107 



BANKRUPTCY. 



POOR LAWS. 





imprisoned by the court (without trial by jury) for any period not 

 exceeding one year. Misdemeanours under this m-t. ami tticir penal 

 ooonquencei, are denned by s. 221 u follows : " Frum and after Uic 

 commencement of this act, any bankrupt who shall do any of the 

 acta or things following, with intent to defraud or defeat the rights 

 f his creditors, shall be guilty of a misdemeanour, and shall be 

 liable, at the discretion of the court before which he shall be con- 

 victed, to punishment by imprisonment for not more than three years, 

 or to any greater punishment attached to the offence by any existing 

 statute : 



" 1 . If he shall not, upon the day limited for his surrender, and before 

 three of the clock of such day, or at the hour and upon the day 

 allowed him for finishing his examination, after notice thereof in writing, 

 to be served u]x>n him personally or left at his usual or last known place 

 of abode or business, and after the notice herein directed in the 

 ' London Gazette,' surrender himself to the court (having no lawful 

 impediment allowed by the court), and sign or subscribe such sur- 

 render, and submit to be examined before such court from time to 

 time. 



" 2. If he shall not, upon his examination, fully and truly discover, to 

 the best of his knowledge and belief, all his property, real and personal, 

 inclusive of his right* and credits, and how and to whom, and for what 

 consideration, and when he disposed of, assigned, or transferred any 

 part thereof, except such part as has been really and bond Jlde before 

 sold or disposed of in the way of his trade or business, if any, or laid 

 out in the ordinary expense of his family, or shall not deliver up to 

 the court, or dispose, as the court directs, of all such port thereof on is 

 in his possession, custody, or power, except the necessary wearing- 

 apparel of himself, his wife, and children, and deliver up to the court 

 all books, papers, and writings in his possession, custody, or power 

 relating to his property or affairs. 



" 8. If he shall, after adjudication, or within sixty days prior to adju- 

 dication, with intent to defraud his creditors, remove, conceal, or 

 embezzle any part of his property to the value of ten pounds or 

 upwards. 



" 4. If. in case of any person having, to his knowledge or belief, proved 

 a false debt under his bankruptcy, he shall fail to disclose the same to 

 his assignees within one mouth after coming to the knowledge or 

 belief thereof. 



" 5. If he shall, with intent to defraud, wilfully mid fraudulently 

 omit from his schedule any effects or property whatsoever. 



" 6. If he shall, after the filing of the petition for adjudication, with 

 intent to conceal the state of his affairs, or to defeat the object of the 

 law of bankruptcy, conceal, prevent, or withhold the production of any 

 book, deed, paper, or writing relating to his property, dealings, or 

 affairs. 



" 7. If he shall, after the filing of the petition for adjudication, or 

 within three months next before adjudication, with intent to conceal 

 the state of his affairs, or to defeat the objects of the law of bank- 

 ruptcy, part with, conceal, destroy, alter, mutilate, or falsify, or cause 

 to be concealed, destroyed, altered, mutilated, or falsified, any book, 

 jKiper, writing, or security, or document relating to his property, 

 trade, dealings, or affairs, or moke or be privy to the making of any 

 false or fraudulent entry or statement in or omission from any book, 

 paper, document, or writing relating thereto. 



"8. If, within the like time, he shall, knowing that he is at the 

 time unable to meet his engagements, fraudulently and with intent 

 ; diminish the sum to be divided amongst the general body of his 

 creditors, have made away with, mortgaged, encumbered, or charged 

 any i rt of his property, of .what kind soever, or if after adjudication 

 he shall conceal from the court or his assignee any debt due to or 

 from him. 



" 9. If, being a trader, he shall, under his bankruptcy, or at any 

 meeting of his creditors within three months next preceding the filing 

 of the petition for adjudication, have attempted to account for any of 

 his property by fictitious losses or expenses. 



" 10. If, being a trader, he shall, within three months next before the 

 filing of the petition for adjudication, under the false colour and 

 pretence of carrying on business and dealing in the ordinary course of 

 trade, have obtained on credit from any person any goods or chattels 

 with intent to defraud. 



"11. If, being a trader, he shall, with intent to defraud his creditors, 

 within three months next before the filing of the petition for adjudica- 

 tion, pawn, pledge, or dispose of, otherwise than by lunS fdc transac- 

 tions in the ordinary way of his trade, any of his goods or chattels 

 which have been obtained on credit and remain unpaid for." 



Orders of discharge are in their effect analogous to certificates of 

 conformity under the previous law. 



Arrangement! under the Control of llie Court. Creditors may, by a 

 due majority, resolve that the proceedings hi bankruptcy be stayed and 

 that the bankrupt's estate be wound up under a deed of arrangement, 

 and men resolution may, if approved by the court, be carried into 

 effect : and when after such stay of proceedings the deed of arrange- 

 ment has been duly certified to have been executed by three-fourths 

 in number and value of all the creditors, and when it baa been approved 

 by the court, it must be registered, and the proceedings in bankruptcy 

 may then be annulled, and such deed of arrangement will thereupon 

 become binding upon all the creditors. The jurisdiction of the court is 



not however ousted by the deed of arrangement, and recourse for 

 direction and assistance may still be had to it by all parties as in 

 ordinary bankruptcy. 



