The Sun.
London, England, 1818-10-09 00:00:00

tdR THE SUN.

OF INIPRISONMENT FOR DEBT, AND THE ACT OF
INSOLVENCY.

LETTER 1V

In the coarse of time and events we see not I
only the wisdom of our ancestors in protecting
personal liberty within the limits of Magna
Cliarta, but the progressive invasion of it by the
-disuse of real security ; the original writ, the at-
taehMent i and disttingas ; and the substitution of
the capicis, which supposes them to have had their
respective operation, and then the abuse of the
Act of 13. Charles 11. which was attempted to be
corrected by the Act of the 12 Geo. 1., and which,
hough it required an affidavit of the Debt, and
he•sum to be endorsed on the Writ before a De-
'etidaut shall be held to bail, is frequently ern-
for the purpose of oppression and
:oer, which raises an honest indignation in
every good mini, and makes it lament the want
of a law more for the advantage of Debtor and
Creditor.

oye

As the law now is, it is unfriendly to both, by
permitting kt defendant to be imprisoned on the
de pante oath of a complainant ; and it exacts
that bail ►chich nothing bnt his disobedience or
the original mandate induced the Cotun►on Law
Court anciently to require. This often in its
effect is the ruin of the one, and the irreparable
loss of the other.

When the old law Was careful df personal li-
berty, arts, manufactures, and commerce were
almost unknown among the people were
vassals, agriculture and arms were their employ-
ment, and citil injuries were of course less in
number and quantity than since time great influx
of trade, and the consequent accumulation of
wealth. As these have agg•andized the indus-
trious, they have euhrged credit, Which is not
reduced to a system ; but left it as arbitrary as it
is unlimited. Among men of business it borders
on enthusiasm among bigots, and they as (Men
give it without a reasonable expectation of its
profitable effect, as the religious visionary
cherishes his hope of eternal joy. The confi-
dence of the former and the superstition of the
latter being nearly related, the one bath increas-
ed iti the expetatiou of earthly gain, the other of
celestial happiness, though the path taken by
both brings them to a sense of their error, and
converts them into sceptics, as well in regard
to the goods of this life, as of that which is to

Certainly credit in a trading country is un-
avoidable. It is coeval with business in its whole-
sale, and commerce abroad, and cannot be
cat tied on without. The evil lucks in its re-
tail, and the consumers of its articles. The
sellers are the lute ; the buyers are the prey: Re-
move the cause anti the effect will cease. Let
credit in the lower walks of business be less in-
definite, and fewer will tall a sacrifice to its temp-
tation, or if checked in its extent by limitation,
let not the imprisonment of the person be the
price and payment. The remedy is worse than the
disease, and occasions more distress and beggary
than peace and profit, until the Laws of Bank-
ruptcy and Insoltency rescue the entangled Debtor
from that thraldom which the corruption of an
arrest would otherwise provide (or him.
To unbounded credit, thus understood, are ow-
ing all the losses of Creditors, and all the suffer-
ings of Debtors. In giving a spur to trade, it is
forced beyond its strength, and ends in alternate
misery and ruin ; while perhaps if credit were
governed by prudential caution, and reposed only
in persons whose characters, COUIIeNIOII3 and cir-
cumstances were respectable, it might he mu-
tually beneficial, and abate, it not lessen, the
measure of loss in human interconrce, which to
prevent in iota is utterly impossiule. To what
else but a thoughtless confidence, and distant
views of ex orbit nut profit, can arise the many sad
instances of wretchedness to be tonml in all Our
prisons, now swelled to the size of palaces, and
yet after all do they ebb and flow with the for-
lorn Debtors, almost with the regularity of the

titles.
The La,vs of Bankruptcy and Insolvency were
made to prevent increasing injuries, regarding as
well the liberty of the Debtor as the advantage
of tie Creditor, but as every man comes not with-
in the former, though he may the latter, no law
will stop the progress of either, unless credit he
confined to those who are excluded the benefit of
the first, and the last are extended only to those
whom accident or real misfortune may have di-
vested of the means to make good their aecoun!s.
Credit among merchanis and traders, domestic
and foreign, which is unavoidable,-forms no part
of what had) been premised. Since the hitroduc-
don of money barter hath proportionally died
away, and coin being the circulating medium, credit
must of course be on the degree of its quantity
and currency. it given only with a view to mu-
owl advantage it would encourage business, in
which the unfortunate would find repose under the
compassion of his brethren.
Poverty arising from profligacy deserves the
punishment it meets with by the siaferer ; but
not indefinite imprisonment as a Debtor, and
doubly severe is it to jumble hankropts and in-
solvents together without distinction. The worth-
less,sharper and the unfortunate Debtopr suffer in
a jail one common lot, and oft are the wicked
released when the innocent and helpless are con-
signed over to the frowns of their merciless
Creditors.
AN OLD BARRISTER, of the Inner Temple.

NIAGARA FALLS.--We learn that a consider-
able part of Table Rock, well known to all the
visitors of this grand natural phenomenon, by
the fine view it afforded of the Falls on the Ca-
nadian side, broke off by its awn weight, during
last Thursday night, and precipitated itself into
the gulph below. The piece broken of we un-
derstand, is about 25 rods long, and from one to
,ix rods wide, comprising the principal pert of
the Table or excavated rock. it may be consi-
dered providential, that the tall of this piece,
which during the summer months has been a great
part of the time covered with visitors, should
Dare happened in the night, without any snpetill.
cult-theta weight, or other kuowu cause, to occa-
sion its-134410, Aug. 25.