The Sun.
London, England, 1857-04-28 00:00:00

COMMERCIAL LAW.

The Mercantile Law Conference, held in January last,
under the direction of the society, has given a consider.
able impulse to 'the efforts for the improvement of our
commercial law. The detects existing in the administra-
tion of the bankruptcy law were brought prominently
forward at that meeting, and will be the subject of a bill
now in course of preparation by the committee appointed
at the ;conference. The statements made by Mr. Com-
tnissioeer Ayrtons In his able paper, ns to the expense of
the court, have since been verified by a return to the
House of Commons obtained by Mr. Headlain ; and to
diminish the ruinous cost, amounting, on an average, to
about 45 per cent. on the assets, mu't be the first object
of any amending tiiehstti•e. It is proposed to effect this
by transferrirg the compensation payments nettf saddled
on the suitors to the consolidated fund, and by aboli,,hing
the offices of broker, messenger, and accountant. Fur-
ther improvements are propwed in the system of appeal,
and the mode of remunerating the official assignee, and
the frequency of attendance by the comtniSehmets 1 alto
by giving to tbo bankrsptcy courts the jurisdictia
in insolvency, by improving the arrangement clauses
in the act of 1849 No as to make them operative, by
enacting that a deceased trader may be made bankrupt,
by confining imprisonment for debt on execution to
cases where the bankrupt's case has been heard and
decided on, and by vesting in the Court of Bank-
ruptcy the winding-up jurisdiction. This latter point
has been made the subject eta separate report, which
points at the best mode of effecting the object in view,
and which was lately adopted by the society. The con-
ference elle reported in favour of repealicg the 7th sec-
tion of the Statute of Frauds, with Exception:l as to c; r-
tain classes of contracts. A bill for this object will pro-
bably be introduced into the house soon after it assem-
bles.

The insufficiency of onr present tribunals for adminis-
tering fulland sphdy justice in mercantile causes excites
the greatest attention among the classes peculiarly af-
fected by it. The delegates at the conference stated that
in nearly all the large towns of the liiegdent an absolute
denial of justice in cases above the value of 50/. prevails
throughout the year, tx.?.?pt during the two occasions
when her INk
jesty'sjudges sit for a few days in each c.f.-
cult town ; that a greater frequency of circuits and a
large extension of the jurisdiction, both legal and equit-
able, of local courts, are measures imperatively de-
manded ; and that to these should be added some means
of deciding commercial causes in a more satisfactory
way than the present machinery of our courts admits of.
The council must add that the bill of Lord Brougham, to
give the powers of courts of reconciliation to existing tri-
bunals, and to discourage frivolous actions and defences,
would aid greatly in remedying the evi's oomp'aiued of.
The council must not omit to add that the Mercantile
Law Conference recommended the adoption of the Scotch
system of summary diligence, and the enactment into law
of the Judgments Executions Bill.
JUDICIAL STATISTICS.

A bill to provide for the regular collection and publi-
cation of the statistics of all our courts of
_justice was in-
troduced in the last session by the president of the
society, and will again be brought before Parliament.
The recognitio❑ of the 'need of such a system has now
become universal, and its establishment woufd be one of
the first and most important duties of a minlsteilof jus-
tice.

DIVORCE AND TEST.IME;sTTARY JURISDICTION.
The bills introduced by the Lord Chancellor to remedy
the evils complained of on the Reject of divorce and the
testamentary jurisdiction have failed to satisfy the-public
expectation. It is to be hoped that the counsels of the
most able and experienced members of the upper house,
hacked as they are by public opinion, will at length be
allowed their due weight, and that the society will no
longer have to deplore the introduction of measures sig-
nally ill-suited to acc,)mplisb the objects aimed at. On
the testamentary jurisdiction a special committee of the
society has recently reported, condemning the creation of
a new court, which would either supersede in a great
measure the Couit of Chancery, or else be an expensive
machinery for doing very little work, and proposing that
some of the judges of our existing superior courts of
common law should be employed to form a court of pro.
bate, with a simple procedure. This plan has received
the general assent of the society.