CHAPTER III.

SOME PARTICULARS OF THE INTERNAL ADMINISTRATION.

The whole country is divided into districts, in general governed, like our Provinces, in the Sovereign's name, by viceroys and governors.

The heir to the Crown, if he be the son of the reigning Ruler, is Prince of Wales--a title bestowed upon his eldest son by an ancient king; and which, at the time, gave the administration of that Province to this son. The eldest son of the Queen now enjoys with this title also that of Duke of Cornwall. These lofty designations confer no power, although they carry with them high distinction and great revenues.

The Aristocracy in the case of the heir, as in that of the Sovereign, watch jealously anything which looks like _intellect_. They do not stint personal respect and ample revenues, but take care that upon coming to the Crown, the new Sovereign shall be a "puppet."

He is, whilst heir, not allowed to take any kind of share in government, but is surrounded by flatterers, flunkeys [pluc-ngi], idle young people of both sexes, and, from mere want of useful business, falls into every sort of sport and pleasure. He must, indeed, be strong in morality and in character, if, upon coming to his high office, he be not reduced to the selfish _imbecile_ and puppet, desired by the High-Caste. Lucky if he have not become absolutely contemptible by his vices!

Ireland is governed by a High Viceroy, whose chief employment is to amuse the Irish with shows--the real power being in the hands of the General of the armed bands. Anciently, the Provinces were administered by Vice-roys, who possessed authority; but the pettiness of the Island and swiftness of communication have now concentrated all actual administration at the Capital city. The Provincial governors, however, keep up some show of the ancient order, and, nominally, command the Provincial _Militia_. This is a merely nominal force, composed of butcher-boys, farmer-lads and the like, who do not know how to handle a _fire-arm_, nor how to fight, unless in the Barbarian pastime of _the Ring_: a combat wherein the young Barbarians, two being pitted against each other, try each to hit the other a terrible blow directly in the eye. This, done with the hand doubled up, nearly destroys that organ. He is victor who succeeds in hitting both eyes of his antagonist, and fairly blinding him! This, a common and admired sport, is greatly esteemed by the English Barbarians, and considered an admirable training. It develops the ferocity and brutality required to make good soldiers (plunderers), and the powers of endurance indispensable in the distant forays. Even in the Halls of Learning, it is thought to be a manly _science_, fitting the young Aristocracy to match any man in personal conflict, and enabling him to be self-possessed and ready to fight his way through the world. As, in general, the lowest orders are badly fed and reduced in strength, and, though well used to brutal fights, yet are not trained to the _Science_, the young Aristocrat is expected "to pummel the brute" upon the slightest occasion of disrespect.

The provincial Magistracy are mainly employed in keeping the Lower-Castes in order, and especially in punishing trespasses upon the lands, or upon the convenience of the Higher-Castes. The most common form of trespass is that called _Poaching_. The High-Castes own all the lands, and the Low-Castes, who till the soil, are the ancient slaves--slaves no longer under any law, but nearly as much so by custom. Very poor, but little better than beggars, and really beggars in large numbers, and hungry, the temptation to knock over the abundant nearly tame creatures (birds, fowls, hares, and the like) everywhere around them in the fields and copses, is too strong to be resisted. To do this is to be a _Poacher_--a criminal most detested by the High-Caste; for he presumes to think, in some cases, that the right in these free creatures is _not_ absolutely vested in the High-Castes. Yet this sort of property is most rigidly _preserved_, by the penalties of severe punishment, to the use of the High-Caste--for his sport in the shooting of them, rather than for food. The Poacher, who is merely tempted by hunger, and who abjectly begs pity and promises reformation, escapes in some instances lightly; but he who presumes to question the right to this wholesale appropriation feels the full wrath of the Law.

Petty civil and criminal offences may be tried by the Provincial Magistracy; subject, however, in cases involving any interests of importance, to revision at the Capital.

