of the Mutiny Act legalized "the infliction of punishments to any extent short of loss of limb." Yet there were some punishments awarded by Courts-martial which, if carried into effect, would be attended by loss of life. In these cases a surgeon, whose business it should be to heal and assuage the sufferings of mankind, was appointed to stand by, not to assuage the sufferings of the prisoner, but to see the utmost limit to which those sufferings could be endured without loss of life. Lord William Lennox, at that late hour of the evening would confine himself to one or two observations, but he could not listen to a sentiment expressed by the hon. member for Rye, who had preceded him— that if corporal punishment was not abolished, the discipline of the army could not be carried on. He thought such an expression from a military man would have a direct tendency to promote mutiny. He was no advocate for the lash, but he could not support so visionary a plan as that brought forward to abolish corporal punishment all over the globe; it was impracticable; in countries where spirits were cheap, the whole army would be in a state of insubordination if the punishment were withdrawn. Solitary confinement was inefficacious; besides, a man's pay accumulated, and the moment he was released, he again got into the same state of inebriety. Corporal punishment was Mr. Mark Philips said, he had come down to the House prepared to vote for the Resolution of the hon. and gallant Member; but the arguments which he had heard in support of the conduct of Government, in this affair, were so just and persuasive as to warrant him in, at least, suspending that vote. He believed Government were anxious to do their best; and believing this he should suspend his vote, to give them an opportunity, before an-degrading, and yet many there were who other year and another renewal of the Mutiny Act came round, to complete the arrangements they doubtless had under their consideration. Mr. Hawes also stated, that he had been induced to change his mind since he entered the House, and should suspend the vote he had intended to give against Ministers upon the present occasion. Captain Curteis was also about to give a different vote to the one he had given last year. He should now vote for the Motion of the hon. and gallant member for Barnstaple, it being his firm conviction that unless some alteration was effected in the present system of military punishment, the army could not be maintained in a state of subordination. Mr. Hume would candidly say, that if his Majesty's Government had the power to abolish the practice of flogging, he would leave the matter in their hands. It was because they had not the power that flogging was not done away with, and their intentions were not honestly carried into effect. He would say, that no such order as that which had been adverted to had been carried into effect; and why was this? Was it not because the Commanderin-Chief ruled the whole country, and did what he pleased-and because his Majesty's Government had not the power to act, as, he believed, they wished to do? The House would certainly not do their duty unless they compelled the military authorities to abolish this system of punishment. had turned out good soldiers after receiv- The House divided on the Resolution- List of the AYES. ENGLAND. Aglionby, H. A. Places, for Relief.-By the Earl of MORLEY, from the Tithes.-By Earl GREY, from the Hand-loom Weavers of land. By the Duke of RICHMOND, from Frensham, for ber of Places, for Relief to the Dissenters. The Lord Chancellor said, he was exceedingly obliged to the noble Baron for giving him an opportunity of offering to their Lordships an explanation on the point to which the noble Baron had referred. The noble Baron had stated, that no appeals had been heard in the present Session, and that the usual course of that House had been not to let so late a period pass by without attending to that branch. of business. Perhaps the noble Baron would pardon him, when he said, that this circumstance did not arise from any want of a disposition on his part, to apply himself to the performance of that particular duty; and, he believed that, after he had explained, the noble Baron would himself admit, that he had not been idle during those forty days to which the noble Baron had referred. He believed, that such would to be the fact, if the noble prove Baron inquired into the subject, provided he made his inquiry in a quarter where any knowledge whatever on this point was to be found, and where those who possessed that knowledge were willing to impart it plainly and fairly. Such, he was certain, would be the result, if application were made in any office where such knowledge existed, and where also a disposition was entertained to tell the noble Baron the truth. He was here supposing, that the parties applied to had both the will and the power to do that which was just and proper, and if they had, then the noble Lord would find, from their statement, that during the whole of those forty days, excepting Sundays, he had been employed, he would boldly venture to say, for a greater number of hours than any one of his predecessors, during a similar period, in the administration of justice, APPEALS IN THE HOUSE OF