A feature of the afternoon's session was the speech made by Mr. MacDonald on behalf of "a young man who had made an error of judgement in a very difficult financial position." If there had ever been a case for the immediate discharge of a bankrupt that one was now before the Court. It was a case of a young man with regard to whom in the past there had been no shadow or suggestion of any want of integrity.
"This young man," said counsel, "has been economical, nay scrupulously economical, in his private life. In spite of every precaution which the most experienced business man here could have taken, Thompson was caught in this maelstrom of financial disaster in Shanghai, which overwhelmed many of much greater standing and experience than himself. He strove to free and to extricate himself, but his efforts were in vain."
His Lordship reserved his decision.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.