The Sun.
London, England, 1826-05-23 00:00:00

[MORNING CHRONICLE.]

curious exemplification of what we have more
than once observed with respect to the utter unfitness
of bodies like the two houses of Parliament for the busi-
VrISE of legislating, was afforded in the House of
Lords last night. The Debtor and Creditor Bill, .to
the 'principle of which the Lord Chancellor expressed
hiin'self friendly, find no Noble Lord expressed him-
sell hostile, bad, it seems, been drawn up in such an
improper manner, that no Peer would so much as
move the second reading. Thus an important le-
gislative measure is delayed another year, because
adequate, skill has not been employed in the fram-
. .
mg it. It is certainly an advantage that the Lord
Chancellor should rescue the country, even in the
last Parliamentary stage, from the evil of an addition
to its mass of barbarous and ill-digested legislation
but it would be still better, if due care and Skill were
Le4owed-on Bills tit the outset, to prevent the time
of -Parliament from being unnecessarily consumed
during their different stages, and the nation from'
le-Tering from the delaying a. measure called fOr
by the wants of society. The Houses' of Coin-
mons and Lords possesses the disadvantage for legis-
lation peculiar to all large assemblies, with , some ills-
a.:.l..vsintages peculiar to themselves. A large assent-
hlfr, Lord Chesterfield observes, however con•
vututed, is always a mob, which may -both excite
be excited, but which is incapable of cool end
diapassionate deliberation. If the two. Houses were
composed of so many Lord Bacons, the numbers of
their members would-unfit them from legislating. 13ut
tyro }louses, as we ban observed, have peculiarities
ir.their constitution` of a particularly disqualifying us-
wre. One House is composed, exclusively of great
Landholders and Spiritual Lords; the other
sin co-
osed. to, the most part, of men -et great --property,
Vut it possesses also a certain number'of place4iolderse'
,
aspirants to office, and men engaged throdghbut the'
day in the fatiguing business of the Bar, who enter the
noun rather for the purpose of acquiring a reputation
for eloquence, than with the view of attending to the
d'lliminess of legislation. Poverty is the parent of la-

bour ; the desire of wealth is the spring:of activity. To
expect that a man, removed by wealth at his outset
from the necessity of exertion, should ever acquire a
taste for it, is to know little of human nature. Of this,
we cannot have a better proof than in the well-known
fact, that nine-tenths of the great landholders of this
island, from aversion to all business, are ridden, as it is
called, by their stewards, who often exercise a very
mischievous influence. From a body so constituted,
it were preposterous to expect that severe labour and
patient examination of proposed laws,.which a nation
has a right to expect in the men who are charged with
its legislation. Subjects of a general nature, towards
which the national feeling is directed, find their proper
place in a numerous assembly ; but legislation requires
extensive learning, practical skill, said patient delibe-
ration. Parliament ought, then, to del!gate those
duties to which it is itself unequal, and must always
be unequal to a Commission composed of men of high
character for.virtue, professional knowledge, and labo-
rious diligence ; responsible, of eourfe; to itself for the
manner in which they discharged their duty. These
men, labouring for the nation, ought, of course, to be
paid by the nation ; and we are much mistaken if the
snbstitution of paid for unpaid legislators would not be
one of the most economical measures ever adopted.—
Parliament, relieved from this drudgery, would have
far more time for the entertainment of inviting subjects,
on which the eloquence of Country Gentlemen could
be employed with advantage. Whatever may be
thought of the above plan, it is clear that we cannot
go on much longer in our present way, overwhelmed
• every year by masses of absurd and contradictory
legislation. The Lord Chancellor, as we have already
observed, has certainly done some good in freeing us
from numberless abortions sent up every day from the
Commons to the Upper House ; but too many stupid
and absurd laws find their way to the statute-book
notwithstanding.

[MOANING HERALD.]
Some remarks have been made, mixed up with an
apparent intention of exciting a certain degree of odium
acramst a high quarter, relative to an order which is
said to have been given against watering the road
through St. James's Park. The truth, however, is,
that the indulgence in this respect, has been much
abused. During the late reign, no one ever dreamt
of rendering that Park a place for exercising horses
backwards and forwards opposite the King's Palaces ;
the privilege of passing through the Park, was all that
was ever asked for or permitted, as far as horses
and carriages were concerned ; and it is very, well
known that his late. Majesty was very particular
in this respect ; and that though the Park was en-
joyed by pedestrians to a much greater extent than
it is now (especially on Sunday evenings in the
summer), the privilege of passing through both
with horses and carriages, was very circumscribed
indeed. Of late years, principally perhaps from
the Palaces not being so much occupied by the
Royal Family, a greater laxity has prevailed in
this respect, and a singular jumble of Clerks, Stock-
brokers, et id genus omne, have first intruded, and
then obtained a sort of tacit permission to show off
their equestrianism,in a place from which a sense of
decency excluded heir betters. Many of them being
scarcely able to set their horses any where, and conse-
quently ashamed to show themselves among the good
horsemen in Hyde Park, have taken it into their
heads to walk their nags backwards and forwards from
Spring-gardens to Buckingham-house, which they
cull « taking a ride in the Park and consequently,
that which from the situation of the place, and the
narrowness of the ride, was only intended as a pas-
sage, has become a sort of cockney riding-school, and,
as such, a great annoyance and abuse. From what-
ever quarter the wish to put an end to it has come, it is
perfectly right ; and if by not watering the road for a
short time, these modern Gambados can be taught
not to intrude where they have no business, the hint
is one which they ought to take, and any attempt to
kick up a dust about it is quite absurd and ridiculous.

