being transported as convicts; and the traffic ceased to be carried on by British subjects. Why should we not try if they whom the vehement desire of obtaining seats in Parliament induces to run the risk of penal actions, or of losing the prize they are in quest of, by being unseated on petition, will venture to corrupt voters when, on detection, they may be sent to the tread-mill? I question also if their agents would expose themselves to this hazard; and assuredly the new Law of Evidence will enable us to reach the agent even when it may fail in securing the detection of the principal.

"But except in this one particular the success of that Act has proved most complete. The Judges, even those who

were most averse to it, now bear the clearest and strongest testimony in its favour. It has certainly both acted universally and powerfully in enabling Courts to arrive at the truth, and it has been as efficacious in preventing unjust suits and dishonest defences. Certainly to encourage all rightful litigation, and check the wrongful; opening wide the doors of our Courts to the honest suitor, and as far as possible to him alone; and favouring only the resistance to unjust demands, --must ever be the great object of the lawgiver, but never can he attain it until he completes the substitution of natural for technical procedure. Those kindred measures admitting the evidence of parties, and establishing local judicatures, have been the nearest approach to the accomplishment of this. And how prodigious is the good thus effected, the misery prevented! How many instances does the comparatively narrow experience of each of us in the profession afford us, of persons driven to ruin and despair by the denial of their just claims through the law's delay and cost, or the enforcement of them at enormous sacrifice, and after a lifetime of anxiety and vexation!

"The benefits of these new laws must surely now be extended to Scotland. The late Government brought in a Bill to amend the Law of Evidence in some important particulars; and we only passed it in the Lords upon the understanding, clearly expressed, that it should as soon as possible be enlarged, so as to embrace the most important change of all, the Evidence of Parties. The benefits of the County Courts

too cannot be withheld from that part of the kingdom. Formerly the Scotch system was regarded by England with envy, because of the Sheriff's jurisdiction. The far more cheap and expeditious procedure of our County Courts has now reversed this feeling, and transferred the envy to Scotland. Surely the two countries should be placed on the same footing in this important particular by giving to the Scotch Local Courts the same jurisdiction which is vested in the County Courts of England. From Scotland we may in return borrow, beside the Public Prosecutor, that most salutary proceeding, the Declaratory Action, my Bill for introducing which, in 1845, was dropt because it met with no kind of support, although every Chancellor, from the time of Lord Hardwicke, had successively expressed strong opinions in favour of the plan. Its tendency is direct and powerful to quiet possession, to further the arriving at truth by timely inquiry, and to lessen the number of vexatious and litigious proceedings.

"But I must once more entreat your attention, and that of all Law Reformers, to by far the most essential of the measures for preventing undue and unnecessary litigation,— a measure, too, intimately connected with the great improvements of which I have been speaking, I mean the encouragement of Arbitration, and vesting in the local judge the functions of a Court of Reconcilement. This system has been again and again recommended by the experience of other countries; but why go abroad for proof of the blessed results which it must necessarily have? Surely no one can doubt that if the parties in every case were to come unattended by any professional man, before a Judge, and hear his opinion upon their several contentions, a vast proportion of groundless claims and groundless defences must be immediately stopt with hardly any expense incurred, and those causes only come to trial in which, whether on matter of law or of fact, there was a real ground of dispute, a matter that ought to be tried. When this consummation shall crown the efforts of our statesmen and lawyers, they may truly enjoy that most delightful of all gratifications, the consciousness that they have really promoted the happiness of their fellow

creatures.

