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122
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Well do we remember that we were one night , some seven years ago , or more perhaps ,, seated in the gallery of St . Stephen ' s . The house was nearly empty , the gallery halt' full , and some of our legislators , who , unconsciously no doubt , had talked prose all
their lives , were dealing abundantly from the riches of their store . On the benches behind the Speaker , others were stretched at full length ; the reporters in the gallery were nodding on their seats , and the house seemed about to add another animal function to
those of rising and sitting , and to be sinking into sleep profound , when by chance , a question was asked respecting the Chancery Commission , and the Charity Commission . Up hereupon jumped Henry Brougham , now Lord High Chancellor of England , keeper of the conscience of his most gracious Majesty , and the autnor of the Act of Parliament , 3 and 4 Gulielmi IV . cap . 94 . and of the Orders in pursuance thereof , on which we intend now to comment . The whole scene was changed at once . The house filled , the procumbents rose , and the reporters were on their fullest stretch . After Mr . Brougham had answered the question as far as the Charity Commission was concerned , ( a question which , by the way , we should much wish repeated , ) he
proceeded to ridicule the idea of good coming out of any Chancery Commission , of which a Chancellor ( Lord Eldon was then Chancellor ) was at the head , and so at once both judge and criminal ; and in his happy way , he told a story of the only solfcondemned judge whom he knew of , some Romish cardinal , who Sat in judgment upon himself , and pronounced the sentence Judico me cremari , whereupon , said the record , Adjudicafus fuit Hfuit crematus . Mr . Brougham too well knew—human nature was it ? No , heaven forbid , for it is not of human nature to clut
itself in the pillage of the people , and in the sale of justice for fees and for power , ( we do not say for bribes , because injustice is the commodity bought with them . ) But he knew the nature of those who had been brought up in the school of emulation ; who , from their earliest days , have been tau ght before every thing- to elbow and fight their way above all around them ; and he argued
that from such but little of true , searching , benevolent re form could come . And he argued right . It is from the people , at the will and order of the many alone , that we can hope for good weeding , and clearing , and pruning , and replanting in the thorny jungle of the law . Does not his own history prove this ? Henry Brougham is now Chancellor , and the mover of Chancery reform . What has he done , and what is he doing ? May we trust tin
all-inipbrtatit office of law reform to such , or must we look into this part of our affairs for ourselves ? Let us see . In examining this question , important as would be the inquiry , we will not now apply ourselves to the jurisprudent iul arrange-
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LORD BROUGHAMS CHANCERY REFORMS .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1834, page 122, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2630/page/38/
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