Lord Ellenboroughwished to put a question to the noble and learned Lord upon the woolsack. It would be in the recollection of the House that a measure had been some time since under their consideration, the object of which was to facilitate the administration of justice in the Court of Chancery, for which purpose it empowered the Lord Chancellor to form new rules for regulating the proceedings of that court. Now, he wished to know from the noble and learned Lord, whether any such rules had yet been prepared? It was the more necessary that attention should be called to the subject, as the law provided, that all such rules should remain on the Table of the House for at least thirty-six days of actual sitting. Sup- 1478 posing that the Session of Parliament were in the present year to he prolonged to the usual period, there would remain only three weeks time within which there could arise any practical advantage from the presentation of any draught of those proposed rules to the House.
§ The Lord Chancellorsaid, the House was of course aware that there must be no ordinary difficulty in making new arrangements of the nature to which the noble Baron's question referred. He assured their Lordships that his attention had been earnestly and seriously directed to the subject; he had called in the assistance of the other judges of the Court, and the preparation of the rules had been to a great extent already matured, but yet not sufficiently so to admit of their being laid before Parliament. He admitted, that it was of great importance to complete the preparation of these rules as speedily as possible, but he was sure that the House would agree with him that to render them useful and efficient was a matter of still greater importance.