascertain that its meaning
cannot be perverted or made to operate in a manner
totally opposed to the objects for which it was origi-
nally framed and promulgated.
On Monday evening a matter of more than usual.

importance was brought forward at the meeting of the
society. Mr. DAVID DUDLEY FIELD, an American
barrister of high standing, and one of the commis-
sioners who proposed the New York code, which
abolished the distinction in procedure between law'
and equity in that state, attended and clearly and
distinctly explained the nature of the sweeping
changes that had been introduced, and their effect
during the period that they have been in operation.
The alteration was indeed one of no ordinary magni-
tude; it was of a truly radical character, striking at
the very root of the matter. It appears that
New York had originally, and until ct ithin the hot
three years, a judicial constitution very like that of
England. There was the Court of Chancery in every
respect analogous to our own, guided by the same
principles. The decisions of English Chancellors or
judges in equity were quoted more frequently, and
more strongly relied on, even than their own. And
the admirable works of Judge STORY and of
some of his eminent brethren prove that we
also may receive valuable instruction from
the other side of the " broad Atlantic.'
There was also the Supreme Court, corresponding
to our Queen's Bench. The divisions of law and
equity were in fact as clearly observed as at West-
minster and Lincoln's Inn. As, however, the sum,
fruit will spring from the same seed, complaints arose
in New York, as well as in England, of the delays
and expenses of the equitable tribunal, and of the
occasional defeats of justice by an over-rigid adhe•
rence to the strict rules and technicalities of the
common law. But there to discover an evil was
to insure prompt attention to the mean•
by which it might be eradicated ; there
is not the same slavish adherence to mischievous
forms, merely because they have been in existence for
centuries. An erroneous system will not be perpe-
tuated merely because it is

"An aged vice,-a
grey in;quity."
The wisdom of our ancestors is only respected when
it is really shown to be "wisdom," and gross and
palpable folly is not dignified by the epithet. Com-
missioners were appointed to investigate the
matter, and to report on the nature of
the most efficient remedies. There learned
men faithfully discharged the important trust
confided to their charge, and the result of their
recommendations has been—the total abolition of the
CourtChanceryll. in
the state of New York !! l
But this
The good points of both system,
ts n f
was
aof law and equity were retained, the bad ones
discarded. A ___happy mixture of law and equity
not
calculated to render substantial justice in all cases:
was erected on the ruins of both systems, which was
entrusted to the administration of the Supreme Court.
The old forms of pleading were abolished, and
thencefor ward there was to be but one form
of action! .
I The natural system of pleading was
adopted, that is, such a system of allegation as the
litigants would adept in familiar life in asking advice,
or stating the case to an arbitrator. The plaintiff
put in his complaint, stating the facts, the defendant
his answer. The plaintiff might reply, but there the
pleadings closed! These are, indeed, important
alterations, but we are assured
by Mr.
FIELD that
" no difficulty had arisen in the practical working
of the system, but very great convenience and
the same code had been adopted in other states al-
ready." This is powerful evidence of the value and
efficiency of the new code, the novelty and importance
of which will justify a closer examination as to the
principles on which it is formed, and that we may
be assured it will speedily receive in the Society for 1
Promoting the Amendment of the law.

The memorial to the LORD MAron, expressing the
feeling of the merchants, bankers, traders, and others
of this city, that a Tribunal of Commerce would be
a great boon for the commercial world, and request-
ing his Lordship to call a public meeting, in order
that the feeling of the citizens of London may be
fully taken on the subj,,ct, has now grown to a most
ponderous roll of parchment; the originator of the
movement, Mr. FRANCIS LYN a, being determined, as
it is said, to convince the doubtful, at a first sight,
that the feeling is universal, that " the commercial
law of this country is not administered with that
simplicity which its circumstances, as Kell as truth
and justice, demand."
The memorial has been signed by firms of the very
highest respectability, representing the following
trades :—the corn, wine, spirit, coal, tea, drug,
colonial and foreign trade of the country. In a few
hours last week upwards of one hundred leading
houses in Mincing-lane signed the memorial; and j
although the members of the Stock Exchange are not

immediately connected with commerce, they have
marked their sense of the wisdom of the movement,
by signing the memorial to the LORD MAYOR, the
cheirman of their committee leading. the way. Such,
to the present time, is the history of this movement'
to which may be added the pleasing fact that Liver-
pool, Manchester, and Glasgow have declared their
sympathy with the movement, and readiness to do
anything to add weight to it ; and hno can wonder
at such a simultaneous burst, when all so well know
that thousands upon thousands of cases, only fit for
an Arbitration Court, or Tribunal of Commerce, are
never referred till every expense of every sort has
been exhausted, under the guise that a judge and
jury in the Nisi Prius Courts was the only proper
place for its decision; and wh-n, at last, there, with
all the fees paid, and nothing farther left but labour
for the professionals, then the gentlemen in silk dis-
cover, as they modestly tell the judge, who quickly
agrees, that "the matter might be more satisfactorily
settled by being referred." The merchants are now
quite sick of this honourable species of robbery, on
the part of the honourable profession ; and therefore
now with one voice demand a Court of Arbitration
or Tribunal of Commerce, wherein, at a trifling cost,
they may settle their commercial disputes.
The public feeling is now so ripe on the subject
that the lawyers cannot avert the change, as they
know, though their name be Legion ; and the most
respectable are now wisely ready to second the mer-
chants' present movement, founded, as they must see
it is, on common sense and simple juatice ; and
many thousand cases, which now remain in abeyance,
must continue so to do till the law is altered.

