causes, which stood for hearing in the Chancellor's paper in Trinity Term 1811, 58 had been set down previous to Trinity Term 1810, and, of these, seven had been in the paper above three years; that of 86 sets of exceptions, further directions, rehearings, appeals, and causes on the Equity reserved, 47 had been set down previous to Trinity Term 1810, of which six had been in the paper above three years. By the account from the Rolls again we find, that of 226 original causes in his Honor's paper in Trinity Term 1811, only 18 were set down previous to Trinity Term 1810; and that of 50 exceptions, further directions, &c. only one had been above a year in the paper. It is further stated by Sir Samuel Romilly, who was examined as a witness in the Committee (Rep. 1811, p. 25.) that so far from even the trifling apparent arrear of 19 causes in 276, just stated, being real, all those set down previous to 1811, had been heard, except such as stood over at the instance of the parties; and that in Trinity Term 1811, many of the causes set down in Hilary Term of the same year, had been heard in the regular course of the paper. Perhaps this statement will in part account for the great disposition of suitors in these times to seek the Rolls.

The Reports further inform us of the amount of decrees, orders, &c. made in the two great departments of Equity; and, as might be expected from the preceding account, the work done in those courts is inversely as the arrears observable therein at any given time. From the beginning of 1810 to the month of April 1812, the Lord Chancellor pronounced 37 decrees. * the Rolls, during the same period, 933 causes were heard, and decrees made. While his Lordship made 47 orders on further directions, and his Honor in his own court 365.‡

But the same Reports contain statements of an increase in the business actually done by the Chancellor in three particulars-Motions, Bankruptcy, and Lunacy. His Lordship it seems heard, during the two years and a quarter already referred to, 14,987 motions; while his predecessors, in similar periods, ending April 1739 and 1799, only heard 11,280, and 11,121 respectively; from which an inference is attempted to be drawn, that much of the Chancery business has of late years taken

* 47 Decrees in Chancery were pronounced; but the Master of the Rolls tried 10 of these causes. We here speak in the popular degree; for the Chancellor, strictly speaking, pronounces all the decrees, both in causes heard at the Rolls, and by himself.

+ This includes Consent causes; but, exclusive of these, 658 were heard.

This includes Consent causes; exclusive of these, 214 orders were made.

*

a new form,-gone in the channel of interlocutory proceedings, and been disposed of by motion and order, instead of hearing on bill and answer, and decree. The state of business at the Rolls might seem sufficiently to show, that there is no solidity in this statement; and that if business on motion is augmented, it is only a proof that delays in Chancery have driven suitors to indirect modes of litigation, and augmented the amount and expense of it. It may further be observed, that the patrons of this argument should have produced the number of motions heard during the period from 1745 to 1754, when there were near 400 more bills filed in a year than there are now. We should be anxious too, to have some information (if any such is to be found among the Hardwicke papers) as to the time allowed by the Lord Chancellor, in those days, to be taken up by those hearings, the number of counsel whom he heard before he was satisfied, and the amount of papers which he doomed himself to wade through, after full hearings, before making up his mind to a decision. Upon this branch of the subject it appears that the Committee of the Commons were strongly urged to inquire. It was proposed, for the purpose of ascertaining this, as well as other points, that the chief practitioners of the Court should be called; and perhaps the following extract from the evidence of Mr Crofts, the Register of the Court, who appeared desirous of ascribing great virtues to the system of motions, may not be thought so luminous as to supersede the necessity of farther investigation.

You stated, in your former examination, that many motions were made at seals, of a nature that put an end to a cause; can you state more particularly how a cause was put an end to by a motion? -Those motions, as it struck me, were in the nature of injunctions. You speak of special injunctions?—Yes, surely.

Do you happen to know any particular cause; can you mention any cause that has been put an end to, in consequence of a special motion being made?—It only struck me as a general observation.

'Will you have the goodness to state, how you conceive the motions were of that nature that could put an end to a cause?—It struck me, that there were different branches; and, from the way in which the cause turned, there was nothing left for the Court to hear.

Has there been any different practice, during Lord Eldon's

* The Lords' Committee have supplied this defect; and it appears by their accounts, that the average yearly number of motions heard by Lord Hardwicke during his last ten years, was 3788. The like average, for ten years ending 1810, was 5703. In what proportion this increase consists of motions of course, there is no attempt in any of the Reports or Accounts to ascertain.

time, from that of his predecessors, with respect to hearing motions? -None, that I am aware of; except that some motions are made of a speculative nature, which have occupied a great portion of time; that is the view I took of it.

Has there been, to your knowledge, any order made in Lord Eldon's time, altering the practice of the Court, as to making motions-Not, to my knowledge.

I observe that, in your former examination, a question was put to you, whether orders had not been made which put an end to the causes your answer was, I should think so. Can you produce to the Committee any order pronounced upon motion which was likely to put an end to a cause?—I have made no memorandums of any sort upon that subject. Rep. p. 54.

As, however, the Committee, from motives of delicacy towards the Chancellor, refused to enter into any such inquiry, and as the House of Commons were persuaded, by the friends of the new plan to agree in this refusal, we are, of course, in this Report, left without the means of pursuing this matter farther. But, admitting the whole increase of interlocutory business contended for, it makes a very trifling alteration on the state of the question, when the whole amount of bills filed is so materially diminished.

