§ Order of the Day for the Second Reading read.
§ EARL CADOGANLast Session a Bill was introduced for a similar purpose which became law in 51 and 52 Vict., extending both to England and Ireland. When in the House of Lords a clause was moved at the instance of the Government providing that the Act should not apply to Ireland. It was found that the general circumstances of bankruptcy in Ireland were so dissimilar to those in England that it was absolutely necessary to exclude Ireland. The present Bill is so drafted as to meet the circumstances of the Bankruptcy Courts in Ireland, and therefore to extend the Bill of last Session with the necessary modifications to that country. I ask your Lordships to give it a Second Reading.
§ LORD HERSCHELLCan the noble Lord inform me whether the fourth Subsection of Clause 4 is a repetition of what is in the English Act. I do not recollect that that is the law in England, but very likely it may have passed last Session.
§ EARL CADOGANI am informed that the provisions of this Bill are drafted so as to meet all the requirements of the Bankruptcy Law in Ireland. The Bill does not follow entirely the lines of the English Bill; on the contrary, it was found necessary to make a special Bill in order to meet the special requirements of the Bankruptcy Courts in Ireland.
§ LORD HERSCHELLOf course, if there had been the same provisions in the law for England, there would be an object in making the law for the two 231 countries uniform, and I should not have troubled the House with any observations; but it does strike one as curious that when a man becomes bankrupt or a company is wound up, if a landlord or any other person has distrained upon the goods within three months before the winding up or the bankruptcy, the preferential debts (which include parochial rates or Income Tax for a year) shall be a charge not only on the goods and effects distrained, but on the proceeds of them. The effect of that would be that if the landlord had paid himself his rent within three months by a distress, then that money in his hands becomes charged with the Income Tax or parochial rates of the tenant for a year. That does seem a little strange.
§ EARL CADOGANI am informed by the Irish Law Officers that the Bill was not altered in any essential particular, and therefore I conclude that that was in the English Act; but I will make inquiries, and let the noble and learned Lord know in Committee.
§ Bill read 2a (according to order), and committed to a Committee of the Whole House on Monday next.