There is a sort of Provincial (and yet Metropolitan) Court called _Convocation_ [Kal-ti-se]. In this, things touching the Christ-god Superstition are determined. If a Bonze has not worn, or has worn improperly, his neck-tie, or his _surplice_ [ro-bsi]; if the table before the Altar (Idol) has been placed out of square; for things of this sort--or if a Bonze be accused of departing from the ordered rendering of some word in the _Sacred Writings_, or of having said something contrary to the orders of Convocation or of the _rites_--for these and other things respecting the great Idolatry, _Convocation_ sits. It is composed of High Bonzes and a few delegates of High-Caste devotees, whose duty is merely to ratify the decisions of the High Bonzes--these regulate everything.

This High and Lofty Court was anciently styled _Star Chamber_, because exalted above mere mortal interests, and only concerned with the preservation of the Idolatry. Formerly it worshipped the Sovereign as Pope of the Superstition more devotedly than is the fashion at present, and burnt people to death for refusing to do so. Now it refrains from this severity, and is content (or tries to be) with depriving a Bonze who doubts, of his _living_, and all honours and emoluments.

It still convenes in the old hall of its former glory. A venerable moss-covered pile, vast and gloomy, with lofty towers and turrets of rock, with hewn cells and deep dungeons. Here may be seen, fixed to the rock, the rings and chains, worn and rusty with age, where the victims of superstition suffered beneath the decrees of this ancient Court. Slow and proud, along the dark stone corridors, and beneath the dusky arches of this great prison-palace, the High Bonzes and the devotees walk in state. Ushered with pompous ceremonial, and with the grand incantations to the gods and devils of the Superstition, into the lofty and obscure hall of the Star-Chamber, the _Convocation_ sits. In deep alcoves around are stored the ponderous volumes, containing all the mysteries and terrors of the Superstition. In these are the horrid imaginings of fanatical Priests and devotees; the _dogmas_ and _canons_ of the Superstition; the dreadful arsenal, whence were drawn those frightful weapons of superstitious terror, whence issued the chains and bolts, and scourges, the faggots and the flames. One hears the groans of the tortured, the steps of the jailers, the clashing of the chains, when, in these long and resounding aisles and arches, the winds moan, the distant footsteps fall, or the old casements in the ruinous towers shake and rattle.

Nor is the arsenal wholly useless now; the weapons are not all rusty; _anathemas_ may yet be found to terrify, and restraints to punish. _Heresy_ [pho-phi], as any doubt concerning the Queen-pope and the _Superstition_ is called, drives the culprit from Society, deprives the Bonze of all preferment, of his employment, and turns him ignominiously _adrift_, to live or to starve.

_Convocation_ watches over the _Sacred Writings_, to see that no change, not so much as of a syllable, be made; not trusting to _Jah_, who may have himself, perhaps, grown indifferent to the matter. A curious thing, showing how irrationally men will act in respect of an irrational system. For the notion is that this Word of Jah (the _Sacred Writings_), being his _Revelation_ (Word), have always been by Him exactly preserved through all the ages and the changes of languages, and of transcription, and of _everything to this hour_. Why is it to be supposed, then, that He will suddenly lose his power to preserve, or will be indifferent to preserve?

Punishments in the ordinary Courts are not very remarkable, only there is one so characteristic of the English, so comically barbarous, that I will try to describe it.

The offender is stripped naked to the waist, tied up with his hands widely extended, and with his face to a strong post; then a man takes a large strong cat, kept hungry and savage for the purpose, and placing the creature at the back of the neck, draws it forcibly down the naked back. Of course the cat holds on with teeth and claws. This is repeated till the culprit faints, when the cat is removed. The back of the man is washed with vinegar and salt, and he revives, perhaps to undergo the infliction again. This astonishing mode of correcting offenders is called _flogging with the cat_.

I may also make a remark upon another feature of criminal punishment. The crime of _treason_, not only insures the death, but the horrid mutilation of the culprit; and, not satisfied with this, reaches to the innocent wife and children. All the estates, titles, honours, properties of the offender are sequestrated to the State, and his blood is _attainted_; that is, made incapable of giving honour and employment to his offspring! Thus the innocent are disgraced, and reduced, not merely to beggary, but, as far as possible, placed in a condition of hopeless misery!

