The Sun.
London, England, 1818-10-31 00:00:00

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1818

STRAND THEATRE, THE SANS PAREIL.
THIS present SATUitIiAY, Oct. 31, will be
presented, an entire New Farcical Barletta, with New
Music, Dresses, and Scenery, called

- -
BACHELORS' MISERIES.
Principal Characters—Mr, Meredith, Mr. Gcnersal, Mr,
-J. Jdnei; Me. Slader, Mrs. Daly, and Miss Garcia.

After which, a New Pastoral Ballet, entitled
KISS IN THE RING!
Principal Dancers and Characters—Mr. John Jones and
Miss Harrison (from the King's Theatre).
- -

The whole to conclude with (loth Time these 3 Yearsl, the
admired Naval Burletta, written by Miss Scott, called
THE INDIAN HUNTERS !
Nelson (a Midshipman), by Miss Scott.
'IV On Monday next will be performed (first time) an
entire new Burletta, called LIE UPON LIE; or, The Two
Spanish Valets! —when the Indian Hunters will be withdrawn.
MISS SCOTT—As several Ladies of the name of
Scott have appeared, and are still performing in the various
Theatres of the Metropolis, and different parts of the King-
dom, the Proprietor of the Sans Pareil, to prevent mistakes,
begs leave .to inform the Public, Miss Scott, of the Sans
Pareil, has never yet appeared in any other Theatre ; neither
is she at all related to persons of that name now performing
elsewhere.

Doors open at Half-past Five,And begin at Half-past six.—
Box, 45.; Pit, 25.; Gallery, Is. Second Price at Half-past
Eight.—Places to he taken of Mr. Stuck, at the Box-Office of
the Theatre, from Ten till Fonr.

THIRTY THOUSAND POUNDS for the FIRST PRIZE.
BISH, Stock-broker and Contractor for the
Lottery, reminds his best Friends, the Public, of the
near approach of the Drawing the STATE LOTTERY, as it.
commences the

TWENTY- FOURTH OF NEXT MONTH,
When the First Prize drawn will, in addition, be further

entitled to ,C. 30,000, consequently may be
A PRIZE OF SIXTY THOUSAND POUNDS !!!
The Scheme consists of t 4,000 Tickets, containing Four
Prizes of k.2o,oooConsols. and various other Capitals, all to
be paid in Sterling Money
In the last Lottery Contract BISH sold (as usual) Capi-
tals exceeding in number and amount those sold by any
other Ottice-keeper.
Tickets and Shares ate selling at the Contractor's Offices,
4, Cornhill, and 9, Charing-Cross, London, and by his
Agents in England, Ireland, and Scotland.—Schemes gratis.
*** Bank, India, South-Sea, 5 per Cents. 4 per Cent.
Consols. Reduced, Oinnimn, India Bonds, Exchequer Bills,
and all kinds of Government Securities, bought and sold by
Commission.

The Prices of Stocks are affixed, hourly, against BISH's
Office, id Cuthhill, by which the Public cau see the fluctua-
tions.

PUBLICATIONS.

FOR THE NEW YEAR.
Just published.
FIE STUDENT'S JOURNAL, Arranged,
Printed, and Ruled, for receiving an Account of every
Day's Employment for the space of One Year. With an In-
dex and Appendix. In post Bvo. half-bound in red morocco,
price 4s. 6d.

" I propose from this day to keep an exact Journal of my
Actions and Studies, both to assist my memory, and to accus-
tom Me to Set a due value On my time.

Introdoction to Mr. Gibbon's Journal.
The Private Diary: formed on the Plan of the Student's
Journal, for general use. Half-bound in blue morocco,
,ce 4s. 6d.

The' Literary Diary; or, Complete Common-place Book ;
with on Explanation, and an Alphabet of two Letters on a
Leaf,poit 410, ruled throughout, and half-bound in morocco,
price tes7

FOR THE SUN.

THE BEAUTIES OF SHAKSPEAR.—No. 111.

