The Sun.
London, England, 1857-01-29 00:00:00

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[PRIWL 4D. STAMPED SD•

to which the balance-sheet has been brought by the account-
ant ? Why, it is a complete work of art, requiring a skilful
connoisseur to recognise its beauties. It too frequently is a
• work of commercialpoetry or invention. Not one merchant
in a thousand can understand it. Indeed nobody can save
the accountants who prepare them and t':e officers of the
Court of Bankruptcy, who are exofficio bound to understand.
The sober truths is that, in a great majority of instances, ba-
lance-sheets are costly waste paper ; they are complex inform,
they tend to mislead, they seldom exhibit the truth, they are
nniutelli7ible to many, and nearly useless to the few whO un-
derstaild'them, or think they understand. Then, as to the por-
son who prepares it. nil very lately, by one of the fictions of
law, it was supposed tobe prepared by the bankrupt himself;
now, by the Bankrupt Act of 1849, the commissioners are al-
lowed to know that it is prepared by an accountant, who has
to be paid. It is my opinion that a simple form of accounts
ought, in all ordinary cases, to be prepared by the official as-
signee, or by the bankrupt himself, with the assistance of the
official assignee. The question as to the preparation of the
balance sheet by the official assignee is one which has been
discussed. I must not trouble this meeting with the argu-
ments pro and con. It is enough to say that Mr. Commis-
sioner Fano tried it in his court and approved of it. I tried
it in my court, 'and, in my opinion, the experiment was quite
successful. It was also tried in another court, but the prac-
tice was put a stop to by the Lords Justices, who disapproved
of it.

THAT PIINIBMIENTS ARE INADEQUATE AND UNCERTAIN.
It appears to me that the complaint, that the punishments
indicted upon bankrupts who offend against the laws of moral
and mercantile honesty are inadequate and uncertain, is a
well-founded complaint. I submit that it should be a general
principle that in every case where a trader does not pay 10s.
or 15s. in the pound, ho ought to bo considered and treated
as an offender till he proves he is not one—that is, in other
words, upon him should be cast the burthen of proving that
his failure to pay 110 s. in the pound is owing to circumstances
over which he bad no control. As the law now stands, the
assignees are compelled to prove that the bankrupt has been
guilty of some specified, definite offence ; but this proof is
always difficult, and not seldom impossible. Indeed it may
be stated roundly that a bankrupt can seldom be proved
guilty of an offence unless he confesses it, or unless he has
been wanting in sense as well as wanting in honesty. My
opinion is that a trader who pays less than 10s., or perhaps
15s , in the pound, ought not to have any sort of protection,
or any certificate or other advantage from the Court of
Bankruptcy, until he has proved that his insolvency is
not owing to any gross default or immorality. If his
failure and deficient assets are owing to circumstances
over which he had no control, he will have not the slightest
difficulty in proving such to be the case ; whereas, on the
other hand, the assignees might have the greatest possible
difficulty in proving anything against the bankrupt, though
they might entertain no moral doubt of his being a defaulter.
With regard to particular offences, it appears to me that all
the penal clauses of the Bankrupt Act require careful revision.
One offence only will I refer to in particular—l mean bad
book-keeping. It appears to me that a heavy penalty should
always be annexed where the bankrupt has not kept the best
books which he could, taking into consideration his situation
in life.