WATKINS v. 00RSETT. 533

Upon this decree the plaintiffs demanded of the defendant pay-
ment of their costs, which he failed or refused to pay. After
which by their petition they stated, that they knew of no property
which belonged to the defendant, excepting what might be reached
by an attachment under the act of 1715, ch. 40, s. 7, and therefore
prayed that such an attachment might be granted to them.

12th January, 1829.—BLAND, Chancellor.—The solicitor of the
plaintiffs having been heard in support of their petition, the pro-
ceedings were read and considered.

This petition exposes one of the still subsisting deficiencies of
our code. It may be inferred from the general spirit of our laws,
that all the property of a debtor, of every description, should be
liable to be taken by his creditors in satisfaction of their claims.
By the common law, the personal property of the debtor, with the
rents and profits of his real estate only, were liable; but by sta-
tutes derived to us from England, with some additional legislative
enactments of our own, the real estate of a debtor has been sub-
jected to be taken in execution by fieri facias, or attachment, and
sold for the satisfaction of his debts in like manner as his personal
property.(o) There are, however, still several kinds of property,
which a debtor may hold, laying beyond the reach of his creditor's
execution.

Public stock, the stock of banks, of turnpike road companies,
and the like, cannot be taken in execution under a fieri facias, nor
can choses in action be made liable to creditors at common law,(c)
otherwise than by an original or judicial attachment ;(d) but the
acts of Assembly, which direct the manner of suing out attach-
ments, have in express terms treated them as process ancillary to
the judicial powers of the courts of common law only; have
authorized the use of them by any individual inhabitant of the
United States who may be entitled to sue here; and have limited
the extent of them to the taking of the lands, tenements, goods,
chattels, and credits of the debtor in cases at common law
only.(e) In England it is laid down, that choses in action, stock,
debts, &c. are not liable to creditors; and that they cannot be
taken on a fieri facias, or under a sequestration from chancery,

(6) 5 Geo. 2, c. 7; 1810, ch. 160; Ford v. Philpot, 5 H. St J. 315; Barney v.
Patterson, 6 H. & J. 182.—(c) Harding v. Stevenson, 6 H. & J. 267.—(d) Ford v
Philpot, 5 H. & J. 317.—(c) 1715, ch. 40; 1795, ch. 56; 1825, ch, 114.