indorsee, not only the amount of the bill, but also interest and all charges. In the absence of notification of such protest, the loss falls on the holder of the bill.

63. When a bill is refused, how soon must it be demanded of the drawer?-470.

As soon as conveniently may be.

CHAPTER XXXI.

OF TITLE BY BANKRUPTCY.

1. Who may become a bankrupt, and who may not?-471. No one shall be capable of being made a bankrupt, but a trader.

2. What privileges do the laws of bankruptcy confer on the credi tors, and what on the debtor ?—472.

They confer privileges on the creditors, by compelling the bankrupt to give up all his effects to their use, without any fraudulent concealment; on the debtor, by exempting him from the rigor of the general law, and giving him liberty as to his person, or body.

3. What is the definition of a bankrupt ?—4' 7.

A bankrupt is a trader who secretes himself, or does certain other acts tending to defraud his creditors.

4. By what acts may a man become a bankrupt?-478, 479. The particular acts of bankruptcy, which render a man

a bankrupt, are:

1. Departing from the realm.

2. Departing from his own house, with intent to secrete himself and avoid his creditors.

3. Keeping his own house privately.

4. Procuring or suffering himself willingly to be arrested, or outlawed, or imprisoned, without just and lawful cause.

5. Procuring his money, goods, chattels, and effects, to be attached or sequestrated by any legal process.

6. Making any fraudulent conveyance of his property to a friend, or secret trustee.

7. Procuring any protection, not being himself privileged by parliament, in order to screen his person from arrest.

8. Endeavoring or desiring, by any petition to the king, or bill exhibited, in any of the king's courts, against any creditors, to compel them to take less than their just debts, or to procrastinate the time of payment originally contracted for.

9. Lying in prison for two months, or more, upon arrest, or other detention for debt without finding bail, in order to obtain his liberty.

10. Escaping from prison after an arrest for a just debt of £100, or upwards.

11. Neglecting to make satisfaction for any just debt to the amount of £100, within two months after service of legal process for such debt, upon any trader having privilege of parliament.

5. What if the bankrupt is in default of either surrender of himself, or conformity to the statutes of bankruptcy?-481.

He shall be guilty of felony without benefit of clergy, and shall suffer death, and his goods and estate shall be distributed among his creditors.

6. What are the duties and powers of the commissioners ?—481.

They are to examine the bankrupt touching all matters relating to his trade and effects. They may also summon before them, and examine, the bankrupt's wife, and any other person whatsoever, as to all matters relating to the bankrupt's affairs. And, in certain cases, may commit the bankrupt to prison without bail.

1. What if the bankrupt conceals or embezzles any effects to the amount of £20, or withholds any books or writings, with intent to defraud his creditors ?-482.

He shall be guilty of felony without benefit of clergy; and his goods and estates shall be divided among his creditors.

8. What, unless it shall appear that his inability to pay his debts arose from some casual loss?-482.

He may, upon conviction by indictment of such gross misdemeanor, be set upon the pillory for two hours, and have one of his ears nailed to the same and cut off.

9. When shall no allowance or indemnity be given to the bankrupt?-484.

Allowance or indemnity shall not be given him unless his certificate be signed and allowed; and, also, if any creditor produces a fictitious debt, and the bankrupt does not make discovery of it, but suffers the fair creditors to be imposed upon, he loses all title to these advantages.

10. As to what only are persons who have been once cleared by the bankrupt, or by an insolvent act, indemnified, in case they become bankrupts again ?—484.

Unless they pay full fifteen shillings in the pound, they are only indemnified as to the confinement of their bodies.

11. Who alone is not within the statutes of bankruptcy ?—486. The king is not within the statutes of bankrupts; for if, after the act of bankruptcy committed, and before the assignment of the bankrupt's effects, an extent issues for the debt of the crown, the goods are bound thereby.

12. What acts may, and may not, the assignees of a bankrupt do without the consent of the creditors ?—486.

The assignees may pursue any legal method of recovering property vested in them, by their own authority but cannot commence a suit in equity, nor compound any debts owing to the bankrupt, nor refer any matters to arbitration, without the consent of the creditors, or the major part of them in value.

CHAPTER XXXII.

OF TITLE BY TESTAMENT AND ADMINISTRATION

1. What is a testament; and what is an administration ?—490. The method of acquiring the personal property, according to the express directions of the deceased proprietor, we call a testament. The method, which is also according to the will of the deceased proprietor, not expressed, indeed, but presumed by the law, we call an administration.

2. Are testaments of antiquity?-490, 491.

They are of very high antiquity. We find them in use among the ancient Hebrews. In England, the power of bequeathing is coeval with the first rudiments of the law, but it did not extend originally to all a man's personal estate.

3. What was the law as to bequests ?-492, 493.

Glanvil informs us, that by the common law, as it stood in the reign of Henry the Second, a man's goods were divided into three equal parts; of which one went to his heirs or lineal descendants, another to his wife, and the third was at his own disposal; or, if he died without a wife, he might then dispose of one moiety, and the other went to his children; and so, e converso, if he had no children, his wife was entitled to one moiety, and he might bequeath the other; but if he died without either wife or issue, the whole was at his own disposal. The shares of the wife and children were called their reasonable parts. This was the law at the time of Magna Charta. In disposing of his third part or moiety, he was bound, by the custom of many places, to remember his lord and the church, by leaving them his two best chattels, which was the origin of heriots and mortuaries.

4. What is the law, at present, as to bequests ?-492.

The ancient law became altered by imperceptible degrees, and the deceased may now, by will, bequeath the whole of his goods and chattels.

5. When does a man die intestate ?-494,

When a person made no disposition of such of his goods as were testable, he was and is said to die intestate.

6. To whom did the goods of an intestate formerly go?-494. The king was entitled to seize upon his goods, as the parens patriæ, and the general trustee of the kingdom. This prerogative the king continued to exercise for some time by his own ministers of justice, and it was granted out as a franchise to many lords of manors and others. Afterward the crown, in favor of the church, invested the prelates with this branch of the prerogative; which was done, saith Perkins, because it was intended by the law, that spiritual men are of better conscience than laymen, and that they had more knowledge what things would conduce to the benefit of the soul of the deceased.

7. How far extended the power of the ordinary over the goods of intestates?-494.

He might seize them and keep them without wasting, and also might give, alien, or sell them at his will, and dispose of the money in pious uses; and if he did otherwise, he broke the confidence which the law reposed in him. So that, properly, the whole interest and power which were granted to the ordinary, were only those of being the king's almoner within his diocese ; in trust to distribute the intestate's goods in charity to the poor, or in pious uses. As he had thus the disposition of intestates' effects, the probate of wills followed of course.

8. What abuse followed?-495.

The clergy took to themselves (under the name of the church and poor) the whole residue of the deceased's estate, after the two-thirds of his wife and children were deducted; without paying even his lawful debts or other charges thereon.

9. How was this abuse in part corrected?-495.

By the statute of Westm. 2d, it was enacted, that the ordinary shall be bound to pay the debts of the intestate, so far as his goods will extend, in the same manner that executors were bound in case the deceased left a will.