The Sun.
London, England, 1861-04-17 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

HOUSE OF LORDS—YESTERDAY.
The LORD CHANCELLOR took his seat on the woolsack
id five o'clock.

PRIVATE BUSINESS.

The South-Eastern Railway (Capital) Bill was read a
second time. The Haslingden Union Gas and Swansea
Gas Bills were read a third time and passed.
BANKRUPTCY AND INSOLVENCY BILL.
The LORD CHANCELLOR, in moving the second
reading of the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Bill, expressed
the hope that it would be unanimously approved by their
lordships. In bringing it before them he would abstain from
minute technicalities, and would in the first place endeavour
very shortly to give their lordships some notion of the past
and present state of the law of bankruptcy. By the common
law of England there was no distinction between traders
and non-traders--between the bankrupt and insolvent—and
there was nothing resembling the cessio bonorum of the civil
law. No remedy was given to the creditor till he had brought
an action, and then, upon obtaining a judgment, he could
levy execution against the lands, the goods, and the person
of the debtor. But, however insolvent the debtor might be,
there was no remedy against him, and he could not be de-
prived of his property till an action was brought and he was
arrested. He was sentenced to imprisonment unlessehe paid
to the uttermost farthing. But this state of things, which
was equally disadvantageous to creditor and debtor, received
come mitigation in the reign of Henry VIII., when an Act
ct
of Parliament was passed by which those who were traders
and obtained the goods of others in their hands, and ad
who
fled the country, or concealed themselves, or made away
with the property, were liable to be made bankrupts. A
commission issued under the Great Seal, and they were
arrested and thrown into prison, and all their property
was confiscated and distributed among the creditors.
The debtors were, however, still liable for the debts they
had incurred. This state of things continued down till the
13th of Elizabeth, when there was an amendment of the
law, which was made more stringent. The debtor was still
liable to his creditors after he had been deprived of the
whole of his property, and nothing could satisfy a creditor
except the perpetual imprisonment of the debtor. So things
continued down to the 4th year of the reign of Queen
Anne, and then it was enacted for the first time that when a
trader honestly and fairly delivered up all his property to
his creditors he should be discharged from all liability
for his debts. He obtained what was called a certificate of
conformity, which protected him against further proceed-
ings for all bygone debts. The bankruptcy law received
various amendments, but still proceeded on the same gene-
ral principle down to the time of Lord Eldon. Lord Eldon
was a consummate judge in every department of the law,
and in none more than the law of bankruptcy. But, strange
to say, though he early denounced the existing system of
bankruptcy, he did nothing to improve it. In the sixth
year of the reign of George IV. there was a consolidation
of the bankruptcy law carried out by Lord Henley, but it
was simply consolidation, and left all the abuses untouched
that before existed. In the first place, there was a patentee
of bankruptcy, who received £B,OOO a year for doing
nothing, raised from the property of insolvents. There was
no harm in the Bankruptcy Court being self-supporting,,
but this patenteeship ledto enormous abuses. There were
other sinecures ; and, with regard to the judicial system by
which the law was administered, there were, strange to say,
in the London district 70 judges, who went by the name of
the Septuagint. There was hardly any qualification re-
quired for this office, and any one might be appointed. To
each of these 70 a district was assigned. He was himself
once a candidate to become one of the 70. The moment he
was called to the bar he had a promise from the then
Lord Chancellor that he should be named one of them, not
from any merit of his, but because his father had been at
school and college st ith the then Lord Chancellor ; but it so
happened that before a vacancy arose " all the talents" were
`turned out. A great part of the estates of the bankrupts
were under this system consumed before the creditors were
thought of. In the country districts matters were much
worse. There a commission of bankruptcy resembled a
wrecked ship on the Cornish coast. The commissioners were
appointed by a solicitor, and the commissioner taxed the
bill of the solicitor. (A laugh.) The abuses that took place
were almost incredible. He had been informed by a gentle-
man who had sat on a commissionofbankruptcy that on one
occasion they amused themselves by turning out a bagged
fox at the expense of the bankrupt. (A. laugh.) This state
of things continued till the time Lord Brougham became
Lord Chancellor. The country was much indebted to him
for his improvements of the bankruptcy court. These and
the establishment of the Judicial Committee of the Privy
Council and the Central Criminal Court, would make his
memory to be ever respected as a law reformer. Lord
Brougham swept away the sinecurists ; but there were com-
pensations, to be paid by those who might afterwards become
bankrupt. There were six commissioners appointed to the
London district, forming a Court of Bankruptcy. For the
country districts there were also commissioners, and like-
wise for Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, and other large
towns. He also constituted a Court of Review, consisting of
four judges, and he introduced the great improvement by
the appointment of official assignees. Previously the most
monstrous abuseshad arisen from the assignees being chosen
.by the creditors without any control whatever, and the attor-
ney became too often sole master of the concern, while a
great part of the effects of the bankrupt was expended in liti-
gation. Lord Brougham appointed official assignees, and the
consequence was, not less than £2,000,000 belonging to bank-
rupt estates was found to be in the hands of London bankers.
In the year 1849 there wasa consolidation of all the bankrupt
laws, from the 3d and 4th of Henry VIII. down to the
13th Victoria, but great disappointment resulted therefrom.
Had the court and its machinery been properly constituted
they would have been generally resorted to by those who
wished for a fair distribution of the effects of the bankrupts,
but instead of that composition deeds became the general
rule. Such was the state of the law with respect to traders
With respect to non-traders the evil was much greater, both
for the debtor and the creditor. Up to the establishment of
the system which as amended still prevailed in the Insol-
vent Court there was no tribunal to which the non-trader
was entitled to apply for relief. The establishment of that
system was regarded as a great relief to debtors. It was
even celebrated by an opera—one scene in which repre-
sented a number of insolvents dancing round a maypole,
and singing a chorus which commenced with the lines—
" Cease your funning—
Sergeant Running-
Ton will quickly set us free."
(Laughter.) The new order of things then established af-
forded some relief, though to a very inadequate extent ; and
even at the present time the working of the insolvency laws
were anything but satisfactory in the case of non-traders
who possessed or might become possessed of property. It
had been said that a strong reason for not reforming the laws
relating to the representation of the people in Parliament
was to be found in the fact that there was no demand for
such a reform. That could not be said in the case of the
bankrupt and insolvent laws. Indignation meetings had
been held, and almost every Chamber of Commerce in the
country had applied to him to receive deputations on the
subject of a reform of those laws. His official duties made
it impossible for him to receive those deputations; but there '
could be no doubt as to the strong and general feeling on
the subject. (Hear, hear.) More than one attempt had been
made to bring about a change. One hacisheen made in that

