THE Head Rifler of an
insolvent bank, learning that it was about to be visited by the official Noser into Things, placed his own personal note for a large amount among its resources, and, gaily touching his guitar, awaited the inspection.
By this ingenious device, the
insolvent not only preserved his character, by no means an unusual circumstance in New York, however, but he preserved about half of his bona fide estate also; his creditors, as was customary, doing the PAYING.
My father died
insolvent and the homestead was sacrificed to pay his debts.
It was quite as good as an
Insolvent Act, and infinitely more genteel.
The better class of minds, however, did not need to be informed that the Powlers were an ancient stock, who could trace themselves so exceedingly far back that it was not surprising if they sometimes lost themselves - which they had rather frequently done, as respected horse-flesh, blind-hookey, Hebrew monetary transactions, and the
Insolvent Debtors' Court.
Having died
insolvent, it had been purchased, at a bargain, by Legree, who used it, as he did everything else, merely as an implement for money-making.
Something edifying was said by the judge weightily, about the retribution overtaking the perpetrator of "the most heartless frauds on an unprecedented scale." I don't understand these things much, but it appears that he had juggled with accounts, cooked balance sheets, had gathered in deposits months after he ought to have known himself to be hopelessly
insolvent, and done enough of other things, highly reprehensible in the eyes of the law, to earn for himself seven years' penal servitude.
We want men and women who shall renovate life and our social state, but we see that most natures are
insolvent, cannot satisfy their own wants, have an ambition out of all proportion to their practical force and do lean and beg day and night continually.
The gentlemen of the bar being barristers and attorneys too (for there is no division of those functions as in England) are no more removed from their clients than attorneys in our Court for the Relief of
Insolvent Debtors are, from theirs.
He remained shut up in his room for a fortnight afterwards; and an attorney's clerk, who was going through the
Insolvent Court, engrossed an address of condolence to him, which looked like a Lease, and which all the prisoners signed.
In short, he was the conventional cherub, after the supposititious shoot just mentioned, rather grey, with signs of care on his expression, and in decidedly
insolvent circumstances.
The condemned felon has as good a yard for air and exercise in Newgate, as the
insolvent debtor in the Marshalsea Prison.