their recovering it of the principal. But if a bankrupt obtains his certificate before his bail are fixed, it will difcharge them; if not till after they are fixed, they will remain liable notwithstanding the certificate, for it has no relation back, and till allowed it is nothing. And if the creditor proves his debt, with intent to obftruct the certificate, it does not preclude him from pursuing his legal remedies; and even if he has received his debt, or part of it, under the commiffion, ftill he might proceed to fix the bail, who would be entitled to their remedy, fo far as they are oppreffed, by audita querela, or by motion, but they cannot plead the certificate. The ftatute empowers one or more of the judges of the court in which the action is brought, to order the sheriff, &c. to difcharge the bankrupt out of cuftody without payment of any fee or reward; and in cafe of the bankrupt being arrested after his certificate allowed, he is to be difcharged upon com mon bail. But if there is any appearence of fraud on the part of the bankrupt, or it appears that the certificate is seriously meant to be difputed, the court will not interfere in a fummary way. If a bankrupt obtained his certificate pending an action to which he had given bail, formerly the method was for the bail to furrender the defendant, and then for him to apply to be difcharged, upon an affidavit, stating the fact of his having become a bankrupt fince the caufe of action arofe, and obtained a certificate; but of late, where a bankrupt is clearly entitled to his difcharge, the court, to avoid circuity, have ordered an exoneretur to be entered on the bail piece, without the form of a regular furrender of the bankrupt by his bail. But the bail can never be in a better fituation than the principal; therefore where it appears that the bankrupt himfelf would not be entitled to be difcharged, a motion on the part of the bail to enter an exoneretur on the bail piece will of course be refufed. NEW PROMISE. A bankrupt, after a commiffion of bankrupt fued out, may, in confideration of a debt due before the bankruptcy, make fuch creditor a fatisfaction, in part, or for. the whole of his debt by a new undertaking or agreement, and affumpfit for the original confideration will lie upon fuch new promife or undertaking. For a bankrupt may undoubtedly contract new debts; therefore, if there is any objection to his recovering an old debt by a new promife, it must be founded on the ground of its being nudum pactum. But all the debts of a bankrupt are due in confcience, notwithstanding he has obtained his certificate. DIVIDEND. The act of parliament allows the affignees a complete four months, from the iffuing the commiffion, to make a dividend; therefore the lord chancellor will not inter fere refpecting the dividend within that time. But if the affignees, after the four months are elapfed, refufe to make a dividend, the chancellor will, upon petition, order them to attend the commiflioners at a meeting appointed for that purpofe, and direct them to declare a dividend, if, upon examining the accounts and the affignees upon oath, they find there is a fufficient fund; or the commiffioners may themfelves, without an order of the court, fummon the affignees to produce their accounts, and fhew caufe why a dividend should not be deciared, which fummons and meeting for the affignees' attendance may be had without any expence, upon the application of a creditor who has proved a debt. If creditors have not been able to prove their debts in time to receive a first dividend, they will ftill be admitted to prove their debts, If they can reafonably account for their delay, upon the terms of not difturbing any former dividend; and upon obtaining an order for that purpose, they muft, in the first place, be brought up equal to the creditors under the former dividends, before the commiffioners can proceed to make another. And it is the practice, without an order, to permit creditors to prove at a meeting to declare a dividend, and in the first place to direct them to be paid equal to those who had proved before, and then to direct a general diftribution of the residue. BANKRUPT'S ALLOWANCE. The ftatute 5 Geo. II. c. 30. directs that every bankrupt who fhall, within the time limitted by the act, furrender to the commiffioners, and in all things conform, as in the act directed, fhall be allowed the fum of five pounds per centum out of the neat produce of all the estate that thall be recovered by the affignees, in cafe fuch neat produce after the allowance made, fhall be fufficient to pay the creditors ten fhillings in the pound, and fo as the allowance fhall not amount in the whole to above the fum of two hundred pounds. And in cafe the neat produce of the eftate shall, over and above the allowance next mentioned, be fufficient to pay the creditors twelve fhillings and fixpence in the pound, then the bankrupt fhall be allowed feven pounds ten hillings per centum, but not amounting in the whole to above two hundred and fifty pounds. And in cafe the neat produce of the faid eftate fhall be fufficient to pay fifteen fhillings in the pound, then to be allowed ten pounds per centum, not amounting in the whole to above three hundred pounds. Provided always, that if the neat proceed of the bankrupt's eftate fhall not pay the creditors ten fhillings in the pound, the bankrupt fhall be allowed fo much money as the faid affignees and commiffioners fhall think fit, not exceeding three pounds per centum. Although a bankrupt does furrender and conform, yet he is not entitled to the allowance given to bankrupts, unless he has obtained obtained his certificate before the final dividend; for if the creditors fhould confent to give it him before, it would be of no fervice, as they might take it from him again the next moment; for it would be liable, in his hands, to fatisfy any creditor, till he is entirely cleared by the certificate, Bankrupts are not entitled to their allowance, till a final dividend is made, because it cannot be feen before, whether they will be entitled to any allowance at all; for the act of parliament directs, that the neat produce of his eftate fhall be fufficient to pay the creditors of the bankrupt, who have proved their debts under the commiffion, the fum of ten fhillings