CASE OF THE INSOLVENT DEBTORS.

Of all the subjects, which, in the course of this session, fell under the cognizance of parliament, there was none that more interested the humanity, or challenged the redress, of the legislature, than did the case of the poor insolvent debtors, who languished under all the miseries of indigence and imprisonment. In the month of February a petition was offered to the commons in behalf of bankrupts, who represented, that having scrupulously conformed to the laws made concerning bankruptcy, by surrendering their all upon oath, for the benefit of their creditors, they had nevertheless been refused their certificates, without any probability of relief; that by this cruel refusal, many bankrupts have been obliged to abscond, while others were immured in prison, and these unhappy sufferers groaned under the particular hardship of being excluded from the benefit of laws occasionally made for the relief of insolvent debtors; that the power vested in creditors of refusing certificates to their bankrupts, was, as the petitioners conceived, founded upon a presumption that such power would be tenderly exercised, and never but in notorious cases; but the great increase in the number of bankrupts within two years past, and in the small proportion of those who had been able to obtain their certificates, seemed to demonstrate that the power had been used for cruel and unjust purposes, contrary to the intention of the legislature: that as the greater part of the petitioners, and their fellow-sufferers, must inevitably and speedily perish, with their distressed families, unless seasonably relieved by the interposition of parliament, they implored the compassion of the house, from which they hoped immediate favour and relief. This petition was accompanied with a printed case, explaining the nature of the laws relating to bankrupts, and pointing out their defects in point of policy as well as humanity; but little regard was seemingly paid to either remonstrance. Other petitions, however, being presented by insolvent debtors, imprisoned in different gaols within the kingdom, leave was given to bring in a bill for their relief, and a committee appointed to examine the laws relating to bankruptcy.