1808.] 
persuaded, when indignant, that she could 
make her displeasure awlully j linpressive. 
Her natural majesty of action was near- 
ly equal to that of the best-bred wo- 
men I ever saw; she had confidence, 
without boldness : and reserve without 
mauvaise-honte. During our conversa- 
tion the chief entered the room, and, 
when I had complimented him on his 
good taste in the choice of his lady, he 
Taurghed heartily. Hewasan athleticman, 
and approached nearer in his muscular 
proportion to the Yorso and Farnese 
Hercules, than anyman thet I recollect to 
have beheld. It is true, that my know- 
ledge of the Indian.character is very li- 
mited ; yet so far as I may be admitted 
to form a judgment, 1 think them, na- 
turally considered, as the most acute, 
avile, and graceful people that 1 have ever . 
known. W. 
— 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
OBSERVATIONS O02 ARRESTS O02 MESNE 
PROCESS, for.small DEBTS, &c. 
fhe prisons, notwithstanding the 
recent Act of Insolvency, are al- 
ready crowded with debtors on mesne 
process, for sums under 30l. Aboat four- 
Jifths of the debtors sent to prison are 
tor debts under 20l. and in this class 
there are now many in Newgate. 
With respect to a further restriction 
of the law of arrests, on mesne process, 
we are not, upon a question so import- 
aut, left without a guide; our ancestors, 
seventy-five years ago, restrained the law 
of arrests, on process from the superior 
courts at Westminster, by preventing 
them, for sums under ten pounds,* 
284 this law, many thousand debtors 
have heen saved from i imprisonment ; and 
if revised, itmight be the means of avoid- 
ing the necessity of again enlarging the 
prisons, or of passing more frequent 
acts of insolvency; as money decreased 
in value, the benefits intersled by this 
law gradually diminished, and we may 
remember, that about twenty or thirty 
years ago, Newgate, the King’s-Bench, 
the Fleet, and other prisons, were consi- 
derably enlarged ; but their future di- 
mensions must depend upon the length 
ef time, in which it shall please the 
wisdom of panuament to keep this law 
stationary, and the increase of poverty 
and population, or, upon a more speedy 
recurrence to acts of insolvency, to 
make room for a fresh assortment of pri- 
soiers, 
% 1% Geo: 1, c, 29, 
2 
On Arrests on Mesne Process for small Debts, Kc. 3 
The pressure of the times may con- 
strain many to run in debt, without any 
reasonable prospect of payment; but 
whatever may occasion insolvency, the 
means of payment are not increased by 
the practice of arrests for small debts ; 
it will, therefore, excite no surprize that 
the poor debtor cannot escape imprison- 
ment. 
It has been stated by respectable au- 
thority, that arrests, even for small debts, 
were useful, as a stimulus to a settlement 
of the action, and, by preventing much 
expensive litigation; thus the evils, 
though great, are supposed productive of 
more than an equal counterbalance of 
good; but the evils are certain, while 
the proposed advantages are doubtful, and 
the speculation agamist all experience: 
the number of actions settled, is less, 
and the executions more, in hailable ac= 
tions, than in actions not bailable; a 
clear proof, that an arrest (particularly 
for small debts) cannot be the prevailing 
motive toa compromise of the action, 
much less to payment, in the event of 
insolvency ; and in that case, the process is 
severe, the speculation must fail, no stimu- 
lus being able to work an impossibility ; in 
the case of disability, « arising from poverty, 
the man arrested, destitute of money and 
friends, cannot find bail; the fruit of the 
arrest, is therefore fr uitlessimprisonment. 
If ten pounds, seventy years ago, was 
equal to thirty pounds, compared with 
the value of money, at this day, the letter 
of the statute may remain, while the 
benevolent intentions, founded in the 
wisdom of the legislature, may be defeat- 
ed; to shew the policy of a further re- 
striction proportioned to a decrease in 
_ the value of money since that period, sup- 
pose the laws in restraint of arrests under 
ten pounds repealed, the number of pri- 
soners would be increased, by embracing 
a still larger class of poor debtors, and 
prisons would soon overflow. 
By a statute passed in the present 
reign in restraint of such arrests in the 
inferior courts* , perhaps more than 
200,000 arrests have been prevented 
within the last twenty years; but it ne- 
ver has been contended that by such law, 
the credit and commerce of the country 
has been in the least impaired; an the 
contrary, during this period, it has risen 
to the highest pitch of prosperity. 
Every creditor shares in the speculation 
of an arrest (though the chance of suc- 
cess is thereby evidently diminished, 
ns genre —— 
* 19 Gee. If.. 
wien 
