is the commission that issues from the lord chancellor, on a person's becoming a bankrupt within any of the statutes, directed to certain commissioners appointed to examine into it, and to secure the bankrupt's lands and effects for the satisfaction of his creditors. See the article Bankrupt.

The proceedings on a commission of bankruptcy may be divided, 1. Into those which affect the bankrupt himself. 2. Into those which affect his property.

1. As to those of the former kind, there must, in the first place, be a petition to the lord chancellor by one creditor to the amount of 10l. or by two to the amount of 150l. or by three or more to the amount of 200l.; upon which he grants a commission to such discreet persons as to him shall seem good, who are then styled commissioners of bankrupt. The petitioners, to prevent malicious applications, must be bound in a security of 200l. to make the party amends, in case they do not prove him a bankrupt.

And if, on the other hand, they receive any money or effects from the bankrupt, as a recompense for suing out the commission, so as to receive more than their rateable dividends of the bankrupt's estate, they forfeit not only what they shall have so received, but their whole debt. When the commission is awarded and issued, the commissioners are to meet at their own expense, and to take an oath for the due execution of their commission, and to be allowed a sum not exceeding 20s. per diem each, at every sitting. And no commission of bankruptcy shall abate or be void on any demise on the crown.

When the commissioners have received their commission, they are first to receive proof of the person's being a trader, and having committed some act of bankruptcy; and then to declare him bankrupt, if proved so; and to give notice thereof in the gazette, and at the same time to appoint three meetings. At one of these meetings an election must be made of affigrees, or persons to whom the bankrupt's estate shall be assigned, and in whom it shall be vested for the benefit of the creditors; which affigrees are chosen by the major part, in value, of the creditors who shall then have proved their debts; but may be originally appointed by the commissioners, and afterwards approved or rejected by the creditors; but no creditors shall be admitted to vote in the choice of affigrees, whose debt, on the balance of accounts, does not amount to 10l. And at the third meeting at farthest, which must be on the 42nd day after the advertisement in the gazette, the bankrupt, upon notice also personally served upon him, or left at his usual place of abode, must surrender himself personally to the commissioners, and must thenceforth in all respects conform to the directions of the statutes of bankruptcy; or, in default thereof, shall be guilty of felony without benefit of clergy, and shall suffer death, and his goods and estate shall be divided among his creditors.

In case the bankrupt absconds, or is likely to run away between the time of the commission issued and the last day of surrender, he may, by warrant from any judge or justice of the peace, be apprehended and committed to the county gaol, in order to be forthcoming to the commissioners, who are also empowered immediately to grant a warrant for seizing his goods and papers.

When the bankrupt appears, the commissioners are to examine him touching all matters relating to his trade and effects. They may also summon before them, and examine, the bankrupt's wife, and any other person whatsoever, as to all matters relating to the bankrupt's affairs: And in case any of them shall refuse to answer, or shall not answer fully, to any lawful question, or shall refuse to subscribe such their examination, the commissioners may commit them to prison without bail, till they make and sign a full answer; the commissioners specifying in their warrant of commitment the question so refused to be answered. And any gaoler, permitting such person to escape or go out of prison, shall forfeit 500l. to the creditors.

The bankrupt, upon this examination, is bound, upon pain of death, to make a full discovery of all his estate and effects as well in expectancy as possession, and how he has disposed of the same; together with all books and writings relating thereto: and is to deliver up all in his power to the commissioners (except the necessary apparel of himself, his wife, and his children); or, in case he conceals or embezzles any effects to the amount of 20l. or withholds any book or writings, with intent to defraud his creditors, he shall be guilty of felony without benefit of clergy.

After the time allowed the bankrupt for such discovery is expired, any other person voluntarily discovering any part of his estate before unknown to the affigrees, shall be entitled to five per cent. out of the effects so discovered, and such farther reward as the affigrees and commissioners shall think proper. And any trustee wilfully concealing the estate of any bankrupt, after the expiration of 42 days, shall forfeit 100l. and double the value of the estate concealed, to the creditors.

Hitherto every thing is in favour of the creditors; and the law seems to be pretty rigid and severe against the bankrupt; but, in case he proves honest, it makes him full amends for all this rigour and severity. For, if the bankrupt hath made an ingenuous discovery, hath conformed to the directions of the law, and hath acted in all points to the satisfaction of his creditors; and if they, or four parts in five of them in number and value (but none of them creditors for less than 20l. will sign a certificate to that purport; the commissioners are then to authenticate such certificate under their hands and seals, and to transmit it to the lord chancellor: and he, or two judges whom he shall appoint, on oath made by the bankrupt that such certificate was obtained without fraud, may allow the same; or disallow it, upon cause shown by any of the creditors of the bankrupt.

