Page:Select Essays in Anglo-American Legal History, Volume 1.djvu/749

 W. VEEDER: A CENTURY OF JUDICATURE 735 volume of cases connected with the topic under consideration.* Hence his decrees and opinions are so overlaid with fine dis- tinctions and limitations that the ratio decidendi is not always easy to find. At no stage of his career did he ever display any evidence of the perspicuities, much less the graces, of literary style. So inextricably parenthetical and over abundant in qualifications is all his work that one can appreciate the feelings of Horne-Tooke when he declared that he would " rather plead guilty on a second trial than listen to a repetition of John Scott's argument " for the prosecution. This is certainly a serious defect in any judge; and if the guiding principles of Eldon's judgments had been as clearly enunciated and in as general terms as those of Hardwicke, the volume of his decisions, the care with which he considered them, the weight of his authority and the force of his example, would have gone far to remove the blight of uncertainty which rested upon the law in his day. But with all their involution in mere phraseology Lord Eldon's decisions, which extend through thirty-two volumes of reports, are, in substance, monuments of learning, acumen and practical application of equity. His judgments were seldom appealed from and hardly ever reversed; and, except where the law has since been altered by statute, time has not materially impaired their authority. Out of the vast body of his work, covering the whole equitable jurisdiction, it will suffice to call particular attention to the refinement and pre- cision which he gave to the administration of estates in chan- cery and in bankruptcy, to the equities of mortgagors and mortgagees, to the remedy of specific performance, and the exemplary liberality with which he construed charitable be- quests. Like many of his contemporaries, Eldon had very crude ideas of trade; the extent to which he pushed the ancient doctrines of forestalling and regrating seems, in this day, ridiculous. Nevertheless, his historical position must always remain conspicuous, for he definitely brought to a conclusion the work of binding down the chancellor's discre- J. 384; 2 Swanst. 36; 2 Bligh P. C. 402,
 * 6 Vesey 263; 14 do. 203; 1 Ves. & B. 59; 1 Rose 253; 1 Glrn &