54
THE GREEN BAG
number of Counsel practicing in Chancery is said not to have exceeded twelve or fifteen. Lord Campbell says their pro ceedings were not noticed in the newspapersJohn Scott, who was as full of ambition as an egg is of meat, began his career on the Common Law side. Besides the Lord Chancellor, there was then (1779) only one Chancery Judge — the Master of the RollsLord Eldon had been on the Woolsack for seven years in his second term of office, when he passed -a bill providing for the appoint ment of a third judge in the Court of Chan cery (1813). The first Vice Chancellor of England was Sir Thomas Plumer, the then Tory Attorney General. No wonder that great reformer, Sir Samuel Romilly, wrote — "a worse appointment could hardly have been made. He (Plumer) knows nothing of the law of real property, nothing of the law of bankruptcy, and nothing of the doctrines peculiar to the Courts of Equity. " And yet another Whig, Lord Campbell, tells us that Plumer's "judgments are now read by the student with much profit, and are con sidered of high authority." On Plumer's promotion to the post of Master of the Rolls, Sir John Leach succeeded him, first as Vice Chancellor and subsequently as Master of the Rolls. Leach was the first Chancery Judge who had confined himself while at the Bar to the Equity Courts, and yet he was far from an improvement on his Common Law predecessor except in the brevity of his judgments. The Chancery Court under Lord Eldon was called the Court of Over sans Terminer, and the Vice Chancellor Leach's Court, the Court of Terminer sans Over. Leach was succeeded by Sir Anthony Hart, who for 26 years had devoted himself to Equity work, and subsequently proved himself one of the best Lord Chancellors that Ireland ever had. Sir Anthony was succeeded by Sir Lancelot Shadwell, the last Vice Chancellor of England. Shadwell was appointed in 1827 and died in office in 1850. Our object in bringing our brief review down to the time of Sir Lancelot Shadwell
is because that judge's career illustrates a peculiarity of the Courts of Chancery which is not to be met with in the Courts of Com mon Law. We refer to the system of Chancery Leaders. In the Courts of Com mon Law the King's Counsel * are not attached to any court, but go into any court for which they are briefed. There are advantages as well as disadvantages -in the practice. It has led to popular counsel' being briefed in more cases than they can possibly attend to. On the other hand the fact of the Common Law Courts being open to all counsel has rendered them peculiarly subject to the control of public opinion. It has been impossible for any counsel, how ever eloquent and however masterful, to obtain a controlling influence over any Common Law Judge. In the Chancery Division of the High Court of Justice a king's counsel • attaches himself to a particular judge and does not practice before any other Chancery Judge of First Instance unless he is paid a special fee of fifty guineas (in addition to .his ordinary brief fees). At present there are six Chancery Courts of First Instance, and to each of these courts certain leaders attach themselves. The consequences of this system are most advantageous to the public, because solici tors are thus assured that the 'counsel whom they have briefed will be present to argue their case — a certainty which they can never enjoy in briefing leading king's counsel at the Common Law Bar. The first counsel of eminence who appears to have thus restricted his practice to one Court of Chan cery was Lancelot Shadwell. The words in which he laid down his own view of the duties of an advocate are worthy of being quoted in extenso. "I cannot induce myself to think that it is consistent with justice, much less with honor, to undertake to lead a cause, and 1 When a Queen is sovereign of the United Kingdom, the Counsel called "within the bar" are called "Queen's Counsel"; when a King, "King's Counsel."
