The Sun.
London, England, 1861-02-12 00:00:00

cially observeTtkat, Whereas the Bankruptcy Bill I
of last year numbered as many as 554 separate
clauses, the Bankruptcy Bill for the pre-
sent year consists of actually less than
one-half of that alarming aggregate, com-
prising within it, in point of fact, no more than
240 altogether! These abbreviations, in every re-
spect so remarkable, are attributable of course upon
the very surface of the reform now submitted to
the consideration of the Legislature, are immediately
traceable to the Bill (instead of assuming, like its
predecessor, to embrace ALL within its compass),
wisely coming before the country as merely an in-
stalment. While however the Bill which was last
night laid upon the table of the House of Commons
by the Attorney-General is nothing more than an
instalment, it is also certainly nothing less than an
instalment, in this way, of the utmost conceivable
importance, If it disclaims at once in its very
preamble the design of accomplishing the absolute
consolidation of the laws relating to bankruptcy
and insolvency, it, at any rate, ensures to the
country, upon the Bill being ripened into
an enactment, a series of the most in-
estimable amendments. The improvements it will
effect in this way are of two kinds, or categories,
and these perfectly distinct in themselves, appre-
ciable as law reforms by the whole mass of the
general community. They will secure them in the
administration henceforth of the laws relating to
Bankruptcy and Insolvency—the Diminution of
Expense and Simplification of Procedure. It is
obvious, therefore, that if the country can secure
those two great and permanent improvements in
this vital part of the commercial laws of England,
we may rest perfectly contented for the time being,
waiting in patience for the eventual completion
of this branch of law reform, for its completion that
is by the crowning labour of its consolidation.
So triumphantly successful has been the
Attorney-General's later effort in regard
to the reform of the laws relating to Bankruptcy
and Insolvency, that his revised measure, intro-
duced last evening into Parliament, may be de-
clared without extravagance to have at once won
for itself " golden opinions from all sorts of men"—
from ultra-liberal independents like the hon. and
learned gentleman the member for Marylebone, and
from sound and practical lawyers like Mr. War,-
rola and Mr. MeLnrs, lawyers uttering their ap-
proval of the Attorney-General's scheme from the
side of the Conservative Opposition. So success-
ful has been the measure in thus disarming " op-
position" that, in an almost unprecedented manner,
the evening fixed for the second reading is no later
than three days from the date of the
bill's original introduction Of one legis-
lative boon, therefore, we may reasonably
rest secure—that of a vigorously and effectively
reformed law of Bankruptcy and Insolvency.
Anticipations like these are hardly reprehensible—
as among the proverbial evidence in this way
of anything like rash precipitation. It is not in this
instance, at least, that the chicken is counted while
yet unhatched. Although but yesterday was the
date of its chipping the shell—it is already far
more than a merely callow fledgling, being even
now strong upon the wing, and right onward in
its course for the second reading on Thursday.
According to the scheme of Sir RICHARD
BETHELL, as embodied in this new measure
of amendment, one central Court will be
established as the heart or core of the whole revised
system of judicial administration in cases of bank-
ruptcy and insolvency. Presiding over this central
court will be a judge having rank equivalent to
that appertaining to the superior common law-
jUdges of the land. Under the jurisdiction
of the superior officers of the Court will
stand next in order the Bankruptcy Com-
missioners of the Metropolis, Commissioners
who are gradually to be reduced to a triumvirate.
Associated with these in the provincial adminis-
tration of the revised law of bankruptcy will to
the district commissioners—provision being made
by the Attorney General's Bill for the County
Court judges exercising jurisdiction in every
case in which the assets are under £3OO
sterling. Another provision, again, is very
remarkable, namely, that, no matter whether it be
in regular bankruptcy, or in mere private arrange-
ment or compromise, the creditors are, practically
speaking, to possess entire authority over property
—property being regarded, justly enough, as be-
longing, not to the debtors, but to the
creditors themselves. According to the new
bill, again, the old distinction between trader and
non-trader is to appear, in a modified form, if it be
not eventually swept away, in a great measure as
valueless. How far the cruel, and heinous, and multi-
farious frauds which have been perpetrated in this
country of late years to the shame and infamy of the
chief offenders, and to the ruin and all the conse-
quent suffering of so many innocent members of the
community—how far those lamentable crimes and
catastrophes have influenced the Attorney-General
in sketching out his masterly scheme of improve-
ment in the English laws relating to Bankruptcy
and Insolvency, may be understood upon the most
casual glance as one of the most important and
estimable provisions of the proposed enactment

