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    March 24, I860.] r The Leader and Saturd...

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    : THE ARMY AND THE ARISTOCRACY. NEVER wa...

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    * Noto, we have hero referred to Tho Str...

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

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    Debtors And Cukditolls. I^He Following S...

    Oourt for Belief of Insolvent Debtors , whose jurisdiction extends to London , Middlesex , and Surrey , the " scheduled" debts were 36 § , 9 & 2 Z . Only 183 of these petitioners had estates / to realize , which amo . unted . to 33 , 864 ^ . in value , leaving an average dividend of two shillings for creditors . We are surely entitled to expect some result from the enormous expenditure involved in investigating and distributing : debtors estates by these Wo Courts . If any expectation ^ likely to be realized , as to the discovery and punishment of fraud or commercial misconduct , we might surely look for it in legal agencies , which cost half a million per annum in their necessary maintenance ^ Yet m find that onl 36 had their

    bankruptcy , out of 1 . 34 . 3 bankrupts , we y certificates refused—five with and thirty-one without protection ^ result most insignificant , and most conclusively showing the mutihtyot the penalties in bankruptcy . N " or are the penalties in insolvency at all of a character likely to check the proceedings of the fraudulent dealer . Out of the 3 , 337 petitioners , 2 , 483 were immediately discharged ; 287 were dismissed , afid the rest were remanded back to prison for various terms . Imprisonment for debt is of all punishments the most illusory . Generally speaking , it is welcomed by the debtor as a boon . He prepares for it , and , on arrest , " files his schedule . " His greatest disappointment , after arrest , would be for his creditor to discharge him before the day arrived for his

    hearing before the Commissioner . A remand back to prison is the worst penalty which can overtake him , and in such cases the absurdity of the law is proved by the fact , that if the remanded debtor settles with his detaining creditor ( who is generally only too g-lad to do so on payment of costs and a small composition on his debt ) . , he leaves prison discharged as to all the other debts he owes . Leaving " Bankruptcy " and " Insolvency , " we arrive at various other forms of adjustment between debtors and creditors : —Assignments , compositions , deeds of inspection , and letters of license , which all partake of the nature of private settlements ; petitions for arrangement in the Courts of Bankruptcy , and petitions for protection to the Insolvent Court in town , and the - .. County Courts in the countrywhich are heard in public . It is impossible to ascertain ,

    , with any degree of accuracy , the number of all these ljiodes of settlement , or the amount of the debts which they seek to compromise . The private arrangements effected by deed have the advantage of economy , although of late years some scandals have arisen as to the expenses under deeds of inspection . But it is iii the power of the creditors of debtors who offer such instruments , cheaply to realize the estate if they like : Compositions are frequently resorted to when the debtor can pay a considerable dividend . The disadvantage under such private arrangements is to the debtor , wIiq is not discharged until every creditor has executed the deed . Hence & fraudulent creditor ( and there are such ) frequently extorts dzette into

    payment in full , or drives his debtor into the G- or gaol . The mode of adjustment fairest in its operation to the Jionest debtor and creditor is most undoubtedly the petition for a private arrangement under tbe Bankrupt Law Consolidation Act , 1849 . . For , whilst it requires the debtor to disclose the state of his affairs , it permits him to make a proposal for a settlement ; which , if accepted by three-fifths , binds the rest of his creditors . On the other hand , it' fraud can be shown , the Commissioner lias power to adjourn the case into Court , and adjudicate the petitioner a bankrupt . The defeet of the present practice is ,, that , whilst a debtor is obliged to disclose the state of his insolvent affairs , he is _ not obliged to show by what process of loss or misconduct he came into that position .

    These several modes of settlement between debtors and creditors represent only the bad debts which have reached the point of public disclosure . But there lies underneath another growing evil , which in its turn furnishes material , in another year or two , to bankruptcy and insolvency . An annual waste is going on in commerce , which produces the public disclosures ofinsolvency . In 1858 xio less than 103 , 478 writs of summons were issued out of the Courts at Westminster , and 738 , 977 plaints in the County Courts . / Large as-are these numbers the return is incomplete , for it does not include the writu issued by Courts of concurrent jurisdiction , such as the Court of Common Pieas , of Lancaster and l 3 urham ; or of local Courts of Record , such as the Lord Mayors' Courts of London and York , the Passage Court of Liverpool , the Venire Court , of Hull , the Burgess

    Court of Newcastle , suia , perhaps , a hundred others scattered over England . Of course some of the notions brought are"for the recovery of damages ; but the fact i & clear , that tlfe very large majority are for the recovery of simple debts . The fees of the superior Courts were 1 * 264 , 539 : what the costs between party and party were wo are not told , for out of the 103 , 478 cases only 1 , 191 went to trial ( pretty conclusive proof that the actions were only defended to gain time by the debtors ) . In the County Courts the fees were £ 219 , 981 , with costs not stated between the parties in addition . Those , who put faith in penalties invented by law to punish fraud will be startled to learn that no less tjian 10 , 7 ^ 8 debtors wore nctuplly lodged in prison , under warrants from the County Courts . It lnny possibjiy be urged

    that those werofraudiilent debtors , whom jt was the duty of society to punish . Granting that to bo bo , it is hurd upon creditors to perform a duty to society at an oxpenso of four shillings . and seven-pence in the pound upon ^ lieir debts . If frayd existed on the part of a debtor , the obligation to punish him ought not to rest upon the particular croditor who is cheated , but upon society at Inrye . And if fraud did oxiat , it is not « cloll but a criminal punishment which ought * r bo nnp ' . Lw , 'To award to a vogue , cunning enough to avail himaeh ... » the " terms of credit , the same doom we apportion to an tinfovtunato man , i » only to puniah , perhaps < lomornlizo , the latter by association with rogues ; whilst it is also doing great injustice to

    the inmates of the other side of the prison , who have simply been consigned to . a criminal punishment , because they were not artful enough to employ the thin line of credit , and thereby prevent their fraud being indicted as felony .

