Star.
London, England, 1823-06-06 00:00:00

never mind how legally inaccurate the decision was.
There must be a dreadful pressure upon the moral
nerves of any man who had by his sole and uncoil•
trouled arbitriuns to hand over enormous masses of
property from one man to another. No man had ever
given more luminous judgments than Lord Eldon,
nor such as were more likely to become guides and
standards to those of future Judges.
Mr. SC A RLETT was astonished at the patience of
the House in hearing speeches of Chancery and Com-
mon Lawyers ; but he would advise the House to hear
the opinions of any Member who had been a suitor in
Chancery, and who had had a decree with costs given!
in his favour. He had too much respect for the Lard
Chancellor to praise him in that place; but this was
a proposition to enquire into delays in Chancery, and
the appellant jurisdiction of the House of Lord,, the
existence of which was denied on the other side ; and
I as they were at issue on this, the House ought to go
into the inquiry to set the matter at rest. lie had
thought that the Court of Chancery, from its very
nature, was one of delay, and of complete repose,
and therefore it was that his Honourable and Learned
Friend opposite loved it. Some Gentlemen said, they
would not agree to the appointment of this Com-
mittee, because its object was innovation. Now the
fact was quite the contrary, the object of this motion
was to prevent innovation ; and to stop any Bill in-
troduced with a view to make alterations, being passed
hastily and without due consideration. He wished
not to be thought to flatter any man, but he must
remind the House that this was not an attack upon
the Lord Chancellor, but on the Court of Chancery.
Upon this account he should vote for enquiry.
Mr. BROUGHAM said, the House was now ar-
rived at the latter part of the second evening of this
dry debate, and not one person had addressed the
House except legal persons. He had hoped to have
heard some other person, not an artist, on this sub-
ject. Ile should have been glad to have seen some
one of the numerous victims of the kind protecting
power of the Court of Chancery, if any one such was
to be found within the walls of the House; but it
appeared that such an one would not come to the
House; he wished to have a Committee appointed,
to which these unfortunate persons might and would
come. But the motion was opposed by those who
pretended to be the friends of the Chancellor, because
it was said that this was an attack on his Lordship.
They saw a personal attack upon the Judge in mere
desire, which was expressed, to inquire into abuses as
old at least as Dean Swift, who in " Gulliver's Tra-
vels" had said that the hero's father was ruined
by gaining a Chancery suit with costs. He (Mr.
Brougham) had the highest respect for Lord Eldon.
In all his intercourse with that Noble and Learned
Lord he had always experienced the greatest courtesy.
The whole conduct of that Noble Lord had been
such as to demand from him respect—(Hear, hear).—
In saying this, lie spoke of Lord Eldon as a lawyer
and a man—taking special care to draw a line be-
tween Lord Eldon as a man and as apoliticiax—and
as some expression of the respect he owed to that
Noble Lord, he must express his regret that he had
not had better, more able, and more judicious friends;
who, by refusing enquiry, would send that Nobl:
Lord out with a character tainted and damaged as a
Judge—Wear, hear). He contended, that inquiry
was due to Lord Eldon ; but that inquiry could
never be obtained but through the medium of that
House, as no individual would presume to bring a
'charge against the Lord Chancellor of England—
(Hear). He wished for the appointment of a
Com-
mittee, who should have power to send for and exa-
mine persons, papers, and records, and it would be
then discovered whether the Lord Chancellor was de-
serving of censure or applause. The Hon. Gentleman
then proceeded to take a review of the facts which
had come out in the course of the debate, and con-
tended, that a case had been made out, by which it
appeared that a system of mal-administration existed
in that Court, which operated as an evil upon the Peo-
ple of England. All those who knew most of the
Court of Chancery—men who had practised as many
years in the Court of Chancery as his Hon. Friend had
passed months in• it—had declared the Court of
Chancery to be a grievous evil, pressing most heavily
on the People of Lngland. This was said by great
men, who were now no more, as well as by those
who were at present the leaders in that Court.—
But if all these individuals now living did not say
that his Honourable and Learned Friend, the Member
for Lincoln, had understated his case, he would not
ask Gentlemen for a single vote; but if this case was
