16. BOWEN: THE VICTORIAN PERIOD 533 the versatile and eloquent Chief Justice of the Queen's Bench ; of Lord Bramwell, a great lawyer who lives to survey the success of his own handiwork; of the late Mr. W. A. Wal- ton ; of Mr. Justice Willes, whose brilliant and subtle learn- ing was lost to the nation by an untimely death. Progress of no less moment was taking place in Chan- cery. Trustee Relief Acts, Acts to diminish the delay and cost, and to amend the practice and course of procedure, to abolish the circumlocution office of the masters, to enable the Chancery judges to sit in chambers so as to facilitate the management of estates, and to allow the opinion of the court to be obtained in a more summary and less expensive manner, followed in due course. Misjoinder of plaintiffs ceased to be a ground for dismissal of a suit ; rules for clas- sifying the necessary defendants, and for minimising their number, were laid down. The effete system of taking evi- dence disappeared ; the pleadings, the taking of accounts, the progress of inquiries were simplified and subjected to control. The court was enabled to do speedy justice without the long preliminaries of a hearing. A code of orders was drawn up regulating the chamber practice. The Chancery Court was freed from the necessity of consulting the common law, and power was conferred upon it of giving damages in certain cases to avoid recourse to law. New Vice-Chancellors were appointed, and a Court of Appeal created, with two Lords Justices and the Chancellor at its head. The roll of names connected with this gigantic reformation is long. Upon it stand Lord Cottenham, her Majesty's first Lord Chan- cellor, and the other Chancellors of her reign. The council of the Incorporated Law Society occupy a conspicuous and honourable position in the van of other law reformers. In addition to these may be mentioned Lord Langdale and Lord Romilly, Sir J. Knight Bruce, Sir George Turner, Vice- Chancellor Parker, Mr. Justice Crompton, the late Mr. Ed- win Field, the late Mr. W. Strickland Cookson, and the late Lord Justice James, whose broad and lucid mind was till recently an element of strength in our new Court of Appeal, and whose services in the cause of reform, both at law and in equity, if equalled, have certainly not been surpassed by
