"own bills, was holden not to be within the statutes of bankrup's.

A farmer, who occasionally buys and sells hay, corn, horses, &c. with a view to profit, but without making them the means of seeking his living, does not thereby subject himself to the bankrupt laws.

A builder, who buys timber which he works into the houses which be builds, and selis the houses when built, is not a trader within the meaning of the bankrupt laws.

The principle of the bankrupt laws, as it is to be found in the statute 34 & 35 H. 8. c. 4. is " to prevent persons craftily obtaining into their hands great substance of other men's goods, and at their own wills and pleasures, consuming the substance obtained by the credit of other men:" and the subsequent statutes were made for the better providing against the persons described by that statute, and for the more accurately defining who ought to be taken to be a bankrupt; in no one of which is there any term made use of which is not descriptive of persons to whom, in the actual course of their business, extensive credit is given, and that for the very purpose of carrying it on. And where particular employments are not specified, the general description cannot be satisfied, unless there be both a buying and selling this is implied in the words, using the trade of merchandise; for a merchant is so denominated from his being a buyer to sell again. Hence it was holden', that a devisee for life of an estate, part of which consisted of brick ground, making bricks there for sale generally, with a view to profit, was not a trader within the meaning of the bankrupt laws, although he purchased the coals and some of the wood used in burning the bricks; for he could not be considered as the buyer of any thing to sell again, nor as a person, the course of whose business required that he should obtain great substance of other men's goods upon credit; and the seiling the soil, in a state essentially altered by various processes of manufacture, did not alter the character of the land-owner, nor convert him into a person, who could properly be said to carry on the trade of merchandise.

So building on a person's own land, for whatever purpose, cannot be considered as a buying and selling,

Contractors for victualling the royal navy, drovers of

u Stewart v. Ball, 2 Bos. and Pul. N. y Sutton v. Weeley, 7 East, 442. R. 78.

x Clarke v. Wisdom, 5 Esp. N. P. C.

147.

z Williams v. Stevens, 2 Camp. N. P.

C. 300.

a Littleton's case, 1 Vent. 270.

cattleb (6), farmers, graziers, innkeepers, alehouse-keepers or victuallers, and receivers-general of parliamentary taxes, are not objects of the bankrupt laws (8).

By particular statutes, the holders of stock in various trading companies, are declared not liable to be made bankrupts in respect of their stocks in such companies: as the members of the Bank of England, East India1, English Linen*, Guinea, London Assurance, Royal Exchange Assurance", South Sea Companies, &c. &c.

(6) A person who buys and sells cattle at one fair, keeps them three or four days on his own ground, and then drives them to another, is a drover within the meaning of this statute. Mills v. Hughes, Willes, 588. A farmer occupying a farm of the value of £700 per annum purchased cattle (beyond what his farm would maintain by its own produce) at one fair, kept them on his farm and sold them at another fair. It was holden, that such person was either farmer, grazier, or drover, within the meaning of this statute, and conse quently not subject to the bankrupt laws, Bolton v. Sowerby, B. R. Trio. 49 G. 3.

(7) In this case it was also found, that J. S. had built a ship, and had a share therein, and also 5001. stock upon the said ship ad merchandizandum, but it was not found that he traded therewith, or that he any wise traded in the ship; it was resolved by the court, that the building and having a share in a ship, was no more than if a man had a share in a barge or coach which were let to hire, &c. and that his having some stock in a ship did not make him a merchaut; because it was usual for persons to adventure some particular things in such a ship for such a voyage, but that would not make them traders within the statutes, &c. for by those statutes, professed merchants only were meant, or such who were in constant trading.

See also Cotton v. Daintry, I Vent. 29. and ex parte Bowes, 4 Vesey, jun. 168. where Lord Loughborough Ch. held, that the part owner of a ship who had let it out to freight, and received freight, was not an object of the bankrupt laws.

(8) Lord Kenyon C. J. held, that a schoolmaster's buying school books and shoes, and retailing them to his scholars, was not a trading within the bankrupt laws." Valentine v. Vaughan, Peake N. P. C. 76.

III. Of the several Acts of Bankruptcy (9).

THE several acts of bankruptcy, which are mentioned in stat. 13 Eliz. c. 7. s. 1. being repeated in the stat. 1 Jac. 1. c. 15. s. 2. it will not be necessary to set forth the statute of Elizabeth.

By stat. 1 J. 1. c. 15. s. 2. it is enacted, that any person using the trade of merchandize, &c. who shall,

1. "Depart the realm;"

2. "Or begin to keep house;"

3. "Or otherwise to absent himself;"

4. "Or suffers himself willingly to be arrested for any debt or other thing, not grown due, for money delivered, wares sold, or any other just thing or lawful cause, or good consideration or purposes;"

5. " Or shall suffer himself to be outlawed;"

6. "Or yield himself to prison;"

7. "Or willingly or fraudulently procure himself to be arrested, or his goods to be attached or sequestered;" 8. "Or depart from his dwelling-house;"

9. "Or cause to be made any fraudulent grant or conveyance of his lands, tenements, goods, or chattels;"

"To the intent, or (10) whereby his creditors may be

(9) It appears to have been the opinion of Lord Hardwicke Ch. ex parte Smith, cited in Alexander v. Vaughan, Cowp. 402. that an act of bankruptcy committed abroad would not support a com

in

inission.

