it, at once rapid in its operation and truly cheap to the suitor. time to prevent different decisions, and keep the subject closely within the time. within which he ought to appeal. Therefore, my Lords, there will henceforward be a statute of limitations, as it were, within the Court, as well as one without the Court. My Lords, the Act for the Relief of the Suitors in Chancery, as I told your Lordships, has also been followed out by orders of the Court. The fees under these Acts have been settled, and they have been greatly reduced in number, and very considerably simplified. A great burden was imposed upon the suitors in having to pay a great many fees upon every occasion at many offices. That evil has been corrected, and the parties will have fewer fees to pay, and the whole system is exceedingly simplified, which in itself will be found to be a very great benefit. I mention this, because I wish clearly to show your Lordships the state of the funds which we have in our Court, and the purposes to which they are applied. My Lords, independently of the general objects of the Acts in question, there was a very crying evil which has been remedied by the Orders which have been issued by myself and my learned Colleagues. It is a subject which I always had very much at heart and respecting which I carried my views into effect as far as I could in Ireland. It is this-that there should be a statute of limitations, as it were, within the Court, as well as a statute of limitations without the Court. You pass an Act of Parliament to prevent the bringing forward of old claims; but in the Court itself when once made they may be kept alive and brought forward at a period highly inconvenient and unjust. Your Lordships have an order regarding appeals, which is to this effect-that there shall be no appeal from a decree or order of the Court of Chancery after the lapse of five years after enrolment. Under the early orders of the Court of Chancery, the arrangement was such that the enrolment was intended to I want to draw your Lordships' attentake place at once. The intention of your tion, and the attention of everybody in Lordships' House, therefore, at a very the country, to the state of our funds, the early date, was to compel the party to come nature of the fund out of which the costs to this House, if he wanted relief, within of the Court are paid, the costs of the five years after he or the other litigating administration of justice, and the means party had first actually got a decree. But, by which I hope still further to reduce so far from this being practically carried those costs. Your Lordships must bear in out, the course, up to this last twelve-mind that the additional sum of 9,000l. month, has been that parties have been a year in the shape of compensation has allowed in the Court of Chancery to enrol been thrown upon the funds by the late nunc pro tunc, and then the party de- improvements. You have given large comsiring to appeal to your Lordships' House pensations, and at the same time created himself enrols the order, though adverse to new offices, so that, although the fees are himself, and at the end of, it may be, fif- greatly reduced, yet the immediate expenteen or seventeen years, he comes to your ses have also greatly increased. But, notLordships' House, and presents an appeal withstanding that, my Lords, the saving to the House at that distant period; all to the suitors between the fees which were which leads to great evils and great injus-imposed last year, and the fees which will tice. There should be no taking away of a man's right to appeal; but there should be no door left open to him for unnecessarily continuing a long and irritating litigation. This evil has been met by Orders to this effect, and I believe they will work most beneficially: In the first place, nobody is to have the right of appeal within the Court of Chancery itself after five years. In the next place, every man is to enrol a decree or order within six months; and after five years have elapsed he is not to be at liberty to enrol at all, except by a special order of the Lord Chancellor, so as to meet what may be a case sometimes of necessity, yet at the same now be imposed under the scale which has just been issued, will be not less than 30,000l. a year. That is accounted for in some measure by the sum of 26,000l. a year, for the salaries of the several Judges of the Court, having been transferred to the Consolidated Fund, upon the ground that the Judges ought to be paid by the country, and not by the suitors. And so, unquestionably, the administration of justice ought to be paid for by the public funds, and not by the funds of the suitors. But then there is this clear distinction: the costs of the administration of justice, properly speaking, ought undoubtedly to be paid by the country; but the costs of the administration of the property of a party within the Court ought not to be paid by the public. Every man ought to have a right to go into the Court itself free from expense, if it may be, and to have the decision of the Judge. But, if he has accounts to be taken-if he has estates to be guarded and watched, and kept in order, he is no more entitled to have the expense of that paid for him in Court, than he would be if the operation had taken place out of Court. Keeping in mind that essential distinction, I must call your Lordships' attention a little to the state of the funds, as I shall have occasion afterwards to call your Lordships' particular attention to the operation of them. There are two funds upon which the Court draws for sums for which it has occasion. One is called