The Sun.
London, England, 1859-02-23 00:00:00

LAW AMENDMENT SOCI

r

On Monday a meeting of this societ
their rooms in Waterloo-place; Lord if•
the chair.
CONCENTRATION OF :THE COURTS OF LAW

Mr. EDGAR informed the meeting that a depu-

tation of the society had an interview with Lard •
Derby on Friday last, on the subject of the con..
centratiou of the courts of law. his lordship re-
ceived the deputation most courteously, and stated
that his opinion was in favour of a concentration of
the courts. He considered that the locality pointed
out was perhaps the best that could on the whole
be selected. The only point on whieh he expressed
a doubt was whether the Suitors' Fund was pro-
properly applicable to such a purpose, but that he
would be willing to have a select committee to con-
sider that matter.
THE BANKRUPTCY BILLS.
Mr. EDGAR, previous to the discussion on the
Bankruptcy Bills introduced for the consideration
of Parliament by the Lord Chancellor in the House
of Lords, and by Lord John Russell in the House
of Commons, gave a resume of the action which had
been taken by the society in respect to a reform of
the bankruptcy law, and explained the points of
difference and resemblance between the two bills.
The points, perhaps, which the meeting would do
well to consider were, whether the creditor should
get greater control in the winding-up of estates,
and whether jurisdiction should be given to the
local courts.

Mr. HAWES considered both bills to be retrograde
in their character, and not at all calculated to meet
the wants of the trading community. (Hear.) Where
they altered the present law they altered it for the
worse. The Lord Chancellor's bill seemed to regard
the debtor as the aggrieved person, and Lord John,
Russell's, though it seemed designed to lessen ex-
pense, would in fact leave it as heavy as ever. The
mercantile community would never be satisfied to
. see their property placed in the hands of a trade
assignee without the control of a public officer.
(Hear.) He strongly objected to giving the county
courts the power of dealing with bankruptcy cases.
The county courts had not experience enough to
deal with the frauds and intricacies of bankruptcy.
The experience of a commissioner and an official
assignee would be necessary for this purpose. He
objected to the abolition of certificates and the
-allowing persons to choose their own time of be-
coming bankrupts. This latter provision would
enable persons about to become bankrupts to favour
their own friends. What he should like to see
would be not an abolition of the act of 1849, but an
amendment of it where it was defective. Both
bills seemed to be based on the principlethat credit
was rather a wrong than a right state of things.
But credit was far more important to the poor man
than to the wealthy merchant. He thought both
bills proceeded in the wrong direction. (Hear.)
Mr. Commissioner AYRTON thought that Lord J.
Russell's bill, theugh intended to diminish expense,
would have no such effect. He thought the
county courts were capable of administering justice
in bankruptcy cases, but it might well be left to
commercial men to choose their own court. Lord
J. Russell's bill rendered the calling of a great
number of meetings necessary, which would lead
to inconvenience and expense.
Mr. CARRICK said that the official assignee now
gave £20,000 security, which was a guarantee that
the bankrupt's funds would be properly dealt with.
If the Chancellor's bill were adopted, where would
the official assignee look for remuneration ? He
thought some clause should be introduced, giving
the official assignee proper remuneration. _

Mr. LAwRANCE said, as it was evident that both
bills must be referred to a committee, it would be
better not to discuss details on that occasion, but
to see what were the, principles in both which they
could agree in. He could not recognise anything
like a sound principle in reference to bankruptcy
since 1854. The bills now introduced— especially
the bill with the 440 clauses—showed a lamentable
ignorance of the subject, and of the wants of the
mercantile community. After intelligent inquiry,
he could not find that a single practical man had
been consulted with respect to either bill. Both
bills proceeded on the assumption that the expenses
of the present system were enormous ; but there
were expenses thrown upon the Court of Bank-
ruptcy with which the Court of Bankruptcy had
properly nothing to do, in the shape of compensa-
tions and remunerations. He was of opinion i*
would be unwise to fuse the Courts of Bankruptcy
and Insolvency, and he agreed with Mr. Hawes
that the county courts were not suited to decide
cases of bankruptcy.
Mr. HASTINGS thought that the county courts
were well calculated to administer justice in bank-
ruptcy cases. Every argument that was available
for conferring jurisdiction on the local courts in
regard to debts was equally available with respect
to bankruptcies. Mr. Ayrton was mistaken with
regard to the expense and the number of meetings
which it would be necessary to hold under Lord J.
Russell's bill. That portion of Lord J. Russell's
bill was copied from the Scotch law, and under
that law the expense was only 12 per cent. of the
assets. (Hear.) Again, it was not correct to say that
there was no provision to guard against malversa-
tion of the funds in the hands of the official assig-
nee; and with regard to the payment of that
officer, the bill of Lord J. Russell provided that he
should be, paid a salary. It was provided that he
should be paid £5OO a year, exclusive of fees.
That, however, was a matter of detail, and if it was
not enough it could be easily increased. It had
been said that the system of classification of certi-
ficates worked well. It would be impossible in this
country to get any six men to agree on the exact
shade of a man's commercial morality. (Hear,hear.)
The Commissioners would give different decisions
on the shades of commercial morality, and therefore
the system of classification ought to be abandoned,
for it gave rise to uncertainty. It was high time
that the public should take up the matter and de-
cide for themselves. (Hear.)
Mr. HOWELL was of opinion that the bills were
totally opposed to the feelings of the commercial
community. He strongly advocated the mainte-
nance of the classification of certificates, which
originated in a suggestion from himself.
Mr. LINKLATER said he would rather be guided
in this matter by the experience of Mr. Hawes
than by the theory of Mr. Hastings. The county
courts were wholly unsuited to adjudicate in cases
of bankruptcy, it being of importance above all
things that the court which had to decide on bank-
ruptcy
0t should
certificates,b e fixed.
his
With
experienceregard
told to the i
m that classi-
fication
the system worked well, and that was shown by
the anxiety of traders to get a high class certificate.
It was frightful to contemplate the effect of Lord
Chelmsford's bill, which not only abolished impri-
sonment for debt, but would enable a debtor to
pd
eunr scue
.e andl,h coe
anb ti
tui eo n a
ofr c ct
hk lee sds
scoursetineti
oonf ibme pt
between
traders and non-traders would be highly advan-
tageous. (Hear.)
The debate was then adjourned to Monday next.