The Sun.
London, England, 1832-01-05 00:00:00

20
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SPIRIT OF THE metre .1

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We yesterday referred to our own laws, autho-
rizing imprisonment for debt, in no terms of satis-
faction or panegyric ; but our insolvent legisla-
tion is mercy itself compared with the code now
under discussion in the French Chamber of
Peers—a code which was lately presented by a
popular Minister as a humane improvement on
their old system. It unfortunately happens that
it is generally the class of the wealthy who make
laws for the poor—the body of creditors who
regulate the fate of debtors. From no other
cause but the insensibility thus occasioned, can
we account for the absurd and barbarous regula-
tions often enacted to secure the rights of
the former, by the needless oppression of the
' latter. At Rome, debtors might be imprisoned
for life ; in some of the States of Greece they
might be sold for slaves ; and in the civilized
legislation of France, it is now proposed to enact
that a man for a simple debt of 2001., without
alleged fraud, may be kept in gaol for five whole
years ! ! Nay, a scale of a man s debts is adapted
to a scale of penalties, by which it appears that
for 201. the debtor may be imprisoned a year ;
for 401. two years ; for 1201., three years ; and for
200/.or upwards, five years! ! And these are corn-
mercial debts,--or debts that would come under our
bankrupt laws—where the debtor, unless fraud,
contumacy, or concealment can be proved against
him, is liable to no imprisonment whatever !
Our neighbours, too, boast of the hospitable soil
of France, and it is certainly hospitable enough
when the stranger has money to spend on its
pleasures ; but how is he treated when he has
exhausted his resources, and contracted obliga-
tions which he cannot discharge ? Let foreigners
hear the enactments of the proposed code, and
tremble at the sound of arrest for debt.
" Foreigners," says the project of law, " ni t
domiciled in France, and imprisoned for debt,
are to be released as follows :—Where the debt
is 500 francs (201.), after two years; where it is
1,000 francs (401.), after four years ; where it
is 3,000 francs (1201.), after six years ; where
it is 5,000 francs (2001.), after eight years ;
above the last sum, ten years The Scotch
law, which is only severe upon fraudulent or re-
fractory debtors, but which allows the innocent
or unfortunate insolvent to be liberated on a
surrender of all his property, (or, as it is tech-
nically called, a cessio bonoruni), enacts that
the former shall be allowed no air or exercise so
long as they continue to resist payment, in order,
say the Scotch lawyers, that by the squalor
carceris they may be brought the more speedily
to give satisfaction to their creditors. What, we
ask, must be the squalor carceris of a foreign
debtor confined for ten years in a French prison !
Yet in the Chamber of Peers there seems no
disposition to mitigate the chief barbarities of
this project, the Noble Peers limiting their huma-
nity to the protection from arrest of persons
above seventy years of age !—Times.
Our table is covered with communications,
printed and in manuscript, on the subject of
Irish tithes, and on the best mode or modes of
relieving the distress of the miserable peasant
who is the chief sufferer from theirs. Upon this
matter of tithe two questions must occur to
every one,-Ist, Is it the mode of assessing and
collecting tithe which the Irish people complain
of ?-2d, Or is it the amount of provision
collected for the established clergy ? If the
thing called " tithe" were alone objected to, with-
out reference to the magnitude of the sums so
levied, or to their application, a reformer of the
temporalities of the Irish Church would have a
task comparatively easy. The petty, but eter-
nally-recurring vexations and oppressions of the
tithe-proctor constitute a grievance which hu-
inane men, of all parties, must long since have
desired to redress, and the Composition Act of
Lord Wellesley's Administration was designed
as a remedy for the evil. But Mr. Goulburn,
who would lately have taken to himself the
whole credit of that measure, in its original
frame and construction so important, is said to
have struck off it that effective clause which made
the acceptance of a composition for tithe com-
pulsory upon the clergyman. The Act has,
since the year 1824, been allowed by the
Bishops, with whom the objection, if any,
has almost invariably lain, to operate in about
1,100 parishes throughout Ireland, or about
11-18ths of the whole island. It is in the
non-compounding parishes, as might be ex-
pected, that ill blood has principally shown itself
towards the clergyman, whose agent for the col-
lection of tithe has usually been a proctor of
coarse and unpitying habits, and often a confe-
derate with the lowest ministers of the law, for
the sake of multiplying fees and costs, and wring-
ing the last halfpenny from the parishioner. In
those parishes where the composition act has
been executed, the collection of tithe has been
no more oppressive or vexatious than that of
rent, being placed in other hands than the proc-
tor's. But, unfortunately, the odium annexed
to the tithe system in those parishes where the
old customary conflict between parson and pauper
still continues, has extended, through a natural
prejudice which the Catholic priests encourage,
to the levy of tithe in all other quarters, until
at length there is not a spot in any part of
Ireland where the name of tithe is not abhorred
by the Catholic population ; and the vulgar sen-
timent against tithe has been diligently and suc-
cessfullyio
th
.
E
eagernessst atl
sh
form Establishment.
downfall.
Such and so deep-rooted is this feeling, that we
doubt whether a full equivalent to tithe, although
raised by a tax or rent, or otherwise, in whatever
way might be least onerous to the people, would
be peacefully (at least for any long period) sub-
mitted to, if its avowed destination were the
exclusive support of the Protestant Church of
Ireland. Still we deem that a land-tax must
be resorted to, instead of tithe, and not merely
the clergyman, but the lay impropriator,
ought to be indemnified from its produce.
In considering how far the dreadful
condition of the poor has been caused or
made worse by the abuses of the tythe-system,
it might be well to inquire whether, by the same
authority which diverted the possessions of the
Church into the hands of laymen, a distinct obli-
gation was not imposed upon the new proprie-
tors to employ a portion of the wealth thus
transferred to them by confiscation, for the bene-
fit of the neighbouring poor, in the same manner,
and to as great extent, as it had been so be-
stowed whilst in the keeping of the triona-tic
orders. We have received a carious letrer upon
this subject, signed " Philo Pauperis," COll-
- passages from original acts of impropr,°
ia-
zttiortelfemrealdwee
ton the
the
2 reign6h of
ff
effect to several provisions of grants conveying
t the
Church property to laymen,
and containing
clauses studiously protective of the rights
poor to relief. " Moine luestious.
said by our correspondent, ari•es out of
that
Henry
Monarch,Viil::
as is
truly as
giving
elan
those old records. Wheretige have not the pro-
visions in favour of the poor been enforced ? hnd

