1823.] On the Evil Effects 



To the Editor of the Monthly/ Magazine. 



SIR, 



IN making: the following remarks, I 

 am actuated by no other feeling 

 than that of alleviating, or rather at- 

 tempting to alleviate, one of the many 

 miseries that unavoidably fall on our 

 poor fellow-creatures ; I mean the 

 mode adopted very frequently by their 

 landlords, in recovering rent by sei- 

 zure. I am not about to impugn tlie 

 propriety of landlords having such a 

 l)Ower, but the mode they use, wiiich I 

 do think is not quile as good as it 

 might be; and I have been led to this 

 conclusion by my experience, as a com- 

 missioner of the Court of Requests for 

 the lower division of Westminster, 

 where poor wretches are very often 

 summoned for the balance of rent 

 remaining due, after every particle of 

 furniture has been taken from them, 

 which has been found insufficient to 

 meet the demand : indeed, 1 am sorry 

 to say, that the vindictive feelings ex- 

 hibited in that court, but too clearly 

 prove the general want of any thing 

 like a humane desire to assist each 

 other, being implanted in the breasts of 

 the lower classes, of whom I mean 

 principally to speak. 



Numberlesspersonsinthismetropolis 

 make a competent living by letting out 

 miserable houses, in apartments, unfur- 

 nished, — thus making a sort of certainty 

 of getting their rent ; and, though the 

 poor should never be allowed to run in 

 debt, (for it is cruelty, and not kind- 

 ness, to let them do so,) these people 

 are never very anxious about their rent 

 whfle fnrnitnre enough remains to 

 seize on for the amount. But, as soon 

 as they think it has reached a sum that 

 the goods will be sufficient to cover, 

 pounce comes the broker, and carries 

 tiiem all off', — and the succeeding jjart 

 of the transaction is what I think 

 might be mended very materially. 

 Another broker is called in, who sets a 

 value on the whole lot, without parti- 

 cularizing the separate values, but 

 lumping the whole ; these two notables 

 then ni&ke out a statement, on a half- 

 crown stamp, and swear to the truth 

 of it before the parish constable, who, I 

 am sorry to say, is generally a hired 

 substitute, and not a man at all likely 

 to investigate the matter, or assist the 

 overwhelmed and ruined lodger. All 

 this is dime, however, by Act of Par- 

 liament, and has probably been enacted 

 by the legislature with the very best 

 intentions ; but that it is •grossly 



MoNTiiir M\(i. No. 379. 



of Seizures for Rent. 105 



abused, I am quite satisfied. — But to 

 proceed; when the goods have been 

 thus valued, and the above document 

 sworn to, the furniture is first offered, 

 at whatever the amount may be, to the 

 landlord ; and, if he does not take 

 them, the valuing broker has them at 

 the same price ; now, in this, there is 

 but too much temptation for wrong- 

 doing : the parties, directly interested, 

 are tliose who place the value on the 

 articles, and are afterwards to take 

 them at that value ; and the only man 

 of authority who has to do with it, is 

 the constable who administers the oath; 

 and to whom the shilling (which Ipio- 

 sume he takes,) is generally an object, 

 and to whom also the gin or porter 

 drank on these occasions is also an 

 object. 



As soon as all this is accom- 

 plished, if it turns out that the goods 

 are valued at less than the amount of 

 the rent, which is too frequently the 

 case, the destitute lodger is proceeded 

 against for the remainder in the Court 

 of Requests, as the cheapest ; and the 

 stamped document of valuation is 

 handed in to the commissioners, who 

 are bound to receive it as evidence of 

 the real value, though I have seen 

 several of these, where it was apparent 

 that the parties who had signed them 

 could scarcely write their names. 



The last case that I recolleci, came 

 before the Court about three or four 

 weeks ago, in which the furniture of 

 an entire house, consisting certainly of 

 but four rooms, had been seized by a 

 broker, who acted as agent for some 

 one who had a number of such houses 

 in a poor neighbourhood ; the above- 

 described mode of valuing had been 

 resorted to, and a surprising number 

 of things, (not perhaps of much real 

 value, except to the poor housekeeper,) 

 had been estimated at lOl , the rent 

 amounting to 12/. odd ; Ihe remaining 

 debt was then reduced, to bring it 

 within the jurisdiction of the court, to 

 1/. 19*. lid. and the poor fellow im- 

 mediately summoned for that amount. 

 The commissioners present, with my- 

 self, thought the case a very hard one ; 

 and 4t was stated to the broker, that 

 the totally destitute state of the de- 

 fendant was such as to claim his 

 mercy; but the broker would have 

 "his bond," mercy was out of the 

 question, and all the commissioners 

 could do was to give the longest pos- 

 sible time allowed by the rubs of tho 

 court for the payment of the debt. 

 V The 



