can proceed against the debtor's person or property except in, or by leave of, the Court (substantially the same as sec. 12 of the Act of 1869).

A secured, who is also a petitioning, creditor, must (sec. 6, sub-sec. 2) either abandon or value his security, proving, in the one case, for the entire debt, in the other, for the unsecured balance only (re-enacting 32 & 33 Vict., cap. 71, sec. 6).

The debtor's statement of affairs, showing (inter alia) particulars as to dates at which, and amounts for which, he gave securities to creditors, must (sec. 16) be submitted to the official Receiver.

The debtor's property will vest in a trustee (sec. 20), appointed (sec. 21) and supervised by the creditors, or their inspectors, as provided by secs. 14, 20, and 21 of the Act of 1869. But his appointment is now subject to the veto of the Board of Trade, if the trustee has been improperly appointed, or if, from personal unfitness, or if he is so connected with or related to the bankrupt or any creditor, as to make it difficult to do his duty to the creditors generally.

The bankrupt's property, divisible among his creditors, is defined by sec. 44 in the words of sec. 15 of the Act of 1869, saving only that debts "growing due," as well as debts actually due to a trader, vest in the trustee as in the bankrupt's reputed ownership, unless notice of transfer has been given. (See pp. 214 et seq., and 350c.)

As to Fraudulent Preferences, sec. 48 of the new Act re-enacts sec. 92 of the Act of 1869, except that the words, "This section shall not affect the rights of any person making title in good faith and for valuable consideration, through or under a creditor of the bankrupt," are substituted for the words, "But this section shall not affect the rights of a purchaser, payee, or incumbrancer, in good faith and for valuable consideration."

Substitute sec. 49 of the new Act, for secs. 94 and 95 of the Act of 1869, referred to at pp. 201 et seq., and printed in extenso at pp. 350f and 350g.

"49. Subject to the foregoing provisions of this Act with respect to the effect of bankruptcy on an execution or attachment, and with respect to the avoidance of certain settlements and preferences, nothing in this Act shall invalidate, in the case of a bankruptcy

"(a) Any payment by the bankrupt to any of his creditors,

(b) Any payment or delivery to the bankrupt,

"(c) Any conveyance or assignment by the bankrupt for valuable consideration,

"(d) Any contract, dealing, or transaction by or with the bankrupt for valuable consideration,

"Provided that both the following conditions are complied with, namely— "(1.) The payment, delivery, conveyance, assignment, contract, dealing, or transaction, as the case may be, takes place before the date of the receiving order: and

"(2.) The person (other than the debtor) to, by, or with whom the payment, delivery, conveyance, assignment, contract, dealing, or transaction was made, executed, or entered into, has not at the time of the payment, delivery, conveyance, assignment, contract, dealing, or transaction, notice of any available act of bankruptcy committed by the bankrupt before that time."

The trustee may, within three months of his appointment (sec. 55, subsec. 1) disclaim any [pawn or other] property that is unsaleable, or not

readily saleable, by reason of its binding its possessor to any onerous act, or the payment of money. The disclaimer shall (sub-sec. 2) operate from the vesting of the property in the trustee, unless (sub-sec. 3) the trustee shall fail, for 28 days, to comply with a notice requiring him to elect whether he will disclaim or not. Any [pawnee or other] person injured by such disclaimer, may prove in the Bankruptcy Court for the consequent damages (sub-secs. 5 and 7).

The trustee may (sec. 57, sub-sec. 5) mortgage or pledge the debtor's property to raise money for paying his debts.

Every Court having Jurisdiction in Bankruptcy is empowered (sec. 102, sub-sec. 1) to decide all questions of priorities [between pawnees or other secured creditors].

The provisions of the Debtor's Act, 1869, for the punishment of Fraudulent Debtors, apply, whether the Debtor is made bankrupt on his own, or on a creditor's, petition (sec. 163, sub-sec. 1), and whether the bankrupt is a trader or a non-trader (Ib., sub-sec. 2).

The Court may commit a Bankrupt for trial in the same way as a stipendiary magistrate (sec. 165).

