1826. ] Debtors. 125 
his former resources and wonted connections, and unable—and too 
probably now, at last, no longer solicitous to recover his ground. , 
And here, by the way, can we fail to recollect that the session 
of 1825 closed, and suffered the law, which elevated the minimum 
of arrest to fifteen pounds, to expire? Yes, and the old law of ten 
pounds, which had not been repealed, only suspended—onl y lay dormant 
it seems, was started again into life and activity by the prying and 
prowling attornies ; and what was the effect? Ten thousand writs, it 
is said, were issued for sums between ten and fifteen pounds, to the 
surprise of the sufferers, and of course to their cost. But what matters 
it, it will be asked, if the ten pounds could quickly have been expanded 
to fifteen by legal expences? Oh yes, it does matter; because a debt 
often pounds could not be made fifteen without regular notice ; it must 
actually be brought up to fifteen before you can enforce ; but when it is 
actually fifteen, then you arrest without notice at all. Has the 
government ever dreamed of making compensation to those who suffered 
under this neglect of the law-officers of the crown? Had we been 
among the sufferers, we should have been strongly tempted to try 
an action of damages against the Attorney-General. When great num- 
bers of the clergy, some years ago, subjected themselves to certain 
penalties for non-residence, we remember, the government stept in 
to shield them from the consequences of their own imprudence. But 
see, what it is—in this land of equality—where the law is the same for 
the rich and the poor—to belong to an order of some influence, and to 
be one of a class so worthless as to be liable to arrest for ten pounds ! 
But while we talk of the humanity of our laws, and triumphantly 
instance this precious protection of arrest under fifteen pounds—which 
we see is all hollow and delusive; there actually exist, on every side of 
us, courts of conscience, as they are piously called, which are not 
empowered to take cognizance of any debt but what is below forty 
shillings, and yet have authority to imprison. A case is recorded by 
Neild, of a man who was imprisoned for months for a debt of four- 
pence, which had been enlarged to seven or eight shillings by fees of 
court. Nay, scores of cases are occurring every month, if not equally 
ridiculous—not to say so savagely barbarous,—yet for sums so utterly 
insignificant as unhappily to awaken the incredulity of the uninformed 
rather than to rouse their horror. But look to the damning and conclu- 
sive fact, that within fifty years, forty thousand persons have been 
discharged for one hundred and twenty thousand pounds by that admi- 
rable little industrious society instituted for the relief of small debts— 
that is, EIGHT HUNDRED DEBTORS HAVE BEEN RESCUED FROM PRISON 
ANNUALLY FOR THE LAST FIFTY YEARS; AT THE RATE OF THREE 
POUNDS A HEAD. 
_ Merciful heaven! is there a government upon earth, pretending to any 
intelligence, that can inflict such intolerable oppression—is there a 
people of any cultivation in any part of the globe, with power to speak 
its will by its representatives, that can calmly submit to such transcendant 
tyranny, that can dastardly sigh and suffer, and-not stir a finger to 
shake off this hateful and disgusting badge of barbarism? And is this 
country England? England—that bruits so riotously of its love of 
liberty, that exults in the superiority of its liberal institutions, that 
‘boasts | of its charter and its constitution, and glories in its writ of 
shabeas,—when the astounding and galling truth is, that any miserable 
wretch who owes a few shillings, may, at the will and whim of his cre- 
