§ MR. R. N. FOWLERsaid, he would beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether his attention has been called to an Order of the Lord Chancellor excluding from Bankruptcy Jurisdiction all the County Courts of Cornwall except one, and centralizing the whole business at Truro; whether this Order is not opposed to the spirit of the Act of last Session, the object of which was to localize the transaction of bankruptcy business; whether he is aware that this Order will be productive of great inconvenience to the trading community of Cornwall; and, whether Her Majesty's Government are prepared to rescind the Order, and to restore the local bankruptcy jurisdiction granted by the Act to the county of Cornwall?
MR. BRUCE,in reply, said, he had communicated with the Lord Chancellor on the subject, and his noble and learned Friend had informed him that the local courts possessing bankruptcy jurisdiction had been carefully selected with reference to public convenience. The arrangement was liable to revision, and, in case further accommodation was shown to be required, alterations would be made. It appeared that in the courts to which the hon. Member had referred as being now excluded from bankruptcy jurisdiction, there had been only three or four cases of bankruptcy each year, and that, as rule, the bankrupts themselves had been the petitioners in those cases. There would be no such cases under the new law.