15 JANUARY 1853, Page 12

IIIE FERRET AND THE RATS.

IT is 'without surprise and equally without displeasure that we learn the preparation of an organized resistance to the anticipated reform of the Ecclesiastical Courts. Without surprise, because re- sistance is a matter of course. Those who are about to clear out dark holes and cellars long abandoned to the prescribed tenants of such places, always anticipate a fierce resistance. Without dis- pleasure, because it is always satisfactory when the rats come to the month of the hole : it expedites the work. The resistance is inevit- able, and it will make the issue much plainer to the ultimate judge, the public ; a judge who may be said to be quite ready with the latent verdict in a self-evident case. The Common-Law Courts have been improved; Chancery, which needed reform yet more, na- turally came later ; and now we are ready for the Ecclesiastical Courts, ivhich need purification most of all. The proctors there- fore may meet; and we can only thank them for preparing to consolidate the case on their side so that it can be handled most conveniently and expeditiously.

Not that we anticipate a settlement at a blow. The proctors are not to be dissected in such a hurry. The case is clear, the decree only awaits the sign-manual, but it will take time to dispose of the forms. The public knows all about it, and so do the men who will he chargeable with the work of conducting the reform ; but a large amount of lumber is not carted away in an hour ; especially when those intrusted with the removal have scruples that make them careful not to hurt anybody, nor to break anything really valuable that may be concealed among the rubbish. We know that many and many officers of those courts are sinecurists, receiv- ing public pay for no work done; we are familiar with the race

of Moores and Pretymans and know that the cadets and nephews of a prolific episcopate haunt these old hereditary towers only to prey upon the innocents that may wander in ; we know that the forms of the courts are antiquated and cumbersome—counterfeits of the middle ages, as ill adapted to our present uses as a trireme would • be for the voyage to New York or Melbourne ; we know that the public never gets into those courts, by its representatives, without injury or ridicule, or both—the tra- gedy being sometimes rendered more poignant by the disgusting low comedy which is inextricably mixed up with it : we know all these things, and the verdict, we say:, is ready. But we have a respect for antiquity even when it is silly, yea, when it is mis- chievous; we would oust even the Moores or the Pretymans ten- derly; and we regret the breaking-up of a court as we do that of a crypt that stands in the way of a new road, if it be only for an affectionate curiosity. Besides, the proctors have friends, on the whole extensively connected with families that have long battened on public endurance, and we always make a tenfold difficulty of handling a nuisance that is long-established and also well connected. Still, the work is set down to be done, and the meeting of proc- tors last week shows that they know it. They are qoing to op- pose the improvement, as owners of house property in a line of railway "oppose," the better to secure high damages. The ac- tivity of the opposition harbingers the real coming of the bill. The new Ministry is one especially owning the mission to do the recognized work of the day m which the removal of this discredit- able nuisance is prominent. And the new Solicitor-General, Mr. Bethel, is master of the subject, with a will to begin the work. He has already broken ground in his very election-speech. The only question LS the day on which the pickaxes Shall be mustered on the ground. And that is an important question. Undue haste might be as untoward as delay would be discreditable. We are not for post- poning an hour beyond the proper day, nor yet for being hurried by the antagonism of the agitated proctors. There ii unquestionably all the requisite machinery in the present Administration and we doubt not the will. But sessions have limits ; and we confess that we have a jealous mistrust of an over-crowded programme. It is a prologue often balanced by that unpleasant epilogue "the mas- sacre of the innocents." We hold the political Brummels to be bunglers, who have a hundred failures to one successful tie. The work of reconstruction must be all the more deliberately done in the case of these old courts, because the amount of rubbish to be removed is so great. Haste might leave tumble-down work among the new; which would be a pity. Hands too full might do the work ill ; or it might be is off; and a bill' only destined to go into the " massacre " list is worse than a hinderanoe to the busi- ness done—it is in itself discredited.

On the other hand, it must be confessed that as the late Govern- ment got more credit by their Chancery reforms than anything else, so the new Government might win golden opinions in the dig- gings of this long-discovered Ballarat The question is, can they accomplish the work, or a substantial part of it, within a session ? If they can, there is no reason for delay, but quite the reverse; and Mr. Bethell might just as well turn up his cuffs for the work.