BRITISH LAW.

Colonist, Volume V, Issue 469, 22 April 1862, Page 4

BRITISH LAW.

A PIiISONER FOR ffIFTY YEABS —A STRANGE

STORY,

The Registrar Winalow attended at the QueensBench prison, for the purpose of liberating prisoners under the provisions of the Now Bankruptcy Act. He atteuded William Miller in his own room.

The Registrar: 'I am sorry, Mr. Miller, you cannot come to me. I wish to ask you some questions.'

The prisoner was then sworn. The Registrar: ' You were first arrested iv 1815 ?'

' No. It was the 3rd of September, 1814 I have reason to remember.'

Registrar: ' What were you ?' ' I carried on business as a carpenter and general cabinet maker in Christchurch, Hampshire. I was born there.'

Registrar: What was your debt contracted for ?'

1 There was no debt. I owed nothing to the man who arrested me. You will see ou the document on which I was arrested there was no sheriff's name attached. 1

Registrar: 'But the £1000 for which you are detained was recovered in some court?' ' No, there was no proceedings in any court whatever.'

Registrar: ' Have you ever petitioned the Bankruptcy or the Insolvent Court ?' 'No, I could not, as I owed no man anything.' Registrar : ' Have you any property ?' ' Yes. I have a life interest iv some house property.' Registrar: Do you receive the rents ?' ' Not since I was imprisoned.' Registrar: ' Have you got any relatives liviug ?'

• Yes, I have sisters, poor people. My mother was alive when I was arrested ; but she died since. Cull, who arrested me, seduced one of my sisters.'

Registrar: 'Do your sisters receive the rents ?'

' No, I do not know who receives them. The only money I received from them was from one tenant, who scut me from time to time £10.' Registrar: Did Cull tako the rents ?' ' I don't know. I was in prison, and could learn nothing about them.'

Registrar: ■ What became of Cull ?' ' He has been dead for years. Registrar : ' Was he the only one who had proceedings against you ?'

' They were not proceedings. lie had no right whatever.'

Registrar: ' Well, say unlawful proceedings. Are you willing to be made a bankrupt.' ' I can't. I owe nothing.'

Registrar: ' I uon't ask what you can do, but what you are willing to do. Are you willing ?' • I am not.'

The matter was adjourned. On Friday, Mr. Registrar Winslow gave judgment as follows :■—

'In this case I have determined not to ad • judicate this man a bankrupt as I have oomo to the conclusion he is not a person who, prior to the commencement of this act, was liable to the Bankrupt Laws, as a trader. There is no doubt that bo was in trade in 1814, when be was first arrested ; but the Gth Geo. IV, cap. 10, which was passed iv the year 1824, repealed all the old Bankrupt Laws ; and it has been decided by the Court of King's Bench and other Courts, that trading which ended before the passing of the act would not support a commission which issued after the passing of the act, notwithstanding that the debt of the petitioning creditor was contracted during the trading. As the Bankruptcy Act is to take effect from and after the 11th day of October last, and as I consider it®was not intended to have a retrospective effect, I must hold in this as in other cases, that the lying in prison must, in the case of a non-trader, be for two months after the 11th of October. If Mr. Miller wished to be adjudged bankrupt, and to be discharged I should regret that I could not do so ; but, as he does not wish it, and at his age, and in his state of health, an adjudication against his wish might be injurious to him, no possible harm can be done by leaving him as he is. I hope that the Registrar who may visit this prison when the time shall have arrived to enable us to exercise jurisdiction, will find Mr. Miller sufficiently recovered to bear theßhock of an adjudication and release from custody, if they should be found necessary. I can see no reason to doubt the regularity of the proceedings uuder to which he was committed to the prison, and perhaps, if he had wished, he might long ago have obtained a release from his imprisonment.' — Dispatch.