prefume to give the whole body of the legislature; he must have reflected that his feasonable advice, about conciliatory measures with the Americans at leaft, is quite out of feafon.-Actum eft de re republica! In plain English, it is all over, either with us or them, if not with both. We shall therefore pafs over all this writer has faid, (and yet he has faid fome things not amifs) about America.

Again, the precipitancy of his zeal is fhewn by the very title he has given the next divifion of his fubject." An Act of Perpetual Infolvency !". Heaven forbid! He means, furely, what our attorneys would call " a Perpetual Act of Infolvency," a ceffio bonorum on the part of the debtor, and a compulfory acquital on the part of his creditors; conformable to the cuftom of all chriftian countries, in which the principles of humanity, equity, and the civil law prevail.

In this country, of a piece with the rest of its police, nobody fuffers fo little by infolvency as a rafcally infolvent, and nobody fo much as an honeft infolvent debtor. Hence it is that, taking advantage of the bankrupt-acts, an artful hypocrite, or a daring cheat repeatedly becomes infolvent, till at length he is found able to drive on a capital bufinefs on immenfe credit, and to retire from trade with an independent fortune. The reverfe of the picture is an honeft, humble, and therefore meanspirited abject wretch; who, on his first failure, falls into that abyfs of ruin, from which the undifcriminating hand of public juftice, in a country like this, hardly ever relieves him.It is with propriety the writer objects against individuals being allowed (as in the cafe of debt and no other) to do himself justice, or rather to exercife his cruelty, on the perfon fuppofed to have offended him.

"Let, fays he, the creditor make his appeal-What fays he more, than the old story: that money is his due; goods have been delivered; taxes are heavy; he had a fum to make up; his wife must be maintained; times are hard, and the creature, whofe body he has purchased, must lie defenceless, in a place of confinement, which of all others is the dearest, (a fecond inftance of legislative wisdom) till the account is difcharged. Such is the language, of little authority. Legislation has put power into his hand, and his heart is paltry enough to enjoy it. But what, after all, is, for the most part, his triumph? Why, truly this He has the poor, wretched perfon, at his command. He can literally fay to him, Thus far, fellow, shalt thou go, and no farther. Your liberty is mine, and I will limit it to the verge of fo many feet. What a privilege to a Chriftian! How foothing to his heart! What an honour to his character!-Would I then, (fays the fons of trade, ever ftricklers for their prerogative) fap the credit of the nation, or have the debtor go totally uncontrouled? Neither-But I would have credit in a great many cafes restrained, because that restriction, would infinitely decrease the number of debtors. I am aware, that in fome points, credit is the very support of commerce. In others, it is an encouragement to every fubterfuge and fraud; every whim of abfurdity; and every caprice of foppery. We live, gentlemen, you are aware, in the moft credulous country upon earth: with all his boafted folidity, felf-love, and intelligence, an English tradefman is the eafieft fool of artifice imaginable. Although every news-paper accommodates

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accommodates him with a caution; though every friend affords him a hint and every brother of the bufinefs, is a pathetic example, to point out his danger, he is ftill the obftinate dupe of appearance; and repofes an unbounded confidence in the promifes of every fhewy ftranger. It is the general rule to lodge all the blame upon the debtor: but this, is only because his fpirit is bent to the earth by obligation: and there is fomething in the nature of dependence, that ties the tongue of oratory itfeif. Another great and good reafon for this, is,' becaufe in fact, the intriguing clafs of tradefinen all hang together: and it is not undiverting, to obferve the wonderful fimilarity in their fentiments, on the article of demand. In the liberal fcience of dunning, and threatening, there is indeed as far as I have obferved, little variation. They are all, or moftly, in one prevailing key of complaint-very forry to put a man into jail, but very much refolved to keep him there, as long as the laws permit. It is true, that they ftand in the field of argument, upon the most advantageous ground; the prifoner is fare, and therefore the creditor tells the flory his own way; consequently, till the matter comes before a court of justice, and even there, circumftances are not always enough examined, the poor jail-bird is the burthen of mechanic reprobation, among all the connections of the creditor, who has very often the impudence to call a man the groffett names, merely because he has been reduced to little uncomfortable thifts, which, by the bye, it is not two to one, his own affifting villainies, have not brought about. But this almost digrefling, I beg permiflion, gentlemen, more nicely to join the thread. A man, however acquainted with life, and the manners of this country, knows very well, where the error ought to be very frequently to be divided. Let us, in the firft place, look cautioufly into the tricks of thofe tradefinen, who are particularly concerned in the equipment of the human body; those who fit one man to figure before another, viz. taylors, merchants, mantua-makers, milliners, &c. &c. are there greater mifchiefs than fome of thefe in the whole community? Do they not furnish fharpers, rakes, minors, prostitutes, &c. &c. &c. with the most coftly goods of their fhops, and wealth of their warehoufes? Do not hundreds of them at leaft, know the conduct, and characters, of these fort of customers?-True, but they trust it seems upon the hope of being paid, within fuch a term of years, and charging accordingly, can afford to lie fo long out of their money.-Fie upon it! Alas! Gentlemen, are not the promises of many a noble family brought, by these means, to utter deftruction? commonly to a jail-not in-frequently to the gallows, by fellows, who upon the chance of the customer s reaching one and twenty, or furviving the parent, abfolutely force finery into their hands, and compel them into credit. There is a period, in human life, at which external fplendour is almoft irrefiitible.-Decoration, is the first point that feizes the ftripling upon his first coming to the metropolis: his acquaintances foon introduce him to men who will humour his paffion; in confequence of this, he is dreffed, in all the trim of talte; and, as he is told, nay, as he fees it is not elegant to be feen twice together in the fame fuit, he orders all the luxurious varieties of the wardrobe; and, in this manner, while his induttrious father is perhaps anxiously denying

