HL Deb 08 April 1856 vol 141 cc628-9
THE LORD CHANCELLOR

said, that before proceeding to the Orders of the Day, he was anxious to set himself right with his noble and learned Friend (Lord St. Leonards), if indeed he had been considered by his noble and learned Friend to be in the wrong, upon a subject referred to by him on the night of the adjournment for the Easter holidays. On that occasion it would be remembered that a noble Marquess, not now present (She Marquess of Lansdowne), announced the presentation of the late Lord Truro's library to the House of Lords, and his noble and learned ed Friend (Lord Lyndhurst) having pronounced a warm but well-deserved panegyric upon that noble and learned Lord, he (the Lord Chancellor) added a few words—unnecessarily he admitted, but which he, nevertheless, thought in some degree called for—with the view of showing that the late Lord Truro had never had full justice accorded to him in the matter of the important reforms which had been effected in the Court of Chancery. What he said was, that soon after his appointment as Lord Chancellor, Lord Truro issued a Commission, from whose report those reforms emanated—two Bills having been introduced into the House of Lords for that purpose, and one in the House of Commons, the latter having reference chiefly to the finance of the Courts. Undoubtedly the two Bills by which the main reforms had been effected were introduced into their Lordships' House by his noble and learned Friend (Lord St. Leonards) when he succeeded the late Lord Truro in the Chancellorship, but he had always been under the impression that Lord Truro had given his attention to the preparation of those Bills. In this respect it appeared that he was supposed to have given to the late Lord Truro credit to which his noble and learned Friend (Lord St. Leonards) was entitled. He assured his noble and learned Friend that he had no sort of intention of depreciating his exertions in the slightest degree in the cause of Chancery reform; on the contrary, he stated distinctly that the merit of introducing and carrying the Bills through was due to his noble and learned Friend, though he had stated that the origin of the Bills was the Report of the Commission which was appointed at the instigation of Lord Truro.