The Express.
London, England, 1861-07-19 00:00:00

THE
.RLO4I.IrAYB BILL.

Mr. DEEDESasked the litiTai.;;;tielaan tie Men
Secretary what course he propeeed to take with repel be
the Highways Bill, which had been in the edges yaps,
twenty-five these, haste, been read second time oa the
god of 111111111 last. (Older.)
Per 0. O. LEWIS said the bill stood for Tuesday at 12
o'clock sad he hoped to bring it on then. (Cries of " Oh.")
THE BANKRUPTCY AND INSOLVENCY BILL.

Oa
414! 6to
motion for considering the Lords' amendments to
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Mr. HADFIELD presented • petition from, es we under-
stood, the Sheffield Chamber of Commerce favour of the
bill nit was passed by the Commons.
The ATTORNEY-GENERAL, our rising to move that
the boos do disagree to the Lords' smendments„ said be
should ask the bowie to rertore those clauses which re-
ferred to • chief judge in bankruptcy and to the creditors
assignees. If these clauses were not restored the bill would be
materially affected both in its character and scope,
and therefore he should take the anise of the hones upon
this important part of the bill. He believed, so far as
might be among lawyers, there was unanimity of opinion
upon this subject of the appointment of • chief judge.
(Hess, hear.) There was also • very general concurrence
on the part of the mercantile community on behalf of
that portion of the bill Lang motored. He might men-
tion that since these clauses had been rejected by the
House of Lords, a petition had been presented to parliament
bearing the signatures of 26 banking firms in the City, and
174 merchants, many of them men of the highest eminence,
stating that the petitioners had beard with regret that seve-
ral of the most valuable portions of the measure bed been
rejected, and, while complaining of the present jurisdiction,
they salted that when the bill was reconsidered a provision
should- be introduced for the appointment of a chief judge
to preside over the Bankruptcy Court. (Hear, hear.)
Under this bill every county court in the kingdom was
• Court of Bankruptcy. He believed there were
about 60, and therefore there would be 60 new Omuta of
Bankruptcy, but the fact was, there might be said to be four
or five hundred different places where the county court
judges sit, and they might suppose at least one appeal in
the course of a twelvemonth to go from each of those places
to the appellate court ; because, when the new law should
be set in motion, and whew there were increased facilities
fur appeal, they might well expect the general bunnies
would be very largely increased, and also the appellate
business. It was Impossible not to foresee that if
this bill were to per without the chief judge
clauses, in all probability that which with the thief
judge clauses would have worked well and satisfactorily
would not work well, and instead of alVillf satisfaction
would entail discredit upon the bill itself. For all the rea-
sons he had stated be would vesture to move that the AM
of the Lords' amendments with reference to the chief judge
should be disagreed with. (Hear.)
Mr. BOVILL thought that if the home were satialled of
the thaelmity so ably described by his boo. and harmed
friend the Attorney.Genend, there would be no difficulty
carrying the clause before them. He begged, however, to
assure his hon. and learned friend that there were some
lawyers La that bones who eatertained opinions directly