Far be it from me to undervalue the merit and the enjoyments of individual or private beneficence. But all feel, and with great unhappiness, how limited is the power of each of us in this direction, and how we are exposed to deception, and to mistake, even in the little we can do. Some, as you are aware, who even make it a rule to consider each day as lost that has not seen an act of kindness, keeping with themselves an account of this description, are continually undergoing the misery of limited resources to meet demands that have no limits whatever, and not seldom find that their benevolence has been misdirected. But they who by general measures of a wise policy, defeat injustice, disarm oppression, restore lost rights, and protect threatened possession; who save humble men from the wiles of the crafty, rescue thoughtless men from their own improvidence ;-they have the unspeakable comfort of knowing that their means of doing good are commensurate with their wishes, that their exertions can never be wasted on the undeserving, that their benevolence can never be otherwise than beneficent, and that the "quality of their mercy" is of the very highest order, preventive of ill, not remedial, and leaving far less distress to relieve. When all men in high station and of great power shall have their minds well impressed with this principle, we shall see the record of their public labours altogether eclipse that of their private charities." 1

"Brougham, 16th August, 1852."

ART. IX.-SEPARATION OF DUTIES OF THE GREAT SEAL.

AT the present period when Law Reforms, even of an extensive character, are not only favourably received but taken into careful consideration, it is important to keep in view a subject which we have repeatedly 2 brought before our readers

1 As to the other proposed reforms, see Postscript.

2 See 2 L. R. 245.; 8 L. R. 122. &c.

that of the appointment of a Minister of Justice, in other words, the establishment of a department in the State whose express business should be to attend to all matters connected with the administration of justice. We have already seen' what importance was attached to a reform of this kind by Lord Langdale, and we think it will be useful to lay before our readers his views on the present duties of the Great Seal at greater length; but it has escaped attention that Lord John Russell, the leader of Her Majesty's Opposition, has also expressed a strong opinion as to the necessity for a separation of those duties, being almost the only opinion on any great law reform question which we think his lordship has ever pronounced.

Let us then first give Lord Langdale's views, which, as we have already seen, he continued to hold and express almost down to the day of his death. These were contained in a paper given to Lord Melbourne, when Prime Minister, for the use of his cabinet.

"The judicial functions of the Chancellor are partly of original and partly of appellate jurisdiction. His political functions are not merely ministerial but include the exercise of very extensive patronage unconnected with the duties of the office.

"The following statement, though incomplete, is perhaps sufficient for the purpose now in view:

"The Chancellor is,

"Ministerial.

"1. The King's principal adviser in matters of law, a Privy Councillor, a Cabinet Minister, and great Officer of State, responsible in all matters, political and ministerial, which are connected with the custody and use of the Great Seal.

"2. Speaker of the House of Lords in its political and legislative capacity.

"Political.

"3. Patron of the King's livings under the value of twenty pounds a year in the King's books.

1 See antè, pp. 36. 38.

"Distributive.

"4. Appointer and mover of all Justices of the Peace.

"5. Judge of Appeals, as speaker or prolocutor of the House of Lords, in its judicial capacity, the Supreme Court of Appeal for the United Kingdom.

"6. Judge in Chancery, rehearing the Decrees and Orders of the Master of the Rolls and Vice-Chancellor.

"Judicial.

"7. Judge by the Common Law of various matters arising in the Petty Bag Office, or relating to the issuing and superseding of certain writs.

"8. Judge by prescription of matters determinable by the Court of Chancery as a Court of Equity, including the care of infant wards of Court.

"Original.

"9. Judge in matters of bankruptcy and various other matters, especially attributed to him by various Acts of Parliament.

"10. Visitor of charities founded by the Crown, or as to which there is no special visitor, and the heir of the founder cannot be discovered.

“11. Guardian or superintendent of idiots and lunatics and their estates by special commission from the Crown.

"It is evident that no man can perform all the duties attached to the office above enumerated in a manner satisfactory to himself and to the public. The extent, variety, and importance of the business to be transacted is more than sufficient to distract and overpower the most vigorous attention if attempted to be constantly applied.

"And not only is the quantity of business more than one man can properly master, but some of the functions which the Chancellor is called upon to perform are incompatible with one another, and unfit to be performed by the same man.

"The mind of a Judge ought to be in a state of the greatest possible calm and tranquillity; his cool and undisturbed attention should always be given to the case before him, and he should by no means be peculiarly liable to be agitated by political storms, or