The Gazette of last night...
The Times, 1824-04-14T00:00:00

The Gazette of last night contains the appointment of the Commission for inquiring into the abuses of the Court of Chancery. We shall first run through the names of the Commissioners, and theu make a remark or tvo on the pro- ceeding. The Comrmissioners are-The Earl of ELDON, Lord REDSIDALK, Lord GrFFOaD, the VICE-CHANCELLOR, the SOLICaTOa-GENERAL; Messrs. Cox and COURTENAY, Masters in Chancery; Dr. LUSHIINOGTON, Messrs. HART, R. SMITX,LITTLEDALE,MERIVALE, TINDAL,andBEA.MES, Barristers at Law. Now, the first,-we will not say peculiarity, for these tbings happen but too frequently,-but the first error in this Commission is the appointment of the Judge in whose Court the abuses exist as one of the memnbers. Lord, REDESDALE, too, lately a Chancellor! But with respect to the LoaD CHANCELLOR, it is evident how much he must naturally be opposed to any reform; for no abuse can be detected that does not burl a reproath upon him. "H How " long hs your Lordship presided in this Court-? You, of " course, must have seen the injurious operatiom of lhis "practice upon the community?"-" Yes; but I hadl " no power to alter it !" " Why did Rot your Lordship "make an application to Parliament for power ?" If Lord ELDON is not aware that there exist grievous abuses, after havingdirected all the coneerns of the Court of Chanceiy for a quarter of a century, how can he learn it by the investiga- tion of a commission of brief duration, to which commis- sion he Wvould he the most important witness ? The total; absence of abuses slhould, therefore, have been assumed, in contradiction to the painful conviction of almost every re- spectable family iu the kingdom, and a commission refused; or that man should not have been appointed as head of thie Commission,whohashitherto, andlho must therefore here- after be found to want, in his intellectual organization, the faculty necessary for the apprehencion of an abuse. l3ut there is an expression, also, in the wording of the Comnlission, which points but too portentously to the issue Of its labours. The Commissioners are to inquire, not into the abu?es, but IC into the practice established in the "Court of Chancery." Practice established ! Heaven pre- serve all honest men, and even rogues too, (for we would wish them the b"nefit of a speedy deliverance), from " the " practice established" in the Court of Chancery ! Here are Masters also appointed upon this Commission-" tA- "c 3UEL COMPTON Cox, Esquire, one of the Masters of the Court of Chancery, and WILLIA1 COURTENS AY, Esquire, " one other df the Masters of the Court of Chancery." IWhat ! are not the " practices established" by the Masters to be inquired into ? And if so, how can Masters sit as in- quirers ? There is another notable, and, were not the subject ex- tremely painful, laughable absurdlity in the construction of this Commission; which is,that the LORD CHANCELLOR, who had not time to perform the duties of the Court, is here set to inquire into the ahr4ses of it!!! Human powers, we were told, would not suffice for the prodigious labours already imposed upon him: he was therefore reTieved by this certificated gamekeeper on one skirt of his manor, and that licensed intruder upon another; and yet he is here set to review the growth, extent, and operation of that system under which his labours bave so accunmulated, andl by which Alhl nation has been so aggrieved, families ruincd, sui- 2qt:-s provoked, charities absorbed. His Lordship has run ID harness: the stage was too long, and the burden too heavy: in adldition to this toil, therefo're, he is now set to mend the road, and apply for a new Turnpike Act.