§ MR. G. CLIVEasked the Attorney General whether it was the intention of the Government to introduce any measure to abolish the distinction between different classes of debts.
THE ATTORNEY GENERALsaid, he had long been anxious to see the distinction now existing between specialty and simple contract debts done away with in the administration of the property of deceased persons. It was a distinction that prevailed in law but not in equity, so that if a man died possessed of £20,000 absolutely, his estate was administered subject to a preference in favour of specialty creditors; but if the money stood in the names of trustees, it would be distributed in quite a different manner. That was an exceedingly mischievous state of things, and he trusted that, immediately after the Whitsuntide recess a measure would be brought forward to correct that and some other anomalies of a similar nature.