182G.] Chancery Report. 450 



of Bankruptcy may be revised with a special reference to that object, 

 and reduce the business of the court very considerably. The Report 

 itself hints at a revision of the law and practice of conveyancing, with a 

 view to this very object — affirming, and very justly, that many suits owe 

 their origin to, and many others are greatly protracted by questions arising 

 from the niceties and subtleties of the law, and practice of conveyancing. 

 The Report attributes much of the multiplicity of the business of the 

 court to the 'invention of new modes of disposing of property, particularly 

 in the form of trusts, and the ingenuity of fraudulent contrivances ; to 

 the power of disposition of all property by will ; the vast increase of 

 personal property which may be disposed of by deed or by will, or 

 distributable according to law, upon intestacy ; the difficulty of obtaining 

 complete justice, under the forms of the common-law, against persons 

 accountable for property to others as executors or administrators, or as 

 trustees or agents, or as partners in trade, or joint owners of property ; 

 or in a vast variety of other ways, in which parties may become so ac- 

 countable ; the demand of justice, for the specific execution of contracts 

 of various descriptions ; and the complication of interests arising from 

 intricate transactions, for which the course of the common-law, in the 

 simplicity of its proceedings, can give no adequate remedy'. Are we to 

 believe, then, that by the ingenuity of lawyers and lawgivers, legal 

 remedies may not be found for these evasions ? Doubtless much may 

 be done, by a little zeal and activity, to narrow the business of the court, 

 and facilitate redress of grievance. 



In the case of trusts and executorships especially, the court itself may 

 do much. Applications are repeatedly made to the court to obtain its 

 opinion upon some one doubtful point. What is the consequence ? The 

 court forthwith assumes the management and execution of the whole 

 concern, inflicting thus loss of time and a mass of expense, which might 

 be wholly saved if the trustee or executor were left, as he ought to be, 

 to execute the trust on his own discretion, after obtaining the single 

 judgment. In a multitude of instances, too, trustees and executors 

 voluntarily throw the whole concern — always welcome — into court, to 

 get rid themselves of the burden and responsibility. 



Some regulations, also, might be made with respect to wards. The 

 rage for making wards in Chancery is become quite ridiculous. It is the 

 mere offspring of vanity and folly. A ward in Chancery sounds almost 

 as magnificent as wealthy heiress. The court, like the kingdom of 

 Heaven, suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. To make 

 children, who have parents and near connexions, wards of the court — 

 the destined protection of orphans solely — is truly absurd. 



Injunctions again — why should these applications be encouraged to 

 the extent that has of late grown up ? If wrong be likely to be com- 

 mitted, let the parties commit it on their pei'il; and if we have not 

 statute-law enough to encounter wrong and robbery, in God's name let 

 us have moi'e. 



By a course of this kind would the business of the court be quickly 

 brought within very reasonable limits ; and the three judges would be 

 well able to get through their labours, without a mass of causes perpetu- 

 ally hanging on their rear ; nay, the Lord of the Woolsack might even be 

 replaced, and no harm done. 



But for our parts — and if we are to speak out — we should say, sweep 

 away these courts, as mere courts of Equity. The very principle of 



3 N2 



