The Sun.
London, England, 1844-06-24 00:00:00

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IMPRISONMENT FOR DEBT.
(mom • CORRESPONDENT.)
Under this vague expression, which means as much
as another expression in common use —" Poverty is
no crime "—and both meaning nothing, much errone-
ous conduct is extenuated4and much evil-doing is per-
petrated with impunity. A man, true enough, is not
to be imprisoned for debt any more than he is to be
hanged for killing a man, but both are to be punished
according to the animus which caused the acts. And
he who has gained credit—he who has been entrusted
with his neighbour's goods or his money, having given
his distinct promise to restore that withiwhich he has
been trusted—who has been believed on his solemn
promise, and then does not restore according to his
promise, is yet not to be punished, if by real, clearly
defined misfortune, he be unable so to do; but if he
become unable so to do, from voluntary acts, either
before he made the promise, oi• from voluntary acts
after he made the promise, or knowing at the time that
he should be unable to fulfil his promise, then he is
punishment-worthy, for he has voluntarily injuredhis
neighbour, he has done what in him lies to destroy
confidence between man and man, and is so far
a public enemy. His degree of wrong will depend
upon the class of voluntary acts he has committed : he
may have been idle, and as a mechanic has neglected
his work, or has worked only four days a-week in-
stead of six, whereas he agreed to do the contrary,
for, in every act of credit-taking, it
is most distinctly implied, that a man shall
put himself in a situation and continue in it, by
which lie will alone be able to fulfil his promise ;
or, as a tradesman, or merchant, or banker,
he most distinctly, yet tacitly, promises that he will
use all due diligence, and observe good, industrious
business habits, for if he does not do all this he volun-
tarily places himself so as t• be unable to keep his pro-
mise. Or as a gentleman, a clergyman, or nobleman
when he borrows money, or gets wine and other luxu-
ries on credit, he distinctly promises that he is in and
will pursue such a course as alone, will enable him to
keep his engagement; and thus ex uno disce °nines, in
every case of credit, idleness and extravagance, or
voluntary acts of the least criminal character, which.
render a man unable to keep his word, and which vo-
Fantasy acts he also promises ►out to do. Hence be
who becomes insolvent by reason of his idleness aid
extravagance has done an act and acts which are in-
jurious to the public, and he deserves to be punished.
Still more so, when it is considered that he who took
his solemn promise is quite unable to know and to
watch whether he does pursue the requisite course of
conduct. lie who lent the money on the goods can
only know how he can give the credit which is asked ;
he can but very imperfectly know how his debtor car,
take the credit ; that is the matter for the debtor
alone to know. All this seems so simply clear,
that it were a waste of words—it were crush-
ing a gnat on a wheel, to make such a
parade of reasoning, were it not that quite
the contrary is spoken by many men about town,
who take their cue from the talk of others in high
places, commissioner of insolvency courts, legislators,
law lords, and still more, from acts of Partament, for
all these authorities declare the contrary, and say? no
man should be imprisoned, who cannot pay his delata,.
except by reason of fraud; whereas, in a commercial
country like this, where millions of treasure are and
must be every hour passing on credit among the people,
where it is absolutely indispensable that men should
believe one another, with just as much confidence, as
they go to the Exchange, believing one another that
there is no intention of assassination ; men must ba
punished for every cause of voluntary insolvency.
And this would be the case,lif it were not for the pes-
tiferous influence of class legislation. If those who
were exposed to these dangers made the laws, they
would be protected ; but the laws are made by a
privileged body, who care not for the people, a pri-
vileged body, who as landlords, law lords, tithe eat-
ers, pensioners, and annuitants, have the debts due to
themselves secured by almost irresistible powers,
bringing in many instances (as in rents, tithes, and
taxes) all the machinery they themselves have pecu-
liarly devised, to obtain their claims, and then,
having so done, they " do a bit of humanity ;"
indulge ,in the luxury of a little cheap bene-
volence by crying out against the unprotected cre-
ditor, who is seeking to get payment of his debt
out of the small wreck that these privileged law-
makers have left, and after 20s. in the pound has been
got on their claims. There would be a little decency
in their outcry in favour of poor unfortunate insol-
vents, if they would consent to make a hodge-podge
with all the creditors ; but no, the tax-gatherercomes
first, and takes away the bed from under the partu-
rient wife, in order to get the money wherewith to
pay the 5,000/. a-year pension to Lord Brougham,
and then this cosmopolitan patriot talks loudly and in-
dignantly about the cruelty of taking the husband to
gaol at the suit of the doctor, who has been called at •
midnight hour, to minister his art to the sufferer,
" trusting" to payment at some future and more con-
venient tunes Like the young French Prince who
saw his domestic shedding tears of heart-moving mi-
sery, said, " Why, what do you cry for, I have had
my breakfast ?" So his Lordship, whose pension is fur-
nished by the poor woman's bed, cries out to the doc-
tor who trusted, " Why do you pursue the poor hus-
band thus ? you can't have more of the cat than is in
her skin ; if the poor family can't pay, what can you
get by imprisonment. I've got my five thousand &-
year !_rhe subject admits of interminable illustra-
tion,
and yet the argument itself is in a nutshell.
Rather than the whole nation should be dislocated
in its mercantile relations, and dishonesty and roguery
taught and encouraged by law, it were much better
to give the privileged classes the further privilege re-
specting debt which they claim for others, but with
the object of our protection. It is not that they care
for the poor insolvent, that they are demoralising the
whole nation ; but it is that they, of the Lords and
Commons, and the pious divines of Oxford and Cam-
bridge, may eat ices and drink champagne, and not
be troubled for payment thereof—that they should
thus, to use a homely phrase, set their neighbour's
house on fire to roast their own eggs. Let them be-
ware—there is but one step between public and pri-
vate dishonesty. The lax laws of the United States,
copied from the mother country, destroyed the cha-
racter of their traders and merchants, and that they,
having found it convenient not to pay their private
debts, they declared they would not pay their public
debts. As with America, so will it be with England,
if this destructive amateur law-making be allowed its
course.