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of Indiana, and it followed the adjudications of the Supreme Court of that State upon the same statute. Neither case refers to the opinion of the court in Bailey v. Glover, or can be held to overrule or modify it. The case of Bailey v. Glover has been often cited by this court, but has never been doubted or qualified. Wood v. Bailey, 21 Wall. 640; Wiswall v. Campbell, 93 U. S. 347; Gifford v. Helms, 98 U. S. 248; Upton v. McLaughlin, 105 U. S. 640. We are of opinion, therefore, that the assignment of error under consideration is not well founded.

The next complaint of the plaintiff in error is, that after the Circuit Court had struck out of the petition the averments relating to the sale on June 22d, 1875, of 500 cases of boots and shoes, by Carney to the plaintiff in error, the court admitted, in spite of the objection of the latter, the depositions of Louis Temm and other witnesses, which related solely to that sale. The contention is that this evidence, relating as it did to a sale that was perfectly valid and the averments concerning which had been stricken from the petition, was immaterial and tended to mislead and confuse the jury to the injury of the plaintiff in

error.

The bill of exceptions shows that the court, in overruling the objection to the admission of this evidence stated, that "the facts and circumstances surrounding the case should be submitted to the jury; and the facts of the sale on June 22d, 1875, and its circumstances, were allowed to be proved on the representation of counsel that said evidence was to be followed up by testimony showing a subsequent investment of an interest in said goods in the bankrupt by agreement with defendant."

In accordance with this representation of counsel, proof tending to show that on July 1st, 1875, the bankrupt, by a secret agreement with the plaintiff in error, acquired title to a half interest in the goods sold to the latter on June 22d preceding, was offered by the defendant in error and admitted.

We think the court was right in admitting the depositions relating to the sale of June 22d. Besides the charge made in the petition of the fraudulent sale of goods on June 22d, 1875, there was an averment of another sale by the bankrupt to

Opinion of the Court.

Carney of other goods of the value of $9,400 on July 22d, 1875, and within three months next before the proceedings in bankruptcy. It was averred that this sale was made by Carney in contemplation of insolvency, and that the plaintiff in error had reasonable cause to believe such to be the fact. To establish these propositions it was perfectly competent to show what had been the business dealings between Carney and the plaintiff in error before the sale in question. Thus, to prove that plaintiff in error had reasonable cause to believe that the sale made to him by Carney on July 22d was in contemplation of insolvency, it was competent to show that on June 22d, just one month before, Carney had made another sale to the plaintiff in error of fifty thousand boots and shoes worth $45,000; and then within eight days thereafter, by a secret agreement, had reinvested Carney with the ownership of one-half the property so sold.

Evidence tending to establish both these facts was produced and submitted to the jury. It clearly tended to show that Carney was trying to cover up his property from his creditors, and that plaintiff in error was aiding him to do it, and that when Carney made the subsequent sale to the plaintiff in error on July 22d, the latter had reasonable cause to believe that it was made in contemplation of insolvency. The evidence objected to was, therefore, proof of one of two facts, which, taken together, tended to establish a material and necessary averment of the petition, and was, therefore, properly admitted.

The next assignment of error relates to the admission in evidence by the Circuit Court of certain letter-press copies of letters written by Carney to the plaintiff in error.

The record shows that Carney testified that, while he was in St. Louis and the plaintiff in error in New Orleans, they were corresponding with each other; that several letters were written by each to the other, and were received by each from the other; that Carney, having so testified, produced two letters purporting to have been addressed by the plaintiff in error, in New Orleans, to him at St. Louis, and which he testified he had received through the mails. These letters having been admitted in evidence, Carney produced certain letter-press

Opinion of the Court.

copies of letters which he testified he had written to the plaintiff in error, and mailed with his own hand in the post office at St. Louis, postage prepaid, directed to the plaintiff in error at New Orleans, and to his proper address in that city.

The record also shows that in response to a subpoena duces tecum the plaintiff in error swore that he never received the letters addressed to him by Carney.

Upon this state of the evidence, the defendant in error offered to read to the jury the letter-press copies of the letters which Carney swore he had mailed to the plaintiff in error. They were objected to, but were admitted by the court in spite of the objection. This action of the court is now urged as a ground for reversing the judgment.

