e idea of constructing a standing appellate
tribunal within the privy council, for the purpose of hearing all
appeals that might come before that body. Accordingly, after carrying a
bill in 1832 whereby the privy council, as such, took over the powers of
the "court of delegates," he introduced the general bill whereby the
judicial committee was created, and under which it still acts. It was to
consist of the lord chancellor, with the present and past holders of
certain high judicial offices, and two privy councillors to be
appointed by the sovereign; to whom prelates, being privy councillors,
were to be added for ecclesiastical appeals. The system thus founded,
and since developed, is capable of indefinite expansion, in case still
closer relations should be established between Great Britain and the
colonies.

The act for the abolition of fines and recoveries, though scarcely
intelligible except to lawyers, was a masterpiece not only of
draughtsmanship, but of honest law amendment. It swept away grotesque
and antiquated forms of conveyance, which had lost their meaning for
centuries, and which nothing but professional self-interest kept alive.
Had it been followed up by legislation in a like spirit on other
departments of law, the profits of lawyers and the needless expenses of
clients might have been reduced to an extent of which the unlearned
public has no conception. As it was, it simplified the process of
selling land in a remarkable degree, though it left untouched the
complications of title and transfer affecting real property, which no
lord chancellor since Brougham has been courageous enough to attack in
earnest, and which remain the distinctive reproach of English law. It is
not without shame that we read in the king's prorogation speech,
delivered on August 29, 1833, the assurance that he will heartily
co-operate with parliament in making justice easily accessible to all
his subjects. He adds that, with this view, a commission has been issued
"for digesting into one body the enactments of the criminal law, and for
inquiring how far, and by what means, a similar process may be extended
to the other branches of jurisprudence". Seventy years have since
elapsed, yet this royal promise of codification is not even in course of
fulfilment. On the other hand, Brougham's scheme for establishing local
courts in certain parts of the kingdom was destined to bear ample fruit
in the next reign. It was described by Eldon as "