428 Metropolitan and Provincial Association.- Professional Lists.—Letter Box. THE EDITOR'S LETTER BOX. ceived them and warehoused them with a wharfinger, informing the defendant of their arrival. The wharfinger handed to the ship- THE next volume of The Legal Observer ping agent a delivery warrant whereby the will be further enlarged, in order to increase goods were made deliverable to him or his as- the number and value of the REPORTS OF REsignees by indorsement, on payment of rent and charges. The agent indorsed and de- CENT DECISIONS, without curtailing any of livered this warrant to the defendant, who kept the Original Articles, or select Information, for it for several months, and, notwithstanding re- which the Work has been distinguished. We peated applications, did not pay the price of, trust, indeed, to improve also the scope of our or charges upon, the goods, nor return the warrant, but said he sent it to his solicitor, and original disquisitions. that he intended to resist payment, for that he In carrying the additional arrangements into had never ordered the goods; and that they effect, and to enable the Reports of Cases and would remain for the present in bond: Held, other Court business to be separated from the that there was no such delivery to, and acrest,-the work will be divided into two parts. ceptance by, the defendant of the goods, as to satisfy the 17th section of the Statute of Frauds. Farina v. Home, 16 M. & W. 119. B. & Cr. 423. [The remainder of the Decisions on the Construction of Statutes will be given in the next number.] The 1st Part, containing original articles on all projected alterations in the Law and Prac Case cited in the judgment: Bentall v. Burn, 3 tice ;-the state of the Profession and measures for its improvement;-New Statutes, with explanatory notes and disquisitions on their construction;-Parliamentary Bills, Reports and Returns:-Notes or Commentaries on important Decisions in Common Law, Equity and Conveyancing:-the Law of Railways, Insurance, and other Joint Stock Companies:-Reviews of New Books :-The Law of Attorneys and Costs, and the Examination of Articled Clerks :-Legal Education ;-Proceedings of Law Societies:-Legal Biography; Correspondence; Professional Lists, &c. METROPOLITAN AND PROVINCIAL ASSOCIATION. THE enrolment of members of this association is going forward daily. We exhort every practitioner not merely to send in his adhesion, but to call the attention of members of the legislature to the objects of the association. They are right and just, and ought to be supported by every one who is concerned in the due administration of our laws. The 2nd Part containing original and early Reports of every important Decision in all the Superior Courts, by Barristers of the several Courts :-New Rules and Orders of Court;an Analytical Digest of all Reported Cases in all the Courts-classified according to the MASTERS EXTRAORDINARY IN CHAN- leading subjects adjudicated upon; -Cause CERY. From July 27th, to August 20th, 1847, both inclusive, Ayre, John, jun., Bristol. Aug. 10. Lists ;-Circuits ;-Sittings; and every other information relating to the business of all the courts. Each Part will be separately paged in order to be bound in two volumes annually. The price will remain the same as at present, viz.: DISSOLUTIONS OF PROFESSIONAL PART. 8d., or stamped 9d. NERSHIPS. From July 27th, to August 20th, 1847, both inclusive, with dates when gazetted. Beales, John Edward, and Charles Philip Utton, Gill, Robert, and William Phillips, Easingwold, 13. Smith, Charles Henry, and John Henry Jones, 13, Duke Street, Manchester Square, Attorneys and Solicitors. July 27. "Tacitum" inquires, whether a creditor who, previous to the passing of the New County Courts Act, obtained a judgment for a debt not exceeding 201.; can summon the debtor before a judge of the New County Courts, under the 1st sect. of the Small Debts Act, 8 & 9 Vict. c. 127, such court at the time of the passing of the act not being in existence. Does not the new act give jurisdiction? The case of Wood v. Mytton, on a promissory note payable to the maker's order, regarding which a correspondent has inquired, will appear next week. We have not received the letter of A. on the assignment of a policy. The Legal Observer, DIGEST, AND JOURNAL OF JURISPRUDENCE. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1847. "Quod magis ad NOS Pertinet, et nescire malum est, agitamus." HORAT. THE LAST NEW BANKRUPT AND Commissioners of Bankruptcy under those INSOLVENT ACT. acts, and under the rules and orders made in pursuance thereof, remain in full force and effect. (Sect. 9.) We have been for several years past so accustomed to an annual change in the No part of either of the acts under which law relating to bankruptcy and insolvency, petitions were heretofore presented to the that we look for the act at the close of the Court of Bankruptcy, has been repealed session, as we do to see grouse or partridge by the 10 & 11 Vict. c. 102; but the at this season in the poulterers' shops, very jurisdiction is taken from the Court of much as matter of course. The act, passed Bankruptcy, and transferred and vested in in the last session, to unsettle the jurisdic- the Court for the Relief of Insolvent tion of the Courts of Bankruptcy, and Debtors in England, and in the new Court for the Relief of Insolvent Debtors, County Courts constituted under the act is to commence and take effect from the 9 & 10 Vict. c. 95. The jurisdiction, of 15th September instant. Our readers will which the Court of Bankruptcy is divested, possibly remember that, during the pro- is divided between the Insolvent