SUITORS IN CHANCERY RELIEF BILL. (Hansard, 12 March 1852)

§ SIR W. P. WOOD

said, that, with reference to this Bill, which now stood for Committee, he was quite willing to leave it in the hands of the Government. The Bill had been founded upon the Report of the Commission, who had given great attention to the subject, and he trusted that there would not be any unnecessary delay in the passing of the Bill. There was also another Bill, which had come down from the other House, the object of which was to abolish the office of Secretary to Bankrupt Commissioners, which he hoped would also be passed. Both of those measures he looked upon as highly necessary, and he trusted that the Government would take them up, as also a Bill for abolishing the office of Masters in Chancery.

§ MR. WALPOLE

said, that, with reference to the first of the Bills to which the hon. and learned Gentleman had referred, the Lord Chancellor intended to make a statement that evening, in the other House of Parliament, which he trusted would be satisfactory to the country, as showing that his noble and learned Friend, who was as competent as any person alive, was willing and anxious to undertake a reform in the Court of Chancery; and the noble and learned Lord would, he (Mr. Walpole) understood, intimate his willingness and anxiety to undertake those measures of law reform which the late Government had originated. With regard to the Bill for the abolition of the office of Secretary of Bankrupts, the Government were prepared to take up the Bill. With reference to the Suitors in Chancery Relief Bill, he concurred in the anxiety expressed by his hon. and learned Friend that the Bill should be passed into law; but there was one portion of it—namely, whether suitors in the Court of Chancery should be charged a per centage of fees—to which he had objected when the Bill was before a Select Committee, and with reference to which he should propose an amendment. With this view he would propose that the Committee be postponed for a few days.