suspends the discharge. A discharged bankrupt is disqualified for five years from acting as member of Parliament, justice of peace, alderman, overseer of the poor, county councillor, or as a member of any school, highway, or burial board. An undischarged bankrupt obtaining credit to the extent of £20 or upwards from any person, without informing such person of his status, is guilty of a misdemeanour. By the Act of 1883 the creditors may at the first meeting resolve to entertain a proposal for a composition or scheme of arrangement of the debtor's affairs, but the composition or scheme shall not be binding on the creditors, unless confirmed at a second meeting by a majority in number representing three-fourths in value of all the creditors who have proved. The composition or scheme has then to be formally brought before the court for approval, which may be refused. A composition or scheme may be sanctioned by the court after the debtor's adjudication as a bankrupt, and in this case the bankruptcy is annulled. Though imprisonment for debt has been abolished, fraudulent bankrupts may be punished, and the conduct of prosecutions for offences arising out of any bankruptcy proceeding falls to the public prosecutor. The estates of persons dying insolvent may be administered according to the law of bankruptcy. The Act of 1913 embodies suggestions of the Bankruptcy Law Amendment Committee of 1906. Thus, the Summary Jurisdiction Act can now be applied to offenders under the Debtors' Act. Whereas previously conviction for such offences as failure to keep proper accounts and concealment of debt could only be by trial before a jury, they are punishable after summary trial before a stipendiary magistrate or justice of the peace, the onus of proving innocence falling on the debtor. A married woman, too, may be made bankrupt even if not trading separately from her husband.
According to Scots law bankruptcy is notorious insolvency, that is, a public acknowledgment of inability to discharge obligations. By a judicial proceeding, called sequestration, authorized by the Court of Session or sheriff court, on the petition of the debtor himself with the concurrence of one creditor swearing to a debt of £50, two whose debts together amount to £70, or of any number of creditors whose debts together amount to £100; or on the petition of a creditor or creditors to the foregoing extent without the concurrence of the debtor, if he has clearly shown himself to be insolvent (or a notour bankrupt), the whole estates and effects of the debtor, real and personal, are legally taken for behoof of the creditors. The debtor's estate is then made over to a trustee chosen by the creditors, the trustee being charged to bring the whole estate into the form of money, with certain precautions, and to receive, investigate, and reject or admit the claims of the creditors, subject to review of the Court of Session or sheriff court by summary petition. The debtor, and all who can give information as to the estate, must submit to public examination on oath before the sheriff of the county, and the debtor may thereafter, or by petition after six, twelve, or eighteen months from sequestration, be discharged of all debts by the court with consent of the creditors or a number of them, or at the expiry of two years without consent. These proceedings may be partly superseded by 'composition' if such be assented to by a majority in number and nine-tenths in value of creditors, or by a majority in number and four-fifths in value of the creditors, according to the period at which such arrangement may be proposed. They may also be terminated by a deed of arrangement entered into between the bankrupt and a majority in number and four-fifths in value of his creditors, approved of by the court. Before a discharge is given there must be a report from the trustee as to the conduct of the bankrupt, whether he has complied with the provisions of the Act, whether his bankruptcy is culpable or not, &c. Before the abolition of imprisonment for ordinary civil debts by Act passed in 1880, an insolvent debtor often took advantage of a form of process by which, on making a complete cessio bonorum, or surrender to his creditors of all his property, he might obtain protection from imprisonment. Though no person can now be imprisoned for ordinary debts, a creditor of a notour bankrupt may present a petition to the sheriff, praying him to decern that the debtor assign over all his goods for behoof of his creditors and that a trustee be appointed; and this proceeding is still designated a process of cessio bonorum. The Act of 1880 also provides for the better punishment of fraudulent debtors in Scotland. If the debtor's liabilities exceed £200, the sheriff may award sequestration of the debtor's estate instead of cessio bonorum. There is no appeal from the sheriff's decision with respect to discharge.
In Ireland there is a special code of bankruptcy contained in special Acts, differing to some extent from the regulations prevailing both in England and Scotland. Thus in Ireland it is not an offence for an undischarged bankrupt to obtain credit to any amount without disclosing the fact of his bankruptcy. All bankruptcy business comes before the court at Dublin, Belfast, or Cork. Imprisonment for debt was abolished in 1872.
Official returns in Great Britain show a tendency towards a smaller number of failures, but a larger amount of money is involved.
In the different British colonies the laws regulating bankruptcy naturally differ, and the same is the case with the individual States of the American Union, though Congress has the power of legislating for the whole country in regard to this, and has oftener than once done so.—Bibliography: H. Goudy, Treatise of the Law of Bankruptcy in Scotland; Sir R. H. J. Palgrave, Dictionary of Political Economy; E. T. Baldwin, The Law of Bankruptcy and Bills of Sale; Sir R. L. V. Williams, The Law and Practice of Bankruptcy; R. Ringwood, The Principles of Bankruptcy.
Banks, Sir Joseph, Baronet, a distinguished naturalist, born in London 1743. After studying at Harrow and Eton he went to Oxford in 1760, and formed there amongst his fellow-undergraduates a voluntary class in botany, &c. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1766, and soon after went to Newfoundland and Hudson's Bay to collect plants. In 1768, with Dr. Solander, a Swedish gentleman, pupil of Linnæus, and then assistant librarian at the British Museum, he accompanied Cook's expedition as naturalist. In 1772 he visited Iceland along with Dr. Solander, and during this voyage the Hebrides were examined, and the columnar formation of the rocks of Staffa first made known to geologists. In 1777 Banks was chosen President of the Royal Society, and in 1781 was made a baronet, and in 1795 received the Order of the Bath. He wrote only essays, papers for learned societies, and short treatises. He died in 1820, and bequeathed his collections to the British Museum.
Banks, Thomas, an English sculptor, born in 1735, died in 1805. He studied sculpture in the Royal Academy, where he obtained the gold medal for a bas-relief of the Rape of Proserpine. In 1772 he went to Italy, where he executed several excellent pieces, particularly Cupid tormenting a Butterfly, which was afterwards purchased by the Empress Catherine. On leaving Italy he spent two unsatisfactory years in Russia, and then returned to England, where he was soon after made an Academician. One of his best-known works is Shakespeare attended by Painting and Poetry. Among his other works was a colossal statue—Achilles mourning the loss of Briseis—in the hall of the British Institution, and the monument of Sir Eyre Coote in Westminster Abbey. His bust of Warren Hastings is in the National Gallery.
Bank´sia (named after Sir Joseph Banks), a genus of Australian shrubs and trees, order Proteaceæ, with leathery leaves generally dark-green on the upper surface and pale below, often cultivated in conservatories for their peculiar foliage and flowers. They are named "honeysuckles" by the colonists, from the honey the flowers contain.
Banks´ring. See Banxring.