The Sun.
London, England, 1831-01-08 00:00:00

himself formed a part. Oa tote Contrary, he felt assured
that these gentlemen discharged their duties in the most
Creditable manner it was possible they could be discharged,
under the cireenestarces in which they were placed. He
thought, however, that fresh dunes ought not to be im-
posed upon them, because the iiiisinerss in which they
were already involved was of a nature shitcierstly com-
plicated. The law could never be properly administered
until the Cternmissioners devoted their whole time to the
administration of it, heteanse it was too much to expect of
any men that they should negfeet theft own private clients
in order to attend a commission of bankruptcy, from
which they derived inferior emoluments."--iie then pro-
' eeded to read several extraots from the writings at air
James Bland Burgess, Lord Henly, and others, illustrative
and confirmatory of 4.1:e positions far which he had been
contending; and then came fu e gentleman, whom he
described as his last and most inspoftant witness—
Mr. Montague, a Commissioner too, and who ha 4 more
experience than the whole sixty-nine others put to,
gether. He said Amidst many instances whit:hare now
present to my mind, I shall merely state, that, in a question
which arose upon the Celornbian Bonds, I, on the same
day, procured from two Lists of Comittissioners two di-
rectly opposite decisions ; and in the spring of the present
year, the Vice-Chancellor was called upon to decide, and
on the same day pronounced judgment upon twe petitions,
where one trilvio,,l had determined that costs incurred be-
tween verdict and judgment were provable, and another
had determined that they were nut provable." Again he
found that Learned Gentleman saying---" Vram the diffi-
culty of procuring the permanent attendance of Commis-
soners, Solicitors have, I conceive, considerable difficulty
in occasionally aesembling Commissioners, either because
the Commissioners are in the country, or on the circuit,
or attending their duties in Court, or in different places.
It appears to me also, that some inconvenience results from
the nature of the Boarel, as different Commissioners at-
tmded sometimes at different parts of examinations of the
Caine subject ; this, consequently, requires explanation,
which occasions delay and expense." Once more, in
:mother place, he dee'ared that in his " attendance upon the
different lists of Commissioners, I see a constant alteration,
so that I air. now occasionally obliged to argue to new
Commissioners questions which were settled by the previ-
ous Board, and which, before that previous Board, I used
to argue some years ago. Litigatious, attendant upon peti-
tions to the Lord Chancellor, is the consequence of this."
The Learned Commissioner had made a remark, though
he (Mr. B.) could not then exactly say where, that in the
Bankrupt Courts they had, " the minimum of justice with
the maximum of expense and delay." If Mr. Montague
had not said so, be (Mr. B.) was perfectly ready to adopt
it himself. That gentleman, in his admirable tract,
page 1, s After many years' practice, I am impres-
sed with the conviction, that every attempt to improve the
Bankrupt Laws must, whatever be the advantages with
which it is attended, be productive of the three great evils
in the administration of justice—uncertainty, delay, and
expense, so long as the present mode of administering the
law remains unaltered." He would not waste their time
by endeavouring to strengthen a case already so well sup-
ported. He left it in their hands with full confidence as
to the result. He was induced to come before them by
nothing more than by feelings of public duty. By the
abolition of the present system he had something to lose,
and nothing to gain ; at least, nothing, but such share of
public approbation as might fall to his lot fur zeal and good
intentions. Under the circumstances which he had stated
to them, he thought he was entitled to hope for public
support.—(Applause.) He concluded by moving the fol-
lowing resolution :

" That the present division of ti,e Commissioners of
Bankrupts into fourteen lists, of five in each, is highly in-
jurious to the interests of the trading part of the commu-
nity, and unsatisfactory to the public at large. That the
decisions of the Commissioners do not appear to be founded
on any fixed principle or general rule; for what is decided
by one list to be law, in one day, is pronounced by ano-
ther list, the same day, not to be law ; and very frequently
one list of Commissioners will decide directly the contrary
to what they had previously decided. That the made of
remunerating the Commissioners by a fee on each meeting
tends to multiply meetings, and thereby increase the al-
ready very heavy expense of proceedings under Commis-
sions of Bankrupts. That, from the irregularity and want
of punctuality in the attendance of the Commissioners, the
publics are constantly put to very considerable inconve-
nience and expence ; and that the whole system of the ad-
ministration of the Bankrupt Law by the Commissioners
requires alteration."
Mr. Alderman VENABLEs rose to second the foregoing
resolution, declaring that within his own experience,
which was not very extensive, he had seen the business of
the Bankrupt Court often most grossly mismanaged, and
with great vexation, delay, and expence to all concerned.
