The Law and Practice in Bankruptcy

PREFACE.

THE greater part of the manuscript of this little work was compiled by me many years since, not with a view to publication, but merely for my private use. Indeed, at that time, the Profession were so abundantly supplied with works upon the Bankrupt Law,—so many gentlemen had written, and so ably, upon the subject, that, so far from having any inducement to publish what I had thus compiled, I had many motives to dissuade me from doing so.

The works hitherto extant upon this subject, however, have now become nearly obsolete; the recent act of parliament has made so many, and in many cases such minute alterations in the Bankrupt Law, that the old-established works upon the subject are no longer guides that can at all be depended upon; they can no longer be safely used as books of reference, except by persons thoroughly conversant with the subject, and well aware of the instances in which it has been affected by the recent statute. Nor have the writers of these works intimated any intention of altering them, so as to adapt them to the present state of the law: if they had, so fully do I appreciate the value of their writings, that I think I should be the last person who would feel an inclination to compete with them.

Under these circumstances, therefore, I have placed my manuscript in the hands of my publishers,-altered very materially, of course, from what it was originally, and in many parts altogether re-written. Adapting what I had formerly written to the recent act of parliament, and engrafting the one thus upon the other, was a work of great delicacy, and, under the peculiar circumstances of the case, required much consideration and caution: but I have taken infinite pains with the work in this respect, and I think it will be found correct; I think the reader will find it to comprise the whole of the law relating to bankrupts, as that law stands at present.

The manner in which the work is arranged is very simple. It is divided into two books: the one containing the law, the other the practice and forms, in cases of bankruptcy. The first book contains three chapters: the first,

treating of the law in ordinary cases of bankruptcy, arranged in sections, in the order in which the subject of each usually occurs in practice; the second, treating of Joint and Separate Commissions; and the third, treating of the Bankruptcy of Members of Parliament. The second book contains, 1st, the practice, and the forms necessary upon the striking of the docket and issuing the commission; 2ndly, the practice, and the forms necessary at the private meeting; 3rdly, the practice, and the forms necessary at the first public meeting; 4thly, the practice, and the forms necessary at the second public meeting; 5thly, the practice, and the forms necessary at the third public meeting; 6thly, the practice, and the forms necessary at other meetings; such as, meetings to consent to the assignees commencing suits, &c.; for the sale of the bankrupt's lands, &c.; for declaring a first, further, or final dividend; forms in the case of supersedeas; forms of petitions, affidavits, orders, &c.; forms under joint commissions; and forms under commissions against Members of Parliament.

As to the manner in which all this has been done, I shall, of course, say nothing. I do trust, however, that the unassuming form in which this little work is offered to the public, the plain and unaffected style in which it is written, will acquire for it some portion of that favour which has been unsparingly bestowed upon my other professional works. In each of my former works I attempted to simplify my subject, to render a knowledge of it easy of attainment, and, by a simple and familiar arrangement of the matter, to make the work desirable as a book of reference; and I succeeded. I have endeavoured to do the same in the present work, whether successfully or not is for the Profession to determine.

Books