574 The Court of Chancery. [JUNE, 



vance themselves, prevailing against their consideration of the public :" 

 " they will not deny themselves" (page 139). From Ludlow these 

 contemporary authorities receive the most distinct confirmation. In 

 narrating the history of the period, he says, " In the mean time the 

 reformation of the law went on but slowly, it being the interest of the lawyers 

 to preserve the lives, liberties, and estates of the whole nation in their 

 own hands" (p. 145). The instance he gives is tolerably convincing : 

 " So that upon the debate of registering deeds in each county, for want 

 of which, within a certain period fixed after the sale, such sales should 

 be void, and being so registered, that land should not be subject to any 

 incunibrance, this word ' incumbrance' was so managed by the lawyers, 

 that it took up three months time before it could be ascertained by the 

 committee" (p. 145). Mr. Brodie, speaking of the protectorate, says, 

 " In the lawyers, Cromwell was disappointed ; the reformation in the 

 legal proceedings which was contemplated, as it threatened to lower the 

 importance of the profession, by rendering the law accessible to every one, 

 and simplifying the forms, is alleged not to have been acceptable even to 

 these eminent individuals (St. John, Whitelocke, and the lawyers), while 

 it was greatly disliked by the more vulgar practitioners, who had no 

 ideas beyond the dull routine of their little practice" (p. 164). Their 

 opposition did not, however, meet with much consideration at the hands 

 of Cromwell. In a debate which occurred, on one of his ordinances, 

 between the Council and the Commons and Lenthal, Mr. Parkes informs 

 us (p. 169) " the Master of the Rolls expressed himself strongly against 

 the ordinance. The Council, however, cut the discourse short, and dis- 

 missed the contumacious lawyers, gravely admonishing them ' to be 

 careful not to oppose his Highness's intentions for the common good.' " 

 At the Revolution the same part was played over again. In the reign 

 of Queen Anne, we find petitions against the contemplated reforms, pre- 

 sented by the numerous officers of the court ; and Burnet records that, 

 when a bill for the correction of certain proceedings in the common law 

 and in Chancery, that were " both dilatory and very chargeable," went 

 through the Commons, " it was visible that the interest of under 

 officers, clerks, and attorneys, whose gains were to be lessened by this bill, 

 was more considered than the interest of the nation itself" (p. 279). 

 With the exception of the remedial creation of an accountant general, to 

 which we have previously referred, the reign of George I. seems to have 

 been barren of any schemes of reform to provoke opposition. In the reign 

 of George II., however, we have the important evidence of a parliamentary 

 committee, given in one of the reports. "Resolved That it is the 

 opinion of this committee, that the interest which a great number of 

 officers and clerks have in the proceedings in the Court of Chancery, 

 has been a principal cause of extending bills, answers, pleadings, exami- 

 nations, and other forms, and copies of them, to an unnecessary length, to 

 the great delay of justice, and the oppression of the subject" (p. 311). 

 It is sufficient to state, that the evil exists to the present hour. Of the 

 reforming spirit of the lawyers in the reign of George III., we have 

 already put our readers in possession. Possibly the chemical researches 

 of the present reign may produce some political bleaching liquid for the 

 whitening of blackamoors. 



But it may be urged against us, that we have read history only to 

 distort it to a Blackstone, a Loughborough, and an Eldon, may be 

 contrasted a Guildford, a Hale, and a Bacon ; to our charge against its 

 private professors may be opposed the name of the most distinguished 



