ciple, which he thought it was agreed should | would find that the Court of Review had be the subject of discussion that night. power to limit the amount the assignees Hon. Gentlemen who spoke early in the should receive. The hon. Gentleman who debate, dealt mostly in general condemna- spoke last stated, as several other Gentletion of the Bill without pointing out spe- men had done, that the assignees ought cific objections. They indulged, too, if not to be chosen by the Commissioners, not in invective, at least in ill-founded but by the creditors; but that objection, imputations on the score of the patronage too, was one of detail, not of principle, created by this Bill. The question was, and might very fitly be considered in Comhowever, not whether there was patronage mittee. It might be thought presumptucreated by the Bill, but whether the Bill ous in him to give an opinion upon this was wanted? If it were once established Bill; but there was so much affinity bethat the Bill was useful, the objection tween the bankrupt systems of England founded on the exercise of patronage im- and Ireland-there was such a twin demediately vanished; if the Bill was bad, formity between them-that he trusted he if it was not wanted, then the creation of should be excused for making the observathe patronage deserved censure. Sup- tions he was about to make. What were posing the disposition of the patronage or the mischiefs to be cured? Where did its amount to be objectionable, it was the mischiefs of the present system lie? matter of consideration in the Committee, In the appointment of the Commissioners, and did not affect the principle of the and in the choice of the Assignees. The Bill. A good deal of misconception-if not Commissioners were selected from a class of intentional misrepresentation-had been of persons who had not the benefit of fallen into on the other side. It was stated much experience, who were novices in last night by the hon. and learned member their profession, whose want of practice for Boroughbridge, and indeed by other must incapacitate them for the prompt hon. members, that the Judges to be ap- discharge of their business, and who had pointed to this new Court would be paid strong incentives given them to increase before their judicial duties commenced; expense and delay. The Assignees were but such was not the fact; for if the chosen from a class of persons whose inhon. Member would refer to the Bill, he terest induced them to enter into combiwould find that, although appointed nation with the bankrupt against the crebefore January, they did not receive ditors, and who often picked up their their first quarter's salary till April. own fortunes out of the ruins of the estate The hon. member for Penryn stated committed to their care. If this was a last night, that the money collected by true sketch of the present system and its the official assignee could not be drawn workings, correction ought to be applied out of the Bank, except upon an order with a strong and fearless hand. What from the Lord Chancellor; but if he would was the history of a Commission? look to the Bill, he would find that the docket was struck, and a Commission was matter was left to the discretion of the Lord issued to five persons, barristers, but geneChancellor or the Judges of the Court of rally not of high rank or station in the Review. The objection, therefore, to the profession. This branch of the Lord official assignees, grounded on the sup- Chancellor's patronage was exercised, he position that the Lord Chancellor's order would not say with a view to parliamentalone would be able to get the money out ary or political purposes, but certainly of the Bank, was destitute of foundation. not with an exclusive view to public jusThis difficulty of getting out the money tice. What was the first duty of these was only a contingent matter; whilst the Commissioners? It was, to determine security gained by the arrangement was whether the party was a bankrupt or not. certain. It was made a great objection, It was a monstrous thing that a party by the hon. and learned Gentleman oppo- should be able to bribe a Judge; and was site, to the official assignees, that they it not equally monstrous, that the law were to be paid a per centage upon the itself should bribe a Judge?—and yet it whole sum collected; and that, conse- did, for the Commissioners had a direct quently, their emoluments might be enor-interest in finding a party a bankrupt. If mous, whilst the dividend to the creditor they found that he was not a bankrupt, was small. But if the hon. and learned there was an end of their emoluments; Gentleman would look at the Bill hel but if they found that he was a bankrupt,

a

Bridport. He had, for instance, a great objection to the appointment of official assignees; for the individuals best calculated to protect the interests of the creditors were those who were interested in the bankrupt's estate.

