to another client, and deriving profit at the same time by drawing the securities as an attorney, will not make a money scrivener within the Act. And the negotiating of occasional sums of money will not make a scrivener.

Where the principal business of an attorney was in negotiating annuities and loans of money, whence he mainly derived his profits, but the bonds, judgments, and warrants of attorney were uniformly made out in his office, he was held to be no money scrivener, for, in all the business, the attorney was predominant. Holt's Nisi Prius Cases, 654, Hurd v. Brydges.

Sheep Salesmen.

Shipwrights.

Tavern-keepers.

Victuallers.

Warehousemen.
Wharfingers.

The following persons are exempted under the following proviso:

That no farmer, grazier, common labourer, or workman for hire, receiver general of the taxes, or member of or subscriber to any incorporated, commercial, or trading companies established by Charter or Act of Parliament, shall be deemed as such a trader liable by virtue of this Act to become bankrupt.

As long as a person makes his profit from his own ground or occupation, without the accessary aid of foreign produce, he is no trader; and thus a farmer is exempted. But the moment he quits his own premises, and has recourse to other places for his profits, he becomes liable like any other trader; as where he buys up

cheese from other dairies, and sells it; where he buys a quantity of horses or cattle, more than sufficient for his farm, for the purpose of sellieg them again for profit. A farmer purchased for his hounds a number of dead horses: he had been accustomed to sell the skins and bones; and upon one occasion, said he should make a good thing of them: the Court of Common Pleas held that this did not constitute a trading within the bankrupt laws; the intention of seeking a livelihood by buying and selling, is a question for the jury.

A cowkeeper is considered as included in the description of farmer or grazier, although he sell his calves as well as the milk, and fatten his cows for sale after they Swanston, 64, have become dry.

The following persons are also exempt:

Carter v. Dean.

The Colonel of a fencible regiment, who sells the Deacon, p. 35. cast-off horses of the regiment;-a Schoolmaster, who buys books to sell to his scholars ;-Persons holding public offices, as Suttlers of armies, Commissioners of Excise, &c. if the buying and selling be confined to the official duties.

The buying and selling an interest in land, and clearly

the buying and selling the land itself, will not be suffi- 2 Wilson, 171, cient acts to constitute a trading.

2. Act of Bankruptcy.

Deacon, p. 337.

The next head is one of considerable importance; 2. Act of Banknamely, the act of bankruptcy. The 3d and 5th sections ruptcy. enumerate these acts, and we shall consider them sepa

rately:

["If any such trader shall depart this realm, or being "out of this realm, shall remain abroad, or depart from "his dwelling-house."]

The subsequent part of the section explains, that each act mentioned in it must be done with intent to

Sect. 3.

Williams v.

Nunn.

defeat or delay the creditors. So that flying beyond seas for murder or felony, as it must of necessity delay creditors, is such an act. If a man, fearing arrest, leave

1 Taunton, 270, England, and go over into Ireland, he commits such an act. But the case is widely different if he merely go to see after his affairs: if a man depart with a bona fide intention to return, or with an honest intention compatible with business, he is no bankrupt, although he may 1 Starkie, 144, not in fact ever return, and although he may not leave any funds behind for payment of his debts.

Windham v.

Paterson.

Id. 146.

1 Rose, 387, ex

Again, we see that staying abroad will be such an act; as where one abroad announced his intention never to revisit England. But advertising that the trader's intention is to go abroad with an intention of settling there, is not such an act; for no man would circulate parte Osborne. such an advertisement with an intention of concealing himself from his creditors. The departure from the 1 Cooke's Bank- dwelling-house must be voluntary; so that where a man was arrested, he was not deemed to have committed the lips v. Sheriff of act, since he was obliged to go.

rupt Laws, 4th ed. p. 81, Phil

Essex.

cited there.

