And when he went up for his final
discharge before the Commissioner, he was hardly
asked a question, though, to my certain
knowledge, more than a dozen families had been
utterly ruined by his failure.

In my last chapter I mentioned that, having
filed my petition as a bankrupt, I went before
the Commissioner to ask that I might be
released from prison, but was refused the
boon, one creditor having objected, and had,
therefore, to go back to prison until the
choice of assignees. This took place about a
fortnight later. The theory of this ceremony
is, that all the creditors of a prisoner meet
together, and select among themselves, by open
voting, the individual whom they deem the
most fitting person to look after their
interests. But the practice is very different.
To these meetings of assignees hardly any
creditors, save two or three of the chief,
ever come; and of those who do, each try
to be made assignee, so that he may name
his own legal adviser as solicitor for the estate
of the bankrupt. If the latter have failed for
a good round sum, to be named solicitor for
the estate is worth several hundred—
sometimes one or two thousand—pounds. Even
in my petty case, to get the solicitorship of the
estate was twenty or thirty pounds in the
pocket of the attorney; and so, out of the
three creditors who attended the meeting, two
came provided with attorneys. Of course each
creditor voted for himself to be assignee, and
so the difficulty to be got over was the third
gentleman. Now, this third happened to be a
hard-headed Scotsman, a man of business in
every way. At first he would not vote for either
one or other of the other two creditors; but at
last he was talked over, and I have reason to
believe that matters were "made pleasant" to
him by a cheque for five pounds, and to the
others by an undertaking that whatever
pickings there might be upon my carcase
should be equally divided between the solicitors
of the other two parties. All this took
place in court under the nose of the Commissioner;
but, as other cases were going on at the
same time, and as this was considered a purely
private arrangement, no notice was taken of it.
At last, the messenger, or clerk of the court,
was informed that In re Smith, Mr. Tossels,
accountant, of Crow-street, was appointed
assignee, and that he, Mr. Tossels, had named
Mr.Firkenson, attorney, of Great James-street,
solicitor to the estate. The choice of assignees
being thus made, I renewed my application
for release from custody.

It happened that Mr. Tossels—nominally
an accountant, but really a discounter of
accommodation bills, who held the acceptance
mentioned in my last chapter as having my
name behind it—was the creditor who had
opposed my discharge when I had asked
for it on filing my petition. He might oppose
my discharge a second time. It was not
certain that he would succeed, but it was
by no means certain that he would not.

At any rate, my own solicitor—who had seen
me thus far on my road, but who was now
about to take leave of me, as another solicitor
had been appointed to the estate—advised me
not to risk it before I had seen how the land lay.
"Take my advice," said he. "I know Tossels,
and I know Firkenson; they have it in their
power to give you a great deal of trouble.
Matters in the Bankruptcy Court are managed a good
deal by the rule of thumb. Before I ask for
your discharge from custody, let me have a
little talk with Tossels. He has had to give up
about ten pounds of the pickings he would have
got out of you. Will you give that amount to
'square' him and make all safe?" At first I
was inclined to declare that I would stand on
my rights according to English law. "Don't
talk rubbish," said my solicitor; "whether
would you rather be certain of going home
tonight, or run the chance of opposition, and
being sent back to jail, on the plea that you are
a commercial traveller, and as likely as not to go
abroad; or else that, having no employment,
you have nothing to keep you in England,
and that you might slip away to America or
Australia? If Tossels were to make this a
reason of opposition to your release, the
Commissioner might order you to find very heavy
bail for your appearance to answer in
bankruptcy. He might take another view of the
case; but, just as likely as not, he might take
this, particularly if Tossels were very urgent."

I told my solicitor that he might do as
he deemed best, and I saw him for full ten
minutes in close consultation with Tossels
and Firkenson. He then came towards
me smiling, and saying he had "squared"
the affair, having given his undertaking to
pay Tossels ten pounds on my behalf before my
next meeting, and having also promised that my
accounts should be prepared by the same
gentleman in his character of accountant. He then
formally asked for my discharge from custody,
and, there being no opposition, I at once
obtained it. A document, called my "protection,"
was then ordered to be made out, by virtue of
which I could not be arrested, or taken in
execution, on any civil process whatever. And
thus I was free to go home, though it was
necessary for me to return to Whitecross-street
for an hour or two until certain papers were
completed.

"What luck?" was the salutation that greeted
me on every side when I got back to the ward.
When I told my fellow-prisoners that I had
pulled through this stage of my proceedings,
they seemed almost as glad as if they themselves
had all been set at liberty. And when, later in
the afternoon, the warder came to tell me that
my release had come and I was free to depart,
they gave me three hearty cheers.

I arrived at home exactly three weeks after
my first arrest. The effects of it had been to
lose me my situation; to make me spend,
what with one expense and another, and fees of
court, about thirty-five pounds; to bring my
affairs no nearer to a settlement than they were