The Amended mode of Administration. 265 by the bankruptcy court of the locality where the bankrupt has resided for six months, or where he petitions against himself and believes that the debts provable under the bankruptcy will not exceed 3007,, he will have to petition the county court where he has resided for the preceding period. The London Court of Bankruptcy, however, has power to refer the petition to any district court of bankruptcy or county court without reference to the residence of the debtor. This provision will, it is hoped, prove advantageous to creditors who have hitherto made frequent complaints regarding the inconvenient distance of the district courts. Creditors will also be glad to learn that the compensations to holders of abolished offices are, for the future, to be paid by a parliamentary vote, and not from the estates of bankrupts. The stamp duties on the petition have also been greatly reduced, and the court fee for every sitting in bankruptcy abolished. On the other hand, deeds of arrangement between a debtor and his creditors are required to be registered in the Court of Bankruptcy, and light registration and bankruptcy stamp fees to be paid. The classification, for the future, of certificates is abolished. The certificates of the various commissioners of the bankruptcy courts have furnished numerous instances of the glorious uncertainty of the law.' A certificate of the first class would be granted in cases where another commissioner would have given one of the second class, or perhaps one of the third class. We need hardly wonder, therefore, at the abolition of the classification of certificates by the legislature. For certificates an order of discharge is to be substituted. This document will, however, be fraught with terror to the dishonest debtor, as the new Act provides that in every case where the discharge of a bankrupt shall be suspended, such discharge, when allowed, shall simply state the period for which it was suspended, and the reasons for such suspension; and if the bankrupt shall have been sentenced to imprisonment by any court under the provisions of the Act the discharge shall also set forth the fact of such sentence and the period of such imprisonment.' We have already expressed our misgivings whether the creditors' assignees will perform their duties so efficiently or cheaply as the official assignees. In Scotland, it is true, the system of administration of the bankrupt's estate by a creditors' assignee, who is usually an accountant, has worked remarkably well, but the expense is considerable, and may be estimated at 18 per cent. By the new Act creditors' assignees may be remunerated for their services, but their charges are not likely to be as small as those of official assignees, and which, as we have seen, average 5 per cent. The creditors' assignee may be required to give security, and his accounts are to be audited quarterly by the official assignee. On the other hand, the creditors' assignee, upon apVol. 4.-No. 15. T pointment pointment, is to audit the accounts of the official assignee to the date of appointment-a singular illustration of the saying, 'Diamond cut diamond.' The latter will collect all debts under 101., circulate the accounts, and act alone after the discharge of the creditors' assginee. The power of judgment creditors to imprison debtors will also be much restricted. For the future no debtor need remain in gaol for more than a limited period, when he will be compulsorily examined, adjudicated a bankrupt, and released from gaol. The adjudication will then proceed, as in other cases. The period of confinement will vary, whether the debtor is a trader or not. County Court debtors, and debtors committed under 8 & 9 Vict., c. 127 (already explained), are not entitled to the benefits of the Act. Poor prisoners may petition without the payment of fees. Judgment creditors henceforth for 50l. will rarely exercise their power of imprisonment, but will prefer to issue a month after signing judgment a judgment summons requiring the debtor to appear and be examined respecting his ability to satisfy the debt. If the debtor do not arrange the matter to the satisfaction of the creditor before appearance he may be adjudged a bankrupt. The most useful provisions are those which enable the court to grant the order of discharge to a debtor subject to any condition as to his future income and property, and declare that the payment of the expenses incurred in prosecuting misdemeanours under the Act shall be paid out of the county rates. The power to the court to imprison the bankrupt for one year for carrying on trade by means of fictitious capital, for bringing about his insolvency by rash and hazardous speculation, or unjustifiable extravagance in living, although the bankrupt may have been indicted for misdemeanour under the criminal clauses and acquitted, will tend much to promote sound views among traders and non-traders in an age like the present of luxury and extravagance. On the whole, the Act is a step in the right direction, but its enactments are imperfectly framed, and will, ere long, require amendment. As has been well observed, however, to allow an insolvent debtor to invoke the bankruptcy laws without having any estate to give up to his creditors, and to choose his own time for resorting to the court, must be productive of the most mischievous consequences.' To have passed into law a measure introducing such important changes as those we have mentioned in the law of bankruptcy and insolvency amid the conflicting interests of traders. non-traders, judges, officials, and lawyers, is no slight achievement for a ministry; and we can only express a hope that before another year has passed its mischievous consequences will be obviated, so as to prevent men from vainly attempting to stave off the evil day' to the last moment, and so injuring their creditors. ART. ART. VII-THE SOCIAL SCIENCE CONGRESS. THE fifth Annual Congress of the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science was held this year in Dublin under the distinguished presidency of Lord Brougham. The attendance was numerous, the discussions lively, and the subjects all of great practical moment to social science. Lord Brougham delivered one of those eloquent and comprehensive addresses for which he has long been famous, and sketched, as he has done at each assembly of the Association, the progress of social science during the year. We cannot do full justice to that elaborate and copious production, which touched upon all the departments into which the Association is divided, and the multifarious subjects included in each. We feel bound, however, to present our readers with a few extracts. After a graceful reference to the country in which the Congress had met, his Lordship referred to the slow progress of social reform. 