26 RINGGOLD'S CASE.

to be paid, or some duty is to be performed, within some short
space of time, a continuance of the solvency of a surety 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 reckon-
ing 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 continu-
ing solvency may depend, in a great degree, upon the regular or
irregular, certain or hazardous business in which he may be engaged;
thus, an agriculturalist, of the same extent of sufficiency, is more
likely to continue solvent for the same space of time than a mer-
chant,(g) 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 cultivation; or such as personal property procured
for consumption, or for the purpose of barter or traffic, which is
easily alienated,(h) 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.(i) The continuing sol-
vency 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 enterprize of our citizens
which is, in a great degree, the result of our free institutions; and
the unfettered rights of all property, render the continuance of the
solvency of all persons, for any length of time, less certain here
than elsewhere.

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 autho-
rized 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 court 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 respeots,

(f) 1 Ev, Poth. Obl. 390.—(A) 1 Ev. Poth. Obl. 390-(i) 1715, ch. 46, s. 9;
1742 ch, 10; 1789, ch. 26, s. 15.