"Ego vero malo virum qui pecunia egeat, quam pecuniam quæ viro." Cicero de Off. Liber. 2 § 20.

BALTIMORE:

PUBLISHED BY JOHN J. HARROD.

WM. WOODDY, PRINTER.

DISTRICT OF MARYLAND, SS.

BE IT REMEMBERED, That on this thirteenth day December, in the fifty-fourth year of ❖ the Independence of the United States of America, JOHN J. HARROD, SEAL. of the said District, hath deposited in this office, the title of a book, the right whereof he claims as proprietor, in the words following, to wit:

"A Compilation of the Insolvent Laws of Maryland: together with the Decisions of the Court of Appeals of Maryland, and of the Supreme Court of the United States, upon the subject of Insolvency; with a copious index. By a member of the Baltimore Bar. "Ego vero malo virum qui pecunia egeat, quam pecuniam quæ viro."-Ciccro de Off. Liber. 2. § 20.

In conformity to the act of the Congress of the United States, entitled "An Act for the encour
agement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts and books, to the authors and
proprietors of such copies during the times therein mentioned;" and also to the act entitled
An Act supplementary to the act, entitled an act for the encouragement of learning, by
securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies,
during the times therein mentioned, and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of design-
ing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints."
PHILIP MOORE,

Clerk of the District of Maryland.

PREFACE.

.

THE Compiler, unlike many who have engaged in similar undertakings, cannot consider his production of sufficient consequence to authorize the insertion of a history of its rise and progress. The Laws of Maryland concerning Insolvency, and the Decisions pronounced upon the various cases embraced under that class, by the Supreme Court of the United States, and the Appellate Court of Maryland, are interspersed throughout twenty or thirty volumes, recourse to which is at all times inconvenient, and in many instances, impracticable at the moment it becomes requisite. A Compendium, embracing all those Laws and Decisions, it was thought, would, therefore, prove acceptable, not to the Profession only, but also to the rest of the community, a very great part of whom have not ready access to those volumes, even when disposed, to undergo the trouble necessarily attendant upon the investigation, or to incur the risk of misconstruing those Laws and Decisions, when found.

Besides, the mind is invariably more or less distracted by the fact of one's attention being directed to so many different books: whereas, by presenting the whole subject at one view, without any extraneous matter being permitted to intervene, a thorough acquaintance with that subject can be more speedily attainedwhich, upon the principle that "time is money," is no unimportant consideration.

So far, therefore, as this object shall be attained by means of the following compendium, the labour bestowed on it, will not be regretted; and so far will its claims upon public attention, be well founded.

Unusual as is the manner in which the Index to the Insolvent Laws of Maryland is arranged, it will be found more conducive

to facility in becoming acquainted with those Laws, than the
ordinary mode would probably have been considered: and the
more so, as the Index in question is composed of a very limited
number of general heads-such as Applicant, Trustee, &c.

Apologies for the inaccuracies, be they few or many, which

these pages may be found to contain, are refrained from, since

apologies, how smooth and humble soever the style in which

they might be framed, would still leave those errors uncor-

rected.

Baltimore, March 11, 1831.

PART FIRST,

CONTAINING THE

INSOLVENT LAWS OF MARYLAND,

AND AN

Index to the same, preceded by a Catalogue of those Laws.

"There are two capital faults in our law, with relation to civil debts-one is, that every man is presumed solvent, a presumption in innumerable cases, directly against truth. Therefore, the debtor is ordered, on a supposition of ability and fraud, to be coerced his liberty, until he makes payment. By this means, in all cases of civil insolvency, without a pardon from his creditor, he is to be imprisoned for life: and thus a miserable mistaken invention of artificial science, operates to change a civil into a criminal judgment, and to scourge misfortune or indiscretion with a punishment which the law does not inflict on the greatest crimes.

The next fault is, that the inflicting of that punishment, is not on the opinion of an equal, and public judge: but is referred to the arbitrary discretion of a private-nay, interested and irritated individual. He who formally is, and substantially ought to be the judge, is in reality, no more than ministerial, a mere executive instrument of a private man, who is at once judge and party. Every idea of judicial order, is subverted by this procedure If the insolvency be no crime, why is it punished with arbitrary imprisonment? If it be a crime, why is it delivered into private hands, to pardon without discretion, or to punish without mercy, and without measure. [Burke's speech previous to the election.]

Such is the reasoning of Burke, upon this subject, and such, it is deemed, is the most appropriate preface to the following

pages.

In the following pages, it is designed to offer FIRST, a compilation of the various enactments, on the subject of insolvency,