who may make such orders therein as they are empowered to do in other cases between masters and apprentices.1 In all other respects apprentices to the sea-service as regards their rights and obligations differ in no respect from apprentices on shore, the terms and conditions of their service being embodied in the indentures by which the relation is created.

The excellent statute which we have been so long considering contains other regulations which, though most of them positive ordinances for purposes of public policy, and connected rather with the duty of the master than with the subject immediately before, are yet of sufficient importance to justify a brief notice of them here. One principal object of the act was the establishment of a register of seamen; and accordingly by the 19th section it is enacted, that there shall be established in the port of London -an office to be called "The General Register Office of Merchant Seamen," to consist of a registrar and clerks, under the direction and control of the Board of Admiralty. By the Merchant Seamen's Relief Act, 4 & 5 Will. IV. c. 52, s. 9, the master was required to keep a book by way of muster-roll or account of the ship's company, signed by himself, containing an entry of the name, age, place of birth, and quality of every officer or seaman on board, with other particulars specified in a Schedule to the Act, as the time and place of entry, particulars of seamen received in the course of the voyage, of desertions, discharges, and deaths, of casualties on board, and a statement of the clothes and effects left by or the wages owing to any seamen who might have died on board. The 21st section of the new act, reciting this clause, requires the master of every ship trading to parts beyond the seas, not only to keep the book and muster-roll therein mentioned, but also, on reporting the ship on her arrival at the port of destination in the United Kingdom, to deliver to the collector or comptroller of the Customs at such port an account, signed by himself, of all the seamen and others, including apprentices, who shall have belonged to the ship at any time during her absence from the United Kingdom; which account is to contain a correct return, under their respective heads, of the following particulars as applicable to each seaman: viz. the name, age, place of birth, quality, ship in which he last served, date of joining the ship, place where, time of death or leaving the ship, place where, and how disposed of. The masters of vessels em2 The form is given in Schedule C. of the Act.

1 S. 37.

ployed in the coasting trade or in the fisheries on the coast, are to make a similar return to be deposited in like manner; but containing in addition an account of the several voyages in which the ship shall have been engaged during the preceding half-year.1 In case of the loss of a ship or sale abroad a like return is to be made out as soon as possible after the loss, and within twelve calendar months at farthest after the sale of the ship, either by the master or owner, and to be delivered or transmitted to the registrar in the port of London. 2 The returns so deposited with the collector or comptroller of the customs are to be by them transmitted from time to time to the registrar, and the neglect or refusal of the owner or master to make the return is punishable by a penalty of 251.3 From the lists so returned the register will be compiled. Indentures of apprenticeship and assignments are also to be entered in a book—in London, by the registrar--and in each other port, by the collector and comptroller of the customs, who are to transmit quarterly lists to the registrar: and for the neglect to cause an indenture or assignment to be so registered, a penalty is imposed upon the master of 107. for each offence.5 Power also is given to the registrar and his assistants, and to the collectors and other chief officers of the customs at the several ports of the United Kingdom, to demand from the master the production of the muster-roll, and of the ship's articles, with liberty to take a copy of either or both, and to muster the crew and apprentices of the ship, for the purpose of ascertaining whether the provisions of the act and of the laws relating to navigation have been complied with: the neglect or refusal of the master in any of these particulars being punishable by a penalty of 50%. A like power in all respects is given to the captain, commander, or other commissioned officer of any of his Majesty's ships, the penalty upon the master for refusal or neglect in that case being 251.7 The humane provisions of the statute in the case of seamen left ashore in foreign parts have been already adverted to. 8 A clause, moreover, is introduced into the new statute, whereby, when a ship be sold in any foreign port, except in case of wreck and condemnation, the master is required (unless the crew in the presence of the British consul or vice-consul, or, where no such functionary, in the presence of one or more resident British merchants, shall signify their consent to be there discharged), besides paying them the wages to which they shall be entitled, either to

66

provide them with adequate employment on board some other British vessel homeward bound, or to furnish the means of sending them back to the port of his Majesty's dominions at which they were originally shipped, or to some port in the United Kingdom, as shall be agreed upon, by providing them with a passage home, or depositing with the consul or vice-consul such a sum of money as he shall deem sufficient to pay the expenses of their subsistence and passage; and if the master shall neglect or refuse so to do, the expenses when defrayed shall be a charge upon the owner, except in cases of barratry, wreck, or condemnation, and may be recovered against him as money paid and expended on his account, with full costs, at the suit of the consul by whom the expenses were defrayed, or of his Majesty's attorney-general, in case they shall have been allowed to the consul out of the public monies. By a former statute, (11 Geo. IV. and 1 Wm. IV. c. 20, s. 82,) provision is made for seafaring men and boys, subjects of the United Kingdom, who shall by shipwreck, or by any other means, or from any cause whatever, be driven or cast away, or left, or be in distress at any place in foreign parts;" the governors, ministers, consuls, and other officers of his Majesty, or, if none such, any two British merchants resident in the place, being authorized and required to provide for and subsist them, (an allowance being made for such subsistence on the production of proper vouchers by the Board of Admiralty,) and to put them on board the first or any ship bound for the United Kingdom which shall be in want of men; or, if no ship in want of men, then on board any ship bound for the United Kingdom, in the proportion not exceeding four for every hundred tons burden; the master of which ship is bound to receive, subsist, and give a passage to them accordingly, under a penalty of 1007. for each man or boy, being entitled to receive an allowance for the number so received beyond the complement of his ship from the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty. By the present statute power is given to his Majesty to recover by suit in his Exchequer from the master or owner of any vessel, the master of which shall have forced on shore or left behind any person against the provisions of the act, in addition to the wages due from and penalties imposed upon such master, all the charges and expenses which shall have been incurred in the subsistence and conveyance home of such person, together with full costs of suit.1

