The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE Published every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday Morning Saturday, November 9, 1889. GIVING CREDIT TO BANKRUPTS.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume III, Issue 375, 9 November 1889, Page 2

The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE Published every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday Morning

Saturday, Nov ember 9, 1889. GIVING CREDIT TO BANKRUPTS.

Be just and fear not; Let all the ends thou aim’st at be thy country’s, Thy God's, and truth's.

Mr BOOTH on Thursday last decided that an undischarged bankrupt cannot plead his bankruptcy as an answer to a judgment summons on a debt incurred since his bankruptcy. Of course we cannot be expected to review Mr Booth’s ruling from a legal standpoint, but certainly so far as common sense and justice are concerned we do not see what other decision he could have come to. So far as we understand the bankruptcy laws they were never intended to relieve the bankrupt from any other debts than those provable under the bankruptcy. • For years it has been the practice to allow undischarged bankrupts to carry on business, or do something towards making a living for themselves, and it would be monstrous at this time of the day to grant them entire freedom from responsibility for their after-bankruptcy debts. That this would virtually mean that bankrupts would be enabled to evade their just debts is self evident, since, as an undischarged bankrupt cannot (as was clearly shown from the authorities produced by both sides) hold any property, nothing would be available if a warrant of distress should be issued. Whether the defence raised by Mr Brassey is one that an honorable mat? would feel himself justified in raising is a matter which concerns the debtor alone, but the doctrine that a man can incur liability without responsibility is a matter which concerns the public at large, and it would have been a public reproach had Mr Booth felt himself compelled to uphold such a doctrine. It is a matter for congratulation, as well for the sake of the creditors as for the district itself, that the Magistrate refused to give to bankrupts a privilege which not even married Wti.men possess — and goodness ot?ly knows Jhey possess quite P< obtaining credit with immunity from legal process in case pf non-payment.