The Idolatry and Sacred Writings are, no doubt, responsible for this impolitic injustice and cruelty. For _Jah_ is constantly made by the Priests to say, that he visits the sins of the father upon his child even to the tenth generation! A natural development of the moral sense would fall short of this vindictiveness; and in this false and horrible wrath, taught in their _Sacred Writings_, the fierce Barbarians are encouraged to outdo themselves!

The greatest of all the Courts, and which chiefly controls the others, is the High and Mighty COURT OF CHANCERY. It has many names--as Court of Equity, of the King's Conscience, and others--assuming as many styles and jurisdictions as the ancient _Proteus_ of Egypt; who, as the Priests said, could take any form, or no form, be fire, or cloud, or invisible air. So this Court, feared by the Barbarians with a paralyzing dread, takes on any shape! It stands for the King's conscience--which, as the conscience of a Pope-king, must be a doubly divine thing. For, as remarked elsewhere, "_Divinity doth hedge a King!_" We, I think, should fear that this conscience would be as uncertain as the man. Its function is, therefore, to decide with _Equity_; to relieve against the inexorable hardness of the ancient rules; and give relief in cases of _mistake_, _accident_, and _fraud_. This looks admirable, but it is all _sham_ (phu-dgi).

Not the least attention is really paid to equity, but only to the _decrees of the Court as recorded_. A Suitor petitions for redress. The petition is not examined to be determined upon the matters therein stated. First--The _Petition_ must be in all respects in due form, according to the recorded rules. Second--The matter of it must be such as the Court will consider, and such as may come before the Court. Third--Are the Parties in the Jurisdiction, and are all the parties who may be interested, duly notified and present; or, if not present, accounted for. Fourth--Are the matters for the Court only, or must it be assisted by some petty judges to ascertain the facts. Fifth--The petition being at last before the Judge, he may not look into it, unless the Lawyers look into it with him; and, then, no opinion (decree) can be given until the Records are fully examined, to discover if anything of the sort _has been_ relieved. If a similar case be found, then the petitioner is called upon to prove his case as stated in his petition; and, if he fail to prove his exact case (though he may make a stronger show for relief), he is ordered out of Court, and condemned to heavy costs (tin-tin). If the case be proved, then the Judge _reserves his judgment_. For he must very carefully compare all the cases, examine all the voluminous Records, besides examining the innumerable Papers which have grown up around the Petition during all the proceedings (often spreading over many years), before he dare to order the recording of his _decree_. For, this done, he has added another Case to the King's conscience; that is, to the highest form of Law and of human Justice!

He dare not do this unless justified by the Records; interminable, stretching backwards to the first King who pretended to have a conscience; obscure, contradictory--he dare not unless justified by the Records--_Precedents_. If he mistake, grossly, he will be certain to be called to account by the Lawyer-Caste, who make a business of seeking for discrepancies; in fact, he is bewildered--not by the case; that is simple, or _was_ originally, simple enough; but, by the arguments of the Lawyers, the documents overlying and enveloping the case, _and by the difficulty of deciding according to the Precedents_. Could he merely announce his _own_ judgment, there is no difficulty--but that is the last thing to be thought of--in truth, if reduced to _that_, he is bound to refuse any relief, however clear it is that _equity_ requires it!

Thus the Judge, old and wearied; a man tottering over his grave, feeble, irresolute, takes the course which maybe looked for--and postpones, and postpones; other like cases accumulate on his hands; he dismisses some, "reserves" others, _refers_ to another judge what he can decently, decides none! Or only those which are petty, or those which are really unopposed, or those exciting no interest.

Meantime, the parties to the _Petition_ are dead, or absconded, or beggared. Years have elapsed; all parties are worn out or impoverished by the enormous expenses--at length, there is no one to pay Lawyers and the Court Officers--the thing _lapses_--dies. Term after Term (as Sessions of the Court are called), the Case is called. Some poor wretch struggles still to save something of the property _tied up_ in the Court by the Case--he tries to call up from the mass of dusty and forgotten Records, a reminiscence of the lost Petition. In vain--the thing is a wreck, and has wrecked its builders!