in the pound, after fuch allow ance made. If the bankrupt's eftate is more than fufficient to pay twenty fhillings in the pound, he is entitled to the furplus; but all creditors by bonds, contracts, or notes carrying interest as has been allowed by the courfe of dealing, are entitled to receive intereft out of his eftate for the principal fum owing at the time of the commiffion, before any furplus fhall be conveyed to the bankrupt or his reprefentative. SUPERSEDEAS. The Superfedeas is a writ iffuing under the great feal to fuperfede the commiffion, and this writ may be ilued at the difcretion of the lord shancellor, in cafes where it is unfit the commiffion fhould be proceeded in. From this detail of the bankrupt laws it will appear that their regulations are at once wife, juft, and humane, calculated to afford to the fair creditor the best means of redress, and to the honeft debtor a reasonable profpect of re-establishment. That a fyftem affecting fo large a mafs of property should never afford means of fraud and abufe is not to be expected, but it must be evident that the greatest care and attention have been employed by the legiflature to render thefe frauds as few, and to the perpetrators, as dangerous as poffible; and it must be a great fatisfaction to all perfons interefted, to fee the affairs of the commiflion publicly administered by gentlemen of knowledge and character, fworn to impartiality, and reftrained from receiving any fee beyond 17. each, for each fitting. And if thefe circumftances did not afford a fufficient guaranty for juftice and impartiality, it is alfo to be remembered that the appeal lies to the higheft law officer in the kingdom, and that doubtful cafes may be laid open to trial by a jury. THE METROPOLIS. The portion of the British Empire to be confidered under this head, comprizes not only the city of London, within and without he walls, properly and anciently termed the Metropolis or or capital of the kingdom, but the adjacent parts which have been joined to it, in confequence of the increase of inhabitants and the advance of wealth and luxury; including the city of Westminster, with many parishes in the county of Middlesex, and the borough of Southwark, with feveral in Surrey. Maitland, who publifhed his hiftory of London fifty years ago, fays, this ancient city has ingulphed one city, one borough, and forty-three villages, viz. the city of Westminster, the borough of Southwark, and the villages of Mora, Finfbury, Wenlaxbarn, Clerkenwell, Iflington, Hoxton, Shoreditch, Nortonfalgate, the Spital, Whitechapel, Mile-End New-Town, MileEnd Old-Town, Stepney, Poplar, Limehoufe, Ratcliff, Shadwell, Wapping, Stepney, Eaft Smithfield, the Hermitage, St. Catharine's, the Minories, St. Clements-Danes, the Strand, Charing Crofs, St. James's, Knight's-Bridge, Soho, St. Giles's in the Fields, Bloomsbury, Portpool, Saffron-hill, Holborn, Vauxhall, Lambeth, Lambeth-Marfh, Kennington, Newington Buts, Bermondfey the Grange, Horfleydown and Rotherhithe. To thefe may be added the intire parifh of St. Mary-lebonne, and a great portion of that of St. Pancras, which, fince Maitland's work was published, have been covered with houfes, and contain more than one hundred thousand inhabitants. The whole metropolis extends nearly eight miles in length, is three miles at least in breadth, and not lefs than twenty-fix in circumference; containing above eight thousand ftreets, lanes, alleys, andcourts, and fixty-five fquares. The population of the metropolis, as returned to Parliament in 1801, is in the abstract as follows: London is fituated in the latitude of 1 degrees 31 mihutes north; at the diftance of 500 miles fouth-west of Copenhagen; 190 weft of Amfterdam; 660 north-west of Vienna; 225 north-west of Paris; 690 north-east of Madrid; 750 north-west of Rome; and 1500 northweft of Conftantinople. It extends from weft to eat, along the banks of the river Thames, being diftant from the fea about fixty miles. The choice of the fituation of this great city was moft judicious. It is on a gravelly foil; and on a declivity down to the borders of a magnificent river. The flope is evident in every part of the ancient city, and the vast modern buildings. The ancient city was defended in front by the river; on the weft fide by the deep ravine, fince known by the name of Fleet Ditch; on the north by moraffes; on the eaft, probably by another ravine. All the land round Westminfter abbey was a flat fen, which continued beyond Fulham but a rife commences oppofite to it, and forms a magnificent bend above the curvature of the Thames, even to the Tower. The Surrey-fide was in all probability a great expanfe of water, a lake, a Llyn, as the Welsh call it, which fome think might have given a name to the capital; Llyn Din, or the city on the lake. The expanfe of water might have filled the space between the rifing grounds at Deptford, and thofe at Clapham; and been bounded to the fouth, by the beautiful Surrey-hills. Lambeth-marth, and the Bankfide evidently were recovered from the water. Along Lambeth are the names of narrow walls, or the mounds which ferve for that purpose; and in Southwark, Bankfide again fhews the means of converting the ancient lake into ufeful land: even to this day the tract beyond Southwark, and in particular that beyond Bermondfey-ftreet, is fo very low, and beneath the level of common tides, that the proprietors are obliged to fecure it by embankments. The fituation with refpect to navigation is peculiarly favourable, being neither too high nor too low. Had it been placed lower down upon the river, it would not only have been annoyed by 'the marshes, but more liable to infults from foreign foes; and if it had been higher, it would not have been acceffible, as it is at prefent, to fhips of large burdens. But its actual pofition is fuch as to give it every advantage, that can be derived from a feaport, without any of its dangers. It alfo enjoys, by means of its noble river, a very extensive communication with the internal parts of the country, that fupply it with every fpecies of the neceffaries of life, and receive from it, in return, thofe articles of commerce, which they may refpectively require. It is plentifully fupplied with the very great and important article of fuel, by the navi VOL. III. Ff gation |