Mr. HOWARD. Mr. President, I do not concur at all with the Senfrom Vermont as to the importance and dignity of the office of register of bankruptcy provided for in this bill. If Senators j'.into the bill, especially into the 4th section, it will be discov ered that this office of register is one of great importance and very great responsibility. The Senfrom Vermont compares it with that of a deputy sheriff, and speaks of it as being an insignificant office. I do not so regard it. according to the bill which he has reported to the Senate “no person shall be eligible” to the appointment of register “unless he be a counselor of said court or of some one of the courts of record of the State in which he resides.” In addition, he is required to give bond for the o: of his duty and to take an oath. His general powers are described in the 4th section, which declares: “That every register in bankruptcy, so appointed and qualified, shall have power, and it duty shall be his to make adjudication of bankruptcy, to receive the surrender of any bankrupt, to administer oaths in all proceedingsbefore him, to meetings hold and preside at of creditors, to take proof of debts, to make all computations of dividends, and all orders of distribution, and to furnish the assigneewith a copy certified of such orders, and of theschedules of creditors and assets filed in each case, to audit and passac counts of assignees, to grant protection, to pass the last examination of any bankrupt in caseswhenever the assignee or a creditor do not oppose, and to sit in chambers and dispatch there such part of the administrative businessof the court ouncontested matters as shall bedefined in general rules and orders, or as the district judgeshall in any particular matter direct; and he shall also make short memoranda of his proceedings in each case in which he shall act in a docket to be kept by him for that purpose.” The office is plainly one of great importance, and it is in its very nature and functions a judicial office, one to which appointments may very o be made by a court, and even by the Chief Justice of the SCOTUS as it seems to me. I do not see any ground for the allegation of the honorable Senfrom Maryland, that the appointment of such officers all over the U.S., as will be the case if this bill shall pass, is any degradation to the Chief Justice of the U.S.; it is a matter as properly coming before him in his judicial capacity, is it not, as the appointment of a clerk of the Supreme Court or any judicial officer over whom he has control of And these registers will be very numerous inevitably throughout the country. Through their hands in some form will doubtless pass a very large proportion of the property of the people of the U.S., and in the rebel States especially I think it will turn out that these registers will have the handling in some form or other of the property of almost every man in those States; for this bill, if it shall pass and become a law, will doubtless be regarded as a bill of relief to a large portion of that community, and will operate as such, according to my ideas, far more than towards the relief of the people of the loyal States. It is a bill for the relief, if I may be allowed so to speak, of southern debtors, of men and women in the rebel States, and they will be the parties who will most readily hasten to embrace its benefits. Now, sir, as to the appointment of these registers by the courts, so far as I am concerned, and so far as the district in which I reside is concerned, it is almost immaterial to me whether the final appointment is made by the circuit court or by the district court; but I shall feel much safer, and I think the public will generally feel much more secure, if the right of nominating the registers is placed in the hands of the Chief Justice of the U.S. It will certainly give the whole proceeding an air and character of dignity and respectability which it would not possess without it. People are in the habit of looking with the highest degree of respect and reverence upon the chief judicial officer of the Government, and if that clause is retained giving to him the right of nomination it will be imma terial to me whether the word “circuit” be stricken out and the word “district” be inserted or not. I think the great security consists in lacing the nomination in the hands of the hief Justice.