shall think reasonable, a schedule is required to be delivered in to the court, signed by the prisoner, containing a full description of his name, trade or profession, place of abode, debts and property of every description (o). Immediately after the filing of this schedule, a time and place are appointed by the court for the prisoner to be brought up to be dealt with according to the act (p), of which due notice is given to the creditors (q). His schedule is then examined into on oath by the court; and any creditor may oppose his discharge, and for that purpose may put such questions to the prisoner, and examine such witnesses, as the court shall think fit (r). After such examination the court is then empowered, upon the prisoner swearing to the truth of his schedule, and executing the warrant of attorney to be mentioned afterwards, to adjudge that such pri- Discharge from custody. soner shall be discharged from custody, and entitled to the benefit of the act as to the several debts and sums of money mentioned in the schedule, due or claimed to be due, at the time of making the vesting order, from the prisoner to the persons named in his schedule, or for which such persons shall have given him credit before the time of making such vesting order, and which were not then payable, and as to the claims of all other persons, not known to the prisoner at the time of the adjudication, who may be indorsees or holders of any negociable security set forth in the schedule (s). The discharge may, in the discretion of the court, either be immediate, or may be postponed for six months (t), and in certain cases of flagrant misconduct it may be postponed for any period not exceeding three years (u).

The insolvent being thus discharged is free from any Effect of dis

(0) Sect. 69.

(s) Sect. 75. Leonard v. Baker,

charge.

(p) Sect. 70.

(9) Sect. 71.

(r) Sect. 72.

15 Mee. & Wels. 202.

(1) Sect. 76.

(u) Sects. 77, 78.

K

Warrant of at torney to be executed by prisoner.

Insolvency un

der stat. 5 & 6 Vict. c. 116.

future imprisonment, and his property is also free from execution, at the suit of his creditors, for the debts mentioned in the schedule (x). And the costs of actions and suits (y), and the claims of annuity creditors (z), may be comprised in such discharge. The discharge, however, is not, like that of bankruptcy, final and complete; for before any adjudication is made, the prisoner is required to execute a warrant of attorney, authorizing the entering up of a judgment against him in one of the superior courts at Westminster, in the name of the assignee or assignees, for the amount of the prisoner's unsatisfied debts as stated in the schedule. And if at any time it should appear to the satisfaction of the court that the prisoner is of ability to pay such debts, or any part thereof, or that he is dead leaving assets for that purpose, the court may permit execution to be taken out upon the judgment for such sum as it may order, such sum to be distributed rateably amongst the creditors (a).

Under certain circumstances an insolvent may now, by recent acts of parliament, obtain as complete a discharge from his debts as if he had become bankrupt(b). The acts, however, only apply to such persons as have become indebted without any fraud, or gross or culpable negligence. Accordingly, no person is allowed to take the benefit of such acts if his debts have been contracted by any manner of fraud or breach of trust, or any prosecution whereby he has been convicted of any offence, or without having, at the time of becoming indebted, a reasonable or probable expectation of being able to pay the debts; or if such debts were contracted by reason of any judgment in any proceeding for breach of the

revenue laws; or in any action for breach of promise of marriage, seduction, criminal conversation, libel, slander, assault, battery, malicious arrest, malicious suing out of a fiat in bankruptcy, or malicious trespass (c). With these exceptions, any person indebted, not being a trader within the bankrupt laws, or being such trader, but owing debts amounting in the whole to less than 3007., may, whether he shall have already been in prison or not (d), apply for the protectiou of his person from process, on making a full disclosure and surrender of all his estate and effects for payment of his debts. The application is now made to the Court for the Relief of Insolvent Debtors (e). But if the petitioner shall not have resided for the last six calendar months within twenty miles of London, but shall have resided for that time within the district of a County Court, application must then be made to such County Court (f). The whole estate and effects of the insolvent are then vested in the provisional assignee of the Insolvent Court, or in the clerk of the County Court, as the case may be, for the benefit of all the creditors rateably (g). But the wearing apparel, &c. of the petitioner and his family, not exceeding the value of 20l., may be excepted, as in the other Insolvent Act, provided such excepted articles, and the values thereof, be fully and truly described (h). With the exception of the warrant of attorney given by the prisoner under the other Insolvent Act, the provisions of these acts are generally similar to those of that

act.

In the reign of George III. an act was passed for the Stat. 48 Geo. 3, discharge of debtors in execution upon any judgment

(c) Stat. 5 & 6 Vict. c. 116, s. 4; 7 & 8 Vict. c. 96, s. 24. (d) Stat. 7 & 8 Vict. c. 96, s. 6; 10 & 11 Vict. c. 102, s. 7. (e) Stat. 10 & 11 Vict. c. 102,

ss. 6, 8.

(f) Ibid. s. 6.

(g) Stat. 5 & 6 Vict. c. 116, s. 7; 10 & 11 Vict. c. 102, s. 5. (h) Stat. 7 & 8 Vict. c. 96, s. 9.

c. 123.

for any debt or damages not exceeding 201., exclusive of costs (i). But as it is now provided that no person shall be taken or charged in execution upon any judgment in any action for the recovery of any debt, wherein the sum recovered shall not exceed 201., exclusive of costs (k), this act may now be considered as almost obsolete.

(i) Stat. 48 Geo. III. c. 123. See Tolson v. Dykes, 1 Phillips,

(k) Stat. 7 & 8 Vict. c. 96, s. 57.

439.

CHAPTER VI.

OF INSURANCE.

insurance.

HAVING now considered, though very briefly, the sub-
ject of debts generally, there remain certain debts, pay-
able on contingencies, which deserve a separate notice,
namely, debts arising under contracts to insure, effected
by policies of insurance. A policy of insurance, or Policy of
assurance, is the name given to the instrument by
which a contract to insure is entered into; and a con-
tract to insure is a contract to indemnify against a loss
which may arise on the happening of some event, or,
in other words, a contract that, on the happening of
such event, the insurer shall pay to the party insured
a sum of money equivalent to the loss he may have
sustained. The most usual kinds of insurance are, in-
surance of lives, insurance against loss by fire, and
insurance of ships and their cargoes against the perils
of the seas.

And first, as to life insurance. The advantages of life Life insurance. insurance are now so well known that there is no occasion to dilate upon them. By payment of a small annual premium during the life insured, a sum of money may be secured at the decease of the party, applicable to the payment of his debts, for a provision for his family, or any other purposes. But as the insurance of lives and other events, in which the person insured had no interest, was found to introduce a mischievous kind of gaming, it was enacted, in the early part of the reign of George III., that no insurance should be made on the Insurances on life of any person, or on any other event whatsoever, lives in which wherein the person for whose use and benefit, or on no interest void.

the insured has