§ LORD ST. LEONARDS, pursuant to notice, begged to ask the noble Earl opposite for information respecting the intentions of Her Majesty's Government with regard to the Funds and Property under the administration of the Court of Chancery. He would remind their Lordships that there was one thing which made the suitor in the Court of Chancery content with the present state of things as it affected his property, namely, that he knew his property was as safe as it was possible for any property in the country to be. He knew it was guarded, not merely by the ministers of justice, but by the rules of the court, which would not permit a profane hand to be laid upon it. He was induced to refer to this subject in consequence of some observations that had been recently made by the present Chancellor of the Exchequer; and he begged to remark that he had made the same objections in the House of Commons twenty-four years ago to any interference with the funds of the Court of Chancery as he would now make to any proposition of the present Government to make use, for any purpose, of the fund placed under the administration of that court. Let them once put their hands upon that fund, and help themselves to it, and they might depend upon it that an alarm would be spread about the country amongst the thousands of families and persons who are looking to the funds in that court for their future maintenance and support and for their outset in life, that would very soon make itself heard. It might be said that the funds were subject to fluctuations, and that it was the object of the Government 152 to prevent such fluctuations from taking place; but let the Government of the country help themselves to the funds of that court, and he would take upon himself to assert that there could not be a more dangerous precedent established, and that it would raise a flame in the country that could not be easily extinguished. Why was the suitor to be placed on a different footing from the ordinary holder of stock; and why should not the suitor have the same option as the rest of the world to accept or reject the terms of the Government? The noble and learned Lord, who was imperfectly heard, was understood, in conclusion, to object to a tax being put on the succession to real estates; and to say that in case such a tax was imposed it would be necessary to revalue all the land throughout the entire kingdom.
§ The EARL of ABERDEENsaid, that such a proposition was but the mere creation of the noble and learned Lord's own brain, for there was no intention of such a nature as that he referred to at present existing. Since the noble and learned Lord had given notice of his Motion, he (the Earl of Aberdeen) had consulted the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the subject. He presumed that the noble and learned Lord's speech was founded upon certain observations made by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in explanation of the financial operations which he had announced some days ago in the House of Commons. It was true that the right hon. Gentleman did advert to the large sums that were standing in the name of the Accountant General of the Court of Chancery, and that he said that he thought they were in an unsatisfactory state; that he had given much attention to the subject, and hoped that he might have some proposal hereafter to make on the subject; but at the same time his right hon. Friend took care to say that the Government had never considered the question, and that he was not in a condition to submit any measure upon the subject. The right hon. Gentleman, therefore, threw out the suggestion as merely a topic of his own, and upon which he alone was concerned. If, however, after having maturely considered the subject, his right hon. Friend should feel that he was in a condition to make such a proposal to the House of Commons, he (the Earl of Aberdeen) thought, without meaning the slightest offence, that the right hon. Gentleman's proposition would deserve quite as much 153 attention as the statement made by the noble and learned Lord.