There must be an union of the departure and the intent to delay. Thus, "the going to a distant place 1 Taunton, 276," among strangers may be an act of bankruptcy, though by Buller, J. "the party be visible there; the going only to the next "house may be an act of bankruptcy, if the party is "not visible." And where the intent is clear, it is quite immaterial whether the creditor have been actually delayed or not: however, it is of course that if the motive for departure be laudable, the delay will not signify. So the leaving home for any lawful purpose, as for exercise or entertainment, arrangement with creditors, &c. will be an act of this kind. Even where a trader absented himself, leaving a message, that if a certain creditor came, he should be told that the money could not be spared, that the trader would not let him have it, that he should go out of the way,

Vincent v. Pra

and not be at home till dinner-time: this was considered not to be an act of bankruptcy, because a man who wishes to delay his creditor would not be likely to name the hour when he intended to return home. On another occasion, the same trader left his home for the purpose 4 Taunton, 603, of avoiding altercation with his creditors, fearing that ter they might be exasperated, and arrest him; and this was no act of bankrupty, because he assigned the true and legitimate reason of his absence, namely, to avoid harsh language.

Sect. 3.

Tucker v. Jones.

The section proceeds with the words, " or otherwise "absent himself;" and that means, from the place of his ordinary business: so that if a man desert his connting-house, and remain in his dwelling-house, he may have committed an act of bankruptcy; and so if he conceal himself, or escape any where, and deny himself. The following are cases where the absence was holden not to be such an act. A party promised to meet one 2 Bingham, 2, of his creditors at a given place, and failed in his appointment; in this case Chief Justice Best said that men should not be entrapped into acts of bankruptcy, and that it did not consist with the policy of the bankrupt laws to hold a mere breach of engagement to be evidence of the act. So where one made an appointment at an attorney's office, for the purpose of giving security to a creditor, there being no proof of an intent to delay the creditor, this was held to be no act of 9 Moore, 24, bankruptcy.

The attorney of the petitioning creditor, informed

a trader, that he had delivered a warrant to a sheriff's

Toleman v.
Jones.

officer, for the purpose of arresting him, and advised 3 Price, 142, the trader to repair to his office, to avoid the publicity Mills v. Elton. of being arrested in the street: it was held, that the trader did not commit an act of bankruptcy by acceding to his proposal; though the Court added, that had not the person making the proposal been the attorney of

Sect. 3.

3 Vesey & Beames, 129.

58, Curteis v. Willes.

the petitioning creditor, the case might have borne a different complexion.

The next act mentioned by the section is," or begin "to keep his house." Here again, if the intent be apparent (q), the fact of denying a creditor need not be shown; and on the other hand, if orders be given to deny the trader to a particular person, who turns out to be a creditor, the intention, before equivocal, becomes manifest. No matter if the creditor do not call for payment: "the act of bankruptcy depends," said Lord Eldon," not upon the intention with which the creditor comes, but upon the intention of the debtor."

The house need not be his own house; for where a person, in business at Warwick, concealed himself at the house of a trader in London, with whom he dealt for linen, and desired to be denied there to a particular Ryan & Moody, creditor, who actually called, and was sent away, this was holden to be an act of bankruptcy. It has been determined, that a denial to a tax-gatherer, a collector of church-rates, or the clerk of the creditor (provided the trader know the person to be such clerk), will constitute an act of bankruptcy; but it should be remembered that there must be a debt actually due; for if it be only a visit of a creditor in respect of a debt payable at a future day, it will not be sufficient.

7 Viner, 61, ex parte Levi.

An act of bankruptcy is, according to the general rule upon that subject, irrevocable. A creditor called, and inquired for the bankrupt, and was answered doubtfully; but in a few minutes the bankrupt joined his creditor at a public-house, and in answer to a question why he denied himself, said, "I am not afraid of you; but I am

1 Taunton, 479," afraid of H." H. held a bill against him. This was

Mucklow v.

May.

(9) As keeping to the bed-chamber, debarring all access to the house, secluding himself, &c.