must have fourteen days clear notice, which, through the poverty or ignorance of the debtor, or neglect of his attorney, is very frequently omitted: so the poor debtor must lie at least half a year, perhaps a year or years, without benefit from that benevolent act.

V. That a notice served on the plaintiff's attorney should be deemed a legal notice.

Because, It is allowed in England; whereas in Wales the notice must be served on the creditor himself, who may perhaps live eighteen or twenty miles distant from the gaol. When the poor debtor has collected as much money as will pay a person to undertake a journey through a mountainous and pathless country, the creditor may be from home, in a very distant part; or the messenger may pocket the money, and never go at all. We have instances of this kind.

VI. An encouragement to work, by some manufactory established by the County, with whom the risque of the sale of the articles so manufactured should lie, and two thirds of the profit given to the debtor *.

N. B. It is less criminal to permit inaction than compel it; and the latter must be the case where there is no opportunity to work.

See DORCHESTER, p. 98; and GLOUCESTER, p. 140.

VII. A Chaplain to every gaol; and every debtor not attending divine service, except in case of sickness, to be punished by short allowance. VIII. An exemption from the window-tax.

Because, The exclusion of light and air creates disease.

IX. An entire separation from the felons. In the language of a great moral writer, "From such an association springs every corruption which poverty and wickedness can generate, with all the shameless and profligate enormities that can be produced by the impudence of ignominy, the rage of want, and the malignity of despair. In a prison, the awe of the public eye is lost; and the power of the law is spent ; there are few fears, there are no blushes; the lewd inflame the lewd, the audacious harden the audacious. Every one fortifies himself as he can against his own sensibility; endeavours to practise on others the arts which are practised on himself, and gains the kindness of his associates by similitude of manners.

Thus some sink amidst their misery, and others survive only to propagate villainy."

Lastly, That a committee be appointed at the quarter-sessions, and a journal of the daily occurrences of the gaol be kept for their inspection, or of any Magistrate of the County.

*See KNARESBOROUGH, p. 182. † Dr. Samuel Johnson.

OBSERVATIONS

ON

ARRESTS ON MESNE PROCESS,

FOR

SMALL DEBTS, &c.

THE prisons, notwithstanding the recent Act of Insolvency, are already crowded with debtors on mesne process, for sums under 30l. About four fifths of the debtors sent to prison are for debts under 20/. and in this class there are now 45 in Newgate.

With respect to a further restriction of the law of arrests on mesne process, we are not, upon a question so important, left without a guide; our ancestors, 75 years ago, restrained the law of arrests, on process from the superior courts at Westminster, by preventing them for sums under ten pounds *.

By this law, many thousand debtors have been saved from imprisonment, and, if revised, might be the means of avoiding the necessity of again enlarg ing the prisons, or of passing more frequent Acts of Insolvency; as money decreased in value, the benefits intended by this law gradually diminished ; and we may remember, that, about 20 or 30 years ago, Newgate, the King's-Bench, the Fleet, and

other prisons, were considerably enlarged; but their future dimensions must depend upon the length of time in which it shall please the wisdom of Parliament 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 prisoners.

The pressure of the times may constrain 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 imprisonment.

It has been stated by respectable authority, 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 against all experience the number of actions settled is less, and the executions more, in bailable actions, than in actions not bailable; a clear proof, that an arrest (particularly for small debts) cannot be the prevailing motive to a 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 stimulus can 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 fruitless imprisonment.

1

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 defeated. To shew the policy of a further restriction proportioned to a decrease in the value of money since that period, suppose the laws in restraint of arrests under ten pounds repealed, the number of prisoners 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 20 years; but it never has been contended that by such law the credit and commerce of the country has been in the least impaired; on 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 success is thereby evidently diminished, when the party has neither money nor friends); but the practice is pursued from habit, although often with reluctance, lest