This man of all men has certainly shaken the
heart more than ever man shook a spear. He is
neither didactic, nor preceptive. Imitative he
may be; but then his copies are originals, and
his images living figures. When we hear his ac-
tors speak, we forget the repre•ent alive of real-
lity, and are brought into company with those,
as it were, who are in the charnel houses of the
dead, as if they were living. Who can read the
following without having the senses moved ?
There is a tide in the affairs of men,
Which taken at the flood leads on to fortune:
Omitted, all the voyage of their lives
Is bound in shallows, and in miseries. Julius Caesar.
Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once.
Who steals my purse steals trash, 'tis
Something, nothing, 'twas mine, 'tis his,
And has been slave to thousands ;
But he that filches from me i»y good name,
Robs me of that which not enriches him,
• And makes me poor indeed !
He that is rohh'd, not wanting what is stolen.
Let him not know it, and he's not rt:bb'd at all.
Thus, Indian like, religious in my error,
I adore the son that looks upon his worshipper,
But knows ot hint no more. lirinter', Tule
The best of rest is sleep,
And that thou oft provuk'st, yet grossly fear'st
Thy death, which is no more ;
Happy thou art not,
For what thou hast not, still thou strive'st to get,
And what thou has't forgettest ;
If thou art rich, thou at t poor;
For like an ass whose back wit ingots bends,
Thou bear'st thy heavy riches but a journey.
And death unloadeth thee. illeasurejiir Measure.
Aye ! but to die, and go we know not where,
' To lie in cold obstruction and to rut,
This sensible warm motion to become
A kneeded clod, and the delighted spirit
To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside
In thrilling regions of thick ribb'd ice,
To be imprison'd in the viewless winds,
And blown with restless violence about
The pendant world ;-----
'Ti, too learrible,-
The weariest and most loathed life
That age, ache, penury, imprisonment,
Can lay on nature, is a paradice
To what we fear of death.
Reason thus with life,
If I do loose thee, I do loose a thing
That none but fools do crave.
A breath thou art, servile to all
The skyey influences ;
That do this habitation hourly afflict;
Thou art death's fool,
For hint thou labor'st by thy flight to shun,
And yet run'st towards hint still.
The sense of death is most in apprehension,
And the poor beetle that we tread upon
I n corporal sufferance feels a pang as great
As when a giant falls.

Othello.

TASTE.

INSOLVENT DEBTORS' ACT.

FOR THE SUN.
MR. EDITOR,—In replying to the observations
of INDocTus, grounded on the detail of exempli-
fied abuses under the Insolvent Act, 1 cannot help
lamenting that the cases be has instanced are but
two drops in the Ocean, compared to the nome-
runs evils tinder the Act, which are felt and com-
plained of privately,- but seldom meet the public eye.
The conduct of a debtor who is in custody, and
becomes a claimant on fallacious grounds, can only
be punished by additional debt and imprisonment.
The increase of this debt will arise from the pro-
ceedings he has improperly caused by an unfound-
ed and unsupported claim, and being a gross in-
justice to his real creditor, may be visited by in-
creased confinement. The defendant, in the case
alluded to by INDOCTUS, is entitled to move for
judgment as in the case of a nonsuit, and the cost
incidental thereto, as well as the cots before in-
curred, must attach on the debtor already in
custody. And as against him I know no other
remedy, no imprisonment will afford retribution
under such circumstances. Bid I strongly incline
to believe that the person who has advised such
nefarious conduct is amenable to the Court out
of which the process issued, and which process
has been greatly abused if such adviser he an'
Attorney of the Court. I further incline to be-
lieve that this conduct must have been excited or
Instigated by one of those persons designated
AGENTS of the Insolvent Court, which, for the
honour of the legal profession, ought to be ex-
plained, both for the purpose of shielding the body
of practitioners from a general imputation, or at-
taching the odium to the individual who merits it.
I trust, therefore, INDOCTUS will satisfy your.
Readers further in these respects, stating the par-
, ticulats of incitement to such procedure, and the
results to the parties concerned, as far as be is
therewith acquainted, not doubting that the Public
will applaud his correct disclosure.
As to the other case, being that of a PRISONER
by ELECTION, I fear no remedy can be found,
unless he be liable to the Bankrupt Laws, or is in
execution under 3001., in either of which cases
his property is attainable by law. And I must en-
tertain a hope that the foresight of the Legisla-
ture will not be wanting to provide against similar
abuses in future, by giving a power, in cases of
execution for debt, hereafter to comPEL a restitu-
tion of means, whatever may be the extent of the
debt for which the prisoner is confined, unless
indeed such debtor is subject to the laws relating
to bankrupts.
INDOCTUS will contribute greatly to public in-
formation by continuing to detail abuses which
may come to his individual knowledge, and I doubt
not, from the manifestation of his honest motives
already displayed, he will be sedulous to continue
the exposition, by which means the Public will
perceive the pernicious designs of debtors ; and
an illustration of existing defects may possibly lead
to wholesome amendments from the deliberative
Councils of the Nation. .
With respect to the remedies which I promised,