Court gress of the bill through parliament, its and the County Courts, in the following leading provisions were repeatedly com- proportions. When an insolvent has remented upon, and its more striking omis- sided for six calendar months next immesions and defects pointed out, in these diately preceding the time of filing his pepages; but as it has now obtained the bind- tition, within any parish the distance ing force of a law, and comes into immediate operation, it is of importance that the profession and the public should have their early attention directed to its practical effects, even at the hazard of repeating some observations already published. The most striking change created by the 10 & 11 Vict. c. 102, is, that after the 14th September, the petitions heretofore presented to the Court of Bankruptcy for protection, under the statutes 5 & 6 Vict. c. 116, and 7 & 8 Vict. c. 96, can no longer be received in that court. With respect to petitions presented on or before that day, the provisions of the acts lastmentioned, and the jurisdiction of the The act itself is printed in extenso, ante, p. 310, and is cited as the 10 & 11 Vict. c. 102. VOL. XXXIV. No. 1,017. whereof, as measured by the nearest highway from the General Post-Office in London, to the parish church of such parish, shall not exceed 20 miles, the jurisdiction, as regards such insolvent, is to be in the Court for the Relief of Insolvent Debtors. When the insolvent resides beyond the jurisdiction of the Insolvent Court, and has resided within six months next immediately preceding the time of filing his petition, within the district of a County Court, the insolvent must prefer his petition to such County Court. Where the insolvent has not resided for six calendar months before the time he desires to file his petition, either within the district thus allotted to the Insolvent Court, or in the district of any County Court, it is provided that such insolvent may file his pe U 430 The Last New Bankrupt and Insolvent Act. tition in the Court for Relief of Insolvent benefit of the laws passed for the relief of Debtors, and that Court may either exer- insolvents, must still proceed under the cise jurisdiction in the matter of such pe- law which was in operation before the acts tition, or direct one of the County Courts last cited obtained the sanction of the to exercise such jurisdiction. (Sect. 8). legislature, and petition the Court for the The form of petition used in the Bank- Relief of Insolvent Debtors, under the 1 & ruptcy Court was provided by the stat. 2 Vict. c. 110. The forms, the course of 7 & 8 Vict. c. 96, (sched. A.,) and it was procedure, and the practical results expressly enacted, that any petition not in under the provisions of the acts heretofore the form prescribed should be dismissed, a administered in the Court of Bankruptcy, provision which was a constant occasion were novel, peculiar, and evidently not for complaint and regret on the part of framed with a desire to assimilate them to those entrusted with the administration of any system previously established. A the act, as they felt precluded from allow debtor at large, and not pressed by any ing any amendment in the petition after it creditor, or a debtor in custody, may pewas filed, and compelled to dismiss num- tition under those acts, and obtain a final berless petitions defective in form, without order to protect his person from being any respect for the merits, or the con- taken or detained under any process in scientious scruples which may have in- respect of the debts due or claimed to be duced the petitioners to alter the form, and due at the time of filing his petition. The adapt it to circumstances, before they pro- court may grant, or refuse, or delay grantceeded to swear (as the act obliged them ing, such final order, but has no power to to do) that the allegations therein con- punish in any case. The power of petitained were true. The act 10 & 11 Vict. tioning the Insolvent Court, under the c. 102, s. 16, declares, that the forms stat. 1 & 2 Vict. c. 110, is limited to pergiven in the schedules to the acts cited sons who shall be "in actual custody withmay be altered so far as to adapt them in the walls of some prison." The court to the change of jurisdiction by this act has authority to punish by a lengthened directed;" which, we presume, merely imprisonment in a variety of cases. The means, to change the title of the court and Insolvent Court, and, as we shall presently judges, but it does not authorize any see, the County Courts, are now required amendment of the petition, or any devia- to administer these two distinct systems, tion from the specified form; and we ap- the petitioner selecting that which he prehend, that in these particulars the deems preferable and most advantageous commissioners of the Insolvent Court and to himself. the judges of the County Courts will be, as With respect to petitions presented powerless, and feel themselves as much under the acts heretofore administered in shackled, as the Commissioners of Bank- the Court of Bankruptcy, the County rupts have been in administering those Courts, within their respective jurisdic tions, will in future have a direct original acts. The jurisdiction of the Court of Bank- jurisdiction. Such petitions will be filed, ruptcy, under the acts first referred to, it in the first instance, in those courts, and will be remembered, only extended to per- finally disposed of there without control or sons not being traders within the meaning appeal. The jurisdiction now conferred of the statutes in force relating to bank- on the County Courts, as regards petitions