^18 Aged Prisoners for Debt ^ and pettyfogging Aitornies, [Oct. 1, 
the first time informed of, it seems, tlie 
notorious fact, that tliose vultures in hu¬ 
man shape, die low, petty-fogging attor- 
niesj who flock in our courts of law, and 
who maj be almost literally said to prey 
upon the blood and entrails of their fel¬ 
low-creatures, make a particular point to 
urge their clients to actions against the 
most unfortunate and distressed objects, 
on the almost certain speculation, that 
if they live, (tlie life, or death, or 
lieart-rending sufferings, of a debtor, are 
but a feather, vvhenweighed in the ba¬ 
lance of a petty-fogger against his in¬ 
terest) their debts and costs will be dis¬ 
charged by that noble institution, the 
Society for the Relief of Prisoners con¬ 
fined for Small Debts. Thus poverty, 
distress, and nakedness, instead of known 
or suspected property, are made the 
c'tjccts of legal prosecution; and thus the 
beneficent efforts of Charity herself, are 
turned to tlie absolute destruction of 
those, for whose happiness and safety she 
has been most solicitous! For it has 
become a custom for the harpies, above 
described, to ply among the lower orders 
of retail shop-keepers and others, who 
have small debts, which, having obtained 
the authority to collect, they instantly 
enforce the law against every unfortunate 
debtor upon their list, who, having no 
means of defence, are soon sued to an 
execution and lodged in prison. Many 
of these poor wretches may have incurred 
the debt for mere want of bread, from 
slackness of employment, or from the 
maladies and weakness incident to old 
age. They would gladly agree to pay by 
W'eekly instalment, pitiously addressing 
their hard-liearted creditors, in the lan¬ 
guage of the ^WAe-^Ha'oe patience and I 
tcill pay you all. But no, their creditor, 
and his adviser, that pest of human so¬ 
ciety, that bane of human happiness, 
■wherever he lurks, the infamous petty^- 
foggev^ have other views; they have de¬ 
creed, that the poor debtor shall go to 
prison. To that place of horror, which 
a late sheriff, in the able and pa¬ 
triotic Compte rendu of his Shrievalty, 
thus describes—‘ For example, in the 
ward, called the long-ward, thirty-five 
feet in length, and thirteen in breadth, 
only twenty-six inches to each prison¬ 
er, allowing space for door-wavs and fire¬ 
places. The horrors of such a situation, 
during the night, when the prisoners are 
all locked up in their respective wards, 
especially during the heat of summer, 
may be better conceived than described* 
Persons who have broken no moral law, 
most of them the victims of njisfortune, 
and many of them confined for exceed¬ 
ingly small debts, depressed by want and 
every privation, are thus thrown toge¬ 
ther, without regard to their dift'erence 
of education, to their various habits of 
life, or to their degrees of religious or 
moral feeling.’ Flere the wretched vie- 
titn must absolutely starve, or languish 
liis destined time in extreme misery, whilst 
his wife or family are making away with 
the poor remains of his property, if he 
had any, to support his bare existence; 
and if he should be at last released by 
the humane Society above-mentioned, 
he returns to the world, naked, fori nn, 
and without resource. Hundreds and 
hundreds vvho had some small establish¬ 
ment, or means of subsistence, on being 
thrown into prison, have, on their re¬ 
lease, found It all dissipated and them¬ 
selves totally destitute. 
I am by no means disposed to con¬ 
trovert the truth of that celebrated dictum 
of a certain eminent lawyer, that ‘ if 
there be hard-liearted creditors, there are 
also equally hard-hearted dehtorsP But 
I must make brild to tell him, there is 
more of sopliistry than solid argument, in 
such generalities; and that had he not 
been master of a more discriminating 
logic in other cases, he would ill have 
deserved the high station wiiich he lias 
filled. I am equally and sorrowfully 
ready to acknowledge, that I know ol no 
remedy for the gi ievance of which I com¬ 
plain, excepting we may look for it in 
a general improvement of morals, the 
advance of which, however, with hasty 
strides, must not be expected under our 
present avowed public system, in which 
self and pelf seem to be the governing 
principles. What might be achieved by 
a radical and thorougii reform of our 
legal code and practice, and particularly 
by a free use of tlie besom of justice, in 
sweeping away the pestiferous race above 
held up to infamy, cob-webs and all, 
wherein they spawn and harbour, and 
without infringing the sacred rights of 
the creditor, I am not qualified to judge: 
but of this I am qualified to judge,— 
such a blessing is not at present within 
our ken, either for ourselves, our chil¬ 
dren, or our children’s children. I have 
long ceased to be sanguine. 
John Lawrence. 
^ug. 1811 . 
