The Sun.
London, England, 1861-12-31 00:00:00

ENGLAND AND AMERICA.

The contradictory telegrams from New York,
announcing that " there is a general disposition to
do what is right," and that " the general impres-
sion is that the Southern Commissioners will under
no circumstances be given up," produced little effect
on the Stock Exchange yesterday morning, and
Consols opened heavily at the prices of Saturday.
Subsequently the circumstance of the French de-
spatch being certain to arrive out before the period
allowed for an answer to the British demand would
expire was seen to be in favour of peace, and it is
also understood that the despatches sent from Lon-
don by the City of Washington, on the 4th, by Mr.
Adams, the American Minister, which had already
reached New York, were likewise calculated to have
a salutary effect. The City of Washington and the
Jura sailed from England respectively on the 4th
and sth, and took out news not only of the opinion
formed here on the blind ovations with which Cap-
tain Wilkes had been welcomed in Boston and else-
where, but also that the proposal of the Associated
Banks for a loan in London on a pledge of United
States securities would not result in their obtaining
a single shilling. The vigour shown by the Go-
vernment in chartering the Persia and other large
steamers for the immediate conveyance of troops to
Canada, and in prohibiting the shipment of all ma-
terials of war, had also transpired. Hence the rapid
iperease of anxiety which each fresh piece of intel-
ligence seems to have occasioned. As the present
accounts to the 18th of December are entirely by
telegraph, the mail from New York reaching only
to the 14th, there are no commercial letters in town
to correct or confirm the telegraph.— Times' City
Article.

PROGRESS OF BANKRUPTCY

BUSINESS.

The number of adjudications of bankruptcy in the Cour
of Bankruptcy, London, from Oct. 12 to the afternoon of
yesterday was 635 above £3OO, and 318 under £3OO. Of
the 635 above £3OO, no fewer than 149 appear to be cases
of pauper prisoners, who contribute nothing to the revenue
of the court, so that the total amount of stamp duty deriv-
able from these adjudications above £3OO is only £2,430. Of
the 318 cases under £3OO, 99 were those of pauper pri-
soners, so that the stamp duty of £1 on petitions under
that amount represents the small sum of £219. In the
bankruptcy district courts, within the same period, so far
as the returns have been made to the Chief Registrar's
office, there have been 497 adjudications, of which
93 were pauper prisoner cases, so that only 404 peti-
tions paid the £5 stamp duty, representing a total of £2,020
In the county courts, which have to deal only with bank-
ruptcies under £3OO, there have been within the period de-
scribed 86 cases, of which a few are petitions transferred
from the Court of Bankruptcy, in consequence of the reso-
lutions to that effect adopted by creditors at the first meet-
ing, under section 109 of the Act of 1861. Of these 806
cases, 94 were those of pauper prisoners, so that, allowing
for the adjudications transferred under the circumstances
described, there has only been received about £7OO in the
way of stamp duty upon county court bankruptcy petitions.
The number of trust deeds registered from the 12th
October up to yesterday was 359, and in the great majority
of instances the stamp duty paid has been of very trifling
amount, in some cases as low as five shillings. In one
instance only has so large a sum as £95 been received. It
has been said that several large estates which were origi-
nally intended to be wound up under the trust deed sections
of the act have been brought into bankruptcy, with a view
to avoid the maximum ad valorem duty of £2OO, required
by the statute : the important estate of Coster and Co. is one
of these cases. There can be no doubt tha+ it is souna policy
to minimise to the utmost possible extent the expense of
bankruptcy administration, and it was upon this ground
that the noble and learned framer of the act of 1861 succeeded
in inducing the House of Commons and the Chancellor of
the Exchequer, to transfer to an annual Parliamentary
grant that large amount of compensation wh ch for the last
30 years had so oppressively taxed the suitors in bank-
ruptcy. For the like reasons, the percentage heretofore
paid on gross assets was abolished by the same act ; had
that percentage been continued, it would in all probability
have had the effect of deterring the creditors of Coster
and Co. from invoking the aid of the Court of Bankruptcy,
and have impelled them to adopt one of those private ar-
rangements which, under the old system, were as costly as
they were dilatory. As by recourse to bankruptcy proper
the creditors of this enormous estate have, with the able
advice and energetic action of Mr. F. G. Reed, been enabled,
within the brief space of one month, to realise assets exceed-
ing £128,000, and to declare a dividend of Ils. 6d. in the
pound, sooner than under the old system of private arrange-
ments they would probably have arrived, by expensive
stages, at any knowledge at all as to assets—it would seem
only equitable that the court which so promptly and so effi
ciently meets the requirements of creditors should receive
for its support a remuneration reasonably approximating
to the benefit it confers. It is indeed understood that the
the subject is now engaging consideration in the proper
quarter.

It is quite clear that some steps must be taken to pre-
vent those friendly arrests which we regret to say are again
filling our debtors' prisons, not for the purpose of enforcing
the payment of just demands, but to enable embarrassed
persons to sue in forma pauperia. There are, for example,
we believe, at the present time more than 40 prisoners who
have recently sought the refuge of IVhitecross• street gaol on
the introduction of some complaisant creditor for the mere
purpose of being discharged without payment of fees, from
the claims of all their other creditors, by the facile process
of the Registrar's monthly delivery, the execution creditor
being in all probability carefully secured, by some family
or other arrangement, to the full amount of his claim.
Nothing could have been better intended, either on the
ground of humanity, cr of policy, than those sections of the
Act of 1861 which facilitates the release of pauper prisoners,
that is to say, of persons who, being in prison for debt, are
really in a position to make " affidavits that they have not
the means of paying the fees and expenses usually payable
in respect of a petition by a debtor for an adjudication of
bankruptcy ;" but there seems reason to believe that a con-
siderable number of persons, who would be perfectly able to
pay those fees and expenses, either out of their own pockets,
or by the help of willing relatives and friends, prefer the
minor inconvenience of a few days or a few weeks' gratuitous
residence in a debtors' prison, to the payment of the mode-
rate charges now incidental to bankruptcy. If each of
these persons was required to swear that he is not worth a
certain sum, according to the practice which prevails in
Chancery in behalf of pauper suitors, and if stringent
measures were taken against the first individual committing
perjury, there is no doubt that an immediate and effectual
check would be placed upon one please, which, if permitted
to continue, will revive one of the most serious evils of the
old system of friendly arrest, and thus defeat the beneficent
intentions of the Lord Chancellor and of the Legislature,—
Gazfteo of Bankruptcy. •

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