and adjudged an act of bankruptcy: provided, that no commission of bankrupt shall issue against such person upon such act of bankruptcy, after the said court or commissioner shall have ordered such prisoner to be discharged forthwith or at any future period, or not to be discharged until a certain period. § 14.

Assignees shall cause fourteen days' notice to be given in the London Gazette, and such one or more newspaper as the said court or commisioner shall order, of the day on which, and place where, a dividend shall be made among the creditors, unless such prisoner, or his or her assignees, or any other creditor, shall object to any debt, in which case the same shall be examined into by the said court or commissioner; and every such prisoner shall be thenceforth discharged from the debts of all such creditors who shall accept any such dividend; and it shall be lawful for the said court or commissioner to make an order accordingly, specifying the debts from which such prisoner shall be so discharged. § 15.

The 3 Geo. IV. c. 39. intituled, "An act for preventing frauds upon creditors by secret warrants of attorney to confess judgment;" shall extend to the provisional or other assignee of every prisoner who shall, after the expiration of twenty-one days next after his execution of such warrant of attorney or cognovit actionem as therein mentioned, apply by petition to the said court for his or her discharge from confinement; and such provisional or other assignee shall be entitled to recover back and receive, for the use of the creditors of such prisoner, all and every the monies levied or effects seized under or by virtue of any such judgment or execution. § 16.

And if any prisoner who shall file his petition for his discharge shall, before or after his imprisonment, being in insolvent circumstances, voluntarily convey, assign, transfer, charge, deliver, or make over any estate, real or personal, security for money, bond, bill, note, money, property, goods, or effects whatsoever, to any creditor or creditors, every such conveyance, assignment, transfer, charge, delivery, or making over, shall be deemed to be fraudulent and void: provided always, that no such conveyance, assignment, transfer, charge, delivery, or making over, shall be so deemed fraudulent or void, unless made within three months before the filing of the said petition, or with the view or intention of filing a petition. § 17.

The court may order such part of salary of officers of customs and excise as the commissioners thereof shall consent to, to be applied in payment of such officers' debts. § 18.

And in all cases in which a person shall take the benefit of the said acts, and shall be entitled to any lease or agreement for a lease, and his assignee or assignees shall accept the same and the benefit thereupon as part of the insolvent's estate and effects, the insolvent shall not be deemed liable to pay the rent accruing due after such acceptance of the same; and, after such acceptance, the insolvent shall not be liable to be in any manner sued in respect or by reason of any subsequent non-observance or non

performance of the conditions, covenants, or agreements therein contained: provided, that in all such cases as aforesaid, it shall be lawful for the lessor or person agreeing to make such lease, his heirs, executors, administrators, or assigns, if the assignee or assignees shall decline, upon his or their being required so to do, to determine, whether he or they will or will not accept such lease or agreement for a lease, to apply to the said court or commissioner, praying that he or they may either so accept the same, or deliver up the lease or agreement for the lease, and the possession of the premises demised or intended to be demised; and such court or commissioner shall thereupon make such order as in all the circumstances of the case shall seem meet and just. § 19.

And wherever any creditor or creditors opposing a prisoner's discharge shall prove to the satisfaction of the court, that such prisoner, with intent to conceal the state of his affairs, or to defeat the objects of the said acts or this act, has destroyed, or otherwise wilfully prevented or purposely withheld the production of any books, papers, or writings relating to such of his affairs as are subject to investigation, or shall have kept or caused to be kept false books, or made false entries, or shall have wilfully or fraudulently altered or falsified any such books, papers, or writings, or shall in any respect have been guilty of fraud in discharging or concealing any debt due to or from the said prisoner, or shall have fraudulently made away with, charged, mortgaged, or concealed any part of his or her property, of what kind soever, either before or after his or her said imprisonment, for the purpose of diminishing the sum to be divided among the creditors, or of giving an undue preference to any of them, the court shall order the taxed costs of the said opposition to be paid to such opposing creditor out of the estate and effects of such prisoner; and in all other cases of opposition to the prisoner's discharge being substantiated or ef fectual, it shall be lawful for the court to make a like order, if it shall seem fit. § 20.

The chief or any one commissioner may hear and determine out of court, upon summous to the proper parties, all matters and things relating to any prisoner or person discharged by any act for the relief of insolvent debtors, or to his estate, property and effects, or his assignee or assignees thereof, except the hearing, re-hearing, or any examination of any such prisoner or person discharged. § 12.

And it shall be lawful for the court, or chief or other commissioner, to order such portion of the salary, pay, emoluments, or pension of any prisoner being or having been an officer or clerk, or being or having been otherwise employed or engaged in the service of his Majesty in any civil office, or of the Court of Directors of the Honourable East India Company, or any other department whatsoever, as the said court may order in writing, and as upon communication with the chief officer of the department in which such insolvent may be belonging at the time, or in which he may have served, and to which such chief officer shall consent in writing, to be applied in payment of the debts of such person. § 22.

INSURANCES.

IN compiling the following pages on insurances, the author is particularly indebted to a very useful compendium on the subject written by Mr. Annesley, who professes to have followed the luminous arrangement of Park in his work "On the Law of Marine Insurances;" the only advantage which this treatise can boast over its prototype is, that, appearing at a later period, it has the benefit of consulting all the new cases and enactments which have taken place since the appearance of the original work.

OF MARINE INSURANCES.

Insurance, or assurance, according to Blackstone, is a contract by which the insurer undertakes, in consideration of a premium, tc indemnify the person insured against certain perils or losses, o against some particular event.