That significant provision, namely, empowering
the Chief Judge and the several Commissioners to
inflict the punishment of incarceration for mer-

cantile frauds quite irrespectively or indepen-
dently of the creditors who have been defrauded.
As to the extent to which the expense iivolved
in this department of the commercial law will be
lessened, enough for the present when we have Said
that the new Bill provides for its diminution by one-

half, through the abolition, among other abuse

of fees and percentages hitherto paid to officials,
fees and percentages long deemed by the com-
munity, and now pronounced by the First

Law adviser of the Crown, to be so far wholly

superfluous and unnecessary ! It is needless to

add more at this stage in regard to a measure of
law reform already shown clearly enough by the
foregoing remarks to combine within it so very
effectually the reduction of expense and the sim-
plification of procedure. The measure altogether
appears to be as creditable to Sir RICHARD
BETHELL'S better judgment as his statement last

night when introducing it Was to his perspicuity.

The Church Rate abolitionists, stimulated rather
than daunted by their partial reverses of last ses-
sion, • are girding themselves to the conflict with
promptness and zeal ; already Sir JOHN TRELAWNT
is in the field, and his bill has been read as a matter
of course, the first time, and an early day, the 27th,
fixed for its second reading—when Lord ROBERT
MONTAGU will lead the Sacramental Host of the
" Church and King" elect, to holy war for religious
coercion. To ptepare for this conflict the " Dis-
senters, Papists, and Infidels "—for to some of those
classes all, we are told, must belong who question
the right of the Mother Church to sell up a man
who will not pay for worship he cares not for or dis-
likes—are holding a great meeting, not concluded
while we are going to press, in Freemasons' Hall.
Its design is to demonstrate to Ministers,
members of Parliament, and the public, that the
Abolitionists are a party who mean to succeed at
last, or to make things very uncomfortable for
these who stand in their way. Not only the in.

