NOIL D D Di 



lif.tle more diligence, and more accurate preparation ; whereas, on the contrary, 

 if. may be stated as a fact, that the ways and means hitherto discovered and 

 observed, of effecting any matter Or work, are for the most part of little value, 

 and that all really efficient power depends, and is really to be deduced from the 

 sources of forms, none of which have yet been discovered. Thus,&quot; he adds, 

 &quot; if any power had meditated on balistic machines and battering rams, as they 

 were used by the ancients, whatever application he might have exerted, and 

 though he might have consumed a whole life in the pursuit, yet would he never 

 have hit upon the invention of flaming engines, acting by means of gunpowder ; 

 nor would any person, who had made woollen manufactories and cotton the 

 subject of his observation and reflection, have ever discovered thereby the nature 

 of the silkworm or of silk.&quot; Unfortunately, therefore, the mode of remedying 

 this evil in the court of Chancery was, not by resorting to any new expedient&quot; 

 but by calculating upon increased exertion on the part of the Chancellor ; and 

 the consequence has been, such an inadequacy of power to subdue the business, 

 that the word Chancery has been for centuries, and is proverbial for delay and 

 expence. 



The increased diligence on the part of the court has always manifested itself 

 in proportion to the intelligence and expanded mind of the judge, as appears 

 from the exertions of Lord Egerton, of Lord Eldon, and of Sir M. Hale. 



I well remember the perplexiiies in which Lord Eldon was placed. The 

 pressure of the business was so great, and the time requisite for politics was, 

 during the French Revolution, so excessive, that it was impossible that the 

 business of the court could be subdued by his, or by any mind. On the one 

 side he was surrounded by the senseless yells of ignorance, which he might 

 have pacified by affected dispatch : on the other side, he had to preserve the 

 interests of the suitors and his own approbation, by the consciousness of acting 

 as a judge ought to act, without any fear but the fear of deciding unjustly. 

 He preferred the latter. He went right onward in his course, regardless of the 

 bayings at him ; and, to the disgrace of the country, he was censured by the 

 great mass of the community for having sacredly preserved the interests of 

 the suitors and the dignified administration of justice. It may be well for 

 a moment to consider Lord Bacon s sentiments upon judicial delay and 

 dispatch. 



In his essay &quot; Of Dispatch&quot; he says, &quot; Affected dispatch is one of the most 

 dangeious things to business that can be: it is like that which the physicians 

 call predigestion, or hasty digestion ; which is sure to fill the body full of 

 crudities and secret seeds of diseases : therefore measure not dispatch by the 

 times of sitting, but by the advancement of the business ; and as, in races, it is 

 not the large stride, or high lift, that makes the speed ; so in business, the 

 keeping close to a matter, and not taking of it too much at once, procureth 

 dispatch. It is the care of some only to come off speedily for the time, or to 

 contrive some false periods of business, because they may seem men of dis 

 patch ; but it is one thing to abbreviate by contracting, another by cutting off; 

 and business so handled at several sittings or meetings, goeth commonly back 

 ward and forward in an unsteady manner. I knew a wise man that had it for 

 a byword, when he saw men hasten to a conclusion, Stay a little, that we 

 make an end the sooner. 



&quot; On the other side, true dispatch is a rich thing ; for time is the measure of 

 business, as money is of wares; and business is bought at a dear hand where 

 there is small dispatch. 



&quot; There be three parts of business : the preparation, the debate, or examina 

 tion, and the perfection ; whereof if you look for dispatch, let the middle only 

 be the work of many, and the first and last the \voik of few. The proceeding 

 upon somewhat conceived in writing doth for the most part facilitate dispatch ; 

 for though it should be wholly rejected, yet that negative is more pregnant of 

 direction than an indefinite, as ashes are more generative than dust/ 



And in his speech, when he took his seat as Chancellor, he says, &quot; There is 

 another point of true expedition, which resteth much in myself, and that is in 

 my manner of giving orders. For I have seen an affectation of dispatch turn 



