20. The Marquis of Hartington's Amendment to the Address "that the present Ministry did not possess the confidence of the House," carried by 323 to 310, June 10. Resignation of the Ministry and dissolution of Parliament.

21. Lord Palmerston died Oct., 1865. Dissolution and general election.

22. Defeat of Earl Russell's Ministry on Lord Dunkellin's Amendment to the Reform Bill, "to substitute 'rateable value' for 'clear yearly value'"-315 to 304.

23. Resignation of the Earl of Derby through ill-health.

24. Parliament dissolved in the autumn. Liberals returned with a majority to the new Parliament.

25. Parliament dissolved. Conservatives returned with a large majority.

23. General election. Liberals returned with a majority.

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27. Defeat of the Government on the Increase of Beer and Spirit Duties (264 to 252). Resignation of Mr. Gladstone's Ministry. 28. Defeat of Government on Mr. Jesse Collings' Amendment to the Address, regretting that no measures had been announced for affording facilities to agricultural labourers to obtain allotments and small holdings (329 to 250).

29. Mr. Gladstone, defeated on his Irish Home Rule Bill, by 341 to 311, appealed to the country, when his following was much reduced, and he resigned.

30. General Election. Vote of want of confidence in Lord Salisbury's administration carried by 350 to 310 votes.

31. Resignation of Mr. Gladstone, owing to advancing years.

32. Resignation of the Government, owing to the adverse vote on the administration of the War Office.

BANKRUPTCY.

The

The Bankruptcy Acts of 1883 and 1890 provide that the High Court of Justice and the County Courts shall have jurisdiction in bankruptcy. Except where expressly provided, the Act does not apply to Ireland or Scotland. When a debtor has committed an act of Bankruptcy, any creditor for £50, or any two or more whose aggregate claims amount to £50, may, within three months thereafter, present a bankruptcy petition against the debtor. As soon as a bankruptcy petition has been presented, the Court may make a receiving order for the protection of the estate, whereby the official receiver is constituted receiver of the property of the debtor, and unsecured creditors are precluded from taking any proceedings against the property or person of the debtor without the leave of the Court. After the receiving order is made, a general meeting of the creditors is to be held for the purpose of deciding if the debtor is to be adjudged bankrupt, and either before or after the meeting of creditors a public sitting of the Court is held for the examination of the debtor, who must attend to be examined as to his conduct, dealings, and property. debtor must attend meetings of creditors and give required information, with an inventory of his property, and must aid in its realisation and distribution; if necessary he can be arrested, and steps can be taken for the recovery of his property. The composition or scheme of arrangement which creditors may agree to, and which can be accepted after adjudication of bankruptcy, is not to be binding on them unless confirmed by a majority representing three-fourths in value of the proved debts and approved by the Court. The debtor may state causes of dissent from the scheme, and the official receiver is to report to the Court, after which the Court may approve and enforce it; disobedience to an order of Court in such a case being deemed contempt. Where composition is not accepted or approved the property of the bankrupt is to become divisible among the creditors, and vest in a trustee who may be appointed by the creditors and approved by the Board of Trade, the person chosen giving proper security. If a trustee is not appointed within four weeks of the adjudication, or, if negotiations are then still pending, within seven days of their close, the official receiver is to report to the Board of Trade, and the Board is to appoint, subject to the substitution of a trustee elected by the creditors, if they subsequently elect one. A committee of inspection may be appointed by the creditors to superintend the trustee's administration of the bankrupt's property, the Board of Trade being empowered to do the necessary acts if no committee is appointed. When the creditors appoint a trustee, his remuneration is to be fixed by their resolution, and is to be in the nature of a commission or percentage, of which one part shall be payable on the amount realised by him, after deducting any sums paid to secured creditors out of the proceeds of their securities, and the other part on the amount distributed in dividend; if one-fourth in number or value of the creditors dissent from the resolution, or the bankrupt satisfies the Board of Trade that the remuneration is unnecessarily large, the Board is to fix the amount. Where no remuneration has been voted to a trustee, he

is to be allowed out of the bankrupt's estate such proper costs as the creditors, with the sanction of the Board, approve. A trustee is

