RINGGOLD1S CASE.—1 BLAND. 21

fact, as if it had never been given, or as if it had been originally
a mere nullity; and therefore, in all such cases sureties should be
given who are not only then sufficient; but who are likely to be
so when the contemplated event shall happen. Where money is
* to be paid, or some duty is to be performed, within some
short space of time, a continuance of the solvency of a surety 26
may be much more confidently relied on than where the debt is to
be paid, or the duty to be performed at some distant day. But in
reckoning upon the probability of a surety's continuing to be
solvent, during any given period, various other circumstances
must be taken into consideration as well as the lapse of time; his
continuing solvency may depend, in a gieat degree, upon the
regular or irregular, certain or hazardous business in which he may
be engaged; thus, an agriculturist, of the same extent of suffi-
ciency, is more likely to continue solvent for the same space of
time than a merchant. 1 Ex. Poth. Obl 390. The continuing
solvency of a surety may also, in some measure, depend upon the
kind of property held by him, as being such as is ordinarily
acquired with a view to a permanent holding; such as land for cul-
tivation; or such as personal property procured for consumption,
or for the purpose of barter or traffic, which is easily alienated.
1 Er. Poth. Obi. 390. Hence it is. that many of our legislative
enactments have required freeholders, or "persons of visible and
landed estates," to be given as sureties, where their solvency was
required to endure for any length of time. 1715, ch. 46, s. 9; 1742,
ch. 10; 1789, ch. 26, s. 15. The continuing solvency of a surety
may, likewise, in some degree, depend upon the state of society in
the country. In England, and in most other countries of Europe,
property is either not so free, or it does not, or cannot be made to
change hands so easily and so frequently as in ours. That very
bold spirit of active enterprise of our citizens which is, in a great
degree, the result oi our free institutions; and the unfettered
rights of all property, render the continuance oi' the solvency of
all persons, for any length of time, less certain here than else-
where.

In Maryland, however, a practice has long prevailed, as to the
mode of showing the sufficiency of appeal bonds, and other such
securities, which the Chancellor has been in various ways author-
ized or called upon to demand and approve, by which all these
considerations seem to have been disregarded or totally put aside.
For although it was, on the 7th of March, 1793, laid down as a
standing rule, that no officer of this Coutt or his deputy should be
admitted as a surety in any such bond; and also, by the rule of the
14th of November, 1801, that the sureties in such bonds should
reside within the jurisdiction of the Court; yet, in all other re-
spects, * it has been deemed enough to lay before the Chau-
cellor a bond regularly drawn, and which purports to be the 27