The increase of Lunatic petitions has also been mentioned. They averaged 48 yearly, it seems, in Lord Hardwicke's time; and now, they amount to 113, and occupy about 25 days in a year, or about 15 days more than they would have done formerly, at the same rate of despatch which the Court now uses. Bankruptcy has also increased greatly; and we find, that there is no material arrear in this department. The exact increase is not to be found in the Reports of the Committee of the Commons. But if bankrupt petitions have increased in number, at the same rate with commissions of bankruptcy, as we find the fees derived from that source by the Chancellor, amounted in 1811 to near 5000l., whereas, in 1802, they had been only 1700., we may infer, that this branch of business has trebled since the present Chancellor first held the seals. * It is however admitted, by the practitioners in that court, that from 30 to 35 days are sufficient for despatching bankruptcy; so that the increase on bankruptcy and lunacy, taken together, cannot, within the last ten years, require an increased labour of above thirty days in

*Here again the Lords' Committee have furnished more accurate accounts. It appears, that the average yearly number of orders in bankruptcy, in Lord Hardwicke's time, was 116, and in Lord Eldon's time, 255; which is a much smaller increase than that deduced in the text from the amount of the fees,--and contributes to strengthen the argument accordingly.

the year. Now, these are the only departments in which no arrear is to be found; and of all the other branches of the Chancellor's duties, (except, indeed, his Cabinet business), it would be difficult to determine which is the most in arrear.

It is in vain then to contend, that the increase of the business is the cause of the arrear. There is no such increase as can account for it; but if there were, it would remain to be proved that as much business is despatched as formerly. If, indeed, this were proved, then we might be allowed to state, that the excess only was left undone. But the ground is shifted in a remarkable manner. When the arrears in Chancery are complained of, the answer is, There are so many appeals in the House of Lords.' But if this means any thing, it must be, that the Chancellor sits more days, and more hours each day, in the Lords, than he used formerly to sit. Now the reverse is

notoriously the fact; for fewer causes in the Lords have been decided of late years, than when fewer were entered. We are then told, that it must be so,-for there is such an increase of business in Chancery.' On looking into that Court, however, we find, that there is far less business done, at least by the Chancellor; and that, if litigation has increased before his Lordship, decision has been confined to the Rolls.

It cannot have failed to strike the reader as a very remarkable circumstance, that the number of bills in Equity should be so much fewer now than they were sixty years ago;-notwithstanding the increased trade and population of the country, and the more frequent changes of real property. In what way this fact is to be accounted for, we cannot at present stop to inquire. Undoubtedly, the more systematic form which the science has, since Lord Hardwicke's time, assumed, chiefly through the labours of that great Judge, has diminished the number of disputes on points of Equity. It may also be presumed, that fewer bills are now filed for trifling objects; and that the same, or a lesser number of causes may possibly give rise to more prolonged and troublesome litigation. But let us admit even a considerable increase in Chancery business-an increase much less considerable certainly than that of legal practice because there must be deducted from it the diminution of new and difficult points to be settled, with which Lord Hardwicke had constantly to grapple ;-still we must remark, that all other Courts, except the Chancellor's, have met the increase in their business by redoubled efforts to get through it. Lord Mansfield might have 50 or 60 causes in his paper at Guildhall for one sitting. Lord Ellenborough has once had about 600, and seldom less than 350. The basiness on all the

Circuits has greatly increased, though not in an equal proportion; and the Criminal keeps pace with the Civil courts; and the result of the same change of circumstances is, a prodigious augmentation of business in Term time. Yet we never hear of arrears in Bank excused, because of the large entries at Nisi Prius; or of Remanets at Circuits and Sittings, because the Newgate Calendar presses heavily at the Old Bailey-or because the Chiefs and Puisne Judges are exhausted during the Term. The work done has kept pace with the work which there was to do. If the causes have increased in number, the judgments have also increased. And although every one who reflects upon the subject must be sensible that the Common-law Judges, as they are the worst treated of all public functionaries in point of emolument, are likewise the most important and the most indefatigable;—although it can never be pretended that they can continue to make head against the increase of business, as they have hitherto done, to the admiration of all who observe their proceedings ;-although no man who knows and values the best interests of the country, could hesitate in wishing to see some relief afforded in this quarter;-yet it is worthy of remark, that the attention of the community has not been drawn towards the enormous increase in the pressure of Common-law business by any complaints of the twelve Judges, or any arrear in their Courts. Those learned and virtuous persons, remote from the strife of faction, and above the obstructions of court intrigues, have been silently labouring under their growing burthens; and it is only when the denial of justice elsewhere, by the arrears of unattempted work, calls the public eye towards them, in the way of contrast, that we find them almost sinking under their load, before they have once suspended their toils to utter a complaint.

The reader may probably by this time have inferred, that the impression produced upon our minds, by the evidence now before the public, is in favour of the opinion of those who as cribe a large part of the arrears and delays complained of to the Noble and Learned Person entrusted with the Great Seal, almost ever since this evil has been accumulating. Whether a more rigorous investigation by the Committee would have tended to weaken this impression, it will be for those to tell, who, out of delicacy towards his Lordship, persisted in refusing all further inquiry, and stopt short at the point where the discussion was becoming most interesting and conclusive. But, taking into our account all the arguments on both sides, and as many of the facts as the labours of the Committee, under the control of its tender and respectful feelings, have placed within our