Of the Policy.

Policy is the name given to the instrument by which the con tract of indemnity is effected between the insurer and insured; i is not, like most contracts, signed by both parties, but only by th insurer (the party who takes on him the risk), who, on this account is called the underwriter.

There are two kinds of policies: the valued, and open. The difference is, that in the former, property insured is valued at prime cost at the time of effecting the policy; in the latter, the value is not mentioned. In the case of an open policy, the real value must be proved; in the other, it is agreed.

Policies are only simple contracts, but they are of great credit, and ought not to be altered when once they are signed, unless there be some uniform document to shew that the meaning of the parties was mistaken, or unless by consent. They are partly printed, to serve for general purposes; and partly written, for the purpose of inserting the names of the parties, and to express their particular meaning.

There are nine requisites to a policy:-

1. The name of the person insured.

C

By 28 Geo. III. c. 56. it is enacted, that it shall not be lawful for any person to make assurance on ships or goods, without inserting the name or firm of one or more of the parties interested; or the name or firm of the consignor or consignee; or of the person receiving the order for, or effecting the policy; or of the person giving directions to effect the same. All policies without one or other of these requisites, are null and void.

2. The names of the ship and master; unless the insurance be general, of any ship or ships.

3. Whether the insurance be made on ships, goods, or merchandizes. But there are some kinds of merchandize which are of a perishable nature, and liable to early corruption; on account of which the underwriters have inserted a memorandum at the foot of their policy, by which they declare, that in insurances, "Corn, fish, salt, fruit, flour, and seed, are warranted free from average, unless general, or the ship be stranded. Sugar, tobacco, hemp, flax, hides, and skins, are warranted free from average under fire pounds per cent.; and all other goods, also the ship and freight, are warranted free of average under three pounds per cent. unless general, or the ship be stranded."

4. The name of the place at which the goods are laden, and to which they are bound. -A policy therefore from London to ——is void. It is also usual to state at what ports or places the ship may touch or stay, to avoid questions on deviation.

5. The time when the risk commences, and when it ends.-On the goods, it usually begins from the lading on board the ship, and continues till they are safely on board the ship; from her beginning to lade at A, and continues till she arrives at the port of destination, and be there moored in safety twenty-four hours.

6. The various perils against which the underwriters insure.The words now used in policies are so comprehensive, that there is scarcely any event unprovided for. The insurer undertakes to bear "all perils of the seas, men of war, fire, enemies, pirates, rovers, thieves, jettisons, letters of mart and countermart, surprisals, takings at sea, arrests, restraints, and detainments of kings, princes, and people of what nation, condition, or quality soever; barratry of the master and mariners; and all other perils, losses, and misfortunes, that have or shall come to the hurt, detriment, or damage of the said goods and merchandizes, and ship, or any part thereof."

The policy is frequently made with the words, lost or not lost, in it, which are peculiar to English policies, and add greatly to the risk; as, though the ship be lost at the time of the insurance made, the underwriter is liable, if there be no fraud.

7. The premium or consideration for the risk; which is always expressed in the policy to be received at the time of underwriting: but policies in general are effected by the intervention of a broker, between whom and the insurers, open accounts are kept by the usage of trade.

8. The day, month, or year on which the policy was executed. 9. And, lastly, the policy must be duly stamped; for the amount of which the reader is referred to the article Policy, in the Stamp Duties, at the end of this Work.

By 11 Geo. I. c. 30. when an insurance is made, a policy must be made out within three days, under a penalty of 1007.; and by the same statute promissory notes for insurances are void.

Policies being generally effected by the intervention of a broker, the name of the agent of an insurer residing abroad must be mentioned in the policy: and such agent is liable to an action for not insuring, which is to be tried on the same principles as an action on a policy; and the defendant is entitled to every benefit of which the underwriter might take advantage.

A policy being considered as a simple contract of indemnity, must always be construed, as nearly as possible, according to the intention of the contracting parties, and not according to the strict meaning of the words. And in questions on such construction, no rule has been more frequently followed, than the usage of trade, with respect to the voyage insured.

A policy on a ship generally from A to B, is construed to mean till the ship is unladen. But if it contain the usual words, till moored twenty-four hours in safety, the insurers shall be answerable for no loss that does not actually happen before the expiration of the time; even though the loss be occasioned by an act (of barratry by the master) committed during the voyage insured.

The great and leading cases on questions of construction are two; Tierney v. Etherington, and Pelley v. Royal Exchange Company. In these cases the principles to be observed in the construction of policies are fully considered; and in the latter of them, Lord Mansfield observed, that "the insurer, at the time of underwriting, has under his consideration the nature of the voyage, and the usual manner of doing it; and what is usually done by such a ship, with such a cargo, in such a voyage, is understood to be referred to by every policy." The same principles were adhered to in a subsequent case, where the same learned judge remarked, that every underwriter is presumed to be acquainted with the practice of the trade he insures; and if he does not know it, he ought to inform himself. So, in the construction of a policy upon time, the same liberality prevails as in other cases; and an attention to the meaning of the contracting parties has always been paid.

The usage of trade with respect to East-India voyages has been more notorious than any other, the question having more frequently occurred. The charterparties of the East-India Company give leave to prolong the ship's stay in India for a year, and it is common by a new agreement to detain her a year longer. The words of the policy too are very general, without limitation of time or place. These charterparties are so notorious, and the course of the trade so well known, that the underwriter is always liable for any intermediate voyage, upon which the ship might be sent while