out

not under any circumstances whatever to make any arrangement for, or accept from the bankrupt, or any solicitor, auctioneer, or any other person employed about a bankruptcy, any gift, remuneration or pecuniary or other consideration or benefit whatever beyond the remuneration fixed by the creditors and payable of the estate, nor is he to make any arrangements for giving up, or give up, any part of his remuneration, either as receiver, manager, or trustee to the bankrupt, or any solicitor or other person employed about a bankruptcy. Where a trustee or manager receives remuneration for his services as such no payment is to be allowed in his accounts in respect of the performance by any other person of the ordinary duties which are required by statute or rules to be performed by himself. Where the trustee is a solicitor, he may contract that the remuneration for his services as trustee shall include all professional services. The first dividend must be declared and distributed within four months after the first meeting of creditors; subsequent dividends at intervals of not less than six months. The following debts have priority :All taxes assessed up to 5th April next before the date of the receiving order, and not exceeding one year's assessment; all local rates payable within the twelve months preceding and due at the date of the receiving order; and all wages in respect of services rendered within four months before the date of the receiving order, and not exceeding £50. A landlord may distrain upon the bankrupt's goods for six months' rent, if due, either before or after the commencement of the bankruptcy. The property divisible among the creditors does not include the necessary bedding and apparel of the debtor, his wife and children, not exceeding £20 altogether, or his tools (if any). Court may, after hearing a report of the bankrupt's conduct and affairs from the official receiver, give or withhold an order for his discharge, or suspend it, or make it conditional, but no discharge is to be granted where he has been guilty of a misdemeanour under this Act. It is a misdemeanour for a bankrupt who has not obtained a discharge to get credit to the extent of £20 or upwards without informing the person giving it that he is an undischarged bankrupt. A bankrupt may not sit or vote in Parliament or on its committees; be appointed or act as a justice of the peace, mayor, alderman, county councillor, guardian, overseer, member of school board or parochial boards; if a member of Parliament when adjudged bankrupt, unless the disqualifications arising from the bankruptcy are removed within six months from the date of the order, the Court is to certify the fact to the Speaker, and the seat becomes vacant.

The

WHAT IS AN ACT OF BANKRUPTCY.

By the Act of the 46 and 47 Vict., cap. 52, the following are defined as acts of Bankruptcy :

1. If in England or elsewhere the debtor makes an assignment of his property to trustees for the benefit of his creditors generally; or

N 2

2. Makes a fraudulent conveyance gift trans

fer of his property or any part thereof; or 3. Makes any transfer of his property or creates any charge thereon which would be void or a fraudulent preference, if he were adjudged bankrupt; or

4. If with intent to defeat or delay his creditors he departs out of England, or being out of England remains out of England, or departs from his dwellinghouse, or otherwise absents himself or begins to keep house; or

5. If execution against him has been levied by seizure and sale of his goods under process in an action in any Court, or in any civil proceeding in the High Court; or 6. If he files in the Court a declaration of his inability to pay his debts or presents a bankruptcy petition against himself; or 7. If a creditor has obtained a final judgment against him for any amount, and execution thereon not having been stayed, has served on him a bankruptcy notice under this Act, requiring him to pay the judgment debt in accordance with the terms of the judgment, or to secure or compound for it to the satisfaction of the creditor or the Court, and he does not within 7 days after service of the notice (if service is in England, and if service is elsewhere, then within the time limited in that behalf by the order giving leave to effect the service), either comply with the requirements of the notice, or satisfy the Court that he has a counter claim, which equals or exceeds the amount of judgment debt, and which he could not set up in the action in which the judgment was obtained; or

8. If the debtor gives notice to any of his creditors that he has suspended, or that he is about to suspend, payment of his debts.

By the 53 and 54 Vict., cap. 71, it is enacted that a debtor commits an act of Bankruptcy if execution against him has been levied by seizure of his goods under process in an action in any Court, or in any civil proceeding in the High Court, and the goods have been either sold or held by the sheriff for 21 days.

And that any person who is for the time being entitled to enforce a final judgment shall be deemed a creditor who has obtained a final judgment within the meaning of Section 4 of the Act of 46 and 47 Vict., cap. 52.

BILLS OF SALE.

A most important provision of the Bills of Sale Act, 1882, is that it makes all bills of sale for sums under £30 absolutely void. A bill of sale must be duly attested by one or more credible witnesses not being parties to it; must be registered within seven days of being made, the registration to be renewed every five years; but transfers or assignments need not be registered. Mistakes, delays, or omissions in registration may be rectified by order of a judge of the High Court. A copy of the bill when registered, with an affidavit of the time when the bill is given, of its attestation, and of the occupation and residence of the giver and of each attesting witness, must be presented to the registrar and filed. The holder of a bill of sale is deprived of the preference which was given to him by the Act of 1878 over the ordinary creditors of a trader who becomes bankrupt. The Act sets forth the five classes of reasons which alone will make property

liable to be seized under a bill of sale. They are (1) if the debtor make default in payment at the proper time of the sum borrowed, or in the performance of any agreement that is contained in the bill, and is necessary for maintaining the security; (2) if he become a bankrupt or suffer the goods to be distrained for rent, rates, or taxes; (3) if he fraudulently remove the goods from the premises; (4) if he fail, without reasonable excuse, to produce upon demand of the lender the last receipt for rent, rates and taxes; and (5) if execution be levied against the goods of the debtor under a judgment of law. When property is seized under a bill of sale, it is not to be removed or sold until after the expiration of five days; and during that time a judge, if he is satisfied that by payment of money or otherwise the cause of seizure no longer exists, may, on the application of the debtor, restrain the removal or sale, or make any other order that seems just.

