with slight and not very important modifications, the provisions of secs. 16 of the Act of 1856 and 12 of the Act of 1880. Some observations, which it would be superfluous to repeat, have already been made with reference to the provision of means which it would appear are generally regarded as necessary for more adequately protecting the insolvent estate between the date of the award of sequestration and that when the trustee is actually in the saddle. Some reasons for the appointment of an independent and trustworthy official, such as the Official Receiver in English Bankruptcy, have already been advanced, and it may be permissible to express the hope that the question of the propriety or desirability of introducing into our system of bankruptcy an official who has been proved to be of signal utility in bankruptcy proceedings across the Border is not one which will be finally decided in the negative without more adequate discussion and consideration than it has hitherto received. Sec. 19 gives power to any creditor of a debtor who has absented himself from his house or business address "otherwise than in the usual course of his business" to crave the appointment of a judicial factor, provided only he can satisfy the Court that such absence is wilful and made with intent to defraud. The object aimed at is doubtless a proper and even a necessary one, but the phraseology of the section seems almost to invite criticism. Apparently, the creditor of a debtor whose estates have been sequestrated, and who has "absented " himself, must, in the first place, be in a position to prove that the cause to which such absence is due is not one usual" in the conduct of the debtor's business. It may, perhaps, not unnaturally be asked how any creditor, who does not happen to be gifted with intuitive prescience or the deductive powers of a Sherlock Holmes, can be expected to know the reasons. for the debtor's absence, or the fact that it has been occasioned "otherwise than in the usual course of his business," and, even if he be endowed with powers which enable him with unerring accuracy to diagnose the reasons for his debtor's absence, how, it may be asked, can he be expected to prove that fact to the satisfaction of a judge who will probably demand that such proof will be habili modo? In the second place, it may equally reasonably be asked why, on the assumption that a debtor who has been publicly sequestrated after the customary formalities has been proved to have "absented " himself otherwise than in the usual course of his business, it should be incumbent on his unfortunate creditors to further prove the fact that his absence is both wilful and due to an intent to defraud? Unless he has been captured by brigands

or is detained in some dungeon by physical force his "absence" must surely in any event be "wilful," and if he has been sequestrated, ex hypothesi against his will and after due notice and citation, his absence otherwise than in the usual course of his business can be due to nothing else than an intent to defraud, or, at any rate, to what is practically an equivalent, an attempt to escape just retribution at the hands of his outraged and defrauded creditors.

Forms of Petition. It is a question whether, under the present law, petitions in the Sheriff Court must be framed in accordance with the provisions of the Sheriff Courts Act, 1876 (Sched. A), and the decisions (in the inferior Courts) are conflicting. Sec. 22 of the bill, however, sets the matter at rest by providing that in future all petitions in the Sheriff Court must be in such conformity. Obviously since the passing of the new Sheriff Courts Act, and the introduction of an entirely novel form of procedure in the Sheriff Court, the section will require to be altered. Secs. 23, 24, and 26, which substantially re-enact secs. 22, 23, and 25 of the Act of 1856, make provision that the oath of verity of a creditor resident either in or without the United Kingdom and Ireland may be taken either by his attorney or mandatory. While the induciæ of the citation on the debtor must at present be "not more than fourteen days," or, when made edictally, "twenty-one days," the bill in sec. 29 provides that it shall in future be "not less than six days" and "fourteen days" respectively. Secs. 30 to 35 (inclusive), which deal with the procedure consequent on the presentation of the petition, substantially re-enact the corresponding provisions of the Act of 1856, with the exception that recall of a sequestration granted without the debtor's consent may be petitioned for by the debtor only within fourteen, instead of forty, days, and, after the lapse of the fourteen days, by nine-tenths in number and value of the creditors who have lodged claims, not necessarily who are ranked, as at present.

Ranking of Claims.-With two rather important exceptions the provisions of secs. 49 to 58 of the Act of 1856 are re-enacted. Sec. 45 of the bill, however, provides that creditors claiming a preference for wages shall not be required to lodge oaths or claims, but that the trustee may satisfy himself as to the accuracy of their debts by such evidence as he may consider reasonably sufficient. It will be seen in the sequel that such claims are accorded a further privilege in the matter of payment. Under the provisions of the law at present existing the claim for which a creditor may rank is liable to a deduc

tion, besides interest, "of any discount to which it may be liable by usage of trade," an expression the judicial interpretation of which has occasioned some little difficulty. Sec. 48 of the bill proposes to make the matter clear by providing that a claim shall be subject to a deduction for any discount or allowance stipulated for or usually granted by the creditor in his particular line of business, the meaning of which appears to leave little room for dubiety.