creased numbers who came up to -vote for retention of
Church-rates last session, at the bidding of the
Archdeacons, but Mr. DISRAELI'S imprudent decla-
ration, that Chiirch-rates must be the Tory political
cry of the session—that the clergy must therefore
work for him politically—and that the easiest way
to collect Church-rates would be to take them for
the poor-rates, have all combined to rouse the friends
of religious liberty to renewed exertion. Mr.
DISRAELI called for numberless petitions. The
opposite party intends not to petition this year.
They say that " after the decisive demonstration of
last session, when 610,877 persons petitioned for
the entire abolition of the exaction, and but 197,687
for its retention, it is thought that Parliament has
already had evidence of the direction of public
opinion as decisive as petitioning is likely to afford,
and that the whole strength of the Abolitionists
should now be reserved for action of a kind better
adapted to the present state of the contest."
This is fair and practical. If Parliament will be
moved by petitioning at all, it will be moved by
these figures, especially when it is remembered that
the smaller number was the result of months of
hard work, through a clerical agent in every parish,
while the larger was the spontaneous outburst of
two or three weeks, after the trick attempted to be
played was known.
Hence the meeting of to-day. The earlier part,
at which only we could be present, was spirited
enough; and the principal resolutions expounding
its views were, as might be expected, well sup-
ported and enthusiastically cheered. The nume-
rous attendance represented all parts of the
country, and witnesses to the vast extent to which a
spirit of antagonism to rating men for worship and
houses of worship at all—and still more to rating
them for worship they did not, and generally could
not, conscientiously use—is diffused through the
country. It was impossible to look on such a meet-
ing—to see the class of men who composed it—the
class who are the very backbone of the Liberal
constituencies, and the working men in election
committees of Liberal members of Parliament—
to hear their strong yet cool and decided language,
and not feel that they were destined, as they were
determined, to conquer. They, and their sons
even, if they should not gain the battle in their own
days, may be reckoned an as a thorn in the side
of the Establishment, and of any Liberal Govern-
ment, too, which does not take up their cause, for
any length of time. They are not the class of
men whom the whimsical fashion of the hour can
woo by blandishments or discourage by contempt.
They will fight against ecclesiastical exactions and
domination till they rid the country of the badge
they detest ; and the longer they are resisted, and
the oftener they are worsted, the more deter-
minedly will they fight.
There was a very fair attendance of members of
Parliament. Mr. SCHOLEFIELD took the chair, and
was heartily supported by Sir C. DOUGLAS, Sir
JOHN SHELLEY, and others, in proposing the reso-
lutions. The first of these gives a very clear view
of the present position and intentions of abolition-
ists ; it followed a paper giving an admirable
summary of the history of the Church Rate conflict
from its commencement to the close of last session,
and was as follows :--
"That, in reviewing the Parliamentary struggle for the
abolition of church- rates, this Conference finds that, during
a period of nearly 30 years, there has been continuous and
growing hostility to the exaction, as violating the principles
of justice; as being repugnant to conscientious convictions,
and as occasioning the bitterest social feeling. That suc-
cessive Governments have admitted the present law to be
indefensible, and that successive Parliaments have affirmed
the principle of entire abolition, as the only practi-
cable mode of settling the question. That the
upholders of the impost have never been, and are not at
this hour, agreed upon any measure by which the law
may be amended, with any prospect of overcoming the
strong antipathy with which it is regarded. Meanwhile,
opposition to church-rates is constantly extending over a
wider area, and is diminishing the revenue, which is the
object of contention, while the steadily increasing liberality
of Episcopalians is supplying the funds required for the
maintenance of their religious edifices and worship. That,
in view of these facts, the members of this Conference, in
the interests of peace, of justice, and of religion, pledge
themselves resolutely to adhere to the demand for the total
extinction of church-rates, and appeal to abolitionists of
every class to press that demand with a determination
which will convince the Legislature of the absolute
necessity for passing Sir John Trelawny's bill."
Mr. DISRAELI, as we have already hinted, gave
a pretty good fillip to the agitation by his proposal
to collect church rates with poor rates, thus to
remove them from the hazard of vestry conflicts,
and to render them permanent, while he at the same
time asked the clergy for once, though he owns he
almost blushed in doing it, to descend into the
political arena and canvass the dubious and Tory
members that they might gain votes for church
rates. The meeting seem to thank him for teaching
it that trick. They express themselves thus in the

second resolution :
" That, it being the declared purpose of the leader of the
Conservative party in the House of Commons, to defeat
the bill for abolition, in order to carry a measure by which
Church-rates will not only be perpetuated, but be levied for
the support of numerous additional churches, and be also
removed from popular control, this Conference specially
urges upon electors the paramount importance of frustrat-
ing this retrograde policy by making such representations to
their members as will secure their votes for the bill on every
division."

And, from the numerous speeches which fol-

lowed we gathered that the gentlemen present did
not intend to leave town without favouring their
representatives with their personal advice on the
subject, and letting them understand, as one delegate
expressed himself, " that though they had worked
hard for them in the borough election committee,
and were still disposed to do so, yet that with
them this was such a deeply interesting subject
that unless gentlemen could give their vote for
Sir JOHN TRELAWNY on the first division, and on
the second division, and the third division toot
they were not the men for them."

We cannot blame them. The members present
who spoke, declared that it was the general feeling
of the Liberal members that the question was a
settled one, and ought to be considered as such.
They adverted to the tricks by which a large attend-

ante of Tories had been obtained last session to
diminish the relative majorities, when all knew that
the real opposition was as strong as ever, and ex-

pressed their opinion that decision now would be

most advantageous to the Church of England. Of

;hat we never had a doubt ; as a Church, she can only

injure herself by compulsory exactions in the name

of religion, especially when the thing is not only
bad itself, but peculiarly antagonistic to the spirit

of the age.

The latter fact even the Bishop of EXETER recog-
nises ; and it is a rather singular coincidence, that
on the day this great meeting assembled, the
Bishop should, as it were, form one of the "confer-
ence" by furnishing it with his opinion in print.
That opinion is, that Churchmen can easily meet
the current expenses of their worship, and that
these, in the present state of opinion especially,
ought not to be charged on Church-rates—the
holy bread and wine emphatically not. But that
to exhibit the union between Church and State

and " the nation's faithfulness to GOD," the

parishes should be compelled to keep the churches
in repair! Such a proposal, unfortunately, only

elioite a very profane laugh from Dissenters. They