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THU LEABEE , [ No . 413 , February 20 , 1858 182 . . — — -
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in the subject ; and vatch and report upon the ssxfa * * character , and intent of themea-« rfethat has been forced upon -the present ' tToverntneiit y the unanimous cry of the mercantile classes for an improved commercial tribunal . Apart from the fact that bad law , and bad law administration , make bad morals , the existence of such a court
warrants a full diseussion when we know that in its present state , with all the prejudice and indignation felt againBt it by the trading community , it receives assets in the course of the year amounting , at a fair calculation , to four hundred thousand pounds , two-thirds of which it retains or wastes , distributing one-third only to the creditors .
The first thing required is a total reconstruction of the present dirty , inconvenient , crowded , and ^ adly ventilated series of courts in Basinghall-street . Even for the business that now flows to them they are miserably inadequate ; and this reform may be easily carried out T > y taking in the long , dark , gloomy passages that lead to nowhere , and building over the court-yard , which in its present state exists for no other purpose than to collect
rain-water . The next requirement is the centralization of Assignees ( of course , we are speaking of the London Court of Bankruptcy ) . Instead of being scattered about the City in offices suited to their notions of expenditure or individnal tastes , these gentlemen—as many of them as it is desirable to maintain—should be collected in a wing of the court easy of access , open to the creditors at any time by right and not by favour , and provided with good fire-proof vaults for bankrupts' accountbooks and documents .
The Commissioners—as many of them as it may be desirable to retain- —should sit every business day of the year from ten to five , and be accessible at any time if required . The office of [ Registrar should be abolished , its duties Tjeing transferred to the Commissioner and the Official Assignee . The Messenger and Broker should also be discharged , the law being quite stringent enough , if enforced , to compel a bankrupt to guard for a few days what little property he has left when he comes to the court ; and the sale can be effected in the ordinary way , by auction , under the guidance of the Official Assignee .
The office of the Accountant m . Bankruptcy should be abolished , there being quite checking power enough between the Commissioner and the O fficial Assignee if properly exercised . The first -qualification of a Commissioner should be n knowledge of trading and mercantile accounts , and the ordinary operations of commerce . After this may come law , winch rn ^ Hfhis court , if the administration of assets is to Tje retained , ought to foe seldom required . Two active , well-selected , qualified Commissioners ( instead of five ) could do the work well , not only now , but for some time to cpme , allowing for the probable increase in the business of the court .
There is no objection to the number of Official Assignees appointed , in reason , but they sh ould be paid by a small salary and a —commiseion ^ upoxx-. this-divideiid ,-jaat _ uponJUo assets . The appointment should be taken from tfhe Lord Chancellor , and thrown open Ijo public competition at the minimum salary and commission , provision being made for integrity by the usual mercantile process of a guarantee from a public company .
! X ) Ma improvement in the organization of ib © ootcvt would tend to reduce the charges of the solicitor working tho Jlat } which
charges now amount to twenty-six per cent , of the realized assets . With regard to improvements in the law of Bankruptcy , there are many that may be and must be made for the benefit of the trading classes . The first power that the court requires , is the power of suing out claims upon the debtors of bankrupt estates , without having to transfer the action to one of the ordinary law courts . Arrangements should be made to do this in in a cheap and efficacious manner , and the expense should fall upon the estate , but not , in the event of insufficient fundB , upon the Official Assignee ,
• Compromises of claims should be effected speedily and legally by the Official Assignee , with the concurrence of the Trade Assignee , without the intervention of the solicitor . The expenses of the Trade A ' ssignee should in . all cases be paid , and compensation be given to him for time and labour expended in working and benefiting an estate , of which he of all men must have the most knowledge and experience . "A rule should be made enforcing the taking of -all proofs in private ( creditors only being present ) , and also trader debtor
summonses . A certificate should not only absolve a bankrupt from all debts up to the date of the Jiat , "but from all engagements—bonds , leases , and endorsements of bills . With respect to the severity of the bankrupt law , the , penal clauses are now sufficiently stringent ( consistently with the freedom of trade ) if they were only honestly and fearlessly carried out .
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THE ARMY REPORT . The report of the Commission to Inquire into the Sanitary Condition of the British Army has excited a great amount of interest , and might well do so ; for the conclusions to be drawn from its revelations are of the most distressing kind . The high mortality of our army generally , with the vast excess as regards one particular section of it , has excited almost as much indignation as astonishment . Not only does the report set forth the . facts of this extreme liability to death in our soldiers , bat it gives suck a complete exposure of their whole condition as seems to put us on the direct track of the causeB to which this terrible result is to be attributed .
