The Statesman.
London, England, 1815-02-15 00:00:00

-..ottrl any prospect of advantage, that no better
-runty could exist against the immoralities of spend-
thrifii and s‘sita(llers, than this provi+ion of this very
statute.

It appears that, in the first 15 months of its ope-
ration, the new law has relieved from personal duress,
no less than rota THOUSANDS debtors ; that is, 2100
in London, and 1600 in the provinces; the whole
of whose debts, averaging five hundred pound,
amounted to THO MILLIONS. The dividends they
Lave paid have been trifling ; but neither this consi-
deration, nor that of the vast numbers discharged
from confinement, afford any just or valid objection
to the Bill. _ _

If their means had been commensurate with their
debts, they would not have been objects for relief ;
they were in confinement simply because they did
not possess the means of paying their debts. It is
therefore most absurd to object to the Bill, because
the means of those who have been relieved by it,
have borne any Inconsiderable proportion to the
amount of their debts. Rather would it not have
been as cruel as unreasonable, to have persisted in
detaining persons whose means are proved to have
been so inadequate, than blame the instrument
hich has relieved them from the pressure of debts,
whose payment could not have been accelerated by
the imprisonment of the debtors, and by the hopeless
sulv'ings of their families.
The prodigious number reliever), or who remain to
be relieved, are in like manner no evidence against
the justice of the law ; but rather seem to prove at
once its necessity as well as justice. The operation
of twenty-two years' wars on the national industry
--of taxes to support their expences—of paper
money to sustain the taxes—of speculations and ex-
periments in every branch of industry, to obtain a
liting in such times—of monopolies of land, which
have di iven the starving population into towns—and
of depreciated currency, affecting all annuitants and
small incomes, has created a load of private and
domestic suffering, which it would have been faithless
not to have relieved, by abating the severity of the
laws between debtor and creditor. This mass of in.
solvents arising from the foibles of the State, merited
the attention of those for whose errors they have
innocently or wilfully suffered ; though it must be
confessed, that under other circumstances it would
have been more just to have given such a law a pro.
spective operation, and not to have slept so abruptly
between the contracts of debtor and creditor.

It, howler, behoves those creditors who tom-
plain of the early effects of the new law, to state
whether they believe that in any instance their
condition would have been improved if it had
continued in their power indefinitely to detain
their debtor in prison. Unless they con make this
appear, the retrospective operation of the Bill is
no valid objection to it ; and it may be suspected,
that the indulgence of an implacable spirit against
a helpless debtor, is their true ground, rather than
tiny calculation of legitimate advantage to their
own estate. It is notorious that, under the system
of itidetilte imprisonment, not one creditor in
twenty ever obtained a farthing of an imprisoned
debtor ; while he was often fixed with heavy and
ruinous coats, and on the wretched debtor and his
family a load of useless misery was heaped, which
generally terminated his life, attended by circum.
stances that often defied all the powers of the tragic
use !
Are we then to yield to the wishes of harpies of
the law and mistaken creditors, and revive a sys-
tem so pregnant with horrors, so indiscriminate is
its severity, and so inefficient in its operation ? Are
we to outrage every feeling of humanity, and aban-
don every cheek en the indulgence of bad passions,
that cruelty may stand in place of prudence and dis.
cretion among tradesmen ? Is law to be the snare
in which the unwary or incautious are to be can ht
by the speculating and grasping trader, who gives
loose and unguarded credit, trusting that he may
exact, by the torture of imprisoument, from tender-
hearted parents, kind relatives, or sympathising
friends ? Is it not more reasonable that trade should
be carried on at the proper risk of the trader ; and
that it should be his duty scrupulously to ascertain
what, as well as whom, he trusts, or cheerfully sub-
mit to the pitialty of his credulity, and be satisfied
with payment in the property of his creditor, as far
as it goes, and not expect, in part of liquidation,
the blood, hones, and marrow of the victims of his
credulity or avarice ?
It is impertinent in the opposers of this law to
speak of the relief which they say it affords to swin-
dlers. No swindler is or can be enlarged by it. All
fraudulent transactions are excluded from relief by
an express clause. Swindlers continue also as much
as ever ohnotous to the criminal law, and the civil
law as it stood, effected as little relief in the tecovery
of property from swindlers, as is pretended in regard
to this new Bill. Nor does it appear past expe-
rience that swindlers, or any class of swindling cre-
ditors, enjoy an immunity from this Bill. Among the
2400 liberated in London, a large majority were on.
fortunate and unhappy persons, who but for this
statute would have been borne down to their grans by
the oppression of debt swhich they could never pay,
or they must havesuffered imprisonments without any
prospect of relief. Old and young, industrious and
idle, wise and foolish, male and female, virtuous
and vicious, have all stood at, the bar of the court
created by this statute; and, after surmounting the
opposition and cross examinations of their creditors,
have happily been liberated.—l say happily liberated,
even though some score of them might have merited
perpetual imprisonment; for was it not better that
the whole should be liberated, however culpable
some might have been, than that many hundreds of
unfortunates should have been downed to inter-
minable miseries? Are we on this subject to reverse
all the axioms, even of criminal jurispridetice; and
are we to punish ninety.niue who are innocent lest
one guilty should escape?
In a word, then, I conjure the humane and intelli-
gent part of my countrymen to make themselves ac-
(painted with the spirit and the provisions of this fits'
before they suffer themselves to be milled by false
statements amid interested reasonings. They will then,
I persuade myself, hail it as a signal triumph of res-
in and benevolence over the prejudice of oostom, and
.he tyranny of avarice. Among our laWs on the sub-
ject of property, they will find it a ray of sunshine
breaking foto a cavern of darkness. To the weak and
helpless, they will discover that it servos as a guardian

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