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first sight seem to be her fair proportion of the pecuniary expenditure of the allied powers.

But with such an object in view, and with so fair a prospect of ultimate, and, indeed, speedy success, it is incumbent on us to strain every nerve, and to make the earliest and most vigorous exertions; the greatest expenditure at first will prove in the end the greatest œconomy; for one energetic and decisive campaign, conducted on a scale of the most extensive expenditure, will certainly cost less than two or three of protracted and inefficient exertion on a principle of limited and defensive operation. Nothing is wanted but early and decided activity to put the allies a second time in possession of the French metropolis; and when we shall have swept from the face of the earth the whole gang of perjured traitors with their infamous master, for nothing short of absolute extermination must be trusted to again, then we may expect to sit down in uninterrupted peace and happiness; to repair the ravages of war, and to recruit our dilapidated resources-and then, my Lord, may we joyfully exclaim,

"BIS DOMITUM CIVILE NEFAS, BIS RUPIMUS ALPES;
❝ TOT NOS BELLA DOCENT NULLI SERVIRE TYRANNO."

FALKLAND.

ENQUIRIES

RESPECTING THE

INSOLVENT DEBTORS' BILL,

WITH THE OPINIONS

OF

DR. PALEY, MR. BURKE,

AND

DR. JOHNSON,

UPON

Imprisonment for Debt.

BY BASIL MONTAGU, ESQ.

1815.

PREFACE.

I LEARNT, during the last summer, that many respectable merchants in the provincial towns had expressed great dissatisfaction at the Insolvent Debtors' Bill, which had been introduced into parliament by Lord Redesdale and had been sanctioned by the legislature. This was to be expected. It has been said to be a secret, both in nature and state, that it is safer to change many things than one. The law has been changed, but the feelings and conduct of the commercial world have not yet adapted themselves to the alteration. A creditor has hitherto been permitted, contrary to that salutary maxim, which says," let no man be a judge in his own cause," to exercise an absolute and arbitrary power over his debtor. He is now bereft of this gratification; and the question is, whether amidst a people who say they are of Christ, this privation ought or ought not to be continued?

In November last, upon my return to London, I was informed by a very respectable attorney that the Insolvent Debtors' Bill would be productive of incalculable evil.

The riots by which this country was disgraced and the prisons opened in the year 1780 could not have produced a more earnest communication. Upon expressing my anxiety to know the cause of his alarm, he assured me that, since the bill had passed, there had not been so many writs issued by six thousand, as had been issued in the same period of time in the preceding year.

After the struggle of a century, during which philosophy has directed the attention of the community to the erroneous opinions existing upon imprisonment for debt, and to a mitigation of the miseries which these errors, originating in remote times, have occasioned, it is not to be imagined that unanimity can at once prevail. The waters swell after the winds are still.

If the successive parts of the mass of calamity occasioned by imprisonment for debt were seen at one view, this punishment would not find any advocates amongst the enemies to the inquisition or the slave trade. Who could believe that, in England, in the 17th century, it was reported by a committee of the House of Commons, that a woman died in prison after having been confined forty-five years for a debt of £19?

From this report the following table is extracted.

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NUMBERS IN EXECUTION, 706, WITH THE LENGTH OF THEIR IMPRISONMENTS.

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Total 185.

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Many 8 years.

Some 8 years.

Some 7 years.

Many 9 years.

Some 9 years, one of whom Some 9 years. One 9 years.

Some 10 years.

was for 4/. 10s.

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NUMBERS WHO DIED BETWEEN 1780 and 1792 IN SOME OF THE PRISONS.

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2 years.

1 after an imprisonment of 16 after 2 years. 9 after 2 years.

10 after 3 years. 5 after 3 years.

22 after 2 years.

9 after 3 years.

4 after 3 years.

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1 after 5 years.

1 after 10 years.

A Woman after 45 years.

1 after 15 years.

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ESTIMATE OF LAW-CHARGES FOR 2 Years, for Debts under £20.

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This disgrace to the land has existed for centuries, not from want of national kindness, but from want of observation; the single evils of sickness, of starvation, of lunacy are seen and felt and amply provided against; but the victim of these accumulated calamities, sick and broken hearted in a gaol, withers and dies, surrounded by a starving family for whom he was not permitted to work, without the sympathy of his fellow creatures and with scarcely a passing thought from the creditor by whom he was imprisoned and yet, such is the effect of habit, he would shrink from any unauthorised oppression.

"A Neapolitan shepherd going against Easter to confession, told the confessor with a tender conscience and great sorrow of heart, he had broken the holy fast of Lent, by chance indeed, but yet with some little pleasure: for when

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