"therefore should they still, when the policy ard
necessity of measures for their relief are now
universally recognized—why should they not now,
under a system, of Church Reform, be made
sharers in those benefits which the lay (and
clerical) possessors of tithe property have been
suffered for 300 years to deprive them ? It is
not to be questioned that but feeble progress
will ever he made towards an entire amelioration
of the Church of England, and a consequent
revival of its • much impaired influence over the
community, without including in our corrective
measures a complete reversion of the state of
the episcopal bench, whose actual position and
attributes render them alike incapable of dis-
chat Bing the duties of honest politicians or con-
scientious and pious clergymen. Their reve-
nues generally (there are a few exceptions)
seem calculated to fill them with more pride
than charity, and to tempt them into a rivalship
of worldly grandeur with the lay nobility of the
realm. The capability of translation is a per-
petual bribe, withdraws their cares from religion,
and fixes them on schemes of temporal aggran-
dizement, to be accomplished only through the
sordid arts of intrigue and party subserviency.
Hence we find many Bishops—what ?—cold to
the merits of their inferior clergy, stremuous in
promoting the views of patrons, and the fortunes
of all whom such patrons recommend to their
favour,—busy courtiers, fiery partisans, un-
scrupulous abettors of prerogative, enemies of all
Reform which shalt controul the power
of a Minister to feed the ambition and
reward the cupidity of his followers,—
ready one day, by coup de main, to unseat
a Whig Minister, from whom corruption has
but slender topes, and the next day to support a
Tory in the same course which was a crime and
reproach to his predecessor. Bishops must be
angels, if, with their present temptations, they
did not oftentimes prove themselves hollow and
selfish intri?.uers. The political welfare suffers
from this—the sacred cause of religion suffers.
Within the last fifty years there have been but
five English Bishops (and still fewer Irish) who
discover any thing like liberal policy, as Mem-
bers of the House of Lords. Shipley, Bishop
of St. Asaph ; Hinchcliffe, of Peterborough ;
Watson, Bishop of Landaff ; Bathurst, of Nor-
wich, and now Dr. Maltby, of Chichester !
What a legion of the opposite colour, could we
spare time to enumerate them ! It will therefore
be a fair subject of consideration by and by,
whether Bishops ought to be enormously en-
riched ; whether Bishops ought ever to be trans-
lated, and whether Bishops ought to enjoy, only
to abuse hereafter, the privilege of making laws.
Many a good Bishop has been ruined by his
legislative power. Confine him to religious
functions, and you destroy the great corrupting
principle within him. Fix his constant residence
within a stone's throw of his own cathedral, he
will soon forget the road to Downing-street, and
the towers of Lambeth.—Times.

