The Nevada journal., 1857-02-13
MIR. DAvIDsoN,s ATrAcHMENF BILL.

from this county, has introduced Dill
which processes to be an amendment to
the attachment law, but which would
be, virtually, a repeal Of all there is In
it valuable. 1t provides that an attach
ment shall be issued only in cases OF
fraud such as when the debtor is
about to abscond, or has fraudulently
contracted the debt, or is about to fraud
ulently convey his property, or fraudu-
lently conceals himself, &c. &c. 1t also
provides, that when one creditor COM
mences, the rest must all follow suit, or
be forever barred. These cases of gross
fraud, to which creditor can make af
fidavit, seldom occur and so far as or
dinary business transactions are con-
cerned, lhe bill would operate as an en-
tire abolition Of this effective remedy.
Mr.. Davidson's bill, however, is a fair
embodiment of the notions entertained
by good many persons, in relation to
this subject.
1t has been amusing to notice the diff
ficulties which the opponents of our
present attachment law have encoun-
tered, in endeavoring to get their crude
ideas into the shape of an act. Among
all the various papers that have talked
about the matter, not one has attempted
to be specific in its proposed amend
ments. 1t was taken for granted that
something ought to be done, but nobody
knew exactly what. The Solons of the
legislature could not be trusted, and, as
a final resort, the San Francisco papers
called upon the merchants to get togeth-
er, and agree upon plan. So the
merchants of that city met in solemn
conclave talked about business " lib
erality passed some resolutions as
general as the proposition that "what-
ever is right is right and adjourned.
The first tangible thing that came from
all this travail, was that labyrinth of
absurdities introduced by senator Shaw;
and now we have this bill of Mr.. David
son, embracing many of the same feat
ures, but better put together than its
predecessor.
We have a suggestion to make to
these legal reformers. Why don't they
propose to abolish executions Or, do
they know that executions would fol-
low judgments if there were no attach
ments ! And, by the way, why don't
they abolish judgments? 1t is " barba-
rous" to create liens on ones property,
and sell it merely to pay ones debts.
1t is cruel to make man "shell out "
for what he buys. Society is gotten up
upon wrong principles. Let us abolish
every thing, and fall back into the
blissful condition of universal won't-pay-
ativeness. 1t is all right for creditor
to trust debtor, but it is ridiculous to
expect a debtor to trust a creditor with
an attachment law on the statute book.
A STATE WITHOUT DEBT. GA
church without bishop, and state
without a king, " have been quite COM
mon occurrences within the last half
century but state without debt, is,
indeed, an anomaly. Texas, if her
State Controller is to be believed, is now
in that blissful condition. In his late
report, the Controller describes her f.
nances as follows: "The state is out
Of debt, with surplus of over a million
of dollars in the treasury-at 5 per
cent, school fund of ten millions-and
an unappropriated public domain, esti-
mated aG one hundred millions of acres,
which, if judiciously used, would sub
serve all the purposes of internal i'm
provements; and tax, lighter than is
imposed on any other people, would be
adequate to all the wants of the govern
ment. 4" 1t is possible that somewhere
about the year A. d. 1000, spiritual
telegraph may inform us that the fnan-
ces of California are in the same con-
dition.
LEE & BENEFITS Circus. = This
circus will soon pay us visit, with the
best company of performers that has
ever been in the State. The proprie-
tors have had an agent in the east, who
has succeeded in procuring, for the com
ing season, some of the best talent in
the United States, and Europe. Messrs.
Lee & Bennett inform US that among
others, they have secured the services
of Mr. Hiram w. Franklin, the renowned
general performer; Mr.. Fisher, the
noted bareback rider, and slack-rope
performer; James Hernandez, single-act