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denying himself a coat, that he may not break in upon the reserve, which he has made for his child, the child is privily in arrears with the taylor, to the amount of half his fortune.

The prefent age is, likewife, you know, gentlemen, diftinguished by a fociety of wretches, to the bane of our youth, and the difgrace of our country, known by the fpecious appellation of Brokers, an affociation, by whofe means young gentlemen are enabled to exhaust their eftates many years before they come into poffeffion. This anticipation of their inheritance, this clandeftine method of felling their birthrights, is now fo fashionable a matter, that the advertisements which announce it to the public, bring a very considerable fum into the ftamp office. Perfons difpofed to fell, may, we are told, always depend upon dispatch and fecrecy; fo that a divine may barter for his church preferment, an annuitant truck for his life, and a widow traffic for her jointure, without any body being the wiser, that is, they may be all cozened, without any perfon's being made a party to laugh at them. This, I confefs is fome confolation; for ri- dicule is fuch an addition to ruin, as no dupe can bear. But it does not take from the fcandal of the practice; for, befides this way of effecting the deftruction of young people, and of making the difpofal of every comfortable property ealy, it tends immediately to all other mifchiefs. When the spendthrift has ftripped himfelf to the laft guinea, and in the courfe of a voluptuous profafion, has acquired an habit of expence, what, gentlemen, must be the confequence? The deficiencies of the purfe, will often be fupplied by the piftol; and when that refource fails, a man of fpirit frequently finds a refource from the horror of his reflections, by tying the halter round his own neck at best-this brokerage bufinefs produces much neceflity, flings a young fellow upon expedients, and in the progrefs of fhifts, induces him to borrow and run in debt wherever he is able. Hence, arifes alfo, yearly, a prodigious number of prifoners.-But what fhall we fay of the times before us, when we contemplate the known fact of forcing thofe women, who have lost their innocence, to lofe alfo their liberty? How many wretches are there in this town, who urge the unfortunate, to buy every fhewy bauble, and glittering gewgaw, till having her once within their power, her perfon is at their command? and when her beauty is tarnished in their fervice, or lofes its accustomed price, they can be at laft gratified by throwing her into a prifon, and there fuffer her to pafs the refidue of a life, which anxiety and difeafe have rendered unferviceable."

The cafe of fuch perfons, as are described by this writer, undoubtedly calls for commiferation, but as fummum jus fumma injuria, as juftice unless tempered by humanity often degenerates into cruelty, fo the indulgence of humanity, in a fingle inftance, unless corrected by juftice, would often prove more cruel, by its confequences, in a thoufand. Not that we imagine the motives of humanity acting merely as fuch, have much influence among men of Law. They may poffibly creep fometimes into our courts with fome of the jury, but we believe they are hardly ever voluntarily introduced, or given an opportunity of ftealing in, under countenance or connivance of the long robe or its adherents. We the more readily país this cenfure, as in

the

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the cafe before us, the principles of juftice feem as little attended to as the motives of humanity. The imprisonment of an infolvent debtor at the will of his creditors, in a country where the giving credit is voluntary in the creditor, and the incurring a debt is not criminal in the eye of the law, is a folecifm in civil polity. It is, indeed, inconfiflent as unjuft, under a government that admits imprisonment in criminal cafes to be a punishment, and to wipe off, in a few months, both the fcandal and the crime of impofture, perjury, and even pederafty while a debtor, perhaps an honeft one (not that our wife lawgivers make any difference in this cafe between the honeft man and the villain) shall be suffered to pine in penury for weeks, months, YEARS, without paying off the leaft item from the score of his credi tors' demands *A late plea against a goal-delivery of infolvent debtors, is that our goals are full of cheats, fwindlers, and smugglers, who even carry on their artful impoftures and depredations on the public, by the help of their accomplices, even while they themselves are confined within the walls of a prifon. But this is fo far from being a plaufible plea for keeping fuch perfons confined, as mere debtors, that it urges the neceffity of making a diftinction between fraud and misfortune; of more feverely punishing the guilty, and alleviating the chattisement of the innocent.

