nd was then deputy-speaker of the house
of lords. The motion was rejected by a majority of one hundred and
fifty-four against seventy-three. A remarkable circumstance in all the
debates which took place on the court of chancery was, that none of its
assailants ventured beyond general declaration. No part of the system in
which the alleged evil lay was specified, and no remedy was propounded.
All that these discussions could lead to, therefore, was to render the
court of chancery the subject of popular odium, and to lower the general
administration of justice in the public estimation.

REGULATION OF THE SALARIES OF THE JUDGES.

During this, session the chancellor of the exchequer brought forward a
measure for augmenting the salaries of the judges, and at the same time
for prohibiting the sale of those ministerial offices which the chiefs
of the respective courts had been allowed so to dispose of. It was
proposed at first to allow the puisne judges L6,000 a year; but
the scheme ultimately adopted was to give L10,000 a year to the
chief-justice of the king's bench; L7,000 to the chief-baron of the
court of exchequer; L8,000 to the chief-justice of the court of common
pleas, and L5,500 to each of the puisne justices of the courts of
king's bench, common pleas, and the exchequer. This arrangement met with
considerable opposition, some of the members as Messrs. Hume, Denman,
and Hobhouse, arguing that the dignity of a judge did not depend upon
money, and that the cheapest mode of doing the judicial business of
the country was the best. On the contrary, Mr. Scarlett argued that the
arrangement was improper because it diminished the emoluments of the
lord chief-justice of England; and he moved an amendment, which was
lost, that the sum of L12,000; should be given to him. Mr. Brougham, in
a different spirit, proposed that L500 a-year should be taken from the
salary of the puisne judges, but that alteration was also rejected.

REJECTION OF THE UNITARIAN MARRIAGE ACT, ETC.

The Unitarian marriage act was this year again rejected, although
supported in the lords by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of
Lichfield, and Lord Liverpool. The same fate was awarded Mr. Serjeant
Onslow's bill for the repeal of the usury laws, though Mr. C. Wynne
stated that not only himself, but the chancellor of the exchequer,
and most of the cabinet ministers, were favourable to their abolition.
Ministers had left the house when the