made out, he would call loudly on the House not to
turn away those persons who were petitioners for re-
dress at the bar of the House without affording them
inquiry. The Honourable Member then adverted to
the case of Sir William Grant, and of his regretted re-
tirement. Sir William Grant was followed by a Gen-
tleman of whom he wished to speak in terms of the
highest respect, who was an honourable ana excel-
lent man, and had been a most excellent advocate,
far superior to Sir William Grant; but it somehow
or other happened that he made but an indifferent
Judge, and the consequence was, that all the tusiness
of the Rolls fell off. Sir Thomas Plomer had been
Vice-Chancellor previous to his being appointed Mas-
ter of the Rolls, and during the period he had been
Vice-Chancellor, there had been but very little busi-
ness in the Vice-Chancellor's Court. But Sir Thothas
Plomer was succeeded by Sir John Leach, and in less
rthan a year the business of the Vice-Chancellor's
Court increased no less than 1,540 causes, and the
business of the Rolls sunk to nothing; and as there
was a power to appeal from the Vice-Chancellor to
the Lord Chancellor, this had helped to increase the
arrear of business in the Lord Chancellor's Court.—
He must next advert to the appellant jurisdiction;
and here he must observe, that much had been said
on the subject of Scotch appeals, but not a word on
Irish appeals, though they had been more numerous;
and, strange to say, tbe appeals from the Noble Lord
'Chancellor had generally terminated in a reversal of
the decree of, the Lord Chancellor of Ireland. From
the Returns laid before the House, it appeared that
in 10 years there hid been 100 Irish appeals, in 50
of which the Lord Chancellor of England, aided by
Lord Redesdale and the other Lords, reversed the
sentences of his brother Chancellor in Ireland. How
it was that the Lord Chancellor of Ireland came to
such decisions he could not tell. He could not say
whether these decisions originated in haste, inad-
vertence, or in-ignorance, on the part of the Dish
Chancellor ; but it could not be wondered that there
were appeals from the Chancellor of Ireland to the

more learned Chancellor of England, when fifty ,
crees.ont oLone hundred were Reversed i and bete lit—.
Must say, that, although this uas an appial frog,}
Lord Chancellor to Lord Chancellor, it was hot ail. .
appeal from Philip to Philip; but it was an appeal -
from Barbarian to Philip. This was one point which
required to be inquired into, as it generally interfered
with the business of the Lord Chancellor. The Iles
nourable and Learned Gentleman then proceeded td
comment on the course of. Appeals in the House of
Lords, and concluded by observing, that there were
`Any reasons fee suppm ting the motion of his [lda
nourable Friend. " I support this motion," said th
Learned Gentleman, g• out of respect for the law--ssoug
of tespect for the fair admission of justice, besides i•
personal motives to which I shall not now advert—a- •
L arm not called upon to cast blame judiciiilly or per 7".
sonally ; but even though I were, and though I had.
frankly and fully expressed my opinions, such is the •
high character of the Noble Lord at the head of the
Law, that I am sure, however his friends may have -
felt, he would have acquitted me upon the score of
duty, as I know, were I accused, he would have ac-
quitted me on the same grounds: I thank the House
for the patience with which they have heard me ; and
shall conclude by giving-My most cordial and hearty
vote to the motion. —(Cries of Hear, and Question).
The SOLICITOR-GENERAL could not suffer
the observations which had been made by the Hone
Member for Winchel ea, on the Master of the Rolls,
to pass unnoticed. lie denied at once the justice of
the observations made by his Hon. Friend on that
distinguished Judge, who, up to the, period of his
present severe indisposition had discharged the duties
of his office with the strictest attention and disci iirsi-
nations When the present Master of the Rolls came
lb hiroffice, he found 500 cases in arrears since that
period. about 1,000 cases had been added to the list ;
and the whole of these he had terminated, with the
exception of about 50. His Hon. Friend had dis-
claimed all intention of attacking the Lord Chancellor
as an individual: yet the whole of his speech was an
adroit attack on that eminent individual which could
not be mistaken. The Member for Nottingham had
also declared he had no personal feeling towaid the
Chancellor, still lie had made a speech, which thu ough-
out was made up of personalities. Indeed the whole
discussion had been personal. The Learned Gentle-
man concluded, by declaring himself strongly op-
posed to the motion.