PEERS.] Lord Ellenborough, in rising to move the adjournment of the House, would take the opportunity of asking the noble and learned Lord on the woolsack for some explanation with respect to the very un-be that predecessor who he might. On usual state of the judicial business which was waiting for their Lordships' decision. He believed, that it had been the almost invariable custom to proceed with appeals as soon as Parliament had assembled; forty days, however, had now elapsed, and nothing had, in that respect, been done. The number of appeals at present amounted to 140, a larger arrear than had occurred in any year since 1830. Under these circumstances, he hoped that some satisfactory explanation would be given of this very unusual and very uncommon delay in the judicial business, which was, in his opinion, as improper as it was unusual. VOL. XXII. {Third} Series that point he challenged comparison, and he demanded inquiry. During those forty days he persisted in getting through most important business in the Court of Chancery, and it was a melancholy, an undeniable truth, that he could not be in two places at once. He had sat in the Court of Chancery, during those forty days, seven, and sometimes (not unfrequently either) eight, hours a-day. He never had sat during that time for so little a space as six hours, except upon two days, when he attended upon his Majesty, and one of those days was, when the Recorder's Report was presented. He never threw away time. He never absented himself from K his court, except when it was absolutely | establishment of the Vice-Chancellor's necessary. Even on her Majesty's birth- Court, in 1813, the Court of Chancery day he did not make an exception. On had become, in a great measure, a Court that occasion he might, following the ex- of Appeal from other jurisdictions. He ample of some of his predecessors, who was astonished, considering all the circumdid not open the court at all on that day, stances, when it was stated, that he had have suspended the performance of his decided thirty-two cases. If he had been duties. He did no such thing, but sat in asked the question, he should have been the Court of Chancery on that day from inclined to think that he had not decided ten till two o'clock. With that excep- half-a-dozen of cases. For there was tion, he had, on every one of those forty not a lad who had been six months in days (Sundays excluded), sat never less a Chancery barrister's office who did than six hours, and he had sat sometimes not know that the Court of Chancery had eight hours, and he was never in court become, a Court of Appeals, of re-hearings, one minute later than ten o'clock. On and of motions. From the time that Lord the score, therefore, of a proper and in- Eldon brought in his Bill, he repeated, the dustrious attention to his duties, his con- Court of Chancery had become a Court science entirely acquitted him. He would of Appeal, of re-hearings, and of motions, not trouble their Lordships by recapitulat- and not of original causes. But was the ing what he afterwards had to do at deciding upon appeals nothing? Did their night; but, if the noble Baron would move Lordships do any thing else but decide (and he would gladly second the Motion) appeals; and was it not just as rational to for a return of the number of cases reproach their Lordships as to reproach him which he had disposed of in the time men- with not hearing original causes? But tioned, and for an account of the number of their Lordships, he must remark too, were cases in arrear, and now standing over for enabled, by receiving judicial assistance judgment, then it would be made apparent from various quarters, to go through a that his time had not been idly or unpro- considerable number of appeals; but the fitably spent. He believed, if such a re- Court of Chancery had no such resource; turn were produced, it would be found, and the business of Chancery stood stock that with one exception, all the cases now still immediately the head of the Court left standing for judgment were those which it, either to hear appeals in that House, or had been heard during the last week. If to attend to any other business. It was the noble Baron would extend his inquiry therefore the bounden duty of whoever held over the whole period of his holding the the Great Seal to take care, in the first seals, and ask for the number of cases instance, that the business of the Court of which he had tried, and the number of Chancery was not suffered to stand still,— motions which he had despatched in that which, after all, was the great point. If time, he should feel greatly obliged to he wanted any authority in support of that him; for he had heard, with much aston- proposition, he thought the most unquesishment, that it had been said, that, since tionable authority would be the advice he was in office, he had only decided thirty-solemnly tendered in that place by the two cases, while the Vice-Chancellor had got through 900, and the Master of the Rolls had adjudicated in he knew not how many instances. But those who made such charges ought, in the first instance, to apply to persons who knew something of the subject, and who, moreover, were willing to tell, without exaggeration, what they knew. Those who put