The Statesman.
London, England, 1823-02-24 00:00:00

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INSOLVENT DEBTORS" ACT.

•*4- r r TO Tall ZDITOR sf TOO•trail2ls3lAN.

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."*,**Osg—Theve sispeate -4 Ise imicirsehnhostr abost • this.
itadikitrit moat 'certainiy is.. There
elosalet seem rifle any jaod reason gini..fai. the repeal
VIVO* At 'to be edvatited is the fact,
4;l4:l4•Wlitilistsri tiggViduals have hiconsit released
.;1041111r risen; by its.copiigtioia in a very short spare of
woubl ask ash- Who wish this Act to be
repealed, whetter thrgliktild like to See more prisons
ereited? • •Whetlser *by would fuel pleasure in seeing
illriattalSilsOftheirfellod'oreatures desponding in prison?
blots say there are such ebristians! but they Cannot be,
tbey must not be gratified in this iestance. The Act
. .
Ina not be repealed-)t maybe aitended, but when can it
be made more severe than it is ?I am of opinion, that it is a
brie antidote to the oppressive spirit of some creditors.
A-great number of *loos who at present have that dis-
position may very wow be glad to avail themselves of
the protection which this act affords. There are very few
solvent persons. Only let the credit of a good many
'bouncing Tradesmen be stopt ; let them come to a
winding and the isitbri of their means would be
-suds, as to prove them Insolvent Debtors. Then should
• ihey not be able to get terms with• their creditors,- but be'
driven to prison, they *will .he glad that tbere is an act
. Which Wilt restore them to Liberty, and to thee families
front a pia-owhere they oever had a right to be put ; un-
less indeed they had tbemselvesunmerci fully driven some
pr or sufferer there previolisly, with a malignant feelini..
Creditors have a right to seek for, and get by reasonable
mean*, that which is justly due to them; but, creditors
have a discretionary. power when thee give credit.
W hen a Tradesman gives credit it is with a view of bene-
- 'Elting himself, and not the person whom he trusts. and
'makes his agent, for snch be becomes. This is a mate-
rial point to he ohierved. lYe do not give credit with a
view of enrichlrigenr debtors, but ourselves. Creditors
'honed then be, captions in, driving a debtor away from
society—away from his family and friends, into a prison;
creditors alcoield by all means endeavour to be cool on
nets owisiors, look well into the circumstances, and be
cautious in deciding to the injury of their fallen debtor.
•He is down, anal it is cowardly then to oppress-1 mean to
say, that debtorslought at all times toexhibit every thing
clearly to their creditors;when it becomes necessary and
proper to do so; and when creditors will give them the
chant e & t oa cr; leut in many casesthey do not;t hey are bent
upon putisiment, and that to brutal excess. The legis-
lature nay surely then interpose; by this ac', it does in
to ne measeredo so.—lt rescues the person from a prison,
s-place that never ought to be thought of, but as a
Oar, of punishment. I sus of opinion, cerminly, tlent
this set mar he amended ; it now allows 201. in value, to
• eV dclatoi, widcle maybe in money ler necessary furniture ;
, eloathing, let.. And in this particular, it seems not to
..'wake the. Irast difference between a debtor with a large
• fainfle, and ore with none at all.—Hereis a serious in-
- tquality, an certainly requires a remedy. Suppose
a deb'or to have a vtife and eight children,
• Tl.e apuarel for those ten persona must be bad indeed if
hr's not uorth the 201. allowed, IVell, there are the 201.
now th•y arefto have -mo other—no bedding, or, in fart,
shy thing sehatever. Suppose there are ten children,
a r.di the doffing amounts to 241 , are some of them to be
stripped and sent out naked? Ido insist that this is a
grins inequality. in truth, lamat a loss to know how
a debtor is to be strictly honest who is driven to prison.
There are great expences; there are prison fees; there
is an attorney to pay;. and, altogether, a man bad need
of in money in his pocket, who is really sure of get-
ting mit without opposition, and in the very shortest
time. Some persons, no doubt, benefit by this Act;
such, for instance, as flash geatlemen, swindlers, and,
gener.clly speaking, the officers in the army, when
allcr.ted to retain their pay, although a tradesmen is
cripped to their very skin. There is one thing io this
Art, ton, which 1 think should be amended, for the sake
or equality. An insolvent debtor' is only free in person,
he still remains liable to leis debt% Now a bankrupt
certainly is also an insol vinr, andice is for ever freed froni
his li:dillies. I think thiti too tigress inegoality. Why
should the one have an astratitage which the other has not ?
1c arother point, I think; an smendenent might be made.
In cases where there is na creditor appointed assignee,
the estate rests in' the provisional assignee ince lays dor-
s/14M. Now lam of opinion, that it would be better
that ills estate should revert, after six or twelVe months,
hack to 'he insolvent, ancl let him niske the best of it, if
' • the creditors do not think it worth their while to atreed
• to it ;or if that was not theease, there should he a col-
. • 'l4'or to loth after the &lacier the Court. I, however,
do think that it would be better 'that it revert to the
debtor; would' rid the Court of a very great louden.
• Should the above remarks-meet-your approval, you will
oblige by the ineertion. '
1 sun yours, very respectfully,
• • February 14, 1823. R.