rupts on the 12th August, 1842, when the filed under the stat. 1 & 2 Vict. c. 110, 5 & 6 Vict. c. 116, came into operation; stands on a totally different footing. Our or to persons being such traders, but owing readers are aware that the Insolvent Comdebts amounting in the whole to less than missioners have been in the habit of mak3007. The jurisdiction now transferred to, ing three circuits in every year, for the and divided between, the Insolvent Court purpose of adjudicating upon petitions and the County Courts, as above stated, is filed by insolvents imprisoned in the various limited in the like manner. A trader county gaols of England and Wales. By owing debts exceeding 3007. has now no the 10th section of the recent act, those locus standi in the Insolvent Court or the circuits are abolished, and insolvents imCounty Court, under the 5 & 6 Vict. c. prisoned in any gaol beyond the distance 116, and the 7 & 8 Vict. c. 96, any more to which the jurisdiction of the Insolvent he had heretofore in the Court of Court is now restricted as above-mentioned, Bankruptcy. A person so circumstanced, are to have their cases adjudicated upon therefore, and who desires to obtain the hereafter by the judge of the County Court than The Last New Bankrupt and Insolvent Act, 431 in whose district the insolvent has resided. vent is transferred by this act, and on The machinery by which this transfer of every adjourned hearing, or shall not abide jurisdiction is effected appears to be at by the final judgment of such court." We once cumberous and defective. The pe-apprehend the intention of those who tition and schedule of any prisoner con- framed this clause was, that the parties fined in a county gaol is to be filed as at who entered into recognizances should not present, in the Insolvent Court in London; be discharged, because the time for hearand the Insolvent Court is to make an ing the insolvent's petition should be order, "referring the petition for hearing changed from that mentioned in the recogto the County Court within the district of nizance, pursuant to the provisions of this which such insolvent debtor is in custody, act. It appears to have been overlooked, and transmit such petition and schedule to however, that the country insolvents now such court for hearing accordingly." The out on bail, will have to be heard, not only judge of the County Court being thus at a different time, but at different places seised of the cause, as it were, is em- from those originally fixed and mentioned powered to appoint a time and place for in the recognizances. The Insolvent Comthe prisoner to be brought up, and has the missioners have not held their courts in same authority with respect to the petition, every town in which a County Court has and as to all matters requisite for the re- been established: their circuit towns were manding or discharging such prisoner, and usually the county towns. For instance, as to his schedule, creditors, and assignees, all the insolvents in custody within the as the Insolvent Court would have had if West Riding of Yorkshire attended the the matter remained to be adjudicated Commissioner's Court at Wakefield, and there. The petition and schedule, with the recognizances to the provisional asall judgments, rules, orders, and proceed- signee in all bail cases arising in the West ings in respect thereof, in the County Riding are to attend at that town. WakeCourt, are to be signed by the judge of field is not the only town, however, in the that court, and returned to the Court for West Riding in which a County Court is the Relief of Insolvent Debtors, to be kept established. The West Riding contains as a record of that court. The section is no less than 23 towns, besides Wakefield, silent as to the period when the proceed-in which County Courts are holden under ings in any case are to be transmitted by the 9 & 10 Vict. c. 95. The insolvents the County Court to the Insolvent Court, who have resided at Leeds, or Huddersor to what court application is to be made field, or Boston, must be heard before the after the proceedings are transmitted to County Court judges for those districts the Insolvent Court, in cases where pro- under the new act, and not by the judge perty is acquired by the insolvent subse- who sits at Wakefield; and what validity quently to his discharge, or in the nu- can the recognizances have to ensure an merous cases in which applications are now attendance at other places, when the conmade to the Insolvent Court in reference dition is, that the insolvent shall attend at to assignees, long after the discharge of Wakefield? The clause we have cited, the insolvent. however, it will be observed, refers only to The clause in the new act, with respect recognizances already taken, or which may to the recognizances of sureties, also ap- be taken before the 15th September, when pears to have been framed in such a the new act comes into operation. No manner as to suggest numerous doubts provision is made in this clause, or in any and difficulties. Under the 1 & 2 Vict. c. other part of the act, as to the manner in 110, various persons have entered into re- which, or the persons by whom recognicognizances to the provisional assignee of zances are to be taken hereafter. the Insolvent Court, conditioned that the left in doubt, therefore, whether the reInsolvents should duly appear at the places cognizance of an insolvent, entitled to and time therein mentioned. The 10 & 11 his discharge before hearing, is to be enVict. c. 102, s. 11, after reciting this, tered into in the Insolvent Court in enacts, That every such recognizance London, or in the County