The Express.
London, England, 1853-11-07 00:00:00

the Lgrds Justices in the cue of Castelli, decided that he
had power to enlarge, is the notice had been given before
the eapitation of the original wean days.

IX 111 12 QUESTION ON Till

CorteraverioN or TeX raNAL CLatael.
This was the certificate auction in the case of Jules
Artiques,geoeral merchant and econsaisdea agent of Mark-
lane.
The report of Mr. Pennell, the official assignee, stated
that the bakrupt was a Frenchman, and came to London
on his father's business in July, 1649, but shortly after
commenced Minns es his own account. The balance-
sheet began on the let January, 1851, with • capital of 831.
He now owed to creditors 15,5521„ of which sum 8.8431.
arose on transactions with his father, who was also a bank-
rupt at Bordeaux. He was also liable on the aceepuince•
of other parties to the amount of 3,5981. The profits, from
merchandise, eornmissi n, charter parties, and other sources,
I had been 2,1491.; but against this was the sans of 2,2791.,
paid as freight and insurance, which converted the profit
into a loos. The assets, in goodi debts and property, were
estimated at 4751. ; doubtful debts 4,4041. The property
held by creditors amounted to 1,2631., and the claims upon
it to 5371. ; but there was little or no surplus, owing to the
heavy loss on the sale of the ship Iris, which cost about
1,1001., and sold for about 4001. The bankrupt's furniture,
which cost 3501., was settled on his wife's trustees at his
marriage, Ist March, 1852. The loam by bed debts
were 3,7591.; trade expenses, 1,4801.; interest, discount,
and commission, 1,7531. ; interest on father's debt. 1,3211. ;
law expenses. 2501. ; travelling ditto, 861. • domestic ditto,
8031. The books were kept by double entry, but they had
been balanced since the 0'51=14 theameneed busi-
ness The bankrupt had bees wry aseldsous in assisting
the assignees to realise this very compliested estate.
The adjudication was made in December last, on the peti-
tion of Mr. George Corsi, banker, of the Rue Hanteville,
Paris, • creditor for 8141. The ease was last before the
court on the 24th of June, when the bankrupt applied for
his certificate, but the application was adjourned sine die,
in order that the bankrupt might being his father before
the court for examination touching his debts, or give proof
of his inability to produce him. In the interval the father
had been examiaed. From an account of the official assig-
nee, made up to the 24th ult., it appeared that the whole of
the assets realised amounted to 1621., of which, deducting
the expenses, 921. remained in band.
Mr. Linklater, for the assignees, offered no onside%
being content to leave the questions as to the scopmis as
the hands of the efficial assignee.
Mr. Cooke opposed for the following creditors :—Messes.
E. Aepden and Co., of Manchester; Mum. G. Corsi and
Co., of Paris; Mr. T. Capps, of Leadenhall-street; Mr.
W. Caudrey, Mr. T. Carr, Mr. Farwig, Mr. E. Oouldthorp,
Mr. Abel Morrell, Mr. P. Solomon., and Messrs. heathy,'
and Ponsford. of London. He state." :that the bankrupt
had begun with • very trifling capital, and, after a trading
I of two year., had incurred debts to the amount of 16,0001.,
while the assets were net more than 1001. The trading had
evidently been unfair, unjust, and dishonest, and the
I bankruptcy was in fact • fraudulent one.
The particulars of the can may be gleaned from the I
judgment of the Commissioner, which was as follows :
His Honour said he agreed that mere allowance was to
be made for the youth of the bankrupt, and the circum-
stance of his being a foreigner ; but those considerations
should not outweigh the justice and common sense of the
matter. It must not be assumed that a party 26 or 27
years of age, who, though • foreigner, seemed to have
been very conversant with our language and commercial
code, was to be exempted from all the rules which ought to
govern every one embarking in trade. His history ap-
peared to be this. His father being engaged in business in
France, had sent him to London to conduct his com-
mercial transactions in this country, end while
here, in July, 1849, he bethought him of embarking
himself in trade, supposing that he might materially assist
both his own and his father's views. He had no capital of
hi. own, at least, next to nothing (831. Its, ltd.) compared
with the great magnitude of the dealings into which he im-
mediately entered. A man who adventured nothing himself.
ought to be peculiarly careful and cautions before he em-
barked in speculations to such a large amount, and rushed
hand over had into dealings involving between 60,000/.
and 58,0001. in the first year. No one was exempt from
this rule; and, whether Frenchman or Englishman, a man
of beauty and good conduct would ask himself, " Ought 1,
who bring nothing into the concern, who am gambling with
counters against the ready money of others, to embark ia all
these extensive dealings, without considering how
I may affect the interests of others, and whe-
ther they will be ultimately protected from loss ?"
He had not done so. lie had received very
large amounts in consignments from others, and seemed
to have gone to work as • merchant in the
most careless possible way. One fact disclosed by
his balanee•sheet would be a startling one in any account.
He had only 1021. of good debts owing to him ; while the
bad and doubtful debts, which were hopelessly hut and not
worth pursuing, exceeded 8,0001. Another very singular
fact was this. In the short period, something less than two
years, over which his mounts extended, he only computed
his profits at 2,1491. ; while his expenditure of various
kinds amounted to 7,9741. The domestic expenditure was
put down at about 4001. • year—a large amount for • man
who began with nothing, and was spading out of the
pockets of hie creditors. The trade charges were 1,4801. ;
interest and discount (always a very suspicious item in any
merchant's account, and one to be observed upon and di •
precated), 1,7531. Did that look like • man who was going
on with the least attention to the rates that ought to govern