We insert a letter from a debtor in White-
cross-street prison—not for the purpose of an-
swering the unimportant question which it pro-
pounds, as the respectable Governor of that pri-
son knows his duties and liabilities as well as we
or any of our correspondents, but—for the pur-
pose of directing public attention to the facts
which it discloses, as they bear upon the po-
licy of imprisonment for debt. Here is a man
who has been seven months in prison upon
judgment debts to a considerable amount, for
which his creditors, with one exception, have
compounded, and been satisfied. In the mean-
time, his business, whatever it was, is ne-
glected,—his character, if not his morals, are
damaged or destroyed,—and his wife and fa-
mily are exposed, without a protector or a friend,
to all the evils of penury and want. As he
is snatched away from the management of his
affairs at the very time that he might have
been of most service to his creditors and to
himself, he is obliged to intrust, from within
his prison wails, the management of his af-
fairs, and the means of satisfying his obliga-
tions, to a friend, who faithfully continues to
keep him in gaol till he puts as much of his
property into his own pocket as he can—and
then takes refuge within the rules of the King's
Bench himself, that he may escape the more
close confinement of Whitecross-street. Thus
retail dealers, tradesmen, and shopkeepers, are
defrauded by the very rigour of those enact-
ments which are intended for their protection.
They are led to trust the honest and dishonest
customer alike, relying on the virtues of the
bailiff's staff, the shame of a spunging-house.
or the terrors of a gaol ; and when disappointed
in their hopes by the misfortunes or the kna-
very of their debtors, they resolve to gratify
their love of vengeance, if they cannot obtain
the payment of their debts, and, by hurrying
them away from their business or their duties,
deprive themselves of every chance of ultimate
compensation. Then some rascally attorney,
or needy friend (for " troops of holyday
friends" now desert him, and respectable people
arc afraid or ashamed to interfere), steps in,
and offers to compound with those creditors
who, having exasperated their debtor by their
harshness,—who, having cancelled all former
obligations by the magic touch of the bum-
bailiff's staff,—and having taught him to con-
sider himself as the victim of injustice, instead
of the violator of credit and honesty,—cannot
visit him to settle their accounts in person, or
without the intervention of a mediator. This
attorney robs both parties—or this adventurer,
after pocketing as much of the common fund as
he can, imitates the conduct of his principal—
is arrested for debt in his turn by some other
set of creditors, and, after whitewashing himself
by the process of the Insolvent Court, comes
out again to starve, or to prey upon the public
with a sharpened appetitite. Nor is this a soli-
tary case, or an imaginary picture. It occurs
every day, and our prisons are full of living de-
monstrations of its truth. The law authorizing
indiscriminate imprisonment for debt, either on
arrest for want of bail in mesne process, or on
the adjudication of a court of justice, never did
and never can afford protection to the suffering
creditor, while it acts most injuriously on the
general interests of society, and becomes a bar-
barous infliction on the honest but unfortunate
debtor. In the former case there seems no good
reason why common bail should not be received,
or why the security of John Doe and Richard
Roe, so useful in most cases, should not be re-
ceived in all ; unless it can be sworn to that the
party is about to leave the country. It should
he remembered that there has yet been no proof
of debt, and that the King's writ may thus be
employed, not to
obtain satisfaction for a just
demand, or security for a fair trial, but as the
means of vexation or torture. If friends are
called in to satisfy the claim rather than allow
the debtor to go to prison or stand a suit, it
merely shifts the burden from one person to an-
other—the party paying being perhaps less able
to bear the loss than the party paid. But in

