all the joint stock and property of the copartnership, and also all the separate estate of each of the partners shall be taken, excepting such parts thereof as are hereinbefore excepted; and all the creditors of the company, and the separate creditors of each partner, shall be allowed to prove their respective debts; and the assignee shall be chosen by the creditors of the company, and shall also keep separate accounts of the joint stock and property of the copartnership and of the separate estate of each member thereof; and after deducting out of the whole amount received by such assignee the whole of the expenses and disbursements, the net proceeds of the joint stock shall be appropriated to pay the creditors of the copartnership, and the net proceeds of the separate estate of each partner shall be appropriated to pay his separate creditors, and if there shall be any balance of the separate estate of any partner, after the payment of his separate debts, such balance shall be added to the joint stock for the payment of the joint creditors; and if there shall be any balance of the joint stock after payment of the joint debts, such balance shall be divided and appropriated to and among the separate estates of the several partners, according to their respective right and interest therein, as it would have been if the partnership had been dissolved without any bankruptcy; and the sum so appropriated to the separate estate of each partner shall be applied to the payment of his separate debts; and the certificate of his discharge shall be granted or refused to each partner as the same would or ought to be if the proceedings had been against him alone; in all other respects the proceedings against partners shall be conducted in the like manner as if they had been commenced and prosecuted against one person alone.

The provisions of this act shall apply to all moneyed, business, or commercial corporations and joint stock companies, and that upon the petition of any officer of any such corporation or company, duly authorized by a vote of a majority of the corporators present at any legal meeting called for the purpose, or upon the petition of any creditor or creditors of such corporation or company, made and presented in the manner heretofore provided in respect to debtors, the like proceedings shall be had and taken as are hereinafter provided in the case of debtors, and all the provisions of this act which apply to the debtor, or set forth his duties in regard to furnishing schedules and inventories, executing papers, submitting to examinations, disclosing, making over, secreting, concealing, conveying, assigning, or paying away his money or property, shall in like manner, and with like force, effect and penalties, apply to each and every officer of such corporation or company in relation to the same matters concerning the corporation or company, and the money and property thereof.

All paymer.ts, conveyances, and assignments declared fraudulent and void by this act when made by a debtor. shall, in like manner, and to the like extent, and with like remedies, be fraudulent and void when made by a corporation or company. No allowance or discharge shall be granted to any corporation or joint stock company, or to any person or officer or member thereof; provided that whenever any corporation, by proceedings under this act, shall be declared bankrupt, all its property and assets shall be distributed to the creditors of such corporation in the manner provided in this act in respect to natural persons.

FEES AND COSTS.

In each case there shall be allowed and paid, in addition to the fees of the clerk of the court, as now established by law, or as may be established by general order, for fees in bankruptcy, the following fees, which shall be applied to the payment for the services of the registers :

For issuing every warrant, $2.

For each day in which a meeting is held, $3.

For each order for a dividend, $3.

For every order substituting an arrangement by trust deed for bankruptcy, $2.

For every bond with sureties, $2.

For every application for any meeting in any matter under this act, $1.

For every day's service while actually employed under a special order of the court, a sum not exceeding $5, to be allowed by the court.

For taking depositions, the fees now allowed by law.

For every discharge, when there is no opposition, $2.

Such fees shall have priority of payment over all other claims out of the estate, and before a warrant issues the petitioner shall deposit with the clerk $50 as security for the payment thereof; and if there are not sufficient assets for the payment of the fees, the person upon whose petition the warrant is issued shall pay the same, and the court may issue an execution against him to compel payment to the register.

Before any dividend is ordered. the assignee shall pay out of the estate of the messenger the following fees, and no more: First. For service of warrant, $2.

Second. For all necessary travel, at the rate of five cents a mile each way.

Third. For each written note to creditor named in the schedule, ten cents.

Fourth. For custody of property, publication of notices, and other services, his actual and necessary expenses upon returning

the same in specific items, and making oath that they have been actually incurred and paid by him, and are just and reasonable, the same to be taxed or adjusted by the court, and the oath of the messenger shall not be conclusive as to the necessity of said

expenses.

For cause shown, and upon hearing thereon, such further allowance may be made as the court, in its discretion, may determine.

The enumeration of the foregoing fees shall not prevent the judges, who shall frame general rules and orders in accordance with the prescribing a tariff of fees for all other services of the officers of courts of bankruptcy, or from reducing the fees prescribed in classes of cases to be named in their rules and orders.

SLANDER AND LIBEL.