forward such statements derived their information either from ignorant persons, or from those who were wilfully practising on their credulity. Much was said about the small number of original cases decided in the Court of Chancery; but those who indulged in such observations forgot the number of appeals decided in that Court. Since the noble Earl who had so long presided in the Court of Chancery. That noble Earl had emphatically said to his (Lord Brougham's) predecessor, that so long as he was Chancellor, he should, above all things, never forget that the place, more than any other, in which he should be found, was the Court of Chancery. With respect to his duties in that House, he must say, that other noble Lords had received assistance which had been denied to him. He had the help of a noble and learned Lord (Lord Wynford) which was the more valuable, because it was, on all occasions, tendered to him with the greatest possible kindness and good-will. The assistance of that noble and learned Lord was indeed invaluable to any individual who was called upon to pronounce judicial decisions in that House. But, with that exception, he certainly had not received the same assistance of which his predecessors had availed themselves. He recollected when, for nearly half-a-year, the late Chief Baron (Baron Alexander) had sat in that House for the then Chancellor, because his presence was not required in the Court of Exchequer. That, however, no longer was the case; for his noble and learned friend, the present Chief Baron, had stated, that the business of the Court of Exchequer had so greatly increased as to equal that of the Court of King's Bench. That was the fact; and the consequence was, that the business of the Court demanded the undivided attention of the noble and learned Lord. It was all very well to receive assistance from the Court of Exchequer when the Judges of that Court only sat down to get up again, like a covey of partridges in the field, as was the saying in Westminster Hall; but the case was now altered; the business of that Court had been very much extended; and the consequence was, that he could derive no assistance from that source. Again, he remembered that the Master of the Rolls formerly sat in that House for a great part of the Session as Deputy Speaker, and gave his utmost attention to their Lordships' judicial proceedings. That assistance he was deprived of, because the Master of the Rolls no longer confined himself to evening sittings. For the despatch of business in his own Court, that learned individual now sat in the morning, so that he could receive no assistance from him. During one Session, he recollected that Lord Redesdale and Lord Gifford had assisted in deciding appeals in that House; and certainly a great mass of judicial business had been gone through in that Session. At that time the Lord Chancellor was enabled to avail himself of great and powerful assistance, which was not accessible to him, and he had stated very plainly how and why. But, let it not be supposed that, though he was more unfavourably situated than his predecessors, he would ever relax in those attempts which he had made, and which he would still endeavour to make, for the purpose of keeping down the judicial business in that House. He would, with their Lordships' assistance, continue to persevere; and, perhaps, he might be permitted to say, that, notwithstanding the disadvantages that were opposed to him, he had, since he took the Great Seal, gone through a very large mass of judicial business in that House. Not certainly in any one year so great a portion of business as had been gone through in the year to which he had already alluded, when Lord Gifford sat as deputy to Lord Eldon; but still, leaving that great year out of the calculation, he would fearlessly state, that in the first year in which he had occupied the woolsack, he had transacted very nearly as much business. There might not have been heard quite the same number of cases, but still, he believed, there was very little difference. He mentioned this as an extraordinary circumstance, because, in the year to which he had alluded, Lord Gifford sat day after day. He was at that time Master of the Rolls; and, as he only sat in the evening, he had nothing else to do in the forepart of the day. In the first year of his holding office, he had heard, in the Court of Chancery, double* the number of causes that had been heard in any one preceding year. On that point he challenged investigation. Let the papers be produced, and it would be found, that, of appeals and rehearings, he had disposed of upwards of 100 in that year. In the same year he had decided in that House, without any assistance, except upon two days, when his noble and learned friend sat in his place, a greater portion of business than was ever heard in their Lordships' House, with the exception of that particular year when Lord Gifford gave himself up almost exclusively to the appeals, which were argued before their Lordships. He must say, therefore, that there was no man against whom less cause of complaint existed, with respect to the attentive and sedulous discharge of his duties, than the individual who then addressed their Lordships. With respect to this lapse of forty