200 
some kind of manufacture exercised ; yet as 
this is the necessary and customary mode of 
receiving the benefit arising from the land, 
such persons are not held to be traders within 
the statutes ; nor are persons buying and 
selling bank stock or government securities. 
Buying or selling only will neither singly 
constitute trading ; neither will a single act 
of buying and selling ; or drawing or redraw- 
ing bills of exchange merely for the purpose 
of raising money for private occasions, and 
not with a view to gain a profit upon the ex- 
change. Being a part-owner in a ship, 
barge, or waggon, does not constitute a trad- 
er; nor holding a share or interest in a joint- 
stock with others who trade, unless he share 
in the profit and loss upon the disposition of 
the capital. The merchandise must also be 
general, and not in a qualified maimer only, 
as victuallers or innkeepers, schoolmasters, 
commissioners of the navy who victual the 
fleet by private contract, the king’s butler, 
steward, or other officers ; officers of excise 
or customs, sutlers of the armies, butlers, 
stewards of inns of court, clergymen, &c. as 
acting in such capacities merely, are not li- 
able to be made bankrupts; the buying and 
selling in such cases not being general, but 
in the exercise of particular employments. 
Neither, upon the same principle, are re- 
ceivers of the king’s taxes, or persons dis- 
counting exchequer bills. If the parties 
above enumerated, however, are them- 
selves within the bankrupt laws in any other 
respect, they will be liable to their operation, 
although they should evidently not profit by 
trading, or such trading should be illegal ; 
although the trading should not be wholly 
carried on in England, buying only in Eng- 
land and selling beyond sea. Any person, 
native, denizen, or alien, residing in any part 
of the British dominions, or in foreign coun- 
tries, though never a resident trader in Eng- 
land, yfct if he is a trader, and coming to 
England commits an act of bankruptcy, he 
will be subject to the bankrupt laws. 
No one can be a bankrupt on account of 
any debt which he is not compellable by law 
to discharge, as infants or married women. 
And if a single woman is a trader, and com- 
mitting any act of bankruptcy, afterwards 
marry, a commission issued against her after 
such marriage cannot be supported. But 
according to the custom of London, where a 
married woman is sole trader, she is held 
liable to a commission of bankruptcy like a 
feme sole. , 
Acts of bankruptcy. Departing the realm. 
This must be done with intent to defraud or 
delay creditors : when it appears that there 
was no such intention, it will not be a depar- 
ture within the meaning of the statutes. 
7 T. K. 509. 
Departing from the dwelling-house. Such 
departure must also be with intent to defraud 
and delay creditors ; for the departure with 
an intent to delay, has been held insuf- 
ficient, without an actual delay of some cre- 
ditors. St. 803. 
Beginning to keep the house ; the being de- 
nied to a creditor who calls for money ; but 
an order to be denied is not enough, without 
an actual denied, and that also to a creditor 
who has a debt demandable at the time. 
5 T. It. 575. 
Voluntary arrest, not only for a fictitious 
debt, but even for a just one, if done with the 
BANKRUPT. 
itBent to delay creditors, is an act of bank- 1 
rUptcy. 
Suffering an outlawry, with intent to de- 
fraud the creditors ; but this will not make a 
man a bankrupt, if reversed before issuing a 
commission, or for default, of proclamation 
after it, unless such outlawry was originally 
fraudulent. 
Escaping from prison. Being arrested for 
a just debt of 100/. or upwards, and escaping 
against the consent of the sheriff. 
Fraudulent procurement of goods to be 
attached or sequestered. A fraudulent exe- 
cution, though void against creditors, is not 
within the meaning of the words attachment, 
or sequestration, used in the statute ; because 
they relate only to proceedings used in Lon- 
don, Bristol, and other places. 
Making any fraudulent conveyance. Any 
conveyance of property, whether total or 
partial, made with a view to defeat the claims 
of creditors, is a fraud, and if it be by deed, is 
held to be an act of bankruptcy . 
A conveyance by a trader of all his effects 
and'stock in trade by deed, to the exclusion 
of any one or more of his creditors, has been 
ever held to be an act of bankruptcy. 
A mortgage (amongst other things) of all 
the stock in trade of a tradesman, was held 
to be an act of bankruptcy, as being an as- 
signment of all the stock in trade, without 
which he could carry on no business. 
A conveyance by a trader of part of his 
effects to a particular creditor carries no 
evidence whatever uf fraud, unless made in 
contemplation of bankruptcy. 
