It is with considerable diffidence that I submit this paper to the Institute seeing that there are many members who are far better qualified to deal with the subject.

However, it was suggested that a paper of this character would be acceptable, and I have endeavoured to make it as complete as possible without transgressing reasonable limits of space.

In the first place I have given a general account of the law of bankruptcy, following, in the main, the general arrangement of the subject adopted by Ringwood in “The Principles of Bankruptcy”, and I hope sufficiently full to make the paper useful to Students for Part IV of the examination syllabus. This has inevitably made it somewhat long and formal.