low, and he would give an appeal from | in the course of these discussions, had that Court to the Court of Chancery, by talked of their authority and their experiallowing petitions to be heard, either be- ence, never dreamt of proposing such a fore the Lord Chancellor or the Vice-chan- plan as the Court of Review until this Bill cellor. The opposite side of the House was introduced. His memory might dehad found fault with them for opposing ceive him, but he could not recollect that this Bill without having some plan of their any man ever thought of proposing the estaown ready cut and dried-there was his blishment of a Court of Review until this plan. He had not expected this Bill to Bill was introduced; on the contrary, every have been brought forward this Session, or, man examined before the Commissioners if at all, he expected to see it brought gave it as his opinion, that the best remedy forward here in the first instance, and that would be to prevent litigation, and to proit would not have been left to the House of vide cheap and expeditious justice. He Peers to originate a Bill of this description, might be wrong certainly, in the view he although, of course, he did not dispute the took of this part of the question, but his right of my Lord Chancellor to bring for- being in the wrong had not been proved. ward a Bill like this in his own House. He would move as an amendment, that Hon. Gentlemen opposite said, "where is everything relating to these Judges shall be your Bill? where is your plan?" If it had left out of the clause. Of course he knew been intimated at the early part of the that it would be of no use, because the Session that my Lord Chancellor meant man with the master-mind-he was going to bring forward this Bill, that might have to say, the master of the Cabinet-said been urged as an argument against them; the Bill shall be passed, and, of course, but to do so now, and under existing circum- passed it must be. So it was with the Restances, was not only not consonant with form Bill-the people were told, "My parliamentary usage, but it was really a friends, be so good as to keep yourselves breach of faith. In the first place, they quiet-be cool, do not rebel, and you shall were to have a list of six Commissioners, have your Bill." Many hon. Gentlemen who were to perform all the duties now dis- might, perhaps, like to have an inquiry charged by the existing body. He was firmly upon this subject; "but no," said the man convinced, that when this Bill came into with the master-mind, "let your own judgoperation it would accelerate the progress of ment be what it may, you must vote as I the very evils which were now complained tell you." Under these circumstances, he of: it was with this persuasion, and not with very much regretted having to address himany views to his own personal comfort or self to this subject in the presence of so convenience, that he thought it his duty to few hon. Members, knowing that he was address the House upon this subject. His undertaking a hopeless case, and knowing, objection to the establishment of this as every labourer in this field did know, Court was, that it was not wanted, and that he was sure to meet with ironical that there could be no possible necessity cheers, and sardonic grins from hon. Genfor appointing four Judges. However, tlemen on that side of the House. Howthis being a Court of Review, they were ever, a man must not permit himself to be to have an inferior Court, composed of six, turned away from the subject by such or seven, or eight barristers, who were to matters; they had an imperative duty to constitute a tribunal analogous to that perform, and they must do justice to themwhich now existed, and which was con- selves as well as they could by expressing ducted by the Commissioners of Bank- their opinions. The preternatural masterrupts. He did not know whether the hon. minded lawyer might calculate à priori on Gentleman who had just now addressed their decisions, but he would nevertheless the House, objected to the very great de- discharge his duty, by moving to omit the crease which was to be made in the num- words to which he had referred. What ber of these Commissioners-this Bill cer- was this Court, consisting of a Chief tainly did set to work, and cut up right and Justice and three Puisne Judges, to do? left, root and branch, these septuagint A very eminent man said, that the Court Commissioners. He was of opinion that of Exchequer had a vast deal to do; meathe number of Commissioners in the pre- sure after measure had been brought forsent lists was too numerous. He would ward for reducing that Court; and if, in reduce them to a given number, perhaps conformity with the fiat of the man with thirty. Hon. Gentlemen opposite, who, the master-mind, this Bill was passed,

for him (Sir Charles Wetherell) had he like his hon. and learned friend employed his time elsewhere, than within those walls. When his hon. and learned friend stated that the imputation upon the Lord Chancellor, of a desire to create patronage, was so extremely vulgar that he could not make up his mind to reply to it, he would assure him, that had he been a Member of that House during the last ten years, he would over and over again, have heard imputations, at least of equal vulgarity, from his Whig associates, while they were sitting on that side of the House. He had been constantly listening to these vulgarities from the Whigs-to vulgar assertions upon the smallest matters-objections in duodecimo. A right hon. friend of his, now the first Lord of the Admiralty, had often been extremely vulgar upon matters of this kind-sometimes accompanying the vulgarity of his objections with a little wit-sometimes with a little acrimony. But all had been exhausted on but trifling subjects, which, as compared with the monstrous folio of patronage, which would result to the Lord Chancellor from the passing of this Bill, was like the most diminutive of all diamond editions.