We think the copies were properly admitted in evidence. The point in dispute between the parties was whether the original letters had been received by the plaintiff in error. One of the letters from the plaintiff in error to Carney is clearly in answer to two of the letters which Carney swears he mailed to him, and is proof that those letters were received by him. Independently of this fact, the proof that the letters were received by the plaintiff in error was prima facie sufficient, and the court properly allowed the copies to go to the jury, leaving them to decide, on all the evidence, whether the originals had been received.

The rule is well settled that if a letter properly directed is proved to have been either put into the post office or delivered to the postman, it is presumed, from the known course of business in the post office department, that it reached its destination at the regular time, and was received by the person to whom it was addressed. Saunderson v. Judge, 2 H. Bl. 509; Woodcock v. Houldsworth, 16 M. & W. 124; Dunlop v. Higgins, 1 H. L. Cas. 381; Callan v. Gaylord, 3 Watts. 321; Starr v. Torrey, 2 Zabr. 190; Tanner v. Hughes, 53 Penn. St. 289; Howard v. Daly, 61 N. Y. 362; Huntley v. Whittier, 105 Mass. 391. As was said by Gray, J., in the case last cited, "the presumption so arising is not a conclusive presumption of law, but a mere inference of fact founded on the probability that the officers of the government will do their duty and the usual course of busi

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ness, and when it is opposed by evidence that the letters never were received, must be weighed with all the other circumstances of the case, by the jury in determining the question whether the letters were actually received or not."

The presumption that a letter was received is based on such considerations that it is perfectly clear that it applies without regard to the contents of the letter. The contention, therefore, of counsel for plaintiff in error that the presumption fails when the contents of the letter would, if the letter were received, tend to subject the party receiving it to a penalty or forfeiture, is not well founded.

The rule and the authorities cited in support of it sustain the action of the court in admitting in evidence the copies of the letters, and in submitting to the jury the question whether the letters had been received to be decided upon all the testimony bearing upon the point.

The next assignment of error relates to the charge given by the court to the jury, and its refusal to charge as requested by the plaintiff in error.

It appears from the record that Player, the original assignee in bankruptcy of Carney, was sworn on the trial as a witness in his own behalf. He testified that he was an attorney; that he had been one of the solicitors of the creditors of Carney in the proceedings to have him adjudicated a bankrupt; that in pursuance of his rights as assignee he had in May, 1876, subjected the bankrupt to an examination pursuant to the pro visions of the bankrupt act, at which said bankrupt, after having testified at great length, finally refused to answer any other questions relating to his property or affairs, on the ground that his answers might criminate him, as there was an indictment for a criminal offence under the bankrupt laws of the United States then pending against him; that thereupon said examination ceased, and defendant in error took no further steps to compel said bankrupt to answer, because he thought it would be better not to press him at that time, and the defendant in error did not again examine the bankrupt until November, 1879.

The plaintiff in error contends that upon this evidence the

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court should have charged the jury, as he requested it to do, that the knowledge, in 1876, on the part of the assignee, that the bankrupt had refused to answer proper questions, relating to his property and effects, when under an examination authorized by law, on the ground that his answers might criminate him, and the knowledge of the fact that the bankrupt was under indictment for an offence committed against the provisions of the bankrupt law, created such a state of affairs as put the assignee on inquiry in relation to the alleged fraudulent sales; that, being put on inquiry in 1876, he must be presumed to have known all that he could have found out by due diligence, and that it followed as matter of law that he had knowledge of the fraudulent sales, and that there was therefore no concealment, such as would take the case out of the bar of the statutes.

The question raised by the pleadings, to be decided by the jury, was, whether the cause of action had been fraudulently concealed from the defendant in error. The concealment was averred by the petition and denied by the answer. The charge which the court was asked to give the jury assumed that the only evidence on this point was that relied on by the plaintiff in error. But this was not the fact. The record shows that there was evidence, and persuasive evidence, tending to prove actual concealment by the bankrupt and the plaintiff in error of the facts upon which the cause of action was founded. Besides, the bill of exceptions does not profess to give all the evidence upon this question. The court was therefore, in effect, asked to charge the jury to consider the evidence on one side of a disputed issue and disregard all the evidence on the other. Instead of doing this the court said to the jury:

"It is for you to say whether it is a case where this assignee has failed to make the discovery because he did not use due diligence, or whether it is a case where, using due diligence, he failed to make the discovery because the parties to the transaction, who were already the repositories of its existence, one or more of them, wickedly concealed it and filed oath upon oath in effecting that concealment. . . So far as the instruction