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to the Master of the Rolls, in whose court there were set down-of the first class of cases, 258; of the second, 98; of the third, 17; and none of the fourth. The total amount was 580 original causes; 174 causes on further directions and exceptions; 47 sets of exceptions; and 45 pleas and demurrers. This he would take to be the average number of cases that were to be disposed of in the course of a year. The question then was, what number of cases was one judge capable of getting through in the course of a year? In answer to that, he would call on the House to look to experience. It appeared that the late Vice-chancellor, sir John Leach, during the four years which preceded his severe illness, had, upon an average, disposed in one year of 450 causes of the first class; 212 of the second and third; and 79 pleas and demurrers. So that, if they deducted from the number of cases of all kinds set down, in the last year, before the lord Chancellor and the Master of the Rolls, what the Vice-chancellor had been able to decide upon in the course of a year, they would find the result to be, that it left only 130 causes in the first class, 9 in the second, and none in the third. Now, could any man suppose, if one individual were capable of going through such a mass of business, that two learned judges were not able to manage a much greater portion? A similar consideration of the cases in bankruptcy, to which the present motion more particularly applied, would lead to the same result. It appeared that, during the last three years, there had been in each year upon an average 590 bankrupt petitions. Now, the Vice-chancellor had, on the average, disposed of 453 bank

ruptcy petitions, in each year, during that period. Deduct that number from 590, and it left 137 petitions to be disposed of by the Chancellor. He had already shown, that the Vice-chancellor had, in one year, disposed of cases of the first class, to which he had before referred, so as when deducted from the average total number set down, to leave only 130 for decision; and not more than 9 in the second and third classes. This was not more than an active judge would dispose of in a term; and yet these remained through the year. What had been the progress of business in the Vice-chancellor's court, when the late Master of the Rolls recovered his health? There were,

at that time, four terms in arrear: so that, when he returned to his professional duties, he found that there was a considerable accumulation of business. To meet that arrear, the Vice-chancellor began by reducing it, in the proportion of one term each year; so that, in the second year, there were only three terms in arrear; in the third, two; and at present he believed the arrear was very trifling, and would in a very short time be wholly removed. This was a simple statement of the business in Chancery. If he were asked, what was the reason of the delay in deciding the remainder of the cases, he must beg leave to decline answering that question. He was merely stating a series of facts: and it did not make against his view of the subject, if it happened that a particular judge finished, in the course of a term, only two cases, perhaps but one, or sometimes not even one. The question was, whether it was necessary, when they had three judges, of one of whom they had had full

experience, and with respect to two of them they had no reason to despair, to remodel the court of Chancery, and to place additional burthens on the public? In his opinion, the judges whom they had at present, were more than equal to do the whole business of Chancery. The quantum of labour was not so very considerable; and a Chancellor, with the advantages of youth, health, and activity, would be able to accomplish all that his office required. It was in the contemplation of the present lord Chancellor, assisted as he was by the experience of those gentlemen who practised in his court, to apply himself to the introduction of some mode by which the voluminous proceedings in cases of bankruptcy might be abridged. Let this experiment, then, be tried, before they proceeded to a new field-before they attempted to remodel the whole form of the court of Chancery. In regard to the bill for reforming the court, founded upon the report of the Chancery commissioners, he did not disagree with the commissioners on any material point, and he approved of many of their suggestions, though not of all; but he certainly felt, that, to make those suggestions the subject of a cumbersome bill in parliament, was a proceeding not only useless in itself, but one that would disappoint the public. He agreed in opinion with the present lord Chancellor, also, that the specific points of improvement noticed in the report of the commissioners, did not require any act of parliament for carrying them into effect, but might be made by the authority of the lord Chancellor in his own court. He, therefore, put it to the mover of the present proposition, whether, under the present circum

stances of the government and the country, to which he would not allude more particularly, it would not be more decorous to pause before calling upon the House to take this matter, important though it was, out of the hands of his majesty's government.

