Counsel. Most certainly, my Lord!

His Lordship drew back in his seat, confounded at the pertinacity of Counsel, simply through his ignorance of the hackneyed, the notorious, and very fundamental principle of equity, that "it considers that to be done, which is directed to be done!"*

We wish, for the credit of the country, that this were a solitary instance! It is painful thus to have cause for exposing Lord Brougham's ignorance of that system which he has so rashly undertaken to administer, so presumptuously to overturn-but we think it our duty to do so. We belong ourselves to the English Bar; and, in common with our brethren, feel indignant at the spirit of ungenerous, virulent depreciation towards us,- of mean sycophancy towards "the people" which his Lordship has manifest ed in his recent attacks upon our honour and independence. Lord Brougham, as he was always-and is-ready to snatch at any opportunity of pointing out the Aristocracy to the hatred and contempt of the people, so groans in spirit to render the same kindly offices to the Baror render it subservient to his own purposes. Verily, he that hates "those damned attorneys," may yet be anxious to bribe the Bar! Lord Brougham and his friends have one ready answer to every exposure of his ignorance and quackery, that "the profession" are "interested"

in opposing him. Interested! What would his Lordship think of a gaping ploughman finding his way into the midst of complicated steam machinery, and forthwith finding fault with it, and directing alterations in every part of it? If the engineers were to protest against his interference, and represent his incompetence, he would, with Lord Brougham, find a ready answer—“Oh, I daresay I know nothing about it! Very likely! But can you get my partisans to believe you-you, who are so deeply interested in continuing the abuses I am correcting?"-" Deeply interested!" quoth the indignant engineers-" of course we are! We know the machinery, its working, and uses-but do you?" We affirm boldly that Lord Brougham is utterly unfit for his office-none knows it better than he; and hence his anxiety to "shuffle off the mortal coil" of business, to sever the political and legal functions of the Lord Chancellor. These latter, the newspapers inform us, his Lordship coolly offered to-Sir Edward Sugden-an amende, perhaps to the victim of his former insult. Sir Edward will not be the man we take him for, if he accepts them!

One of the grounds on which Lord Brougham founds his frequent appeals to popular commiseration, is "the falsehoods which are vented touching his disposal of the patronage of office." Without ripping up every appointment he has madeand we are tempted to do so-we shall glance at one or two instances of his disposal of patronage, glaringly at variance with his deliberately formed, at least deliberately expressed, opinions on that subject, as " Mr" Brougham. Thus fairly and ably he spoke on the 7th February, 1828, in the House of Commons:

"The great object of every government, in selecting the judges of the land, should be to select the most skilful and learned men in their profession."-" There ought not to be, in choosing judges from the bar,

any exclusion or restriction. He alone ought to be selected in whom talent, integrity, and experience most abound, and are best united. The office of a judge is of so important and responsible a nature, that one should suppose the members of Government would naturally require that they should be at liberty to make their selection from the whole field of the profession-that they would themselves claim to have the whole field open to their choice. Who would not believe that a Ministry would not eagerly seek to have all men before them, when their object must be to choose the most able and accomplished? *** But is this the case? Is all the field really open? Are there no portions of the domain excluded from the selector's authority? True, and no law prevents it *** but a custom, more honoured in the breach than the observance,' that party, as well as merit, must be studied in these appointments! It must be admitted, that if a man belongs to a party opposed to the views of Government, if which the best and ablest of men, and the fittest for the Bench, may well be -he is known for opinions hostile to the Ministry, he can expect no promotion rather let me say, the country has no chance of his elevation to the Bench, whatever be his talents, or how conspicuously soever he may shine in all the most important departments of the profession. In Scotland, it is true, a more liberal policy has been pur. sued, and the Right Honourable Gentleman opposite (Sir Robert Peel) has done himself great honour by recommending Mr Gillies, and Mr Cranstoun, and Mr Clerk-all as well known for party men there as Lord Eldon is here-though, unfortunately, their party has been what is now once more termed the wrong side; but all men of the very highest eminence among the professors of the law. But, sir, what is our system? If, at the present moment, the whole of Westminster-Hall were to be called on, in the event of any vacancy unfortunately occurring among the Chief Justices, to name the man best suited to fill it-to point out the individual whose talents and integ

rity best deserve the situation, whose judicial exertions were most likely to shed blessings on his country-can any one doubt for a moment whose name would be echoed on every side? No, there could be no question as to the individual to whom would point the common consent of those most competent to judge. But then he is known as a party-man-and all his merits, were they even greater than they are, would be in vain extolled by his profession, and in vain desiderated by his country. I REPROBATE THIS MISCHIEVOUS SYSTEM by which the Empire loses the services of some of the ablest, the most learned, and the most honest men within its bounds.” *