Tribunals of commerce are of extreme antiquity ;
and it was the vice which naturally grows out of an
artificial state of society that brought into being our
present system. "invented for the creation of costs,
and not for the due administration of justice ;" giving
to quirk and quibble a victory but too often over
truth and justice. It has been a lucrative field for
those lawyers, who love so to make money. Holy
Writ points at sach a system in the 29th chapter of
Isaiah, 20th verse—" The terrible one is brought to
nought; and the scorner is consumed, and all that
watch for iniquity are cut off; that make a man an
offender for a ward." In a short history of Com-
merce, by LEONE LEVI, we read that the Italians
instituted in 1160, by the Constitutum usus of Pim,
tribunals of commerce ; and, at this time, it is well
known, they wo, k well in France, Flanders, Rhenish
Prussia, and elsewhere in Western Europe, and the
very best effects are acknowledged. Take France
for an example, 220 special tribunals are established
in the most cohlmercial departments, and there are
Also 170 civil tribunals, which also take cognizance of
commercial matters. In 1846 there were introduced
207,279 new CASe3 before thes., 390 tribunals, 177,446
mere brought', .ore the 220 special tribunals, and
29,833 only before the civil tribunals, judging com-
mercial matters.

There can be no doubt that the law in this country
has not kept pr" with the needs of our fast-growing
society; and that we are living in a day when truth
and justice refuse to be trammelled! Two great
Qubjeets are now attracting public attention—Law
and Religion—and it is somewhat remarkable, that
:WO of the boldest champions now before the public
should be Mr. LYNE, of No. 6, and Dr. CUMMING, of
No. 7, Hunter-street, Brunswick-square ; and we
expect Cardinal WISEMAN will find Dr. CUMMING 28
tough this afternoon, at the Hanover- square
Rooms, on the subject of Romish oaths, as opposing
lawyers will find Mr. LYNE, at the forthcoming
meeting at the Mansion-house, in opposition to quirk
and quibble. The success of the latter gentleman is
as necessary as that of the former to keep Gospel
truth alive in this country. We are convinced every
fudge on the bench must at times feel how unjust
and cruel it is, after a man has expended vast sums of
money, labour, and anxious care to get his matter
settled quickly, to be told by the judge that he has
done no good for himself, as his case was one for a
court of arbitration, and not for a court of law ! Is
this justice ?

ME F ;N Cam. REPUBLIC.

