The native American., 1840-10-10

The BANKRUPT LAw.-We NAV
smile at the incongrnitv Of the laws ol
Venice, as depicted by Shakespeare, which
so fully recognised the penalty Of the
bond, as to give to Shylock his pound OF
flesh nearest the heart of the unfortunate
debtor--and yet made it an offence con-
fiscating the property ofthe creditor, "who,
by direct or indirect attempt" practised
against the life of the citizen. Are our
bankrupt laws any better? Cannot the
modern Shylock exact the full penalty Of
his bond, and PROSTATE th,. prospects Of
the debtor keep him for life his bonds
man and slave-destroy all his hopes of
Observation-Disclosures down the family cir
cle--carry hopeIessness and dismay to the
6residc, where all before was happiness
and peace-deprive the wife Of support
from the earnings of the husband and
the children of maintenance and educa-
ton from the industry of the father? IN
til borne down by the weight of obligation
which he cannot discharge, he finds a
refuge in the grave. and the wife and
children become burden upon their
friends, tenants of an almshonse, or ont
casts upon society. That this is not an
overcharged picture, or that imagination
has not been called upon to darken the
cocring of every days experience, thou
sands can testify who have visited our
almshouses, and seen there the victims of
a husbands misfortunes or imprudence,
if you please to call it, at an advanced
period Of life, supported by our city's
charitv-our Long Island farms, where
the children of those who were once rich
and affluent, bless the hands which offered
them protection in tender age, and the
means to make their way hereafter in the
world -or our houses of refuge where the
i'll cared for offspring of misfortune or
imprndence is brought under wholesome
restraint, and an opportunity afforded him
to retrace the errors which poverty and
evil communication had induced him to
fall into. Blessed, thrice blessed be every
means of charity and every endeavor at
reformation and cursed, thrice cursed, be
that grasping and hardened spirit Of accu-
mutation which always demands its own
which makes no allowance for misfor-
tune or imprudence, but exacts its pound
of flesh, and exults over his PROSTATE vic
tim-dogging his steps with the fidelity
of a bloodhound watching his exertions
to support family, only to force from him
his small and scanty earnings-and often
waiting until some CLEAN of sunshine had
frightened his path to cover him with
deeper darkness until prosperity had a
gain as it were, presented her cup to his
lin to turn it to bitterness and gall-break-
ing mp some newly built up business, with
an Injunction from that curse of our
State, the Court Of Chancery, forbiddng
him to be honest and industrious-and Of
tentlmes at the suit of some creditor who
least deserved the interference of q court
of Equity and made use of this court of
inqusition to crafty deep feeling OF re-
venge against man, whom he had not
the spirit to meet as man ought to meet
man, but took advantage OF circumstance
to add to the cup Of bitterness which the
creditor was compelled to swallow, not
expecting to derive any pecuniary advan-
tage, but to take his pay, as the expression
Is, in the notification and prostration OF
the victim, and the distress and privation