§ House in Committee (according to Order.)
§ Clause 1 (relating to appointment of additional Chief Clerks and Junior Clerks).
THE LORD CHANCELLORmoved a new proviso with reference to the filling up of vacancies in the offices of Chief Clerks and Junior Clerks, providing that the Lord Chancellor shall not fill such vacancies unless the number of Chief Clerks is reduced below two, and of Junior Clerks below four; except with the consent of three of the Chancery Judges.
§ Proviso added to the Bill.
765§ After Clause 8—
§ LORD ROMILLYproposed to insert a new clause of a permissive and not a compulsory character in reference to the appointment of a number of Official Liquidators as Officers of the Court, and under a joint security. He was satisfied that if the plan were adopted it would be productive of great benefit. It would prevent contests between equally fit and competent men; and there was a precedent for it in a recent Act of Parliament, which sanctioned the appointment of Official Conveyancers. The Liquidators were to be paid, as hitherto, merely for the work done, just as the Conveyancers still were. By adopting the course he proposed, and appointing a list of men in large business and of high respectability, the Court could dispense with a great amount of the security it now demanded, and thereby diminish the costs charged on estates, and at the same time obtain a better collective security than it got at present. He would not, however, press the clause if the Lord Chancellor objected to it.
THE LORD CHANCELLORsaid, he could not assent to the proposed clause, although he agreed that something ought to be done in reference to this matter. If ten or twelve Official Liquidators were appointed by the Court, or by the Lord Chancellor, no sufficient security could be taken from them for the delivery of the monies which passed through their hands, because the amount was so enormous. Then, again, under such a system, the Court would be held responsible in the event of any default on the part of the Liquidators, whereas now the parties elected their Official Liquidators, and had to take the consequences.
§ LORD ROMILLYsaid, that if there were nine or ten Official Liquidators they might all agree to give a joint and several bond.
§ Clause negatived.
§ Amendments made; the Report thereof to be received To-morrow, and Bill to be printed as amended. (No. 194.)