Courts of Equity can scarcely be overrated. The general result may be briefly stated, that they produced to proprietors the most grievous oppres sion, to creditors the most extensive injustice, and to this kingdom the most alarming social and political evils. The most cautious and prudent owner, inheriting property even slightly burthened, when once involved in the meshes of a Chancery suit, could never extricate himself; his property was squandered, his family and creditors ruined by the wasteful delays and the expensive litigation which he could not avoid, and all control over his tenants and the management of his estate, assumed by an irresponsible Court and careless official receivers. Such a proprietor could not hope by even a proceeding in a Court of Equity instituted by himself or a friendly creditor, to sell a portion of his property sufficient to defray the charges on it, for the same expense and delay were incurred, and the same clogged machinery was to be worked, whether the suit was by the owner or creditor. All efforts to retrieve his affairs, when once involved, were vain; and while he beheld the gradual approach of certain ruin to himself, his family, and his estate, his creditors were equally unfortunate; a period of twenty years could not ensure the estate being sold, and the proprietor was oppressed and the creditor defrauded. We need scarcely add, that to this system of expensive procedure there was but one more evil which could enhance the oppression and injustice that was, the appointment of receivers over the proprietors' property. Each suit produced its receiver, and there were many more under the joint operation of Pigott's and the Sheriffs' Acts. No worse system can be devised for the interests of debtors, creditors, or indeed of the country generally, than the appointment of receivers; and we are happy to see that by an Act which has just received the royal assent, the nuisance of receivers, as to all future judgments, has been abolished. They are persons who fulfil the harshest duties of agents, without having any power to improve the estate of which the nominal management is confided to them. leases can be made, nor indulgence given by them to encourage good tenants; and they are powerless to correct or exclude bad tenants. Their

No

sole interest is to collect as much money as possible from the tenants, and this without the least reference to the advantage of the inheritor, while the estate is burthened with far greater costs than are incident to ordinary agencies or the general management of estates; as no step can be taken by a receiver without laying a previous statement of facts before the Master in Chancery, and obtaining his sanction for his proceedings, and the receiver's solicitor cannot discourage proceedings so profitable to himself, and without which his client's safety might be compromised. The management of an estate by receivers has, from these causes, been found most demoralising in its influences; there is no kindly intercourse or sympathy between landlord and tenant; and the tenantry are generally the worst in the country, there being a total absence of all useful superintendence or control over them. These evils are confessed by persons most competent to form a correct judgment on them-the present Master of the Rolls and Sir Edward Sugden, in their evidence before the Poor Law Committee in 1849; but it is unnecessary to confirm by authority facts unhappily too notorious to the landed proprietors in every county in

Ireland.

While the lands were rapidly deteriorated under the management of the courts, and the tenants neglected and demoralised, the appointment of a receiver was always a great inducement to the parties in the suit to delay proceedings; the rents, such portions of them as were collected, were brought into Court, and served as a spoil, from time to time, to pay interest and defray costs; and creditors who would have urged their solicitors to increased diligence, rested silenced, if not satisfied, so long as some part of the interest of their demands was paid, and expected with more patience the longdeferred period for the liquidation of their claims. In no case will it be found that an estate subject to receivers was well managed or the rents well paid; the tenants invariably fell into arrear; and as instances, out of many, we may mention the Morganure estate of Mr. D'Arcy of Clifden, on which, during the period it was subject to receivers, eight years' arrears of rent were suffered to accumulate; and In re Perceval, where, in a rental

of £800 per annum, the arrears due in 1849 amounted to £6000.

