Lives of the Lord Chancellors and Keepers of the Great Seal of England Volume 10; From the Earliest Times Till the Reign of King George IV (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1857 Excerpt: ... often accused of slowness in my decisions, but really it was sometimes incompatible with justice to decide quicker. Now I will tell you what happened in one case: it was a cause where one party had sold an estate, and the purchaser had afterwards declined completing the bargain, and the estate was thrown back on the seller's hands; this was a suit to compel the completion of the sale and the payment of the purchase-money. Well, it was argued before me at great length, and extracts from various documents were read in Court, and I was then pressed by the counsel to deliver my judgment the following day. I refused to do this, stating that I made it a rule to read over and consider all the written documents brought into Court, and that, as there was an important question to be discussed that night in the House of Lords, I should be unable to do this before the next morning." Again he says in the Anecdote Book, --" I thought it my indispensable duty, as a Judge in Equity, to look into the whole record and all the exhibits and proofs in causes, and not to consider myself as sufficiently informed by counsel., This, I am sure, was right, --not only because, in causes originally heard before me, I leamt much of what was necessary, of which counsel had not informed me, but because, upon rehearings of causes before me, which had been originally heard by others, this my opinion was strongly confirmed." Finally, in a letter to his hrother-in-law, Mr. Surtees, he says, --"My habits of doing judicial business I have formed and adhered to upon principle and conviction that they were right; I have done much good by adhering to them--infinite good. "As to what I hear of my doubts, from persons who, having no doubts upon any subjects, however intricate...