458 Chancery Report. [May, 



grants, and all the numerous instruments which pass the great seal ; 

 let him attend to the much that relates to the administration of justice by 

 others ; and such judicial business, and other business of the present 

 office of Chancellor, as is transacted by him, but not in court' ; and let 

 him, above all, attend to the business of appeals before the Lords, and 

 thus remove, also, the existing absurdity of appeals from self to self. 

 Surely here is enough, coupled with his share of patronage in church and 

 state, to occupy the time, to satisfy the ambition, and to engross the 

 faculties of any mortal man. Well, by this new appointment, we shall 

 have three judges, whose time and attention may be wholly dedicated to 

 the jurisdiction of the court. Let us make good use of them. Already 

 these officers sit in different courts, and in some respects are independent 

 of each other, and in some cases have appropriate business ; but why, as 

 they never sit together, should they not be completely independent of 

 each other, and each have his particular business allotted him — with 

 an appeal, not from one to the other, but from each equally to the Peers 

 alone. Matters of equity — or, to speak more correctly. Chancery 

 business — is divisible with the greatest facility. Bankruptcies, lunacies, 

 wardships, injunctions, trusts — let these be assigned, one, two, or more, 

 to separate courts ; or, the principle of separation might be this : let the 

 Chancellor, the head of the Court (not to invent new names, our new 

 officer, by the way, might be styled Lord Keeper), take the regular 

 Equity causes, and refer to the courts of his two coadjutors whatever 

 demands immediate attention, and is now perpetually annoying and 

 interrupting the natural course of business. 



Tliese arrangements suppose nothing of Chancery business to be 

 withdrawn ; but they will obviously save time to the suitors, and the 

 saving of time involves the saving of expense. Besides, without these 

 arrangements, and much more with them, there are numerous officers 

 whose services may very well be dispensed with, and the fewer officers 

 to be paid, the greater saving again to the suitors. The Six Clerks' office, 

 it seems pretty well agreed, may very safely be reduced to one, or two 

 at the most ; and difficult then will it be to find employment for them, 

 unless they are called upon to relieve the Master in taxing costs : and 

 not only may this office be thus reduced, or even dismissed, but the 

 whole establishment of the sixty clerks in court, which seems to be 

 nothing but an incumbrance — a mere piece of machinery to turn term- 

 fees. All that can be alleged for their continuance, by the warmest 

 admirers of the existing system, is, that by their acquaintance with the 

 forms of the court, they are able to keep things in order; that they are 

 necessary to instruct solicitors, and that without them solicitors would be 

 perpetually blundering ; but the truth is, solicitors, left to themselves, 

 must and would speedily learn their duty, without requiring the expen- 

 sive promptings of this sexagenarian institution. The Report presents 

 us with no means of averaging their incomes — probably not less than 

 £500 each, and 300 x 60= £30,000, all to be drawn from the pockets of 

 the suitors. The interests of suitors again might be usefully considered by 

 checking the worthless verbiage of the whole proceedings of the court. 

 Solicitors, draftsmen, masters, all have a direct interest in expanding ; 

 stop that source of interest, and they will quickly abridge their phrases. 



But here we are not inclined to stop. The very business of the court 

 may and ought to be reduced. It might be so, in a variety of ways, 

 still allowing the principle of Equity to operate. A multitude of matters, 

 now regarded as equity, may, by legislative measures, be converted into 

 statute-law, and of course transferred to the common courts. The law 



