his liberty but the prosecution was scarcely begun when the defendant became a pennyless bankrupt, and was himself carried to the Fleet prison. What redress can this gentleman have for the loss of his liberty for five months? He cannot put this man in the pillory for perjury, as the law does not allow it, because it was not wilful: but if he couldR be pilloried, is it any atonement to him for his sufferings to see this fellow stand for one hour with his head through a hole in a board at Charing-cross? Would it not be more consistent with justice to prevent such cruel proceedings in the first instance? The felon in Newgate, and the prisoner in the Penitentiary-house, Coldbath-fields, for high crimes and misdemeanors against the State, whatever his sufferings may be in a solitary cell, has one comfort-he knows not the pangs of

hunger but the gentleman, the citizen, the sailor, and the soldier, who may have bled in their country's defence, oppressed by sinful poverty, the worst of crimes, is allowed only sixpence per day for all his wants, and has not even a bed or fire found him to rest his wearied limbs or warm his half-starved frame.

When any one surrenders to the King's Bench, and has a command of money, he can procure a room by paying his chum, or chamber companion, out, as it is called; that is, by giving some poor man a weekly sum to let him have the room to himself, to the mutual convenience of both as the latter, for the sake of geting a stipend to purchase food, will be content to get a lodging where he can find it at a cheap rate, by sleeping ten or twelve in a small room; or without any

expence at all, by preferring a soft plank in the tap-room, or a smooth stone on a stair-case.

We who live in a land of liberty, who boast of the justice and lenity of our laws, who profess Christianity, can we, without remorse of conscience, reflect on the miseries the oppressed debtor suffers ? Can we pretend to possess any feeling and any religion or humanity, and with indifference view one part of our fellow-creatures persecuted and half-starved by unfeeling, remorseless creditors? I positively assert, fearless of contradiction, that many prisoners in the King's Bench have been half-starved, and have contracted disorders, from lack of sustenance, of which they have died.

The law against debtors, and their suf

ferings in prison, cry aloud to Heaven and the Legislature for redress. I will frankly acknowledge it to be my individual opinion, that no person, in a country of liberty, should be confined for debt, who gives up his whole property to his creditors. But the law having decreed it otherwise, and lawyers fattening, as they do, on the fruits of it, I must leave it to the future operations of justice and of mercy. But why am I, because I am unfortunately born a gentleman, liable to be deprived of my liberty throughout my life, for the small sum of ten pounds; which is a possible case, when, from the rich merchant to the inferior trader who keeps a green-stall, provided four-fifths

his

of his creditors consent, can procure certificate of bankruptcy, without the risk of imprisonment: while a gentleman, if he owes ten thousand pounds, and can

pay only nine thousand nine hundred and ninety pounds, may, by one obdurate creditor, be confined all his life, as an act of grace has not for many years involved so large a sum. Would it not be just, at least, to put the gentleman and the soldier on the same footing with a vender of cabbages, or a cabbaging tailor?

Many officers have been, and some now are, confined in prison, who have offered their creditors a part in money, and good security for the remainder at a distant period but they have been deaf to all terms, imagining that they have rich relations or friends, who will come forward and satisfy the whole at once. They know little of human nature: nor does any man thoroughly know either his relations or his friends until he has once been in prison. But I repeat my opi