IMPRISONMENT. The power of imprisonment for non-payment of debt, as well as by way of punishinent for crime, has always been held to be inherent in courts of jus tice. In criminal proceedings also, a person may, by a warrant of a justice of peace, be imprisoned before trial, provided the justice considers it is not a proper case for allowing bail; and as a general rule. though in minor offenses an accused person may insist on being discharged on tendering sufficient bail, yet in more serious crimes it is always in the discretion of the justice to accept or refuse the bail tendered, and on his refusal, application may be made to judges of the common law courts to accept bail. As regards imprisonment for debt, it is now competent only in cases where there is fraud in contracting or contempt in not paying it. In one case, _however, and one only, a person may be imprisoned before judgment has been obtained—viz., where he is about to leave the kingdom. In such a case the creditor requires to make an affidavit of the debt or cause of action before a judge, and may obtain a copies to arrest the defendant, who will not be released, except on bail, until judgment is obtained. With regard to debts under £20, which are generally sued for in England in the county court, though the defendant cannot be imprisoned on a judgment for less than that amount, yet if he willfully disobey the judgment of the court, which ordered him to pay by installments or on a time certain, and if the debt was originally contracted by means of fraud, the judge can commit him for contempt„ and thus imprison him on another ground. In cases of insolvency it is no
longer an act of bankruptcy to suffer imprisonment for debt, but absenting one's self from business, leaving England, making a fraudulent assignment, etc., is an act of bank ruptcy, and he may be adjudicated a bankrupt and his estate distributed in the usual way by the court of bankruptcy. But in general, if a person wishes to be made a bank rupt, he can become so without the necessity of being imprisoned. It was also a doctrine of the law of England that if a debtor was once imprisoned for debt it operated is com plete satisfaction, and his land or goods could not then be taken. But the debtor could get out of prison through the bankruptcy court, which required him to give up every thing to the creditors.
In Scotland imprisonment for debt has not been abolished as yet; and it is competent to imprison a debtor if the debt exceed £8 Os. 8d. An absconding debtor may also he arrested if in meditations fugw—i. e., about to leave the country, in which case bail or caution is required. In Scotland imprisonment for debt is not considered satisfaction of the debt, and the creditor may at the same time poind his goods and adjudge his land, and take other concurrent remedies.