The Sun.
London, England, 1849-06-06 00:00:00

THE BRAZILS.

FALMOUTII, JUNE 2.—The Express packet, Lieut.
Long, arrived this morning with the Brazil mails; the
dates are:—Rio de Janeiro, 15th April; Bahia, 24th;
and Pern imbue°, 30th; on freight about 21,0001., of
which about 15,0001. is for the St. John del Mining
Company. Passengers—His Excellency Marquis Doris,
Sardinian Minister; his Excellency M. D. Butanville,
French Minister; Mr. and Mrs. S:ern, Miss Adamson,
Mr. M'Kennel, Mr. and Mrs. K-ller, Messrs. Pecher,
Atkins, Holz, Andrada, Braga, Linley, and EMU. Ex-
change had continued during the former part of the
month at 263., at which upwards of 100,0001 had been
done; but, previous to the packet sailing, bills to a
large amount had piissed at 25,11 A good deal of busi-
ness had also been done on Paris at 670 to 667. Sock
had ranged from 86 to 854, with moderate business;
Provincial, per cent. lower. Coffee, washed 375. 3d.,
superi,,r 28s. 101, first good 263. 10d., first ordinary
245. 10d. Exports front lst to 15th April—To Balti-
more, 7,600 bags; California, 549; Cape of Good Hope,
500; Channel, 15,199; Gibraltar, 4,281; Hamburgb,
2,735; Havre, 838; Lisbon, 2,009; Malta, 3,725; New
York, 4,8'5; Philadelphia, 3,600. The Crane packet
was entering Rio de Janeiro when the Express came
out.

QUARANTINE NOTICE.
Oporto, May 28, 1849.
Sir,—l have the honour to inform you that the Board
of Health in this city have notified that vessels having
li ft any port of England, after the 16th of the present
month, will not be subject to quarantine on arriviuz here.
Ireland and Scotland are still reputed as suspected, and
vessels from those parts will have to perform quarantine
as hitherto. By a dispatch of same date as the preced-
ing, the quarantine is raised on ships from Riga and all
ports in the Baltic, as well as Altona and Hamburgh.
(Signed) THOMAS C. WIGHAM,
Agent to Lloyd's.
Capt. G. A. Halsted, R.N., Secretary, Lloyd's.

Gibraltar, May 26, 1849.

Sir,—With reference to my communication of sth inst.,
about the reduction of quarantine on vessels from Eng-
land to three days, 1 have now the honour to acquaint
you that the steam-packet Iberia, which arrived last
night, has been admitted to free pratique, and I am in
formed that all merchant vessels from Great Britain,
bringing clean bills of health, will not be subject to any
quarantine whatever.
(Signed) J. LOINTGLANDS COWELL,
Agent to Lloyd's.
Captain G. A. Halsted, R.N., Secretary, Lloyd's.

