tise and sell the same in such manner as is now or may hereafter be prescribed in the case of an executor or administrator directed to sell lands by an order of the orphans' court for the payment of the debts of a testator or intestate; in all cases where any assignee as aforesaid shall deem it to be for the best interest of the creditors of the assigned estate to make sale of the whole or any portion of the real estate so assigned in trust, at private sale, the said assignee shall have the power to make a contract or contracts for such sale, which contracts shall be subject to the confirmation of the said orphans' court, and in such cases the assignee shall forthwith, upon making any such contract, present the same by petition to the said orphans' court for its action thereon, and thereupon the said orphans' court, upon such notice to the creditors as it may direct, shall hear the parties interested and either declare such contract void or confirm the same, and in case of such confirmation the said assignee shall perform the same and convey the real estate in accordance with the terms thereof, and the said assignee may, in like manner, if he at any time shall see fit so to do, submit contracts for the sale of personal estate of all kinds to said orphans' court for its action thereon, which court in like manner may declare void or confirm the same.

15. Power of assignee with reference to disposition of estate. Assignee may seek advice of court. Assignee as representative of creditors. Every such assignee shall have as full power and authority to dispose of all the estate assigned to him in trust as aforesaid, except as may otherwise be herein provided, as the said assignor had at the time of the general assignment, and to sue for and recover in the proper name of such assignee everything belonging or appertaining to said estate, real or personal, of such assignor, and shall have full power and authority to compromise, settle and compound all claims, disputes and litigations of said assignor, and to refer the same to arbitration, and to agree with any person concerning the same, and to redeem all mortgages and conditional contracts, and generally to act and do whatsoever the said assignor might have lawfully done in the premises; and

said assignee may at any time by petition apply to said orphans' court for its advice and direction in regard to any matter or thing. connected with the administration of his trust; and thereupon the said court, upon such notice to the creditors as it may direct, shall hear the parties interested who may appear and make such order or decree in the premises as it shall deem advantageous to the said creditors, and upon such proceedings the said court may authorize the said assignee to continue for such a period or periods, and under such conditions as the said court may from time to time prescribe, any business of the assignor in which the assigned estate, or any part thereof, may be invested; the said assignee, in addition to the powers which he may exercise as the successor to such assignor, shall also at all times be the representative of the creditors of such assignor, and shall have the same power to set aside conveyances, and to recover or reach assets for the benefit of the creditors of such assignor as a creditor of said assignor would have who had recovered a judgment against said assignor at the date of said assignment, and all conveyances, mortgages and transfers of property, real or personal, made by said assignor, which are void or voidable as against the creditors of such assignor, shall in like manner be void or voidable, as the case may be, as against said assignee.

16. Transfer of property within two months of assignment to give preference void. Property may be recovered.-If any person being insolvent or in contemplation of insolvency shall, within two months before the making of the general assignment for the benefit of creditors. regulated by the provisions of this act, and in contemplation of making a general assignment, mortgage, pledge, assign, pay or transfer any of his property, or procure or suffer any of his property to be seized, attached or levied upon, or any lien or incumbrance to be placed or acquired thereon by legal process or otherwise, with a view to giving a preference to any creditor or person having a claim against him, or who is under any liability for him, the person receiving such preference in manner aforesaid, or to be benefited thereby, having reasonable cause to believe that such person is insolvent, or in contem

plation of insolvency, and is contemplating making a general assignment, the said mortgage, pledge, assignment, payment, transfer, seizure, attachment, levy, lien or incumbrance shall be void as against the assignee named in such general assignment for the benefit of creditors and his successors in trust, and the said assignee may recover the property given by way of preference or the value thereof from the person so receiving the same or so benefited thereby.

