170 Law Reforms. QAcgcst, 



example to such persons as may be disposed to follow them. In the ad- 

 ministration of civil justice, infinitely more remains to be done, and the 

 best interests of society — of the quiet and industrious part of society — 

 of those persons upon whose exertions and conduct a great portion of 

 the prosperity, and almost all the moral happiness of the country, 

 depends, requires that it should be done speedily. 



From the days of the Commonwealth, when it was very seriously 

 debated in Parliament, whether a court of equity ought to exist any 

 longer in England, the expense, and the delay more ruinous than 

 expense, of which that branch of kiw is the fruitful source, have been 

 universally complained of; and never has the complaint been more 

 justly founded, than it is at this moment. The project of abolishing the 

 Court of Chancery was then overruled, and in its place resolutions were 

 drawn up, by sagacious and experienced men in the matter with which 

 they were dealing, the object of which was to preserve the institution — 

 a valuable one as they justly deemed it — but to root out from it the 

 rank abuses which destroyed its utility, and converted its wholesome 

 principles into instruments of oppression. The pernicious influence of 

 lawyers — that is, of the persons interested in perpetuating the evils 

 most exclaimed against, then prevailed ; the projected improvements 

 exhaled in mere talk ; and, from that day to this, nothing effectual has 

 been done, while the lapse of two centuries has added a monstrous 

 burthen to the weight and incumbrance of the system. It must not, 

 however, be supposed that the outcry has in the mean time been stilled, 

 or that public opinion has changed with respect to the demerits of the 

 Court of Chancery. On the contrary, no public man has ever spoken 

 of it, but in terms of reprobation, more or less bitter, but always richly 

 deserved. Books have been published of all kinds and sizes ; bulky 

 octavos, pamphlets, even poems, have been written, to decry the 

 mischiefs of a system under which few men are so fortunate as not to 

 suffer. Within the last ten years, the clamour about it in Parliament 

 became so loud, that some inquiry was found to be inevitable, and a 

 commission was appointed to inquire into the causes of the delay and 

 expense, which were admitted to be its chief characteristics, and to 

 provide some remedy. The adroitness of the then chief of the Court 

 prevented any speedy progress being made in the inquiry. No man 

 knew so well — no man ever practised so successfully the principle of 

 defeating opposition by sheer delay. To gain time was with him to 

 gain victory; and when at length the report of the Chancery Commis- 

 sioners made its appearance, the great Cuiiclator of modern times Avas 

 found to have succeeded in taking the sting entirely out of it. It is six 

 or seven years since that report was published by Parliament ; and, with 

 the exception of what are called " The New Orders," no attempt of any 

 kind has been offered, to remedy the abuses which even that document, 

 emasculated as it was, exposed. It is true, that members of both 

 Houses of Parliament have talked much about it ; true, that Lord 

 Lyndhurst promised to reform those abuses ; no less true, that he did 

 not keep his promise, although he had abundant time, and the voice of the 

 whole country to back him, if he had been minded to redeem the pledge 

 which he, solemnly enough, gave. It is true that Lord Brougham in- 

 cluded it in his seven hours' speech ; but true, also, that it shared the 

 fate of all the other fine things that Lord Brougham talked about ; 

 that is to say, that they ended there. It is true that Mr. Spence made 