the Suitors' Fund, and the other is called the Suitors' Fee Fund. The Suitors' Fund arose in this way-there are in the Court sums of money sometimes of a large amount, which the persons interested in them never require to be invested. The Court, therefore, under the authority of various Acts of Parliament, has been in the habit of itself investing from time to time that portion of the Suitors' "unemployed cash," as it is called, which the Suitor has not required, or directed to be invested on his account. The consequence of the party not requiring it to be invested is, that of course he cannot be entitled to the dividends upon that which he has not had invested, and he is not liable to any loss; but he can demand the amount simply of his cash whenever he thinks proper to do so. The dividends on the stock thus procured are partly applied by the Court in payment of the salaries of officers and expenses of the Court, and the surplus of those dividends is again invested on a separate account, though as part of the same Fund. Nearly 4,000,0001. has been invested in this way, and the sums standing on these two accounts constitute what is called the Suitors' Fund; and the result is, that at this time there is a fund producing an income of 111,000l. and a fraction, which is appropriated to the payment of the expenses of the Court and of the administration of justice. Now, my Lords, the sums which by Parliament have been thrown upon this fund amount to 48,3201. a year. The annual dividend of the fund is 111,8431.; that leaves a surplus of 63,5231., which by the Act of last Session-the Suitors' in Chancery Relief Act-was directed to be carried over to the next fund, that is, the Suitors' Fee Fund. My Lords, the Suitors' Fee Fund is a fundas the very name of it intimates-which arises from fees imposed by the authority of Parliament, and payable by the suitors. That balance of 63,5231. came in aid of that fund, and the sum which this year will have to be provided for as charges upon the fee fund will amount to 157,450l. Then, if you take the balance which is to be carried to the credit of the fee fund, 63,5231., that will leave an amount of 93,9277., to be levied upon all the Suitors in the Court of Chancery. Now, my Lords, I have no occasion to tell your Lordships that that is a very large sum; yet it is a small sum compared with the actual business done. My Lords, the amount of fees levied last year was 133,8421. The estimated amount, I have told your Lordships, of the fees this year is 93,2417.; that is, a saving of 40,6017.; and then there is to be added 3,8381. to that for fees hitherto received by the officers for their own use, which have been abolished, and which the suitors will not have to pay. That makes a sum of 44,4391., which would be the saving in the year. But, my Lords, the Court have received copy money; they have had to copy documents, and have charged a certain amount per folio as copy money, and that sum altogether has produced 10,000l. a year. The solicitors have complained very much of this. They thought it was taking their own proper business from them, and that they could do it better as between themselves and their clients, if it were left to them. Lords, it is now left to them, and they will have the benefit of it. The solicitors are themselves to furnish the copies, the expense of which will, as heretofore, amount to 10,000l. a year. Your Lordships will see it is not a saving to the suitors, because the suitors will still have to pay for copies; but it is not a sum raised by the Court in any manner upon fees which the Court imposes. The result is, that, taking that 10,000l. off the 44,4391., because the suitors will still have to pay it, there is a saving of 34,4397. in this year's estimate between the costs to be paid in the coming year by the general body of suitors, and the costs paid in last year. My My Lords, it is necessary, in order to show to your Lordships what I propose, to state to your Lordships, in some little detail, the particulars of the management of the fund under the care and in the name | by the Court, and stock transferred by the of the Accountant General. In the first Court, from or to the accounts of different place, I will observe that there has been parties. The result of that is as folsome complaint made, and justly enough-lows:-The stock purchased by the Court not as regards the officers, because they last year was 2,181,2491. The stock sold have been inclined to give every facility by the Court was 1,829,0097., making and to do more than officers generally have together 4,010,2581. The stock accepted been in the habit of doing-but complaints was 2,382,5917., the stock transferred have been made that the Accountant Gene- was 2,964,8691. Upon a comparison of ral's office is shut the whole of the long vaca- these figures, you will find that by keeption, and that when there are persons who ing that stock together in one great achave moneys to receive, it is a great hard-count, instead of keeping the accounts in ship that they cannot receive them. I the different causes separately, the Court have no doubt we shall be able to make arrangements which, without pressing as we ought not to press-improperly upon officers who are already sufficiently worked, will enable us to meet the just demands of the public, and to clear the Court from that imputation. I must now draw your Lordships' attention particularly to the state of the Funds standing in the name of the Accountant General. The Accountant General has at this moment standing in his name the sum of 48,015,8261. stock-an enormous sum to be under the jurisdiction and under