his Debts; to use the Extremity of the Law against such a Man, is not only cruel and inhuman, but, as far as I can judge, contrary to the true Meaning and Design of the Law itself. For the Law which gives Power over the Body of the Debtor, is not a criminal Law, ordained for the Punishment of Offenders; but is a Law made to fecure Men in their Properties, and to guard them against the Arts and Contrivances of fuch as would injure them in their just Demands. To ufe the Law therefore, where it cannot poffibly have any Effect towards fecuring your Property, but can ferve only to harass and torment a poor unfortunate Man, is perverting the Law, and making it fubfervient to Purposes very different from thofe, for the fake of which it was ordained. The Law does not entrust private Men with the Execution, or Relaxation of its Penalties for Crimes and Offences; but in the present Cafe, every Man may imprison, or release from Prifon, his Debtor, as he pleases; a plain Evidence that this Law was meant as a Defence of private Rights, and not as a Punishment for Criminals.

Is it then a general Rule, that the Law can never with good Conscience be executed against

against insolvent Debtors? There may poffibly be Exceptions, and more than I can foresee; but I think they must all be attended with this Circumftance, that there be a Prospect of recovering the Debt, though the Debtor himself be infolvent. It may fo happen, that he who has nothing of his own, may have wealthy Friends and Relations; and though Friends are not often willing, for the Sake of Juftice, to pay the Debts of a Relation, yet, for the Honour of the Family, or out of perfonal Regard to the Relation, they will pay the Money as the Price of his Redemption from a Gaol. Many Cafes may be imagined, where a rich Relation ought in Reafon to pay the Debt, rather than the poor Creditor to lose it. In such Cases, there may be a Reason to justify or excuse the Proceeding.

Some think that no Severity is too great to be used towards fuch as have spent their Estates riotously, to the Injury of their Creditors. And indeed little is to be faid in Behalf of fuch Perfons. Yet ftill it is worth

confidering, whether you would choose to be Judge and Executioner in your own Cause. And if the Cafe be really fo defperate, that you can aim at nothing by the Execution

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of the Law, but the Punishment of the Man who has wronged you, I am fure it is the fafer Way to leave the Punishment to him, who has faid, Vengeance is mine, and I will repay.

But the Cafe, which I have principally in View, ftands clear of thefe Exceptions. The unfortunate Perfons, with whom the Gaols are crowded, are, for the most part, fuch as have neither Money nor Friends to affift them; fuch as have fallen into Poverty by Misfortunes, by a Decay in their Bufinefs, or perhaps by the Largeness of a Family, which their utmost Diligence could not fupport. Were they at Liberty, they might probably be of Ufe to themselves, and their poor Families, and alfo to their Creditors, by following their honeft Callings and Employments. But now their Strength confumes in vain, they starve in Prifon, and their Children out of it, or are thrown upon the Parish for a miferable Maintenance; and no Benefit or Advantage accrues, or can poffibly accrue, to the Person who confines them.

Men are often urged to deal thus feverely with others, by the Grief and Anguish which attend the Difappointment they meet

with in their juft Expectation; and being themselves Sufferers, they think no Treatment too bad for those to whom they impute their own Diftrefs. But could Men confider calmly how much Mifery they bring into the World, and how many must partake in the fad Effects of their Refentment, I am perfuaded that Humanity and Compaffion, Virtues to which this Country never was a Stranger, would in great Meafure prevent this Evil.

When the Father of a poor Family, who have nothing to depend on for their Subfiftence but his Labour and Industry, is torn from them, what can the poor Widow and Orphans do? For a Widow she is, and Orphans they are, to all the Intents and Purposes of Sorrow and Affliction. It is well if they take no worse Employment than begging; oftentimes they are tempted to pilfer or steal, or to proftrate themselves for Bread; and happy is it for them, if they meet with no worse Fortune, than to fall into your Hands to be corrected and reformed.

In the mean Time the wretched Father fees himself undone, and his Family difperfed and ruined. His Spirits fink under Sorrow, and Despair eats out his Strength and

Life; that should you in Time relent and release him, it is ten to one but the Relief comes too late. He is no longer the fame Man; before his Imprisonment he was active and strong, and had Spirit to go through his Labour; now he is broken in Mind and Body, and not able to improve to any Advantage that Liberty, which at last you are willing to allow him.

Would not any one, who confiders this, be apt to imagine, that no Man lies in Prifon but for fome great Debt; that it is impoffible that any one should use another thus cruelly for a Trifle? And yet, in Truth, the Cafe is quite otherwife: there are few, in Comparison, who lie for great Sums; the far greater Number are confined for Trifles, for fuch Sums as must be reckoned by Pence, and not by Pounds. It is true, they are commonly confined at the Suit of thofe, who are almost as poor as themselves; and the Poverty on the one Side is often urged as a Juftification of the Severity used against the other. But alas! what Relief is it to one poor Man to undo another? What Comfort is it to torment a Wretch, whose Mifery can yield you no Profit or Advantage?

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