JB/109/097/001

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expediting of all the matters, which would then come before the Court of
Chancery. The House would recollect, that early in 1811 he had moved for
a Committee to enquire into the causes of the delay in the Court of Chancery.
A Committee was appointed, but as the Session soon broke up, it
was necessary that the Committee should be revived the ensuing Session.
That Committee was accordingly revived next Session but when he moved
in the Committee to call for persons professionally connected with the
Court of Chancery to give evidence respecting the causes of the delays that
motion was resisted in the Committee, and on his bringing the same Motion
before the House, it was successfully resisted there. The Committee
had before them the Register Book, and received information of the number
of causes which remained undecided, but they never could get to the
ground of the subject. In the mean time a Bill was brought into another
House by the Lord Chancellor, for the appointment of a Vice-Chancellor.
That Bill was opposed in the House on the ground that it would give no
actual relief to the Court that there would be a revulsion from the Vice
Chancellor back to the Chancellor in the shape of appeals. There were 35 Appeals
only waiting for decision when the Vice Chancellor's Court was established.
He found the other day that there were now upward of 100 appeals waiting
for the Lord Chancellor's decision. His information, might be incorrect, but
it came from a Solicitor of the first Eminence, and he had communicated
it to his Learned friend opposite (the Solicitor General). The number
of original causes in the Lord Chancellors Paper was 114 in 1811. With
all the assistance derived from the Vice-Chancellor's Court, the number
of original causes was now 289. The number of appeals in 1811 was 25.
In March 1819 the number, as given to him, was 101. The Bankruptcy business
stood on the same footing as in 1811. There was no variation in
the number of Petitions, at least in March. It had been argued, that
the appointment of a Vice-Chancellor's Court would give great relief
to the House of Lords. But there were 140 Causes in the appellant jurisdiction of that House; and there stood 26 appeals, besides writs of
error, which had been in hand two years without being decided.
Now if the Lord Chancellor were freed from the pressure of the
Bankruptcy business, with all his knowledge and talent, he could
not get through the business in less than two years. He did not
mean to impute any blame to Lord Eldon, or to say that the Vice
Chancellor's Court had not been in some respects a relief to
the Lord Chancellor. But though the number of cases decided by

Identifier: | JB/109/097/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 109.
Date_1		Marginal Summary Numbering
Box	109	Main Headings	Parliamentary Reform
Folio number	097	Info in main headings field
Image	001	Titles
Category	Collectanea	Number of Pages	1
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering	E2
Penner		Watermarks
Marginals		Paper Producer
Corrections		Paper Produced in Year
Notes public		ID Number	35752
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