The Sun.
London, England, 1847-11-22 00:00:00

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IMPERIAL PARLlAllltii NT,
(THIS DAY.)

HOUSE OF LORDS.

Lord Campbell took his seat on the Wools; ick at
three o'clock. The continued indisposition •f the
Lord Chancellor prevented his Lordship fro in at-
tending.
Prayers having been read by the Bishi p of
Durham, the swearing in of a number of Peers corn-
menced. Among those who took the oaths w e ob-
served the Duke of Cambridge, Lord Lyo,ll
Lord Brougham, Earl of Shaftesbury, Lord '°m-
bermere, Marquis of Winchester, Lord Pohl, 'nth,
Earl Fitzhardinge, the Lord Bishop of Dud, am,
&c. &c.

Their Lordships rose shortly after four o'clock.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.

The SPEAKER took the Chair to-day at Ii if past
Twelve o'clock, and the swearing in of Members was
then proceeded with.

Among the Members sworn to-day, we noticed—
Dr. Bowring, Mr. Patteson, Lord Albert Conyng-
ham, Mr. Augustus Stafford, Mr. Back, Mr.
Lascelles, Mr. Richards, the Earl of Shelburne, Sir
W. Jones, the Earl of March, Sir William Moles-
worth, Lord John Hay, Mr. Maunsell, Mr. Lockhart,
Mr. Evans, Mr. Boyd, Mr. 'Urquhart, Mr. Campbell
Renton, Mr. MacTaggart, Mr. Cockburn, Mr. Davis,
the Right Honourable James Stuart Wortley, Sir
William Heathcote, Alderman Thompson, Mr. Roche,
Mr. Piggott, Mr. Thomas Bingham, Mr. Cayley,
Mr. T. Duncombe, Viscount Seaham, Mr. Cowper,
Mr. Bainbridge, Mr. Lowther, Mr. Rice Trevor,.
Mr. Alexander James Beresford Hope, Mr. Hayter,
Mr. J. E. Elliott, Mr. Raikcs Currie, Mr. Callaghan,
Captain Berkeley, Sir IVm. Vernon, and -Viscount
Anson.

Sir ROBERT PEEL entered the House shortly
before two o'clock, and took the oath with the batch
of Members that were called at that hour. The
Right Hon. Baronet appeared in excellent health
and spirits, and upon being introduced to the Speaker,
after the oaths had been administered to him and he
bad signed the Parliamentary roll, he conversed with
him for some time. The Right Hon. Baronet, upon
being called on by the Clerk to produce his qualifi-
cation, discovered that he had come down to the
House without it, but after retiring for a few minutes
he returned with it.

Among the other Members who were sworn in the
course of the morning were Mr. Scholefield, for Bir-
mingham; Mr. Reynolds, for Dublin; Mr. Labou-
chere (the President of the Board of Trade) ; Mr.
Sharman Crawford, Lord Melgund, Lord Bernard,
Mr. Smith O'Brien, Mr. F. Baring, Mr. Muntz,
Lord Charles Wellesley, Lord Nugent, Mr. W. E.
Gladstone, Mr. Hamilton, Mr. Aglionby, Lord Ash-
ley, Mr. Robert Stephenson.
At four o'clock, the House on the motion of Mr.
Tufnell, adjourned till to-morrow.

BANKRUPTCY and INSOLVENCY
LA WS.
PUBLIC AI EETING.-(TIIIS DAY.)

