The Sun.
London, England, 1845-07-26 00:00:00

COURT OF CHANCERY.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
SlR,—The question of qualification for the office of
chief cleric to the Masters in Chancery, which you have
alluded to in your journal, is assuming a graver aspect
than it has yet presented. The profession, who, though
tardy in movement, are not deficient in energy when
roused, have now taken up the matter in earnest, and
have presented a petition, signed by upwards of thirty
of the leading officers in Lincoln's-inn, calling for in-
quiry into the circumstances under which a gentleman
exercises an office of trust and importance in the Mas-
ters' offices by deputy. When it is known that fees ex-
ceedieg 4,0001. are annually taken from the pockets of
the suitors by the Masters' clerks, it is not unreasonable
to suppose the suitors will expect there should be some
supervision over these gentlemen. And the Legislature
having assigned a salary for the office, sufficient to se-
cure the services of gentlemen of professional education
and skill, the Lord Chancellor will not surely allow the
office to be held by a person whose incompetency obliges
him to perform the duties of his office by deputy.
The Lord Chancellor has appointed Monday next for
the hearing of the petition.
I am, &c.
A FORMER CANDIDATE FOR TILE OFFICE.
Law Institution, July 25, 1845.

QUALIFICATION OF CHIEF CLERK TO THE
MASTERS IN CHANCERY.
(From the Legal Observer of July 19.)
We have received a copy of a petition presented to the Lord
Chancellor in the matter of Thomas Whiting, the chief clerk
of Andrew Henry Lynch, Esq., one of the Masters of the
Court of Chancery ; and as this is a subject which concerns
the profession generally, we
.feel bound to submit it to our
readers.

It is the petition of thirty-two of the solicitors of the Court
of Chancery, whose respective names and residences are there-
unto subscribed.

It states that the petitioners are, and for many years have
been, solicitors duly admitted to practise, and actually prac-
tising, in this Honourable Court, and in the course of their
said practice the petitioners have the conduct and management
of suits in progress through the offices of the Masters in Ordi-
nary, and divers of the petitioners have now the conduct and
management of suits in which references have been directed to
Mr. Lynch, one of the said Masters, and which references are
still pending.
That the officers in the said Masters' offices consist of the
Masters themselves and their chief clerks and copying or
junior clerks, one chief clerk and one copying or junior clerk
being attached to the separate office of each of the said Masters.
That according to the usual course and practice of the said
offices, it is the duty of the chief clerk to assist in the prosecu-
tion of all inquiries and accounts referred to the Master to
whose office he is attached, in which an exercise of the per-
sonal discretion of the Master
_is not involved ; and it is like-
wise, according to the same practice, the duty of the said chief
clerk to prepare the drafts of the reports of such Master, and to
settle such reports in the presence of the solicitors concerned.
That a very large amount of the business of this Honour-
able Court is, in fact, transacted by attendance before the
chief clerks of the said Masters, and that in the prosecution of
suits in the said Masters' offices the solicitors of this Honourable
Court have to attend before the chief clerk more frequently
than before the Master, and that it is of the highest import-
ance to the interests of the suitors of the Court, as well as due
to the solicitors of the Court, individually and as a body, that
an officer before whom such solicitors have to lay statements,
and to whose judgment they are called upon to defer, should
not be selected from a lower rank in society than themselves,
and should be qualified by his station to attain their respect
and confidence. _ _ _

