Thus, the bankrupts' effects in Virginia were liable to any creditor suing there 
according to a provincial Act for the Relief of Certain Creditors (1744), which 
had received royal approbation. 98 
Upon hearing the appeal, Lord Mansfield declared that whether the suit was 
taken as a bill of foreign attachment against the factors as debtors to the bankrupts, 
which had never been allowed in the English Chancery Court, or as 
a bill against the bankrupts or their assignees, in either case the decree should 
be reversed. In the course of his opinion Mansfield declared that the bankruptcy 
laws did not bind Ireland, the plantations, or foreign countries. However, 
where an assignment had been made in England, it would include all 
personalty (but not realty) wherever located." A creditor abroad who gained 
priority would not be ousted by the mere assignment under the bankruptcy 
acts, but no priority had been achieved in the instant case, because the assets 
had been gathered in by the assignees prior to any action by the Virginia 
creditors. It was therefore accordingly advised and ordered that the decree 
should be reversed and the sum decreed repaid, deducting the dividend payable 
under the commission of bankruptcy. 100 
Apparently Lord Mansfield made no distinction as to extension to the plantations 
between the early acts 34 and 35 Henry VIII, c. 4, 13 Elizabeth, c. 7, 1 
James I, c. 15, and the later acts 4 and 5 Anne, c. 4, and 5 George 11, c. 30, 
98 Case of Respondent (Add. MS, 36,218/205). 
For the act see 5 Hening, Stat, at Large Va., 
220. For the confirmation see 4 APC, Col., 
p. 809. 
"The opinion (Add. MS, 36,218/204) reads 
as follows: "Lord Mansfield sayd that as to the 
agents in Virginia this was a bill of foreign 
attachment the agents in Virginia being debtors 
to the bankrupts which of itself was enough 
to overturn the decree, the Court of Chancery 
here having never allowed bills of foreign attachment 
which is a custom peculiar to the 
City of London but taking it as a demand 
against the bankrupts themselves tho' the 
bankrupt laws bind not Ireland or the plantations 
or foreign countrys yet where the act 
of bankruptcy is committed here and an assignment 
made of the bankrupts estate that 
will take in all the personal estate where ever 
it is (tho' not the real lying abroad because 
personal follows the person but lands follow 
the country) and in case of effects being 
abroad if before they are got in by the assignees 
a creditor residing there gets the start either 
by attaching the effects or by some other method 
allowed by the law of the country that can't 
be helped but such creditor would not be permitted 
to receive any thing further here until 
the other creditors had received as much as 
such creditor had done out of the foreign effects 
and diis he said he had known done. Here the 
assignment was long prior to the respondent's 
bill and the agents had sworn by their answer 
that from the first notice they had of the 
bankruptcy they had acted as agents for the 
assignees so no colour for taking the effects 
out of the hands of the assignees, the King is 
not bound by the Bankrupt Acts more than 
foreign country's yet if the assignment of the 
bankrupts effects be made prior to the extent 
it will take place thereof and therefore provisional 
assignments are often made to prevent 
the extent and will do so when fair and without 
fraud so whether the suit instituted in Virginia 
was taken as a bill of foreign attachment 
against the agents as debtors to the bankrupts 
which had never been allowed in the Court 
of Chancery here (tho' attempted) or taken 
as a bill against the bankrupts themselves or 
the assignees standing in there place, in either 
case the decree must be reversed." We have 
not undertaken to punctuate this report. 
™°PC 2 / Io a/288, 326.