If no cause be shown to the contrary, the certificate is allowed of course; and then the bankrupt is entitled to a decent and reasonable allowance out of his effects, for his future support and maintenance, and to put him in a way of honest industry. This allowance is also in proportion to his former good behaviour, in the early discovery of the decline of his affairs, and thereby giving his creditors a large dividend. For if his effects will not pay one half of his debts, or 10s. in the pound, he is left to the discretion of the commissioners and assignees, to have a competent sum allowed him, not exceeding 3 per cent.; but if they pay 10s. in the pound, he is to be allowed 5 per cent.; if 12s. 6d. then 7½ per cent.; and if 15s. in the pound, then the bankrupt shall be allowed 10 per cent.; provided that such allowance do not in the first case exceed 20l. in the second 25l. and in the third 30l.

Besides this allowance, he has also an indemnity granted him, of being free and discharged for ever from all debts owing by him at the time he became a bankrupt; even though judgment shall have been obtained against him, and he lies in prison upon execution for such debts; and, for that among other purposes, all proceedings on commission of bankrupt, are, on petition, to be entered on record, as a perpetual bar against actions to be commenced upon this account: though, in general, the production of the certificate properly allowed shall be sufficient evidence of all previous proceedings. Thus the bankrupt becomes a clear man again; and, by the affluence of his allowance and his own industry, may become an useful member of the commonwealth; which is the rather to be expected, as he cannot be entitled to these benefits, but by the testimony of his creditors themselves of his honest and ingenuous disposition; and unless his failures have been owing to misfortunes, rather than to misconduct and extravagance.

2. As to the proceedings which affect the bankrupt's property.

By virtue of the statutes before mentioned, all the personal estate and effects of the bankrupt are considered as vested, by the act of bankruptcy, in the future assignees of his commissioners, whether they be goods in actual possession, or debts, contracts, and other choses in action; and the commissioners by their warrant may cause any house or tenement of the bankrupt to be broken open, in order to enter upon and seize the same. And when the assignees are chosen or approved by the creditors, the commissioners are to assign everything over to them; and the property of every part of the estate is thereby as fully vested in them as it was in the bankrupt himself, and they have the same remedies to recover it.

The property vested in the assignees is the whole that the bankrupt had in himself, at the time he committed the first act of bankruptcy, or that has been vested in him since, before his debts are satisfied or agreed for. Therefore it is usually said, that once a bankrupt, and always a bankrupt: by which is meant, that a plain direct act of bankruptcy once committed, cannot be purged, or explained away, by any subsequent conduct, as a dubious equivocal act may be; but that, if a commission is afterward awarded, the commission and the property of the assignees shall have a relation, or reference, back to the first and original act of bankruptcy. Inasmuch that all transactions of the bankrupt are from that time absolutely null and void, either with regard to the alienation of his property, or the receipt of his debts from such as are privy to his bankruptcy; for they are no longer his property, or his debts, but those of the future assignees. And if an execution be sued out, but not served and executed on the bankrupt's effects, till after the act of bankruptcy, it is void, as against the assignees. But the king is not bound by this fictitious relation, nor is within the statutes of bankrupts; for if, after the act of bankruptcy committed, and before the assignment of his effects, an extent issues for the debt of the crown, the goods are bound thereby. In France this doctrine of relation is carried to a very great length: for there, every act of a merchant, for ten days precedent to the act of bankruptcy, is presumed to be fraudulent, and is therefore void. But with us the law stands upon a more reasonable footing; for as these acts of bankruptcy may sometimes be secret to all but a few, and it would be prejudicial to trade to carry this notion to its utmost length, it is provided by stat. 19 Geo. II. c. 32. that no money paid by a bankrupt to a bona fide, or real, creditor, in a course of trade, even after an act of bankruptcy done, shall be liable to be refunded. Nor by stat. 1 Jac. I. c. 15. shall any debtor of a bankrupt that pays him his debt without knowing of his bankruptcy, be liable to account for it again. The intention of this relative power being only to reach fraudulent transactions, and not to disfranchise the fair trader.

The assignees may pursue any legal method of recovering this property so vested in them by their own authority; but cannot commence a suit in equity, nor compound any debts owing to the bankrupt, nor refer any matters to arbitration, without the consent of the creditors, or the major part of them in value, at a meeting to be held in pursuance of notice in the gazette.

When they have got in all the effects they can reasonably hope for, and reduced them to ready money, the assignees must, within 12 months after the commission issued, give 21 days notice to the creditors of a meeting for a dividend or distribution; at which time they must produce their accounts, and verify them upon oath, if required. And then the commissioners shall direct a dividend to be made, at so much in the pound, to all creditors who have before proved, or shall then prove, their debts. This dividend must be made equally, and in a rateable proportion, to all the creditors, according to the quantity of their debts; no regard being had to the quality of them. Mortgages, indeed, for which the creditor has a real security in his own hands, are entirely safe; for the commission of bankrupt reaches only the equity of redemption. So are all personal debts, where the creditor