ART. IV.-ON AN ACT OF BANKRUPTCY BY A FRAUDULENT TRANSFER OF GOODS, AND ON FRAUDULENT PREFERENCE IN BANKRUPTCY.

"ANY trader making any fraudulent gift, delivery, or transfer of any of his goods or chattels with intent to defeat or delay his creditors, shall be deemed to have thereby committed an act of bankruptcy." Our readers are aware that this provision is now introduced for the first time into the system of our Bankrupt Laws; and our present object is to ascertain when a gift, delivery, or transfer by a trader of any of his goods or chattels is within its meaning an act of bankruptcy; the test which the words afford is, that it must be fraudulent and with intent to defeat or delay his creditors. We are fortunately not without a guide in this matter, for an act of bankruptcy in one of the repealed statutes was, any fraudulent grant or conveyance by a trader of his lands, tenements, goods, or chattels, to the intent or whereby his creditors should or might be defeated or delayed for the recovery of his debts. The courts decided that the act of bankruptcy was not effected without a deed; and the principal object of the new provision seems to be, that any transfer by a trader of his goods should have the same effect. The decisions then under the old law may be safely referred to, to ascertain when transfers without any deed or writing are deemed by the legislature fraudulent, and made with an intent to defeat or delay creditors.

Slader, a miller, in embarrassed circumstances, about three weeks before he committed an act of bankruptcy, assigned his messuage, mill, and all his stock in trade to a banker, to secure advances to be made. The question was, whether this assignment was an act of bankruptcy. Lord Mansfield said, "the consideration of the deed I allow to be a good, valuable, and true consideration; and I allow this deed to be a valid transaction as between the parties. But valid transactions as between the parties may be fraudulent by reason of covin, collusion, or confederacy to injure a third person. The end

16 Geo. IV. c. 16, s. 3.

21 Jac. I. c. 15, s. 2.

3 Worsely v. De Mattos, 1 Burr. 467. A. D. 1758.

Bankruptcy by fraudulent Transfer of Goods. 339

proposed was, that in case Slader should become bankrupt, his whole estate should first be vested in the banker for payment of what was justly due to him. The preference aimed at was fraudulent and unlawful: such preference is a fraud upon the whole bankrupt law, and would defeat the two main objects it has in view; to wit, the management of the bankrupt's estate, and an equal distribution among his creditors."

One Lawson, a trader, just before committing an act of bankruptcy, assigned all his estate and effects whatsoever to a creditor to secure a debt actually due.1 It was held, that this deed was an act of bankruptcy. Lord Mansfield observed, "it is not necessary that the deed should be fraudulent as between the parties; nor is this deed at all so, for it is a very fair deed as to the parties; but it is made to prefer this creditor to the bankrupt's other creditors. It defeats the whole Bankrupt Law."

In a case in which a trader had indorsed a bill of exchange to a creditor just before bankruptcy, Lord Mansfield said, "all acts to defraud creditors or the public laws of the land are void; and if the nature of the act be a conveyance or grant, it is not only void, but an act of bankruptcy. It has been determined that a conveyance by a trader of all his effects for the payment of one or more bónâ fide creditors of the most meritorious kind is void, because it is not an act in the ordinary course of business; it is not such an act as a man could do, but it must be followed by an immediate act of bankruptcy; and it is defeating the equality that is introduced by the statutes of bankruptcy."

A trader on the eve of bankruptcy made a bill of sale of all his goods and effects whatsoever to secure a previous debt and a further advance.3 Lord Mansfield:-"this is a stronger case than any of the former: the bill of sale was a fraud on all the Bankrupt Laws. It was a conveyance of all he had in the world. He must have had the act of bankruptcy, which he committed in twenty-four hours afterwards, in contemplation at the time."

It is plain from these cases that Lord Mansfield considered

Wilson v. Day, 2 Burr. 927. A. D 1759.

• Alderson v. Temple, 4 Burr. 2235. A.D. 1768. Butcher v. Easto, Doug. 294. A.D. 1779.