A public meeting, called by the committee ap-
pointed at a meeting of merchants, hankers,
and traders, hell in May, 1842, was held this.
day, at one o'clock, at the London Tavern, and
to consider what steps ought to be adopted to obtain
an amendment of the law of bankruptcy and insol-
vency, and to receive the further reports of the com-
mittee in question.
Mr. Masterman, M.P., was voted to the chair.
Baron Rothschild, M.P., Mr. Foster, M.P., and Mr.
Alderman Sidney, M.P., were amongst those present.
Not more than 100 attended.
Ele CHAIRMAN stated that he felt much pleasure
in taking the chair. It would be unnecessary for
him, he thought, to dilate at any length on the im-
portance of the subject which they had met to con-
sider, as no doubt many of them had suffered from
the insolvency and bankruptcy laws. He then called
upon the secretary to read the report.
The SECRETARY read the document, which de-
tailed at great length the operations of the com-
mittee since its appointment. The accounts
showed a balance of 276/. 7s. Bd. Letters from
the Chambers of Commerce of Manchester,
Greenock, Hull, and Bristol, approving of the
views of the committee, were annour.ced to have
been received. A letter to the same effect was read
from .Mr. Commissioner Pane, regretting that his
public duties would prevent his attendance.
Mr. FOSTER, M.P., rose to propose the first resolu-
tion—" That the evils under which the country is
now suffering from the vicious and disgraceful state
of the law of debtor and creditor, imperatively de-
mand that no further delay should be allowed in its
revision, in order to protect the mercantile and
trading classes from the systematic fraud and reck-
less trading which are now permitted to be practised
against them, almost with impunity. That
this meeting, therefore, receives and adopts the
principles embodied in the report of the committee."
The Learned Gentleman expressed his disapproval
of the present law, and strongly approved of arrest at
the instance of the Court of Bankruptcy, because it
was prompt, silent, and sure. The seizure of property
was often attended with expense and difficult, but the
seizure of the body was always safe, because every
creditor knew his debtor ; and he considered further,
that the officers of the law should be empowered to
break open a man's house, and take his body in execution.
He said he had not entered very deeply into the
subject, but he had that reliance on the committee
which justified him in supporting their opinions, and
doing all in his power to carry them out. He
wished to see the unfortunate debtor treated well,
and the fraudulent one punished as he deserved. It
was said that tradesmen should take care of their
own interests, and not give unlimited credit; but
those who said this, and those who framed the laws of
which the committee complained, knew little of the
difficulties which tradesmen had to encounter.—
(Hear, hear.) The misfortune was, that the labour-
ing and industrious classes were compelled, under the
present law, to pay out of their often ill-requited
labour the frauds to which tradesmen were now sub-
jected. Ile attributed the defective state of the
law to the legislation of lawyers alone in
the matter, instead of the opinions of mer-
cantile men receiving the great consideration
which their experience entitled them to claim. The
law of partnership was also in a dreadful state, be-
cause no law could with certainty be applied to it.
There was too much law with respect to partner-
ship, and also too little; in fact, this was the only
country in Europe in which so defective a law on this
subject prevailed.—(Hear.)
Mr. AMERY seconded the motion. He said he had
had long practical experience in those laws, and he
wished distinctly to state the law of bankruptcy and
insolvency required vast amendment. He considered,
with Mr. Commissioner Pane, that a law should be
framed to facilitate the settlement of a bankrupt's
affairs ; because at present 99 creditors might be
satisfied, and the hundredth, who had no peculiar
claim, might upset the wishes of all the rest,
and obtain payment for himself. Settlements out of
court should be enforced wherever possible. He was
one of the profession who considered that the sudden
abolition of arrest for small sums had been productive
of the greatest evil. His experience justified him in
saying that many debts had been irretrievably lost by
the creditors not being able to get possession of the
debtor's body.—(Hear.) He trusted before long to
see an improved state of things.
The motion was carried.

Mr. MICHELL proposed the second resolution :
" That this meeting recognises the important advan-
tages to be derived from the administration of the
Court of Bankruptcy, and is therefore desirous that
greater facilities should be afforded for bringing
within its jurisdiction, at the earliest possible period,
the persons and estates of insolvents. That the prin-
ciple established by the County Courts' Act, of
punishment by imprisonment for fraud, wilful extra-
vagance, and dishonesty, ought to be extended, and
the law of arrest for debt upon mesne process restored,
but accompanied with ample precautions against
abuse." He said there was a general feeling amongst
merchants to keep their names out of the Gazette, if e
settlement could be at all made with their creditors.
Creditors seldom wished to put their debtors in the
Gazette, unless a preference had been given to one
or more creditors to the exclusion of the others.
When a man could not pay 20s. in the pound he
should first be called upon to show why he could not
do so, and if he continued to trade until he could not
pay.more than 2s. or 3s. in the pound, he should he
punished.— (Hear.) Such conduct as this brought
the utmost disgrace upon this country.—
(Hear)
20s.
The onus of proof of inability to
pay
n the debtor instead of the creditor,f shouldor lie
upon,
at present
all the expense of proof fell upon the latter. The
absurd Bill of Lord Brougham was one of the most
crude and ill-digested attempts ever made to tamper
It was all very
with commercial property,
well
to say that a man must not ive credit, but one unless
pursuits of the country. could not be carried on unless
credit, on an extensive scale, was given. Ile was
fully persuaded that the commercial greatness of this
country would ere long degenerate, unless these laws
were based on a more comprehensive scale.—(Hear.)
The mercantile mind must be called upon to aid in
the discussion of the question.
Mr. Alderman SIDNEY, M.P., seconded the resolu-
tion. lle said he perfectly concurred in the objects
of the meeting—those objects, he considered, were
simply mercy to the unfortunate debtor and the due J