TUE CAMBRIDGE COUNTY MEETING AND
THE MOE,NI NEE ICHItoNI CLE.
1. TO tps ED! Olt or THE STATESMAN.

gin,—Several friends of tniee Who were present at the
lest Ciimbridgeshtre'meeting. end' who took an active part
• In lti proceedings; harecomplained of the inaccurate. not to
• •• oay.garbted. report which Las been given by the Jlorning
- Meunier of the speeches made on that occasion, and which
Mort, I am sorry to .say,•bas .beeti copied into the
• 'STATESMAN. The'avcrwell' print iples of the Chronicle,
and its devotion to•the maMed interest, ought. I think,
.to render it erremelyrantiOes of exposing itself to the
' 7uniit 'dist int susirlcloir pirtiality on questions in
•which•that interest IS so materially cot.cerned. That
the shotrld be -desiebni of laying before its
'readers the Iteporti or tlid.'procetriings of public meet-
: sings. given by a publication entertaining and warmly de-
"reading opinions diametrically opposed to its own upon
• the prinmpal porataitgitatedinthose meetings, is highly
• immutable to ita•charlceet ;• that It should be able to du
so would be equally creditable to -its opponent. But,
trust I iiiiestified In- Itatitig..that the STATESMAN,
to-the case of thWpriiceediags of the Cambridge meet-
'. Wok, hati carried the desire if -avoiding every imputation
Ise partiality. to a blameable extent. I shall mention
but one instance of onstssion els .tlie'put of the Chroni•
• de, from wide% your readers may form. their own con-
clusions. 1 know from..thr beat authority that Mr. C..
• Mentes, the oroeer-of the Resolutions, in his address to
the al•eting, expressed in the most.marked and wiriest
lerate,his oats iadisidaalobligations.to Mr. Cohbatt, and
also the obligatieos which, he ,conceived, the whole
kingdom to be uoder to that. .Gentleinan, which passage
has not been mentioned, oar has. the most distant alio-
-Mon been made to it by.the Chronicle. •
• I tun: Sj?.. • .
rim humble Servant.
'•Tensple, Feb. 17,1114.1. W. R.
•
• The Right How greederiek John nohinson. the new
ChanCellor of the Exehlguer, was. the second son of the
~ate(end beother of the present) ..Lord Grant.ham, by
Mary imitate, daughter of the Earl of Hardwieke an,
• thOlareltioneas Whip He was born October 30.174.
" • aka *married the yoesioest doughterof the. Isle Earl of
Hirekilighatfisltire,. and niece to the. Downier Macchio.
se,* of Londonderry.