'It now becomes my duty to note the progress which social science has made during the last year, and its present state and prospects. We are met again by the complaint that few of the plans proposed by us have been accomplished, and that, of the measures originating in our labours, many have failed to pass through the Legislature. But the progress of all the sciences and arts is slow, because their improvement is necessarily gradual. Our limited faculties can never reach at once the utmost excellence of which they are capable, and their exercise can never complete suddenly any great work, but must proceed by steps towards its accomplishment. In the whole circle of science you find gradual progress to be the rule. Thus the vast changes which Newton made in the mathematics and in physical science were effected after others had made a near approach to the same point. The Calculus, in itself so great an extension of analytical science, and in its consequences producing such a revolution in all the exacter sciences, had, above a quarter of a century before its invention, been nearly discovered by Cavalleri and Roberval, and still more nearly by Fermat, and some years later most nearly of all by Barrow; while the doctrine of gravitation, and its explanation of the heavenly motions, had been approached, at any rate had the way prepared for it, by Galileo, Kepler, Huyghens, Borelli; and even his optical discoveries had been partially anticipated T 2 by Krontaud of Prague, and Antonio, Bishop of Spalatro. The science of chemistry, from the dreams of the alchemists to the erroneous theory of Stahl, made slow progress, and by successive improvements was freed from those errors, and grew into the science which Black, Priestley, Lavoisier, and Davy brought to its present state. The great rule of gradual progress governs the moral sciences as well as the natural. Before the foundations of political economy were laid by Hume and Smith, the French economists had made a great step towards it, and Turgot had himself worked, and as a Minister had patronized the labours of others in the same direction. Again, in constitutional policy, see by what slow degrees the great discovery of representative government has been made from its first rude elements,-the attendance of feudal tenants at their lord's court, and the summons of burghers to grant supplies of money. Far from being impatient at this slow progress, we ought rather to reflect that the sure advance of all the sciences depends in a great measure upon its being gradual. But the common law of our nature, which forbids the sudden and rapid leaping forward, and decrees that each successive step prepared by the last shall facilitate the next, is in an especial manner of importance and of value in the social sciences, which so nearly affect the highest interests of mankind. Here our course, to be safe, must be guided by the result of experi ence. ence, and must always be of a tentative kind. We must even be prepared to change our direction and our pace, and to retrace our steps when we find we have gone too far in a wrong direction. The skilful navigator, when steering on an unknown coast, after taking all precautions to obtain information respecting it, having no chart, or none that can be relied on, proceeds with the lead ever in his hand, and the glass at his eye, lies to, when he can, at night or in a fog, and has his sails and his helm always ready to change his course on the least indication of peril. The safety of his ship and crew depends upon such precautions; and the safety of the community depends upon all proposed improvements, which are changes, being first most maturely considered, and, when adopted, being carried into execution by such advances as shall give time for correcting errors, or stopping short, or altering the course pursued, when actual experience proves it to be wrong. . . . He is no friend to the advance of social science in any of its branches, who hastens forward with heedless, unreflecting speed, despising all that is gained, because it is less than all that he desires, and looking down with contempt upon those whom he passes in his impatient course. This spirit, so inimical to real, solid improvement, sometimes is the fruit of zeal without knowledge, but not unfrequently arises from mere selfish desire of distinction, when a man, sacrificing a great cause to his personal ambition, becomes a public enemy Vainglorious, who through infamy seeks fame.' For this is one of those occasions in which vanity, from being as it commonly is, a harmless folly, only ridiculous, rises into a crime, becoming selfish, unprincipled, pernicious, and disgraceful.' His lordship then referred to the real progress in each department. In the AMENDMENT OF THE LAW, a gratifying change had taken place, and we are now near the long looked-for consolidation of our Statutes. To Education, the Association had performed some important service. It has aided the repeal of the duty on paper. We can no longer be charged with, at one and the same time, paying for schools to teach and raising the price of the books taught of encouraging the people to read—of patronizing authors A further and an important advan tage has been gained by the last Congress for the interests of education. The progress of popular instruction had been grievously obstructed by the separate and oftentimes conflicting proceedings of its promoters, attached, and conscientiously attached, to different sects of religion, acting in opposition to each other, though, if brought together, and to a clear understanding, they might, from their honest zeal for a common object, have been led to cooperate, or, at least, not to