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No. 408, January 16, 1858. j THE LEADER....
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BANKRUPTCY REFORM. It is a remarkable fa...
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INDIAN GOVERNMENT AND INDIAN FINANCE. Th...
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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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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Lucknow And Cawnpore. In The Leader Of T...
very heavy , and all in prospect . Moreover , it : roust be borne in mind that , with all the reinforcements that have been poured into I ndia , the Commander-in-Chief has not under his command , in the Bengal Presidency , a force of more than 25 , 000 European soldiers .
No. 408, January 16, 1858. J The Leader....
No . , January 16 , 1858 . j THE LEADER . ^ 61
Bankruptcy Reform. It Is A Remarkable Fa...
BANKRUPTCY REFORM . It is a remarkable fact that , in a large trading nation like England , and in a city whose merchants and traders pride themselves upon nothing so much as being practical , energetic , business men , one of the most disgracefully mismanaged , tardy , and expensive courts of law should exist for the regulation and administration of mercantile affairs . The Bankruptcy Court , by its formation , by a steady adherence to all restrictions upon progress which the law has placed at its disposal , and by an
unblushing practice of nearly every form of jobbery which official laxity will fall into where sums of money are placed unreservedly within its reach ^ has earned the unenviable notoriety of being , without exception , the most hopeless tribunal in the land , and no other court seems likely to dispute its laurels . "Whoever enters those gloomy portals in Basinghall-streetif he be of the creditor class—does so with a heavy heart , leaving hope behind him . The place is the grave of property ; and however much a fraudulent debtor may deserve that
punishment which the law , in its wisdom , has ordained that only a Bankruptcy Commissioner can give , be escapes in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred , because his creditors prefer a dividend , however small , to the costly justice which is only to be purchased by the total destruction of assets . The very court , by its appearance , shadows forth the character of the legal administration which it provides for the commercial and trading community . A small square room , badly lighted and worse ventilated ; so constructed for hearing
that those who have any business with the Commissioner are compelled to huddle round him in a mob , separated only from his sacred presence by a thin rail or barrier . There they have to stand for hours in a thick , dense mass ( for the sitting accommodation will not take twenty people ) , with papers , hats , books , umbrellas , and documents disposed about their persons in the most uncomfortable and embarrassing manner . In the
centre of the room—for court it ought not to be called—are a couple of long , dirty pews for the barristers who practise there . And this is a court , -which , with all its dirt and inconvenience—generally considered outward signs of poverty and economy—sucks up out of the pockets of those who are compelled unwillingly to pass many hours in its close , stifling atmosphere , waiting for its decisions , no less a sum , in pensions alone , than sixteen thousand pounds per annum !
The general estimation in which the court is held as a commercial tribunal cannot be better shown than by the fact that during the late monetary crisis , when the failures in London amounted to many millions , with one or two exceptions , in cases where legal difficulties arose , the whole were carefully kept from the hands of the bankruptcy officials , and are now winding-up ^ M ! ft 4 ex ^ BJ * P £ Pjfe amount to six-tenths of all the assets col = lected by the official assignee , and paid in by the bankrupt , cannot possibly command the confidence of practical mercantile men . Since 1842 the system , as at present ad ministered , has been suffered to exist , the commercial community withdrawing their confidence from it more and more , satisfying their requirements by compositions , assignments , and deeds of inspection . Largo estates are
invariably liquidated without its intervention being solicited , . and it exists upon the numerous fry of small failures which iu a trading country must arise every year . It is admitted on all hands that a reform must take place , not for the tacit or avowed purpose of attracting more business to the court , but for the general benefit of the commercial community , and the improvement of a legal organization which , in its present state , is a disgrace to our law-makers and our business men . To effect this , something more will be required than a mere negative protest against the existing state of things from those more immediately interested . A combination , a real desire and determination to have a reform , will be necessary to obtain a reconsideration of the bankruptcy laws by the present Government . In the meantime we shall only be doing our duty as useful public journalists , by exposing , as we intend to do in future articles , the evils , in detail , of the present system .
Indian Government And Indian Finance. Th...
