The Sun.
London, England, 1857-06-16 00:00:00

BILL.

Tile house went into committee on thi4 bill, on the
motion of the ATTORNEY-GENERAL for IRE-
LAND.

Off the let clattge,

MA.CARTNn4Y said that, as in a com-
mittee of progress, he could not move the refer-
ence of this bill to a select committee, that its
pecuniary and official clauses might be properly
considered, be should merely confine his remarks to
those clauses, and at a future stage of the bid move their
reference to a select countnitee for the object he had
stated. The hon. gentleman, at some kagth, entered
into the constitution Of the present Bankruptcy and In-
solvent Courts in Ireland, and t' o number of judges and
officers connected with them, and the sal tries paid to
them. The present bill contained 430 clauses. 30 of
them referred to the constitution and pecuniary arrange-
ment of the new courts ; 4 to the stamp duties ; 271 to
bankruptcy ; 72 to insolvency ; and 19 to joint bank -
ruptcy and insolvency administration. The el .uses were
'm:-.:cou up in such a manner in thi bill that they required
the most serious considerAton and attention of a select
committee to put them in a shape to be properly and
easily understood. lle asked the committee to suspend
the consideration of the pecuniary and official clauses
until after they had been considered attentively
by a select committee. The honourable gentle
man said that a loose system was adopted by the
Treasury towards the Irish law courts, and referred to
a charge of 37,000/. advanced by the Treasury, within
two years, towards the payment of the Bankruptcy
Compensation Fund, Chancery Compensation Fee Fund,
and the Suitors' Fee Fund.

Mr. VANCE also urged various objections to the
bill. Great inconvenience must result from combining
bankruptcy and insolvency in the :aine court, He also
objected to the clauses putting the officers of the old
court, who were capable of discharging their duties for
many years to come, on the Treasury compensation
scale, to their injury and the increase of charges on the
public funds that would be occasioned thtreby.
Mr. WHITESIDE was at a loss to understand why'

the distinction should be kept uu between bankruptcy
and insolvency. It infi cted great injustice ou many,
and he instanced the ca‘e of a gentleman who succeeded
to an estate in Irela,d, on which there were certain
charges to some of which he made himself liable. He
gave up everything. His estate was .old in the In-
cumbered Estates Court, and he was made an insolvent,
the effedt of which was that he Was still liable, whereas
if he had been made a bankrupt he would have received

his certificate and become a new man. (Hear, bear.)
The learned gentleman also objected to the abolition
and creation of so many law offices in Ireland, and said
that he intended to move fur a return of the number of
persons capable of attending to business who had been
compensated or pensioned by the Government to make
room for new officers on every change that took
place in the administration of the law in Ire-
land. He assured the committee that they would
be astonished at the number of pensioned law-officers
walking idly about the streets of Dublin who were in
the prima of life and capable of discharging efficiently
very important duties. This bill would add to the num-
ber. This bill if passed would entail great a xpense with-
out a correspondime benefit. He concurred in the sug-
gestion that the bill should be referred to a select com-
mittee, as the result might tend to the improvement of
the bankruptcy and insolvent law of England and Ire-
land, by abolishing the distinction that at present existed
between the two.
Mr. MALINS concurred in the remarks of the bon.
and learned member for Enniskillen with reference to
the distinction between bankruptcy and insolvency, and
supported the suggestion for referring this bill to a select
coinrnittee. He was at a loss to know why the dis-
tinction was kept up between traders aed non-traders,
and why a non trader who gave up all be possessed,
should nut be able to clear himself on becoming insol-
vents as a trader did when he became a bankrupt, and
commence the world again as a free man. There
was no reasonable prospect of this bill being
properly discussed this session, amid therefore he
hoped to see it referred to a select committee of com-
mercial men and lawyers, that many of the objections
taken to it, and to the distinction between bankruptcy
and insolvency, might be properly discussed and consi-
dered.
Mr. HADFIELD called attention to the present state
of the law relative to imprisonment for debt, and also to
the unprecedented length of time suitors of the Court of
Chancery were imprisoned for contempt of that court.
Though Vie Crown might extend mercy in cases of
life or death, it could not in reference to
imprisonment for contempt of the Court of Chancery.
He had lately succeeded • in releasing two 'idles
who had been imprisoned 14 years for contempt of that
court. Both imprisonments were a scandal to the law,