The Sun.
London, England, 1845-11-28 00:00:00

LA*, INTELLIGENCE.

BANKRUPTCY COURT,- Ndvi 27.
' ' - - " ' (Beroie')iff:COniini4sioner Gouutuni.) '
• EEAY ASD REAR'S BAIIKEUPVY.-IESYME TRADE.
His Iloir?Eut gave judgment in this case this morning, and
'the CsittA was griowded with creditors and nutnbers of the
Wind trade on the occasion. Ife saidhe hid looked into the
whole of the procee4ogs, anti the hankrnpt .natlst be satis-
lied:that in he koseention .of this inquiry eviery possible
`advantage had been afforded Jilin.' 'lie had stated his own
case . as, he thought, and he had given his statements
tin* the "sanction of an oath, ,and had been assisted by
his, counsel with zeal and ability. „The charges preferred
againse the bankrupt by the assignee'!i. were, the; absence
of the proper balances of the beoks, the parch of geode.
and pledging them, the " overdrawing" on ci.itomers, and
generally ieckless,'cOnduct in trade. His Honour 'thee, at
some length, referred to the condition of the bankrupt's,
estate, tracing it, through its various stages, from the petlod
of .hif solvency ,down to, the date of the, fiat. In the course
of -the "narrative, he recapitulated the leading factS which
were brought out in discussion yesterday, and which have
already been reported. His, Honour, was understood dis-
tinctly to say that the bankrupt appeared td have been
solvent in 1841. It was a distressing, thing tp;see the bank-
.rupt, a man who lied occupied so high a position in the
mercantile World, before the Court under the ,present' ecindi-
tipp of cjiygthstapces. , After haying for &series Of yeanscon-
'ancted his biiSiness with,
.credit, to himself,,, it seemed that
all of a sudden lie had attet:ed.his,Course, and, Ipy the reek-
ess line 'he had pursued, involved his crditors. It was said
on his behalf, that the punishment of this positi+n was very
'fr.reat, and his (the Commissioner) could well, helievethat it
Was a bitter and deeply humiliating position fort e bankrupt
it
to be in ; and as'he (the Commissioner) thong t the bank-
rupt felt it deeply, he should, take that punishnie t into con-
sideration in the judgment he'was about to give.; Generally,
it was -Said, there were mitigating circumstances in this case.
To see how this stood -it--was necessary to folio the bank-
rupt into the details of some.of his transactio4. With re-
gard to Wright, his conduct ought not properly to be made
a matter of censure. The transaction with that person ap-
peared to be the result of many years' dealings, and Wright
having got into his confidence, left, him largely in debt. Be-
sides, the affair was wound up, and what loss was made was
made when he was solvent, so that, the ,creditors could not
interfere with that—for bad as the bargain was, if he
had then been called to account he could have paid
every . farthing 'he owed.. .He (the , gomniissioner)
wished lie could . say the same of the' debts of
Blumenthal . and Jarvis. He must say . that .he
thought the conduct of the bankrnpt with respect to Blu-
menthal amounted almost tc insanity. Blumenthal had been
a bankrupt, and so he told Iteay. Ileay admitted that in his
examination before the Court. It was much to the bank-
rupt's credit to say, that since his ,bankruptcy le 'had be-
haved in the most candid manner, and had afforded every
assistance for the realisation of the assets of his estate. It
,was extraordinary how the bankrupt, without reason, could
allow Blumenthal so ntuch confidence as to trust him nearly
to the extent of 50,000/. It was scarcely to be credited, and
yet, there was no excuse offered. If the bankrupt were ab-
solved from the penalty of such conduct in the.case of
Wright, because he was then above the, complaints of
creditors, ,it was different .with respect. to Blumenthal.
At the date he trusted that man his affairs *it& in.! a
the
very, different pesition, and h proper balance of his
books in 1843 could not have deceived him. In 1842 -it
might be a question whether he was entitled so to deal
with:Blumenthal ; but, in 1843 ,no person cyould have been
.ignOrant of the condition of his "tiPirs, such as the bank-
rupt's were, without wilfully closing his eyes. The bank-
rupt, as he himself ought to have known, was then in a
hopeleis ConditiOn, or, at least, fast going down the road to
insolvency. He (the Commissioner), therefore, did consider
that the charge of reckless trading was made out against
the bankrupt, with little or no excuse far his conduct. The
case of the credit to Jarvis was more extraordinary. Jarvis,-
according to Ileay's own account; was known to him-as being
a clerk in a respectable house. With respect to this point of
the case a curious argument had been used for the bankrupt.
Reay, since his bankruptcy; being alarge"Creditor against
Jarvis, had been afforded an opportunity, under the process
of bankruptcy, of inspecting Jarvis's books. What was the
result? Why, that he had supplied himself with inforrua-