INDIAN GOVERNMENT AND INDIAN FINANCE . There is one form of the Indian [ Finance question which is interesting , and which bears particularly on the Indian Government Bill to be introduced by Lord PaIjM : ebston . India , we are told , has been hitherto self-supporting , and will continue so . In the first case it was necessarily self-supporting , for its conquest and administration were the speculation of a commercial company , which had in itself no right to come upon the taxpayers of this country . It has still remained under the administration of that Company ; and already , in fact , it has gradually been transferred to the Crown , save some few forms of livery of seisin which have to be executed this session ; but by the origin of the tenure and the nature of the
administration , India has continued to be self-supporting . It pays its own way , it supports its own army , maintains its own - Government , and even , it is calculated by the Westminster Heview , stands good to this country for not less than of 10 , 000 , OOOZ . of money iu the amount of revenue sent over here for the payment of its offiqers with their dependents , and in the number of British who are supported in India . It is an estate , therefore , which is profitable to the country as well as to the merchant ; and many a private family who has no connexion with the great house
in Leadenhall-street , increases its resources by means of our Indian dependency . With one exception India has been financially separate from this country . Even iu the matter of loans—that large resource in which England abounds—we are assured that even this year India will remain independent of the English Government ; and though it will not be quite independent of the English people , the raising of the money will be entirely a commercial affair . It has been calculated that the East India Company could manage to rub on until the mouth of January , if not February . Its bonds float , its credit is excellent , and it can have any
money that it requires for the asking . Usually the Company needs from £ , 000 , 000 / . to 4 , 000 , 0007 . to meet the claims on this side ; this year the amount will be necessarily increased , through the increased expenditure ; antl"it ~ lfa " s ^ een ^ calculated"that-the '" Companymay want as much as 8 , 000 , 000 / . If it were 10 , 000 , 000 / ., in round numbers , the Company could raise it without any difficulty , except one : it is by law debarred from contracting loans in this country . Hence the necessity of applying to Parliament for a bill . But there is another cause by no means unimportant in considering the reconstruction of the Government . The country has a
loan opened at Calcutta ; the subscriptions to it have not been very good , and the main reason we believe to be that some time since the Company lowered its rate of interest on a former debt . Now , Eastern financiers are not familiar with this process of conversion , and the act seriously injured the credit of the Company . Some compensation was made recently , when a new loan was required , by
accepting the converted stock in payment of the new loan at par . It was , in fact , restoring a higher rate of interest for half of the old stock , in order to ingratiate the purchasers of the new . These were not operations to enhance the credit of the Company in India , and it is , therefore , not matter of surprise if in time of rebellion , of suspended trade , and of general uncertainty , moneyholders in India should not be forward m
taking up the new loan at Calcutta . Some persons in our own city are talking about what might happen ' if there were a favourable turn in Calcutta ; . ' but we suspect that it would require many a favourable turn before the Government could raise money there on terms half so good as it
could obtain in London . Now the people of this country , through their Indian connexions , and through another prospective interest which we shall describe , are interested in keeping the Indian finance in as prosperous a condition as possible . Hence the policy of expediting the loan to be raised in London .
The Indian liabilities that come upon this country are entirely prospective . India pays her own stock , pays her own Government , pays for any of the Qtteen ' s troops whom borrows ; and if she involves the imperial she Government here in any expenditure which would not be incurred save for India , the profit derived through the sources which we have already mentioned , and through the trade which could alone continue under the
shelter of an Anglo-Saxon Government , far more than compensate the English tax-payers . India pays for herself while solvent ; we should pay for her as soon as she became bankrupt . Here is the screw upon us , here is the consideration which bears so strongly upon the Indian Government Bill . Thus far we have managed to stave off any cost for our Indian Empire , and have drawn an annual profit from it ; but we have been every year accumulating liabilities which would come upon us with the crushing force of the temple that Samson drew upon
himself , if our Indian Empire were to break down . Nor is it an imaginary supposition . During the year past we have seen our Indian Empire at least threatened , if not in positive danger . If the mutineers from Meerut had followed up their advantages , if Nana Sahib had proved an Indian general , nay , if the Gwajior contingent had used its opportunities , we might have lost Oude , Delhi , the Punjab , and many other provinces , one after another . Say we had recovered them , —a long interval must have elapsed ; and a strength of forces would have been needed which the
revenues of the provinces remaining true to us could never have supported . Either for a period of years , therefore , or perhaps for ever , our territory in India would have shrunk to that portion which we could have maintained by the direct occupation of the sword ; and Buoh-Beraps ^ would _ ney . er ^) aY . p ^ revenue requisite for maintaining the machinery of the Imperial administration there . Yet we must have maintained it for years in the effort to regain our empire . Had we regained it , many , many years must have passed before England could have recovered from India the liabilities incurred on account of India . Had wo lost it , these expenses would have remained a dead weight— -a fearful aug-
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 16, 1858, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_16011858/page/13/
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