430 Chancery Report. [May, 



out, and remedies suggested, accompanied all the while with exculpa- 

 tory phrases, but still furnishing evidence to repletion of the reality, the 

 intensity, and the interminableness of those abuses, and of the general 

 inefficiency of the system. Every syllable tells against the principles 

 and practice of the court, but the Commissioners carefully shun all 

 expression of such conviction, however that conviction must have per- 

 petually pressed upon their minds ; and go on apparently as confidently 

 as if palliatives were all that was expected, or could possibly be applied. 

 It brings a welcome accession to our information, and must be productive 

 of good. The court is laid bare — she proves full of sores — corruption 

 has laid hold upon her — rottenness is in her bones, and the accumulation 

 of nostrums and prescriptions serve only to shew the desperate condi- 

 tion of the patient. The discovery will do more to open the eyes of the 

 country than a thousand speeches got up in the House of Commons, 

 and backed by cases of immeasurable duration and intolerable oppression, 

 but which may be alleged to be of questionable or of rare occurrence. 

 Here we see distinctly how cases are habitually protracted, and may 

 craftily be still further protracted, to the embarrassment of the court, the 

 luxury of its officers, the emolument of lawyers, and the misery and 

 exhaustion of its suitors ; how it has come about that matters of every 

 sort are swept within its merciless net ; and moreover with what facilities 

 the more ponderous and potent break their way through, whilst the 

 smaller fry, the more they struggle, the more inextricably they get 

 entangled. 



The great value of the Report, however, will be, the enabling our 

 reformers to work with more effect. They may now take authority with 

 them, and defy the charge of calumny. Tliey may take their stand upon 

 the Report, and, from its contents, justify the severity of their bitterest 

 vituperations. To them we leave the charge of accusation, and assign 

 to ourselves the task of tracking the course of the Commission, aiming 

 only at stripping the communication of some of its obscuring techni- 

 calities, convinced as we are, that it is these verj^ technicalities quite as 

 much as the complexities of the subject, that deter the public from 

 inquiry. We know no better method than to give our readers a sketch 

 of a Chancery-suit, both to put them in possession of the subject, and 

 to convey to them some notion of the labours, or at least of the sug- 

 gestions of the Commission. Though no lawyers, we have taken pains to 

 get some knowledge of the matter ; and recalling our own perplexities, 

 we have a good hope of being able to remove the difficulties and discou- 

 ragements of our readers, better than many a member of the court, who 

 will not, or perhaps cannot, discourse upon them intelligibly and col- 

 loquially. 



But first we must preface a few words upon Law and Equity, just to 

 mark the leading distinction between them. From our very childhood 

 we have all of us had it rung into our ears, that the laws of England 

 were the best of all possible laws — were, indeed, the perfection of 

 reason — nothing could be added, nothing removed, without danger of 

 deterioration. It is the common boast with us that no man is bound to 

 criminate himself; he must be proved guilty on the evidence of others 

 before he can be condemned. For every wrong the law has provided a 

 remedy. Every offence, therefore, seems fixed and explicit, every 

 sentence appropriate and equitable. Ever3' man, before he has occasion 

 to put the matter to the proof, believes that all violations of person and 

 property are classed and labelled — written down in black and white 



