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202 
tors at defiance > and thus the creditor 
commits himself before any time has been 
given for investigation of the particular 
circumstances that have rendered the es- 
tate insolvent. This practice is now he- 
come so prevalent in some towns, that a 
creditor 1s liable to incur considerable 
odium if he makes the slightest demur in 
acceding to every thing proposed by the 
debtor, or even ventures to suggest the 
expediency of taking some time for re- 
flexion, before he commits himself irre- 
vocably. 
When a tinan_ becomes insolvent, it 
is clear that €very farthing he possesses 
belongs not to himself, but to his credi- 
tors; every honest and wise man so cir- 
cumstanced, would therefore be anxious 
to restore what property he held to its 
real proprietor as soon.as possible. With 
respect to compromises, it is truly unjust 
and unreasonable that a creditor should 
make sacrifices toa person with whom 
he has never been connected in any way 
but that of business; and in cases where 
it is proposed that time should be granted 
to give the debtor an opportunity of re- 
trieving his aifairs, by the continuance of 
his business, two material objections oc- 
cur; in the first place, he is depriving the 
real owner of the use of his own capital, 
which, when there are many clannants, 
will probably be a great inconvenience, 
to at least some of them; and secondly, 
where a person has been unsuccessful in 
his business, there is every. reason to be= 
lieve, that he will becomé more involved, 
in proportion to the length of time he 
continues to carry iton. If well know 
how much an insolvent person is an ob- 
ject of compassion; but itis to his own 
relations and intimate friends that he is 
to look for relief and assistance, and not 
to those persons, who have already suf 
fered materialiy from his misfortunes or 
his imprudence. 
From the opportunities of observation 
that have occurred to me, I have reason 
to be confirmed in the opinion that any 
mode of settlement of an insolvent es- 
tate than that, which our.laws have pre- 
scribed, can tend to no other purpose 
than that of injuring or defrauding the 
fair trader; and that where the inten- 
tions of the debtor are upright, he will 
find it to his own interest as well as that 
of lis creditor to adopt the plan which 
they have laid down. 
Your's, &c. 
A CONSTANT READER, 
Feb. 1, 1808. 
On the Treatment of Impediments, 
ce 
[April 1, 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
I PROCEED to the fulfilment of my 
recent promise, by making some ani- 
madversions on the supposed identity of 
the means for the education of the deaf, 
and of persons afflicted with impedi- 
ments: so far, at least, as that doctrine 
may seem to countenance the practice of 
educating those distinct classes of un- 
fortunate persons in the same semina- 
ries. 
I admit, indeed, that the science of 
teaching the dumb to speak, and that of 
removing impediments, are, in many re- 
spects, very intimately allied; and that 
“the same species of knewledge, upon 
which depends the instruction of the ab- 
solutely deaf,” in the art of speaking, 
‘is indispensably necessary to correct” 
by far the greater number of “ defects or 
impediments of utterance; but it does 
not therefore follow, that “ whoever pos- 
sesses the art of teaching the deaf to 
speak, is, from that reason, competent to 
correct every species of existing impedi- 
ment.” 
Even exclusively of those defects 
which arise from the loss,” or malcen- 
Sormation, “ of one or more of the re- 
quisite organs,” and which all writers 
upon this subject (that I have met with) 
so decisively, but so erroneously, assert 
‘are susceptible of no remedy,” there 
are Classes of impediment that require a 
mode of treatment, which it is physically 
impracticable to apply to the instruction 
of the deaf. 
The judicious instructor of the deaf- 
bern dumb must be qualified, undoubt- 
edly, in a very considerable degree, for 
the correction of all such impediments 
as depend, exclusively, upon the actions 
of the enunciative organs: nor can any 
person be gualified to correct such de- 
fects, without the knowledge, which, if 
properly applied, might teach the deaf te 
speak. But are there not impediments 
(and those, toe, of the most formidable 
and afflictive description) with which the 
want of precision, in the positions ahd 
actions of the enunciative organs, will 
be tound to have too little todo? Im- 
pediments which are, evidently, almost 
exclusively vocal—which appear to result 
from spasm or constriction in the pri- 
mary passage of the voice, or from some 
species of loca] convulsion, affecting par- 
ticular parts of that complicated appa= 
ratus upon which the phenomena of S 
ca 
és 
