10 MARCH 1883, Page 3

At the banquet given by the Lord Mayor on Wednesday

to the bankers and merchants of London, Mr. Chamberlain made an interesting speech, chiefly on the failure of the present Bankruptcy Law to discourage fraud. He pointed out that the bankrupts have already taken alarm at his new Bill, and are urged by their advisers to get their certificates as soon as possible under the existing arrangements, seeing that they will find it very much more difficult to get off easily under the new law, than they have found it under the old. That is, as Mr. Chamberlain very justly remarked, an impressive testimony, so far as it goes, to the efficiency of his new Bill.