THE Romer; CATHOLIC Cnuacu.—ln pursuance
of directions to that effect from Dr. Wiseman, the
Roman Catholic Vicar-Apostolic of the London District,
and a notification to that effect made on the previous
Sunday, collections were made on Sunday last in every
Roman Catholic church and chapel in the metropolis and
throughout the suburban counties, for the erection and
completion of new edifices for the celebration of divine
worship and the furtherance in other regards of the
Roman Catholic faith in this country. In the appeals
which were made in the several places on Sunday for
the purpose mentioned, very extraordinary accounts
were detailed or the increase of buildings erected or pur-
chased for Roman Catholic worship in England, and
especially in and near the metropolis, during the past
year, and a confident hope was expressed on the part of
the bishop and clergy that the community would by
their generous contributions render them every assist-
tuAL notice,r,.aTandei slai
kl ea l
ya tt Sb tea
wn fie
11,1 da
t-
theaaldl e s
assist-
ance to effect the advancements of the objects in view.
attractings
o
d.
S rA Nr Eg
the present week there have been numerous
ionnuoteflynum
thbneyl a
evoisridtourshtaos t
bh
eeelnoc ailni
styp,e
catnedd t hme
During
great.
omstanmsi
many persons. The furniture,
&c., remains in pretty
much the same state as it was in at the time of the mur-
ders; even the mat on which Mr. Jermy Jermy fell and
breathed his last has not been removed; nor are the
stains of blood yet effaced from the cocoa-nut carpet on
which the elder Mr. Jermy expired. The great object
of attraction was the drawing-room—the furniture in
which is very splendid, in the Louis Quatorze style, and
at the same time being in most excellent taste • The
-
other apartments are well furnished, some of the bed 3
rooms luxuriously; and the mansion throughout is fitte
up with every comfort and convenience for the English
gentleman. There are twu portraits of the late Mr. Jermy
in the house, and a few good pictures worthy the attention
of the connoisseur. The discovery of the blunderbuss on the
Potash-farm still continues to be the subject of conver-
sation, and it is considered singular that it was not
found at the time when the premises were, as it was
understood, so closely and narrowly searched. Rush
left behind him a document which he intended at one
time to have submitted to his lawyer, as the ground-
work of his defence. He did not do so, however, but
he did not destroy the paper, in which occurs the
following passage :—" As soon as Miss Sandford was
in her room I went down in my slip-shoes, and took my
outside dress and my boots I had been in the habit of
wearing when I went out in the night after poachers, as
I did not wish to be recognised, and hid them in the
muck in the shed, in the yard, by the dairy window.
It is not material that those things should
be discovered till after the evidence is given against me,
because that outside dress will completely clear me as
not being the person seen in the hall the night of the
murder, and yet it is almost as important the parties I
have described should be made out, which I have no
doubt can be done." The dress and boots have been
found.—Norfolk Chronicle.
Letters from Trieste announce a considerable
fall in the Austrian Government stock, in consequence
of the reported capture of Agram, thq capital of
Croatia, by the Hungarians.

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

HOUSE OF LORDS, June 5.

Their Lordship met at Five o'elf;ok.

Etrl STANHOPE pr.sented petitions in favour of
an amendment of the poor-laws; also for a repeal of
the Sale of Byer Act.