(10) In Fowler v. Padget, 7 T. R. 509. it was holden that the word "or" in this part of the statute meant "and." But in Robertson v. Liddell, B. R. E. 48 G. 3. 9 East, 487. this construction was over-ruled, and it was decided that the words " or whereby" did not carry the sense any further than "to the intent;" and that they were equivalent to the words "or that thereby ;" and this construction of the statute was most consistent with the corresponding clause in the 13 Eliz. c. 7. and the general scope of the bankrupt laws; and consequently if any of the before specified acts were done with an intention to delay creditors, the party must be adjudged a bankrupt, although no actual delay were proved.

"defeated or delayed, for the recovery of their just and "true debts;" (11)

10. By stat. 21 Jac. 1. c. 19. s. 2. "Any person using the "trade of merchandize, &c. who shall, either by himself "or others, by his procurement, obtain any protection other "than such person as shall be lawfully protected by privi"lege of parliament;"

11. Or exhibit any petition or bill against his creditors, "to compel them to accept less than their just debts, or to procure time;'

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12." Or being arrested for debt, shall, after his arrest, "lie in prison two months or more, upon that or any other "arrest or detention in prison for debt;"

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13. Or being arrested for the sum of 1007. or more of "just debt, shall, after such arrest, escape out of prison;" "Shall be adjudged a bankrupt, and in the case of arrest or lying in prison, from the time of the first arrest."

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14. By stat. 5 G. 2. c. 30. s. 24. "If any bankrupt, "after issuing of any commission against him, pay to the person who sued out the same, or otherwise give or deli"ver to such person goods, or other satisfaction or security, "for his debt, whereby such person shall privately have " and receive more in the pound in respect of his debt than "the other creditors, such payment of money, delivery of "goods, or giving greater or other security or satisfaction, "shall be deemed to be an act of bankruptcy, whereby, on "good proof thereof, such commission shall and may be "superseded."

Doubts having arisen, whether a commission could be sued out against traders, entitled to privilege of parliament, during the continuance of such privilege, and such persons not being compellable to become bankrupts, by reason of the freedom of their persons from arrests upon civil process, it was enacted, by stat. 4 G. 3. c. 33. " that the creditors to "a certain value, viz. one creditor, or two, being partners, "to the amount of 100%., two creditors to the amount of "150/., and three to the amount of 2001. of any trader "within the description of the bankrupt laws, having pri

(11) The conclusion of the corresponding section in the statute of Elizabeth is, to the intent or purpose to defraud or hinder any creditor of his just debt or duty.

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"vilege of parliament, may (upon affidavit of the debt, and "trading of the debtor, filed of record in any of the courts' "at Westminster) sue out a summons, or original bill and summons, against such trader, and serve him with a copy; "and if he shall not, within two months after personal service, pay, secure, or compound the debt, or enter into "a bond in such sum, and with two such sureties as the court shall approve of, to pay such sum, as shall be re"covered in such action, with costs, he shall be adjudged a bankrupt from the time of the service of such summons.' This provision of the legislature was salutary, but having on some occasions, where bonds had been given in pursuance thereof, been rendered nugatory by the difficulty, and sometimes by the impossibility, of enforcing the entering appearances in the actions, for the payment of the sums to be recovered, in which such bonds had been given (12), it was enacted by stat. 45 G. 3. c. 124. s. 1. that," when "any summons, or original bill and summons, shall be sued out against any person, deemed a merchant, banker, bro"ker, factor, scrivener, or trader, within the description of "the acts relating to bankrupts, having privilege of par"liament, and such affidavit of the debt duly made and "filed, as in the act of the 4th G. 3. c. 33. mentioned, and "such merchant, &c. shall enter into such bonds as in the "said act mentioned, to pay such sum as shall be recovered "in such action, together with such costs as shall be given in the same; every such merchant, &c. shall also, "within two months after personal service of such summons, cause an appearance to be entered to such action "in the proper court in which the same shall have been "brought, and on default thereof he shall be adjudged "bankrupt froin the time of the service of such summons: "and any creditor may sue out a commission against any "such person, and proceed therein in like manner as against "other bankrupts.' And by the third section, after reciting, that the proceeding by distringas was extremely dilatory and expensive, it is enacted, that " when any summons, or original bill and summons, shall be sued out against any person having privilege of parliament, and no such athidavit shall be made and filed as in the said act of "the 4th G. S. c. 33. and hereinbefore is mentioned, if the

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"

(12) The inconveniences which resulted from the imperfect provision of the stat. 4 G. 3. c. 33. are fully set forth in a letter, signed Alfred, Cobbett's Political Register, vol. viii. p. 26.