The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-11-15 00:00:00

enacted—

" That if any such trader, liable, by virtue of this set, t°
become bankrupt, shall, after a docket struck against 111t°i
pay to the person or persons who strike the same, or anY °l
them, money or goods, or deliver to any such person
satisfaction or security for this debt, or any part there
whereby such person may receive more in the pound in
,re-
spect of his debt than the other creditors, such payment, gift
delivery, satisfaction, or security, shall be an act of bankrupt-
cy. And if any commission shall have issued upon the
docket so struck, the Lord Chancellor may either declare
such commission to be valid, and direct the same to be pl.°-
ceeded in, or may order it to be superseded, and a new cclraci
mission may issue ; and such commission may be suPP"te f
either by proof of such last-mentioned or any other aft .°
bankruptcy. And every person so receiving suchitoney,Otr;
delivery, satifaction, or security, shall forfeit his Iv4°.:
debt, and also repay or deliver up such money, gift, &c' °r
the full value thereof, to such person as the commissioner".
shall appoint, for the benefit of the creditors of such bank'
rapt."

Clear enough one would imagine this! Well, then'
how, it will be asked, could the Bank of Manchester
commit itself by running counter to a statute thus
penal ? On the 3d of August, a docket was struck
against Mr. Joseph Raleigh, of the firm of Ps°it
Raleigh and Co., on the petition of the Bank of ida/3,ci
chester. On the sth of August, sundry bills were Pal
into the bank by the bankrupt, with a credit Ote
advising of their application, and no objection was
~
made at the time to the receipt of such hills, althoug:
clearly paid in after the striking of the docket, and'
therefore, coming within the meaning of the abc)%l
clause of the Bankruptcy Act. By the evidence
of one of the clerks of the bank, they acted upon the
advice of Raleigh given in his credit note, and, With
portion of the proceeds of the bills paid in, retired, °t
that day, another bill then due, and for the partici)
of which Raleigh was liable. So far, the transacti°ll,i
though clearly illegal, was wanting in that "fraud 311
privacy" which the statute contemplated as its ace°.
panirnent ; and this was supplied on the following dal;
One of the managers was, it seems, struck with °
dangerous nature of the payment ; and what did that
gentleman under the circumstances ? Repudiate the
,
payment and give up the money ? No such thillt's:
The bill was sent back—still remaining in the P°
session of the bank—to Raleigh, and his consent ashe
to its being endorsed by another firm, in which he Nagto
a partner. This quibbling evasion was perfected,
outward appearance, at least ; but its failure proves to b
be two-fold. First, the original payment by RaleAigiv
to his own account is clearly proved ; and, seeell'j;
the procuring its endorsement by Thorpe and , es
would fail, because Thorpe and Co. are thernselvid
partners of the bankrupt, and the payment w°ll
therfore be his as well as theirs !
It is presumable that an effort will be made t° set
aside, in the Court above, the decision which was Pr;
flounced against the claim of the bank by the comini
sioners under Raleigh and Co.'s. fiat on Friday last.
We, however, doubt much the success of such 30
attempt.

The philosophers of the Anti-Corn-Law League aree
at this moment, engaged in the effort to levy, from t 21,..
gulls, male, female, drab and blue, of this befouled
tion, the sum of FIFTY THOUSAND POUNDS, t°he
spent, as they tell us, in the dissemination of tts
principles of free trade," by the circulation of tracli
and hired spouters, throughout the land. Now it svit
scarcely he denied, that one of the most irnPortalle
" principles" of free trade is the principle that the
should beno protection for labour—no interferanceto'
the 7narhet for that commodity. Upon this subject nos.,
of men have more unmistakeably expressed their oPtlis
ons than the leaguers; and, we believe, there would thla
day be found, amongst that body, men hardy
shameless enough to denounce every past effort of we
legislature to protect even infant labour from °lf
tyranny of the factory, or to arrest the bestializatioo 0

females in our mines and colleries.
Labour must compete, unaided by the protectl
care of the legislature, with the power of capital. rrili
is one of the free trade doctrines, for the disseminatlol3
of which English men and women are contributing their
shillings and pounds to the begging box of the league
Let us, '
then, invite the lovers of this doctrine to tile
contemplation of a few facts, illustrative of the effects