a man in trade 1 Then there was the interest on his father's
debt, 1,3211.; law charges, 2501. ; travelling expenses, 861. ;
freight and insurance en merchandise, 2,2891. It
was impossible, looking only at the broad outline
of the ease, not to be satisfied that this
conduct was as reckless and improvident, and as little in
conformity with the rules and principle' that ought to
govern a merchant, as anything that could be conceived.
Then there were particular charges. The creditors, very
properly, and in the exercise of their miesbted right, com-
plained that this man had defrauded *ma; that in tact
his conduct was net merely reckless sad improvident in the
highest degree, but that he had waft etharthesil debts
with three of themi fraudaleatly sal epeei usisemied pre-
team. They Mai Ws gimps ea the led dame el the
236th section of the Coasolidatiom AM. Here, partierslar
attention was to the word " amuse " employed
in the clams. The ud must be in the contract ; whoa
the man seatreeted the debt be meet intend fraud. That
had be determined again and *Oa by several of the men-
missiemee, es well as by a higher tribunal. But a man's
laismaiime amid only be jtelgrA bride sob, and these might
be :aleaset le seselusive as Mead be had admitted in
writing that be Imeanded frond. If ho made a contract or
bargain in sr di a wag that a mmemalis mind could only
some Mims esaikeshem it was &dog Yin ao wrong to say
that he had Beadnimitip 'attracted ashes. Bohemia had
%sante& to Mee deshisas of the appellate. jurisdiction ;
sad the esarts were bound to look most anxiously to tbs..,
and to meta their own views thereby, as far as was con-
sistent with the oath they had taken, lest pasties should
have wrong dose them by being forced to the expels.e of an
appeal. When he found men of such eminence as Lord
Junks Haight Bruce and Lord Justice Turner, declaring
(as is the ease of Maniee) that though a man began with
necking, mad habiteally cad systematically, for several
meshy pmeakeeci wine as in the ordinary course of trade,
sad imasedheely raised money on the warrants and appro-
priated the money to his own that this did not
come within*, penal 'action, tit was no evidence of a
fraudulent contract, and that such a man ought to be ac-
quitted from the imputation of fraud, that was an authority
to make hint pause before coming to a decision, that there
had been a fraudulent contract in a case which rather
stopped short of than exceeded the one referred to. Were
he to do otherwise. he might ilia a wrong
upon the debtor, who might not have the means
of taking the opinion of the court above. He, therefore,
endeavoured to conform hie view of the law and the facts
of such cases to that which had been expressed by the court
above, so as to act is unison, as much as possible, with that
court. The evidence of the bankrupt having contracted
these debts fraudulently was, that he was utterly and hope-
lessly insolvent at the time and knew that be was so,
that be had committed an sot of bankruptcy, that he was
pressed on all sides, and was at the moment upon the very
threshold of that court. The next evidence was that he
applied these goods, not for the ordinary purposes of his
trade, bet most unjustly sad wickedly, to stop other
more prswng demands. But the queticia returned whether
when he ordered Use goods, be contemplated so dealing
with them, or whether his doing so was the result of sub
Inquest prewar,. If he bought them honestly, fairly in-
tending to sell them again, but yielded to a subsequent
pressure, the fraud was not in the contrast; end there were
one or two important facts in that point of
view. Had he contemplated fraud when he
contracted for the goods, he would scarcely have
put that fraud so plainly on the record against__ himself by
entering the transactions in his books. Where men meant
to cheat, their books were almost always silent ; but here
the bankrupt had recorded not only from whom he put.
chased the goods, but how he disposed of them. His own
oath was also to be considered ; he had sworn that he did
not contemplate or intend fraud when ordering the goods.
Looking at these circumstances, and having regard to
decided cases, rather than to hi. own opinion, he thought he
should err were he to hold that the evidence was sufficient
to satisfy him that the bankrupt had contracted these debts
fraudulently and with intent to chest. The evidence in this
case was infinitely weaker than in that of Msnico, or even
in that of H. Martin. At all events, it left his mind so
much in doubt, that he would give the accused the benefit
of that doubt, and absolve him from the fraud imputed to
him in making the contract. He took this coarse the more
readily as it did not at all tie up the hand. of the court in
its judgment an to the future protection of the bankrupt from
arrest. If the bankrupt were found guilty upon the fraudu-
lent contract, the court would be bound to refuse him
protection, and could not grant it at any time or under any
circumstance.; but by dealing with the case on its general
discretion, the court had still power to withhold protection
for such period as might satisfy the justice of the case.
There were one or two points that were favourable to the
bankrupt. Mr. Pennell reported that he had been very
assiduous in assisting his assignees in their attempts to make
the most of his very implicated estate ; and the whole of his
, transactions were entered in his books, so that the creditors'
had indeed been enabled to make their charges
' him from those books. Those circumstances induced
court to stop short of what was asked—the total refusal se I
the certificate—ea extreme to which they ought only bolo
in a ease that admitted of scarcely any mitigation. lie
thoegbt the justice of the case might be met by suspending
the sertideate for a period of two years from the date of the
effliediestioo ; when granted the certificate to be of the
Wed ghee; sad the beakrept to remain without protection
frees meat toe six maths from that date.
Me. Cooke—Will you Honour allow the costs of the op-
pities ?
Tbs Comminiosev-Ob, certainly. It is a most proper
olgobia.