The Case lies forgotten amid the interminable processes, affidavits, answers, pleas, replications, rejoinders, motions, applications, notices, subpoenas, summonses, commissions, bills of amendments, and of supplement; documents of all sorts, making up the _Case_, mouldering away in the stone alcoves of the huge Records; as the poor victims of it lie mouldering in similar forgetfulness! Not, however, without profit to the Lawyer-Caste; for some miscreant of this profession, perchance, discovering the Case, in his searches after means of spoil, sees how _he_ may gain by it. He knows of an estate remotely touched by the matter of the old and forgotten Petition, and he knows quite well that there is really nothing affecting the property; yet, he sees fees and spoil. It is merely to frighten the possessor of the estate by an intimation of a _defect of title_, and refer to this old Case, never decided. The _bandit_ [khe-te] sets in motion the machinery of the High Court of Chancery. One of its officers summonses the poor man to come into that Court, and answer to the allegations touching his right to possess the house in which, perhaps, he has lived for twenty years! and lived without objection from any source!

Now it does not matter at all that there is no sort of ground for this attack; the moment it is made, the title of the poor unoffending man to his own house is ruined--almost as completely as if by the sentence of the Court he had been deprived of it. The robber who attacks wishes merely to force the owner of the house to buy him off. To secure this spoil _he records his summons in the Court_, and from that moment no one will buy the house, nor will any one lend any money upon the security of it until that record be removed. If the victim of this oppression be in debt, or have but little money, or but little more than his house, or if he have borrowed money upon his house--in fact, unless he be a man quite rich, he is inevitably ruined! He is ruined, because the lawyer has, _by the Record_, practically deprived him of his estate. And this is done by a Petition to the Court, making allegations artfully and untrue. Yet, as they are not supported by any sort of evidence, and are merely bare _insinuations_ often of anybody--it does not the least matter--is it not inconceivable that such a thing should be allowed? That merely upon the _Record_ of a Petition, without any evidence, without any character, without any surety for its truth, without any, the least, inquiry, or any, the smallest deposit in Court to cover the expenses to which the summoned party may be put, should it appear he has been wrongfully summoned--this great injustice may be perpetrated, and perpetrated without risk of any punishment! "But surely the Court will immediately dismiss this iniquitous case?" Not at all; the Court cannot be reached; all the endless proceedings and delays already mentioned intervene. The fees and expenses are enormous--the decision far off. The victim cannot get a hearing. He borrows money and employs lawyers--in vain. He can do no more--he is bankrupt. The lawyer who has ruined him gets nothing in such a case, because the victim prefers poverty to gratifying the robber. He gets nothing, because he has no real case, and drops it as soon as he sees he can make nothing out of it. Should the party be very rich upon whom the robbery is attempted, he may fight it out and finally clear his property, and get a _decree_ for some costs (only a portion) against the other party. But this _decree_ is worthless; the party has no property and cannot pay. _He_ has fought _for luck_, having nothing to lose, but all to gain.

Usually, however, as the Lawyer well knows, the party attacked will hurry to buy off the suit!

In this way, old Causes are Mines, which the Lawyer-Caste work to their own peculiar advantage. They have every facility, both from their experience and from the usages of the Caste. The very Judges of the Courts are of the same Caste, and give every assistance in matters of forms, continuances, motions, dilatory proceedings, and the countless processes by which Lawyers make fees and their clients are robbed.

Thus the Court of Equity, with a mocking irony, becomes a Court of Iniquity! and the very tribunal designed to do more perfect Justice is perverted to the most scandalous use--made an engine the most oppressive and destructive ever contrived for the misery of Society, short of one invented to destroy it wholly!

The Court was originally organised by Priests who had acquired the Roman learning, or some tincture of it, and endeavoured to strengthen their own Class, and to soften the barbarous harshness of the common Law, by erecting this Court. The laws of the Barbarians were savage, in civil as well as in criminal things; and the Priests, more cultured, endeavoured to soften and temper this harshness, or, at any rate, to get more complete control by it. They formed it, and administered it at first, and for a long time. But the Lawyer-Caste have now its administration, and they have not so much respect for the opinions of the general public as had the Priests, and have made the Court a _bye-word and a shame_ [Kri-mi]!

