Sir G. tessel on Friday week committed his first serious
official indiscretion. He made a bold, blatant, and brutal speech against Law Reform, and particularly against reform in the Court of Chancery, declaring that the country cared nothing about it in comparison with the most trivial details of the Licensing Bill, and that Government might as well bring in Bills for giving everybody roast-pig ; asserting that no conceivable scheme of civil law reform could secure cheap justice ; denouncing the interference of lay members, who could give no efficient aid in the Matter; and assuming that the Lords were opposed to reform, and therefore the Commons were powerless, —an admission which, if made seriously, would involve the necessity either of abolishing the Lords, or of leaving the Judges without peerages. The whole speech reads like a speech by one of the Colonels on Army reform, and is just as full of professional prejudice and hatred of pains. Considerin, that Sir G. Jesse, with his age and position, may for twenty years be the Chancellor of the Liberal party, the prospect before us is a most disheartening one. A Liberal Lord Eldon would be a national misfortune as well as a public nuisance. Let us trust that time and experience will modify the Solicitor- General's enthusiasm for what is, or that he will see that his true place is on the other aide.
