DEBTORS, ABSCONDING. The existing laws for the arrest of debtors absconding from England having been found insufficient, in consequence of the delay which was occasioned in obtaining the necessary process, the "act to facilitate the more speedy arrest of absconding debtors" (14 and 15 Vict. c. 52) was passed in 1851. The evil was felt chiefly by creditors residing at a distance from London. whose debtors were able to perpetrate frauds upon them by embarking for distant countries from various towns and seaports in England; and authority was given to county-court judges to issue warrants to arrest the debtors till judgment could be obtained, or the debtors found bail to meet any judgment likely to be obtained. But thelegislature havingsince changed its views as to the general expediency of arresting and imprisoning persons for debt, the above act was repealed in 1860, and the debtors act, 32 and 33 Vict. c. 62, contains the only enactment now in force on this subject. By the 6th section, where the plaintiff in any action in a superior court of law proves, at any time before final judgment, by evidence on oath, to the satisfaction of a judge of one of those courts, that the plaintiff has good cause of action against the defendant to the amount of or upwards, and that there is probable cause for believing that the defendant is about to quit England unless he be apprehended, and that the absence of the defendant from England will materially prejudice the plaintiff in the prosecution of his action, such judge may, in the prescribed manner, order such defendant to be arrested and imprisoned for a period not exceeding six months, unless and until he has sooner given the prescribed security, not exceeding the amount claimed in the action, that he will not go out of England without the leave of the court. But if the action is for a sum in the nature of a penalty, it shall not be
necessary to prove that the absence of the defendant from England will prejudice the plaintiff, and the security given (instead of being that the defendant will not go out of England) shall be to the effect that any sum recovered against the defendant in the action shall be paid, or that the defendant shall be rendered to prison.
Absconding shareholders may be arrested under the provisions of the joint-stock companies act of 1857 (21 and 22 Vict. c. 14, s. 11 and 12), or thei• goods and chattels may be seized, if there be probable cause for believing that it is their intention to leave the country, or to carry off or conceal their effects.—As to the mode of dealing with absconding debtors in Scotland, see MEDITATIO FUGAL