the great majority of cases the inhabitants of the
debtors' ward are supplied from a class of men
who cannot dispute the claims of their credi-
tors, and whose persons have been taken in exe-
cution of judgments justly awarded against them.
That, however, does not alter our objections to
the present practice, which appears to us to
combine the two worst qualities of a law—
cruelty and inefficiency. A debt may be as bad
as a fraud—a debtor may be worse than a swind-
ler or a thief ; but the law, in the first instance,
treats them all alike. Though it must be ad-
mitted that a debtor may be innocent or crimi-
nal, according to circumstances, the law hur-
ries them all equally to gaol as criminals. The po-
licy of the law should enforce the obligations
of honesty, its practice often inflicts penalties on
misfortune. The law intends to secure the cre-
ditor in the payment of his debt, or in compen-
sation for his loss, and no more ; but its powers
are often perverted to the gratification of male-
volent passions. It professes to give the honest
money-lender or tradesman an equivalent for his
property ; but it often confers on revengeful
usurers their " pound of flesh." It cannot,
therefore, be " a terror to evil-doers," when it
attacks equally misfortune and fraud, and con-
founds in one common mass the wretched and
the wicked, the industrious and the spendthrift,
the calamity-struck pauper and the profligate
swindler. Could the English creditor convert
his debtor into a slave as among some ancient
nations, or make him work in the prison for his
benefit, there might be some justification of the
present practice of confinement for debt. But
the inefficiency of the law in obtaining satisfac-
tion for the creditor is on a par with its needless
severity on the debtor. In looking over the lists
of insolvents who have obtained their discharge
under the present Insolvent Act from 1820 to
1828, we find the numbers as follows :—ln
1821, the first year of its operation, there were
discharged under its provisions, 5,290 ; in 1822,
4,955 ; in 1823, 4,241 ; in 1824, 3,593 ; in
1825, 3,665 ; in 1826, 4,681 ; in 1827, 4,868 ;
and in 1828, 3,799. We have not any fur-
ther returns at hand at present ; but we should
suppose that the last three years would exhibit
little variety. Thus, with the exception of two
years of comparative prosperity (1824 and
1825), and the kind of " gaol delivery" of 1821,
the numbers hare little varied, and would probably
have been equally great had the right of perpe-
tual imprisonment been still maintained. Now
what were the sums recovered from the estates of
this numerous body ? We cannot, for the want
of the necessary returns, state it for each of the
above years ; but we find from a Parliamentary
paper, printed in March, 1829, that for the two
anterior years of 1827 and 1828, the amount of
monies paid into Court on account of these
estates was exactly 19,2641. 19s. 2d. ; being for
the year 1827, 9,627/. 17s. 7d., and for 1828,
9,6371. 3s. 7d.! The debt contracted by these
prisoners was above a million sterling ; and here
we have a pittance of only a few thousand pounds
recovered from the wreck—not of their fortunes,
for they probably had none, but—of those of
heir credulous, and perhaps over-reaching dupes.
We ask only one plain question on this state-
ment, and with that question, which we shall
allow all shopkeepers, retail dealers, and trades-
men to answer for themselves, we must conclude
our observations for the present. We ask, then,
—Could less than the sums above-mentioned
have been recovered had imprisonment for debt
never existed ? or, rather, would not infinitely
more have been saved or recovered if credi-
tors had been depril ed of this unequal infliction
or cruel remedy?-7inzes.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES.

SIR,-Through the medium of your paper, permit me
to ask yourself and those learned in the law, if it be pos-
sible for a person confined in this prison under an execu-
don to he permitted to see his wife, who is now dying?
I am detained at the suit of one plaintiff only, whose at-
torney has consented in writing for me to go and see my
wife, in the custody of the keeper cr one of his deputies,
and an undertaking to bring no action against the keeper
or the sheriff, provided I return again within the walls of
the prison. Mr. Barrett'. humanity would induce him
to comply with the request, but conceives that if any de-
tainer were lodged against me while out in his custody, it '
would be considered an escape, and the Sheriff rendered
liable. Perhaps you or some of the learned profession
will be kind enough to give a decided opinion on this point
upon what may be considered good authority. What ren-
ders this case peculiarly hard is, that I have been in cus-
tody nearly seven months, during the whole of which time
my wife has been confined to her bed seriously iii ; and when
first taken into custody I had eight executions on my pre-
mises and against my person, amounting together to about
500/. A friend is called upon to effect an arrangement
by way of compromise, which is agreed to by the whole
Jf the judgment creditors, and upwards of 4501. is lodged
in this friend's hands, for the purpose of settling the above '
eight executions, of which 4501. is more than sufficient to
discharge the whole. In the course of three weeks six of
the executions are settled, and the friend promises me from
time to time that he will settle the other two, so that I
shall be restated to the bosom of my unhappy family.
After holding out these fair promises for about five month,
lie at length sends in an account of disbursements, and
then becomes a prisoner in the King's Bench prison. The
following are some of the charges of this faithful friend.
s. d.
Expenses, man in possession, and sale day 0 9 6
Sundry expenses prior to sale
Stamps for bills and portages...... 1 5 0
Expenses with A and B.
Expenses from the Bth of June to the :39th of July 3 L.' 0
Sixty days' incessant application to arrange and compro-
mise with creditors, examining accounts, attending
him to collect debts, and other important matters, at
least six hours every day, at Os. &I per hour, ',the
Court allows 55.)
Commission on 1500/. amount of A.'s claim on B, as se-
__

-- ...... .
cured by deed of assignment, 21 per cent 37 Ifl 0
Mr. - bill of costa
Mr. - bill of costs ... ... 25 7 0