Deducting the blank days, and the two recesses at
Faster and Whitsuntide, Parliament will not, at its
rising, have sat above three months this year ! The
work of law-making, however, has not slumbered,
and, as far as' indulging the ruinous itch for legisla-
tion goes, the country perhaps would not have much
to regret, bad there been even less time afforded for
the indulgence of this too-prevailing propensity. In-
deed there is but one good reason which could have
been urged in favour of this abortive motion for an
ambulatory Parliament ; and that was, that such a
change would have permitted the affairs of the State to
go on without the perpetual, selfish, wordy, domi-
neering, influence which so many members of the
long robe, as they are called, infuse, more or less, into
every parliamentary proceeding. But there is one
point of view, nevertheless, in which the shortness of
the Session, and the early dissolution of Parliament,
are serious evils. We mean by the way in which they
cut short the hearinor, of appeals in the House of
Lords. It is, indeed, a serious evil to suitors
from all parts of the kingdom that their means of re-
dress should thus be circumscribed ; and that an accu-
mulation of expence and delay should thus be
superadded to the at no time very speedy
progress of the law. This is the more to be re-
gretted, when it is considered that it not unfrequently
happens, that appeals are brought merely for the pur-
pose of delay, and that therefore an additional injustice
is inflicted by the implied encouragement which is
thus given to persons so acting. We are not prepared
to say what specific remedy can be applied to this
evil; but where so many reforms of nur judicial system
are afloat, it may not be unworthy of the 'attention of
those who are best able to appreciate the importance
of the subject in all its bearings, whether suitors have
not a right to hall; the highes',, Coi7t of Appeal kept
open for a certain length of time in each year to hear
their causes; and whether some method 'rip not be
hit upon, to render the duties a this High Court in-
dependent of mere political cau:-es. We throw out
these suggestions, not with a view of finding fault
with any one ; on the contrary, we are aware that by
the, appointment of a Deputy Speaker, the hearing of
appeal§ in the House of Lords has been much acce-
lerated; but Still we cannot help thinking, that the
practice would be still more improved, if the time of
assembling, adjourning, or proroguing Parliament had
less to do with its judicial.functions e or that part of
those function:: were transferred to the same persons
who now exercise them under some other designs-

nEPRESENTATIvr.]
We have said .very little on the disputes concerning
the Chancellor, whielt_have occupied so- much of. the
attention _of our eotemporarics. We think that the
minds of all persons competent to judge have been
made up with respect to the pretended causes of dis-
satisfaction against him. As long as certain forms in

any Court produce delay, so long the Judge who pre-
sides over that Court must be Of necessity slow in
getting through causes; and as long as the causes
themselves are clogged with difficulties, and occa-
sionally rendered obscure and intricate by clever and
experienced sophists, so long will it be necessary that
a Judge should be cautious in pronouncing his deci-
sions. The fitness or unfitness of the forms .of a
Court is evidently no part of the duty of its President
to decide ; that is the business of those who enact
laws, not of those who administer them. Nor is this
doctrine got up for the purpose of adapting it to the
‘Casie. of Lord .Eldon—it is a doctrine at least as old
as Justinian, and to be found most carefully incul-
cated in his Pandects, and is indeed no more than
the dictate of, common sense. A Judge, in fact,
ought to be the. very last Man NV.IIO 'Should recom-
mend the alteration of practices which, while they
were injurious to one party, might be beneficial to
another. To amend injurious practices in the Chan-
cery Court was the duty of the Commission, and the
manner in which they executed it entitles them to the
o
thanks of the, country. The personal attacks on Lord
E
arising from his doubting mind, are
veryld van's delaygiie.NF."Ve are certain that, in every one of the
cases to which allusion has been made by the Mem-
bers of Opposition, or the newspapers of that party,
Lord Eldon's assailants, even with the assistance' of
such eminent Chancery lawyers as Messrs. Williams
and Brougham, would find it very difficult to answer
and
satisfactorily the doubts which his Lordship could lay
before than. It is very easy, we admit, to decide slap-
dash on every subject laid before us ; but tbe value of
such judgments is.another thing. A Turkish Cadi is
pot to be accused of delay, but we doubt whether he is
therefore a more valuable Magistrate. It must not
be forgotten that t...ord Eldon is not merely trying
causes, but making precedents ; and that what he de-
cides is decided as long as the law of England endures.
But, as we have said already, these are but the pre-
tended objections to Lord Eldon. Why have not
the Whig party the courage or the honesty to confess
the real objection to his Lordship ? Why do they
not candidly say We hate him because he is Our
political antagonist—because he upholds the institu-
tions of the country—because he keeps us out of
place—because lie refiises us silk go MIS ?"—This
would be the truth. '['he Whigs had a Lord Chan-
cellor, some twenty years ago, of their owiL In his
time the system Was what it is now, and Lord
Erskine was notoriously no lawyer. The sins of
ignorance were added to the original sin of Chancery.
Was there a whisper against him from the set that is
now abusing a man so unmeasurably his superior ?
Not one. On the contrary. he was extolled and ap-
plauded, as he would still have been, if lie had
continued to the present day to blunder and drivel on
the Woolsack. he end, however, of these attacks,
will not be attainecl Lord Eldon will not be bullied
out of the Chancellorship—nor the Whigs handed
into place.