§ MR. MACFARLANE (Argyll)asked the Lord Advocate, If a procurator fiscal, his partner or assistant, can, consistently with the public interests, act as trustee for a bankrupt estate?
THE LORD ADVOCATE (Mr. J. B. BALFOUR)&c.) (Clackmannan,I do not consider it consistent with the public interest that a Procurator Fiscal should act as a trustee on a bankrupt estate, because, in the course of his investigation as the trustee, questions of fraudulent bankruptcy or the like might arise, with which it would be his duty to deal in his separate capacity of Fiscal; and it appears to me that the ends of justice would be better served if the trustee was a distinct person, who could report the matter to the Fiscal, to be dealt with by him independently. The same considerations would not apply so directly if his partner or assistant was the trustee; but I cannot say that they would be altogether absent.