The Press. — London, England, 1858-01-30 00:00:00

that the mercantile public had only to apply the requisite pressure to that great official, and speedy success was certain. But a moment's consideration convinced us that the meeting was in the right. The movements of the Houses of Parliament are of necessity somewhat cumbrous, but they are expedition itself compared with those of Lord CRAW WORTH._ _ Another, although secondary, cause of the unpopularity of these courts is the dislike of creditors who are traders to let the amount of their loss be known, from a dread lest their credit should be injured by it. And it has been proposed, in consequence, to abolish the necessity of proving debts in open court. But the other creditors cannot be denied the right of scrutinising every debt which will diminish the bankrupt's estate, the common fund from which the dividend of each of them is to come—in short, of looking after their own interests. And it is sufficiently obvious that what must necessarily be open to all the officers of the court and the whole body of creditors can never effectually be made a secret. Indeed, it is notorious that oven in the case of private arrangements the names of the principal creditors of the insolvent trader and the amount of their losses can not be concealed from anyone who really desires to discover them. Still, the proposed remedy might have some operation even in this direc tion; it might at least palliate what it could not prevent, and would at all events be pro ductive of benefits of another kind. Men of business do not like to appear in person in an open court ; they are, as they love to put it, no orators; they dislike, because they are unused to, the formality of legal proceedings. Hence they commonly appear by attorney, and this becomes no inconsiderable addition to the expenses they incur. Whatever makes these courts more accessible to people who have an undisputed debt to prove, is an obstacle to their popularity removed. In order, however. to relieve creditors from the necessity of proving their debts in open court, the action of the Legislature must be invoked. The question of reform of the Bankrupt Law once opened, other points will certainly be mooted of no trifling gravity. Why should there be separate tribunals for insolvents who are and who are not traders ? Is the rule that a debtor who gives up all his property is entitled to his certificate, unless misconduct be proved against him, a just rule? Is not a trader who is unable to meet his engagements, primd facie a wrong-doer, and is it not for him to demonstrate the propriety of his dealings? These and other questiens must be raised, and we confess that we entertain grave doubts whether the discussion of many of them has yet reached that stage when their authorita tive settlement by Parliament becomes de sirable. Nor is the public without just cause of complaint as to the mode in which such very important appointments as those of the Com missioners in Bankruptcy are frequently filled. There are exceptions. Mr. Commissioner HOLROYD is eminently one. But even of the London Commissioner. some are hardly equal even in their professional attainments to the grave duties which they have to discharge. As to the country Commissioners, it is only ne cessary to read their names in ceder to learn to what influences they owe their advance ment. Against some of them even darker scandals have attained a too unhappy noto riety. We will not dwell on a painful subject. It is enough to say here that a judge ocho is to mete out justice to an embarrassed debtor should not be one who is protected only by his personal privileges from a debtor's prison. But we do not hesitate to assert that, if the constitution of the tribunals and the mode of dealing with lebtors were made abso'utely perfect to-morrow, the courts would still, if they remained more costly, remain also less popular than private arrangements. It is not because judges are inefficient, or the law faulty, that the public refuses such justice as it can obtain. When horse-stealing ceased to be capital, many a man thought death not too severe a punishment ; but no one ever de clined to prosecute the thief because he would be transported, and not hanged. Many a tradesman thinks the recorder of his borough THE PRESS, JANUARY 30, 1858. an old woman, and six months' hard labour a most inadequate sentence for theft, but he does not on that acconnt neglect to prosecute the shop-boy who has robbed his till. And so it is with the Courts of Bankruptcy; their jus tice may be defective, but, at all events, it is better than none at all. Let it not be supposed that we have any desire to perpetuate legal abuses. It is not we, nor the party whose views we represent, that can be justly charged with inactivity or lukewarmness in the cause of legal reform. There is much which may be effected by a well-considered measure; but if the Courts of Bankruptcy are to compete successfully with private arrangements, they must be made cheaper, and their costliness is a fault not of the law, but of its administration. It is to this point that the efforts of practical men should be directed. But when all has been done which can be done in this direction, much will still remain to be effected by the operation of the public press on public opinion. Cut down the scale of costs to the lowest possible point, and creditors will still be to some extent pecu niary losers by a resort to the courts ; but what is thus lost would assuredly in the long run be regained by the purification of trade. Bankruptcies would still cost something; but there would be fewer bankrupts. Meanwhile, there is nothing so much to he dreaded as that the true practical point to be aimed at should be lost amid a crowd of speculative propositions. It would not be the first time that law reformers have missed what might have been attained by trying for what was beyond their reach ; and measures which have passed amid exaggerated expectations infallibly result in unnecessary disappoint ment. foreign iorrtsponteact. PARIS, Jan. 28. THE report that tho Emperor Napoleon has caused a strong diplomatic note to be presented to Lord Clarendon relative to the refugees now in England is ridiculously untrue. The Emperor is too well acquainted with the British Constitution to commit such a bitise. But at the same time the general feeling of the Government over here, there is no denying it, is that the time has arrived when some measures should be taken to prevent conspirators from openly plotting the murder of any sovereign . What those measures should be is felt to be best left to the Imperial Parliament, which, whilst con sulting the just susceptibility of all Englishmen, and the laws of hospitality, will at the same time take care to prevent the refugees of all nations from establishing in England a club of uncontrolled con