The expenses and fees are beyond belief. A Lawyer who gets one good Chancery Case into his hands, lives upon it luxuriously. I was once shown a _Bill of Costs_, as these items of fees are styled.

I observed that one would be charged for a thing done and for the same thing not done--in other words, for the doing and for the not-doing. Thus, if one requests a thing be done, the Lawyer will charge for "receiving instructions," "for reducing the same to writing," "for instructing a clerk," and the like--then, having sent away the clerk on _another_ matter, he will charge for taking new instructions and going over the same ground again. Thus, actually charging for the delay and obstruction caused in the affair.

Again, if you ask a Lawyer something, he will presently say, "I must take counsel," meaning he wishes to ask another Lawyer. When the _Bill_ is examined you will find, say, "for being asked and not knowing, 6s. 8d.; for taking your instructions to counsel, 6s. 8d.; for attending upon counsel, £1 1s.; for fair copy made for him, £2 2s.;" and so on. Your simply unanswered _question_ has thus served the following purposes:--If it had been answered at once the fee would have been, say, 6s. 8d.; but as it was not, but carried elsewhere, it has given the first Lawyer five times more of fees, and his _brother_ in the Caste also a handsome sum! One may judge how ignorant the first Lawyer will be likely to be, and how often he finds it convenient to help his higher Caste brother, especially when in helping him he so greatly helps himself! We have some cunning rogues in our Central Kingdom, but such astuteness as this is beyond them!

I once visited this tribunal of Chancery to witness the proceedings--but they are so dull and prolix as to drive one away as soon as possible. The presiding Judge, and all the High-Caste Lawyers, wear wigs and gowns. The lower Lawyers, who are called Solicitors, sit in a sort of well, below and at the feet of the High, and have no badge of distinction. In fact, they are not respected, and only tolerated by the _bigwigs_ (as the High Lawyers are often called) as the jackals who provide them with prey. They immediately act in matters with the victims of the Court, and do all the dirty work, extracting the fees, and the like--the High Lawyers taking the most of the plunder, although, for decency sake, they will not see the victims of their rapacity if they can help it.

The _wigs_ spoken of are very absurd, and make the wearers seem to be engaged in masquerading, or fooling. (We have no term corresponding to the former.) The lappets of thick hair come down over the ears of the Judge, to enable him (as it occurred to me) to take his _nap_ [qu-iz] with less danger of being disturbed.

No one can be a Judge, nor a High-Caste Lawyer, who does not wear the wig. It has a funny appendage behind, like a pig's tail, exactly fitting to fall upon the small of the neck; and is itself a curiously curled "frizzle" of horsehair, selected for uniformity of whitish colour. There is something _cabalistic_ in this thing, which is carefully hidden from the outside world.

If a Judge take it off, all business immediately stops. A Lawyer instantly loses his power of speech if his wig fall off. It was told me in confidence, that the tail (like that of swine) had a peculiar significance, to say; the utter selfishness of the Caste and _greed_--another whispered a darker thing, referred to the Devil of the Superstition: that, anciently, this Caste struck a bargain with the Demon, and he made it obligatory upon the Lawyers always to wear this chief sign of _diabolism_! This may be merely the chaff [pti-ni] of these Barbarians. At any rate, something _occult_ is attached to the thing; and a curious respect is shown to it, mixed of fear and contempt, even by outsiders.

The Judge sits so highly exalted, as to be out of the way of hearing the passages occurring among the Lawyers. He is generally half-blind, half-deaf; quite worn out with age, and the ceaseless wretchedness of his Court and the Lawyers, and incapable of vigorously dealing with anything. In this Court the most imbecile is most fit; for nothing is expected but imbecility (so far as the public is concerned), and fees for Officers and Lawyers.