Special Rules as to Voting. The bill, in sec. 58, wisely makes provision that the trustee, or his partner, or any one in his employment, shall not be entitled to vote in any question affecting the trustee or his management of the estate, a provision which may confidently be expected to remedy abuses which at present are, unfortunately, but too common, but which, to any one possessing even a rudimentary acquaintance with bankruptcy procedure, require no detailed enumeration. The remaining sections dealing with this branch of the procedure, with one highly important exception, re-enact the corresponding sections of the Act of 1856. (There appears, it may be parenthetically noticed, to be an error of draughtsmanship in respect that sec. 60 is merely a repetition of sec. 55.) By the provisions of the bill a creditor must, of course, as at present, before voting put a specified value on any security he may hold over the bankrupt estate, and, after deducting such value from his debt, vote only in respect of the balance. The method by which that value is at present ascertained is open to the serious objection that it is left entirely to the creditor's option to place what value he pleases upon his security. While no doubt it is true that to prevent undervaluation the trustee or the creditors may require an assignation to the security at the value placed upon it, plus 20 per cent., that consideration does not entirely remove the objections which have been urged against this mode of valuation, and which in practice have proved themselves both sufficiently numerous and sufficiently strong to make this method of arriving at the real value of the creditor's claim inequitable to every one concerned. The bill proposes to abolish both the valuation by the creditor himself and the power of the creditors to require an assignation to the security at the value specified, and to introduce a radically new method of ascertaining that value. Sec. 61 provides that the value to be specified and deducted in the creditor's oath or claim shall be the value certified in writing by a competent neutral valuator skilled in the valuation of that particular class or subject of security. If, however, the valuation put upon the subject is such that

the trustee declines to accept it, provision is made for its ascertainment by a valuator to be named by the Court on the application of the creditor or the trustee. In whatever way, however, the value is ultimately determined, from the moment when the valuator's certificate is lodged either with the trustee, at a meeting of creditors, or in terms of the order of Court, the security thereupon, it is provided, becomes the absolute property of the creditor, to be retained or realised by him as he may see fit, his claim thereafter being subject to the deduction arrived at.

Election of Trustee. The sections of the Act of 1856 dealing with the election of the trustee are substantially re-introduced, with the exception that under the scheme of the bill the presence of the Sheriff at the meeting, either on the requisition of the creditors or ex proprio motu, is entirely dispensed with, and that provision is further made that neither the bankrupt's law agent, nor any person who is a notour or undischarged bankrupt, shall be eligible for the office of trustee.

Removal of Trustee. The provisions of sec. 74 of the Act of 1856 are re-introduced, but it is declared that, in the event of the trustee failing to lodge his bond of caution within twenty-one days of his election, his appointment shall ipso facto fall, a new meeting for the election of another trustee being thereupon competent on the application of any creditor.

Allowance to Bankrupt. The bill provides that a majority in number and three-fourths in value (not, as now, four-fifths) of the creditors present at a meeting may authorise the allowance to the bankrupt of a sum not exceeding £2 2s. per week (instead of £3 3s., as at present) out of the estate by way of maintenance for such period as they may think expedient, and not, as at present, up to the date of the payment of the second dividend. No provision appears, however, to be made for permitting the creditors at any future stage to make a further and special allowance to the bankrupt in respect of any services he may render to the creditors by way of assistance in the ingathering and realising of his estate.

The Bankrupt's Examination. The only alterations effected by the bill which call for special notice are that (1) the examination is in future to take place in open Court, and that it may be taken by a shorthand writer and recorded in the Sederunt Book, in which case, if certified by the signature of the Sheriff or a commissioner and the bankrupt, it may be used in evidence against the bankrupt in any proceedings instituted under the provisions of the bill; and (2) that the oath is considerably shortened and simplified.

The Landlord's Right of Hypothec is by sec. 112 abolished, the landlord being entitled to rank on a bankrupt estate merely as an ordinary creditor, a provision which, while it may be expected to meet with considerable opposition, will be generally regarded as clearly dictated by equitable

considerations.

Payment of Dividends. One of the most serious objections urged against the process of sequestration as presently existing is that the time which must necessarily elapse between the date of the sequestration and the ultimate distribution of the estate amongst the creditors is unduly prolonged, and not the least of the merits of the bill is that under its provisions the periods for the payment of dividends, and of the operations necessarily antecedent to and consequent upon such payment, are very considerably shortened, in some cases by one-half and in others by one-third. Thus, under the scheme of the bill the trustee must make up a state of the bankrupt estate within two, not four, months from the date of the sequestration; he must give notice of the payment of the first dividend in the first issue of the Gazette, not within eight days, after the expiry of the fourteen days subsequent to the expiration of the two months; he must, within four, not six, months of the date of the sequestration, make up his scheme of division; and he must pay the first dividend on the first lawful day after the expiration of four, not six, months from the date of the sequestration. Similarly, he must make up his scheme of division for the second dividend on the expiration of five, not eight, months from the date of the sequestration, the like procedure as in the case of the first dividend being followed out with regard to all subsequent dividends, so that a dividend may be paid after the expiration of every two, not three, months from the date of the immediately preceding dividend until the funds are wholly distributed. Thus, the second dividend becomes payable on the expiration of six, instead of ten, months from the date of the sequestration, two dividends being therefore payable under the provisions of the bill in the same time as it now takes to distribute one. Sec. 115 gives the wages of workmen, clerks, shopmen, and servants of the bankrupt the same privilege as they enjoy under sec. 122 of the Act of 1856, but it contains the important provision that, to the extent that such wages are preferable, the trustee may make payment of them out of the first assets in his hands without waiting for the lapse of the statutory period for payment of a dividend, a provision which confers a substantial boon upon a class of persons who are seldom in a position to