or an order
discharging him from his debts. The most prominent of these delinquencies
which were brought to the notice of the committee were--failure by a debtor
to keep any books or any proper or adequate books of account in his
business; trading with knowledge of insolvency; gambling and speculation
leading to, or contributing to, the debtor's insolvency or bankruptcy;
failure properly to account for any substantial deficiency of assets. The
committee received a large body of evidence in favour of making
delinquencies such as have been described punishable by imprisonment.
Evidence was also given as to the laws in force in Germany, France and
Scotland, from which it appeared that such delinquencies, especially that
of keeping no books of account, can be severely dealt with as criminal
offences.

After carefully weighing the evidence on both sides the committee
recommended that the failure or omission by a debtor who becomes bankrupt
to have kept any books of account, or proper books of account, within two
years next preceding his bankruptcy, in a trade or business carried on by
him, if without excuse, should be made by law an offence punishable on
summary conviction by imprisonment, subject to four important limitations,
namely, that the law should define what books of account a person carrying
on a trade or business must keep, following in this respect the law in
force in France and Germany; that failure or omission by a debtor to have
kept the required books should only be punishable in the event of a debtor
becoming bankrupt and of the liquidated debts proved in the bankruptcy
exceeding L200 in amount; that no prosecution of a debtor for failure or
omission to keep books of account should take place before the lapse of two
years from the passing of the law; that a debtor should not be punished if
he could show that his failure or omission to keep proper books was honest
and excusable and did not contribute to his insolvency, and that no
prosecution should be instituted for the offence except by order of the
bankruptcy court. The committee made recommendations of much the same
character with regard to punishing some of the other delinquencies
mentioned above. There were also recommendations by the committee as to
trading by undischarged bankrupts, as to the realization of estate on
bankruptcy, as to the operation of the law of relation back of a bankruptcy
trustee's title, as to the law relating to the after-acquired