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supernumeraries of E . T . Smith ' s theatre are the Senate of Venice-,, the Knights of Bhodes , or the ' Peers of England pillars of the State . ' They are as much dummies ' as if they were paid by the lessee Pax-merstoit , and marshalled by the stage-manager Hattbb . They are , in fact , paid by a certain amount of consideration ; they are honorary supernumeraries , glad enough to do the duties for the sake of the distinction , and for a free admission to the amateur theatre of St . James's . According to the traditions of the stage
play-acting of the place , the Opposition consists of the Tories ; but there are no Tories , or only such a beggarly array of them as Ealstait would scarcely have led through Coventry . If there are any genuine Tories , persons ready to swear by 'Church and King , ' they consist of men like Mr . Bentinck , and some few other persons of no weight in the House ; whose only weight , in fact , is seen in their speeches . One of the genuine Tories died lately in Mr . Stapfoeb , another in Lord WxNCHEiiSEA ; but the breed is almost as
much extinct as the cock-of-the-woods . The most showy section of so-called Tories is represented by Lord Bebb y ; but they are entirely sptirious . Lord Debbt himself was a "Whig , an author of Reform . Bills ; he went into Opposition as a Tory only because he was thwarted personally , and was too proud to associate with shopkeepers brought into Parliament by the Eeform Bill . As he grew older he grew grander in his ideas of the quasi-royal position due to ' the house of Derby' and he has become a Tory
principally through superciliousness of character , an Oppositionist chiefly through reckless insubordination . But without discipline to be a follower , he has no head to be a leader . He ha 3 no faith in Tory principles , he does not care to keep up appearances , he deceives no man ; and his heir apparent , a devotee of ' useful knowledge and practical art , ' already belongs to the Germanized Whig party which considers itself to be for evermore in possession of office and its approaches . The most
like a living Tory at the present day is Mr . DisitAEiii , who is as much like a living Tory as Mr . Charles Kean is like Richard III . He plays his part admirably , and ' Lord , how he keeps his countenance ! ' But all his notions are obsolete . He is a political Buskin , who would introduce ' the Stones of Venice' into the debate of tho week . He is perpetually for reviving Runnymede , only he moves an amendment on the proceedings of that memorable field , and would omit Magna Charta . His aim is to lead the House of
Commons with ' ideas '—things about which his following know so little that they agreed to support him in office , to try how 'ideas ' ¦ would work in the management of English administration . The best man of the mixed mob which is not admitted to the north side of the House , and is therefore contented to take his place on the south side , is Sir John Pakinoton , the leading advocate of popular education ; a man more liberal than most on the Liberal side of the House , but for some punctilio refusing to leave the sign of the Church and Crown . So that he forfeits his
position iu a Liberal Cabinet ; but being above hia company , he could not muster a Tory Cabinet after his own improved fashion . Ab to the half-dozen , gentlemen called Peelites , ' they diilbr from each other even " ^ ISro ^ tlraTTWey ^ ,. Parliament . Ail these persons form u large band of supernumeraries that till the benches on their side of the House , and they delude the public into the belief that there is an . Opposition . As they are thore they must do something , if only to keep up appearances ; but the difficulty is . to find a function for them ., They
ought to be able to oppose the Beform Bill , but they are almost as ready to accept one which will extend a county franchise as Mr . Cobdbn is one to extend the borough franchise ; and they are perhaps less opposed to the Government Bill than Mr . John Bright declares himself to be . They can , of course , oppose the Indian G-overnment Bill , just because it is a Ministerial bill . It is their
business to object ; but as Ministers are not likely to propose anything for which there is absolutely no demand in the market , and as the Tories do not wish to run against the market , they have the greatest difficulty in learning how to object without offending their possible customers . Their great object of the day is to get into office if possible , but as they are not really an Opposition they cannot establish their claim to be ' sent for ;' and . should Lord PAiiMERSTON , by any mischance , vacate the seat at the head of the Treasury bench , somebody lower down on his side of the House would be ' sent for , ' instead of the leader on the opposite side .
