§ Mr. Sugdenrose amidst 841 much confusion. He entreated the patient hearing of the House for a few minutes. He begged to remind them, that if they were sincere in their desire for legal reform, they could not prove their sincerity better than by devoting a portion of their attention to those who were willing, while they pointed out abuses, to furnish a remedy for them. When the present laws were first framed, and for some time afterwards, the system worked well; but new wants had arisen, and what the country now required was, that they should apply to the laws, the machinery of latter times, and take all the benefit of that machinery without its inconveniences. These were objects which he was very ready to promote to the utmost of his ability. One of the chief wants was a cheap and summary conveyance of property, which, in many cases, was extremely tedious and expensive. He would not enter into all the cases, but content himself with mentioning a few which ought to be provided for. If a man sold an estate and died before he made the conveyance, the court of chancery had not the power of calling on the heir of the deceased to convey. Lord Eldon suggested, that this should be amended; and it might be done very beneficially. Then again, in the cases of charity estates, it constantly happened that when they were vested in trustees, who must die in course of time, the replacing those trustees was attended with great expense both of property and time. He knew of a charity estate, the rent-charge of which was only 7l. a year. The commissioners directed that new trustees should be appointed; it became necessary to discover the heirs of the last trustees, which was attended with so much difficulty, that the expenses amounted to 600l. and no one was to blame. This sounded very like an abuse, but it was not one. If the property had been worth millions the expense would have been no more. This was one of the incidents to which property was liable. What he would propose was, that in the case of charity estates, a common petition should be presented for the appointment of new trustees; that a reference should be made to the master, who should be required to insert an advertisement in the London Gazette, and another in the paper of the county where the heirs of the late trustees were supposed to reside; and that if those heirs did not come forward within a month, or prove their 842 pedigree within another month, then the court should have the power of appointing two new trustees. By this simple mode considerable benefit would be produced.—It had often been said, and always in ignorance, that the court of Chancery had immured within the fleet prison many persons who ought never to have been sent there. The fact was, that the rules of the court were the law of the court, and the chancellor had not the power of refusing to commit a man who had been guilty of a contempt. It was absurd, therefore, to blame the court for a practice which parliament alone had the power of altering. Many cases had occurred, in which men had been called upon to execute deeds; but, ignorantly believing that if they continued in prison they should not lose their estate, and that the court had no further power beyond committing them, they remained there for years. There was a recent case of a man, who, under this erroneous idea, had remained in prison thirty years, but being told by a gentleman of the bar how the matter really stood, he executed the deed immediately. What he would propose in such cases would be, to give to the court the power of performing at once what it had the power of compelling a man to do at last. If an order were made for the execution of a deed, and the man refused to obey that order, then let some officer of the court execute it. Of course the sanction of parliament would be necessary for this purpose. He believed that these alterations would go a great way towards remedying the evils which had been so long complained of. He would move for leave to bring in a bill, "for repealing the act of 6 Geo. 4. c. 74. relating to property in infants and lunatics, and amending the provisions thereof."
§ Mr. H. Twisssupported the motion, but trusted that the amendments projected by his learned friend went further than the mere measure before the House.
§ Mr. Sugdenby no means intended that what he was doing at present should preclude him from going further: but he was anxious not to embark in too wide a field at once: for he was sure that whatever was done in haste would be done imperfectly.
§ Mr. M. A. Taylorwas grateful even for the little good promised by this bill; but it would be necessary to go a great deal further. Upon the subject of the contempts of court, no complaint could fairly 843 be made by persons who were only in custody because they refused to execute deeds which the court required that they should execute. But these matters were trifling points in a great system, which required thorough reform. Unless increased facilities were given generally to the suitors in chancery, the constitution of that court would remain perfectly unsuited to the wants of the public: and unless he received an assurance that it was intended to take some decided stop to that effect, he should shortly feel it his duty to address the House specifically upon the subject.
§ Leave was given to bring in the bill.