conflict. This great step was made in the Congress at Glasgow. For the first time the leaders of the Established Church party, of the Free Church party, and of the United Presbyterians, met together and maintained their respective views before the members of the Association. The result was the formation of a representative committee (of the chief denominations), whose labours there is every reason to expect will lead to a reduction of the points of difference, and a removal of the main obstacles to progress. Both at that meeting and at Bradford, the important advantage was gained of bringing the ecclesiastical school-teachers in more full communication with the laity, and with the professors of sanitary science. * In our Sanitary department considerable progress has been made. The Quarantine Committee have brought their labours to a close, and presented an elaborate report. It has been communicated to the Board of Trade, which had formerly directed to be laid before Parliament the answers to our queries, and it has laid this report before Parliament, which has ordered it to be printed. The information collected, and the suggestions made, are admitted to have essentially improved the sanitary condition of our mercantile marine. The report will be read by the learned secretary of the committee, Dr. Milroy. The diffusion of sanitary knowledge is a most important part of the duties of this department: and as the Association has from the first desired and accepted the co-operation of women, the council have had no doubt in affiliating the Ladies' Sanitary Society, which acts under the highest patronage, and spreads Progress of Social Improvement. spreads among the poor a knowledge of the laws of health; it being now admitted that much of debility, disease, and premature mortality in this country results from ignorance and error, and might be prevented. "The Criminal and Reformatory Department presents very satisfactory results; and it may be fit at this meeting that we dwell more especially on the Irish branch of the subject. The number of reformatory schools is but small, and it is devoutly to be wished that they were multiplied. But the diminution of crime in this island of late years is most satisfactory; and allowing that the great migration, since the famine years, has had much influence, enough of the improvement remains to reflect the greatest credit upon the instructors of youth and the ministers of religion. The decrease in the number of the people makes any comparison of the commitments for offences inconclusive, unless we regard the proportion of these to population. They were, in 1856, as 1 to 923 of the people; in 1859, as 1 to 1117; and in 1860, as 1 to 1217. The number of juvenile offenders decreased in a still greater proportion. Pre-eminence among the subjects engaging our attention must, in some degree, be determined by local circumstances; and we this year assemble in a capital that affords the opportunity and imposes the duty of inspecting the operation of the Irish convict system, which has received the attentive consideration, not of Great Britain only, but of the Continent of Europe, and of the United States of America. In truth, it well deserves all the praise it receives wherever the public mind is awakened to the paramount duty of making such exertions as may render the punishment of the criminal the instrument of his reformation. Here the problem has been solved how to deal with convicts, and send them forth cured, instead of subject to relapse, infecting otherscriminals and the teachers of crime. Of this system, under the board of directors, with Captain Crofton at their head, and his able colleagues, Messrs. Lentaigne and Whitty, the fundamental principle, simple and rational, long ago laid down by that experienced judge, and steady patron of the system, Mr. Hill, is to make the convict the agent of his own reformation by annexing the condition of good conduct to every in 269 dulgence beyond the barest sustenance, to removal from cellular to social labour, and to shortening the period of his confinement. His fate is placed in his own hands. But he is not merely superintended and watched; he has constant intercourse with those in authority, as chaplain, teacher, director, whose treatment is considerate and kindly; he is treated as an individual, not as one of a mass; and this 'individualization,' as it is termed, has great advantages over our English mode of dealing with the whole convicts in the bulk-the same advantage that a school of many teachers and few pupils has over one where a large number are under a single master. Another superiority is in the rigour with which the conditions of liberation are enforced on the ticket of leave' men; arrest being at once enforced on the least breach of the conditions. A third is the absolute prohibition of all fermented liquors, even to those who for their good conduct have earned a small advance out of the fund set apart from their gains kept till the time of their discharge. Mr. Clay, in the Memoirs of his Father (many years chaplain of the Preston gaol, whom I well knew, and, in common with all who knew him, held in the highest esteem for his virtuous life and most useful services), in comparing the English and Irish returns, has remarked that the former take all ticketof-leave men as unconvicted against whom nothing appears, whereas the latter more accurately give the result of the information taken by tracing the party ever since his liberation. This diversity prevents us from making any comparison between the numbers in the two cases; but the different results of the two systems may be gathered from the fact that at Lusk we see numerous convicts set to work, and only retained by moral restraint, without any sentinels, while at Portland we see the convicts quarrying stones for the breakwater under the guard of sentinels with muskets and bayonets, and on the breakwater itself, which is more difficult to guard, free labourers, and not convicts, are employed. Another test of the Irish system may be stated as decisive-the confidence of the public in the reality and the permanence of the reformation effected, inasmuch as discharged convicts at once find employers willing to receive them, err rience proving that they may be |