substituted the
following:--"That an humble address be presented to his majesty, that he
will be graciously pleased to give directions to the law-officers of the
crown in Ireland, to institute criminal proceedings against the persons
concerned in the cruelties detailed in the report of the commissioners,
so far as they may be amenable to law," This motion was agreed to _nem.
con._

DEBATES ON ALLEGED ABUSES IN CHANCERY.

A commission of inquiry had been appointed last session to inquire into
the abuses which were said to exist in the court of chancery. The report
of this commission had not yet been made, but nevertheless the subject
was again mooted in the commons. Two discussions on it took place in
the present parliament. The first of these was introduced on the 31st
of May, by Mr. J. Williams, on the occasion of presenting some petitions
complaining of particular proceedings in chancery. The speech which Mr.
Williams made was an attack not merely upon the court of chancery, but
upon the whole law of England. He particularly animadverted upon the
law of real property, upon which, notwithstanding, he declared himself
ignorant; and the most important part of his speech went to prove, that
courts of common law should cease to be so, and that the equitable and
legal jurisdiction should be confounded. The subject was brought under
discussion again on the 7th of June, by Sir Francis Burdett, who moved
that the evidence taken by the commission instituted to investigate
the practice of the court of chancery be printed. Mr. Peel opposed this
motion, because to print such evidence, without any accompanying report,
was contrary to the practice of the house; and that if it were printed,
the session was too far advanced to take the subject into consideration.
These attacks were chiefly made against Lord Eldon; and in the course of
the discussion, Sir W. Ridley made a remark to which his own party, from
whom those attacks came, would have done well to attend. "He wished," he
said, "as much as any man to see the system altered, but he must object
to the mode in which an individual was attacked night after night. He
was persuaded such attacks did no good; for Lord Eldon stood very high
in the estimation of the people of England." Mr. Brougham, however, did
not profit by this advice; for he broke forth into an uncalled-for and
indelicate attack upon Lord Gifford, who had been distinguished by the
patronage of the chancellor, a