they would yet have to revise their own | certainly would have been infinitely better act, and to pension these Judges off they must have a little of the otium cum dignitate. They were very robust Judges now, flourishing Judges, but the House must look forward to their future comforts and enjoyments, and provide a retiring pension for them, in addition to a liberal salary while they were acting. He requested hon. Gentlemen who had voted, and to whom, therefore, his request could do no possible harm, to consider with him for a moment what these Judges would have to do; they were very able persons, and no doubt would be very willing to work-but what work was cut out for them to do? It was calculated that all this business might be done in the course of fifty or sixty days in the year; that was to say, judicial days, from ten in the morning until four in the afternoon. This was about the period in which the Lord Chancellor could get through the business; so there was at least one consolation in the constitution of this Court the Judges would not exhaust themselves, they would not spoil their constitutions with hard work, but they would remain in the full possession of their bodily and mental faculties. The labour of these Judges would not be adequate to the salaries they were to receive, and the House was appointing Judges, whose judicial labours might be embraced within a period of two months. The learned Solicitor General smiled at that he was very glad to see it. Perhaps he would oblige them with a contradiction, or perhaps he would depute some hon. Gentleman on that side of the House to do so. There could be no doubt that there should be an immediate appeal from the Court below without travelling through these other Courts. Supposing the Court to be necessary, where was the necessity for four Judges? If an intermediate Court was really necessary, one Judge, eminent as the Chief Judge of this Court was to be, would be amply sufficient. He should, therefore, move for the omission of that part of the clause which provided for the three Puisne Judges. The hon. and learned Gentleman who addressed the House last night said, he should not reply to the vulgar attacks which had been made upon the Lord Chancellor on the subject of patronage. His hon. and learned friend, for the last ten or twelve years of his life had been much better and much more profitably employed than in that House. It

Objections to little pocket volumes, mere 24mos., he had never heard complained of. Indeed, the hon. member for Middlesex and the right hon. Baronet, the First Lord of the Admiralty, had gained no inconsiderable merit among their party for their industry, ingenuity, and cunning in raking up petty grounds of objection. But when they came to this elephant folio of patronage, amounting to some 26,000l. a-year, any objection to it was mixed up with the idea of vulgarity. If to object to such an amount of patronage which was needlessly, wantonly proposed to be introduced, was vulgar, doubtless he was the vulgarest of men. Although they had not yet seen an official list of the names of the persons whom it was intended to appoint to the offices which would be created by this Bill-he was aware that the son of an illustrious friend of his, the late Lord Erskine, would be one of the Judges of the new Bankrupt Court. My Lord Erskine and he were friends, although he was a very eminent Whig, and he was then, as now, and as he should always continue to be, a Tory. If he compared my Lord Brougham-preternatural man, though he be-with my Lord

Certainly, there was a strange difference in the conduct of the two Whig Chancellors. He did not pretend to say which was the more correct; but that of my Lord Brougham, every one must admit, carried with it the appearance of a desire for patronage. It seemed to him, that

Erskine, who in many respects was the cessor, for the sake of courting patronage equal of any man who ever filled the office by appointing another of his own. There of Chancellor, he thought that, upon the was now another Whig Chancellor; and point of patronage, at least, my Lord what did he do? His friends had proErskine had the advantage. The morning nounced him to be more than mortal. after that noble and learned Lord was ap-The angel Gabriel's sword certainly could pointed to the custody of the Great Seal, not be more sweeping or more trenchant he had a long discussion with him upon than this preternatural Chancellor's Acts. the subject of the list of Bankrupt Com-By the Bill which he had introduced, the missioners, and indeed upon the business Septuagint, as the seventy Commissioners of bankruptcy generally. What was the had been whimsically called, was to be noble and learned Lord's conduct? As sliced off from the body corporate of juChancellor coming newly into office, he dicial administrators; and a new Court, had the undoubted right of removing every consisting of an eminent-he believed not one of the Commissioners appointed by a superhuman-Chief Judge, three Puisne his predecessor; of placing them upon Judges, a list of Commissioners, and a the retiring Pension-list, and of appoint-train of Official assignees all dependant ing other persons of his own selection, and, upon the appointment of the Lord Chanif he chose, in his own interest or belong-cellor, was to be soldered on in its stead. ing to his own political party, to the vacancies thus created. But what did he do? To his immortal honour, although several of them were violently opposed to him in politics, and had written and published strong and virulent pamphlets against him and his political friends, he did not displace one of them. One of these pamphlet-the Press was a ready instrument in the eers, Mr. Bowles, had distinguised himself hands of the present Government; and beyond any other for the violence of his when he saw the leading journals of the attacks upon the Whigs, so much so as day taking a particular line of conduct, to incur the displeasure of the whole of he felt quite sure that it was the precurthat party. When my Lord Erskine, sor of some political measure; therefore, therefore, was appointed to the Woolsack, as a precursor to this Bill, they saw, in many of his party pointed out to him the one of the leading papers, a virulent propriety of removing Mr. Bowles from his scrutinizing, but false description of the office. He had seen several letters written birth, parentage, and education of every to the noble Lord upon the subject, from man who was now a Commissioner of men of considerable eminence. He was Bankrupts. He did not say, that in that not sure, indeed, whether Mr. Fox was libellous, unjust, and calumnious descripnot one of those who desired that Mr. tion, my Lord Brougham was a participaBowles might be removed. But Lord tor; he did not suppose that he was. Erskine, although he had the right to But certainly nothing could be more suited displace every man upon the list of Com-to his purpose, because nothing could missioners of Bankrupts, declared that not tend more to lower and degrade the indione should be removed upon any party con-viduals attacked, in the estimation of this sideration whatever. He remained true to his word. Not a single Commissioner was displaced; and, what was more, the individuals who filled the various other offices connected with the Court of Chan-nal for the administration of that branch cery, whom the Chancellor had power to of the law which was previously intrusted remove at pleasure, were left by Lord to them. He had read the attack of the Erskine in the undisturbed enjoyment of newspapers upon the Commissioners with their places. Such was the conduct of the pain. He did not know them all, but last Whig Chancellor--unmindful of party- he was acquainted with many of them. feelings where party-feelings should not He esteemed them; he knew them to be operate, he would not avail himself of the men of talent, of honour, of untarnished right of demolishing the list of Bankrupt character. He knew the attack which Commissioners appointed by his prede- had been made upon them to be false and