Such was the unsatisfactory state of the law in Ireland when the Corn Law Bill of Sir Robert Peel passed. The predictions that the value of land and the amount of rents would be deprecated by its influence were, unfortunately, too soon realised. Four years of unexampled famine-wasteful expenditure of poor-rates, added their influence -and rents fell nearly one-third, and the desire of possessing land and the value of it fell also in an equal ratio. Those proprietors who before, by rigid economy and good management, had succeeded in keeping down the interest on the incumbrances, and were free from the trammels of the Court of Chancery, found themselves unable any longer to struggle with cir cumstances; their rents were unpaid, they became unable to pay the interest with which creditors were before content, and their estates were subjected to receivers, and all the attendant evils, and they had nothing to look forward to but the long-deferred fate reserved by the Court-a sale of the estate when wasted under the management of receivers, greatly deteriorated in value, and with vastly increased liabilities. It was impossible to adjust the claims of creditors to the altered circumstances of the times; and while the property, to meet their demands, was depreciated, the creditors' claims were increased by an accumulation of interest. It was universally admitted that some sharp and decisive legislation had now become necessary to extricate all classes, proprietors and creditors, from the ruinous delays of Chancery, and to atone for long past neglect, if that indeed were possible, by recent vigilance over those interests which had before been fatally neglected.

Accordingly an Act to facilitate the Sale of Incumbered Estates in Ireland was passed in the year 1848; but this statute, 11 & 12 Vict., c. 48, owing either to the original error in the conception of giving summary jurisdiction to the Court of Chancery, or to the rules framed for its working, was wholly inoperative; and it is sufficient to state that under its provisions not a single estate was sold. Some attempts were indeed made to avail of the powers conferred by it, but no sale had taken place, and it was generally considered that as a measure

to facilitate sales of landed estates, it was an entire failure.

The utter inefficiency of this Act was exposed in the evidence to which we have more than once alluded, given before the Poor-law Committee of 1849; and it became an object of much importance to Government to correct former errors and retrieve blunders by some more successful legislation. The hint for a measure more extensive in its nature, and potent as a corrective of the social evils under which this country laboured from the difficulty of selling incumbered estates, and from the long oppression of the Court of Chancery, was afforded by a speech of a statesman now no more, Sir Robert Peel, a speech as specious and brilliant as his best efforts were, and which must be still fresh in the recollection of our readers, from having excited into a momentary enthusiasm to do good to Ireland, without a view to profit, the Corporation of London. The then Solicitor, now Attorney General, Sir J. Romilly, quickly acted on the hints derived from the large views of the former premier, and the Act 12 and 13 Victoria, c. 77, was brought into parliament, and after receiving some useful additions and amendments, obtained the royal assent 28th July, 1849. We scarcely recollect any instance in which an Act of so great importance met with such general approval in both houses; and the scope and object of it, apart from its details, were hailed with satisfaction by all classes in the community.

We shall now lay before our readers the chief objects of the Act, the mode in which it has hitherto been worked, and its probable effects on our social system. The Act now familiarly known as the Incumbered Estates Act, em. powered her Majesty to appoint, during her Majesty's pleasure, three persons to fill the office, and to be styled "The Commissioners for Sale of Incumbered Estates in Ireland." The duration of the appointment was not to exceed five years from the passing of the Act. The Commissioners were to be a Court of Record, and were empowered to frame general rules for regulating the proceedings under the Act; which, when approved of by the Privy Council, and enrolled in the Court of Chancery, were to have the same effect as if they had been enacted by authority of parliament. They were

also directed to frame and promulgate forms of application and other direc tions for the guidance of the suitors. These and some other provisions, principally incidental to the proper discharge of their duties, may be briefly stated. The important powers confided to them were, that the Commissioners were empowered in a summary way, on the application, within three years from the passing of the Act, of an owner or incumbrancer, as defined by the Act, on land or leases, to sell the lands or leases for payment of the charges affecting them; and that the effect of a conveyance executed by the Commissioners should be to pass the fee-simple and inheritance of the land, thereby expressed to be conveyed, subject to such tenancies, leases, and under-leases, as shall be expressed therein, discharged from all former and other estates, rights, titles, charges, and ncumbrances whatsoever, of all persons, including Her Majesty and her heirs, whomsoever. Similar stringent effects were given to the Commissioners' conveyance of a leasehold interest, and thus the Act confers on the purchaser, in the execution of his conveyance by the Commissioners, a perfect unquestionable parliamentary title. The importance of this provision is immense; the saving to purchasers will, in each instance, be very great; that to the estate will not be inconsiderable; but the increased confidence from increased security has, in every case, added much to the present value of property, while the new owners will have a title marketable with perfect readiness and security to future purchasers. The Commissioners were to investigate the title, might sell by public auction or private sale, and might distribute the purchase-money; or in fit cases pay the sum realised by the sale into the Court of Equity, in any suit pending there. But there were other provisions of nearly equal importance to those enumerated. On the order for sale being made by the Commissioners, they were directed, by certificate under their seal, to notify their order to the Courts of Equity in which any proceedings relating to the lands to be sold were then pending; and then all proceedings for or in relation to a sale under the decree of said Court were to be stayed. The importance of this provision, and the relief to incumbered proprietors and long-delayed debtors,

