I79I« LITERARY INTELLIGENCER. 385 



up from public view, and thus have been In a great mea- 

 fure inadvertently difregarded ; and that perhaps, among 

 the efforts that have been made to alter the condition 

 of debtors, the tendency of the meafurea propofed, have 

 been fufpecled, rather as adopted to fcreen the guilty 

 offender from puniihment, than to protect: the innocent 

 fufferer. 



In the following hints that I ihall beg leave to ofFer, with 

 a view to introduce into this department of civil polity, 

 fome part of that equity, moderation and lenity, which 

 charafterife our laws in other refpefts, my aim fhall 

 be, to protetSt the innocent from unjuft feverity, but not 

 to fcreen the guilty from punifhment ; and to fecure 

 the rights of the creditor, in a way at leaft more effec- 

 tually, than they are under the prefent fyftem. How- 

 far the following regulations would tend to produce 

 thefe effcfts, the reader will judge. 



I. After a debt has been fairly conftituted by law, 

 let the creditor, as at prefent, be authorifed to feize, not 

 only the effeBx of the debtor wherever they can be 

 found, but h'u perjon alfo. I believe in England, a 

 creditor is only authorifed to take one of thefe, either 

 the perfon or riie effefts of the debtor ; in Scotland, he 

 may lay hold on both if he fliall fo incline, and fecure 

 }iis perfon in jail, until he fhall either make payment of 

 the debt, or, if that be not in hib power, {hall make a full 

 furren<lry of his effefts in favour of his creditors. Af- 

 ter this is done, the debtor iliall be entitled to be dif- 

 charged from prifon, unlefs in the cafes that fhall be 

 afterwards fpecified. 



a. But that no unneceffary delay may take place m 

 regard to this tranfaftion, every debtor thus committed 

 to prifon, fhall be entitled to be carried by a writ of 

 habeas corpus, as foon after his commitment as he fhall 

 incline, before a proper judge, the imprifoning creditor 

 having got due intimation when the furrendry is to be 

 (jjade : where the debtor having declared, that he is 