the care of the Court; and I have the satisfaction of telling your Lordships that no human being has a claim upon that fund which it is not fully sufficient to answer. With all the burdens thrown upon them, the funds of the Court are more than sufficient to meet them. With a view of seeing whether I could not make an arrangement which should further ease the suitors and very much simplify the management, I have taken great pains to understand the accounts, and to see what further could be done. Taking this last year, the stock and cash "turned over" exceeded 21,000,000l. of money, and the accounts are upwards of 17,000 in number. Your Lordships will suppose, therefore, what without great care would be the difficulties incident to the management of such vast accounts. The amount of cash which was received by the Court during last year, including that received in respect of sales of securities, was 5,973,7691.; the amount of cash paid by the Court, including that paid upon purchases, was 5,993,5391., and I invite your Lordships' attention to the consideration how very nearly those two sums are balanced. Then we come to the stock. The stock, considered with respect to the dealings with it, is of two classes.jects which I have to mention, that I have The first class comprises stock purchased by the Court, and stock sold by the Court; the second class comprises stock accepted would not have occasion to buy for the not had occasion to apply to any officer of the Court, from the highest in office to the lowest in station, who has not most readily "That the system of brokerage on the suitors' fund should be discontinued, and that the Accountant General should be paid by a salary, and that only the balance of the stock required to be bought or sold in each day should be bought or sold by the broker, and that the one-eighth per cent on the funds transferred thereby saved to the suitor, and which, but for this alteration, would have been actually bought and sold, should be paid to the suitors' fee fund for the benefit of the afforded me every aid in his power. Now, | be necessary to sell some 100,000l. or my Lords, this subject was a few years ago 200,000l. stock. The transactions will, under the consideration of a Committee of of course, vary from day to day, but not the House of Commons. I will quote what to such an extent as to create any diffiis said in their Report, which is called culty. It is not until cash is actually "the Second Report of the Select Com- wanted that there will be any sale at mittee of the House of Commons upon Fees all. I believe the effect will be that in the Courts of Law and Equity" in May, the accounts will be simplified, vast ex1848. They there recommendpense will be saved, and the suitors will be benefited. I must mention to your Lordships that one difficulty thrown in the way of this arrangement was, that you would not ascertain what is the price to be paid or accepted by the different persons when there is no longer a real sale or purchase, but only one existing on paper. Fortunately, my Lords, we are enabled to meet the difficulty in the most satisfactory manner. The Bank of England takes the fluctuations every day of the price of each fund up to 1 o'clock in the day, and then it strikes the average. I propose, therefore, to take that 1 o'clock average as the price which every man who sells is to receive, and the price every man who buys is to offer. That will make it very fair as respects all parties, and it will bring this further advantage: Very often sums are ordered to be transferred at the price of a given day. For the computation the broker charges a percentage. The same 1 o'clock price will be adapted to those transactions, and so the suitor will be saved a very considerable sum. suitors." Now, my Lords, the Committee of the House of Commons having this subject under their consideration evidently took for their guidance the practice of the jobber. A jobber never goes home with more stock than he wishes to retain. They say, therefore, that the Accountant General should go each day, and buy or sell only the balance of the stock, and they say also that the saving thereby made ought to go to the Suitors' Fee Fund. I beg leave to differ from that Report upon both these points. I see no necessity whatever for the Accountant General so buying and selling every day or any day, unless cash is actually wanted for current pur- I have told your Lordships that the poses. If he wants cash, he must of course fund which pays so much of the expenses go and sell stock to obtain it; but with of the administration of justice in the 48,000,000l. of stock he never can want Court of Chancery consists of a sum to buy stock. The plan I propose has been which produces 110,000l. a year. That fully worked out upon paper, and I have has been produced by cash paid into Court no doubt will work equally well in practice. belonging to suitors which the suitor himIt does not involve going to the Bank at all, self has not required to be invested. I nor putting the party to the expense of a confess during a great part of my profesbroker; but, without that, everything may sional life I have thought that that was a be kept perfectly right and regular, and way in which the money of the suitors there will be a saving of 12,000l. a year ought not to be dealt with. The Court to the suitors. That is a saving which I of Chancery itself never permits the trusthink should go-not, as that Report pro- tee of a fund to derive any benefit from poses, for the benefit of the suitors gen- that fund. If he were to say, "This erally, but to the individual suitor. I money, of