LORD BROUGHAM, pursuant to notice, presented a petition from certain manufacturers of Glasgow, praying for an alteration of the laws of arrestment of wages for debt in Scotland. The application of the law of arrest of wages of workmen had been found to be attended with the greatest inconvenience and injury. Many of 1283 the mischiefs which induced their Lordships to abolish arrest on mesne process had been found also to arise from this law of arrestment. The indiscriminate giving of credit was one of the evils which arose from the old law of arrest in this country; and so in Scotland the allowing workmen's wages to be arrested for debts due from them produced a similar effect. He suggested that it should be referred to the Commission now sitting to inquire into the mercantile laws of the United Kingdom, with the view of assimilating them as much as possible.
LORD CAMPBELLsaid, that that subject was one of considerable importance. He could see no reason why the commercial law of every portion of the United Kingdom should not be assimilated.
The LORD CHANCELLORsaid, he entirely concurred in the opinion that the best course they could pursue would be to refer that question to the Commission which was at present inquiring into the expediency of assimilating the commercial law of England, Ireland, and Scotland. He thought it a matter of great importance, and it was a matter of great importance that gentlemen of such eminence had undertaken the inquiry.
§ The EARL of HARROWBYpresented petitions signed from Liverpool, and from the Chambers of Commerce of Bristol, Blackburn, Stoke-upon-Trent, Worcester, Hull, Southampton, Plymouth, Dundee, Belfast, and other towns; the petitioners complained of certain defects in the commercial law of the United Kingdom; and they prayed that that law might be assimilated in England, Ireland, and Scotland, and that commercial tribunals might be established for the adjudication of mercantile disputes.
LORD CAMPBELLexpressed his disapproval of the proposal that tribunals of commerce should be appointed to adjudicate upon mercantile questions. He believed that those questions would be best decided by a judge, assisted by a jury consisting of mercantile men, and not by a judge without a jury.
The LORD CHANCELLORsaid it was quite out of the question that commercial tribunals should be appointed to decide mercantile disputes. It was above all things desirable that those disputes should be decided upon uniform and correct principles, and that object could not be attained under the system proposed in the petition.
§ House adjourned to Thursday next.