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BANKS — B A N N U

claims, and the costs of the proceedings, will be discharged. Jurisdiction of proceedings in bankruptcy is committed to the United States district court with the right of appeal in some cases to the circuit court of appeals and the supreme court. A jury may be demanded by the respondent in involuntary cases. The judges appoint referees for the different sections of their districts, and must appoint one for each county in which the services of a referee are needed. The referees have extensive judicial powers, and most of the proceedings are in practice conducted before the referees ; but their orders are subject to revision by the judges. Judges only can grant discharges and confirm compositions ; but the petitions are usually sent to the referees to report the facts with their recommendation. Any person, except a corporation, owing debts, may become a voluntary bankrupt. Involuntary petitions may be brought against any natural person, except a wage-earner or farmer, and any business corporation owing 1000 dollars. A wage-earner is defined to be one whose compensation does not exceed 1500 dollars per annum. Acts of bankruptcy are less in number than in former laws. They are, transferring property to delay or defraud creditors ; making or permitting preferences ; making a general assignment; admitting in writing inability to pay debts and willingness to be adjudged bankrupt. An adjudication in bankruptcy dissolves attachments and levies of execution, and avoids preferences, made within four months of the adjudication. A trustee to administer the estate is elected by a majority in number and amount of the unsecured creditors ; the judge or referee may disapprove an appointment, but may appoint only when creditors fail to do so. The trustee takes, as of the time of adjudication, all property which a creditor, under the laws of the State, might appropriate. In partnership cases the creditors of the partnership elect the trustee, who administers the estates of the partnership and of the individual partners. The assets are marshalled, partnership assets being applied first to partnership claims and individual assets to individual claims. The bankrupt is allowed to retain all property exempt by the laws of the State in which he resides. These exemptions vary greatly—e.y., from homesteads worth $500 to those worth $5000, and in about the same proportions as to personal property. Taxes, wages of labourers to the amount of $300, earned within three months of the adjudication, and claims preferred by the laws of the State, are preferred in United States bankruptcy. Fees are very small. As may be seen from the above summary, there are many differences between the law of 1867 and that of 1898. One distinction of importance concerns jurisdiction of suits by trustees. A trustee can only sue where the bankrupt could have sued—that is, usually, bnly in the State courts. A suit to recover property fraudulently conveyed by the bankrupt to one in the same State cannot be brought in the district court unless the defendant consents. The law has worked well upon the whole, and an association of referees in bankruptcy has recommended to Congress several amendments calculated to remove its objectionable features. The principal points of the amendments thus recommended are : (1) the adding of the following to the grounds for objecting to the granting of discharges—viz., obtaining credit by false representations, making fraudulent preferences or transfers not restored, causing' bankruptcy by gambling, destruction of books, refusing to obey orders made or to answer questions approved by the Court; (2) providing that discharges shall not affect liability for fraud or wilful injury, or for alimony, or support of family, or seduction; (3) increasing the compensation to trustees; (4) allowing corporations to become voluntary bankrupts; (5) shortening the time for involuntary proceedings; (6) giving the United States courts jurisdiction to set aside preferences and fraudulent transfers; (7) making definite the effect upon dividends of bond-Jide payments on account within four months of the bankruptcy. These amendments and several others of less importance, when adopted, would make the Act of 1898 the most liberal, as well as the most economical, Bankruptcy Act which has ever existed in the United States (H- G- N-)

there on the 1st of September 1894. He was admitted to the bar, and, in 1849, was elected to the State Assembly, of which he was speaker in 1851 and 1852. In 1853 he was chairman of the state constitutional convention. In that year he was elected to the national House of Representatives, as a coalition-Democrat. He was re-elected by the “ American ” party, and after a long contest became Speaker of the House. In 1856 he was re-elected by the Republicans, but resigned, in 1857, to become governor of Massachusetts, to which office he was re-elected in 1858 and 1859. After serving for a short time as president of the Illinois Central Railroad, he became, in 1861, a major-general of volunteers in the Civil War. He performed conspicuous services in the army of the Potomac, and in the department of the Gulf of Mexico. He resigned his commission in 1864, and was again elected a representative in Congress, where he served almost continuously until 1877. For several years he held the important position of chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs. He was once more a member of the House from 1889 to 1891. Bankura, a town of British India, in the Burdwan division of Bengal, situated on the left bank of the river Dhalkisor. Population, about 19,000. The town stands high, and is reckoned healthy. It has a high school, with 246 pupils in 1896-97, two printing-presses, one of which issues a weekly newspaper in the vernacular, and a Hindu public library. The district of Bankura lies partly in the plain and partly on the hills, its northern boundary being the river Damodar. It contains an area of 2621 square miles. Population (1881), 1,041,752; (1891), 1,069,668, showing an increase of 3 per cent.; average density, 408 persons per square mile. Hindus numbered 920,373; Mahommedans, 45,312; aborigines (chiefly Sonthals), 103,747; Christians, 132, of whom 21 were Europeans; “others,” 104. In 1901 the population was 1,114,185, showing a further increase of 4 per cent. Land revenue and rates in 1897-98 were Rs.5,21,559 ; the number of police was 367; the boys at school in 1896-97 numbered 37,587, being 47'6 of the male population of school-going age; the registered death-rate (1897) was 26‘7 per thousand. There are 14 indigo factories, with an out-turn valued at Rs.17,700. Large quantities of lac and tusser silk are gathered in the hilly tract, which is overgrown with jungle. The stone quarries and minerals are little worked. There are two coal mines, employing about 200 people, and producing about 9000 tons a year. Both cotton and silk are woven, and plates, Ac., are carved from soap-stone. The district is exposed to drought, and also to destructive floods. It suffered in the famines of 1866, 1874-75, and again in 1896-97. The old capital of the country was at Bishnupur, which is still the chief centre of local industries. The north of the district is near the East Indian railway, beyond the river Damodar. Bannu, a town and district of British India, in the Derajat division of the Punjab. The town (also called Edwardesabad and Dhulipnagar) lies in the north-west corner of the district, in the valley of the Kuram river. Population, about 6000. The municipal income in 1897-98 was Rs.52,781. The cantonments of Fort Dhulipnagar accommodate artillery, cavalry, and infantry. There are a missionary church, school, and printing-press, a Victoria Jubilee high school (opened in 1897), and a Mahommedan school. The district of Bannu, stretching across both banks of Banks, Nathaniel Prentiss (1816 1894), the Indus, contains an area of 3847 square miles. The American politician and soldier, was born in Waltham, Massachusetts, on the 30th of January 1816, and died population in 1891 was 372,276, being 97 persons per