st parts of the British empire the law of
bankruptcy has been modelled upon the English system. This is particularly
the case in Australia and New Zealand. Victoria, South Australia, Western
Australia and New Zealand follow the lines of the existing English acts. In
Queensland, Tasmania and New South Wales the system is rather that of the
English act of 1869, leaving more to the creditors' management and less to
officialism.

One point may be mentioned in which the Australian colonies have improved
on the English system. Under the English acts a bankrupt is under no
obligation to apply for his discharge. The result is that the United
Kingdom contains a population of 70,000 undischarged bankrupts--a manifest
danger to the trading community. Under the bankruptcy systems of New South
Wales, Victoria and New Zealand, a bankrupt is bound to apply for his
discharge within a fixed period, otherwise he is guilty of a contempt of
court.

In Canada, under the British North America Act 1867, the Dominion
parliament has exclusive legislative power in regard to bankruptcy and
insolvency: but there is no existing Dominion act on the subject. A
Dominion act was passed in 1875, but repealed in 1880. The failure of this
act may perhaps be ascribed to the diversity of the pre-existing provincial
systems, embracing such contrasts as the English law of Ontario, and the
French code based on _cessio bonorum_--which ruled in Quebec. Bankruptcy is
dealt with in a fragmentary way by the provincial legislatures by acts
regulating such matters as priority of execution creditors, fraudulent
assignments and preferences, imprisonment of debtors, administration of
estates of deceased insolvents.

In Cape Colony and Natal English law is substantially followed. In the
Transvaal, where Roman-Dutch law prevails, the law governing the subject is
the Insolvency Law, No. 13 of 1895. It provides for voluntary surrender and
compulsory sequestration. The law of the Orange River Colony is similar.

In British Guiana, Gambia, Jamaica, Hong Kong, Mauritius, Grenada,
Trinidad, Tobago and the Straits Settlements the law is modelled on the
English pattern.

In India insolvency is regulated by the Indian Insolvency Act 1848,
extended by the Act XI. of 1889.

An English bankrupt, it may be added, is entitled to plead his discharge in
England as a defence in a colonial court. The explanation is this. The
English act vests all the bankrupt's property, whether in t