days, to which the noble Baron had alluded, he must observe, that it would have been attended with the greatest possible inconvenience to the Court of Chancery, not only to those who practised there, but to the suitors before their Lordships' House, if their Lordships had at once gone on hearing causes, instead of postponing those hearings for a short time. He thought he could, in five minutes, prove to any noble Lord, that in proceeding as he had done, he had taken the wiser and the better course. There were two branches of judicial businessthe one consisted of Scotch appeals, which were generally very intricate; the other consisted of English and Irish appeals. With respect to Scotch appeals, the case stood exactly thus:-He had heard so many Scotch appeals in the last Session, in the Session before, and in the first Session that he held the Great Seal, as rendered it necessary to stop at the end of the Session of 1833. They were getting on too fast with the Appeal-list, and the parties, in many instances, were not ready. Such was the fact. He offered to sit for three or four days, to proceed with these appeals; but the parties were not ready. They were not aware that such great progress had been made; they were, in truth, overtaken, and the consequence was, that, when called on, the parties were not prepared to proceed. Now, it was a question with many judges, whether it was expedient to press so closely upon the Appeal-list; and he would state on what foundation that doubt rested. When a party had lost his cause in court, he frequently worked himself up into the belief, that that cause was nevertheless a good one; his advocate, of course, would contend that the argument which he had adduced was irresistible, and, in that frame of mind, the first thing that struck the defeated party was to lodge an appeal. The advocate said, "My argument was perfectly right; therefore, I advise you to appeal at once." The client responded, I am sure what you assert is the fact; and my idea is, that we ought to appeal." Whereon an appeal was rashly proceeded with, and considerable expense was incurred. But it did not follow, that after six or eight months were given to the client to reflect-it did not follow that, after a considerable time was allowed to the counsel to reconsider his opinion, and to consult men learned in the profession on the subject-it did not follow, under these circumstances, that the party would persist in going forward; and, indeed, nothing was more common than for a certain number of appeals to be dropped after a given time. But, if the Court of Appeal pressed forward before the parties had time to cool and come to their senses on the subject, those appeals, that otherwise might have come to nothing, would be forced on, to the great delay of other business, to the great inconvenience of the Court, and to the great expense of par pur ties, who, if you had not gone on so quick, would not have proceeded further than to lodge an appeal. Therefore, he had posely abstained from proceeding with the Scotch appeals. Instead of going out of town for a few days, as he had done in the last recess, if he had remained, he could have easily disposed of all those Scotch appeals which he had purposely abstained from taking, and left, with respect to them, no arrear at all; but, for the reason which he had stated, he deemed it advisable not to press them forward. On the 4th of February, the Parliament met, which was not an immaterial circumstance with respect to the hearing of English and Irish appeals. That was out of term, which concluded on the 25th of January. Out of term, the Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor sat in Lincoln's-inn, and the Master of the Rolls in Chancerylane. These courts absorbed all the Chancery practitioners, to whom the suitors in English and Irish appeals necessarily resorted for assistance. It was physically impossible, with respect, at least, to the leaders in the causes, that their assistance could be obtained in appeal cases at Westminster, when their duties detained them in distant courts. What, then, was the necessary result of the course which had been adopted? Why, it was manifest, that it was a most convenient arrangement, not only for the Bar, but for the suitors, that the latter should have the benefit of the talents and experience of those professional men, whose services they would otherwise be deprived of. It was evidently an advantage that he should go on sitting at Lincoln's-inn without losing one single minute of those forty and odd days, and thus keeping down the Chancery arrear, if such it could be called, for he believed he could dispose of all the causes in a week, and it should be observed, that those which constituted the apparent arrear were the growth of only the last fortnight. He contended, that with respect to the Scotch appeals he had acted wisely in stopping, and not proceeding in too rapid a course. With respect to the English and Irish appeals, he thought it would be much better for the suitors, that some little delay should take place, rather than they should be deprived of the assistance of able men. On the 15th of April next, all the branches of Chancery would be open, and transacting business under the same roof, that of |