442 Abolition of Imprisonment for Debt. [APRIL, 



intend to pay, or who do pay for what they purchase, are suffering from 

 them. Do we not know by experience, that tradesmen charge extra 

 prices for risks, and calculate for bad debts ? If so, the honest pay for 

 the fraudulent. The inducements, therefore, to give credit, if of a 

 tyrannous nature, should not be countenanced by the law ; if they 

 were not, men would only trust those in whom they could confide, or 

 where the extraordinary gain was tantamount to the dangers from fraud 

 and misfortunes. If it be said, that this would stop the current of 

 necessary credit, we ask have we one bankrupt less, because he is not (if 

 an honest man) imprisoned because his creditor cannot confine him 

 three or four months ? They fear not perjury here, although the 

 temptations are necessarily much greater ; and, seriously, has any in- 

 jurious diminution of credit taken place on account of the bankrupt laws ? 

 If the abolition of this protection decrease the facilities of getting any 

 credit at all, it will be credit of an injurious or fraudulent description. 

 The poor and the dishonest alone will feel the hardship : perhaps they 

 may be stimulated to useful exertion, when they are no longer tempted 

 to indulge in luxuries, for which they can have no reasonable hope of 

 ever being able to pay, but which they have not the moral courage to 

 refuse. 



Men are still found much too ready to give credit, which is a great 

 evil. We think that any law which would diminish the facility of 

 getting into debt, would be generally beneficial. There would neces- 

 sarily be less waste of property, fewer losses to the honest, and more 

 industry, with less extravagance among that portion of society whose chief 

 endeavours now are to live upon the labours of the industrious. >1 oot 



Tradesmen frequently trust with considerable risk, upon the strength 

 of this power of imprisoning, and the exorbitant profits to be made 

 thereby; and they are often in the end, allowing for all losses, great gainers 

 in this gambling traffic. By this custom all honest debtors are imposed 

 on by being compelled to contribute towards paying for bad debts. 

 Remove the cause of this practice, and the honest portion of the com- 

 munity will in future pay only for what they positively get. 



Active tradesmen wellknow whom to trust, and where to risk; let them 

 abide by the consequences of too venturous or too avaricious attempts at 

 gain. The caution of the tradesman will induce carefulness on the part of 

 the customer, who will purchase at a cheaper rate, where there is no 

 extraordinary risk ; and nothing but good must result from giving 

 credit only where there is substance or likelihood. Caution will prevent 

 an endless waste of property, and incalculable misery on all sides. But 

 creditors who contend that insolvents of all denominations merit punish- 

 ment, should be informed, that in England imprisonment for debt is not 

 awarded by law as a punishment, though it comes to the same thing, 

 and produces all the evils of which we complain. It is an awful pro- 

 crastination of justice alone, which compels a man to remain incarce- 

 rated several months before his cause can be heard, till an inefficient 

 tribunal brings up his hour ; but the poor insolvent during this time has 

 lost his employment, is degraded and quite ruined. He could not before 

 his imprisonment pay his debts, perhaps he could scarcely support him- 

 self; can shutting him up within the walls of a prison improve his cir- 

 cumstances ? But suppose he has a wife and family a circumstance 

 not very uncommon with a poor man the injury does not stop here ; 

 consider the consequences which follow upon his imprisonment. His 



