HANKS KOU SAVINGS. 



BANKER. 



and unless the offer is found reasonable by the court the aycepUnn* 

 is void. If found reasonable, the bankrupt obtains his discharge. 



When the whole estate has been divided, or a composition accepted, 

 the trustee applies for hi* discharge. He lays his books and account* 

 before a muting of creditors called for the purpose, who may express 

 their opinion upon them. This opinion is laid before the sheriff; and 

 he. after hearing any objection, may grant the trustee his discharge, 

 and order his bond of security to be returned to him. The unclaimed 

 dividend* are placed in a bank ; the books and paper* are transferred to 

 a registry kept by the accountant in bankruptcy. The trustee is paid 

 by a r-mmisrrm on the asset* collected, the rate of which ia fixed by 

 the nmiiinisssoiiM* at each audit prior t.> making a dividend, and he 

 receive* authority to take credit for the amount He may, if dissatisfied, 

 lppl to the sheriff. The commission averages about four per cent. 

 It may be mentioned that the whole of the legal and miacellaneou* 

 eapeuse* chargeable on the estate average about six per cent. more. 

 The commissioners act gratuitously, and no solicitor can be employed 

 at the cost of the estate, except to conduct law-suits sanctioned by the 

 creditors. 



The accountant in bankruptcy U a public officer, whose duty it is to 

 obtain and file all returns which trustees on bankrupt estates are bound 

 to make at regular periods. No money passes through his hands, but 

 any irregularity which he may detect, either in the accounts or in the 

 general proceedings, may be brought by him under the notice of a 

 meeting of creditors, and, if necessary, of the Court of Session. He 

 annually makes out a return, showing what has been done in each 

 sequestration, and including a general report on the working of 

 the act 



It has been seen that the proceeding* in a Scottish bankruptcy are 

 wholly extra-judicial, except where the creditors require the inter- 

 position of the power of a court of justice, or where an appeal is taken 

 from their determination, or where authority ia required to enable a 

 part to bind the whole. In such cases the application may generally 

 be to the local judge : in some cases either to him or to the Court of 

 Session. In some cases of importance also, an appeal is given from the 

 local judge to the Court of Session. Host of the functions of the Court 

 of Session in matters of bankruptcy are performed by a single judge, 

 called the Lord Ordinary on the Bills, who sits as well in vacation as 

 during the sitting* of the court, and in vacation all proceedings may be 

 taken before him. No appeal has the effect of staying the regular 

 proceedings in the bankruptcy. 



[Trratitt on At Lam of Bankruptcy in Scotland, by John Boyd 

 Kinnear, Advocate and Barrister-at-Law, 1857, and Supplement, 1858.1 



BANKS FOR SAVINGS. [SAVINGS BANKS.] 



I'.ANNER. Dr. Johnson, instead of a definition of this word, or a 

 description of the thing signified by it, has given only an imperfect 

 catalogue of its synonyms : fag, itandard, military tnxiyn, streamer, 

 and derives it from the Welsh banair. The etymology is uncertain, 

 but it is probably derived from the old German 4a or fan, to lead on, 

 whence the Germans themselves have derived fhan, a standard, or 

 banner. It is not improbable that it may come at once to us from the 

 Anglo-Saxon txuuryn, an ensign, that is, the sign or rallying-point of 

 the band or troop which bears it A banner we conceive to be essen- 

 tially a piece of drapery attached to the upper part of a pole or staff. 

 This generally hangs loose, but is sometimes fixed in a slight frame- 

 work of wood. Before, however, the idea of banner is complete, we 

 must regard this simple piece of workmanship as being in some way 

 indicative of dignity, rank, or command, or as )>eiiig carried on some 

 occasion with which ideas of dignity are connected, as in processions 

 in time of peace, or in the field in time of war. 



The size and form are but accident*. In fact, it has been made to 

 assume all the varieties of which so simple an instrument is suscep- 

 tible. When banner* are displayed at the same time by persons of 

 different rank*, the size has often borne relation to the respective rank 

 of the parties. 



The drapery of a banner U usually made of the most costly stuffs 

 velvet or silk but the material most commonly used is a kind of soft 

 silk called taffeta. Sometimes it is quite plain, and of one uniform 

 colour. A white banner was anciently borne in the English army. 

 One of the knight* at the siege of Carlaverock, a castle in Scot! 

 the wan of Edward I., carried a plain red banner ; but they were often 

 richly ornamented with tassel* and fringes, and generally there is 

 wrought upon them some figure or device which has reference to the 

 person, the community, or the nation by whom the banner is raised, 

 or to the purpose or occasion of it* being displayed. 



Other term* by which a banner is called, are 



.-t.nntnnl, by which a meant the most considerable banner of an 

 army, or the national banner when displayed in the field, or a banner 

 set up by some prince, or other chief, as a rallying-point for his 



Colotm, the banners now borne by particular regiments. 



/'''-;. a banner on board a ship, generally employed as a signal. 



Pendant a a narrow flag with a long streaming tail, and has been 

 adopted by all modern nations to denote the vessel which carries it to 

 be a national vessel, or man-of-war. 



Streamer i* a poetic word, which seems to be used for any species of 

 floating banner*. 