A writer, of more pith of declamation than the prefent, hath expatiated on the present fubject in a manner, we cannot refrain, on this occafion, from tranfcribing.

"I am afraid, fays he, that those who are best acquainted with the ftate of our prifons, will confefs that my conjecture is too near the truth, when I fuppofe that the corrosion of refentment, the heavinefs of forrow, the corruption of confined air, the want of exercise, and fometimes of food, the contagion of diseases from which there is no retreat, and the feverity of tyrants against whom there can be no refiftance, and all the complicated horrors of a prifon, put an end every year to the life of one in four of those that are fhut up from the common comforts of human life."

"The mifery of gaols, fays the fame writer, is not half their evil; they are filled with every corruption which poverty and wickedness can generate between them; with all the fhameless and profligate enormities that can be produced by the impudence of ignominy, the rage of want, and the malignity of defpair, In a prifon the awe of the publick eye is loft, and the power of the law is fpent; there are

And yet it is many years ago, fince a fage of the law, in a fit of humanity that infected, however, none of his brethren, declared from the bench, that he thought a year's imprifonment adequate to a debt of a thousand pounds.The fiat jylitia of the lawyers quibbled off this declaration, by objecting that, though the debtor might fuffer a thousand pound's worth of mortification within the time limited, the creditor had not reaped a thousand pound's worth of fatisfaction; and that justice should be equally done to both parties.

If it were neceffary, however, that every infolvent debtor fhould be mortified till his creditor be fatisfied, our prifons would be the grave of more of our fellow-creas tures than they are. At the fame time, if creditors in general were to declare of what kind and degree is the fatisfaction they get by confining debtors in prifon, we believe prudence and policy would join justice and humanity, to throw open the prifon doors for all its infolvents, not accufed, and liable to be convicted of fraud and imposture.

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few fears, there are no blushes. The lewd inflame the lewd the audacious harden the audacious. Every one fortifies himself as he can against his own fenfibility, endeavours to practife on others the arts which are practifed on himself, and gains the kindefs of his affociates by fimilitude of manners.

Thus fome fink anidft their mifery, and others furvive only to propagate villainy. It may be hoped that our lawgivers will at length take away from us this power of ftarving and depraving one another: But, if there be any reafon why this inveterate evil should not be removed in our age, which true policy has enlightened beyond any former time, let thofe, whofe writings form the opinions and the practices of their contemporaries, endeavour to transfer the reproach of fuch imprisonment from the debtor to the creditor, till univerfal infamy fhall pursue the wretch, whofe wantonnefs of power, or revenge of difappointment. condemns another to torture and to ruin; till he fhall be hunted through the world as an enemy to man, and find in riches no fhelter from contempt.

"Surely, he whofe debtor has perifhed in prifon, though he may acquit himself of deliberate murder, muft at least have his mind clouded with difcontent, when he confiders how much another has fuffered from him; when he thinks on the wife bewailing her hufband, or the children begging the bread which their father would have earned. If there are any made so obdurate by avarice or cruelty, as to revolve these confequences without dread or pity, I must leave them to be awakened by fome other power, for I write only fo human beings."

Setting humanity entirely afide, the cui bono, of unlimited imprifonment for debt, recurs every moment to every man of commonfense.

"The end of all civil regulations, fays the writer above quoted, is to fecure private happiness from private malignity; to keep indi viduals from the power of one another; but this end is apparently neglected, when a man, irritated with lofs, is allowed to be the judge of his own caufe, and to affign the punishment of his own pain; when the diftinction between guilt and unhappiness, between cafualty and design, is intrufted to eyes blind with intereft, to understandings depraved by refentment.

Since poverty is punished amongst us as a crime, it ought at leaft to be treated with the fame lenity as other crimes; the offender ought not to languish at the will of him whom he has offended, but to be allowed fome appeal to the juftice of his country. There can be no reason, why any debtor fhould be imprisoned, but that he may be compelled to payment; and a term fhould therefore be fixed, in which the creditor fhould exhibit his accufation of concealed property. If fuch property can be difcovered, let it be given to the creditor; if the charge is not offered, or cannot be proved, let the prifoner be difmiffed.

Those who made the laws, have apparently fuppofed, that every deficiency of payment is the crime of the debtor. But the truth is, that the creditor alway's fhares the act, and often more than fhares the guilt of improper truft. It feldem happens that any man imprifons

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