may be judged of from this one fact, that by the 231 petitions first presented no less than 400 suits in Equity, pending for sale of the lands comprised in the petitions, were stayed. Other powers, such as of exchanging lands, apportioning rents, and partition, were given to the Commissioners, and the cheapness and expedition of their proceedings in partition cases can be advantageously contrasted with the partition suit of Herbert v. Hedges, in the Court of Exchequer. It was commenced in the year 1829; prosecuted with diligence; was terminated in 1842; and the stamp-duty alone paid on two decrees was over £100. The entire effect of this suit would have been obtained from the Commissioners in a few weeks, and at an expense not greater than that of the stamps paid on the Exchequer de

crees.

Such is a very brief outline of the powers vested in the Commissioners; and when we add, that their decrees and orders were to be absolute and conclusive, no appeal lying from their decision, save on their permission; that their general orders were to have the effect of Acts of Parliament, and that the title given by them is conclusive against the world, it is at once manifest how large, and extensive, and arbitrary were these powers, and how great was the trust confided to Government in the selection of men to fill the office of Commissioners in this new tribunal. Baron Richards, one of the judges of the Court of Exchequer, Mountifort Longfield, Esq., Q.C., LL.D., Professor of Law in our University, and C. J. Hargreave, Esq., who filled a similar situation in the University of London, were nominated Commissioners, and they immediately applied themselves to framing rules and forms for the regulation of the proceedings in their court. These rules received the sanction of the Privy Council on the 17th October, 1849, and thence may be dated the constitution of the Court; and in a few days after the Commissioners sat publicly for the dispatch of business, and have since continued their labours without intermission.

We shall now state some of the startling results exhibited by the working of this tribunal. The torrent of litigation long pent and dammed up in the Courts of Equity found a free outlet; inheritors oppressed with receivers,

and nearly ruined by the expensive litigation to which their property was subjected; creditors before hopeless of ever realising their demands, all sought relief in the exercise of the powers vested in this untried tribunal. The number of petitions or applications for sale made to this Court from 17th October, 1849, to 1st August, 1850, is 1,085; and of this number, those by owners amounted to 177-very nearly one-sixth of the whole. The rental of the estates thus sought to be sold by the nominal proprietors, anxious to be relieved of their burdens, was £195,000 per annum, and the incumbrances affecting them amounted to £3,260,000! The rentals of the estates included in the 1,085 applications amounted to £655,470 18s. 7d., and the debts to £12,400,348.

Now, certainly this shows a state of things which called loudly for remedy. The estimated rental of the entire of Ireland was, in 1841, £5,600,000. The latest poor-law

valuation makes the net value of all landed property rateable to the relief of the poor, £13,187,421 5s. 8d.; and whether we regard the one calculation or the other, we here have presented to us, in the schedules of these petitions, facts showing how considerable a portion of the landed estates in this kingdom was only nominally the estates of those before considered as the proprietors, and how vast and pressing were the evils of those courts of equity by which persons were allowed to have the nominal proprietorship in the soil, and those really interested were prevented from recovering the debts due to them. Even had the rush into this new court ceased on the 1st August, the number of petitions previously presented, and the great extent of interests affected by the working of the Court, would have justified and even demanded its institution, and would have shown the desire to avoid the Court of Chancery, even by resorting to the ills we know not of." But there does not seem as yet any likelihood of a pause or check to the number of petitions which will be presented before the expiration of the three years limited for that purpose; for though it might be naturally thought that the largest properties and most embarrassed estates would at the first be brought before the Court, since the 1st of Aug. to the 12th, the day we are