Trust and Competition Deed* are to be binding upon all en 

 when certain conditions are fulfilled ; and such deeds must be regi 

 iiml notice thereof must be duly advertised. Proceedings in bank. 

 ruptcy may be stayed during twenty-eight days from the execution of 

 any such deed by a debtor. Provision is made for the case of unknown 

 holders of bills of exchange, &c., and of absent or incapable creditors ; 

 and a very curious form of trust deed is given in Schedule D, and its 

 use is rendered imperative. 



Many acts relating to bankruptcy are either wholly or in part 

 repealed ; but the 7 & 8 Viet., c. 70, and the 23 & 24 Viet., c. 147 (the 

 Secret Arrangement Acts), ore strangely enough retained, notwith- 

 standing their mischievous and anomalous character. 



Such is a brief outline of tome of the principal features of tli 

 important statute, which is to be cited as " The Bankruptcy Act, 1861," 

 lie construed, together with so much of "The bankrupt Law 

 Consolidation Act, 1849," and " The Bankruptcy Act, 1854," as remains 

 un repealed, as owe act. 



It only remains to be noticed that this act provides that in 

 of executions levied upon goods in respect of judgments for claim* 

 exceeding 501. exclusive of costs, such goods must, unless the court 

 otherwise orders, be sold by public auction and ^not otherwise, ami 

 such auction must be advertised for three days next preceding the 

 day of sale ; but what this provision has to do with bankruptcy, or 

 what are to be the consequences of disobedience, does not very clearly 

 appear. 



LAWS, CRIMINAL, CONSOLIDATION OF. In the parliamentary 

 session of 1861 (24 &. 25 Viet.), six acts were passed which received the 

 royal assent on August 6, consolidating the statutes relating to o 

 against the Person, cap. 100; Malicious Injuries to Property, cap. 97 ; 

 Larceny, cap. 96 ; Forgery, cap. 98 ; Coming, cap. 99 ; and Accessories 

 to and Abettors of Indictable Offences, cap. 94. No material alteration 

 lias been made in the laws themselves, but 106 acts or sections of acts 

 have been altogether repealed by cap. 95. The new acts are to como 

 into operation on November 1, 1861. 



POOR LAWS. Since the article POOB LAWS was written, an im- 

 portant alteration has been made in the law with respect to the class 

 of poor termed " irremovable," as contradistinguished from " non- 

 settled ; " that is to eay, poor persons who have not legal settlement iu 

 the parish to which they may have become chargeable, but who are 

 nevertheless irremovable therefrom to the parishes in which they are 

 legally settled, by reason of the operation of some provision uf tin law. 

 The alteration adverted to is another step towards the aooompliuUMnt 

 of the total abolition of the law of settlement, and the consequent 

 enfranchisement of labour, and it is too important to be omitted in a 

 wi n-k which embraces the circle of sciences and of knowledge. Under 

 the title " Poor," ill the body of the work, the various conditions upou 

 which persons acquire irremovability from a parish have been ex- 

 plained, and it is therefore not necessary to recapitulate those condi- 

 tions. It will be observed on referring to that portion of the work, 

 that in order to acquire the status of irremovability by continuous 

 < o, it was necessary that a person should have resided for a 

 ) i i'-'! of five years at the least in the same parish, and that thereupon 

 no warrant for his removal should be granted by the justices UIHJII hi* IT 

 coming chargeable to such parish (9 & 10 Viet., c. 66, s. 1). In order still 

 further to lessen the liability to removal of a non-settled poor person on 

 his becoming chargeable to the jwrish in which he resides, the period 

 of residence, by the statute 24 & 2j Viet., c. 55, s. 1, has been reduced 

 from five to three years. Formerly tlie continuous residence must 

 have been in the name jiarish, but under the new act " the residence of 

 a person in any part of a union shall have the some effect in reference 

 to the provisions of the said section (s. 1 of 9 & 10 Viet., c. 66), as a 

 residence in any parish ; " that is to say, provided the poor person 

 shall have resided in any one or more parishes in the same Union for 

 a period of three years without relief from the poor-rates, he shall be 

 irremovable from the f'nion so long as he shall continue to reside 

 therein without an interruption of hia residence having token plaiv. 

 Under the former law, if the. parents, or surviving parent, of a rhiM 

 had acquired irremovability, such privilege was not transmitted to the 

 child on the death of the surviving parent, if it had not itself resided 

 for five years in the parish of chargeability ; but now where a eliilil 

 under the age of sixteen years, residing with its surviving parent, shall 

 be left an orphan, and such parent shall at the time of death have 

 acquired an exemption frm a removal by reason of a continued resi- 

 dence, such orphan shall, if not otherwise irremovable, be exempt 

 from removal in like manner and to the same extent as if it had then 

 1 for itself an exemption from removal by residence (24 & 25 

 Viet, c. 55, s. 2). Again, under the former law, a married woman 

 could never acquire the privilege of irremovability in her own right, 

 unless temporarily sick ; but now where a married woman shall have 

 been, or shall be, deserted by her husband, and shall after hi* desertion 

 reside for three years in such a manner as would, if she were a widow, 

 render her exempt from removal, she shall not be liable to be re- 

 moved from the parish wherein she shall be resident, unless her 

 husband return to cohabit with her (ib., s. 3). 



The act 24 & 25 Viet., c. 65, s. 8, makes perpetual the temporary 



