From this time the _Chronicle_ ceased to be the merely Whig organ it was before, and during the next ten years became to a considerable extent a vehicle of the opinions of the Utilitarian Radicals.

This was mainly by what Black himself wrote, with some assistance from Fonblanque, who first showed his eminent qualities as a writer by articles and _jeux d'esprit_ in the _Chronicle_.

The defects of the law, and of the administration of justice, were the subject on which that paper rendered most service to improvement.

Up to that time hardly a word had been said, except by Bentham and my father, against that most peccant part of English institutions and of their administration.

It was the almost universal creed of Englishmen, that the law of England, the judicature of England, the unpaid magistracy of England, were models of excellence.