[PRICE SE.VENPENCE:

to suggest, I be leave to offer the outlines briefly
and with submission
It might be well in all cases, after execution for
debt, to give the creditor a power of comPuLsoaT
process to attain a surrender of the debtor's means,
under certain limits and regulations. And if, in
addition thereto, an extension of the Bankrupt Laws
could be made to embrace such debtors as are not

within the pale at present, I consider that
OPTIONAL IMPRISONMENT would be considerably
checked, and FRAUD in many cases might be ob-
viated.
Without considerable alterations and improve-
ments, the operation of the Insolvent Act must
continue baneful and injurious ;`unproductive of
the ends it professes to accomplish, and leading to
mischiefs in►nreasureable and destructive, as daily
itxperience too amply affirms. Such Act ougl t,
in my view of its effects, to be repealed, or& Es
such defects or resulting evils can !►e cured by tl
combined efforts.of the Legislative Body ; and to
meet those defects, investigation seems iudis.
pensible.
With reference to some objections to the Act,
there is one circumstance attending its adminis-
tration► which has induced complaint, and that
is, the appointment of ONB CommisstoNert to
preside over all the Cases and give Judgment with-
out appeal.
It is not for me to decide upon the policy of
vesting in any individual the deciion of all Cases,
but I am credibly informed that it was originally
proposed that there should be an appeal to a
Judge out of each Court from whence the process
issued whereon commitment followed, and, there-
fore, it may be doubted whether it is a vise insti-
tution which would leave to any ONE PERSON,
even of the most honourable and upright mind to
guide him in his decrees, or to constitute a Judge
from whose possible errors there is no appeal,
and who consequently has the sole determination
in all cases in administering of the functions with
which he is entrusted.

From the proposition already alluded to for the
appeal from such decision, and-from the circum-
stance of three Barristers having been appointed
heretofore for granting release to Insolvents un-
der a distinct Act, it appears that the exercise of
an uncontrouled power has been deemed too lunch
for any individual of the most enlightened mind,
but subject to the infirmities of human nature,
and therefore unequal to public dispensation in
matters of such importance to the community as
the present Act assuredly is.
This want of Appeal, amongst other objections
to the Act, has been very properly urged against
the original constitution of the Court, and has,
therefore, been a subject of general animadver-
sion and regret.

There are several weighty objections to
the internal machinery of the Court, which
do not immediately meet the public eye, but
which, 1 , trust, will be seen on farther le-
gislative inquiry. It is worthy of remark,
that the Committee of the House of Lorth, iu

1809, proposed a Jury of twelve persons to deter-
mine in cases between honesty and fraud, and I may
venture to assert, that if such an institution was
nu appendage to the Court in peculiar cases, the
public would be much more reconciled to tile de-
cisions, than they are likely to be under the sole
judgment of the most upright individual, unassisted
by that CONSTITUTIONAL PALLADIUM.

Withont pretending to inquire why those es-
sential parts of the Bill, the Appeal and Trial by
Jury, were omitted, but allowing that great
praise is due to those who framed the measure
from humane motives, and for the purpose of
rescuing the meritorious but unfortunate debtor
from a prison, it may be questioned whether the
Act, FROM DEFECTIVE MACHINERY, HAS NOT BEEN
A RECEIPT FOR FRAUD AND INIQUITY, UNDER VA-

RIOUS SHAPES, TO TRIUMPH OVER HONEST CAE-
DULITY AND FAIR DEALING; and it would be de-
sirable to see ale MACHINERY better adapted to its
end.

Experience, I fear, will go strongly to justify
this conclusion, THAT FOR ONE GENUINE OBJECT OF
COMPASSION relieved by the Act, there is at least
half-a-dozen ►vho, by its provisions, have tri-
ump_hed in their unprincipled designs upon THEIR.
HONEST CREDITORS, partly from the causes herein
assigned, and from others already detailed in your
columns,-(Plus ultra.)

SCRUTAI OR.

P. S. I noticed, with pleasure, in your last that
the Staunch Pittite is recognised as a Correspondent
on this important theme, and I congratulate hitn
self anti the Public on the possession of that men-
tal vigour, which I hope to see again applied
through the medium► of your useful Journal.

VALUABLE DISCOVERY.—A few clays since one
of the packets trading between Brighton and
Dieppe, arrived at the port of Shoreham from
Dieppe, with a cargo of eggs, onions, chesnuts,
&c. several of which goods were carefully packed
in cases, and to the eye every thing appeared
perfectly regular and correct but unfortunately,
in removing one of the cases, it . by some unfore-
seen accident tell and burst, when a partition in
the case split, and out popped a piece of plate
glass : this led to suspicion on the part of the
Officers of the Revenue, who immediately caused
strict search to be made in every case : when, to
their sin prise, the greatest part of the partitions
were found to be hollow, and contained a variety
of prohibited articles, such 83 silks, gloves, plate
glass, &c. It need not be said the consequence
was, the cargo has been seized, and will, no
doubt, prove a better speculation to the Officers
of the Revenue than to the owners of the goods.
This is another (out of the numerous cases that
dal!), oeenr),sntlicient proof that there is nothin4.
got by smuggling in the end, however slyly it
may be carricd