No. XXXm.] APPENDIX. 363 



common good are misrepresented. Bygone transactions are questioned. 

 Traud is freely imputed. Agreements acted upon for years are repudiated. 

 Every possible proceeding ia law or equity is taken to make costs ; and the 

 very costs themselves are sometimes the subject of arrangement between 

 the liquidators and the lawyers. 



Terrified contributories submit to any extortion. Even security for 

 money is exacted from their families or connections by the threat of 

 breaking up their homes. Some, maddened by a sense of persecution, 

 become insane. Some commit suicide, stupefied by despair. Some perish 

 from disease, caused by protracted anxiety. Some go abroad to die in 

 other lands ; and others become reckless, declaring that there is neither 

 justice nor mercy for a contributory. 



Some liquidations have existed for years, and wUl continue for years 

 to come. Other liquidations have paid no dividend to this day. The 

 expenses of some liquidations have eaten up nearly the entire estate. 

 Nevertheless, aU this is done under the pretence of the sanction of the 

 High Court of Parliament. 



The Chancery judges have shown themselves to be as helpless as 

 creditors are to restrain the power which liquidators have assumed ; but 

 what the Court cannot do, Parliament must. 



Shall Lipe Assueance Companies change theie domiciles to 

 avoib the meddling inteefeeence op groveenment, and the 



PEENICIOUS JTJEISDICTION OP THE CotTET OP ChANCEET ? 



Fellow Policy-holdees, — The dangers to which we are exposed 

 demand immediate action, as our property is continually in peril. 

 Unprincipled persons are always seeking to destroy the credit of the 

 various offices in which we are assured. Some desire to ingratiate them- 

 selves with the Board of Trade to become its referee. Some hope to gain 

 the inordinate fortunes which liquidators obtain. Needy lawyers are 

 always on the alert to destroy a company, that they may bring actions 

 and Chancery suits against the unhappy contributories ; and it is even 

 alleged that black mail is often sought to be extorted from directors, 

 imder threat of attacking the company, or the presentation and adver- 

 tising of a winding-up petition. 



Judges in Chancery have given evidence that they are powerless to 

 prevent these iniquities, although they must be held, by the pubUc, 

 responsible for them. Chancery courts open up questions settled 

 years before, and thus tend to demoralize the community by teaching 

 them repudiation. Persons first seek, by the aid of a meddhng Grovem- 

 ment, to lower the credit of the company ; then, as soon as its credit is 

 impaired, it becomes food for the harpies of Chancery, who get enormous 

 incomes, and realize large fortunes, by the ruin of innocent men. The 

 legal profession, besides, talk of a scandal which no man dare tackle. Any 

 attempt to cleanse the Augean stable must be a vain mockery : nothing 

 less than the abolition of the Courts of Chancery can suffice. The judges 

 should be called upon to frame laws, that men may know the law and 

 obey it : and the judges should no longer exercise their individual will by 