The principal reasons why there is no Opposition lie with the Ministers and with the country . There is no Opposition because there is no position . The Cabinet Ministers at present in office are carrying on Her Majesty ' s administration , and are bringing in the bills which are demanded by public importunity ; but they are giving expression to no positive opinions of their own , are maintaining no principles distinct from those of the men against them , are sustaining no struggle for the rights from which the people
are debarred ; they _ are not even vindicating the independence of our country against the atrocious demands of a foreign despot . But if Ministers personate no . great public principle , champion no great public measure , they may justly say that they are no worse than other Liberals , for there is no man speaking out his mind . Lord Campbei / l , like Charles James Fox and other jurists of past generaions—like jurists of our own day—has declared that resident burgesses have a right to vote in the election of a member of
Parliament ; that they have that right at common law , which is only suspended by our so-called reform statutes . But we look in vain for the man who stands out to claim that existing right -of the British people . There is compromise in office , and therefore there is compromise in opposition , compromise in the independent party below the gangway . Any atatesman who could take heart of grace and embody tho just claims of the people to a recognition of their existing rights , that man would again call our Opposition into being , and would establish the right of himself and his friends to be ' sent for' on the next occasion .
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BANKRUPTCY . REFORMS Having dealt with the questions of expense , and the qualifications and practice of the officers , let us now devote a little attention to the powers of the Court of Bankruptcy as a legal tribunal . In the first place it has no power to enforce payment of disputed claims . It may issue oirculars to debtors of estates winding- up under its jurisdiction , it may even go the length of summoning a debtor to show cause
wliy he does not pay ; bub if he has a colourable pretext ready in the shape of a defence ( wht ( ih ~ lre ~ n'lways r * has 7 ~ aB"'a- * Tnatter ~ of"co \ irso ) 7 the expense , trouble , and risk of suing for tho elm in in tho ordinary county or superior oourts are then thrown upon the Official Assignee . A prudent officer , in such a position , will naturally consult his own interest in preference to that of the creditors , and rofuse to risk the small assets , which , untouchod , will just pay his
commission andthe- court expenses ; in standing the issue of a trial , even to recover property that he knows has been dishonestly removed out of the reach of the estate . Nearly every debtor who comes , or is brought to that court , shows in his * balance sheet ' the disposal of property , varying from onefourth to three-fourths of his whole assets , under the convenient heading of 'creditors holding security . ' "Whether proper consideration has been given , whether the conveyance has been legally made , and the hold
over the property can be maintained , or whether there has been nothing more than a fictitious transfer between the bankrupt and an accommodating and interested relative , for the purpose of securing capital to begin trade with again , can only be ascertained by a tardy and expensive trial against men who have taken the precaution to secure the sinews of war out of the pockets of the ill-used creditors . The court has a check upon this kind of dealing in that part of the statute providing the punishment for what is called a fraudulent preference ; ' but the
offence is so difficult to define , and so much more difficult to prove , that out of a hundred such gross cases not one is dealt with as it deserves to be . When the judicial wrath does descend , it punishes the bankrupt by a suspension of certificate , but it has no power to benefit the estate and increase the dividend . The fraudulent creditor , with his illegally and unjustly acquired property , walks out of the court untouched , before the eyes of the Official Assignee , who , having an establishment to keep up , and a family to maintain , very properly declines the risk of attacking a man in such an entrenched
position . Again with regard to compromises of claims . If the law and practice on this point in the Bankruptcy Court were more clearly denned , and the trade and official assignees had the power of acting as they would undoubtedly act if they were mercantile men managing their own affairs , it would be of immense benefit to the trading community . Upon the break-up of a corporation like the British Bank , it is not alone the shareholders who become timid or dishonest , it is the numerous large and small debtors of the bank ,
who begin to look into their affairs and judge whether it will not be profitable or necessary to declare a suspension . It is then that the clumsy and ineffective machinery of the Court especially manifests itself . The Official Assignee has no power to arrange or compromise ; the matter is placed unreservedly in the hands of the solicitor to the fiat , whose interests centre in costs , aud whole troops of insolvent petitioners are created day after day , with assets barely sufficient to cover the heavy expenses . Another serious defect is the fact that ,
with all the lavish expenditure of the court , the Trade Assignee , usually the principal or most active creditor , is left entirely without compensation for time , knowledge , and trouble expended for the benefit of the estate . The law certainly gives him considerable powers , but it forgets to provide any inducement for him to put those powers in action . The experience that he must possess of the bankrupt ' s trading and
conduct , nature and valuo of his stock , character of his book debts , and ftiirness or fulsehood-of-his-accountsy-one ~ would-thiak ~ w . or . tU purchasing at some cost for the benefit of a body of creditors . But the law , in its wisdom , has thought otherwise , and the result is an official scramble for assets without any real checking power , and a routine signature given as a matter of course at a thing called an ' audit . ' t . The necessity for proving debts in a place
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Nak . 411 , February 6 , 1858 . j THE LEAPED 1 B 5
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 6, 1858, page 135, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2229/page/15/
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