BANKRUPTCY. 
No one can be a bankrupt, on account 
©f any debt, which he is not compellable by 
law to discharge, as infants or married wo- 
men. And if a single woman be a trader, 
and committing any act of bankruptcy, af- 
terwards marry, a commission issued against 
her after such marriage, cannot be support- 
ed. But according to the custom of Lon- 
don, where a married woman is sole trader, 
she is held liable to a commission of bank- 
ruptcy 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 departure within the meaning of the 
statutes. 
Departing from the dwelling house. Such 
departure must also be with intent to de- 
fraud and delay creditors ; for the departure 
with an intent to delay has been held in- 
sufficient, without an actual delay of some 
creditors. 
Beginning to keep the house, the being 
denied to a creditor, who calls for money ; 
but an order to be denied, is not enough 
without an actual denial, and that also to a 
creditor who has a debt demandable at the 
time. 
Voluntary arrest, not only for a fictitious 
debt, but even for a just one, if done with 
the intent to delay creditors, is an act of 
bankruptcy. 
Suffering outlawry, with an 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 proclama- 
tions after it, tinless such outlawry were ori- 
ginally fraudulent. 
Escaping from prison. Being arrested 
for a just debt of 1001. or upwards, and es- 
caping against the consent of the sheriff. 
Fraudulent procurement of goods to be 
attached or sequestered. 
A fraudulent execution, though avoid 
against creditors, is not within the mean- 
ing of the words attachment, or sequestra- 
tion, used in the statute ; because they re- 
late only to proceedings used in London, 
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 of 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 the bail is 
fairly put in, and the party at a future day 
surrenders in discharge of his bail, the two 
months are computed from the time of the 
surrender. 
BANKRUPTCY, proceedings of, under 
a'commission. The Lord Chancellor is em- 
powered to issue a commission of bankrupt, 
and is bound to grant it as a matter of 
right. By 5 Geo. II. c. 30, no commission 
can issue, unless upon the petition of a sin- 
gle creditor, to whom the bankrupt owes a 
debt, which shall amount to 1001. the debt 
of two or more, being partners, shall amount 
to 1501. and of three or more to 2001. 
If the debt against the bankrupt amount 
to the sum required, it is not material, though 
the creditor should have acquired it for less. 
If a creditor to the full 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 
equitable 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. 
If the creditor, for a debt at law, have 
the body of his debtor in execution, he can- 
not at the same time sue out a commission 
upon it ; that being, in point of law, a satis- 
faction 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 ad- 
judge the party a bankrupt. They are au- 
thorized to issue a warrant under their hands 
and seals, for the seizure of all the bank- 
rupt’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 
