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

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the public from such unhappy persons being allowed to
wander at large. Now his only objection to the mea-
sure of his Noble Friend was that he feared it might in-
fringe upon the liberty of the subject, 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
would be taken to prevent any expensive course of in-
quriy being pursued where a party for his own selfish
and interested purposes demanded it on behalf of the
lunatic. It was not proposed that the Chancellor should
himself decide in any case upon the sanity or insanity of
the party, but it must be obvious to their Lordships that
for the Chancellor to direct an inquiry before a jury,
when the party was manifestly insane, would be simply
an act of gratuitous cruelty. What he proposed was,
that if the Chancellor himself saw fit, or if the party
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
Panted themselves, contribute to the maintenance of his
less fortunate neigNour. (Heai., hear.) He (the Noble
and" Learned Lord) next proposed to save the'ape/ISsa
of unnecessary references, at the instance of next of kin;
for 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 kim, 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 50/. 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 governorii 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 04.
considerable difficulty, and one that had engaged muck
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
the, fast was, that when they were first appointed
there were vast arrears of outstanding bankruptcie,
and tire consequence was that they did receive very
large sums indeed—sums larger, in fact, than the
salaries of the Commissioners an registrars. That, how-
ever, had ceased, and they now complained that their
incomes were too small. They stated that the standin..;
cost of their establishments were necessarily very high—
about 8001. a year ; and he believed that in many
instances their complaints were just. The offie;al
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 causer
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 prinoes" 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,
an
body of the A
dwolu dleavetcht thereecour was nothingtstigmaii whateveredanddisgra ofced.ln
the 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 C
ceedingly hard to stigmatise a trader who was honest,
though unfortunate. (Hear, hear.) There was another-
reason why the business of the Court had fallen off, an
that was that persons were in the habit of going into td
Court; availing themselves of its provisions up roma crm
tarn point, and then withdrawing their
cases
thought
jurisdiction, and settling them privatliyu's thrrsur
11
that persons ought not Lo bo allowecihte
Court without
the labour upon the officers of
. .
itsto"PineMeass.e litheao
paying a just contributionitton
did not at present think His Noble and Learned
awtgrniersesseidoinnwersitaihd:°e:
proposed last year to,
dutiesFre nd of the Criormoumgihsasiinon)sershad.
Lordrtan inr
ucethinieing that these power 4
but he should propose that they bel
Ngithvoeeblceot the County
0C
to
eucanhr
nt
ay
ne
eCrd
oyßu.
d
might be given:
vested rather in the epretcytailintireclpyomo
Lhn 1h
bininanetpahtrokhisr:teudjw,uasdpgoeotosnwodafsatttoyhfi,ersrnthCeeoybuentnyeedCoreuedarsatrtstscSehoocarnfnoeuepertaarrymoc,eonfeddinß.
irillopwtcyt:
however, w
another matter to
Present, the costs
greater than in e
PbThteceac WreutsheerieiasreavLteonprdship's attention. A solicitor wasa
which he wisbect
"iv allowed by the Act to practise before the Commis.
quite right, but hay
s objectedp Thatrac
practising
was
proposed that some restriction should be put" upon at•
torneys so practising, similar to those which had been;
sioners of Bankruptcy.
sintgo
winhtahte
were
enteay
liCedouarttl
torney-advocates. He did not object to a man's solicitor
arguing his case, either in the County Court or Court o 1
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.) Hist
(the Noble and Learned Lord's) desire was to see
both branches of the profession stand upon their proper.
basis—to see neither the barrister trenching on the
province of the attorney, nor the attorney usurping the
province of the barrister, but each in his place. (Hearil
hear.) Depend upon it, that the system which
was gaining upon them would lower the character of the
bar, and not raise that of the attorney. Their Lordships)
had last Session sanctioned a provision of the County
Court Act, by which a barrister might appear in a Counts"
Court without the intervention of an attorney. Ilia
Noble and Learned Friend (Lord Campbell) had said
that this was a point for him (Lord St. Leonard's) to del
tide. He had done so, alter a great deal of considerationi
and with much reluctance ; and he had taken care tot
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 Count, Court.;
(Hear, hear.) He hoped, however, that a small numhet
of barristers not attempt to put the enactment into for
or to, introduce arpractice which had never be'en h
of provioly* o Noble and Learned Lord was -

[TICE SD.

and they said they could do it better if it was left to them.