Being arrested for debt-, lying in prison 
two months or more, upon that or any other 
arrest, or detention in prison for debt, will 
make the party a bankrupt, from the time of 
the first arrest; but where tiie bail is fairly 
put in, and the party at a future day surren- 
ders in discharge or his bail, the two months 
are computed from the time of the surren- 
der. 
Of proceedings finder a commission. The 
lord chancellor is empowered to issue a com- 
mission of bankrupt, and is bound to grant it 
as matter of rigid. By 5 Geo. II. c. 30. no 
commission can issue, unless upon the peti- 
tion of a single creditor, to whom the bank- 
rupt owes a debt which shall amount to 100/. 
the debt of two or more, being partners, 
shall amount to 150/. and of three or more to 
200 /. 
If the debt against the bankrupt amounts to 
the sum required, it is not material, though 
the creditor should have acquired it for 
less. 
If a creditor to th(f tail amount, before an 
act of bankruptcy committed, receive after 
notice of the bankruptcy a part of his debt, 
such payment being illegal, cannot be re- 
tained, and-the original debt remains in force, 
and will support a commission. 
The debt must be a legal and not an equit- 
able one, and if the legal demand be not in 
its nature assignable, the assignee cannot be 
the petitioning creditor, as the assignee of a 
bond. 1 
If the creditor, for a debt at law, has the 
body of his debtor in execution, he cannot at 
the same time sue out a commission upon 
it ; that being, in point of law, a satisfaction 
for the debt. 
Of opening the commission. When the 
commissioners have received proof of the 
petitioning creditor’s debt, the trading, and 
act of bankruptcy, they declare and adjudge 
the party a bankrupt. They are authorized to 
issue a warrant under their hands and seals, 
for the seizure of all the bankrupt’s effects, 
books, or writings, and for that purpose to 
enter the house, or any other place belonging 
to the bankrupt. 
Such debts only can be proved under a 
commission, as were either debts certainly 
payable, and which existed a‘e the time of 
the bankruptcy, or which although originally 
contingent, yet, from the contingency hap- 
pening before the bankruptcy, were become 
absolute. In every case the amount of the 
debt must be precisely ascertained. 
Time and method of proving. Creditors 
were formerly precluded from proving after 
four months ; but the court now, except ya 
cases of gross negligence, allows them to 
come in at any time, whilst any thing re- 
mains to be disposed of. The usual proof re- 
quired, is the oath of the creditor himself ; 
either in person, or by affidavit if he live 
remote from the place of meeting, or reside 
in foreign parts. 5 Geo. IT. 
Corporations, or companies, are generally 
admitted to prove by a treasurer, clerk, or 
other officer duly authorized. 
Of the assignees. Immediately after de- 
claration of the bankruptcy, the commis- 
sioners are to appoint a time and place for 
the creditors to meet and choose assignees, 
and are directed to assign the bankrupt’s es- 
tate and effects to such persons as shall be 
chosen by the major part in value. 
The powers and duties of assignees are- 
principally those of collecting the bankrupt’s 
property, reducing the whole into ready mo- 
ney, and making distribution as early as pos- 
sible. One assignee is not answerable for the 
neglect of another. Assignees^ if they act im- 
properly, are not only liable at law to the cre- 
ditors for a breach of trust, but may be re- 
moved on account of misbehaviour, &c. by 
petitioning the lord chancellor. Upon the 
removal of an assignee, he is directed to join 
with the remaining one, in assignment to the 
latter and new assignee. 
Provisions for wife, children, Sec. By the 
statute of Eliz. the commissioners may as- 
sign any lands, &c. that the bankrupt shall 
have purchased jointly with his wife, and the 
assignment shall be effectual, against the bank- 
rupt, his wife, or children; but this shall not 
extend to conveyances made before the 
bankruptcy bona fide, and not to the use of 
the bankrupt himself only, or his heirs, and 
where the parties to the conveyance are not 
privy to the fraudulent purposes to deceive 
the creditors. 
Examination of the bankrupt. By the 5th 
Geo. II. the commissioners are empowered 
to examine the bankrupt, and ail others, as 
well by parqje, as by interrogations in writing. 
The said statute requires the bankrupt to dis- 
cover all his estate and effects, and how, and 
to whom, and in what manner, on what con- 
sideration, and at what time, he has disposed 
of it ; and all books, papers, and writings, re- 
lative thereto, of which he was possessed or 
interested, or whereby he or his family may 
expect any profit, advantage, &c. and on such 
examination he shall deliver up to the com- 
missioners all his effects, (except the neces- 
sary wearing apparel of himself, his wife, and 