When a Case is _on_, the Lawyers begin to talk, and to read from the big books, on one side, and then on the other. Neither tries to get at the truth, but each in turn does his best to mislead the Judge. Both read from the interminable and conflicting Records, and both find ample records which fit the precise Case, which each contends for. The poor old Judge, now and again, takes a note of these quotations from the Big Books of records--for he is to decide not upon the equity but upon the records, as we have seen. By the time he has found his _spectacles_ [Qu-iei] he has forgotten the Book, the number, the Recorder's name, and the many other things, needful to find where the record is, and when he is again told, lifting up his wig-pallet, he only hears imperfectly, and _mistakes_. So, when, perhaps a long time after, he tries to make up a decree to fit the Case, the _record_ to which he turns refers to nothing in the world like what was intended!

Hour after hour, and sometimes day after day, these speeches of the Lawyers go on. For the longer the talk the larger the _fees_--nobody thinks of Justice! The old Judge understands the trick of the _farce_ going on, perfectly well; in his younger days he was famous for his skill in all the arts of the High-Caste Lawyers, and obtained his present position on that account, and because others wanted to get a formidable rival out of the way; he understands how very little (but fees) is involved in the endless talk and reading, and begins to nod--even, the gods would nod. The Lawyer observes, stops a bit; the unexpected silence awakens the wearied old man--he opens his watery, blinking eyes, fumbles his papers, or takes a pinch of snuff, and says: "Go on, brother Bounce, I'm with you"--meaning he is attending to him; and soon falls asleep again.

Perhaps one of the talking Lawyers is of the High Q.C. I am told that such is the dread of this Lawyer-Caste, that the Sovereign constantly flatters the tribe, and gives to them the _fattest_ [phig-sti] offices. All Judges and the Keeper of the Sovereign's Conscience--this Court--and a great many other most important places, and exaltation to the Highest Caste of Lords [Tchou], falls to them by established rule--in truth, the Caste is chief in the Law-making Houses, and, consequently, in Government itself. The Q.C. is, however, a thing done to many who cannot, as yet, get fees from the public treasure, that they may get them from out-siders more amply. The right to attach these symbols to the name of Lawyer also gives him a _silk gown_ (during the present reign) worked by the sacred hands of Royalty itself! The honoured wearer of this is a Q.C.--that is, Queen's Champion--and binds all its wearers to defend the Sacred Head (Pope) of the Superstition from the machinations of the Evil One, and those of their own order who, sold to the Devil, may possibly be put up by him to plot mischief, not only against the general outside world, but against "Crown and Altar!"

Perhaps, after days of this weary work, one of the Lawyers suddenly discovers that somebody, or something required in the intricate and dubious _processes_, is wanting; or in some document some erasure is detected; or something _to hang a point_ upon is seized hold of--and at once a wrangle between the Lawyers ensues. The Judge fairly awakes; the whole _case breaks down_ [kei-tz-se]; and everybody, but the poor victims in the case, anticipate more fees. The victims, however, who have already beggared themselves in it, suddenly despair; perhaps the case never again comes on, and the property involved in it wastes away in dark obscurity beneath the gnawing rats, which infest the Court.

Sometimes (as I was told) some poor man, or woman, who had scraped together the last farthings to pay the Lawyers (for they will in no wise act unless paid beforehand, feeling that such service as they render is not likely to be gratefully recompensed, and it being the severest rule of the order never to show any pity for outsiders), being in Court when they see all hope destroyed, and themselves and their children beggared, have fallen down and been carried out of Court with reason for ever gone; or with such a deadly blow that never more do they revive, but soon die, and are buried at the public charge!

You will see wretched creatures trying to look decent in well-brushed rags, darned and patched, with shoes through which the toes protrude, but over which the blacking [di-yte] is carefully smeared--you will see these victims of the Court, like ghosts, flitting about the passages, and watching for the entry of the Judge. One will attempt to address him--but he is conveniently deaf. He knows the _victim_ is there, and though a party may speak, has the right to speak for himself, and the Judge is bound to hear, yet, such a thing is unknown. The mysteries of the Court deny to any _sane_ man the attempt. These poor creatures are insane--or, what answers just as well, have been branded by the Lawyers as _Insane_. So the miserable wretch, trembling, raises his voice, "_My Lud_" (meaning my Lord), "My Lud;" here the Court-officer cries out _Silence_; or, if the man be, _for the first time_, attempting to call attention to his case, by the time he has got so far as to fairly say "My Lud!" what with the jeering looks of the Lawyers, his own ignorance of the mysteries, and his wretchedness, he either completely breaks down--or if the Judge, seeing a _new_ face, asks him to "go on"--almost at once perceives that the man is only a "poor ruined suitor," and is entirely out of order, and _cannot_ be heard! He says: "You must sit down. Case _Hoggs_ v. _Piggs is in order_. Mr. Clerk call _Hoggs and Piggs_." Thus "My Lud" will be as far as any "poor ruined suitor will ever get!"

