42G WILLIAMSON v. WILSON.

On the same day, and together with the answer of the defend*
ants, I. & J. Pogue and others, as creditors of the firm, filed
their petition objecting to D. Williamson junior being considered
as a receiver; and recommending Jacob Schley to be appointed
in his stead for the benefit of the creditors of the partnership.
And, on the next day, the plaintiff filed exceptions to the an-
swer of the defendants; and David Williamson, as another cre-
ditor of the firm, insisted by his petition on the receiver being
continued.

24th April, 1826.—BLAND, Chancellor.—This case standing
ready for hearing on the motion to rescind the order appointing a
receiver, the counsel on both sides were heard, and the proceedings
read and considered.

There have been, of late, many applications to this court for
the appointment of a receiver. The power of making such an
appointment, by some, has been contemplated as, at least, a new
exhibition of the jurisdiction of this court. It seems to have
been considered in the argument as one of an unsettled and
questionable nature. That it is a power which has not, until of
late, been very frequently resorted to may be admitted; but, there
can be no doubt of its being an authority properly belonging to
this court. In an order, passed about twenty years ago, the then
Chancellor speaks of the power, as one which rightfully belonged
to the court, and respecting which there was then no question
whatever, (a) It is a power of the Court of Chancery of Eng-
land, which appears to have been very frequently called into action
during more than a century past. All the leading principles in
relation to it were well established there, long before our revolu-
tion; and it was then, and has ever since been considered, there and
here, as a power of as great utility as any which belongs to a court
of chancery. And, that it is so, will appear very evident, from a
review of the nature, and the variety of the exigencies in which it
has been called into action; either to prevent fraud, to save the
subject of litigation from material injury, or to rescue it from
inevitable destruction.

Much the greater number of the English reported cases, con-
cerning receivers, relate to real estates, and most frequently are
such as have arisen between mortgagors and mortgagees. In
almost all of them the office and duty of the receiver have been

(a) The Wharf Case, 1806, post, vol.