A very little search brings us to the conclusion tliat there is hardly one influence to which the British soldier is subject that is not deleterious to his health , The dwelling provided for him seems to have been specially adapted to make him uncomfortable and ill ; so with his food , his olothing , and hia occupation . His clothing is of such a kind as leaves him exposed to the worst influences of our climate—or of any other , indeed , into which his duly may carry him . His occupation is so ill-regulated that , slig hi as it is compared with that of the labourer , frorft which class he is generally taken , it is
fatiguing to the death from excess of monotony . I his monotony being , from first to-last , the impending fate—the orushing evil of tho soldier ' s life—finds its climax in tho unvaried sameness of his food , with its inovitablo tendency to enervate and ultimately dostroy tho digestive organs . Wcfiriod with tho eternal monotony of his daily duty , and with his stomach in revolt at tho changclossnoss of boiled bcof set daily boforo him , he is ui fit condition 1 # > bo tho victim of tho fatal miasma of tho barrack-room , with ita hundreds of bods , side touching side , and
ovory olunk and crovice stoppod to ' kcop out drnuglits : * "HH [ e- 'fliesr ~ for ^ oljange , ~ tO'di > inkT » and- > to other dobauchory ; ho 3 oon finds—or rather tho military doctor soon finds , that pulmonary consumption , has found a woll-proparcd victim ; and tho country soon has to supply his p lace with another man , in tho bloom of lira , porfooi in wind and limb —to bo killed inch b y inoh with tho fatal monotony that had sapped tho foundation of his life—to diq , at length , hko him , of pulmonary consumption . But putting aaido all fooling , the moro money oost of tliis wasted Boldior-mntorial ia so serious as
to demand immediate attention . The British army is the costliest in the world , considered with reference to the number of men composing it ; and there is little doubt that a leading cause of this costliness is the wanton extravagance that characterizes all the army expenditure . The very first consideration would naturally be the maintenance of the forces in a state of the utmost efficiency ; and for that purpose no reasonable amount of money would be grudged by the country ; but it is plain that we have the enormous cost without the efficiency ; for an army—whatever its bravery and discipline—can never be considered as properly
efficient while death is in the heart and lungs of the very flower of its men . An army , to be in high condition , must possess not only technical knowledge of its duties , but perfect physical ability to perform them . The pale Guardsman may storm . the heights of new Almas , and astonish the world by his pluck and bravery ; but what more would he not do if the heavy hand of death were not upon his vital parts ? There is , however , no need to prove the necessity for reform , since the report puts the matter beyond question ; all that need be urged is that the reform demanded is one in every way practicable . Apparently , we should begin at once with the barrack , to
which the report traces , at"least , an unquestionable predisposing cause of the mortality among our soldiers . The work is , in fact , already Under weigh , and only requires to be watched with an eye to remedy the evils demonstrated by the report . Several large sums are named in the army estimates of the present year for new barracks ; let these barracks be perfected so as to serve as a type of the buildings required for the healthy lodgment of the army . Then , with regard to the clothing supplied , there can be no serious doubt but that it is greatly deficient in the qualities most essential to the health and comfort of the men , "" Great expectations were
raised by the improved system on which the army is at present clothed ; but , just as in IS 53 we reorganized the Indian Government , and now find it necessary again to reorganize it , so ; having revised the Colonel-system of olothing our soldiers , we are now called upon to revise the contract-system under which they are at present clothed . We have still to set rid of coats that . will not keep out either wind or water , and caps that are—not even verysightly . But one of the most important reforms demanded , to give the British soldier a fair chance of health—but possibly the most difficult of
attainment , from the horror felt by military authority at the thought of ' change '—is such , an arrangement of drill and barrack duty as will not weigh down the soldier's spirit by its monotony . This reform cannot be too strongly insisted on , for without it , whatever else is done to alleviate his'sanitary condition , will be but partially successful . The next most important reform must totally change the present mode of feeding him ; variety of wholesome food is as absolutely necessary to his physical wellbeing as cheerful exercise . At present the soldier is slop-clothed and slop-fed , at a cost to the country amply sufficient to provide him with food and
clothing adequate to his preservation in health and military efficiency . Again , in spite of all that has been said , and , as the country supposes , done , to improve tho condition of the army hospitals , they are a disgrace to all concerned in them , as is snown by a pamphlet , by Mr . George 'Rbd-vokd , lately issued . This brochure will demand a closer attention : it presents tho outline of a comploto hospital cqrps , dispersed among tho regiment , or concentrated for duty , always ready whore it is wanted , with medicines , stretchers , and instruments to its hand . Not tho shadow of a doubt ia left by the report as to tho necessity of an immediate revision , of the regulations undor which tho soldior passes tho creator part of his life ; and too much praise cantho
not be given to Mr . Sidney Hbiuuuit for manner in which ho conduotod tho inquiry and pucparcd tho report , whioh brings tho whole condition of tho soldtor before us at one view . Eapccinl praise is duo to him—one of tho most refined gcntlp-. mon . oUliQ , day ^ QolU 3 Jpiier ^ tilings that ruder minds might have shrunk lrom looking into . How muoli attention ho had paid to tho condition of tho army wo know boforo ; and wo know that tho later improvements of tho present Minister woro but continuations of thoso sot on foot by Mr . Himuumit ; but we could not , until tno publication of tho report , know how ooinplotoly ho luwj mado himself mastor of tho wholo subjoct . This subjoot wo shall ourselves take up from tho report , section by eeotion .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 20, 1858, page 182, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2231/page/14/
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