The Sun.
London, England, 1852-11-17 00:00:00

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the public from such unhap*, 4i-7*** '
ziee. --'7,- to
wander at large. Now his o y tot)wiplea..
sure of his Noble Friend was thafiriffisrssieSitin-
fringe upon the liberty of the sarject, and he (the'Noble
and Learned Lord) wished now to propose an enactment
which would avoid all danger of that kind, and at the
same time attain the object desired. Under the present
system, in the case of every person who was supposed to be
a lunatic, there was a separate Commission ; but he (the
Lord Chancellor) proposed that there should be only one
Commission, to which every case might be referred as it
occurred. He proposed that in every case notice should
be given to the alleged lunatic, and that he should be at
liberty to require a jury, unless upon a personal inspec-
tion by the Chancellor himself the infirmity of the alleged
lunatic was so obvious that he would manifestly not be
able to form an opinion upon the subject ; but means
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and
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oe
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the party, but it must be obvious to their Lordships that
manifestlynzt he would
prupn bes proposed
simplywas
for the Chancellor to direct an inquiry before a jury,
awhenn a
e tthe f party
gratuitousw a cruelty.
lyhnie,
s insane,
that if the Chancellor himself saw fit, or if the party lia
should desire it, and the Chancellor was of opinion that *
it was a proper case, then he could direct a Commission
to issue ; otherwise he proposed that the Master himself
should proceed with the inquiry without a jury, and, sub-
ject of course to objections being taken to his finding. That
finding should operate in the same way as an inquisition.
By this means he believed that the rights of this unhappy
class would be in every way preserved, and that a vast
amount of expense would be saved. These inquiries had
originally been rendered necessary by the rights of the,
crown in the property of lunatics ; but those rights having
long ceased to exist, the inquiries were in nine cases out
of ten without any value whatever, and in all cases they
were almost valueless. At the same time the expenses
incurred in them were so monstrous that they amounted
to a mockery of justice; for so much was required to
protect the lunatic that it often left him without the
means necessary for his maintenance. (Hear, hear.)
He proposed further, that the expenses should be levied
by a per centage upon the property of the lunatics; for
he could not agree with the doctrine that a rich man,
because he happened to be afflicted with lunacy, should
be taxed to support the poor. If it was thought right
that the rich should support the poor, let those rich men
who were in the enjoyment of a sound mind and able to
protect themselves, contribute to the maintenance of his
less fortunate neighbour. (Hear, hear.) He (the Noble
and Learned Lord) next proposed to save the expenses
of unnecessary references, at the instance of next of kin;
-fee-.these references frequently swamped the estate of
the lunatic. That ought to be prevented. At present a
petition was presented to the Chancellor to make in-
quiries; the Chancellor sent it to the Master, who made his
report. It then came before the Chancellor in court;
and the expenses of solicitors and counsel were necessarily
very great. Now he proposed that where the Master was
of opinion that if the petition went to the Lord Chan-
cellor he would only send it back to him, he, the Master,
should have power to proceed at once with the inquiry ;
but then the order in that case would be subject to be
objected to by any of the parties concerned This alter-
ation of itself would save a vast expense in the adminis-
tration of lunacy, and could not lead to any possible .
abuse. (Hear, hear.) There was another question of
very great importance. A great many references were
made to the Chancellor which came before him quite
unnecessarily. He proposed that when the report of the
Master was not objected to it should be transmitted by
him to the office of the Lord Chancellor's Registrar
without a shilling of expense to any one. The order
could be made by the Lord Chancellor at chambers.
There was a large class of persons whose cases had cre-
ated a good deal of feeling. It consisted of persons with
very small incomes ; and with these it was proposed to
deal very tenderly. It was intended that when their
property did not exceed 700/., or 501. a year, such ar-
rangements should be made that the bulk of their pro-
perty should be reserved for their maintenance. (Hear,
hear.) Before leaving the subject of lunacy, he (the
Noble and Learned Lord) felt bound to allude to an
institution Bethlehem Hospital the government of
which has been made the subject of serious animad-
versions. He believed that the governors were ig-
norant of the matters which formed the subject
of the charges ; but as it might be his duty
to investigate those charges, it would be im-
proper for him to make more than this passing allusion.
(Hear, hear.) The next subject to which he would call
their Lordships' attention was bankruptcy. The Bill of
1849 codified the laws on that subject, and amended them
in many respects ; but In order to work out the details
of the measure certain rules and orders were necessary.
Up to the beginning of the last vacation those rules and
orders, though they had been prepared, had never been
issued, for they required the approbation of the Lord
Chancellor and of eight Commissioners. He was happy
to say that eight of these gentlemen had at last been got
together, and with their assistance he had been able to
issue the new orders. Upon one subject there was a
considerable difficulty, and one that had engaged much
attention, namely, the charges of the official assignees.