house by a noble and learned friend of his who had held the

Great Seal ; but he believed the opinion of the mercantile
community was that the measure of his noble and learned
friend did not give sufficient power to creditors. Another

-.-
attempt was made in the shape of a bill, having for its ob-
ject not only an amendment but a consolidation of the law.
His noble and learned friend (Lord J. Russell), as member
for the greatest commercial city in the world, was asked to
take charge of it ; but it had never reached a further stage
than that of being laid upon the table of the House of Com-
mons. There was now before their lordships a bill which
bad received the most laborious attention of the other
House of Parliament. Shortly after the formation of the

present Government his hon. and learned friend Sir R.

Bethell and himself considered the matter. They entirely

agreed in the principles on which a bill ought to be drawn
—but the details were undertaken by his hon. and learned

friend, whose great exertions and ability in dealing
with those details would, he trusted, meet with that
success to which they were so eminently entitled. The ob-
ject with which the bill of last year was introduced was to
consolidate the law of bankruptcy; but objections were

raised to that proposition, in the prOpriety of which he him•

self was ultimately induced to concur. In the House of Lords,

and still more in the House of Commons, the distinction
between what was new and what was old was unknown to

the majority of the members, who conceived that every-

thing which existed must have been law from the time of

Henry VIII. or thereabouts. The bill of this year was

not so ambitious in its character, and confined itself to a
mere alteration of the law. The leading feature of the bill

Was to do away with the distinction between trader and
non-trader, and to enact that when once a state of insol-

vency had been established with regard to either, his effects
should be distributed by the same tribunal and according
to the same law. There was no reason why such should
net be the state of the law. As soon as a man was unable
to pay his debts, his property, which was no longer his,
ought tii be administered by other hands. But, assuming
that he made an absolute and really honest surrender of all
that beittr,e,
likewise
ebnetultdo him, it was only just that the non-traderßankrupt Aei, R have the benefit of the provisions of the
relieved of respoanad for the future that he should be wholly
been
adoptedibility in respect of his de tl. In a bill
which had
to the other house, by their lordships, and sent down
principle of extending the law of
bankruptcy to non.
weriaeldhad been sanctioned, and ho
trusted their lordshipn
they
on the present occasion
depart from the rule which
a'Ytehdad so laid down. The
nale and learned lord ermine;
be held sufficient to constitute a banktpta,catsndwhsitei.htedwothualcti
by a clause introduced in the other bouse the danger of
bankrupt had were
prematurely erearng a non-trader
effectually guarded against. Thirty days,
noti e
given him, and he was afterwards at
liberty,
toc show
pay his debts. A wise distinet'on
if ho could that he had reasonable means or expectati
of being able to
was made in law between a trader and non trader, the
former being supposed to have some settled place in which
he was to be found when his liabilities became due, while'
the non-trader was not 59 restricted. But no reason