nt, called "Barebones"--the most zealous
of all Parliaments probably--the Court of Chancery in England was in
a state that was really capable of no apology--no man could get up and
say that that was a right court. There were, I think, fifteen thousand
or fifteen hundred--(laughter)--I don't really remember which, but
we shall call it by the last (renewed laughter)--there were fifteen
hundred cases lying in it undecided; and one of them, I remember, for
a large amount of money, was eighty-three years old, and it was going
on still. Wigs were waving over it, and lawyers were taking their
fees, and there was no end of it, upon which the Barebones people,
after deliberation about it, thought it was expedient, and commanded
by the Author of Man and the Fountain of Justice, and for the true
and right, to abolish the court. Really, I don't know who could have
dissented from that opinion. At the same time, it was thought by those
who were wiser, and had more experience of the world, that it was a
very dangerous thing, and would never suit at all. The lawyers began
to make an immense noise about it. (Laughter.) All the public, the
great mass of solid and well-disposed people who had got no deep
insight into such matters, were very adverse to it, and the president
of it, old Sir Francis Rous, who translated the Psalms--those that
we sing every Sunday in the church yet--a very good man and a wise
man--the Provost of Eton--he got the minority, or I don't know whether
or no he did not persuade the majority--he, at any rate, got a great
number of the Parliament to go to Oliver the Dictator, and lay
down their functions altogether, and declare officially with their
signature on Monday morning that the Parliament was dissolved.

The thing was passed on Saturday night, and on Monday morning Rous
came and said, "We cannot carry on the affair any longer, and we
remit it into the hands of your Highness." Oliver in that way became
Protector a second time.

I give you this as an instance that Oliver felt that the Parliament
that had been dismissed had been perfectly right with regard to
Chancery, and that there was no doubt of the propriety of abolishing
Chancery, or reforming it in some kind of way. He considered it, and
this is what he did. He assembled sixty of the wisest lawyers to be
found in England. Happily, there were men great in the law--men who
valued the laws as much as anybody does now, I suppose. (A laugh.)
Oliver said to the