Phenix Gazette

The British Court of Chancery is one of the most awfully wicked establishments that ever was devised amongst men. A gentleman, who lately died, set aside 50,000l. to defray the expenses of an anticipated suit, and another declared that he would rather "hear the last trumpet" than a citation to appear before it! The Lord Chancellor complains that his salary does not exceed £60,000 a year, besides what he receives as Speaker of the House of Lords, &c. and he had 140 offices in his gift, much patronage in the Church, and the nomination of the puisne judges, &c. The delays of decision; the frauds committed in the shape of fees, &c. has roused the public indignation, and reformation is to be hoped for.—The following statement of a solitary case may serve to shew the amount of the iniquity nursed in this abomination of pretended equity:

On the 27th June, a petition was presented, in the British House of Commons, from a widow, now a pauper, dependent on the parish of Greenwich. The petition stated that, in 1773, she had married a carpenter, who had amassed a small property and purchased some lands. Her husband died, and his affairs were thrown into Chancery in 1810. Eleven years afterwards, although the freehold estate was worth £960 pounds, the Court had collected £400 pounds. In August, 1824, £242 pounds, in addition, had been collected. The total amount of the poor man's property was £1,496 pounds; and the costs of the chancery suit had run up to £1,153 pounds. The widow was ordered to give up the title deeds to the Court. She could not do this, because the property consisted of mortgaged lands which had been purchased; and the titles were lodged as securities with the mortgagees. For her non compliance with the order of the Court, she was attached, and cast into the Fleet prison, where she had remained 22 months. The cost of the attachment was £95 pounds, which she was utterly unable to pay, and she was released by the petty savings of her poor relatives. She is now 78 years of age; the balance of her husband's property had procured her an annuity of £70 pounds a year, but it had been absorbed by the Court of Chancery, and the widow was now a pauper, subsisting on the charity of the parish. The petition was referred to the commissioners who have been appointed to investigate the abuses of the Court of Chancery. A Chancery attachment, it appears, is the last attachment a female should be desirous to provoke.