1828.] The Court of Chancery. 575 



jurist of either the past or the present century the name of Bentham ;* 

 or we may be told of the valuable labours of Mr. Humphreys the noble 

 exertions of Mr. Brougham. True ; but where points the balance ? For 

 past generations, we confidently appeal to the page of history, which we 

 have already quoted from ; for the present, to the daily debates of the 

 House of Commons. 



The secret of this mischievous power in the lawyers consists mainly 

 in their being enabled, by their own representations, to mould the popular 

 opinion of their system. Like the Rosicrucians, they have hung their 

 hidden lamps themselves, and they can humbug the believer with what 

 stories they choose to fabricate for his deception. Parliamentary lecturers 

 on their own craft, they exhibit the complete personification of 

 Gratiano's great man 



I am Sir Oracle, 



JL U, 111 KJ1.L \^S1 IftVAVj 



And when I ope my lips let no dog bark." 



The country gentlemen are as excellent listeners now as they were in the 

 time of Lord Keeper Guildford ; yet Roger North, in his life of that great 

 man, after telling us of his introduction into Parliament of certain 

 schemes for the registry of titles to lands, goes on to enumerate, among 

 the causes of their failure, " besides, the matter being a subject of great 

 skill, as well as foresight in the law, the gentlemen of the country are 

 afraid, and hearken to the learned as when they settle their estates ; and 

 such learned gentlemen, admitting they were willing to it (as they are 

 reputed, for the sake of interest in practice, not to be), they would be 

 scrupulous enough ; but being averse, they raise a mist of scruple on every 

 such bill, and represent the possibility of frauds in the offices to be so 

 dangerous to men's titles, that the country gentlemen, who do not take 

 upon them to judge, and will trust nobody, fly back, and there falls the 

 bill" (p. 397)' We leave our readers to apply the parallel. It is a fact 

 which no sophistry can gainsay, that the most comprehensive, rapid, and 

 efficient reforms of the law which have ever been accomplished, or even 

 attempted, throughout the whole of English history, were the results of 

 committees, not of mere lawyers, but in which a very large proportion 

 were laymen, who chose to investigate for themselves, and in which the 

 frequent recurrence of generals, colonels, and majors, would lead us to 

 suspect that the old maxim of " cedunt arma togae " was reversed for 

 " cedunt togae armis." If the framers of Parliamentary committees are 

 in earnest in their exertions, the hint might not be thrown away on them 

 Our limits here compel us to bring our article to a close. The 

 numerous excellent suggestions for the reformation of the Court, partly 

 original, and partly the selections of this industrious labourer, from the 

 writings of the many great men whose attention has been attracted to 

 the subject, are without the limits of a single article. We recommend 

 them to the deliberate perusal of all those who think, with Burnet, that, 

 now that " a happy peace gives us quiet to look to our own affairs, 

 there cannot be a worthier design undertaken than to reduce the law into 

 method, to digest it into a body, and to regulate the Chancery, so as to 

 cut off the tediousness of suits, and, in a word, to compile one entire system 

 of our laws." 



* By-the-by, we never heard of Mr. Bentham's having been a practising lawyer. 