now writing, forty-five additional petitions have been lodged, many of them for the sale of large estates-one including a rental of £14,800 per annum, by the owner, a titled individual.

But the really frightful state of litigation in which creditors have been Tong kept in the Court of Chancery, the difficulties, almost reaching to impossibility, of recovering just and wellascertained demands, will be most forcibly illustrated by reference to a few cases now brought before the Commissioners, to redress, if possible, the wrongs of former generations of litigants. In one matter, in which the estate is now brought before the Incumbered Estates' Court, called In re Hamilton, a series of Chancery receivers has been over the property for the last seventy years, the original bill having been filed by the great Lord Mansfield in the year 1781, to raise the amount of a clear, uncontested mortgage; and since that time every species of bill named in Lord Redesdale's "Treatise on Equity Pleadings," and facetiously enumerated by Mr. Keogh in the House of Commons, has been filed; and now, after this litigation, at how vast an expense it is almost needless to hint, the estates, which should have been sold more than half a century since, are brought for sale before the Commissioners. other cases the litigation, or rather vain effort at deriving some benefit from the Courts of Equity, commenced more than forty years ago. In re Lysaght, the first bill was filed in 1802, and after a sacrifice of successive estates for the mere costs of the proceedings, any one of which would have paid debt and costs if sold in this court, the remnant is now brought into the Incumbered Estates' Court.

In

We may incidentally mention many others, in which the earliest generation of litigants have long passed away; and after forty years' unsuccessful attempts to realise demands by sale, a new generation, heirs to the claims and suits, have brought their petitions before the Commissioners. Re Cooke-first bill filed in 1811; and since that there have been five differ. ent suits, which were all heard together in the case of Bennett v. Bernard; and the only questions in the case arise from the long litigation. Re Sir J. Bourke-the first bill was filed in 1817; and since that there have been

fourteen bills in all, and the Commissioners have now the task of selling the estates which those suits vainly sought to do. Re Mansfield-first bill was filed in 1801; and this property now is one of those to be sold by the Commissioners. Re Knox-the first bill was in 1811; and thousands of pounds were first squandered in the great case of Scott v. Knox. But we will not weary our readers by enumerating such instances of long and fruitless litigation. We must claim credit, however, for not having selected them with any particular care, and also that they will believe us that they are not solitary instances of the long-protracted and hopeless attempts made by creditors to realise their demands in the courts of justice, miscalled equity. The files of proceedings before the Commissioners will, on inspection, show many and frequent instances of similar delays and ruinous proceedings; and from the cases brought into the Incumbered Estates Court it would appear that a creditor could not reasonably hope to realise his demand by sale of his debtor's estate in Chancery, in a less term than twenty years. Now, when it is re

membered that the costs of a suit, which are always in proportion to the time it is pending, are borne by the estate, the grievous oppression on creditors, the absolute confiscation of property of debtors necessarily caused by the proceedings in Chancery, the mere saving of time and expense will appear a benefit to the suitors in this new court which can scarcely be too highly estimated.

But we must state the results of the working of this new Court in the first year of its operations. There have been sales of property under it, up to 10th Aug., realising £748,474 12s. 10d. These sales have comprehended 99 estates, and 360 lots. The amount of money brought into court, produced by these sales, to the same date, is over £400,000, and of that a sum of £240,000 has already been distributed. The Commissioners have made 817 absolute orders for sales, and 1,226 miscellaneous orders, including those in distribution of money.

The following table gives a concise view of the several counties in Ireland as at present affected by the Commissioners' sales :