Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1870-01-27
Abolition of ImprisOnment for Debt
The Jails Opened and the Prison.
ers Set Free.

ers Set Free.
LONDON, January 3, 1870.
On the Ist of January the new bank
rupt law, which abolished imprisonment
for debt in England, except in cases Of
County Court judgments for small sums,
came into operation, and there was, in
consequence, a general Jail delivery
from all the debtors prisons and "spong-
ing houses" in the metropolis. II has
long been conceded that the practice of
locking up o man who owes money,
which he cannot pay, and keeping him
for years in prison like felon, is as bru-
tai as it is senseless, and yet the stub
born opposition of Euglishmen to inno-
vation has kept alive until now one of
the most cruel and absurd laws that ever
disgrsced the statute book of any coun-
try. Within the last twenty years, it is
true, many notifications of the impris-
onment for debt law have been made,
aHd there has been less power than there
was prior to that time to throw debtor
into jail and let him rot there; but still
the abuses have been numerous, and the
opening of the prison doors has turned
loose upon the world a score or two of
miserable wretches, who, for no crime
but poverty, have grown old and rusty in
Jail, and rendered unfit ever again to
earn their living by labor.
The new law took effect on the lst Of
January, and hence at twelve o'clock at
night on the last day of the old year the
prisoners were virtually free, although q
judges order for their release might have
been required before they were actually
set at liberty. The governor of White
Cross prison, the largest place of deten-
ton in London, determined to waive this
Formally, and notified the prisoners that
all who pleased were at liberty to leave
the Jail at midnight of the 3lst Decem
Der, and, ont of ninety-four inmates,
thirty-one availed themselves of the
privilege These poor creatures longed
so ardeutly for liberty that they packed
their few goods together as early as four
or five o'clock in the afternoon, and
counted the seconds until the hour of
their release arrived, while in many cases
their families, women and children, waited
for them outside the gates, and watched
as anxiously the slow flight of time. 1t
is sad commentary upon the old law
that sixty-three of the prisoners begged
to be allowed to remain in the jail, on the
plea mostly that they had no homes to
60 to.
As the new law does not cover judg-
ments obtained in county courts, over
forty prisoners still remained in White
Cross street, but their sentences are only
for stipulated periods. 1t is much com
planned Of that the new law does not
reach this poorer class of debtors, and
there seems to be great inequality of
justice in setting the large dsbtor abso-
lutely free and still holding these short
terms of imprisonment over the small
debtor. This is especially the case
since, under the County Court act, the
Judges have very arbitrary power, and is
actually possible that man who owes a
few shillings may be imprisoned, on and
CT, for years unless be is able to pay his
creditor Say that a poor workman
owes grocery bill of thirty shillings and
finds himself unable to settle it, he is
sued before the County Court, q jujg-
meat is obtained, and an order is made
by the Judge that the debtor pay five or
seven shillings a week. This the
debtor is unable to 90, when he
is arrested aud committed TO Jail for
forty days. The incarceration does not
discharge the liablity-itis is for contempt
ofthe Judges order, and the week after
his Liberation the debtor can again be
arrested, and go on ad in1fnitum OF
course forty days Imprisonment throws
a laborer or mechanic out Of work, and
be has less chance of paying the debt
after be Genes out Of Jail than be had
before. 10 the meantime bis family beg
or starve, or become q charge upon the |
parish, and the end is recklessness, des-
pair and ruin for thousands who might |
have remained steady workmen and sup
ported their families in comparative
comfort, but for the working Of this
Law.
It is to be hoped that the reform now
will speedily reach that most
unfortunate class-the County Court
Judgment debtors. ea
Miss Emma James, = graduate Of Del
,Esre, Ohio, Of the class Of 1850, has just
received State Educational Diploma at
San Francisco, Californis, the first ever
there upon g newcomer, aud
be only one given among 6fty-tvo can
lidates Mss James has been secured as