House and of the country; and consequently nothing could be better adapted to reconcile Parliament to their removal from office, and to the substitution of a different tribu

On the question being put

one

of the many who had admired, and who felt indebted to him for the unwearied exertions which he had made, he had uttered these sentiments with a sincerity which nothing could exceed.

The Attorney General did not rise to en

calumnious. Did it follow, because a man held the office of Commissioner of Bankrupts that he must therefore be dishonest his private character bad-his public conduct disreputable? He could not suppose that any hon. Member would allow his mind to be prejudiced by such il-gage in any contest with the hon.and gallant liberal notions as these-notions, which Officer upon the subject of his hon. and the organs of the Government had been learned friend's conduct, either upon that at such pains to inculcate. Without Bill or upon the Reform Bill. Upon both his troubling the House at any greater length hon. and learned friend's opinions had difupon this part of the subject, believing fered from his; but believing them to be the that one Judge would be sufficient to con- honest conviction of his mind, he did not stitute the proposed Court of Review, he blame him for the manner in which he had begged leave to move that the word "Chief" | advanced them. He was far from claimbefore the word "Justice," and subse- ing for himself any particular confidence quently the words "three Puisne Judges" from his friends. But it was quite cershould be left out of the clause. tain, that upon a question of such a description as that now under the considerSir Henry Hardinge did not rise to ation of the House, confidence in parmake any observations upon the question ticular individuals must go far to influence before the House, of which, as a matter of the votes of the majority of Members, becourse, he could know very little, but upon cause, from the nature of the question it which he should not hesitate to have his was impossible that many should be able vote guided by his hon. and learned friend to understand it. Therefore he trusted who had just sat down, in whose judg- that the observations which had been ment, honesty, integrity and straightfor- made upon the absence of several hon. wardness of purpose he had the most im- Gentlenien from the argument, who were plicit confidence. His object in rising present at the division, would not be alwas, to state that in the course of the la- lowed to operate to the prejudice of any bours which his hon. and learned friend who, upon a question of this kind, were had undergone upon this Bill, and upon the perfectly justified in placing reliance upon Reform Bill, notwithstanding the attacks those public men in the propriety of whose which had been made upon him this even- opinions and conduct they felt confident. ing, that no man ever more distinguished To these observations he must take the himself in that House for an uncompro-liberty of adding, that there never was a mising independence, for strict consistency, measure in the House of Commons more unflinching integrity, or for a brave and amply considered, more fully discussed in gallant vindication of every political sen- detail, than this had been. It was said timent that he ever uttered, than his hon. that the Bill had been hurried through its and learned friend. And although his hon. different stages with an impetuosity which and learned friend might have attacked nothing could warrant, and that the House others, and been himself attacked, he had been driven into the consideration of would undertake to say, that during the it, at late and unreasonable hours of the present Session of Parliament no man night. He should like to know whose had laid in a greater stock of admi- fault that had been? They had been ration from his friends, and, if not of ad- anxious, on many occasions, to go into miration, at least of respect from his op- the discussion of the Bill early in the ponents, than the hon. and learned mem- evening; but how had they been preber for Boroughbridge. As he was com-vented? By incidental discussions upon pelled from illness, and other circumstances, to leave town to-morrow, he could not help availing himself of this opportunity to express his heartfelt thanks to his hon. and learned friend, for the course which he had pursued upon the two great measures which had been submitted to the consideration of the House during the present Session of Parliament. As

inconsiderable subjects, raised and swollen out to inordinate length by the hon. Gentlemen on the opposite side of the House. Thus they had been prevented from bringing this subject forward until a late hour; but, nevertheless he contended that the measure had been well considered and fully argued. His hon. and learned friend, the member for Boroughbridge, among other