there was an immediate succession of a petition from the merchants and traders meetings and adjournments, for which of London in the early part of the present each Commissioner was paid 17. a-day, year, justly complaining of the existing as also for proving the debts, settling points system of Bankrupt-law, which he was of law-in short, every expedient was glad to find no one had attempted to desuggested that could create delay. An- fend. He was not about to detail proofs other serious evil attendant on the present of the defects of the present system, for system was also got rid of by the Bill- they must be familiar to every commercial he meant that of Commissioners at one Member of the House; but he was anxious moment acting as Judges, at another as to express his own opinion upon one or Advocates;-with one hand they received two of the proposed changes. It would their fee as Commissioner-with the other, not become him to impede the progress of their fee as barrister, and both from the a measure, the object of which was, to same attorney. The result was, that the effect a great and important amendment intercourse that arose between the barris- in the law; but, at the same time, he must ter and attorney, extended to an inter- fairly state, that there were certain parts of course between the attorney and the Judge. this Bill to which he entertained considerThe consequence of this double cha-able objections, which objections, as well racter possessed by the Commissioners as several others, ought to be, for the was sometimes ludicrous. In two differ-advantage of the trading interests, investient compartments two different bankrupt gated before a Select Committee up-stairs, cases were being tried. In one of them as suggested by the hon. member for an individual was playing the part of Commissioner, when, suddenly he would divest himself of his judicial attributes, and run into the other compartment to enact the advocate. In Ireland this practice had produced the greatest evils. With respect to the assignees, they were generally appointed by the intervention of the creditor who struck the docket; and the assignee generally entered into combination with the bankrupt or with the solicitor. The solicitor dealt in costs, and the assignee in fractions, which he called dividends. The present Eill strove to correct both these defects. It had been suggested that the Vice-Chancellor's Court was competent to become a Court of Review; but there was the advantage of four Judges, and of examination upon viva voce evidence in the Court proposed to be erected, which there was not in the Vicechancellor's Court. Gentlemen of great eminence at the Bar opposed this Bill; but it must be recollected that there was always a tendency in the human mind to defend the abuses by which each had profited. It was said by Lord Chatham, that, touch a single thread in the cobwebs of Westminster Hall, and every bloated spider hidden in their recesses, would rush out to its defence. Demonstration was thrown away upon the admirers of the ancient system; and to them might be applied the lines of the poet

"In rules of practice obstinately warm, Suspects conviction, and relies on form."

Mr. Alderman Thompson had presented

He never found that there was any difficulty in getting competent individuals to fill the office of assignees. They were generally selected from the most considerable of the creditors; and although the election was made by the majority of the creditors, taking the amount of money and number of persons into consideration, he never found that the interest of the minority was neglected in the way suggested by the hon. and learned Member opposite. He had stated that it had occurred that assets had been lost to the creditors by the failure of the assignees. It had been his misfortune to be interested in many bankrupt's estates, and such a circumstance never came to his knowledge. At the first or second meeting a banker was appointed, to whom all assets were to be paid, and afterwards the creditors ascertained that they had been so paid, and, if they had not, the assignee was liable to a penalty of twenty per cent. He was not aware that circumstances had ever called for the enforcement of that penalty, so that he apprehended no evil had arisen from the present practice. It might be beneficial to have individuals appointed as auditors to see that the creditors' assignees did their duty, and used diligence in the collection of the assets, and lodged them in a place of security. Great

apprehension had been created by the | there would be that constitution of this fear of all assets having to be paid into the reduced Court, which would secure the Bank of England in the name of the public against loss of time, secure a proAccountant-general. The very name of per performance of their functions, and be that officer was an object of horror to the means of preventing considerable delay commercial men, from the difficulty and and expense. It was said also, that those expense of getting money out of his hands. who opposed this measure, could not be The hon. and learned Gentleman might actuated by sincere motives in doing so. cry "hear!" but he would state to him He must turn round upon his hon, and a fact in which he was personally inter- learned friend, and say, that there was ested. Some hundreds of pounds were just as much chance of the other side of due to him (Mr. Alderman Thompson), but the House being wrong in pursuing the he was told that the expense of getting it course they did; more especially when it out of the Accountant-general's hands was found, that one of the hon. and would absorb it all. Most likely the learned Gentlemen who supported this Accountant-general would, even under measure certainly took a very different this Bill, continue to be the Accountant- view of it from that which he took on a general. With respect to the patronage former occasion. Certainly his hon. and that would be created by the Bill, he had learned friend, on a former occasion, did no objection to it, provided the public not deem it advisable that the jurisdiction derived adequate advantage from it. He of bankruptcy should be separated from was sorry to see a disposition in any quar- the Court of Chancery; but now, at the ter of the House, to treat this otherwise termination of the Session, when the Bill than as a commercial matter; and for was introduced at such a period, he himself, without having any reference to thought fit to alter his opinion. There politics, he really thought it would be more were circumstances connected with the satisfactory to the commercial interests of passing of this measure, which he should this country for them to adopt the sug- have imagined would have prevented his gestion of the hon. member for Bridport, hon. and learned friend from arguing that and refer it to a Select Committee. Unless party feeling, with respect to this Bill, that was done, they should, Session after existed only on his side of the House Session, have Bills brought in to amend without extending to the other. It would this Act, till the laws with respect to be very difficult for him to maintain his bankruptcy would become so voluminous opinion, that such a party feeling originated as to occasion the greatest confusion and on the Opposition side of the House, when inconvenience to the commercial world. it did so happen that almost every one of his hon. and learned friends had failed, not in shewing that delay and expense had existed, but in proving that they would be remedied by this Bill. When it was said by the supporters of this measure, that the character of the Court of Commissioners, and the number of those Commissioners, were evils which ought to be redressed, and which were proposed to be redressed by this Bill, they certainly need not give themselves the trouble of endeavouring to prove the existence of evils arising from the manner in which the duties of the Commissioners had been performed, and the evils which resulted from the present system, because the ex- . istence of those evils was admitted; and it was said they might be redressed by a reduction of the number of Commissioners, and by placing the system in such a point of view as to obtain the assistance of most able Commissioners of Bankrupts, in such a manner as to insure the public's receiving