The Act of Parliament seemed to give to each Commis-
sioner power over the allowances to his own official
assignee ; and as a difference of opinion existed amongst
the Commissioners as to their proper rate of remunera-
tion, great inconvenience had ensued from the diversity
of charges. He was happy to say, however, that he had
at length prevailed upon them to agree upon one
fixed scale. Complaints had often been made about
the excessive remuneration of official assignees ; but
t.b o_ ..f.4-0-... . v,ne...,,tbal/44..,aul—cyi `burstatu un7,' lean , Kruptcits,-
and the consequence was that they did receive very
large sums indeed—sums larger, in fact, than the
salaries of the Commissioners and registrars. That, how-
ever, had ceased, and they now complained that their
incomes were too small. They stated that the standini
cost of their establishments were necessarily very high—
about 8001. a year ; and he believed that in many
instances their complaints were just. The official
assignee had a certain per centage on each debt collected.
That had been long objected to, and it was contended
that the allowance should be on the gross receipts. He
(the Lord Chancellor) thought that their demands were
fair, and he had agreed to them, but he believed that the
scale would be subject to revision. The way in which
be should attempt to carry this out was not to fill up
any appointment that should fall vacant till the remain-
ing official assignees should have a sufficient remuner-
ation without encroaching upon the suitors' fund. He
had already begun this system at Manchester. The
same difficulty arose with respect to the commissioners.
There was no doubt that the business had considerably
fallen off, but he hoped that arrangements might be made
by which the business might be increased by bringing in
a new class of cases. He proposed too that vacancies
should not be filled up, so as to bring the number of the
Commissioners more into accordance with the actual
necessities of the case. He also proposed that the
Chancellor should have power to direct the Commissioners
in any particular district. He (the Noble and learned
Lord) had made very anxious inquiries into the cause?
why the business of these courts had fallen off ; and he
found that two reasons were assigned to account for the
fact. The first was the present scheme of class certi-
ficates, which operated as a stigma upon the bankrupt,
and prevented him from having recourse to the court.
Even the " merchant princes" of London with all their
wealth and all their caution might fall into insolvency ;
and unless they could show that their bankruptcy
was wholly the result of unavoidable loss and misfor-
tune, they would be debarred from a first-class certificate,
and would leave the court stigmatised and disgraced. In
the body of the Act there was nothing whatever of these
class certificates ; but in schedule Z the Commissioner
was directed to give a first-class certificate when the
bankruptcy wholly arose from unavoidable loss and mis
fortune ; a second class certificate when it was partly the
result of unavoidable loss and misfortune ; and a third
class one where it was not in any degree attributable to
unavoidable loss and misfortune. He thought that this
plan was to be deprecated, and he should propose to re-
peal schedule Z. It was exceedingly difficult to say
what was and what was not unavoidable misfortune.
Their Lordships well knew that the spirit of enterprise
was the very life and soul of commerce, and it was ex-
ceedingly hard to stigmatise a trader who was honest.iotl ;
though unfortunate. (Hear, hear.) There was
oaitr
an C
reason why the business of the Court had
fallen" into th,
that was that persona were in the habit of going
unigto a cer
Court, availing themselves of its provicionnasseps
from
it,
•
tain point, and then withdrawing.vtabei.
He thour
jurisdiction, and settling them r" -
that persons ought not to be allowed
of the Court withoir
the labour upon the officerstowards its expenses. He
paying a just contribution
ne ssary
to increase the
did not at present t.hilku:it.s. His Noble and Learned
duties of the Commiss
bad proposed last year te
Friend (Lord Brougham)ourts
certain powers in aid of
give the County C
He entirely agreed with the
the Court of Chancery
Lord in thinking
that these
Noble and Learned power-.
might be ghe should propose ly given : but that they
in the Bankruptcy Commis •si
vested rather _ oners that
in the judges of the County Courts. Some amendment,
however, would first be needed in the Courts of Bank-
ruptcy,Lecause, at present, the costs of
proceeding in
bankruptcy were even greater than in Chancery. (Hear.
hear.) There was another matter to which he wished
now to call their Lordship's attention. • '
A solicitor wa
now allowed by the Act to practise before the Commis-
sioners of Bankruptcy. That
was quite right, but he
proposed that some restriction should be put upon at-
torneys so practising, similar to those which had beer_
imposed upon attorneys practising in the County Courts
—that was to say, he objected to what were called at-
torney-advocates. lie did not object to a man's solicitor
arguing his case, either in the County Court or Court of
Bankruptcy ; but he did object to an attorney being
employed to act as an advocate by another attorney,
to the exclusion of the barrister. (Hear, hear.) Ilis
(the Noble and Learned Lord's), desire was to sec
both branches of the profession stand upon their proper
basis—to see neither the barns ter trenching on the
province of the attorney, nor the attorney usurping the
province of the barrister, but each in his place. (Hear,
hear.) Depend upon it, twit the system whiel-.
was gaining upon
them would lo' aver the character of CI.
bar, and not raise that of the alto rney. Their Lordships
had last Session sanctioned a. provision of the Counts;
Court Act, by which a barrister n right appear in a Count:,
Court without the intervention of an attorney. His
Noble and Learned Friend (Lord Campbell) had said..
that this was a point for him (Lord St. Leonard's) to de-
cide. He had done so, alter a great deal of consideration
and with much reluctance ; and he had taken care t
state that he did so upon the distinct representation that:
the attorneys had threatened not to employ any barrister
elsewhere, who should appear in a County Court.
(Hear, hear.) lie hoped, however, that a small number
of barristers not attempt to put the enactment into force.
or to introduce a practice which had never been hear?
of previoualy. The Noble and Learned Lord wee drat/