the rest of mankind. There are also others, who would be guilty of extortion to any extent, and who rob and plunder the necessitous, and do every thing that is bad. I shall therefore endeavour, presently, to point out to the reader their various manœuvres.

"The best of these officers, from the nature of their daily habits, are not gifted with any superfluity of feeling. If they were, indeed, they would be very unfit for their situation. Although I have known numerous instances of their having been saddled with the debt and costs, in consequence of the lenity they have shown the defendant.”

We left the defendant just taken to the spunging-house; in order to show into what sort of hands he had got. We now proceed to show the species of treatment which is there bestowed upon him. Mr. Pearce shall again be our instructive guide.

"The defendant being safely lodged in a spunging-house, begins to reflect upon his situation, and presently wishes to see the master of the house, who is always an officer, and who then receives the warrant from the officer bringing him there, and becomes responsible to him for the defendant; that is, between themselves: both of course are still responsible to the sheriff. This officer, however, is not to be found, though he is perhaps within, or waiting at the public house opposite to see what sort of a customer he has. The defendant is told by the people of the house, he must apply to the officer who brought him there, and who is now gone away, or he must send in the names of his bail regularly to the office. The master of the house is, however, at last seen, perhaps so late in the day that nothing can be done till the next morning. The defendant then states what he wants, and how he purposes getting out. There are various ways; perhaps he proposes to send for his attorney to give an undertaking for him, or gives him names of bail, and, if he likes either, so as to be perfectly satisfied, he will discharge him on the undertaking being given, or the bail-bond executed, upon taking what he calls his regular fees; but if the undertaking or the bail are not of the first order, he does not like the undertaking, nor does he know the bail, though they live next door to him and are unexceptionable. They must be enquired after, and the law allows him twenty-four hours to give his answer. In fact, for the regular fee only, every thing must be as good as in London. They will not say they have any objection; but they move slow. A greater fee, perhaps, may tempt them; when that point is clearly ascertained, whether their usual fees or larger are taken, every thing goes on pleasantly. The more actions that come out on the search the better, as the more fees; and the man gets out in an instant. When a bail-bond is to be executed, however, it frequently happens, though the bail are excepted, and every thing arranged with the officer as to his fees, that one bail is out of town, and will not return till the next day; the other perhaps sends word, that he must consult a friend, or his wife; in which case, he is sure never to go near the place; so that,

in fact, though a man can get good bail, yet, from little circumstances, he will be detained there two, three, or four days before it is completed.

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Suppose the defendant is arrested for 15l. no less a fee is ever taken than one guinea by the officer, as his regular civility-fee, and 5s. man and search. But that is not sufficient; he tells the defendant, that another officer arrested him, and that he cannot turn him out without a fee for him, though no responsibility whatever attaches upon that officer, the officer at the spunging-house having taken it off his shoulders; nor has he shown the defendant the smallest accommodation, perhaps he has taken him out of his bed and carried him there without allowing him even time to button the knees of his breeches.

"This is an extortion and oppression in every point of view, although at present treated only as two regular fees, instead of one. But that is not the worst of the grievance, for the defendant is always taken off to the spunging-house. The officer who arrested him, unless something very tempting is offered by the defendant, would rather have his regular fee and no responsibility.

"It must however be complied with, and why? Because the offi cer is a customer of his, and locks up, as the term is, at his house; and if he lets a man out, without taking care of his brother officer's fees, the next customer goes elsewhere. The charge of the house, the searches, the letters, and messengers, and what defendant has spent in the house, amount to another pound.

"I will now point out what the defendant pays. The writ, as is very commonly the case in term-time, is returnable the next day, or the same day of arrest, in which case, the expences increase daily, like an overwhelming torrent, and the defendant is compelled to use all his exertion, the next day, to pay the debt and costs, which are as follow:

"It frequently happens, that three parties are sued upon the same bill of exchange; but it is every day's practice to sue two of them; and, for the truth of this assertion, I might refer to the Judge's bailbooks, and for the costs, to those allowed by the public officer of the court. In that case, there are 141. more costs, should the other defendant happen to be arrested; if not, there are only the costs of the writ or writs, from three to seven guineas, as the case may be. If the debt and costs are not paid, rules are given to return the writs, and

to compel the defendant to put in and justify bail. If the first is not put in within four days, an assignment is taken of the bail-bond, if good; the sheriff is then relinquished, (which is the law in that case,) and three separate actions are brought upon the bail-bond, returnable perhaps the next day, and declarations, rules to plead, &c. are all given over again. The defendant therefore has no remedy. He must, by making any sacrifices, either pay the money, or render himself to a prison. In the latter case, the plaintiff loses his debt and all costs, while the defendant also must take care to keep a few notes in his pocket, for it will cost him near 10l. by the time that he is safely lodged in the King's Bench prison. This, it may be said, is very hard : but how much harder does it fall upon the poor man, who has no money, but who, for want of it, is under the necessity of going at once to Newgate!

Upon an average there are 1000 prisoners a year brought to Newgate for debt.

"The system therefore, in either way, as I have before stated, is cruelty itself. I will not, however, enlarge further on the particulars of the system here laid down, as it must be disgusting and tiresome to the reader; but I shall merely state, that it frequently happens that, upon a debt of this description, costs to the amount of 100l. are run up in a short space of time, and, in the end, these costs must fall on somebody. I think I have particularized sufficiently to show that it is high time some alteration should take place."

