The Express.
London, England, 1864-05-07 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAME/s"r.

ROM! OF LORDS.—FILIDAT, MAY 6.
Itaa Loan ettanammis flak lie saat ea tka imolai* at

THE DINER QUESTION.

"to lad of CAMNARVON gaso bones that on Monday
owl !Seabeelel call the atlantic* of the house to the present
aloe el the Dalai isortiso.
L&W (W DEBTOR AND CREDITOR.—COUNTY
°OUST&

Ilis LORD CHANCELLOR brooght in a bill for the
Emiterine of actin and presses for small debts, to amend
awes* relating to Coat y Courts, and give them a limited
rlin 49114. He deeeribed the present state of
aw re to the recrenry ci small debts, poisticg out the
enurity with which the proceedings in the County Courts
pressed is the poorer clamor- Till, power of these courts
L Menem small daises had been found very in-
=M its operatien. He proved from the re-
load before perlienret that up to the year
LID mere then 17,000 persons had been ini-
weiressil by the order of the County Courts. In
maw of those eases the and claimed were incredibly small,
Er. U.. or 25., end in ow cue a man was sent to prison in
dank at paying the rem of 9d. This power of imprison-
methad no limitatrou bat the discretion or clemeocy of
the *age. A mail night be ambled several times for the
erne dote. The advantages the present law gave the Cr..ader wee. so greet that practically the whole value of the
debeWs labour was maimed for the creditor's benefit.
Asa remedy for them evils, he proposed by the present
lil to limit the power of impnacoment by a clause re-
quiring the judge to lake into consideration all the circum-
stares of the case. Imprisonment would be ordered only
ie maw of debt °retracted by fraud and false pretences.
Eat that imprisonment would be made a real punishment,
kr Med of a nombel ledietion, am it was in some districts.
The bill would attempt to assimilate the case of the small
debtor to that of the insolvent with greater liabilities by
sir* the judge power to call all the creditors of a working
men together to prove their data. An order would then
be made for the emoted to be set apart by the debtor for
their payment, the money to be paid into court and dis-
tributed by it. A debt cookaded with the keeper of an
alehouse for intoxicating liquors consumed on the premises
would not be recovembie by pnxees under this act. The
woad part of the bill invested the county courts with a
limited equitable jerinfiction in cases involving sums too
small in bear the armies of an application to the Court of
Chancery.

Lord CRANWORTH entirely concurred in the opening
part of the sable and learned lord's speech, as to the ex-
treme desirability of getting rid of the present system of
inipriamment for debt in the county courts. How far it
might be possible to effect that object was a matter upon
which he meet reserve his opinion till he saw the measure.
As =ay of their lordship knew, he entertained views upon
this subject which Lord &ougham thought the most hete-
rodox that could be proposed. He was not certain that
they might not eventually come to this—that all debta
ander a certain sum should be debt. of honour, incapable of
being recovered at law. There were difficulties in the way
of that, no doubt, but the only alternative was the pain-
fal process of imprisonment or leisure of goods. If the debt
amounted to three or four pounds, the whole of the goods
probably would not in many cases produce more.
The LORD CHANCELLOR bad neglected to state that
there was a provides in the bill that household goods should
not be takes, 8o as to leave the debtor helpless ; and that
tools should not be takes, so as to interfere with his means
ef livelihood.
The bill was then read a fast time.
NAVAL AND VICTUALLING STORES BILL.

This bill wee reed a mood time.
Their lordships nee at 20 minutes pact 6 o'clock.

HORSE OF COMMONS.—FRIDAY, MAY 6.
The SPRAEII2 took the Asir at 4 o'clock.

The Scottish Baikal Railway Stations, fr.c., Bill was read
athini time and panted.