The Long Vacation began yesterday, and her Majesty's Judges have
dispersed, leaving only two in town to dispose of urgent matters relating to the liberty of the subject or injunctions. Both the public and the junior Bar are grumbling even more loudly than is customary at this season. The former like swiftly. moving justice, such as that administered at the Old Bailey, where a gaol delivery takes place every month ; and they cannot see the propriety of some score of Judges simultaneously stopping work for nearly three months, while a thousand cases are waiting for trial in Middlesex and London. The latter dislike the Long Vacation, because it keeps work in the bands of leaders, who can leave town for Switzerland or Scotland without the risk of losing a brief. All the newspapers have told the Judges that they must shorten the Long Vacation, or take their holidays as ordinary mortals do. But our Judicial Obstructionists have not the fear of the newspapers before their eyes, and the pre- sent race are likely to do as they have done, unless the Lord Chancellor peremptorily interferes. Meantime, he has been talk- ing in the House of Lords about the possibility of the Govern- ment increasing the judicial staff, or doing something more for disappointed suitors, who cannot understand why legal reform should be as elusive a goal as the ideal gun or ship.
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