Court where his shall extend to bind the persons who may petition is to be finally heard? have entered into the same, in case the insolvent debtor therein mentioned shall not, at the time appointed in such recognizance, duly appear before the County Court to which the matter of such insol It is The authority heretofore exercised by the parishes, &c. forming the district of each court town, in Mr. Jagoe's Book on the County Courts, p. 18, 3rd edit., Appendix. U 2 See these towns enumerated, together with 432 The Last New Bankrupt and Insolvent Act. the Court of Bankruptcy under the Small has no direct connection with any other Debts Act, (8 & 9 Vict. c. 127,) is trans-provision in the act, that no Judge of the ferred to the Court for the Relief of Insol- County Court shall be capable of sitting vent Debtors, and the Judges of the County as a member of the House of Commons. Courts, in the same manner and with the (sect. 18.) same restrictions as to the limits of the With regard to the jurisdiction, transjurisdiction, as the jurisdiction with referred from the Bankruptcy Court to the gard to insolvents petitioning under the Court for the Relief of Insolvent Debtors, acts 5 & 6, and 7 & 8 Vict. No provision we understand that the learned Commishowever is made for summoning a judgment debtor, under the 8 & 9 Vict. c. 127, who does not happen to have resided for six months in any one place! sioners of the latter court are sedulously and commendably engaged, in framing rules and regulations, for the purpose of giving effect, so far as they can, to the intentions of the legislature; and with referThe Court of Review in Bankruptcy is ence to petitions filed in that court, under abolished in name by the late act, but it is the 1 & 2 Vict., and which are to be diexpressly provided, that "all the jurisdic- rected by the Insolvent Court to the Judges tion, power, authority, and privileges of of the County Court for adjudication, as the said court," shall be vested in and above described, the Insolvent Commishereafter exercised by "such one of the sioners have addressed a circular to the Vice-Chancellors as the Lord Chancellor Judges of the several County Courts, dated shall from time to time be pleased to ap- 17th August, 1847. We shall only add, point," and that all persons holding office that although strongly impressed with in the Court of Review, shall continue to the palpable absurdity of calling upon hold the same and perform the duties under the Insolvent Court to administer two disthe new jurisdiction. And it is further tinct and dissimilar systems of Insolprovided, that all laws and orders relating vent Law, we are convinced that the able to the practice and proceedings in the and experienced judges who preside in that Court of Review, and the right of appeal court, will use their best endeavours to therefrom, shall be applicable to the juris- discharge the anomalous duties imposed diction to be created by the appointment upon them with advantage to the public. of the Vice-Chancellor. Much of the authority exercised by the Court of Review is of a formal nature, which might with undeniable advantage to all parties, be vested in the Commissioners in Bankruptcy, but no amendments of this nature appear to have been contemplated by those who framed the act under consideration. The other provisions contained in the recent act, do not involve any practical change of importance. The Lord Chancellor is authorized to give directions for the sittings of the Court of Bankruptcy elsewhere than in London; and to order payment of the travelling expenses of the Commissioner and Register in such cases, a power which we incline to think the Lord Chancellor already possessed under the 7 & 8 Vict. c. 96, s. 44, although it has never been exercised. In contemplation, we presume, of some intended alterations in the Law relating to Bankruptcy and Insolvency next session,-it is provided, that if the office of Commissioner of the Insolvent Court, or of the Court of Bankruptcy should become vacant, the vacancy shall not be filled up until after the termination of the next session of parliament, (sect. 17,) and it is declared by another clause, which The following is the Circular: "Portugal Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields. "Sir,-The late act, 10 & 11 Vict. c. 102, having thrown upon you certain of the duties heretofore performed by a commissioner of this copies in duplicate of the rules and free list court, we think it right to furnish you with which have been in use here; also with the forms which have been used in country cases, preparatory to the circuit, and on the circuit. They were framed with much care and such of them as concern the business which is to be performed in your court, will easily be adapted to its use by a few obvious verbal alterations. of : "The prisons in your districts are those "We shall be obliged by your informing us where your office or offices will be for the business of insolvent debtors confined in each of these prisons; that is to say, the places at which the schedule and books will be directed by you be given out to the attorneys, where searches to be lodged, where the orders for hearing will will be made, and from which office copies will be obtained, and subpoenas issued. 'We propose to follow the same course as heretofore, when the schedule was lodged with the clerk of the peace; namely, to give it out to the insolvent's attorney, together with the order of reference which the act requires to be made. "The schedule, &c. cannot be returned to this court through the same channel; but must be sent direct from the custody of the county |