§ Lord Wynfordpresented a Petition from persons of the name of Sheratt, complaining that a Magistrate, to whom their father had lent 552 a considerable sum of money, was now in the King's-Bench, spending a large income, while they were reduced to great distress. The petitioners stated, that at the death of their father, who had long applied for his money in vain, his executors obtained judgment against the debtor, who had been taken in execution, and lodged in the King's-Bench, where, since 1824, he had been living in a most sumptuous manner, on property which belonged to them. It was not to be borne, that debtors should in this manner spend the money of the widow and the orphan in riot and licentiousness, without the law affording any redress to the oppressed. His Lordship then moved the Order of the Day for the Frauds on Creditors Bill being committed.
The Lord Chancellorhoped, that his noble and learned friend would consent to postpone this stage of the Bill, as some of the Judges wished to have more time to consider its provisions. It was a Bill calculated to produce a great change in the law, and to bring the business of the Insolvent Court into the Courts of Common Law, and therefore it required to be well digested, though no one could deny the propriety of getting at the effects of fraudulent debtors.
§ Lord Wynfordsaid, he could not resist the application of the noble and learned Lord, though he was surprised that the Judges had not yet made up their minds, as the Bill had been eight weeks before them. He begged the noble Lord to understand, that he was the last man to propose bringing the business of the Insolvent Court to Westminster Hall; his great object was, to compel those to go to the Insolvent Debtors' Court who now kept out of it, though they were insolvent. The Bill, or some corresponding measure, was absolutely necessary, and the petition which he had lately presented, was the best evidence of the frauds which were now practised by debtors, who lived luxuriantly while their creditors were starving.
The Lord Chancellorsaid, some of the clauses of the Bill went to produce material changes in the mode of conducting processes in the Courts of Law. One of the clauses, it was thought, would oblige the debtor to appear before the Court which issued the writ, in place of being tried, as at present, before the Insolvent Debtors' Court.
§ Lord Wynfordsaid, he had no such 553 object in view in the Bill which was before the House. His object rather was, to oblige debtors to go to the Insolvent Debtors' Court—a Court to which few, at present, went, who had any effects. The compulsory clause would not, however, be operative till after a judgment had been obtained. Nobody now went to the Insolvent Court who had any property, as was evident by the dividends not amounting to one farthing in the pound.
§ Committee postponed.