which I am trustee, I have incannot understand, if you can work a suit vested for my own benefit, taking the without expense, why you are to throw corresponding risk"-the Court would, that saving into the general fund. Why without any hesitation, declare it a breach should not the man himself have the bene- of trust, and compel him to give up all fit of it? You charge him dear enough the benefit which he might have received. for some things, and if you can let him Now the Court acts differently with this have other things a little cheaper, why fund; for, being itself a guardian and should he not have the benefit? By the plan I propose, then, upon the whole year's transactions it will probably only trustee of these moneys, because they are not required to be invested, the Court does not therefore decline to invest them; but the Court does invest them, and the interest and dividends are appropriated to its own purposes. The argument in favour of this is of this nature, that the Court acts as banker of the suitors, and, as ordinarily bankers are entitled to employ a balance left in their hands, so the Court itself is entitled to use for the benefit of the suitors generally the money which is thus intrusted to it. There is, no doubt, something in that argument; but I propose to adopt the following plan-that for the future any unemployed cash shall be laid out by the Court when it is not required to be invested, and the Court shall have the benefit of that investment for two years, treating the Court as a banker for that purpose; and if at the end of two years there shall not be any requisition not to lay out the money, the party entitled shall have, as from that period, the benefit and risk of the past investments. Very often this unemployed cash is not invested, owing to the neglect of other parties having no personal interest in it, a neglect of which the persons having such an interest, and who are thereby deprived of dividends to which they are entitled, have cause to complain. I believe that the course which I have suggested will meet the justice of the case without any inconvenience. My Lords, I have now reached another proposal which I hope will enable me to afford still further relief to suitors. There was an account moved for in the House of Commons in 1851, which I hold in my hand, which is called a "Return from the Accountant General, showing the amount of cash standing to different accounts in his name, and not dealt with during the periods of 10, 25, and 50 years respectively prior to the 1st day of August, 1850; and the amount of stock or other securities standing to different accounts in his name, the dividends on which have not been dealt with during the same periods respectively." It gives the cash and stock in different columns, which have "not been dealt with," as the expression is, during 10 years; those not dealt with during 25 years, and those not dealt with during 50 years. I have to explain to your Lordships that the first line, those not dealt with during 10 years, means not dealt with for 10 years, but within 25 years. The next line, not dealt with for 25 years, means not dealt with for 25 years, but within 50 years; and in the next line 50 years means 50 years and upwards. I wish to bring all those separate accounts together. Many of those sums are so circumstanced that the parties can never call for them-they are in the nature of unclaimed stock. The Court has dealt with them in this manner: Suppose there has been a sum invested: when the dividends are received they are carried to the dead account; so that if it should ever become a living account by a claim upon it by a person justly entitled, that man will find his original sum, with all the dividends received from time to time added to the capital sum he would be entitled to receive. But as fast as those dividends come in, they fall under the head of "cash not invested," and therefore they are invested in a common fund, the produce of which the Court applies to its own purposes. But I propose that in ease of the suitors-and only in ease of the suitors and for no other purpose-the Lord Chancellor shall himself investigate all the accounts, and shall direct that the dividends shall from time to time, instead of being invested, be applied to the expense of the administration of justice, so as to relieve the suitors. Such an investigation I propose shall take place every five years. Independently of other circumstances, the cash was originally invested at an average of 86, and the profit, therefore, on that stock would now be very large. That will yield a large sum in relief of the suitor; and I propose that it shall be applied to his relief, and ultimately to the relief also of the Consolidated Fund. My Lords, I cannot pass from this topic without declaring my belief, not only that it is impossible that justice can be anywhere administered more speedily than it can be, and will be, in the Court of Chancery, but moreover that the hour will come, and is not far distant, when the suitors in the Court of Chancery will have no costs whatever to pay for the administration of justice-irrespective, of course, of those costs which must always exist between solicitor and client-if it be considered expedient to wholly relieve them. I think I am entitled to say, that I have always been decidedly adverse to Government putting its hands upon this fund. I remember perfectly well in the other House, many years ago, my ear being caught by a conversation between Mr. Huskisson and Mr. Goulburn and Lord Ashburton, then Mr. Baring, the purport of which was, that the Government should, as it was said they |