17. When court may appoint another assignee. In case the said assignee shall die or become incapable of executing his trust the said orphans' court shall, upon application of any party interested, appoint some suitable person or persons as assignee or assignees in the place of such assignee so dying or becoming incapable to execute the said trust; in case any assignee shall embezzle, waste or misapply any part of the trust estate in his hands or under his control, or shall neglect or refuse to excute his trust, or to perform and obey any order or decree of the said orphans' court in respect of his trust, or shall remove from the state, or for a reasonable or just cause manifested to said orphans' court shall desire to be relieved from his office as assignee, then and in every such case the said court shall have the power to remove said assignee and appoint some suitable person or persons in his stead to execute the said trust; in case it shall be made to appear to the said orphans' court that the holders of two-thirds in amount of the indebtedness entitled to a dividend desire the removal of the assignee, the said court shall make such removal and appoint some suitable person or persons in his stead to execute the said trust, and if the holders of twothirds in amount of such indebtedness unite in nominating a person or persons, resident in the state, as such assignee, the said orphans' court shall appoint the person so nominated unless the said court shall deem him or them unsuitable; in the cases hereinbefore provided for in this section the said orphans' court may act upon the petition of any creditor or other party interested, and upon such notice to the assignee or creditors as the said court shall direct; in case of the appointment of any new

assignee he shall enter into bond to the ordinary for the faithful performance of his trust, in such amount and with such security as the said orphans' court, or any judge thereof, shall direct, and in case at any time the security given by any assignee under or by virtue of this act shall be shown to be insufficient, the said orphans' court shall direct such assignee to give such additional security, by bond to the ordinary as aforesaid, as the said court shall deem proper; upon the appointment of any new assignee as aforesaid the entire trust estate, in whatsoever form the same then may be, shall forthwith vest in such new assignee and the said orphans' court shall have the power to compel the removed assignee or the personal representative of the former assignee to account in said court for his trust, and to deliver possession of the estate in his hands to his successor, and to pay over to such successor any balance found due on such accounting, and to execute such conveyance or conveyances of the trust estate to his successor as the said court may deem proper; and every such new assignee shall have all the powers and perform all the duties (not already performed) conferred and imposed by the said assignment or by this act upon the original assignee named in said. assignment.

18. Inventory, &c., surrogate's fees.--The inventory and list. of creditors, with the statement of claims required to be filed by the assignee as aforesaid, shall be proved before the surrogate of said county, and be recorded by him in a book to be provided for that purpose and to be called "assignee's book," and for the taking proof of such inventory and list, and for the recording thereof, the surrogate shall be entitled to the same fees as are allowed by law for like services in relation to inventories of the property of deceased persons.

19. Compensation to assignee. Such commissions and allowances shall be made to the assignee or to the personal representatives of a deceased assignee, or to a person who has been removed by the court from his office as assignee for any cause other than his misconduct, on any intermediate or final account. as the said court shall consider just.

20. Fees.-The same fees shall be allowed in all proceedings under this act to the officers of the orphans' court, as are allowed for like services performed in the settlement of accounts of executors or administrators under the laws of this state.

21. If creditor fail to exhibit his claim.-If any creditor shall not exhibit his claim within three months from the date of such general assignment, or within such other time as may have been fixed by the court for that purpose, such claim shall be barred of a dividend except as hereinafter provided; whenever any creditor shall have omitted to file his claim or claims within the time limited by law, and a final dividend shall not yet have been made, it shall be lawful for such creditor, at any time prior to such final dividend being made, to present his claim or claims under oath or affirmation to the assignee, and the same shall thereupon be entitled to share in any dividend which may be made after such presentation thereof; upon the presentation of any such claim the said assignee, before allowing the same, shall give notice thereof by mail, with postage prepaid, to the other creditors who have proved their claims as directed by the fourth section of this act in relation to claims proved in time, and the same shall be subject to all exceptions by said assignee or the other creditors that a claim filed in time would be subject to and may be proceeded with and adjudicated upon in the manner provided in the sixth and seventh sections of this act.

22.

Creditors not exhibiting claims.-Nothing in this act shall be taken or understood as discharging said assignor from liability to his creditors, who may not choose to exhibit their claims, either in regard to the persons of such assignor or to any estate, real or personal, not assigned as aforesaid, but with respect to the creditors who shall come in under said general assignment and exhibit their demands as aforesaid for a dividend they shall be wholly barred from having afterwards any action or suit at law or equity against such assignor or his representatives; unless on the trial of such action, or hearing in equity, the said creditor shall prove fraud in the said assignor with respect