Mr. Burge was anxious to state the grounds upon which he concurred in the propriety of referring this Bill to a Select Committee, because it had been insinuated on the other side, and broadly stated else where, that opposition to this measure originated in party feeling. One would suppose, from the speeches of those who made that accusation that the opponents of the Bill considered the system of the Bankrupt-law as requiring no amendment. Not one Gentleman had risen on his side of the House without admitting that there were defects in that law requiring a remedy; the only thing they contested being, not that this measure did not contain provisions adequate to remove those defects, but that it introduced alterations which their nature did not require. As to the number of the Commissioners, and the manner in which their time was to be dedicated to the business of the Court, it was said that the number was to be reduced, and that

the whole of their time, and their giving | tion to the constitution of a Court of this that uninterrupted and constant attend- description, even if there existed no other. ance to the business brought before them, If this Court of Review was meant to which was considered essential. If the answer any purpose whatever, it was inconstitution of the Court of Commission- tended to supersede the Vice-chancellor's ers was reformed with respect to their or the Chancellor's Court to a certain qualification, and with respect to the extent. But was it to be supposed, that degree of attention and time which they this Court, consisting of four Judges, were to devote to the performance of their would possess that degree of knowledge duty, this certainly would redress an evil and experience which was now derived which, according to all the evidence that from the Lord Chancellor and the Vicehad been produced, was the one most chancellor? Why, then, was the suitor complained of. The complaint had not who might be desirous of appealing, to be been as to the manner in which questions deprived of the benefit of resorting to the had been disposed of in the superior old-established tribunals of the land, and Courts; but the difficulty and delay in- to the superior Courts of judicature? It curred in consequence of the Commis- had been said with respect to the Comsioners devoting so little of their time to missioners, that the number proposed by the investigation of one particular question, this Bill might or might not be sufficiently and by reason of their pressing so much large, considering the duty they had to business into the small space of time perform, subject, of course, to an appeal occupied by their different meetings. That from the decision of the Vice-chancellor's appeared to be the ground of complaint Court. If these Commissioners received stated by the principal witnesses who gave the means of devoting their time to the their evidence before the Commissioners. performance of their duties, if care was This evil must be corrected, and there was taken that those duties were properly perno one on that side of the House who was formed, all that was required would have not quite ready to concur in any measure been done. No case had been made out which would have that effect. But was it to call for, or justify, the establishment of necessary for that purpose to create a new this new Court, which would not only be Court or jurisdiction? No, it was not attended with expense, but with positive necessary that this new Court should be disadvantage to the suitors, by depriving established, because the Courts in West- them of more competent tribunals to which minster Hall contained abundant means they ought to have the opportunity of by which all these great questions could resorting. It had been urged that the be decided, infinitely more to the satis- accumulation of business in the Court of faction of the public than if they were Chancery was an objection to the questions decided by a Court which must always still remaining to be disposed of by that be, to a certain extent, considered as Court; but even with respect to this objecan inferior Court. One fact was quite tion, it had been clearly shown that the clear, there would not be sufficient busi- delay which took place was not so great ness in this new Court to engage the as to be incompatible with the very conattention of those four Judges for anything siderable interests of the suitors. Comlike the whole year; and it would follow, plaints, too, were made of the great evils as a necessary consequence, that whatever arising from the use of affidavits in the talents or attainments they might possess, Vice-chancellor's Court; but affidavits they would suffer greatly from not having would also be made use of in the Court constant practice to keep alive the informa- which it was proposed to establish, because tion they might possess, and which would it would not proceed on viva voce evidence be necessary to render them efficient alone, and affidavits would not be excluded. Judges of an appeal Court. Notwith- It had been said, also, that those who standing the information, knowledge, and contended that this Bill would confer intelligence these Judges might possess, patronage, were mistaken in the view they the establishment of a Court to exercise took of the case. But it was not to the the functions, both of a law and equity patronage itself that they objected: if it Court, was not likely to be advantageous. were shewn that it was necessary to Was it not the general opinion that this establish this new Court-that all this experiment had failed in the Court of Ex- expensive machinery was essential—that chequer? This alone would be an objec- the conferring of that patronage would VOL. VIII. {id} 2 B

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