JURORS.

A common Juror must be between 21 and 60 years of age. The following are EXEMPT from serving:-Peers, members of parliament, judges, clergymen of every denomination, provided they follow no secular occupation except that of a schoolmaster; barristers-at-law, certificated conveyancers, and special pleaders, if actually practising; solicitors, and proctors, if actually practising and having taken out their annual certificates, and their managing clerks; notaries public in actual practice; officers of the courts of law, the clerks of the peace or their deputies, if actually exercising their duties; coroners, gaolers and keepers of houses of correction, and all subordinate officers of the same; keepers in public lunatic asylums; members and licentiates of the Royal College of Physicians in London, if practising; members of the Royal College of Surgeons in London, Edinburgh, and Dublin, if practising; apothecaries certificated by the Court of Examiners of the Apothecaries Company, and all registered medical practitioners and registered pharmaceutical chemists, if practising; the master, wardens, and brethren of the Corporation of Trinity House; all masters of vessels in the buoy and light service employed by the corporation; pilots licensed under any Act of Parliament or charter for the regulation of pilots; the Household servants of Her Majesty; officers of the Post Office, commissioners of Customs, officers, and clerks of the Customs; commissioners and officers, &c., of Inland Revenue; sheriffs' officers; officers of the rural and metropolitan police; officers of the navy, army, militia, and yeomanry, while on full pay; magistrates of the metropolitan police courts, their clerks, ushers, doorkeepers, and messengers; officers of the Houses of Lords and Commons; members of the council of the municipal corporation of any borough, and every justice of the peace assigned to keep the peace therein, and the town clerk and treasurer for the time being of every such borough, so far as relates to any jury summoned to serve in the county where such borough is situate; burgesses of every borough in and for which a separate court of quarter sessions shall be holden so far as relates to any jury summoned for the trial of issues joined in any court of general quarter sessions of the peace in the county wherein such borough is situate; justices of the peace so far as relates to any jury summoned to serve at any sessions of the peace for the jurisdiction of which he is a justice; persons over 60 (the exemption should

be claimed before the Jury Lists are revised). No person shall be summoned to serve more than once in one year, unless all the jurors upon the list shall have been already summoned to serve during such year.

The qualification for a GRAND JUROR is the possession of freehold or copyhold estate of the annual value of £10, or leaseholds for a term of not less than 21 years to the value of £20, or be assessed to the poor rate or inhabited house tax at not less than £30 a year in Middlesex, and £20 a year in other counties. The Grand Jury only hear the witnesses for the prosecution, as their duty is confined to inquiring into whether there is sufficient ground for calling on the accused to answer the accusation. The jury must consist of not less than 12 or more than 23, and to find a "true bill" where the evidence submitted is satisfactory, 12 at least of the jury must agree.

SPECIAL JURORS are summoned in civil causes in which the plaintiff or defendant can insist on a special jury. In making out the list of persons within their respective parishes and townships qualified to serve as jurors, the overseers must specify which of such persons are in their judgment qualified as special jurors, and must also specify in every case the nature of the qualification, the occupation, and the amount of the rating of assessment of every such person. A special juryman is entitled to a guinea for each case on which he sits.

COUNTY COURT NOTES.

By the County Courts Act, 1888, Judges of County Courts, who are not to exceed 60 in number, must be barristers of at least seven years' standing. They cannot, while holding the office, be elected to the House of Commons. A Court must be held in every district at least once a month, except during September, unless it is so ordered by the Lord Chancellor. In case of the death, or unavoidable absence of the judge, the registrar, or in his absence, the high bailiff can adjourn the Court. In case of illness or unavoidable absence, the judge may name a deputy who must be a barrister of at least seven years' standing, and who cannot act for more than 14 days at any time, without the approval of the Lord Chancellor. The salary of a judge is fixed at £1,500 a year, with reasonable allowances for travelling expenses. The registrar of the Court must be a solicitor of the Supreme Court of at least five years' standing, he can be appointed by the judge, with the approval of the Lord Chancellor, who has power to remove him. The bailiffs are appointed and removable in the same manner. They and the registrars are to be paid out of the fees payable under the Act. The penalty for assaulting bailiffs, or rescuing goods taken in execution, is a fine not exceeding £5. Bailiffs are answerable for escapes and neglect to levy execution. Bailiffs and other officers can be summarily proceeded against, and are liable to a fine not exceeding £10 for misconduct. All personal actions, where the debt, demand, or damage claimed is not more than £50, whether on balance of account or otherwise, may be commenced in the Court. Where in any action the demand claimed consists of a balance not exceeding £50, after an admitted set-off of any debt, &c., the Court has jurisdiction, which extends also to the recovery of any demand, not exceeding the sum of £50, which is the whole or part of the unliquidated balance of a partnership account, or the amount, or part of the amount of

