374 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1817. 



this debt he will be the less able 

 to satisfy his debt to His Majesty. 

 Thut primafacie this was, and must 

 have been, the real foundation of 

 granting the aid desired, is self- 

 evident : the words themselves, in 

 perfect consistency with the obvi- 

 ous intention, afford irrefragable 

 proof of it ; and yet the common 

 practice is to grant the writ when 

 this is not believed on the one 

 side, nor even pretended to be 

 true on the other ; nay, where 

 even the insinuation of its truth 

 would be treated as an affront, at 

 least, if not as a libel. On what 

 grounds, then, is it defended ? 

 First, on the quibble, that of what- 

 ever surplus a man may be pos- 

 sessed beyond what is required for 

 the discharge of his debts, every 

 diminution of that surplus brings 

 him nearer, and consequently 

 makes him more liable to, actual 

 insolvency ; and that therefoie if 

 he cannot be said to be actually 

 less able at the moment, he may 

 be less able at some future time ; 

 i. e. supposing a. man worth 

 10,000/. surplus, to make the affi- 

 davit in order to prevent a loss of 

 50/. it may be said that a surplus 

 of 9,950/. will exteris paribus, be 

 sooner exhausted by misfortune 

 or accident than one of 10,000/. 

 But another plea, of a nature quite 

 different, is also offered ; viz. that 

 the words are merely formal in 

 this case, as well as when used in 

 common suits between subjects in 

 the same court ; and therefore 

 ought so to be regarded, and to be 

 dispensed with entirely. * The 



* This opinion soems to be in some degree 

 countenanced by the fact, that thouj;h this 

 allegation has by some been deemed abso- 

 lutely necessary, yet in practice it was 

 omitted in iiiany ot the affidavits on which 



obvious reply is, that in other suits 

 the words are known and acknow- 

 ledged to be employed merely to 

 bring the plea into that court 

 which is peculiarly the King's ; 

 and no prerogative advantage being 

 afforded to either party, the use of 

 verbal forms is- wholly indifferent 

 and innocent ; whereas in the 

 present case they are used on a 

 prete.\t, known to be untrue, to 

 work a real wrong. Your com- 

 mittee cannot but be of opinion 

 that both excuses are equally un- 

 satisfactory : that the oath ought 

 to be materially altered, so as to 

 make it really what it seems: or 

 if there be any solid and substan- 

 tial objection to the alteration (of 

 which your committee are not 

 aware), that it would be better to 

 abandon it altogether, than to suf- 

 fer it to remain a casuistical snare 

 for perjury, and an opprobrium to 

 the administration of justice. 



On this affidavit however, and 

 the j)revious legal proceedings, 

 loose and unsatisfactory as they are 

 at best, and often hiu'ried through 

 with all the expedition of a race, 

 to defeat that equitable division' of 

 the property which a rival com- 

 mission of bankrupt is seeking to 

 effect, does an extent in aid issue ; 

 and against a person, not a debtor 

 to the crown, sometimes not so 

 even in the second degree ; but it 

 may be against a solvent man, un- 

 fortunately indebted to one who 

 chooses to believe him insolvent, 

 and who has sufficient ingenuity 

 to set himself up as a crown debtor. 

 The execution is of the severest 

 kind : — every thing, down to the 

 minutest article of his property, is 



writs were granted hi the last year; but as 

 the omission was unnoticed, the grants might 

 have been made only througli inadvertence. 



tlieni 



