456 Chancer 1^ Report. [May, 



fullest length ; but that judgment must be reduced into writing. — 

 dissected, splitted, and particularized by the registrar of the court. 

 The judgment is not, be it remembered (we use the language of the 

 Report), simply a decision upon a definite point ; but in almost all cases, 

 the decree embraces several points, finally disposes of some, and directs 

 various inquiries with a view to the determination of others ; and it is 

 not easy, nor always possible, for the registrars to write down at once 

 full minutes of such a decree as ought to follow the judgment which 

 the court has given. Easy or not, possible or not, it is not done ; and 

 hence arise disputes, and difficulties, and delays interminable. Hence 

 come applications to the court to vary the minutes, at indefinite, and 

 sometimes, as the report states, very distant periods after the judgment 

 has been pronounced, and when the cause itself is perhaps forgotten 

 both by court and counsel. The custom was, formerly, to settle the 

 decree at once; but that, like many other of the better customs of the 

 court, has long since vanished — owing, according to the Report, to the 

 great and augmenting pressure of business; and the remedies suggested 

 by the Commissioners are, some limitations as to time, and the appoint- 

 ment of additional registrars, with some better securities for efficient 

 ones. Additional registrars, however, even the ablest, will not meet the 

 exigency of the case, which is, that the minutes be settled on the spot, 

 in the presence of the judge and counsel. 



We have thus waded through the chief stages of equity suits, very 

 imperfectly, we are aware. Great particularity was incompatible with 

 our object, which was to furnish a general and intelligible view of the 

 actual practice of the court ; and at the same time, to give some notion 

 of the reforms proposed by the Commission. This we have done freely, 

 but fairly ; for we have set down nothing but what the Report itself 

 entirely warrants. Our omissions are innumerable. In our hasty sketch, 

 the reader will perceive we have taken little direct notice of the Master's 

 office. This, however, is a most conspicuous one ; both before and after 

 hearing, references are made to him — at every stage, more or less, he is 

 concerned ; but though the business of this office occupies a large share 

 of the Report, the information communicated is the least distinct and 

 satisfactory of any part of it. The truth is, the office itself is so ill con- 

 structed for despatch — the power of the masters is so limited — they are 

 so exclusively ministerial in their operations — so overborne by the grow- 

 ing strength of solicitors — so bound up are their direct interests with the 

 existing system — their number so considerable — their practice so variable, 

 with so little union and intelligence between them, that the Commission- 

 ers seem to have despaired of effecting any reformation, though the 

 number of their propositions for the regulation of this office amount to 

 nearly one fourth of the whole. 



So much for the practice of the court, and the propositions of the 

 Commissioners usefully and beneficially to abridge time and expense. 

 Turn we now, a little space to the other and still more important object 

 of the commission, to consider what could be usefully and beneficially 

 tviihdrawn from the jurisdiction of the court. On this head, let the 

 country expect no satisfaction. If the Commissioners had apprehended 

 that any attempt to withdraw a particle of business, would have been 

 visited hy committal to the Fleet for contempt of court, if the conviction 

 had pressed upon them, that they were inflicting positive injury and 

 insult upon the noble head of the court, then we could well account for 

 the marked reluctance and visible impotency of their suggestions. Of 