Besides the numerous, worse than useless, idlers (Lawyers) who fatten upon the industry of others, and the loss inflicted by their voracity and by the other expenses, this Court devastates upon a scale beyond belief. I was told by an English Barbarian that he once tried to obtain one thousand of money from the Court, which the lawyers said there would be no difficulty in getting, as it was clearly _his_; it would be only a matter of form, possibly _some_ delay. "Well," said he to me, "I instructed my lawyer to go to the Court and get the money. He demanded fifty pounds to cover fees [tin]. To make a short story, he went to the Court, _but I never got any money_! After I had actually paid in fees more than half of the one thousand, the obstacles had grown to be so insurmountable that I merely dropped the matter." "But," I said, "the thousand--who has that?" "Oh, it is in the Court of Chancery!"

Another honest Barbarian told me that he had spent all his life (he was sixty) studying and endeavouring to awaken attention to the abuses of this Court--but in vain. The attempt seemed hopeless. The Court was entrenched in the very frame of the body politic, and nothing but _reconstruction_ would answer; and that reconstruction is probably only possible after first _demolishing_!

This man said that a prodigious sum--sixty millions of English money--was _directly_ locked up; and that of property of all sorts, subject to the _clutch_ or injured by the processes of the Court it was incalculable, and, very likely, would represent a tenth of all the valuables in the whole Kingdom!

In my walks and in my travels, sometimes in the city, I would notice many houses, with windows smashed out, the walls tottering, the doors hanging loosely, or wholly gone, the approaches filthy, the whole place a _nuisance_, injuring and depopulating all about it, or filling the ever-spreading mischief with the vilest population. I have asked an explanation--"Oh, it is in Chancery." In the midst of a village, suddenly one comes upon a vacant space; it is an abomination; everything near catches the infection, all that portion of an otherwise pretty place becomes a _nuisance_. The character of the village at length suffers; it becomes known as a place ruined by the Court of Chancery. In fine, whenever one sees a wrecked building, or any property marked by neglect and verging to total destruction, the explanation is: "It is in Chancery." And the same thing is often said of ruined men and women: "Oh, they have lost everything in the Court of Chancery!"

To such an extent is the destruction of the Court carried, that the Law-making Houses are forced to interfere, or perhaps the Officers of Health. These may abate a _nuisance_, and sometimes mere filth and indecencies are removed. But nobody will improve a property to which he cannot have a certain and quiet possession. Therefore, when the evil becomes intolerable, the Law-making Houses make a Law by which a property of this sort is sold, under their _guarantee_ that the buyer shall have perfect possession. This is a thing next to an impossibility; and nothing less than a great public evil too great to be endured, will ever induce the Lawyers who control the Houses to interfere with the legitimate work of the Court.

It is wonderful that the English Barbarians submit to this Court; but one must consider that, after all, it is not so inconsistent with Barbarian habits as it at first sight looks. Plunder is natural to all the tribes, and especially to the English. As nearly all plunder, the thing is normal. Lawyers must live; and the common English Barbarian makes a business to _keep out_ of their hands. The Higher Castes enjoy so large a share of the gains, and are, in fact, so largely interested in preserving the Court, that _they_ do not care to move. Then, to other causes, must be added the stolid conceit of the English Barbarians, who really think everything English so much better than what can be found elsewhere, that, in respect of this very Court, admitting some abuses, yet, after all, "Where else can you find such Judges--men who cannot be bribed?"

On the whole, therefore, with that conceited stolidity of character, more remarkable in the English than in any other Barbarians, they come to regard even the worst of _their institutions_ as better than the best of the rest of the world!