AVit'ya ia a word formed on the idea of the banner displaying intiynia 



which belonged to a particular person, or collection ..f puraons. It 

 was formerly used where we now say nlonn ; and the officer called an 

 eti>/n wa* originally the emtgn-tiearer. It i* also applied to the 

 national colours worn by vessels over their xU-rn. 



PrttHim, another mode of writing pendant. 



Pnuil, or PeHHtinrillr, a small pennon. 



JtattKiere-iftutnrfr, where the drapery was square. 



(luitlim is now used for the little banner of a regiment 



Ovifannon i* properly appropriate to the banner of the pope or of 

 the church. 



Orijtamme, was the name of the great national standard of France, 

 only unfurled on important occasions. 



Of all these, however, the word banner is used by most writers and 

 speakers as a synonym, or as a generic term, of which the other words 

 indicate particular species. We shall therefore bring together in this 

 article much of the information we have been able to collect on a 

 subject to which little attention has hitherto been paid, but which is 

 connected with all our chivalry and much of our poetry, ami i 

 without its share of historical importance ami n.iti. 01 il interest. 



The earliest mention of standards is in Numbers ii. " every man . . . 

 shall pitch by his own standard, with the ensign of their father's 

 house," and Egyptian painting* and Assyrian sculpture show us what 

 thobe ensign* probably were, namely, representations of some object, 

 beast or bird, or some arbitrary symbol, fixed on the top of a pole ; 

 and these show also that there were at least three kinds of them, 

 those of the monarch, those of houses or families, those of tribes, 

 and the great standards which served as rallying-points for the 

 whole host, as well as for marking the line of march or the places of 

 encampment. The military standards of the Greeks and Romans were 

 of a similar character, the standard of the Athenians was an owl, wlii.-ii 

 they also impressed on their coins, that of the Thebans a sphinx. Tin- 

 standards of the Romans were carvings in metal or wood ; the eagle, or 

 some other figure, elevated at the end of a tall lance or pole. The 

 forms of them are known to us by the representations of them on 

 medals, or the common coinage of that people. The Persian standard 

 described by Xenophon (' Anab.' i. 10) was a golden or gilded eagle, 

 raised on a spear or pole. We have few such representations of the 

 military ensigns of other nations of antiquity, and nothing, it seems, 

 which can authorise us to suppose that banners, in the sense in which 

 the term has been here defined, were in use among them. 



But we find them in use among the modern nations of Europe from 

 a very early period. The first notice of them in English affaii 

 Bede, who, when he relates the first interview which Augustine and his 

 followers had with Ethelbert, king of Kent, nays that they approached 

 the king bearing banners on which were displayed silver crosses, and 

 the picture of Jesus Christ, and chanting, as they went along, ] 

 for his welfare, and that of his people. They were then living in the 

 Isle of Thanet; and when the king had assigned them habitation" in 

 Canterbury, they entered the city in procession, carrying their little 

 banners chanting halleluiahs, and praying for the blessing < 

 on the city which received them. 



Thus early were banners used in religious affairs, txi the pomp and 

 splendour of which they have lent their aid in all later times, as in 

 Catholic countries they still continue to do. 



All the monasteries in England hail banners laid up in their ward- 

 robes, to be produced on the great anniversaries, or on the aunh 

 of the particular saint in whose honour the church was founded. 

 These were sometimes, as we shall see, allowed to be carried out of the 

 monastery, and displayed in the field. At Ripon, for instance, then- 

 was the banner of St. Wilfrid ; at Beverley, the banner of St. .Mm of 

 that town. Both these were displayed in the field at NortUallerton in 

 the reign of Stephen. We find, also, Edward I. paying SJrf. a day to 

 one of the priests of the college of Beverley for carrying in his army 

 the banner of St. John, and Id. a day while taking it back to hi* 

 monastery. 



Sometimes the banners of the religious not only displayed a repre- 

 sentation or symbol of a particular saint whom they held in especial 

 honour, but some relic of the saint composed a part of tin : 

 Thin was the case with the banner of St. Cuthbcrt at Durham, nt 

 this banner there is a particular and avithentic description in 

 curious little volume, entitled ' The Ancient Rights and Monuments of 

 the Monastical and Cathedral Church of Durham,' 167:!, wliirh v 

 here transcribe : " The prior caused a goodly and sumptuous banner 

 to be made, with pipes of silver to be put on a staff, being five yard.-, 

 long, with a device to take off and on the pipes at pleasure, and to be 

 kept in a chest in the feretory, when they were taken down, which 

 banner wan showed and carried in the said abbey on festival and 

 prim -ipal days. On the height of the overmost pipes was fair 

 pretty cross of silver, and a wand of silver, having a line wrought 

 knot of silver at either end, that w, nt nml, nieath the banner-cloth, 

 when unto the banner-cloth was fastened and tied; which \\.-md 

 wa* of the thickness of a man's finger, and at cither end of the said 

 wand there was a fine silver bell. The wand was fastened liy the 

 middle to the banner-staff hard under the crow. The banner-cloth 

 was a yard Iirood and five quarter* deep ; and the nether part of 

 it was indented in five parts and fringed, and made fast all about 

 with red silk and gold ; and, also, the said banner-cloth wo* made of 

 red velvet, on beth sides most sumptuously embroidered and wrought 



