Imprisonment for Debt.

asterisks From Parl. paper, No. 632, Sess. 1830, it appears 1563 persons were committed to Whitecross-street prison for various terms from one to ten days; the total amount of their debts was £2,071 : 10 : 2; the amount of their costs £746 : 6 : 6.

The commissioners in the remarks appended to this return, observe that “they have not the means of ascertaining the number of Insolvent Debtors who have paid dividends,” but they “communicate the subjoined statements which may perhaps assist, in some measure, towards the subject under inquiry:

“N.B. Of 10,271 assignees, 8,492 have filed no accounts. Of the accounts filed there are 932, in which a balance in hand appears arising from monies not received out of Court.”—Parl. Pap. No. 141, Sess. 1831.

We believe the plain English of the above is that 47,083 persons have passed through the Insolvent and Circuit Courts; that the average expense of the discharge of each is £256; that their debts together amount to at least four millions, and that the dividend received by the creditors on this immense sum was about one farthing in the pound. What an admirable system of Debtor Laws for this commercial, manufacturing, and trading community!!!

We are aware this statement is not strictly accurate, but it is an approximation to the truth. There are no means of ascertaining precisely the average dividend realized from the estates of insolvents, since there are no official returns of the sums received by assignees out of court, nor of the amount derived from the property of insolvents acquired subsequently to their discharge. But it is well known the Insolvent Debtors’ Act has degenerated into little more than a series of unprofitable forms and ceremonies; the getting-up of the schedule is such that very little accrues to the creditor from the assets; and the short imprisonment of the debtor operates neither as disgrace nor improvement. The act certainly empties the gaols; but if this be an advantage it would be much better policy never to fill them, rather than resort to a preventive which does not correct the defaulter, and only renders him a worse member of society. Offers of compromise are not so frequent in consequence of the act; and Sir Peter Laurie stated to a parliamentary committee, that tradesmen charge ten per cent. more for their commodities on account of the facilities it afforded to the escape of debtors. This is a pretty heavy tax on the paying part of the community—for those who do pay must make up for the loss sustained by those who do not—tending greatly to lessen consumption, and consequently the returns and profits of vendors.

Tradesmen are mostly inclined to severer laws towards debtors; they appear not to be aware that all laws would become unnecessary by a simultaneous decline in the custom of credit. That credit can be avoided entirely, even in retail trade, we do not believe: this is the opinion of the best informed merchants and tradesmen of the metropolis; persons of the greatest respectability often take the longest credit, to the great profit of their domestics: but what we reprobate is its universal practice; its not being the exception but the rule of trade—and then having recourse to oppressive and inefficient laws to supply the place of individual prudence.