THE LORD CHANCELLOR, having laid on the table (pursuant to Act) a "General Return from the Chief Registrar of the Court of Bankruptcy for the year ending the 11th October last," said, he did not desire to provoke a discussion upon the subject of the Law of Bankruptcy or the procedure of the Bankruptcy Court at this time, because it must be fully considered when the Committee of the House of Commons had made its Report; but he would beg their Lordships' attention to a few results as exhibited in this Return, in order that, during the interval that would elapse before that Report was presented, their Lordships might have the opportunity of considering what was necessary and proper to be done in the matter. There took place during the last year 7,224 adjudications in bankruptcy. Of these, 5,260 were made on the petition of the debtor himself; 1,360 were made on the petition of debtors in prison; and only 604 on the application of the creditor. The number of cases in which dividends had been made was 1,586. The property collected and realized was only £677,536. Of that, only £533,664 were divided among the creditors; the difference, £143,872, was absorbed in the costs of collecting and dividing the £677,536. But that was not 94 all; for to this £143,872 must be added £140,000 for the expenses of the tribunal, making a total of £283,872, expended for the purpose of dividing £533,664. He appealed to their Lordships whether this monstrous state of things should continue. There were two main features in the Bill of 1861; one of them was the establishment of trust deeds, and that had quite answered his anticipations, for during the past year the property divided under trust deeds had amounted to £3,802,000. The trust deed was a voluntary arrangement made with the creditors; and if they contrasted the amount divided under trust deeds with that divided through the instrumentality of the Court the disparity would be evident—it would be found that more than six times the amount was distributed under trust deeds than was distributed by the Court. The other object of the Bill of 1861 was the establishment of a Chief Judge, with a view to the most careful regulation and supervision of the existing subordinate tribunals. Their Lordships would judge for themselves, from this further Return, of the necessity for such a Chief Judge. It was the duty of the official assignees, who were now paid by salary, to collect and return to the Court of Bankruptcy the fees which they still received in bankruptcy. In the year 1862, the first year after the new Act came into operation, he was very much surprised to find that only £1,390 was returned. In 1863, in consequence of some inquiries which he (the Lord Chancellor) directed, the sum returned by the official assignees and messengers was £13,620; but in the year 1864, having directed a more searching inquiry, the sum that had been paid in by the assignees and messengers amounted to no less than £45,158. Of the necessity of the investigation their Lordships would judge when he stated that, with regard to one official assignee, now retired, who had become a defaulter to the amount of several thou-sands of pounds, he had ascertained that his account, which it was the duty of the Commissioner to audit, had been audited for years by the Usher of the Court under the direction of the Commissioner. This was a very hopeless picture of the state of the Bankruptcy Court; and when the Report of the Committee of the House of Commons was made, he trusted that he should be able to present to their Lordships a Bill that would provide some remedy for this monstrous state of things.