THE BANKRUPTCY LAW IN ENGLAND.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 364, 30 September 1868, Page 3

THE BANKRUPTCY LAW IN ENGLAND.

The Times, in a recent city article, says :—" Owing to the Bankruptcy Bill of Lord Cairns having been abandoned, a short one has been introduced by Mr Moffatt, to prevent a continuance of the worst evils of the existing system. It provides, first, that no deed or instrument between a debtor and his creditors shall be valid unless the debtor shall, within a certain number of days after its execution, leave at the office of the Chief Registrar a list showing his debts and liabilities of every kind on the day of such execution, and the times when such debts and

liabilities were contracted, and the considerations for the same, the names, residences, and occupations of his creditors, and the respective amounts due to them upon the securities held by them, and the estimated value of such securities; also a statement showing his property and credits and the estimated value thereof. 2. That no creditorshall be reckoned in the computation of the number or value of the creditors of debtor executing such deed unless he has executed or assented to it after the execution thereof by the debtor, and unless he proves his debt by affidavit or declaration, and the true value of all securities held by him is stated in the proof, it being stipulated that in the computation of the requisite value of such creditors the amount due to each creditor who shall prove his debt, after deducting the value of the securities held by him, shall alone be returned ; 3, That any creditor of a debtor executing such deed whose debt shall exceed £lO may obtain a summons requiring such debtor, or any creditor or person stated to be a creditor of such debtor, to be examined before a Commissioner of Bankruptcy, the Commissioner being empowered, at the conclusion of such examination, to determine by whom the whole or any part of the expense shall be borne whether by the creditor procuring the summons, or by the person examined, or by the debtor, or by the trustees and inspectors of his estate ; and, 4, That any debtor may petition for adjudication of bankruptcy against himself, on condition that he shall satisfy the Court that his available estate is sufficient to pay to each of his creditors 5s in the pound ; or, in case the Court is not satisfied that the estate is sufficient for the purpose, Ihe shall show that he has convened a meeting of all his creditors whose debts exceed £lO, and that the majority iu number, representing three-fourths in value of the creditors present or represented at such meeting, have passed a resolution that in their opinion it is for the interest of the creditors that he should be adjudicated bankrupt upon the petition presented, or to be presented by him, the value of any securities held by creditors at such meeting being deducted from the computation of their debts. The object of this measure is avowedly to check the 6,000 questionable parties who now annually pass through the Court of Bankruptcy at the public cost, and who are acquitted of their debts almost without inquiry, and to stay the open and scandalous frauds that are committed under deeds of arrangemeut. Lord Westbury's Act, 1861, gave immense facilities to debtors for the cancellation of their liabilities, but relegated all the main securities that creditors ought also to have had to the action of the intended Chief Judge in Bankruptcy. That functionary was expunged from the Bill by the House of Lords, and thus fraudulent insolvents contrive to get practical absolution nnder Act of Parliament. The total amount of unsecured debts passing under deeds of arrangement in 1851 was about £1,500,000. The amount passing in 1867 has increased to £29,500,000, and a very heavy proportion of this enormous sum is believed to have been tainted with dishonesty.