I do not feel disposed to record those two Chancery cases; firstly,
because I would rather have no part in engendering in the mind of any
human creature, a hopeful confidence in that den of iniquity.
And secondly, because it seems to me that the real philosophy of the
facts is altogether missed in the narrative. The wrong which chanced to
be set right in these two cases was done, as all such wrong is, mainly
because these wicked courts of equity, with all their means of evasion
and postponement, give scoundrels confidence in cheating. If justice
were cheap, sure, and speedy, few such things could be. It is because it
has become (through the vile dealing of those courts and the vermin they
have called into existence) a positive precept of experience that a man
had better endure a great wrong than go, or suffer himself to be taken,
into Chancery, with the dream of setting it right. It is because of
this that such nefarious speculations are made.
Therefore I see nothing at all to the credit of Chancery in these cases,
but everything to its discredit. And as to owing it to Chancery to bear
testimony to its having rendered justice in two such plain matters, I
have no debt of the kind upon my conscience.
In haste, ever faithfully.
[Sidenote: Mr. W. C. Macready.]