spirators and deliberate assassins. The Government, I have reason to believe, have not the slightest intention to propose any new and stringent laws as regards the press. Neither the editor of the Journal des Debate, nor of the Slick, nor indeed of any other journal, has received advice to be more careful in the future. Neither of these journals has in any way been interfered with. The Emperor, in the exceptional position in which France has been placed since 1848, has a right to demand that his policy should be tried before con. demned, and that the passions of the people should not be uselessly roused ; but he has not the least objection—indeed he courts it—that the acts of the Government, after a fair trial, should be discussed with impartiality. The reports in certain German papers to the effect that an arrangement had been come to as to the Danubian question I believe to be premature. As to the Danubian Riverain Convention, it is still under discussion by the different Courts represented in the Congress of Paris. It is satisfactory to state that in this question the best understanding exists between England and France. _ The Emperor went this morning to Compeigne, accompanied by Prince Hohenzollern Sigmaringen, the father of the future Queen of Portugal. The Prince reached Paris yesterday. Prince Lichtenstein will leave in a few days for Vienna. Prince Albert of Prussia is expected to reach Paris to morrow. Ferouk Khan, the Persian Ambassador, assisted at the funeral of the Queen of Oude. His Excellency will leave in the beginning of next week for Turin, but will return to Paris before his final departure for Persia. M. de Talleyrand, the French commissioner for the Danubian question, is expected to reach Paris about the end of next week. He will bring bi g report with him. It is not expected that the Pari s Congress will meet before the first week in March. Mehemet Djemil, the Turkish Ambassador, and the son of the late lamented Redsohid Pacha, b eg received his permission to return for a short time to Constantinople. Ile intends leaving us next week. I have reason for believing that, owing to severe ill-health, M. de Rayneval will not go as Ambassador to the Court of St. Petersburg. You will in all probability have seen in Galignani's Messenger full details of the magnificent ball given by Lord Cowley. I shall only remark that the English present were greatly pleased with the good taste of the Empress in wearing a dress trimmed it rEcossais as a compliment to the marriage of the Princess Royal. MI the French Ministers, Marshals of France, and high functionaries were present. The rooms were crowded with at least 2,000 of the elite of fashion in Paris. The Archduchess Anne Marie, wife of the here. ditary Prince of Tuscany, Archduke Ferdinand, was lately delivered of a princess, who received the names of Marie Antoinette Leopoldina Anunziade Anne Josephine Jeanne ! A letter from Teheran, dated the 12th, states that Mr. Murray, the English Charge d'Affaires to the Court of Persia, bad suddenly fallen seriously ill, and that great fears were entertained for his ultimate recovery. The Shah sent daily to make inquiries. Letters from Rome of the 23rd announce the deaths of Cardinals Spinola and Lewicki. The latter prince-prelate was the Greek Archbishop of Lens. berg, in Gallicia. He had for some time previous to his death been occupied in bringing about the reunion of the Greek and Latin Churches. I forgot to mention that at the meeting of the Senate yesterday a Senates Consulie was presented by the Government, compelling all candidates for seats in the Corps Legislatif to take the oath of fidelity to the Emperor at the latest eight days before the day of election. From an official source I learn that the number of passports granted throughout France in 1854 were 37,059, for 50,215 travellers ; and in 1855, 37,880, for 52,215. The number of Frenchmen who left France to settle in some foreign laud was in 1854, 18,079; and in 1855, 19,959. The statistics of the receipts of the Paris theatres and other places of amusement during the year 1857 will be found interesting. The amount of the moneys received was [13,746,284f., being 585,825 f. more than in 1858, and 1,337,202 f. more than in 1854. In 1855 it was 16,103,835 f., but this was owing to the Universal Exhibition. The amount received last year may be thus divided :—The Imperial theatres, 4,537,703 f. ; minor theatres, 6,487,158 f. ; public balls and singing cafes, 2,843,262 f. ; divers other places, 78,140 f. On all these sums a tax is levied for the use of the poor, of the eleventh portion of the net receipts. The Impe. rial theatres have thus contributed to the poor in one year, 394,338 f. ; the minor theatres, 589,741 f. ; the other places of amusement have only to give to the poor one•eighth of the net receipts. The public balls and singing cafés, 355,407 f.; divers other places, 9,767 f. This shows that out of a receipt of 13,746,264 f. received from the public for amuse ments, the poor benefited to the extent o 1,349,253 f. Mn. HORSMAN, M.P., at a recent meeting of the electors of Stroud, explained the circumstances under which he had resigned office. He said that in 1855 he gave his warm support to Lord Palmers•• ton, because he needed it, but in 1850 he tendered his resignation, because the " circumstances " under which he had taken office were so " entirely changed ;" and that he did resign in 1857, because, finding himself " the holder of an office which bad been condemned by public opinion and policy, both in England and Ireland," he felt, without "any dereliction of public duty," he might exchange his " anomalous position" for one of " more general occupation and interest." The hon. gentleman having spoken at great length upon the present state of India, disapproving of the project to abolish wholy the government of the Company, and having offered his opinion upon the late monetary crisis, the proposed Reform Bill, the late a'teaipt upon the French Emperor, and our relations with the Kingdom of Naples, concluded by saying : My colleague and I shall go into that house to meet and discuss these questions ; I will not deny that we shall go there as party men, because the longer one sits in the house the more one feels the value of party government; we shall go there as party men, with a feeling of sym- pathy and a desire as far as possible to support the Go. vernment of the day—that Government which was placed in office, and which is supported in office, by the Liberal party. But at the same time we shall not be forgetful of that independent coarse which it behoves us to take as your representatives, on the great questions on which party subjects must give way to national requirements ; • and our first duty and our greatest effort will be to con sider the interest of our c,onstituents, and the requirements of the nation at large.