NEW LAW OF BANKRUPTCY IN ENGLAND.

Westport Times, Volume IV, Issue 640, 2 April 1870, Page 3

NEW LAW OF BANKRUPTCY IN ENGLAND.

A new law of bankruptcy came into operation in England on the Ist of January. By this Act the Bankrupt's duty is to aid to the utmost of his power the trustee in the realisation of his property and the distribution of it among his creditors. He is to produce a satisfactory statement of his affairs at the first meehing of his creditors, and to be publicly examined thereon, and to do all such acts as may be necessary to enable the trustee to obtain possession of his property, and and at the close of the bankruptcy the bankrupt may apply for his discharge ; but he will not be entitled to such discharge until he can show either that he has paid ten shillings in the pound, or that the creditors have passed a special resolution that his bankruptcy, or the failure to pay ten shillings in the pound, has arisen from circumstances for which the bankrupt could not beheld justly responsible, and that they desired the order of discharge ; and the court is at liberty to suspend or withhold the order under certain specified circumstances of misconduct on the part of the bankrupt. When a bankrupt fails to obtain this order of discharge he will remain protected against every debt provable under the bankruptcy until the expiration of three years from the close of the bankruptcy. If during that period he pay such sum to his creditors as will, in the whole, make up ten shillings in the pound without interest, he will be entitled to his discharge; otherwise, at the expiration of the period, any unpaid balance of a proved debt will be doomed to be a judgment-debt, and may be enforced against the property

of the bankrupt to the extent of and in the maimer directed by the court. The plan of compelling the debtor to meet his creditors and answer their questions as to his debts and liabilities is deserving of much praise, as it prevents concealment, and is the only method by which reliable information can be obtained. The power which the court is authorised to put in execution over a bankrupt is very considerable. It iuay order that, for any such time as may be expedient, all post letters addressed to a bankrupt shall be re-directed or delivered, by order of the PostmasterGeneral, to the trustee, or to such person as the court may direct, and "the court may cause a debtor to be arrested, and any books, papers, &c, in his possession to be seized, either in cases where there is reason to believe he will go abroad or abscond with a view of avoiding service of the petition, or of avoiding examination in respect of his affairs ; or where, after a petition has been presented, there is probable cause for believing that he is about to remove his goods, with a view to defeat or delay the right of his creditors, or is about to conceal his goods, or remove them from his possession without the sanction of the trustee. Such are some of the principal provisions of the new law, and it is probable that a most beneficial change will be effected with regard to bankrupts' estates, which will be for the advantage of the honest debtor and the general public.

The late Eev. Dr John Thomson of Markinch had been preaching on the moral depravity of man, and the evils of licentiousness. Returning to the manse through the churchyard he overheard the following colloquy between Johnny Spittal and Davie Thompson, two of his more errant parishioners:—"Weel, Davie, did you hear a' yon ?" " Deed did I, Johnny, man." "An' what thocht ye o't a', Davie ?." " Deed, Johnny man, if he hadna been au awfu' chield himsel, he wadna kent sae weel about it." An Irishman, recommending a cow, said she .would give good milk year after year without having calves, because it ran in the breed, as she came from a cow that never had a calf. A Cincinnati jury sat upon the body of a man who had been beaten to death by a dozen ruffians, and returned a verdict of "Death by compression of the brain from excitement brought on by an altercation."