The definition of a "secured creditor," under the Act of 1883, sec. 168 is the same as in sec. 16, sub-sec. 5, of the Act of 1869 (see p. 200, and 350d). The rights of such a creditor to realize or otherwise deal with his security, as he might have done before the Act, are preserved by sec. 9. Rules as to proof and realization by a [pawnee or other] secured creditor, are contained in Schedule II. Such a creditor mav (r. 9) realise and prove for any ascertained deficit: or (r. 10) surrender his security and prove for the whole debt; or (r. 11) assess the value and prove for, and take dividends on, the estimated deficit. The trustee may (r. 12) redeem at any time by paying the assessed value.

The rules which follow are at once novel and important. They are therefore given at length.

"12 (b). If the trustee is dissatisfied with the value at which a security is assessed, he may require that the property comprised in any security so valued be offered for sale at such times and on such terms and conditions as may be agreed on between the creditor and the trustee, or as, in default of such agreement, the Court may direct. If the sale be by public auction the creditor, or the trustee on behalf of the estate, may bid or purchase.

"(c) Provided that the creditor may at any time, by notice in writing, require the trustee to elect whether he will or will not exercise his power of redeeming the security or requiring it to be realised, and if the trustee does not, within six months after receiving the notice, signify in writing to the creditor his election to exercise the power, he shall not be entitled to exercise it; and the equity of redemption, or any other interest in the property comprised in the security which is vested in the trustee, shall vest in the creditor, and the amount of his debt shall be reduced by the amount at which the security has been valued.

"13. Where a creditor has so valued his security, he may at any time amend the valuation and proof on showing to the satisfaction of the trustee, or the Court, that the valuation and proof were made bonâ fide on a mistaken estimate, or that the security has diminished or increased in value since its previous valuation; but every such amendment shall be made at the cost of the creditor, and upon such terms as the Court shall order, unless the trustee shall allow the amendment without application to the Court.

"14. Where a valuation has been amended in accordance with the foregoing rule, the creditor shall forthwith repay any surplus dividend which he may have received in excess of that to which he would have been entitled on the amended valuation, or, as the case may be, shall be entitled to be paid out of any money for the time being available for dividend any dividend or share of dividend which he may have failed to receive by reason of the inaccuracy of the original valuation, before that money is made ap plicable to the payment of any future dividend, but he shall not be entitled to disturb the distribution of any dividend declared before the date of the amendment.

"15. If a creditor after having valued his security subsequently realises it, or if it is realised under the provisions of Rule 13, the net amount realised shall be substituted for the amount of any valuation previously made by the creditor, and shall be treated in all respects as an amended valuation made by the creditor.

"16. If a secured creditor does not comply with the foregoing rules he shall be excluded from all share in any dividend.

"19. Subject to the provisions of Rule 13, a creditor shall in no case receive more than twenty shillings in the pound, and interest as provided by this Act."

THE CONTRACT OF
OF PAWN.

HISTORY OF PAWNING.

Before discussing the manner in which Pawning is regarded by the English Law, it may not be altogether out of place to glance briefly at some historical traces of the existence of this contract. The practice of depositing goods as security for the payment of money borrowed, or the performance of obligations incurred, is of very great antiquity. Occasioned by one of the commonest inconveniences of human life in every age, it may well be that this contract originated many centuries before the invention of a circulating medium, and that the relation of pawnor and pawnee was constituted between persons removed by only a few generations from our primæval ancestors. That it actually existed nearly four hundred years before the children of Israel became a separate nation is beyond doubt. Its earliest known example is recorded in a passage in the book of Genesis (a), from which it appears that Jacob's son, Judah, was the first pawnor, and his daughter-in-law, Tamar, the first pawnee. From the manner in which the story is told, however, it is manifest that the custom of pawning was both common and well established in the patriarchal age. The lady asks for the signet, the bracelets, and the staff, in as businesslike a manner as if she were a Pawnbroker in our own day;

(a) Chap. xxxviii., ver. 17, 18, 20.

B