Nathan Clifford

“ Claimants are forbidden to accept any preference, and the provision is that if any one does so, contrary to the prohibition of the act, he shall not prove the debt or claim, nor shall he receive any dividend until he shall first have surrendered to the assignee all property, money, benefit, or advantage received by him under such preference. ”

“ Just and true accounts are to be kept by the assignees, and they are to make full report of the same to the creditors at a meeting to be called for the purpose, and the creditors are to determine whether any and what part of the net proceeds of the estate shall be distributed as a dividend, and if the creditors order a dividend it is made the duty of the assignee to prepare a list of the creditors entitled to the same, and to compute and set opposite to the name of each creditor the dividend to which he is entitled out of the net proceeds of the estate set apart for that purpose. ”

“ Resident creditors are required to make proofs before one of the registers of the court in the district where the proceedings are pending, but all such proofs, in behalf of non-resident creditors, may be made before a commissioner or before a register in the judicial district where the creditor resides, and corporations may verify their claims by the oath or affirmation of their president, cashier, or treasurer. ”

“ Creditors not only appoint the assignee or assigness but, in certain cases and under certain conditions, they may remove any assignee, and vacancies in certain cases may be filled by the creditors, as provided in the eighteenth section of the act. Debts due and payable from the bankrupt, at the time he is adjudged as such, and all debts then existing, but not payable until a future day, a rebate of interest being made, when no interest is payable by the terms of the contract, may be proved against the estate of the bankrupt. ”

“ Text writers also, of the highest authority, have uniformly promulgated the same rule. Speaking of the order of discharge, Deacon says, [7] it does not release the bankrupt from a debt due to the crown, for as the crown is not bound by any statute unless specifically named, and crown debts not being mentioned among those of the creditors in general, in any part of the statute relating to the proof of debts or the certificate of discharge, the crown of course will not be barred of the peculiar privileges it possesses for the recovery of its own debts. ”

“ Greater unanimity of decision in the courts or of views among text writers can hardly be found upon any important question than exists in respect to this question in the parent country, nor is there any diversity of sentiment in our courts, Federal or State, nor among the text writers of this country. ”