Lord STAFFORD presented a netition in favour of I
an extension of the jurisdiction of the County Courts.
BANKRUPT LAWS CONSOLIDATION BILL.
Lord CAMPBELL presented a petition from Glasgow
in favour of the Bankruptcy Laws Consolidation Bill.
Lord BROUGHAM, after giving his strenuous sup-
port to the above petition, presented several petitions on
the same subject. The first was from the bankers, user-
chants, and traders of Manchester, signed by 3,918 per-
sons, who in the course of ten minutes had subscribed
1,0001. for the purpose of defraying the expenses in-
curred in prosecuting the necessary inquiries into the
details of the Bill. The second was a petition from the
same parties in the metropolis, 'and, as a proof of the
interest which it had excited, he mentioned as a fact
that eighteen of the first bankers ia the metropolis had
each subscribed ten guineas to defray the expenses of
the mercantile community in pie,moting the success of
the Bill. The third was a petition from the Chamber
of Commerce in London, more commonly known as the
Association for the Protection of Trade in the city of
London. The fourth was the petition of the bankers,
merchants, and traders of the borough of Salford,
signed by eight hundred and twenty-:ix p,rsons.
He then presented similar petitions trona the Man-
chester Association for the Protection of Trade, from
Plymouth, from Coventry, from Dudley, and some
other places. He then observed that he had so often
entered at length into the description of this Bill that
he would not detain their Lordships long upon it on the
present occasion. Their Lordships were all aware that
it had been prepared about eighteen months ago, arid
that it consisted of two parts—the one containing a
digest of the existing bankruptcy laws in 367 articles,
and the other containing several improvements on those
existing laws. Though the bankruptcy laws would still
remain capable of improvement—and what human in-
stitution was incapable of it?—the digest of them con-
tained in this Bill would render the task of improvement
more easy and more practicable. This Bill contained
some valuable and important improvements in the
transaction of mercantile affairs ; and, as he had
stated on many previous occasions, the nature of
those improvements, he would now merely state,
first, that they simplified and extended the
present bankruptcy Acts, and next, that they contained
many most important provisions for preventing undue
dealings with the property of bankrupts, for preventing
undue preference from being given to particular creditors,
for preventing undue preference from being given to the
relations of the bankrupt—and a gross case of this kind
had recently come before Mr. Commissioner Faue, in
which a debt of 1.5001. to the mother of the bankrupt
had been fraudulently set up by the bankrupt—and for
setting aside all conveyances and equitable mortgages
executed within a certain period before the bankruptcy
as fraudulent preferences given to the creditors who held
such instruments. All transactions of this kind were
carefully guarded against by the new provisions of this
Bill. They would also define certain acts of insolvency
on the part of the trader w hick would let in the whole
agency of the bankruptcy laws. They likewise contained
several most valuable improvements in the whole juris-
diction of bankruptcy. The original intention of
the Bill had been to appoint a Chief Commissioner of
Bankruptcy, with an increase of 5001. a year to his
salary, and a chief registrar, with an increase of 300/. a
year to his; but that intention was now abandoned. No
rotation of commissioners or registrars appeared to be
necessary, and in the metropolis the number of corn
missioners would be reduced from six to four, and so
with respect to the registrars. The six commissioners
now did not sit above two days in the week, and their
business could be easily transacted by four commis-
sioners, who, instead of sitting six days in the week, like
the judges, would only have to sit four. He had there-
fore, in compliance with the suggestions of his Noble
and Learned Friend who now held the great seal, struck
out of the Bill the clauses for increased salaries to the
Chief Commissioner and to the senior registrar. To
the proposition of restoring arrest on meene pro-
cess he had not been able to give his consent,
although many of the petitioners had argued
strenuously for it. Debt, if innocent, was a misfor-
tune, and not a fit subject for imprisonment as a punish.
ment. He laid down this principle, that, excepting in
three cases, imprisonment for debt ought not to be
allowed; and those three cases were, first, where fraud
had been committed by the debtor in contracting the
debt; secondly, where the debtor exhibited contumacy
by refusing to answer questions put to him by the Com-
missioner or his creditors; and, thirdly, where ho had
been guilty of gross and wilful extravagance in
contracting debts which he had no reasonable
prospect of paying. In all these cases there was crime,
and crime was a fit subject for imprisonment. But then
the imprisonment should not be for ever; and, there-
fore, a discretionary power was given to the Commis-
sioners, wherever they thought fit to imprison a party
guilty either of fraud, contumacy, or wilful extravagance.
This power of imprisonment had been carefully consi-
dered by the Committee which sat last year, and the
result had been that a considerable change had been
made in the Bill which was submitted this year to a Select
Committee—a change which would give a more efficient

remedy to the creditor, and would be a greater in-
fltction on the debtor, but only in those cases where too
much lenity was formerly exhibited towards him. Prima
jacic the creditor was in the right and the debtor in the
wrong. Prima facie the creditor was the injured, and
the debtor the injuring party. The presumption wa,
against the debtor, and in favour of the creditor; End
hence he meant to give to the latter every help in his
p )wer for the recovery of his just claims. Many persons
wished to have arrest upon mesne process restored, be-
cauFe they knew that, it they waited till their debtor
was taken in exectrion, his funds by that time were pro-
bably exhausted. He objected, however, to the reztora-
iion of that process, because under it the creditor often

