The Liverpool Standard, and General Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-11-14 00:00:00

Mr. DODGE then proceeded to address the court, object-
ing to the bankrupts' receiving a first-class certificate, on
these'grounds:—Excessive expenditure in their privateex-
penses ; reckless trading ; proceeding to carry on business
after they knew they were insolvent ; applying the means
of the estate in favour of particular creditors, after having
ceased trading; and deceiving Mr. Stock in order to ob-
tain further credit. By the balance-sheet they appeared
to have commenced business on something like a fictitious
capital, in the month of June,lB4B ; that they commenced
a concern at Birkenhead, continuing the first and smaller
one at Parkgate at the same time ; that the concern at
Parkgate failed in June, and the other iu August last;
that during the whole time they disposed of stock at Park-
gate to the amount of £6lB 13s. 7d., and at Birkenhead
to the amount of £873 2s. Bd, realising profits to the ex-
tent of £143 Is. Bd., and entailing trade expenses to the
value of £650 17s. 2d. The onle bad debts which they
appeared to have was the sum of £6 18s. id; doubtful
debts, £2l 6s. 9d. ' • good debts, £l2O 17s. 2d. These
were the whole of their assets ; yet in March or April,
1853, they gave to Mr. Wilkes, their manager, a warrant-
of-attorney for £l4O, which,' for a secret motive, was exe-
cuted at Chester. The mode in which they carried on
their business, their mode of dealing with Wilkes, and
the mode in which their books were entered, was most
extraordinary in themselves. Although they must have
known in March, 1853, that they were not in a condition
to carry on the business, they continued to get into Mr.
Stock's debt, obtaining goods from him. after they had
sent him that extraordinary letter, to the value of £9O.
Looking at these circumstances, he submitted that his
Honour should mark his sense of their misconduct by
granting a low-class certificate, with suspension.
Mr. HARVEY concurred in everything which Mr.
Dodge had stated, urging further that the whole of the
bankrupts' trading was carried on almost entirely by
fictitious capital, the only actual sum put into the concern
having been £4B, to which he added the sum of £175, which
was claimed as capital, but improperly so, because money
to that amount, and more, was drawn out of the concern
from time to time, and ought, therefore, to be deducted. Then
they bad raised money by accommodation bills, which
they had very much misapplied in the payment of Wilkes,
to whom they had given a warrant of attorney, which had
enabled him to sweep everything away. The proceedings be-
fore the court were introduced by a friend of thebankrupts,
which was almost the same thing as if they themselves had
sought the protection and assistance of the court. The
Bankrupt Law Consolidation Act, however, in effect, said
a man should not go to that court to whitewash himself;
and was this a case in which a man should be allowed to
escape his just liabilities by getting a discharge by a
certificate ? If the court refused its protection, the case
might probably be brought before his Honour in a more
methodical and legitimate manner.

Mr. BEETIIERTON replied at considerable length to the
objections, urging that the accommodation-bills had
not damnified the estate ; that what errors had been com-
mitted, if errors there had been, were to be attributed to
the inexperience of the bankrupts, and to the suggestion
of Wilkes, by whom they bad allowed themselves to be
led in everything, under the supposition that, having been
connected with the trade, he could make the concern suc-
cessful ; that, in consequence of his representations, they
believed the business was improving, and that it would.
ultimately be a profitable trade, until they were so closely
pressed by the coal companies. All that Wilkes had
swept away" was the coals, and the right to the yard at
Parkgate.
His HoNoun reserved his judgment until to-morrow
(Wednesday) morning, at eleven o'clock.