The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-12-06 00:00:00

TUESDAY MORNING, DEC. 6, 1853

A COMMISSION is now sitting on the oft-debated
question of the laws relating to bankruptcy and
insolvency. It is not often that repeated altera-
tions in laws prove beneficial, inasmuch as they
disturb long-settled customs, and substitute ill-
digested theories ; but it must be acknowledged
that a considerable improvement has been made in
the bankruptcy laws, though there is much which
remains to be done before they can be considered
to be placed on a really satisfactory basis. One of
the great faults attaching to the previous system
was the too great leniency to debtors, upon the
presumption that, unless a man were effectually
discharged from obligations which he had no
means of satisfying, he would have no inducement
for further exertions, and would, therefore, be hope-
lessly insolvent. If such reasoning were applied
only to honest debtors, whose inability to pay had
arisen from no fault of their own, none could dis-
pute its justice ; but when applied indiscriminately,
so that a certificate is obtained as a matter of
course, unless in cases of glaring fraud, it holds
out an encouragement to dishonesty. In cases of
bankruptcy, the defaulting trader is called upon to
account for all his cash transactions since the time
when he became insolvent, and if he does this to
the satisfaction of the Commissioner, he is declared
to have passed his examination, whatever may have
been the preference to relations, the obtaining
credit without reasonable probability of payment,
or other devices to which he may have resorted in
order to maintain himself in business. But, sup-
posing his conduct to have been such as to deserve
the reprehension of every honest trader, the extent
of punishment which a well-meaning Commissioner
awards is a suspension of the certificate,with or with-
out protection, or in extreme cases the withholding
of it altogether. What is required is a more strin-
gent law against palpable frauds upon creditors,
and in all such cases the bankrupt should be
prosecuted criminally. In minor cases of robbery
of property, embezzlement of small sums, or obtain-
ing goods under false pretences, the law imposes
punishment by imprisonment or otherwise ; but
the trader who avails himself of his credit to prac-
tise similar kinds of fraud may appeal to the bank-
rupt laws when his means of continuing his career
are exhausted, obtain protection for his person, and
having made a clean breast of his offences, as far
at least as he is compelled to divulge them, obtains
from the Court an indemity for all his past con-
duct, and a license to renew his practices. We
could state an instance which happened a few years

ago, where a man commenced business with a
small capital, borrowed from his relations, to whom
he owed, or pretended to owe, about £5,000. He
fitted up a handsome counting-house, made a show
of wealth, obtained credit, and kept his accounts
according to the most approved method of book-
keeping. In the course of a few years he paid his
relations the £5,000, failed for about four times
that amount, his late manager was enabled by some
means to purchase the concern, and employed the
bankrupt in the same capacity, so that they merely
changed places. The Commissioner complimented
the bankrupt on his excellent book-keeping and
awarded him his certificate, although the creditors
could see that they had been literally cheated, in,
order to enrich their debtor's relations. He had
committed no offence against the Bankruptcy laws,
though, morally, he had been committing a sys-
tematic and ingenious fraud. In all such cases—
and unfortunately there are too many for the honour
of trade—the Commissioner should either be in-
vested with more discretionary power to punish
dishonesty, or the law should be more clearly de-
fined, so that the offenders should not escape. If
a certificate is to prove a protection for the unfor-
tuate trader, its privilege should be confined to
those who are insolvent solely through misfortune ;
but when it serves as a screen for those who have
been wilfully reckless, or even negligently dis-
honest, it is a punishment of the innocent for the
sake of the guilty. With a sharp-witted attorney,
not over-scrupulous, an insolvent trader•may pass
through the Court with comparative ease ; but
obstacles are needlessly placed in the way of credi-
tors, who, having been the victims of misplaced
confidence, are anxious to prevent an opportunity
being given for the repetition of such offences.
Honour is the soul of legitimate commerce, and if
it cannot be maintained by the innate sense of its
importance which every man in trade should
possess, the law should impose efficient restrictions
on its violation. Misfortunes are to be pitied, for
no man in business is exempt from them ; but
when insolvency has arisen from any other cause
it ought to derive no protection from the law.

IF we may believe the authority of the Morning
Herald, HER MAJESTY'S constitutional advisers
have counselled her to withhold her customary
letter in behalf of the Society for the Propaga-
tion of the Gospel in Foreign Parts and the
National Society. The cause for this unusual
course is said to be the alleged Tractarian ten-
dency of the proceedings of both these societies—a
charge which ought to be supported on better
proof than mere suspicion, when the important
operations of both bodies are taken into considera-
tion. The former society has now been in
existence more than a century and a half, and
has been the means of disseminating the Holy
Scriptures and the knowledge of the Gospel in
many foreign lands. In such a work it would be
difficult to say in what way Tractarianism can be
shown to have any influence, and more particu-
larly as it is governed by the whole bench of
The National Society, it is well known,
was established for the purpose of promoting

Bishops

Christian instruction in national schools
also under the management of the English episco-
pate. We need not, however, discuss the grounds

upon which such a resolution has been arrived at

supposing the statement to be true ; but we may

ask what effect it will have upon those members