gut too much. Persons subjected to the magical touch
of a sheriff's officer on the shoulder often paid debts
which they did not owe, or compelled their relatives and
friends to pay for them debts which they did not owe.
The parties who advocated the revival of arrest on
mesne process had attended the Committee, and had
examined witnesses in support of their opinion; but,
upon consideration, had accepted the Bill as it
now stood. He then gave a history of the pro-
gress of the Bill in that House, and also in the Se!ect
Committee, in terms precisely similar to those which
he has so often repeated during the present session, and
conclude it by declaring that the result of our various
deliberations had been that the petitioners against the
Sill had come to an understanding with such of their
Lordships (himself among the number) as had had the
management of its progress, and that their Lordships
had come to an understanding with the petitioners, who
originally opposed it. He had the Bill printed at the
close of last session; on the first night of the present he
had reintroduced it, and got it it referred to a Select
Committee. That Committee had been attended by
many gentlenn n from the provinces, from Manchester,
Liverpool, Leeds, Sheffield, and Hull. Many new sug
gestions were made to the Committee. They were dis-
cussed and rediscussed. Those that were valuable were
accepted; those that were not so were rejected; and at
last all parties came to this conclusion—that the Bill as
it now stood was entitled to the entire and unanimous
and hearty approval even of those who had at first
opposed it. Oaly one alteration of importance had
since been made in it. He had acceded to the objec-
tion made by his Noble and Learned Friend who held
the great seal, against the creation of an intermediate
Court of Appeal from the decision of a single com-
missioner. There might be too great a leaning among
the commissioners, from courtesy to each other, to con
firm their own decrees, and therefore, as he had agreed
to dispense with a fifth commissioner, he also agreed to
the proposition that there should ba an appeal to such
one of the Vice-Chancellors of the High Court of Chan-
cery as the Lord Chancellor should appoint from time
to time to sit in Chancery. He then proceeded to ex-
plain the reasons which had induced the Committee first
to introduce into, and afterwards to strike out of this
Bill, the clauses which were generally known by the
name of the " Deadinen's Clauses." If an insolvent
trader happened to die after a fiat was struck against
him his estate could be administered as that of a bank-

rapt; but, if he died before the fiat was struck, no such
remedy could be had by his creditors, and their only re•
source was a creditors' suit, which was a very irksome
and your-expensive proceeding. To remedy this state
of things he had introduced the deadmen's clauses.
His Noble and Learned Friend had objected to them
on the ground that if they were made law, there must
be a creditors' proceeding and a bankruptcy pro-
ceeding to. He had given in to that objection,
and had struck out in consequence the deadmen's
clauses. His Noble and Learned Friend (Lord Cot•
tprubeoenishepesrdaeminsthe) had pledged himself to provide a remedy
for the inconvenience of which he complained, and, as a
substitute for the clauses which be had struck out, pro-
posed
the Master's
di
mn
withouttahsete ceass eofiffiol
office,
etgr aaadnbedri
bill
onlythe
er
apur
practice
petitioneieres uinbthe
et scthooo
tuuhlrdet
of Chancery. The Bill, then, as it now stood, bad ob-
tained the unanimous suppor't of all the respectable
pclassesray
Abt ataht
proofti hne tr
ot, womfn
this measure with as
and country; and they anxiously
itthetbe no delay in converting it into
factnecessity which existed for pass-
inglaw.
the startlinglittletiia delay as possible, he men-
tionedbeen annually lost for some .et 50,000,0001. sterling bad
distress of the times,
ly
the law, t-
ltahwataffecting
two p aosr It
importantsr o°sil3eiaeus past, partly
taaeorvet tlericie owing t o
imperfectth e
ots bankruptcy.woul
d b
state of the
conceived
e
produced by this Bill—one upon h other upon
the morals of the country.—(Hear, hear.) In the first
place the new law would make the trader, who gave
credit—and in this commercial country credit must be
given—give a more limited credit than he hitherto had
done; and, in the next, when the debtor found that he
could not elude the legal operations of his creditor, he
could exhibit greater honesty, frugality, and care in all
his dealings. He would be compelled to become more
honest and more prudent, and to square his expenses
more accurately to his means. These two results would
be of inestimable value to the community. He therefore
gave this measure to the House as an important im-
provement on the present condition of the law, and that
with a pledge, if it should be found that further improve-
ments were necessary, he would be ready to give them
full and mature consideration. He could not conclude
his observations without giving his warmest praise to
Mr. Miller, an officer of the Court of Chancery, who
was the person who had drawn up this invaluable digest.
Before he sat down he must inform the House of a com-
munication he had received from the Lord Chancellor.
After he had acceded to the suggestion of his Noble
and Learned Friend, that no increase should be made to
the salary of the Chief Commissioner and of the chief
registrar, his Noble and Learned Friend had expressed
his entire approval of this measure. He would not
have pressed it on the attention of their Lordshipp in