Mr. D. W. Harvey entered into an exposition of the mischiefs of the Bankrupt-law as at present administered by the commissioners, whom he described as being, in general, either young men possessing capacity without experience, and backed by parliamentary influence, or briefless old men possessing experience without capacity, to whom the appointment was an act of charity. He complained, above all, of the inconsistency of those who now pretended that all evils would be remedied by the mere change of one man for another, while the system was to remain what it had hitherto been. The judge, it seemed, was to be changed, but the practice and business of his court was to remain almost unaltered, and all the splendid denunciations which had thrilled through every bosom in that House and the country, were only to be considered as party tactics, and were to be looked upon only as the result of disappointed ambition. Now that the object of professional advancement was obtained, those, who had been most loud in their attacks, had become the eulogists of the late lord Chancellor's merits; and the House was now told, that if, in the vehemence of debate, any thing had been said, which was calculated to injure his character, it ought to pass for nothing, and was to be considered only as the accidental effusion of party spirit. The new lord Chancellor, it seemed, was forthwith to concoct a neat small

system of Bankrupt-law, which was to put an end to the ruinous expense now complained of, and was to devise some intelligible code of official arrangement, by which all the clamours of the country were to be stilled. A greater insult than such a declaration could not easily be imagined. If the new administration had not been formed, the bill, which the present lord Chancellor had introduced for the improvement of the court of Chancery, would have been carried by acclamation. But now that it was formed, parliament was told that it was a useless measure; that the 188 propositions of the report, which had 188 eulogists, were to be abandoned; and that all that was necessary to simplify the court of Chancery was, that the lord Chancellor should make certain regulations under which all expenses and delays were to cease. If any man had a judgment so weak as to place confidence in such a statement, he ought to be placed forthwith under another branch of the lord Chancellor's jurisdictionthe jurisdiction in lunacy. The system, he repeated, must be reformed. It was full of abuses; and those, who now undertook to defend them, had, not many months ago, poured forth against them torrents of fiery indignation. Had they not changed their principles with their seats, they would have continued to see that much more than the substitution of one man for another was expected and was necessary to a tolerable reform in Chancery.

Dr. Lushington, although he opposed the motion, on the ground that no good object could be served by going into a committee at that late period of the session, merely to read the statute of Elizabeth and

the other bankrupt acts, which, when read, not one man in ten would understand, expressed his conviction, that nothing but legal enactments could remedy the evil, and that it was absurd to expect that the lord Chancellor could devise a cure for evils which nothing but an act of parliament could cure. The bill brought in by lord Lyndhurst himself was now abandoned, and they were told to wait till they should see what his lordship, and his two coadjutors, could do by the force of their own regulations. He placed every confidence in lord Lyndhurst; but he must doubt whether any exertions, which the noble lord might make, notwithstanding his advantages of being younger, as well as more bold and fearless in disposition, than his predecessor, could ever reduce the business of the court of Chancery within those limits of despatch and accuracy which were requisite to do justice between all parties.

Mr. Brougham asked, what inconsistency was there in his learned friend the attorney-general voting against severing bankruptcy from the jurisdiction of the Great Seal, even supposing him to have formerly voted for changes in the court of Chancery? Had he ever said that bankruptcy ought to be severed from the Great Seal? Why, the question had never been mooted before to-night. His learned friends had said before, that the state of the court of Chancery required investigation, and did they object to it now? They had said, that, at the present moment, they saw reasons for not effecting the separation now proposed, but was that a dereliction of their former principles ? A wonderous change, it had been

said, was now visible in various members of parliament: they were all opposed to the alterations ini the court of Chancery which they had formerly most strenuously advocated; and they had now, being in office, no objection to all the arrangements of that court, though, when out of office, they had poured forth against them torrents of fiery indignation." It was assumed, for the purpose of an unfair attack, that he himself, and those who thought with him, had changed their opinions on the subject. Now, on what measure of government, on what chapter of policy, on what officer of state, on what judge of the land, had his conduct, opinions, or principles, changed? It had been said by those who contended that lord Eldon was not to blame for the arrears in the court, that no man could get through the mass of business. If the business had increased, the means of disposing of it had increased too, by the establishment of the Vicechancellor's court. Instead, however, of having an efficient Chancellor, Vice-chancellor, and Master of the Rolls, there had always been either an unfit Vice-chancellor or an unfit Master of the Rolls, which left the court in the same situation as before the Vicechancellor's bill passed. Now, at present, we had, in the first place, as efficient a Master of the Rolls as could be required. Of sir Anthony Hart, the new Vice-chancellor, he would say that he had been one of the most experienced practitioners in the court of Chancery, and was admirably qualified to get through business, which would compensate for any deficiencies that might exist in other respects. The new lord

