theſe, and a variety of other caſes, which it is impoſſible here to enumerate, the forfeiture does not accrue to the lord till after the offences are preſented by the homage, or jury of the lord's court baron[1]; per laudamentum parium ſuorum[2]: or, as it is more fully expreſſed in another place[3], nemo miles adimatur de poſſeſſione ſui beneficii niſi convicta culpa, quae ſit laudanda[4] per judicium parium ſuorum.
VIII. The eighth and laſt method, whereby lands and tenements may become forfeited, is that of bankruptcy, or the act of becoming a bankrupt: which unfortunate perſon may, from the ſeveral deſcriptions given of him in our ſtatute law, be thus defined; a trader, who ſecretes himſelf, or does certain other acts, tending to defraud his creditors.
Who ſhall be ſuch a trader, or what acts are ſufficient to denominate him a bankrupt, with the ſeveral connected conſequences reſulting from that unhappy ſituation, will be better conſidered in a ſubſequent chapter; when we ſhall endeavour more fully to explain it's nature, as it moſt immediately relates to perſonal goods and chattels. I ſhall only here obſerve the manner in which the property of lands and tenements are transferred, upon the ſuppoſition that the owner of them is clearly and indiſputably a bankrupt, and that a commiſſion of bankrupt is awarded and iſſued againſt him.
By the ſtatute 13 Eliz. c. 7. the commiſſioners for that purpoſe, when a man is declared a bankrupt, ſhall have full power to diſpoſe of all his lands and tenements, which he had in his own right at the time when he became a bankrupt, or which ſhall deſcend or come to him at any time afterwards, before his debts are ſatisfied or agreed for; and all lands and tenements which were purchaſed by him jointly with his wife or children to his own
