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Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow 61.: The Bankruptcy Acts Repeal Bill 4 JUNE, 1867 - The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Volume XXVIII The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Volume XXVIII - Public and Parliamentary Speeches Part I November 1850 - November 1868

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Subject Area: Political Theory
Collection: The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill

61.: The Bankruptcy Acts Repeal Bill 4 JUNE, 1867 - John Stuart Mill, The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Volume XXVIII The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Volume XXVIII - Public and Parliamentary Speeches Part I November 1850 - November 1868 [1850]

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The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Volume XXVIII - Public and Parliamentary Speeches Part I November 1850 - November 1868, ed. John M. Robson and Bruce L. Kinzer (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1988).

Part of: Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, in 33 vols.

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61.

The Bankruptcy Acts Repeal Bill

4 JUNE, 1867

PD, 3rd ser., Vol. 187, col. 1572. Reported in The Times, 5 June, p. 7. Mill spoke in the debate on going into Committee on “A Bill to Repeal Enactments Relating to Bankruptcy in England, and to Matters Connected Therewith,” 30 Victoria (14 Mar., 1867), PP, 1867, I, 377–80.

the laws of this country on the subject of debt have passed, not suddenly, but by a succession of steps, from one bad extreme to another. After having continued the old savage treatment of debtors far into an advanced state of civilization, we have now gradually lapsed into such a state that the debtor may be guilty of any kind of misconduct, short of actual fraud, and escape with practical impunity. Last year, for nearly the whole of the Session, I had a Notice on the Paper for an Instruction to the Committee, that it have power to remedy this evil by introducing provisions for the punishment of such debtors as might be shown on inquiry to have, with culpable temerity, risked and lost property which belonged to their creditors.1 The Bill of last year2 never reached such a stage that I could move that Instruction. The present Bill has passed the stage when a similar Instruction could be proposed. Under these circumstances I shall give my best support to the Amendments to be proposed by the honourable and learned Member for Cambridge (Mr. Selwyn),3 and I shall move other clauses going further in the same direction.

[The discussion concluded with a deferment of the Committee until 7 June, whenit was again put off. Mill indicated to Helen Taylor on 10 June that he hoped to speak again on the matter (CW, Vol. XVI, p. 1281), but the Bill was withdrawn without discussion on 11 July.]

[1 ]Mill’s Notice of Motion appears on the Order Paper on 10 May and 25 June, 1866, Journals of the House of Commons, 1866, pp. 602, 1075.

[2 ]“A Bill to Amend and Consolidate the Law Relating to Bankruptcy in England, and to Abolish Imprisonment for Debt in Final Process,” 29 Victoria (16 Apr., 1866), PP, 1866, I, 103–236.

[3 ]Charles Jasper Selwyn (1813–69), M.P. for Cambridge, cols. 1565–6, proposed that after-acquired property of insolvents be chargeable for debts.