The solicitors were now to furnish copies themselves, and
this was not a saving to the suitors, because they would
have to pay their own solicitors. This charge was not
imposed by the court in any manner whatever. Taking
this' 10,0001. off the 44,4391., the actual saving would
be 34,4391. for the coming year. Now, it was necessary
for him to state the particulars of the great fund under
the care, and which stood in the name, of the Accountant-
General of the Court of Chancery. In the first place,
some arrangement had been made, and justly enough too,
as regarded the officers, because they had been inclined
to give every facility. The Accountant-General's office
had been shut during the whole of the vacation, and
this was a great hardship to those persons who had
small incomes payable from funds in the Court of
Chancery. The Accountant-General had at this moment
standing in his name a sum of 48,015,856/., an enor-
mous amount to be under the jurisdiction and care of the
Court of Chancery; but he had the satisfaction of telling
their Lordships that there was no claim which might not
be fully answered from tl4at fund. During the last
year the cash and stock which had been turned over ex-
ceeded 21,000,000/. The cash received by the Court
last year, including dividends on stock, was 5,173,6751.,
and the cash paid 5,993,5391. The stock was of two
kinds—stock purchased or sold by the Court, and stock
accepted or transferred by the Court. The stock pur-
chased by the court last year amounted to 2,181,2491.,
and that sold to 1,829,0091., making together 4,010,2581.
The stock accepted in the same period amounted to
2,382,5911., and that transferred to 2,964,0891. Their
Lordships would be struck, by the similarity of the
amounts in the two cases. Putting all the transactions
together, the result was that the Court had not occa-
sion to buy more than 230,0001. worth of stock to
meet the all those arrangements ; Ilion& the real
arrangements amounted to upwards' of four millions.
Two descriptions of persons were etgaged in carrying
on those transactions—the broker and the jobber.
The latter bought and sold stock all day long, and
had the turn of the market each way, and that was his
profit. The Accountant-General, having this vast sum
of forty-eight millions of stock, went every day on the
Stock Exchange, and bought all the stock required to
be bought, and sold all that was required to be sold. In
dealing with this immense fund he hoped to be able to
effect a great saving. The matter had been considered
by a Committee. of the House of Commons, who, in their
second report, in 1848, made this observation :—That
the system of e7.ng brokerage on the suitors'
funds ought to be t. Jcontinued ; that the Accountant-
General should be paid by a per tentage ; and that only
the balance &stock required to be bought or sold each
day should be bought or sold, whereby the brokerage on
the remainder would be saved to the suitor. This re-
commendation had never been carried any further. He
differed from that Committee as to the appropriation of
the saving. There was no necessity whatever for the
Accountant-General to go and buy and sell every day,
or any day, unless the capital was actually wanted for
the occasion. Therefore, by an easy arrangement, by
transferring the funds backwards and forwards to the
different accounts, everything would be kept perfectly
right and regular, and a clear saving of at least 12,0001.
a year to the suitor would accrue. But he would not
throw that saving into the general fund. He proposed
that it should go to the suitor himself; and not to the fund.
In taking a whole year's transaction it would only be ne-
cessary to take all these amounts, and dovetailing them
properly in harmony, to sell or buy some 290,000/. or
300,0001. worth of stock. The effect would be to save a
vast expense, and the suitor would be as well secured as at
present. There was this difficulty in the way : it might be
asked, " How can you ascertain the proper price to be
paid or accepted by the different parties when there is
no longer a real transaction, but when it is only made
on paper i" Fortunately he was enabled to meet that
in a most satisfactory manner. The Bank of Englan d
took the prices of every species of fund every day up to
one o'clock, e.nd then it struck the average. He pro-
posed, therefore, to take that average at one o'clock as
the price at which every one bought and sold that day.
That would be fair towards all parties ; and it would be
attended with this further benefit. Very often sums
were ordered to be transferred to different parties ac-
cording to the price on a given day. This same scale
of the one o'clock average could be adopted for these
transactions ; and a very considerable sum would thus
be saved to the suitors. Then there was the fund of
111,000/. a year, arising from cash belonging to the
suitor, but in which he had no interest. The Court
acted quite differently with this fund, of which it was
the trustee ; the monies were invested and the_ interest
and dividends were appropriated at last. The argument
in favour of this was, that the Court acted as banker ;
and as ordinary bankers were entitled to use balances
for their benefit, so the court was entitled to use
them for the benefit of the general suitor. What he pro-
posed was, that, for the future, where any unemployed
cash should be laid out by the Court, where it was not
required by the parties to be invested, the Court should
have the benefit oif that investment for two years ; at the
end of that period, if there were no opposition, the party
entitled to be entitled to the benefit of the investment
at the price of the day. He proposed to relieve the
suitor in another way. An account had been laid
before the House in 1851, in the shape of a return from
the Accountant-General, showing the amount of.-cash
standing in different accounts in his name; 'not dealt
with for ten, twenty-five, or fifty years; also the stock
in his name on which dividendic had not been claimed.
