§ Petitions having been presented, from 1221 the Convention of the Royal Burghs of Scotland, and from the President and Society of Advocates in Aberdeen,
LORD BROUGHAMtook occasion to repeat that no misapprehension could be greater than to suppose that his Bill, which had been referred to the Select Committee, was intended to repeal or abolish the Scotch law of bankruptcy and insolvency, and to substitute the English bankruptcy and insolvency law in its place. Its real object was to give to the Scotch procedure in bankruptcy the benefit of the great improvements in the bankruptcy law which had been effected in this country.
LORD CAMPBELLsaid, he knew that his noble and learned Friend's Bill had caused great apprehension not only in Edinburgh, but all over Scotland, and it might calm that apprehension if his noble and learned Friend would state to their Lordships whether it was his intention to push his Bill forward during the present Session, or to allow it to stand over till the Commissioners who had been appointed to inquire into the expediency of amalgamating the mercantile laws of the two countries, had made their Report.
LORD BROUGHAMcould only reiterate what he had stated when this question was last asked him, namely, that he had taken into his full and anxious deliberation the considerations to which his noble and learned Friend had referred, and that he hoped very early next week to be able to give a definitive answer to this question.
§ LORD ST. LEONARDSwas understood to urge, as a further ground for postponing the Bill, that a Commission had been appointed to inquire into the bankruptcy law of England.
LORD BROUGHAMdid not deny that the fact that parts of the bankruptcy law of this country were sub judice was an additional reason for not pressing forward this Bill at the present period, and possibly not during the present Session.