a distributive share under an intestacy, or of any legacy under a will. All actions of ejectment where neither the value nor the rent exceeds £50, can be brought in the Court of the district in which the lands, &c., are situate, provided that the defendant or his landlord, may within one month from the day of service of the summons, apply to a judge of the High Court at chambers for a summons to the plaintiff to show cause why such action should not be tried in the High Court on the ground that the title to lands or hereditaments of greater annual value than £50 would be affected by the decision in such action. The Court can exercise all the powers and authority of the High Court in the following matters where the amount does not exceed £500:-1. Actions by creditors, legatees (whether specific,, pecuniary or residuary), devisee, (whether in trust or otherwise), heirs-at-law, or next of kin. 2. For the execution of trusts. 3. For foreclosure or redemption, or for enforcing any charge or lien. 4. For specific performance of or for the reforming, delivering up, or cancelling of any agreement for the sale, purchase, or lease of any property. 5. Under any of the Trustees Acts. 6. Relating to the maintenance or advancement of infants. 7. For the dissolution or winding up of any partnership. 8. Actions for relief against fraud or mistake. Transfer is to be made to the Chancery Division of any action exceeding the jurisdiction of the Court. There is a penalty not exceeding £10 on witnesses neglecting a summons. The Court may award execution against goods, excepting the wearing apparel and bedding of a person or his family, and the tools and implements of his trade to the value of £5. Execution after default in payment of instalment may issue for the whole sum, but it is to be superseded on payment of the debt and

costs.

BILLS OF EXCHANGE.

A Bill of Exchange is a written order given for a consideration by one party (the drawer) upon another (the drawee). Such a document is of no commercial value till it is "accepted,' and the acceptor then becomes primarily responsible for payment, the drawer only secondarily so, provided that if not paid at maturity the document is immediately "noted in the proper manner. Before it can be paid, the Bill must be "endorsed" or signed across the back by the drawer. The customary form of acceptance for Form No. I would be "accepted, payable at (such and such) a bank,' and the acceptor's signature.

The person to whom a Bill is payable may assign it to another by writing above his signature the words "pay to the order of "so and so.

Instead of "one month after date," or "ninety days after date," any other period may be stated, or the Bill may be made payable at so many days or months "after sight" (i.e., after being presented for acceptance); or, again immediately on presentation, by the substitution of the words "at sight."

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cal. months aft. date

VARIOUS NOTES.

Days of Grace.

3

6

3

I. O. U.'s. An I. O. U. is a clear admiss'on of a sum due, and is evidence of the amount stated being due to the creditor if named therein; even if he is not named it is prima facie testimony of the amount stated being due to the person producing such. It is not, however, negotiable. The amount legally due on an I. O. U. may be recovered. It is admissible in evidence without a stamp if it is merely a simple acknowledgment of a debt. If, however, it contains a promise to pay money, it must be stamped as a promissory note, or as an agreement if it contains terms of agreement, the subject of which is of the value of £5. It should be addressed to the creditor by name, but that is not essential to its validity.

Sale of Goodwill. The goodwill of a business may be defined as that connection in a trade which induces customers to deal with the person or persons who carry on the business. It is the valuable part of the assets of a concern in very many cases. The sale of a goodwill does not imply an agreement by the vendor not to start again in the same business to which the goodwill relates, but he cannot lawfully hold out to the public that he is continuing a similar trade by using the name of the old firm, even though his own name may be the only one that appeared in such firm. It has been decided that the seller of a business and the goodwill thereof, may in the absence of an agreement to the contrary, set up the same business either in the same neighbourhood or elsewhere, and may also publicly notify this fact by advertisement, but he is not entitled to solicit the customers of the old business to discontinue dealing with the purchaser or to give their custom to himself. In a later case it was decided by the Master of the Rolls that a tradesman who sold his business and goodwill to another for value, must not only abstain from soliciting orders from, but also from dealing with, the old customers.

Legal Tender. A Bank of England note or gold coin is a legal tender in England and Wales for a payment of any amount, but no person can be compelled to give change for a Bank Note. Silver is a legal tender for sums not exceeding two pounds, and bronze or copper coin for sums not exceeding one shilling.

Compensation for Death by Accident. A widow or children may sue a railway company, omnibus or cab proprietor, or any other person causing an accident, for compensation, if such widow's husband, or children's father, or other relative on whom they depended in any respect for subsistence has been killed by the negligence of such persons, companies, or their servants. A sister or other relative who depended for subsistence on her brother or other person who may have been killed may sue for compensation. The statute only gives a right for the recovery of compensation for direct pecuniary injury.

Loser and Finder.-Whoever finds a lost article can lawfully retain possession of it