Many of these sums, it Might easily be supposed, could
never be called for. He proposed that the Lord Chan-
cellor should be directed to go through those accounts,
not affecting any surplus which had been less than ten
years without being dealt with, and to select those sums
which in his opinion might be dealt with, and invested
without injury to the parties interested—the investment
to be so arranged that if ever an account should become
a living account, the party interested should find his
fund with all the dividends upon it. At present these
moneys were invested so as to produce interest to the
suitors' fund. What he proposed was, that the Chan-
cellor should have power to direct that the dividends,
from time to time, instead of being invested, should be
applied to the administration of justice so as to relieve
the suitors. The other fund of two million two hundred
thousand pounds to which he had referred, was invested
when the funds where at 76.; they therefore had the
benefit of the difference of price. He proposed, also,
that at the expiration of a certain number of years this
fund should be again examined. He not only believed that
it was impossible for justice to be administered more ra-
pidly in the proper sense of the word, than it would now
be in the Court of Chancery, but also that the time would
come when the suitors in Chancery would have no costs
whatever (as we understood the Noble Lord) to to pay.
In dealing with this fund, which he called a sacred fund,
he should consider it necessary to exercise the greatest
care. The time might come when the Consolidated
Fund would be relieved from certain of the charges for
salaries, &c., to which it was now liable ; if this fund
were sufficient to pay those salaries, there was no rea-
son why the State should not be relieved from their pay-
ment. The Bill for effecting these changes was in pro-
gress, and he should shortly lay it on their Lordships'
table. Another small Bill was connected with the sub-
ject of the Masters Extraordinary in Chancery. At pre-
sent this appointment was sought as giving to a country
solicitor the aspect of being a person very much trusted
by the Court of Chancery. He proposed to have a regis-
try for transacting this kind of business, and to sweep
away the fees now charged by these gentlemen. He would
now .t..te what he proposed to do, in order to carry out
the wishes of their Lordships and the other House as to
lunatics in Chancery. The Government thought it
right that there should be a new Commission, to which
certain Members should be added, including one
of the Vice-Chancellors, and other legal function.
aries. The object of the Government was, not only that
the reforms already commenced should be prosecuted,
and in the same able course, but that there should be
an inquiry (for which purpose the learned persons he
had last named were added to the Commission) into the
working intestamentary matters of her Majesty's Courts.
(Hear, hear.) At present one kind of Court had juris-
diction in one place, and another In another, and the
utmost confusion prevailed. (Hear, hear.) The Noble
and learned Lord then referred to the case of a Mr.
Scott, a lunatic (as we understood), the particulars of
which he detailed at great length, but in so low a tone of
voice that they did not reach the gallery. He pro-
posed an extended investigation into the working of those
courts, and the establishment of one simple rule for the
Courts of the whole country. Another small Bill which
he should introduce was connected with the patent laws,
substituting stamps in lieu of fees. The Noble and Learned
Lord then referred to the subject of lunacy generally,
and said that the great difficulty would be to reconcile
the several authorities having jurisdiction, which it would
be impossible to give up, and to put the business into a
shape in which no unnecessary expense should be incurred.
At present several authorities were exercised over luna-
tics—the Great Seal, the Commissioners, and the visitors.
Besides those, the Act called Lord Shaftesbury's Act had
appointed eleven commissioners, some medical,—some
~
legal,—whose duty it was to license the asylums, to visit
those asylums, and to look after their management.
the course of time, the existing Acts had come
in
progress,
several amendments. Those amendments
obstacle
etrequiirne
sainodn ewirst,hhtehhe i of the com-
adasseivsetaryncereasofothnetoNboebllieevENavSaawktn
which had hitherto impeded thee well ieldvgtehreyCommis-
chancellor ; but if the
attached more particularly to the
mission would be removed. Th Masters in Lunacy were
to them and they were
"
to send them back,—,no doubt a very considerable ex-
for instance, the enlargement
Chancellor were to refer matters ,
of an establishment,—no
which it was perfectly absurd to call a
many cases in
pense must necessarily be incurred. Again, there were
the liberty of the subject had been
jury to try the question of lunacy. The great tender-
ness of Parliament for
always against giving undue power in this respect ; but
there were
cases where parties would be pronounced, on
the mere sight of them, to be drivelling idiots. He pro-
posed to do away, as far as might be, with these inqui-
ries. (Hear, hear.) The object of the Bill which the
Noble Earl (Lord Shaftesbury) had brought in last Ses-
sion, was to provide by a short and summary process
that persons evidently insane might be taken care of un-
til proper inquiries could be made, and also to provide
for the maintenance of persons in lunatic asylums who
had no friends or funds, and- who might, therefore be
turned out in the streets. The object of this proposed
enactment was to prevent the danger that might arise to