Mr. CANNING said, the House might be assured,
after the length to which the debate had already gone,
that it was not his intention to add more than a few
minutes to it, nor should he have risen, but for having
been alluded to very early in the discussion. With
reference to the situation in which lie stood toa ards
the Noble and Learned Lord who presided in the
Court of Chancery, as one of his colleagues, he could
not but state the impression which, as the only un-
learned person who had spoken on the subject, the
discussion had produced on his mind. Tlioie who
had heard the debate would at least derive one ad-
vaneege from it—pamely, the testimony which it bore
to the talents and eloquence of the English bar; dry
and revolting as were the details, he had never listened
with greater attention to any debate, and never was
more amply rewarded by the manner in which it had
been discussed. The case which the House uas called
upon to decide was the arrears in the appellant juris-
diction and the delays in the Court of Chancery. The
subject was, therefore, npturally divided into t!iose two
branches. As to the appellant jurisdiction, the Learned
Gentleman who opened the debate in a speech of great
force and brilliancy, had alluded to the part which he
(Mr. Canning) had taken in 1813. It was perfectly
true that he, as a humble individual, had opposed the
erection of the Vice-Chancellor's Couit. He thought
it not a good way to set the Lord Chancellor at
liberty, to erect a new' Court, with 'an appeal to him.
He had opposed it on the ground that any new ju-
risdiction which was not •vi ithout appeal would not
answer to the fullest extent by setting the Lord Chan-
cellor at liberty : but if few appeals had been made,
he must acknowledge, rill prophet as lie was (fit pro-
phetical the Hon. and Leal ned Geatleman had been
pleased to designate the opinions which he, Mr. Can-
ning, had stated), that great good had beer, done,
though he should undoubtedly still consider any ex-
periment of the same sort as liable to equal objec-
tions. But though it were true that inconveniences
had arisen from the erection of the Vice-Chancellor's
Court, it did not follow that the cessation of the cause
would redress the evil ; for, as an Hon. Friend of his
had illustrated it, the man olio, by a• fall from a
window, should break his leg, we should not attempt
to cure it by throwing him back again—(A laugh).
The second argument by which he opposed the Vice.
Chancellor's 13111 was, that the evil existed in the ju-
risdiction of the House of Lords, and it was, theta-
fore, in. that House that the remedy ought to be
sought. So that the whole of the argument of the
Hon. and Learned Gentleman, by which he wishes
to prove that he (Mr. Canning) was bound in his vote
now by what he had expressed in 1813, fell to the
ground, and formed imargumentum ad hcininens:which
could. affect him; and in now opposing the motion he
was strictly consistent with his votes and arguments
arthe former period ; and on the ground of the ap-
peals, he was not bound to go into the Committee.—
With respect to the other branch of inquiry—the de.
lays in the Court of Chancery—he did of state it as
invidious in the Hon. and Learned 'Gellllernan (Mr.
Williams), and certainly he could not with justice to
the other Honourable and Learned Gentleman (Mr.
Brougham) impute anything of the sort to him ; he
did not believe that there had been any intention of
studied unkindness with respect to the Noble Lord ;
but this he must say, that from the whole course and
current of the debate, from expressions used (which
no doubt were used in the warmth of the moment,
saeHeoxutseent.wwoublidchnotthegyodiiit dwnaost m
convincedant. to
thatgo ti)
be
the inquiry without it being considered in tire eyes of
theth
the Public and of all mankind as an accusation against
the Lord Chancellor. Certainly he did not impute
to the Hon. and Learned Gentleman (Mr. Brougham)
any intention of making such accusation, and' he
equally acquitted: the Hon. Member for Nottingham
(Mr.- Demon) of it, though he fount! it more difficult
otherwise to account for some of his expression's.—
Though there was no intention of impeachingthe judg-
ment, the diligence, or the capacity, 'of that. emine.it
person, yet, as he felt confident an inquiry would, in the
eyes of some peisilns, be construed into a slain on his
character, that consideration would restrain him (Mr.
Canning) from giving a vote fog the Committee