your's,

•
VANDMIDDOE 'COUNTY° •YrYSTING* AND • ".
1. • ' • • /111 L. OUNNiNti.
:1. • • . •I • • - .
—74111111"
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; KDITOI U1P:.711111,,5TAT1F014.N,..
canna understand the reporter of the Monolog
Chronic*: *teen he sap, be total' nith.eliffseulty connect
My observations; for if I. were rightly informed asto,lsia
person, he sat directly under me, and might, I thought,
UM' easily taken down every word. . Hosneverthis may
be; Lars dear thathe is incorrect whew he observes that,
wais••tinterropted by hisses, mixed with some applause;"
W/sioltavottld insinuate that 4 was more opposed than
inapported. But those who do not personally attend a
Cambridge Meeting, cannot understand what cheers and
'kiwi omen in that town. There are two parties there
which 'ate not to be found in other places. Xise hisses
that the advocates of iteforin received, came entirely, as
far as I observed, from the gownsmen, sod the•appluuses
ftom the whole body of the people. In • say owls case,
this was the exact troth as far as I obscene's and 1 men-
tioolny own case in particular, because Mr. Gunning
:afienvards endeavoured to make the peopld believe that
he was snore worthy of their attention and.support than
I was. How far he succeeded in this attempt I .will
uo-
five hereafter. But Mr. Ounoing knoWs that the "ge-
neral fight," of which the reporter speaks, otigioated in
the determination of the people to hear %taloa the subject
of Whim: The opposition fr..ra the gownsosen was so
loud, and so cont uuneed, as to ercite the inipagenee and
indignation of the people. I had proceeded so far-,as to
shew, that genuine Christianity is the cheapest and least
ostentatious system of religion .n• the whole world, not
reeuiring a single penny of expense for any purpose
whatever, but for the support of its poor ; and that as for
the tythes, they were not instituted till 300 years after
the birth of Christ ; and that when they were first insti-
tuted, one third part was applied to the relief of the poor
of the palish, another part to the repair of the churches,
sad the remainder to the support of the priest. And
now, Sir, such a volcano of opposition burst forth, not
from the people, but from the Whigs and the Tories, the
(larch:nen and the Chu-ch-Dissenters, the Mermen and
the Place-him:ere, as hardly ever before assaulted the ears
of man ; while the great mass of freeholders and ioltahit-
ants who. stool below, were pl.ased and delighted with
the voice of truth, which is not often permitted to reach
their ears. Fair play, is all that is wanted in the world ;
underdts single protection truth would soon enlarge it-
self, like the Indian Banyan tree.-1 intended to proceed,
to chew, that as it was deer that tythes did hot originate
in the Christian religion, they must be founded on the
laws of the land, and that those who make the laws, are
permitte i, by the principles of the Constitution, to alter,
modify, or reia.of them, for the benefit of the reople.—
At the earnest request, however, of some gentlemen near
we, lat last cohsented to close my address. I did not
propose to t, injustice to any individual ur corporation.
I spoke in perfect relevancy to the question before the
Me cling, and uttered nothing but oil, truth, history, and
facts, well support and sanction.
. I shell nut suffer the present opportunity to pass with-
out a remarle or two upon what Mr. Gunniug said respect-
ing me.. First, he objected that I was not an inhabotant
of the county; this was very true, but then 1 was, and
am, a FREEIIOLUER of the county, and.consequently as
much entitled to attend the Meeting as Mr, Gunntitg
Such is the meanness to which our Great Whig.
Reformers have recoume, when they find themselves in
want of orgumcnts to defend a bad cause. It was
treatment which Mr. Gobbets received at Hereford
from those whO could not overturn hie fedi and rea-
sonings.
Mr. Gunning then proceeded to say (according to the
report front the Morning Chronicle, and which is, I
think, nearly correct) that lie thought, " it was rather
too bad that Mr. George Fordham, atter having proposed
in his own county tit Hertford certain resolutions, to
which he could scarcely find a seconder, should come
into a strange county seeking that credit from strangers
which had been denied him where he was known."—lt
reminded Min " of an anecdote of a man who went to a
neighbour of his, to *whom be was a perfect stranger, to
borrow money. The Gentleman applied to, said to the
man, am surprised at your impudence, I never saw
your face before." Sir,' said the man, ' that is the rea-
son why I have applied to you, as those who know
my face won't lend use a single shilling.'" Here there
was a laugh, sod I laughed among the rest. ltd let
tut are to whom It best applied ; to me or to Mr. Gunning?
To that part af theabove sentence which states that I could
scarcely find a seconder at Hertford, I reply, that I had
no difficulty whatever ; and though the people of Hertford
did not finally carry my proposittons,it is undeniable that
they approved of them, and (when I recommended them)
received them with the greatest applause.—Their ineen-
sistency is chargeable o.lly upon themselves. They w;11
know better this lime next year. But as to that part of
the anecdote in %ditch I am compared to a mai who ap-
plies to a stranger to borrow money, because those who
knee hint would not lend 1 • a shilling,—how could
that apply to me? The strangers, that is, the Free-
holders ofCambridgeshire,did nut refuse to fetid me money,.
meaning political support ; on the contrary, they anxiously
wished to hear me; they even fought for it ; and by my
assistance, notonly threw out Mr. Maberly's amendment,
'but carried the original resolutiuns almost unanimously.
This did not look like want of credit. On the other head
there stood Mr. (limning in the face of his own county,'
where he said "hie opinions were well known for thirty-
six years," begging, praying., imploring, almost crying
for political credit and confidence from those' who were so
intimately acquainted a ith hint. And whit did the
County say to hint? They said—" %Vc are astonished at
your impudence, and though we have seen your face be-
fore, we won't lend you a single shilling. —Thus the
biter was bit. He mule a looking glass fur use which
%I-Mild only reflect his own beautiful countenance.—l re-
e.-
tnatt ' •

S. ! • :1f

060. FORDHAM. Jon.
P. S. As to the charge of urging the people to attack
he students, it is not true. Attack and defence are
different things. Attack I always disapprove of; but
self defence, is no transgression either in law or religion.
This is what I said to a Gentleman near m•,,, and added
in way of illueration, that if he were to strike me, I
would knock hint down if I could; and all other men
will. ray the same, except a Quaker, a profession to *lsiah
.1 do uot.at present belong.

BOURBON WAR.