Chancellor, again, though not educated in the Equity courts, was a person of very great legal talents, and of a very strong and independent mind. He possessed a remarkable power of simplifying and dealing with the most complicated questions; and it was the opinion of those, whose opinion in such matters was best worth having, that he was qualified for reforming the court, and anxious to save its time; and that he would make up for the defect in his legal education of not having been trained in a court of Equity, which was his misfortune, not his fault. He, therefore, had a confident expectation that the business of the court would now be despatched in proper time. But he did not, therefore, say that bankruptcy should be attached to the Great Seal for ever. He said, wait a year; give time to the court of Chancery, which has now three, instead of two judges, and for the introduction of practical and effectual reforms by the judges themselves. See what the lord Chancellor could effect, with the aid of his two efficient coadjutors. The experiment in the court of Chancery could now be fairly tried; and if, at the end of a year, the case should appear hopeless, then he would admit that the bankruptcy experiment should be adopted, and he would support a proposition which he now deemed mischievous, or at least premature.

On a division, the motion was lost by a majority of 134 to 37.

During the discontents which disturbed the country in the end of 1819 and the beginning of 1820, certain legislative measures had been adopted, known by the name of the Six-acts, for the pur

pose of checking the course of the preachers of sedition. Some of them had already expired by the lapse of time; but one of them, which subjected to a stamp duty those cheap periodical tracts that formed the most powerful instruments of unprincipled agitators, still remained in force. Mr. Hume, who had not joined in the migration of his brethren to the ministerial benches, brought for ward (31st May) a motion for the repeal of this statute, which, with all the others, had received the strenuous support of Mr. Canning, and had been resisted and condemned by the opposition as a tyrannical and unwarrantable attack against the liberty of the press, and as a new attempt to crush the public execration of him and of his compeers. Mr. Hume said, that he had intended to have made the same motion during the preceding session; but he now congratulated himself upon the delay, as the changes, which had in the interim taken place in the government, must have made it a fortu nate delay for the question he now advocated. But Mr. Hume greatly deceived himself. Mr. Tierney, Mr. Abercrombie, sir James Macintosh, and Mr. Brougham, were absent on the occasion: lord Milton declared it to be a matter of so little moment, that he was not sure whether he would remain in the House to the division; sir James Scarlett and sir Robert Wilson manfully joined Mr. Canning in resisting the motion, and abusing and ridiculing their as tonished mate, the member for Aberdeen. The attorney-general (sir James Scarlett) said, that the mover of the present motion seemed to expect his concurrence in it, for no other reason than because he

had hitherto expressed certain opinions on the subject; but it was expecting too much to suppose, that he was now to vote for the repeal of this bill merely because he had happened, ten years ago, to complain of part of its enactments. The House must be well aware, that, in legislating for the good of the country, it was necessary to look at a subject in all its bearings, and not rashly revoke a measure, the practical effects of which had been tried and approved. When he looked at this bill, its various bearings, and the objects for which it was designed, he could never consent to its entire repeal. It merely put periodical pamphlets and papers on the same footing with newspapers, in regard to paying a duty, and as such publications might contain all that was most interesting in a newspaper, he saw no reason why it should be otherwise. It compelled the proprietors of them likewise to enter their names at the Stamp-office: this, too, was good; he knew that it had produced great benefit in many cases of libel where the suffering parties, but for this ar rangement, would have been left without an attainable remedy. There were one or two clauses of the act which he might wish to see altered or expunged; but he was not, therefore, of opinion that it ought to be repealed altogether. If he had formerly opposed the enactment of this measure upon speculative grounds, and now found that a beneficial practical effect had flowed from it, he felt himself bound to take advantage of the benefit which experience had afforded him, and should deem it a dereliction of duty to adhere to the speculative opinions which

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