It is to be presumed that the frank and upright speaker did not wish to point the attention of the House to himself, as the person possessing such eminent qualifications for the Bench-though this would seem questionable-since he finds it necessary to say, shortly after, "I cannot take the situation of a judge-I cannot afford it." Oh, no, the eye of this disinterested and philosophical reformer was, it seems, all the while, fixed on the glistening summit of the profession!

"No sparrow's hop from twig to twig was his

Whose powerful pinions seek the higher air!"

The House-the whole profession -assumed, and correctly, that SIR JAMES SCARLETT was the individual alluded to. This consummate lawyer has long occupied the proudest station at the Bar-and none knew his admirable qualities more thoroughly than his sincere and eloquent panegyrist. Well!-Since the delivery of this speech, the two Chief Justices have fallen vacant, and been filled up by two different Administrations. Under that of the Duke of Wellington, the Chief. Justiceship of the Common-Pleas, by the direction of Lord Lyndhurst, was adorned by the elevation of Sir Nicholas Tindal

of whose character, as a lawyer, both practical and constitutional, and qualities as a man, it is needless to speak, seeing they speak for them.

"Lips are now forbid to speak

That once familiar word " in the ears of Lord Grey ! Why ? Because Littledale, Parke, Patteson, Taunton-the eminent puisne judges -were, one of them, entitled to the preference? No, but Sir James had perpetrated a certain enormityhad committed the "sin never to be forgiven" by the present Ministry -he had presumed to oppose the Reform Bill, skilfully but temperately. Did that impugn his legal knowledge? blot out his thirty years' experience? warp his discretion and independence, and so render it not only impolitic, but unsafe, to invest him with the judicial ermine? Did that change the opinions "echoed on every side of Westminster Hall," as to his legal fitness for the office? Did that afford ground for " depriving the country of the chance of his elevation?" Oh no! Was he, then, becoming childish,—were his faculties "falling into the sere and yellow leaf?" Oh no! Witness him at this moment, the most active, brilliant, and powerful advocate at the bar! No, Lord Brougham bethought himself of Sir Thomas Denman his coadjutor in the Queen's trial-the King's Attorney. General! He was the lucky winner in the Government lottery of law prizes, and he sacrificed his prodigious practice at the bar to take the premier seat on the Bench, in order to

"guide, control, correct" those young and inexperienced lawyers, Littledale, Parke, Patteson, and Taunton! God forbid that we should say aught to impeach Sir Thomas Denman, one of the most courteous, amiable, and dignified gentlemen that ever graced the seat of justice, one whose personal qualities have long endeared him to every member of the profession, as his eloquence and elegant acquirements have won him applause from the public; but surely the blooming bouquet of such accomplishments was but ill suited to flourish upon the bleak barren eminence of the ChiefJusticeship-in an atmosphere of law "chilly and ungenial!" Though we sincerely love Sir Thomas, we shall not flatter him, and therefore give utterance here to the indignant astonishment of the profession that he should have been selected, in preference to Sir James Scarlett-to ten, or even twenty others! Suppose the Duke of Wellington-suppose Lord Lyndhurst had "done this deed," what blighting diatribes should we presently have heard from Mr Henry Brougham in the House of Commons! How the press would have rung with execrations of such outrageous partiality and favourit ism!

But perhaps a subsequent occasion would enable Lord Brougham to vindicate his character as an impartial dispenser of judicial preferment,-to look into his own speech, and act upon the principles it developes. Let us see. Mr Baron Bayley-clarum et venerabile nomen retires from the Exchequer, and and MR JOHN WILLIAMS, K. C., is popped into his place! Think of that; meditate upon it; append a memorandum of the appointment, as an illustrative note to some future edition of the speech from which we have been quoting-which we are illustrating! Let it serve as