We are persuaded that this representation needs no commentary. Here is a case of a man who is unable to pay 157. and who, in one day, has the debt doubled upon him, by costs. Observe too that this enormous exaction arises upon one action alone. When additional actions grow out of the bailing system, which so naturally and frequently they do, the oppression is proportionally increased.

"I now proceed," says Mr. Pearce," to describe the spunginghouse, which I consider not less material than the rest. With respect to the charges, they have been occasionally regulated by the sheriffs themselves. It is unnecessary, however, to particularize them, as very little attention is paid to that regulation.

"Sir Richard Phillips, in his sheriffalty, took infinite pains in regulating all the departments of the sheriffs, and these among the rest; but such regulations soon drop. With respect to the spunging-houses, indeed, it would not be be worth any man's while to keep one, unless he got considerably more from his customer than the law allows him. They will be paid in some way or other.

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If a man eats and drinks, (and if he does not, or pay for his meals, they will soon send him off either to Newgate or the Compter,) it will cost him about a pound a day. This includes the different et ceteras he may haye to pay for, but not wine or spirits; and

as to attendance in these places, a prisoner can hardly get any body to move even by paying for it, much less without.

"Should a man wish for a room to himself, or other accommodations, he in all probability can have it, but he must pay handsomely for it.

"A man having passed a gloomy day, towards eleven o'clock the lock-up time comes. The man servant of the house, perhaps the bailiff's follower, comes in, to show the prisoner to his apartments, first having brought in his slate, to collect round, what could not in the course of the day be collected, in ready money. Such as the house, bed, &c. He is then shown to his bed, where one, two, or three others are in the same room, looking shy at each other, for fear of their pockets. The bed room door is double locked, and the keys carried down stairs. Let the reader figure to himself the feelings of a man, a stranger to such a place, when the debt is a just one. But let him consider the hardship of a man's case, when the debt is an unjust one, or where the defendant has fair ground for disputing its justice. Illness, fire, his wife and family at home in the greatest distress, and all his business at a stand. Newgate is a heaven to it, did not the feelings revolt at the idea. In the morning, about nine, the keys are brought up stairs, and the room door is unlocked. Perhaps the people of the house are up at six, but the prisoners are less trouble to them in bed; they do not want their guests till breakfast, the first meal, and that is not ready till nine. The business goes on till night comes round again and notwithstanding this description and this ceremony, most of the houses are of late much improved from the great influx of business, and people will sometimes stay, and particularly in the long vacation, though most of them are in very confined situations, two, three, or four months, in the hope of getting out, and frequently at last rendered to the King's Bench or Fleet Prisons; and in that case the lock-up house keeper, having drained his customer of all his ready money, and given him a little credit, sometimes gets a bad debt himself. The writ of habeas corpus coming, the defendant must go: he parts from his friends with fair promises, but before he has been in the King's Bench a week, the debt is as desperate a one as the plaintiff's. It is far the preferable mode, unless a man sees his way pretty clear, to take this step immediately, for he can do little in his affairs whilst in confinement in a place of this sort."

:

The following is one, out of several cases, adduced by Mr. Pearce as specimens of the operation of this blessed portion of the law.

"A tradesman having a 101. bill returned to him as an indorser, he put it into his attorney's hands (a near relation of his) to recover the money. The man who paid it him was good, but he had no wish to trouble him. The attorney immediately sued out bailable process

against two of the indorsers, tradesmen in the city, and both were arrested; he filed a bill against a third indorser, who was an attorney. The parties all went to him together, to see if it was possible to settle the business; the costs however appeared so enormous that nothing could be done: it therefore took its course. The attorney gave a cognovit or confession for the debt, and paid six guineas for his costs. ---Bail not being justified within the eight days in one of the actions, he took an assignment of the bail-bond, and brought three separate actions against the bail to the sheriff; and, bail not being justified in due time, in the other action he sent an attachment in that action into the sheriff's office, for 341. The plaintiff now having recovered his debt, he proceeded in the other three actions for costs only; and the defendant, in order to save his bail, paid him 201. more, by way of compromise. The expenses run up upon this 107. bill, in the course of a very short time, including those of the defendant, were at least from 70l. to 100%.”

We cite the following case as an illustration of the mischief when the demand is unjust, and the defendant in reality owes not the sum, for the pretended debt of which he is arrested, and not unfrequently ruined.

"A man invited another to dine with him at an inn, where he was staying in London. After dinner, whilst they were drinking their wine, an officer was introduced, and the visitor arrested for 700l. and upwards, at the suit of the person who invited him. The circumstances were these: the plaintiff and defendant were old friends, and had many money transactions together, but no account had been settled or any acknowledgment given on either side. The defendant expostulated at the hardship of the treatment, and begged, at all events, it might be withdrawn, as it would be his inevitable ruin, and expressed his readiness to settle accounts, and that, if any thing was due, he would pay it as soon as he could. The plaintiff, however, said the law must take its course, and that he could not interfere. The defendant was put into a coach and taken off to a spunging-house, with directions to the officer, that he must take nothing but a good bail-bond: he remained there two days, for want of bail. At the expiration of that time, a habeas corpus was issued, to take him to the King's Bench prison. A friend, however, happened to go to the spunging-house on other business; and, on hearing the hardship of the case, and that the defendant must inevitably, if he went to prison, give up a situation, which he then held, of 200l. a year, and having a wife and five children to support, he with some difficulty got him out, upon paying the officer and the house expenses, which came to about 10l., and within the time allowed, after the return of the writ, he was enabled to justify his bail, in the usual way. This, however, was done with the greatest difficulty, so much so, that an appointment was actually made for him to surrender to the King's Bench prison.