The Sun.
London, England, 1853-07-05 00:00:00

Under the present system three of the creditors,or agents
of the creditors, were chosen as commissioners. These
commissioners had no qualification, and were supposed to
be a council, by whose advice and opinion the trustee
might if he thought fit, be ruled, though he was not
bound to be so. The natural consequence was, that
when the trustee considered there was a responsibility
involved in the case he would call in the council, but
when he thought he could do without them he would
not call them in. One function of great importance was
performed by these commissioners—they audited the
accounts of the trustee and awarded his commission, so
that his salary was so far in their hands. Now, the
trustee was frequently enabled to exercise a great voice
in the choice of the commissioners ; the kind of votes
by which they were elected very much depended upon
him ; and the consequence was, that in many cases it
was found that the commissioners, owing their election
to the trustee, were disposed to favour him in auditing
his accounts and in fixing his payment. There was one
part of the existing law which very much facilitated any
improper proceedings on the part of the bankrupt and
trustees. Not less than eight, though not more than
14 days from the period of sequestration, as the bank-
ruptcy was called, were allowed the bankrupt for all
these contrivances, and for fraudulent purposes, if he
was inclined to devote it in that way. There was no
power of taking possession of the bankrupt's property
until eight days, and it might be 14 days, after the
bankruptcy. In the meantime the bankrupt could
make away with his property, and, if a dishonest man,
he might occupy that time in creating votes on fraudu-
lent or fictitious claims so as to elect a trustee of his
own nomination, in giving illegal preferences, and in
making away with and concealing his property. Now,
it was quite bad enough that there should be an elec-
tive court of justice at all, but it was monstrous that
there should be a court of justice appointed by election
in each particular case—and that, be it remembered,
not a court of arbitration appointed by the choice of the
two parties, but by a number of creditors, with all the
evils incident to such a system. By that body, and in
that way, was the court in each instance constituted.
He had referred to the possibility of appeal. The ap-
peal might take place in the case of the choice of the
assignee, or trustee as he was called in Scotland, and
perhaps two or three years, as had been known to be
the case, elapsed before the choice was confirmed. All
this while the unhappy creditors, who had or ought to
have no interest whatever in the matter, were kept out
of their rightful claims. They did not care one rush
which of the two rival candidates to the office was suc-
cessful ; all they wished was to have the business done.
The petitioners stated how much they suffered under
this system. " The season," they said, " for which the
bankrupt's goods were manufactured passes away, the
articles get out of fashion, and a fall in the market
often takes place which greatly diminishes the value of
the bankrupt's property. ' Another evil was, that the
bankrupt was often disposed to offer a composition with
which the creditors would be- satisfied, but, until the
choice of the trustee was finally confirmed, that composi-
tion could not be accepted, andin the meantime the bank-
rupt otherwise disposed of money with which he had
intended to satisfy the claims against him, and the cre-
ditors were often entirely frustrated in their endeavours.
With regard to the system of class certificates which
now prevailed in this country, instead of adopting the
English change in the law in this respect, and taking
from the creditors the whole of the power of granting
certificates, this power remained throughout Scotland in
the hands of the creditors, subject to all the evils pointed
out by the commission of 1839 and 1840. By dint of
canvassing, by private interest, and not unfrequently
by direct bribery, the bankrupt now gave certain powers
to certain creditors for the express purpose of obtaining
their vote. Again, no provision was made for the public
examination of the bankrupt. The old act said he should
be examined publicly, but, practically, the bankrupt
was never examined in public, but always privately.
There was also no examination—at least no effectual ex-
amination of the creditors themselves. He would fain
hope that the petitioners were mistaken in the state-
ment that, under the present system, there was no pro-
vision for the examination either of the bankrupt or of
the creditors. He thought that must be a mistake,
because under the act of 1851 he believed provision was
made to enable the court to examine the bankrupt,
and, in fact, to compel his examination. Upon all these
grounds the petitioners prayed their lordships to adopt
the bill which now lay before them awaiting a second
reading—a bill which he had the honour of introducing ;
and they added, also, that the course which that bill
took relating to arrangements in cases of insolvency was
advisable and ought to be adopted. The Faculty of
Advocates having had under their consideration the
Lord-Advocate's bill on the subject, disapproved a good
part of the bill, expressed no opinion as to whether it
went far enough or not, but added that they did approve
one portion of the bill, which, in his opinion, was the
only step of any importance in the measure—namely,
that of giving immediate possession of the bankrupt's
papers and books. He was bound to say that the mea-
sure which he brought before their lordships, and in be-
half of which these petitioners addressed the house, the
other petitioners joining in that prayer, had been most
carefully prepared by persons well versed in the Scotch
bankruptcy law—by practitioners both at the Scotch
and English bars ; and the measure had been by them
prepared with the greatest possible knowledge of all the
details. He had only to mention the name of Mr.
John Gilmour to prove that the bill had received atten-
tion from one possessing a perfect knowledge of the law
on the subject, and a complete acquaintance with the
practical working of the present system. It was
said that the change which had taken place in the
English law, and to which he had alluded, was less
applicable to Scotland than England. There might
be other parts of the law than those he had mentioned
in which the Scotch was more to be approved
than the English law. What was the moral of this ?
It was, that the whole matter should be carefully
considered by those commissioners who had been re-
cently appointed to take into consideration the assimila-
tion of the mercantile law in different parts of the United
Kingdom. That commission proceeded from the Go-
vernment, as their lordships were aware, in consequence
of a great conference held last year, at which, in the
first place, the noble lord on the cross bench (the Earl
of Harrowby) presided, and over which, secondly, he
(Lord Brougham) had presided, composed of represen-
tatives from all the great trading towns in England,
Scotland, and Ireland. The idea of that conference
had, he believed, arisen from the formation of different
societies for the amendment of the mercantile law,
particularly in some parts of Scotland. A very
learned person, Mr. J. Stewart, having been in Scot-
land, had had communications with those parties, and
he rather believed it was in consequence of the com-
munications between him and some of those bodies in
the west of Scotland that the conference was appointed.
It had given him (Lord Brougham), he must say,
great satisfaction to preside over the conference in
question, because a more moderate and more rational
assembly of persons could hardly be conceived upon
any matter so interesting to the feelings of the indi-
viduals themselves. They were all interested in the
trade, commerce, and manufactures of the different
towns from which they came, but there was no tone
of violence, no headlong steps taken towards a change
no desire of change from the mere love of change,
but, on the contrary, what was done was done in the
most rational and temperate manner he had ever
heard. Another gentleman, Mr. Leone Levi, who had
devoted a large degree of attention to the subject of the
continental mercantile law, had promulgated the idea of
an international commercial code, and a noble duke and
his Royal Highness Prince Albert were understood to
support the opinion he expressed, that the state of the
world was ripe for the formation of a general interna-
tional commercial code. Others, however, had had some
doubts about this, and had thought that, at all events,
we should begin more humbly, by considering whether
or not a commercial code could be established for the
United Kingdom, leaving other countries out of the
question,—at least for the present. The conference had
bound itself to that opinion, but without giving up the
hope that they might live to see a more general union
among the different nations of Europe on this subject,
and the formation of one general international commer-
cial law among all civilised nations. The differences at
present existing between the various codes were not very
great, but where those differences existed they were very
embarrassing. He ought to apologise for having so long
detained their lordships, but he had deemed it his duty
to the petitioners who had intrusted to him the presen-
tation of the petition to state the facts which he had
laid before the house. He did not intend to press for-
ward this session the bill to which he had alluded, but
he considered it would be in its proper place if referred
to the Assimilation Commissioners. (Hear, hear.)
CHURCH BUILDING ACTS AMENDMENT
BILL.