Mr. DoaNvoan complained of all that he had himself
suffered from the illegal and unjust decisions of the Com-
missioners. He read also a letter, which appeared to have
been published in some of the Newspapers, and which had
been addressed to Lord Lansdowne and Sir Robert Peel,
the one being then, and the other shortly before, Secre-
tary for the Home Department. This set forth, amongst
other matters, that at the time of his bankruptcy, he had
assets to the amount of 1,6251., sufficient to pay 13s. 4d.
in the pound, and not a single penny of it that was not
swallowed up by the expences of the Commission.
Sir. Alderman Warmarasr gave the resolutions his
most cordial support, and related a case where he lost
1,0001., besides costs to the amount of 5001., owing to
the imperfect constitution of the Bankrupt Court, and the
unequal operation of the law. He next proceeded to en-
large upon the immense extent of patronage enjoyed by
the Lord Chancellor, mentioning the fact that now, after a
lapse of five or six and thirty years, some of the Thurlow
family were enjoying patent places of the value of between
eight and ten thousand a year. Without meaning any
disrespect to the present Commissioners, he must be al-
lowed to say, that such was their ignorance, that he had
seen a young all, in the employment of one of the ac-
countants, laughing at ignorance of the most obvious
principles of arithmetic which a Commissioner had betrayed.
Mr. 13aowNE observed, that the system under which
the affairs of the estates of bankrupts were at present con-
ducted was the very worst, there could be no doubt en-
tertained by any rational person. In the country Com-
missions, where the whole five of the Commissioners
usually attended, and of course received their fees for their
attendance, the business was done in a manner, if possible,
more disgraceful than in London. In very many of those
Commissions the solicitors, assignees, petitioning creditor,
and commissioners were all well acquainted, often related
to each other, and, of course, the assignee cut out work
for the solicitor, and the solicitor provided fees for the
commissioner, upon the principle of "scratch me, and I'll
scratch you ;" thus the estate of the banki upt was frit-
tered away in litigation, while the creditors, in many cases
went without their dividend. He would mention one case
which occurred a few years ago in London before the
Third List of Commissioners, in which a creditor, by the
chicanery of the agents, was kept out of the proof of a
just debt, at the first, second, and third meetings : tile
consequence was, that when the final dividend was de-
clared the debt had not been proved. After this the at-
torney or assignee retained the dividends of ss. in the
pound in their own hands, and then admitted the claim to
its fullest extent. Having kept the money for two years,
they deducted from the dividend fifty guineas for the
accountant to whom it had been referred, and about
eighty or ninety more for the solicitor, so that out
of a dividend of about four hundred and fifty pounds,
somewhat about 3001. only was received, besides having
put the party to an expence of above 1001. in travelling to
Loudon and back to his residence, he having in the course
of the journey he was compelled to make, travelled a dis-
tance of above 800 miles. It is a fact, assignees were
known to make a trade of the debts of the estate and buy
up the property of bankrupts, which comprised debts that
had never been applied for : these were purchased by them
at the rate of Bd. in the pound, and they actually reco-
vered 20s. They rejected all applications to examine
their accounts, bidding defiance to the great body of the
creditors, who were in this shameful manner deprived of
their property under a system of licensed swindlers. He
had known instances of persons acquiring property to the
amount of thousands in this shameful manner. He should
be happy to render the Committee the utmost service in
his power to effect the overthrow of a system of such an
iniquitous description.—(Cheers.)—Sir E. Sugden had
declared that it was impossible: for any man to wade
through the gross mass of perjury which so frequently dis-
graced bankrupt petitions ; and until witnesses were exa-
mined viva voce, having the eyes of the Judge, the Coun-
self and the public upon them, it would be totally im-
possible to separate truth from falsehood, and thus
it was that fraud passed over, not only without
meeting the punishment it so justly merited, but it
stalked triumphant at the expence of the honest man.
There was a time when the very name of a London mer-
chant was accounted on the whole Continent of Europe
equal in stability to that of the Bank of England ; but
now the case was sadly reversed ; and that reversal was
solely to be attributed to the grossly fraudulent operation of
the Bankrupt Laws. The patronage which had been al-
luded to by the worthy Alderman (Waithman), was ex-
emplified in the amount of the revenues derived by Lord
Thurlow as patentee of the Bankrupt-office; the fees of
which, in 1811, were 8,9951. ; in 1816, 10,765/. ; in
1826, 13,2681. The net suns received by the patentee,
from 1811 to 1826, was no less than 114,6b61.: the