PARTY SPIRIT AND THE BANKRUPTCY ACT.
THEE is no limit to the range of party rancour among tt Conservative Party. It used to be the case that when an Act was passed, the battle-cries which had raged over it while it still remained a Bill died away, or faded into echoes which only feebly reverberated from the mouth of some feeble politician, who could not get out of the groove in which his party feeling had made him run. But now it would seem that when the battle's lost and won, the hurly-burly is not done, and that the cries of the vanquished are to vent themselves in impotent imprecations against the victor even more loudly than before. Whether it is that the abilities and energy of Mr. Chamberlain make him peculiarly the object of rancorous hostility, or that some unsuspected abuses have been smitten by him, certain it is that the two great Acts of last Session—the Patent and the Bankruptcy Acts— have been assailed with a persistent virulence which is unsur- passed in the history of political partisanship. This is the more remarkable, as those Acts are what are called non- political in character, and, moreover, were passed without any organised party opposition. As regards the Patent Act, the attacks upon it have had so little foundation that they have been disregarded. But the Bankruptcy Act still furnishes a theme for impassioned assaults upon the promoter and worker of the Bill. It is alleged that the President of the Board of Trade has shown a cynical disregard for any claims but those of party in his appointments under the Act, that the effect of the Act is only to exalt his officials at the expense of the public, and that the new Act will cause far ' greater expenses than the old Act.
The question of Patronage involves a question of principle, as well as a question of fact. In the old days, the maxim of political warfare was, "Vce Victis." The spoils to the victors, was the doctrine of English, as it still is of American statesmen ; and, as a rule, when a Conservative Govern- ment comes into power, the doctrine still tends to pre- vail. But even with Conservative Governments, the doctrine is not carried out in its rigour, and Liberal Governments have of late shown a perhaps ostentatious desire to upset it. The appointment of the present Primate is, perhaps, the strongest instance of it that has ever been seen. In judicial appointments, notably that of the present Master of the Rolls, the same policy has been pursued. Mr. Chamberlain pledged himself not to make his appointments under the new Act depend on political considerations. To prevent the possibility of his being charged with doing so, he delegated the selection of the appointees to a Departmental Committee, and he has acted in strict accordance with their recommendations. The result is, that the chief Official Re- ceiver and a proportion of his subordinates are of a Con- servative colour. If the majority are Liberals, that is to be at- tributed to the superior activity and intelligence which we may reasonably ascribe to those who sympathise with the party of activity and progress, and to the fact that the majority of applications come from Liberals.
Next, as to the expense of working the new Act. It has been stated that the new Act is far more expensive than the old. But the fact is that the schedule of fees and costs under the new Act is, in the vast majority of cases, a verbatim tran- script of the same schedule under the Act of 1869. In the proceedings up to the issue of a receiving-order, the schedule is absolutely identical, with the exception of the last item,—the charge for attending court on the hearing, which is reduced to half what it was. But it is said and repeated that, "under the old Act, a debtor pre- senting a petition paid 20s. Now he has not only to pay La, but to deposit £5 to cover expenses to be incurred by the Official Receiver." No doubt ; and if the extra payment had the effect of stopping fraudulent liquidations altogether, it would be money well laid out. Perhaps it may. Probably it will not. But when a liquidation is necessary, the net re- sult of the new system will be far cheaper than the old, as was pointed out by one of the best of our County-Court Judges, Mr. Motteram, Q.C. Instead of having to pay a solicitor to issue notices, and so forth, all the work is done by the Official Receiver, and included in the fee. Further, "under the old act, the creditors had to have a manager and receiver, who was paid £10, £15, £20; and then there was a trustee, who acted with a committee of inspection, which voted him sometimes £100, sometimes £200, and he had known as much as £500 having been paid to that official. It was true that the Government charged 6 per cent, on the receipts of the estate, but for those charges the whole work was done, and the costs before paid to solicitors, accountants, and committees of inspection were done away with." Again, under the old act, payments to brokers above the scale laid down in the schedule were allowed, at the discretion of the trustee, who had every inducement to do everything in a generous way, as such generosity was apt to have a reflective action on himself. Now, a larger allowance can only be made on the order of the Board of Trade, which may be safely trusted not to make such an order without absolute necessity. So, too, the minimum accountant's charges are slightly reduced. On the other hand, a 6d. stamp is now imposed on proxies to vote at creditors' meetings, a proof of debt is charged 1s., and an affidavit is charged a couple of shillings, instead of one. But these are very slight additions, and certainly will be far less than the reductions. Perhaps the greatest reduction of all will be effected by the transfer of the administration of insolvent estates of deceased persons from the Chancery Division, with its inquiries and reports, and costs acd delays, to the quicker and cheaper management of the Official Receiver. A great boon will be conferred on small tradesmen by the sum- mary method provided for dealing with small bankruptcies
under £300. •
How, after a candid consideration of the Act and the new scale of charges, any one can contend that the working of the Bankruptcy Law will be more burdensome than the old, it is impossible to explain, except in one way. That one way was suggested by Mr. Motteram, and is—" determined misinterpreta- tion and misrepresentation at the hands of those who are inspired by "determined hostility "to a Liberal Government and all its works.
Previous page
