unruffled by discouragements and ridicule, he lived to see its accomplishment. Soon after the Reform Act, ministers of state accepted salaries scarcely equal to the charges of office:1 sinecures and reversions were abolished: offices discontinued or consolidated; and the scale of official emoluments revised, and apportioned to the duties performed, throughout the public service. The change attested a higher sense of duty in ministers, and increased responsibility to public opinion.

tration of

The abuses in the administration of justice, which had been suffered to grow and flourish Adminiswithout a check, illustrate the inert and justice. stagnant spirit of the eighteenth century. The noble principles of English law had been expounded by eminent judges, and applied to the varying circumstances of society, until they had expanded into a comprehensive system of jurisprudence, entitled to respect and veneration. But however admirable its principles, its practice had departed from the simplicity of former times, and, by manifold defects, went far to defeat the ends of justice. Lawyers, ever following precedents, were blind to principles. Legal fictions, technicalities, obsolete forms, intricate rules of procedure, accumulated. Fine intellects were wasted on the narrow subtilties of special pleading; and clients won or lost causes,-like a

Reports on Sinecure Offices, 1807, 1810-12, and 1834; Debates on Offices in Reversion Bill, 1807, 1808; Hans. Deb., 1st Ser., ix. 178, 1073, &c.; x. 194, 870, &c.; Romilly's Life, ii. 219, 302; iii. 9; Twiss's Life of Lord Eldon, ii. 116, 225; Reports of Commons on offices held by Members, 1830-31, No. 322; 1833, No. 671; Report on Miscellaneous Expenditure, 1847-48, No. 543; and on Public Offices, 1856, No. 368,

game of chess,-not by the force of truth and right, but by the skill and cunning of the players. Heartbreaking delays and ruinous costs were the lot of suitors. Justice was dilatory, expensive, uncertain, and remote. To the rich it was a costly lottery: to the poor a denial of right, or certain ruin. The class who profited most by its dark mysteries, were the lawyers themselves. A suitor might be reduced to beggary or madness: but his advisers revelled in the chicane and artifices of a life-long suit, and grew rich. Out of a multiplicity of forms and processes arose numberless fees and well-paid offices. Many subordinate functionaries, holding sinecure or superfluous appointments, enjoyed greater emoluments than the judges of the court; and upon the luckless suitors, again, fell the charge of these egregious establishments. If complaints were made, they were repelled as the promptings of ignorance: if amendments of the law were proposed, they were resisted as innovations. To question the perfection of English jurisprudence was to doubt the wisdom of our ancestors, a political heresy, which could expect no toleration.

Delays of the Court of Chancery.

The delays of the Court of Chancery, in the time of Lord Eldon, were a frequent cause of complaint; and formed the subject of parliamentary inquiry in both Houses.' In 1813, a vice-chancellor was appointed, to expedite the business of the court: but its complex and dilatory procedure remained without improvement. Complaints continued to be made, by Mr. Michael

Romilly's Life, ii. 368, 386, 392; iii. 13, &c.; Twiss's Life of Lord Eldon, ii. 167, 199.

Angelo Taylor, Mr. Williams, and others, until, in 1825, a commission was appointed to inquire into the administration of justice in that court.'

2

of the

Law

In 1828, Mr. Brougham exposed the complicated abuses of the courts of common law, and Defects the law of real property. His masterly Common speech, of six hours, displayed the com- Courts. bined powers of the philosophic jurist, the practised lawyer, the statesman, and the orator. Suggesting most of the law reforms which have since been carried into effect, and some not yet accomplished, it stands a monument to his fame as a lawgiver.3 Commissions of inquiry were immediately appointed; and, when their investigations were completed, a new era of reform and renovation was commenced. Thenceforth, the amendment of the law Law rewas pursued in a spirit of earnestness and forms. vigour. Judges and law officers no longer discountenanced it but were themselves foremost in the cause of law reform. Lord Brougham, on the woolsack, was able to give effect to some of his own cherished schemes; and never afterwards faltered in the work. Succeeding chancellors followed in his footsteps; and Lord Denman, Lord Campbell, Sir Richard Bethell, and other eminent jurists, laboured successfully in the same honourable field of legislation. The work was slow and toilsome,--beset with many difficulties, and generally unthankful: but

1 Romilly's Life, ii. 474, 486, 567; iii. 321, et seq.

2 Feb. 7th, 1828, Hans. Deb., 2nd Ser., xviii. 127; Lord Brougham's Speeches, ii. 311.

3 Acts and Bills of Lord Brougham, by Sir Eardley Wilmot, Intr. xv., et seq.; lvi. et seq.; lxxx.; Speech of Lord Brougham on Law Reform, May 12th, 1848, Hans. Deb., 3rd Ser., xcviii. 877.

it was accomplished. The procedure of the court of Chancery was simplified: its judicial establishment enlarged and remodelled: its offices regulated. Its delays were in great measure averted; and its costs diminished. The courts of common law underwent a like revision. The effete Welsh judicature was abolished: the bench of English judges enlarged from twelve to fifteen: the equitable jurisdiction of the court of Exchequer superseded: the procedure of the courts freed from fiction and artifice: the false system of pleading swept away: the law of evidence amended; and justice restored to its natural simplicity. The law of bankruptcy and insolvency was reviewed; and a court established for its administration, with wide general and local ́jurisdiction. Justice was brought home to every man's door, by the constitution of county courts. Divorce, which the law had reserved as the peculiar privilege of the rich, was made the equal right of all. The ecclesiastical courts were reconstituted; and their procedure and jurisdiction reviewed. A new court of appeal,-of eminent learning and authority, was found in a judicial committee of the Privy Council,-which, as the court of last resort from India and the colonies, from the ecclesiastical courts and the court of Admiralty, is second only to the House of Lords in the amplitude of its jurisdiction. The antiquated law of real property was recast; and provision made for simplifying titles, and facilitating the transfer of land. Much was done, and more attempted, for the consolidation of the statutes. Nor have these remarkable amendments of the law been confined to England. Scotland and

Ireland, and especially the latter, have shared largely in the work of reformation. Of all the law reforms of this period, indeed, none was so signal as the constitution of the Irish encumbered estates court.

6

Such were the more conspicuous improvements of the law, during the thirty years preceding 1860. Before they had yet been commenced, Lord Brougham eloquently foreshadowed the boast of that sovereign who should have it to say that he found law dear, and left it cheap: found it a sealed book, -left it a living letter: found it the patrimony of the rich,-left it the inheritance of the poor: found it the two-edged sword of craft and oppression,left it the staff of honesty, and the shield of innocence.' The whole scheme of renovation is not yet complete: but already may this proud boast be justly uttered by Queen Victoria.

In reviewing the administration of justice, the spirit and temper of the judges themselves, Spirit and temper of at different periods, must not be over- the judges. looked. One of the first acts of George III. was to complete the independence of the judges by providing that their commissions should not expire with the demise of the crown. It was a necessary measure, in consummation of the policy of the Revolution; and, if unworthy of the courtly adulations with which it was then received,-it was, at least, entitled to approval and respect.'

'King's Message, March 3rd, 1761; 1 Geo. III. c. 23; Walpole Mem., i. 41; Cooke's Hist. of Party, ii. 400. In 1767 the same law was extended to Ireland, on the recommendation of Lord Townshend, the lord-lieutenant.-Walpole Mem., iii. 109.