•
• •
Ti.t re•ag- • T
Sir A-T gsm th . • -

•
affairs (and who ronsequensly cannot live far from we,)
must Isevelteown.thae my father, another brother, and
two sisters, not pa inegtipp others, ought at least in such ,
a Statement as this, to have been included with my' bro-
ther EDWARD, RIBORk exceptions. it is this. that
above all things elm in .the whole paragraph. shows '
the extreme blackness and. iofernal malignity of th.t,
man's heart who ;Quid. pen .that sicked decl Ara. ion. The
wretch who endeavours to'bold me up to the abhorrence
of mankind, wOnfri ifo("ittow me my father, in own
father,•fair iffy frienchrtirreotripaelon, though it is notori-
ous that he has great affeetiog for lON approves of my
conduct, and.is almost consta.ntly with me, supporting
me in private and inpublielife. I leave this writer to
his own conscience; and 'proceed to observe, that, he
makes a distinctten between me and some of the family,
in order to fix the charge of oppressing the poor exclu-
sively on me "ass disciple of Mr. CORBETT." Here
then I meet ;his writer.Thequeitionnow is, whooppresscs
the poor (both as respects their wages and as it respects
all their rights and property) the disciple of Cobbctt, as
the writer calls me, or those who have " disclaimed " me,
among whom is particularly and justly named Mr. KING
Fuel:mast, of Royston; and Mr. ELIAS and Mr. WI t.-
• LTA BS FOR DHA M. must be added, who live in the parish of
•Sandon with me? This is the trite question, and Ido not
know how it ran be better decided than by applying
to the poor themselves; and not to a part, but to the
whole of the poor of the perish of Sandon, in IMO tbe
above-named three gentlemen have their propert.3..
invite, therefore, the Editors of the Times, or their kr-
formant or agent of any kind to' cone to the parish:ot:
Sandon and examine the poor for themselves, in order to
ascertain the followingrestions : FIRST, who pays the
highest wages, Me disciple of Comm= or those who " dis-
chum" him! Sacasoot, Whose names are l 4 ri,ten (limn
on the Court Rolls of the Lord of the Manor of Sandon,
for committing gross trespasses on the rights and pro-
perty of the Poor? THIRDLY, who has lately put aside
footpaths, to compel the Poor to walk in the lanes and
highways? And, LASTLY, who is most respected by the
poor in general,' myself or those who have disclaimed
ore? These questions, and many others which might
occur, I am willing to leave to be answered by the poor
themselves, as the most direct and " authentic" mode of
deciding the question between the respective parties.
1 require the ihs-rtion e f this and the following letter
from my father, as an act of justice to us both, and
I am, Sir,
• Your' , &c.
Geo. FORMIAM, JUDE.
Sandon, Feb. lath, 1623.

TO TAR EDITOR OF THE TIMM
SIR—As there are two paragraphs in your paper. or
last wee k, fur Monday and Tuesday, which grossly libel
the character of myself and tau sons, respecting our•
treatment of the poor, &e., I request you, for the sake
of justice, and in vindication of yourself, to give me the
names of the anonymous slandere►s aho gave you, or
your reporter; the information contained in them.
Yours', &c.
Oan. FORDIIAM, Seor.
Odsey, near Roysion, 15th Feb. 19.23.

ST. MATTUIAS.—Ifoliday ■t the Public Offices.

fekt 2tatcontait.

MONDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 24, 1823.

There is no change in the apparent intentions of the
French. But, what shall tee do P The GAZETTE of Sa-
turday contains a revocation of the prohibition to export
arms aid ammunition to Spain and the West ladies!—
Now, this is little short of declaring onr wish to, supply
Spain with arms and ammunition. Things cannot re-
main in this state long. This revocation tends to confirm
our speculations of Saturday; and, in short, we know
that a great majority of those who have the thin: pretty
much to their own wishes generally are for war e. for
war, not for the sake of the Spaniards; still less for the
sake of freedom and justice ; but in the hope of seeing
the paper out again, and of paying off Jerusalem in
its OWN COIN ! That is the thing which is at work.
Then, there is another matter: Mr. PeEL's speech, on
the opening of Parliament, was clearly for peace and
against the revolutionists.—Mind that.—Then, mind,
Mr. Putmand Mr. CANNING MUST DIVIDE upon the
Orange Question.—Then, mind, this question must be
decisive as to the predominance of the parties at i•s'ie
and the issue must speedily come. The parties might
agree very well, as to the trestioti of war or peace ; but,
as to the other, they must come to issue.—Now, then,
what we think is, that Mr. CANNING will bring Mr. PEEL
to open conflict and trial of strength, on the war goes-
tion, where the former will certainly be victorious.--
These are our conjectures. Mr. Palm wonld have the
a. vantage, if he were first to push his rival on the ques-
tion of no popery ; aye, in•spite of the GREAT BACK
which the Anti-Orange ponple are said to have ; but, the
landlt,rds so thirst Ar paper to pay off honestly with.
that Mr. CANNING is sure to win, it he make his push on
the side of war.