The Connecticut labor news., 1922-02-17
What is the 'conscience' of an equ

ity judge?
 The modern accepted legal definition of weather would give stranger knowledge of what weather might be.
 Weather is a general atmospheric con- dit.on, but it may be cold or hot, dry or moist, calm or stormy ;. 1t IS not a fixed condition, neither is sthe 'consci ence of a court of equity.
 All courts, except courts of equity, are governed by common or statutory law which de ecne acts which constitute crime and regulate the punishment to be meted oI or such crimes. But courts of equity are not courts of law; they exist for the purpose of taking action in cases where there is no law, but where there is danger of irreparable injury to prop erty without any adequate remedy at law
 Originally the king decided what should be done in cases where there was no law by depending upon his con science" then the Lord Chancellor be- came the keeper of this 'conscience. And, as for many years the Lord Chan celors were also high clergymen, their "conscience" was influenced partly by their religious and humanitarian training and partly by their conception of justice to t. ose who came to them praying for relief and other considerations.
 A a-y years ago, Thomas Jefferson
 referred to our judiciary as "an
 ire ponsible body working like
 gravity, by day and by night, gaining
 a little today and little tomorrow,
 and advancing its noiseless step like
 a thief over teh field of jurispru-
 dence."
 This description would apply to the power exercised by the Lord Chancellors They were irresponsible except to the king Their injunctions, orders and the punishment of those who disobeyed these orders, were not defined or regulated by Parliament. They were only subject tc the kings pleasure, or sense of justice and the king being busy man was not aware of which his chancellor did.
 Government by injunction was some thing which was vigorously opposed by the law courts and lawyers of ancler. England, for, although the Chancellory Court has termed the secret closet o his Majesty's conscience where the oppressed and distressed subjects hoped to find mercy and mitigation against the ri sor and extremity of his laws" the gact remained that the chancellor busieC firself at times with cases having a l political as well as ajudicial bearing and freqcrtuly litigants, having cases before the law courts, found a method of present ing some phase of the case to the kings chancellor and the chancellor l a i;-g a power supreme to that ot the law courts, at times issued injunctions which prevented the law courts from further furctioning in the case.
 When impeachment proceedings were set in motion againet the Lord Chancellor Cardinal Wolsey, in Henry the Eighths time, the twenty sixth article of the i'm peachment read:
 Also, when matters have been near judgment by progress at your common 
 given a set injunction to tie parties, but also sent for pour judges and ex- pressly by threats commanded them to defer judgment to the evident subver- sion of your laws if the judges would have ceased"
 INSERT BOX uocbrn pitnnt
 The Lord Chancellor's court of equity was frequently used by clever men and occasionally by bribe-givers for the pur pose of securing special advantage over their opponents.
 During the time of James the First this condition led to vigorous objections and criticisms, and example of what was passing through mems minds at this period being found in a tract which was reproduced in Hargrave's Law Tracts"