On the motion that their lordships do go into com-
mittee upon this bill,

The Earl of HARROWBY said that as the second
reading had passed without observation, he wished to
state briefly the objects of the bill. These were two in
number ; the first being to give facilities for the aggre-
gation of small livings in populous cities and towns. In
the city of London, for example, there was an immense
accumulation of churches, forming no doubt a great ar-
chitectural attraction to the metropolis, but doing little
for its spiritual welfare. Even at the time of the great
fire, there were far more churches than were necessary
for the wants of the inhabitants. The first act which
passed for rebuilding the city restricted the number of
new churches to 37 ; but three years afterwards, the
number was extended to 51; but no fewer than 48 of
the old ones were suppressed, such parishes and endow-
ments being united to others in their neighbourhood.
The number of churches, however, was still very con-
siderable. In one instance there were no fewer than
five churches to serve an area and population not larger
than that of Grosvenor-square, and several other similar
cases might be named. Now the population of the City
had not only diminished, but the number of those who
remained within its precincts on Sunday had decreased
to an even larger extent, insomuch that there were now
many churches in a position similar to that in Ireland,
where Dean Swift used to commence the service with
" Dearly beloved Roger," there not being a congrega-
tion large enough to justify his use of the plural word
"brethren." (A laugh.) This did not arise from any
bad feeling towards the church, or from any indisposi-
tion on the part of the clergy to do their duty, for the
same thing had happened to dissenting meeting-houses,
eight or ten of which had lately been abandoned, and
pulled down, or converted to other purposes. The
truth was that the causes which had in ancient times
caused vast populations to be pent within walls, had
long since ceased, and London was now fast becoming
a city of shops and warehouses. (Hear, hear.) The
question then, was, whether it was not better that the
churches and endowments should follow the people ?
(Hear, hear.) The present law gave the bishop the
power to order by a faculty, a church to be pulled down,
and also to unite contiguous benefices; but in the former
, case the process was inconvenient, and in the latter the ne-