    March 24, I860.] R The Leader And Saturd...

    March 24 , I 860 . ] r The Leader and Saturday Analyst . 277

    : The Army And The Aristocracy. Never Wa...

    : THE ARMY AND THE ARISTOCRACY . NEVER was there such a time as the last few years have been for pulling down , piece-meal ; the veil of the shrine of stolid official mystery , for showing that the inner light , for which , in our Immility , we gave it so much credit , was of the nature of moonshine ; . we use ; the tevni moonshine advisedly , because things , especially wooden things , are said to have a tendency to get rotten under its influence * and men are said to be affected with blindness who sleep long under its rays * . Many a man , perdie , can we . unmask , Whose desk and table make a solemn show With tape-tied trash , and suits of fools that ask Fqr place and pension laid in decent row . The author of " The Seasons" was , perhaps , the first protester against " tape . " "We have long been rather tired of the term , and we direct the homage of all who have usefully' scribbled against tape to the first remonstrant . Our only consolation for the losses of the Crimean war was , that in ... needlessly destroying hosts of b rave men , it let out the life of many official absurdities , amongst others , that of many of our military appointments . We are not going to commence a shabby , ungenerous tirade against the . aristocracy as connected with the army j we give all possible honour , as far as personal bravery is concerned , to those " ladies' faces with fierce dragons' spleens , " as Shaktssfeake calls them , who have dared to the death , for the sake of their race and their eo \ infcry . "We look with , admiring- > vonder at the man

    who , at home , ifMils Maintenon cutlet is not done to a nicety , turns up his nose as if lie always smelt " some nauseous scent , " yet , when campaigning , eats cheerfully with his brothers in . arms , whatever , bad or good , the chance of forage or the Carelessness of a commissariat provides . We ' can admire a Nakbon ^ e who _ lias heart enough to have his hair powdered every day , in the midst of the snows and the despairs of tlie Russian campaign , and in some sense even a Richelieu , who , in an earlier day , " se haitait poudre a la bergamotte wi jour de hataille , aViris tin jour d ' assaut ,- " perhaps we might look in yahi in any other rank for this gay but high chivalric spirit , which we do not wish to underrate ; in fact , c & teris jparibus , a man who has his . " honour of a family" to maintain , as well as the honour of his country , would have our

    preference , but it must be cttteris parihus ; he must , now-a-days especially when warfare is so much a matter of science , study his profession , which he will not do in earnest unless he makes it his destiny , and he is not likely to make it his destiny except from a natural taste for the career of arms , which will lead him to try to make himself in every way fit for it ; and if there is the pressure of honourable poverty , as in the case , ¦ formerly as now , of the younger sons , the cadets of noble famiiiesj so much the more surely are his permanent services secured . In earlier days , when the man of noble or gentle blood wns the only man who had within him the generous , inspiring influences of liberty , he had a still greater comparative advantage than he possesses now , though this applies less to England and her yeomanry than to the nations of tho

    Continent . The firsfc event which dispelled the overweening-idea of tho paramount superiority of " good blood" in martial matters , was the English revolution . There had been many "jocqiieries , " wars of the lower iigninst the higher orders * in England , France and Germany , but these hapless struggles yielded invariably submission to the reality of the sword and the remembrances of the lash . The first successful struggles \ vorc made by the middle orders to maintain civic liberties and city rights and charters ; for tho people had got two senses , that of liberty and that of property , and they proved in the end too strong for the high and confident spirit of class superiority . * This was tried to tho utmost in Jho wars of Cjiabi . es , I . find Cbomwei-i .. Ouomwejcv himself , it is true , was a man ' of good family ; so , of Qoui'so , were Hamppen , Faiuh-ax ,

    Essex , and many more of their lenders , but still it was a peoples battlp against an aristocracy . " Moat of the colonels «>» d officers , " says Denzix HollIs , " were mean tradesman , brewers , tailors , goldsmiths , shoemakers , and the like ; and Phi > ys , in his diary , Nov % Oth , ; L 663 , spcaka of tho excellence of these soldiers , and of thoir steady return to their several tradofl . " " JMost of tho Koldiors at Naseby , '' says F & ETCirnn of " Saltoun , " wore prentices drawn out Of London but two mouths before ; nino only of tho officers had served abroad , but of tho king's party thero wove ono thousand oflicers who had served « broad . " > L o xt Thoso unknightly-looking , monoy-making elussos , in spite ot tho often-true proverb , " tiinidus Plutus , " broke tlio shield ot tho aristocratic Mars , nnd tho now-born spirit of liberty was tho strongest where it was tho newest born .

    . . . We ha < l our lossOn , strong onnugh , as it has proved , to have modified anything like an exclusive chvsa pretension to military superiority on the-ground of high gentlemanlike spirit j and tho continental nitons wanted theirs , and got it in due time in the wars of

    * Noto, We Have Hero Referred To Tho Str...

    * Noto , we have hero referred to Tho Strunr / th of JS ' ationa , hy ANDlVBYr Bissht ? , 1859 ; a work aontfcining muny UotnUa on the voluntoor oubjoot , well worth rending .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), March 24, 1860, page 9, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_24031860/page/9/