That from the earliest time the said office of chief clerk to
any of the said Masters in .Ordinary has been executed by the
holder thereof for the time being in person, and not by deputy.
That the copying or junior clerk in the office of each of the
said Masters is usually a person who was clerk to the Master
while at the bar, and that the duty of such copying or junior
clerk is to wait personally upon the Master, and to receive the
fees in the office, and to make the appointments for attendance
before the Master and the chief clerk respectively, and to enter
and copy accounts, reports, and proceedings.
That by an Act of Parliament passed in the session of the
third and fourth years of the reign of his late Majesty King
William the Fourth, intituled " An Act for the regulation of
the proceedings and practice of certain offices of the High
Court of Chancery in England," it was among other things
enacted, that no person should be appointed to be chief clerk
of any Master in Ordinary of this Honourable Court, unless
he should have been admitted on the roll of solicitors or at-
torneys in one of the Courts of Westminster Hall, for not less
than five years, or should have been a junior clerk in the office li
of one of the said Masters for a term of ten years. And it was
thereby among other things further enacted, that each anti
every of the Masters in Ordinary, registrars, and clerks of the
said registrars, master of reports and entries, clerk of affidavits,
and examiners of this Honourable Court, should hold their
said offices during their good behaviour, and so long as they
should personally give their attendance upon their respective
duties, and should conduct themselves honestly and faithfully
in the due execution of the duties of their said offices respec-
tively • and that the officers and clerks in the several offices of
this donourable Court should give their personal attendance in
their respective offices during the times they should be so di-
rected to attend, as by the said Act provided, unless otherwise
engaged in the business of their respective offices, or prevented
by sickness or other unavoidable cause. And it was further
enacted, that there should be paid by the accountant-general
of this Honourable Court out of the fund to be placed to his
account, to be entitled " The Suitors' Fee Fund Account," to
the several officers named in the schedule thereunder written
the several salaries or yearly sums set opposite to their respec-
tive names or titles in such schedule, being (among other
things) the salary or yearly sum of one thou-and pounds to the
chief clerk of each of the said Masters in Ordinary other than
the accountant-general, and the salary or yearly sum of one
hundred and fifty younds to the junior clerk of each of the said
Masters ; and it was further thereby enacted, that it should be
lawful for the copying or writing clerk of the said Masters to
receive and take the sum of one penny halfpenny per folio of
90 words, and no more, for every copy of every document or
writing, or a part of any document or writing, made in the
Masters' offices, from the parties requiring the same, and also
for the transcript of every report, and that such sum of one
penny halfpenny per folio should be retained by the said
writing or copying clerks to be employed by the said Masters in
their respective offices, and that no part thereof should be re-
ceived or retained by, or applied to the use or benefit of any
other person or persons on any pretence whatsoever.
That in the month of December, 1843, Andrew Henry
Lynch, Esq , one of the said Masters in Ordinary, appointed
Thomas Whiting, who had then been copying or junior clerk
in the office of another of the said Masters for more than ten
years, to be chief clerk of him the said Master Lynch, and in
the month of June, 1 844 , the Lord Chancellor was pleased to
order that the salary of one thousand pounds, provided for per-
sons filling the said office of chief clerk, should be paid to the
said Thomas Whiting, since which time the said Thomas
Whiting has annually received such salary.
That notwithstanding such appointment of the said Thomas
Whiting, and such receipt by him of the said salary, he has
never performed, or in any manner attempted to perform, and
does not now perform the important duties belonging to the
said office of chief clerk to the said Master Lynch, but that
such duties have been ever since his said appointment per-
formed by, and the same are now continuing to be performed
by, Edward Wright, the junior or copying clerk in the said
office of the said Master Lynch, who is not himself qualified,
according to law, for the office of such chief clerk, and by sueh
means the duties of chief clerk to the said Master Lynch are,
in fact, performed by a deputy and an unqualified person. And
the said Thomas Whiting has ever since his said appointment
performed the duties 'of copying or junior clerk, and no other
duties, in the said office of the said Master Lynch, and the
petitioners believe that the said Thomas Whiting is, in fact,
incompetent to discharge the duties of chief clerk to the said
, Master.

- That the petitioners are advised, and humbly submit to the
Lord Chancellor, that an office of so much trust and import-
ance 'es that of chief clerk to one of the said masters ought
not to be executed by deputy, and that to permit the same to
be so executed would be establishing a principle injurious to
the interest of the suitors of this Court, and contrary to the
true intent and meaning of the said Act of Parliament, and
would have the effect of depriving the said suitors of the
security intended to be given to them by the said Act for the
performance of the duties of the said office by persons possess-
ing the experience and legal attainment indispensable for the
efficient discharge thereof ; and the petitioners, in their cha-
racter of solicitors of this Honourable Court, and also as re-
presenting the interests of the suitors of this Honourable Court
confided to their care, feel aggrieved by the premises.
The petitioners therefore pray his Lordship to cause inquiry
to be made into the matters aforesaid, and into the manner in
which the duties of the office of chief clerk to the said Master
Lynch are now, and have been since the appointment of the
said Thomas Whiting thereto, been executed and performed.
And that his Lordship will be pleased to order that henceforth
the duties of the said office may be performed by the said
Thomas Whiting while he shall continue such chief clerk in
person, and not by the copying or junior clerk of the said
Master or by any other deputy, and that in case the said
Thomas Whiting shall neglect personally to perform such
duties, or shall be found incompetent thereto, that he the said
Thomas Whiting may be removed from being such chief clerk
of the said Master Lynch, and that in such case his Lordship
will be pleased to make order for the due appointment of some
other properly-qualified person to the said office of chief clerk
in the place and stead of the said Thomas Whiting.