The Sun.
London, England, 1818-11-04 00:00:00

/LIE .icr ukl ISSOLVENCY.

FOR TO SUN.

II7x.EL rroß,—lf CoirespOndents in the
Te'mple and Wine-office-court, who have not
written so much on this Act as they have against
the Agents, will reduce their complaints into a
short Memorial, with as rigid adherence to truth
as if deposed on oath, I am sure, on laying them
before the Comtnissioner, they will find the hand
of correction not idle, wheresoeverit can operate,
and thence de-serve well of the public.
Hitherto they ha're struck the Act no death
blow, which, though well designed, its super-
structure is too heavy for it base, and, like Bow
Church, ought to be pulled down. It confounds
the orders of Architecture. The Corinthian is
buried under the DOric, whose weight br'eak's in
pieces the Gothic; leaving the masons to throw
the broken stones at the heads Ordebtors an-d Cre-
ditors.

General censure of general charaeterS amounts
to little. If debtors were to.be discharged by the
Magistrates in Sessions, as fornierly, no petty tri-
bunal, with Countel and Agents, would be want-
ed. The Magistrates received nothing, no
Counsel was necessary, and only a legitimate At-
torney, whose fees were small. two thousand
pounds a year to a CoMmissioner in a petty
Court, with initiating Advocates and hungry
Agents, are frightful odds against the i;oor
debtors under the existing Statute.
Your Correspondent the "Old Barrister," without
going into minutia, has said enough to induce its
repeal in tato, or amendment in part. Ile has
opened a useful history of the laws of arrests In
civil cases, and made their perversion hideous,
as %veil in the Courts above as below. He has af-
forded considerable information, and did not intend
to say more on this obooXions act, which has cut
out so flinch work for plunder, to be drawn from
the impoverished pockets of the distressed in a
jail or those who have sent them there.
The attempt of your Temple and Wine-office-
court Correspondents is highly praise-worthy ;
but their communications its 'fn SUN, which
gives light and warmth to every thing, cannot
answer their benign purpose;' neither can you or
the public. The evil doings of hangers on in
what is too much dignified by the name of a
Court, cannot be repressed by anonymous writ-
ings against nameless persons. They should be
exposed where power is lodged to hear both
sides, and do justice between them. I said as
much in this liberal Journal some time ago, under
my-present signature, and recommended an appli-
cation to the Commissioner without any sweeping
condemnation of anybody atilt!, under the bead:of
an exceptionable Act, which is no otherwise the
cause than as it throws poor prisoners for debt,
sighing for liberty, into the hands of mercenary
blockheads, who, like butchers by their cattle.;
entice theM to their slaughter-houses, in order to
be slain.

Under present circumstances, bow cab your
Correspondents, of no real name, say that the
evil doers they attack may not recriminate, and
call them brother Agents in the Court they repro-
bate ; who from envy and ill-will scatter their
spite against those who possibly act better than
themselves, which nothing would effectually pre-
vent, but their true signatures, or leaving them
with the candid Editor, as I have done mine.* To
remonstrate, under feigned ones, is to fire in the
dark. The powder either flashes in the pan, or
wants sufficient strength. This I say with no
disrespect to any one, heartily wishing, from
what 1 h'ave seen and heard, that there was no
such place as an Insolvent Court, except in Ses-
sions, where none but regular bred certificated
Attornies are permitted to act.
It is due, nevertheless, to one of these Corres-
pondents to allow, that in the latter part_ of his
last letter he has faced the Act in question with
candour, and not altogether without force, which
must be admitted 'by
Your humble Servant,
A SERJEANT AT LAW.
'lt' We think it necessary to *tate that both of the Writers to
whom our Correspondent alludes, have made themselves
known to the Editor.