for his support, not exceeding three guineas a- 
week. At the meeting at which the trustee is 
elected, three commissioners are to be chosen to 
audit his accounts, to fix the commission to which 
he shall be entitled, and to advise and concur 
with him in compromises and submissions as to 
the bankrupt’s estate. These commissioners are 
not. entitled to purchase any part of the bank- 
rupt estate. 
It is the duty of the trustee to recover and 
convert into cash, as soon as possible, the estate 
of the bankrupt, which shall be a fund of division 
among those who were creditors prior to the se- 
questration. All preferences or conveyances in 
security of prior debts, which have been granted 
by the bankrupt to prior creditors within sixty 
days of the application for sequestration, are pre- 
sumed to have been fraudulent, and are liable to 
be reduced ; and all arrestments and poindings 
used by individual creditors, within the same 
period, are void, and give no preference, except 
that the Jone fide arrester or poinder is entitled 
to retain his expenses of diligence, and ten per 
cent. more on the price or appraised value. All 
bona fide transactions with the bankrupt in the 
buying and selling of goods, and paying or re- 
ceiving of money, previous to the sequestration, 
are safe from challenge. 
The trustee must keep regular accounts, and 
lodge the money recovered ina bank; and where 
sufficient funds are realized, the first dividend is 
payable on the first day after the expiration of 
eight months from the date of the first deli- 
verance, and after due advertisement, a dividend 
shall be paid to those creditors who have pro- 
duced their grounds of debt and affidavits. When 
the term of payment of any debt is not arrived 
a proportional discount shall be made, and the 
debt ranked accordingly. Where a debt is con- 
tingent, a dividend corresponding to the debt 
shall be set aside and deposited in the bank until 
the contingency be declared. At the end of 
twelve months, a second dividend shall be made ; 
and, in like manner, dividends at the end of 
every four months, till the whole funds be divid- 
ed. But at the expiry of a year and a half from 
the sequestration, four-fifths of the creditors may 
order the whole outstanding debts, &c., belong- 
ing to the estate to be sold, for the purpose of 
making a final division. 
After the second dividend, the bankrupt, with 
concurrence of the trustee and four-fifths of the 
creditors in number and value, may apply to the 
court, who are authorized to grant him a final 
discharge of all debts contracted prior to the se- 
questration, if cause be not shown to the con- 
trary. 
As it is sometimes for the advantage of all par- 
_ ties to settle by composition, the statute declares, 
that the bankrupt may, at the meeting after his 
second examination, offer to settle by composi- 
tion ; and if this offer is approved of by nine- 
tenths in value of the creditors present, another 
BANKRUPTCY. 
323 
meeting shall be called to consider of it; and if 
at this second meeting nine-tenths of the credi- 
tors approve of the offer, a report of the proceed- 
ings shall be laid before the court; and if it shall 
appear that the offer is reasonable, and has been 
assented to by a majority in number and nine- 
tenths in value of the whole creditors assembled, 
the proceedings in the sequestration shall cease, 
and the court shall declare the trustee exoner- 
ated, and the bankrupt discharged, except as to 
the payment of the composition. 
Such are the general outlines of the law of 
bankruptcy in Scotland. It resembles that of 
England in some of its general features, though 
there is a strong and marked distinction betwixt 
the two systems in many particulars. 
In England traders only, as defined by the sta- 
tute 6° George IV. c. 16, can be made bankrupt. 
The effects of every other description of persons 
are left to the remedies of common law, and 
to be attached and carried off by the diligence of 
individual creditors, but by 7° and 8° Vict., c. 70, 
@ person not coming within the operation of the 
bankrupt acts, may present a petition to the 
Court-of-bankruptcy, and, on compliance with 
the terms of the act, may effect a composition 
with his creditors, and obtain protection from 
arrest. 
Certain acts are defined by the statute 6° Geo. 
IV., c. 16, as marks of bankruptcy. The act en- 
acts, that if any trader shall depart this realm, 
that is with a view to defraud his creditors, of 
which intention a jury must decide; or being 
out of this realm shall remain abroad, the word 
realm here meaning simply the jurisdiction of the 
English courts ; or “shall depart from his dwell- 
ing-house, or otherwise absent himself, or begin 
to keep his house,” that is to deny himself to his 
creditors, or “suffer himself to be arrested, or 
his goods, money, or chattels, to be attached or 
sequestrated, or taken in execution, or make any 
fraudulent grant or conveyance of any of his 
lands, tenements, goods, or chattels,” or make 
any fraudulent surrender or gift thereof, every 
such trader so doing, “with intent to defeat or 
delay his creditors,” shall be deemed thereby to 
have committed an act of bankruptcy. The 5° 
and 6° Vict., c. 122, added to the list of persons 
who may be made bankrupt. With regard to 
arrest, however, it is to be observed that the 
presumption of insolvency will only arise from 
it if the party remain in prison 21 days with- 
out being able to promise bail. The commis- 
sion of any one of these acts invalidates all 
the debtor’s future transactions, and—until the 
1° & 2° Will. IV., c. 56—entitled a creditor, toa 
certain extent, to apply for a commission of 
bankruptcy, which was immediately granted, of 
course, by the Lord-chancellor vesting the bank- 
rupt’s estate in certain commissioners, who were 
empowered to lock up his shop, and to order his 
person into custody to undergo the necessary ex- 
aminations. As this commission was granted 
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