Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol III).djvu/20

 12 hath broken his bank or state. Mr. Justice Blackstone inclines strongly to this latter intimation, saying, that the word is derived from the word bancus, or banque, which signifies the table or counter of a tradesman, and ruptus, broken; denoting thereby one, whose shop or place of trade is broken and gone. It is observable, that the first statute against bankrupt, is "against such persons, as do make bankrupt," (34 Hen. 8, ch. 4,) which is a literal translation of the French idiom, qui font banque route.

§ 1108. The system of discharging persons, who were unable to pay their debts, was transferred from the Roman law into continental jurisprudence at an early period. To the glory of Christianity let it be said, that the law of cession (cessio bonorum) was introduced by the Christian emperors of Rome, whereby, if a debtor ceded, or yielded up all his property to his creditors, he was secured from being dragged to gaol, omni quoque corporali cruciatu semoto; for as the emperor (Justinian) justly observed, inhumanum erat spoliatum fortunis suis in solidum damnari; a noble declaration, which the American republics would do well to follow, and not merely to praise. Neither by the Roman, nor the continental law, was the cessio bonorum confined to traders, but it extended to all persons. It may be added, that the cessio bonorum of the Roman law, and that, which at present prevails in most parts of the continent of Europe, only exempted the debtor from