We have received the Paris journals of yesterday.
The following communicated note appeared in the
Moniteur du Soir :
" The Patrie ,) I this day concludes an article on the
present state of Germany with a violent attack upon an
allied Government (Russia). It is the duty of the French
Government to protest against this article in the most
tormal manner. The sole policy of the Government is that
which is clearlr and honestly laid down in the Message
of the President°, the Republic. The Government knows
no other. It has always given the example of respect for
nationalitiss and foreign government. It will never de-
part from this line of conduct" (communicated by
Minister for Foreign Affairs).
The article in the Patrie warned the Government
of the designs of Russia and her vassal Austria on
Prussian and German independence, and urged the
Necessity of France coming forward for the protec-
tion of Prussia, should necessity require it ; the ar-
ticle is understood to have been written under the
dictation of the PRESIDENT himself, and to express his
entiments, while the contradiction emanates from
General LARITTE, the representative in the Cabinet
of Absolutism and Legitimatisin.
The Patrie of yesterday has the following observa-
tions on this communicated note :
" The Minister of Foreign Affa;rs thenght it neces-
sary yesterday to publish in the Moniteur a communi-
.;ated note, iu which he protes s against our article of
Saturday on the affairs of Germany. We are forced to
avow that in reading this note we experienced a move-
: went of surprise perfectly jastifiasle. Why was this note
Published ? What necessity was there tor it? The
Minister of Foreign Affairs points to the Messag , of
the President of the Republic. So do we. What says
the Message? That the Government will remain neutral
between Prussia and Austria, up to the day on which
French interests should be engaged and compromised in
the struggle. We said nothing else ; only, we explained
what, in our opinion, French interests demanded from the
foresight and patriotism of our Government. What did we
say that could call for the intervention of the Minister of
Foreign Affairs? Did we call for war? Far from that; we
expressed the most sincere desire for the maintenance of
peace. Have we made an appeal to the revolutionary
passions which Prussia has sometimes the wrong of
over-exciting against conservative opinions from which
Austria never departs? Certainly not. In fine, have
we demanded that France should espouse the cause of
Prussia, no matter what occurred? Our attitude iu the
Danish question has in advance replied to that question.
Such a thought cannot be found anywhere in our two
articles on German affairs. We merely foresaw the
case where Austria, aided by Russia, might desire to
annihilate Prussia. In that case, there could not be
two lines of policy to follow, there could be only one—
that which Louis XIV. followed before Napoleon, and
which Napoleon followed after Louis XIV.; that which
the restoration adopted, for that policy is neither poli-
tical nor monarclia,l; it is better than that, it is French.
That policy is the one which prescribes to France to
prevent Austria from increasing beyond measure on the
Rhine and the Po; it is that which counsels her not to
imprudently allow Russia to extend her arm to our
frontier. Who could disapprove of it?"
The Ministerial paper, it will be seen from the
above, protests against the ambitious designs of
Austria, and declares that France will interfere to
prevent her from beyond measure increasing on the
Rhine and the Po. On the other hand, the equally
Ministerial Constitutionnel gives the following warn-
ing to Prussia :
" Does Prussia believe that it would be sufficient for
her to triumph over Austria, and to subdue the second-
rate kingdoms? That this question would not, from
being German, become European? European equili-
brium could not be broken with impunity. France,
whom no immediate interest calls at this moment beyond
the Rhine, would not allow to be modified to her de-
triment the neighbourhood created for her by the trea-
ties of 1815; she would not permit there should be esta-
blished along her frontiers an uninterrupted dominion
that would isolate her from the continent; she would not
allow to be overthrown to her prejudice the actual pro-
portion of forces. France, whose arms have so often re-
established in their estates the Palatine Electors and the
Electors of Bavaria, could not without dishonour permit
any power to de,t, ey, or absorb 'the second-rate states
which are her traditional allies; to do so would amount
to the abandonment of all her interests, and the deser-
tion of her past history; it would bo to desert the policy
uniformly followed by Henry IV., Richelieu, Mazarine,
Louis XIV., V • canes, and Napoleon. France has
made Kings beyond the Rhine, and these Kings shall not
he turned into subjects."
The National, which believes that the Govern-
ment has joined the great Ab4olutist and obscurantia
conspiracy, of '.ich Russia and Austria are the
heads, has the A:Mowing excellent remarks on the re-
cent increase in the army :
It is only four months since General d'llautpoul de-
manded an extraordinary credit of 12 400,000 francs.
It is not enoug ! His successor, General Schramm,
asks a supplement to this supplement of 10 400 000 f. as
the consequence of the Presidential decree, a hich has
ordered the immediate incorporation of 40.0000 men
taken on the contingent of 1849. We have paid upwards
of sixty millions for the Roman expedition against a
friendly Republic, we must now pay for putting France
in a condition to go to the support, in case of need, of
Austria and her allies, who are in the way of complet-
ing the destruction of the liberties of Germany and of
securing there the preponderance of absolute Govern-
ments. Thus are the words of the President becoming
translated into clear and precise acts."
Oa the same day General SCHRAMM presented a

vote of credit for the proposed increase in the army.
It was ordered to be referred to the Bureaux.
"It was rem irked cn Mondiy," says the Pouvoir,
" that General CAVAIGNAC abstained from voting in
the ballot on the election of General LAIIITTE."

Although there was no considerable amount of
business transacted at the Bourse, the price of Govern-
ment stock was firm, and the improvement which
took place after 2 o'clock was well maintained to
the close. The Five per Cents. opened at 92g.
90c., fell to 92f. 75c., and rose gradually to 931. 35c ,
at hich price they closed. I'Le Three per Cents.
closed at 581.; Orleans Railroad Shares, 7871. 50c.;
Rouen, 610 f.; Havre, 246 f. 25c.; Great Northern,
4621. 50c.; Avignon, 187 f. 50c.; Vierzon, 375 f. ;
Basle, 1271. 503.; Bordeaux, 387 f 50c.; Paris and
Strasburg, 3421. 50c. ; Tours and Nantes, 241 f. 25c.;
the New Piedinontese Loan, Ssf.

MUSINESS DONE IN FOREIGN RAILWAYS AT THE
LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE, Nov 20.

Boulogne and Amiens, 8 -Central of' France (Orleans
and Vierzon), 1434—Dutch Rhenish, 23A—Northern of
France, 14% Orleans and Bordeaux, 2'4—Paris and Stras.
bourg. 834 Rouen and Havre, 9.3.l—Sambre and Meuse, 27
—West Flanders, l.'X3 ex div.

SPAIN.
Madrid journals of the 15th have arrived. Their
contents ore unimportant.
The Bolsa was closed.