§ MR. J. G. PHILLIMOREsaid, he wished to inquire of the hon. and learned Gentleman the Attorney General whether Her Majesty's Ministers would object to institute an inquiry (by a Committee of that House or otherwise) into the means by which the distinction between suits at Law and in Equity, which had been removed from the jurisprudence of the United States, might be abolished?
THE ATTORNEY GENERALsaid, he should be exceedingly glad to promote any inquiry which would be likely to terminate in a result so desirable as the abolition of the distinction which now existed between the principle on which suits at Law and Equity were founded—for that he believed would be the foundation stone of any effectual reform in our system of jurisprudence. But it did not appear to the Government that it was a subject which should be considered by a Committee of that House. The hon. and learned Gentleman's question included the words "or otherwise," and he could say that when the Department of Public Justice, which was 1247 under the consideration of the Government should come into operation, the subject would be one which it would have to consider.