As a part of the right of personal security, the preservation of every person's good name from the vile arts of detraction is justly included. The laws of the ancients, no less than those of modern nations, made private reputation one of the objects of their protection. Our law considers the slander of a private person by words, in no other light than a civil injury, for which a pecuniary compensation may be obtained. The injury consists in falsely and maliciously charging another with the commission of some public offense, criminal in itself, and inditable, and subjecting the party to an infamous punishment, or involving moral turpitude, or the breach of some public trust, or with any matter in relation to his particular trade or vocation, and which, if true, would render him unworthy of employment; or, lastly, with any other matter or thing by which special injury is sustained. But if the slander be communicated by pictures, or signs, or writing, or painting, it is calculated to have a wider circulation, to make a deeper impression and to become proportionably more injurious.

Expressions which tend to render a man ridiculous, or degrade him in the esteem and opinion of the world, would be libellous if printed, though they would not be actionable if spoken.

A libel, as applicable to individuals, has been well defined to be a malicious publication, expressed either in printing or writing, or by signs or pictures, tending either to injure the memory of one dead, or the reputation of one alive, or expose him to public hatred, contempt, or ridicule. A malicious intent towards government, magistrates, or individuals, and an injurious or offensive tendency, must concur to constitute the libel. It

then becomes a grievance, and the law has accordingly considered it in the light of a public as well as a private injury, and has rendered the party not only liable to a private suit at the instance of the party libelled, but answerable to the State by indictment, as guilty of an offence tending directly to a breach of the public peace.

But though the law be solicitous to protect every man in his fair fame and character, it is equally careful that the liberty of speech, and of the press, should be duly preserved. The liberal communication of sentiment, and entire freedom of discussion, in respect to the character and conduct of public men, and of candidates for public favor, is deemed essential to the judicious exercise of the right of suffrage, and of that control over their rulers, which resides in the free people of the United States. It has, accordingly, become a constitutional principle in this country, that “every citizen may freely speak, write, and publish his sentiments, on all subjects, being responsible for the abuse of that right, and that no law can rightfully be passed to restrain or abridge the freedom of speech or of the press."

In several States special provision has been made in favor of giving the truth in evidence, in public prosecutions for libel. In the constitutions of some of the States, it is declared, that in prosecutions for libels in respect to official conduct, the truth may be given in evidence, when the matter published is proper for public information.

But the prevailing and the better opinion is, that the truth may, in all cases, be pleaded by way of justification, in a private action for damages, arising from written or printed defamation, as well as in an action for slanderous words.

If a libel is made in order to expose to the public eye personal defects, or misfortunes, or vices, the proof of the truth of the charge would rather aggravate than lessen the baseness and evil tendency of the publication; and there is much justice and sound policy in the opinion, that in private as well as public prosecutions for libels, the inquiry should be pointed to the innocence or malice of the publisher's intentions. The truth is, therefore, admissible in evidence to explain the intent, but not in every instance to justify it. The guilt and the e-sential ground of action for defamation consists in the malicious intention. and when the mind is not in fault, no prosecution can be sus tained. On the other hand, the truth may be printed and pub lished ma iciously, and with an evil intent, and for no good pur pose, and when it would be productive only of private misery and public scandal and disgrace.

CUSTOM-HOUSE

REGULATIONS.

Manifests of Ships-Foreign and American Vessels-Tonnage Duties-Coasting Trade and Fisheries-Arrivals and Clearances-Entry of Goods at Custom-house-Warehousing Goods.

1. Vessels of the United States coming from foreign ports.—No vessel from a foreign port can enter and discharge her cargo except at one of the ports of entry or delivery established by Congress.

No goods can be brought into the United States from a foreign port, in any vessel belonging in whole or in part to a citizen of the United States, unless the master of such vessel shall have on board a written manifest, signed for him, containing, 1st. The name of the place where the goods were taken on board and also that to which they are con signed; 2d. The name, description, and build of the vessel; 3d. Her tonnage and the names of the owner and master; 4th. A particular account of the goods and the names of the parties to whom they are consigned, which must orrespond with the bills of lading; and, 5th. The names of the passengers and a description of their baggage, and e statement of the remaining stores, if any.

All merchandise not included in the manifest is forfeited, and may be seized by the custom officers.

The master of the vessel, on his arrival in port, must deliver a copy of the manifest to the first officer of the customs who may come on board; this officer certifies to its receipt on the original manifest, which the master must deliver to the collector of the port. If the original be shown without such certificate, the master must swear that no copy was called for by the officers. After the visit of the first officer, it is sufficient to show the original, with the endorsements, to other officers.

Any vessel from a foreign port, unloading goods within four leagues of the United States coast, or within the limits of any district of the United States, without authority from the officers of the port, the master and mate of such vessel forfeit one thousand dollars each for each offence, and the goods themselves are forfeited to the Government, and may be seized by the custom officers-except such unloading arise from accident, necessity, or stress of weather-which fact must bo made known to the collector, and proved under oath by the master mate, and one other officer or mariner.