The property of the insolvent may be seized for the benefit of his credit ors with the exception of the wearing apparel, bedding, and other necessaries of the petitioner (the insolvent under 7 & 8 Vict. c. 96) and his family, and the working tools and implements of the petitioner not exceeding in the whole the value of 201. Under the 7 & 8 Vic. c. 96 (§ 39) if a petitioner for protection from process (pursuant to the provisions of that act) shall wrongfully andfraudulently omit in the schedule, which schedule he is required to make (5 & 6 Vic. C. 116), any property whatsoever, or retain or exempt out of such schedule any wearing apparel, bedding, or other necessaries, property of greater value than 201., he shall, upon being duly convicted thereof, be liable to be imprisoned and kept to hard labour for any period not exceeding three years.
The 7 & 8 Vie. e. 96 made a great al teration as to debts under 20/. The 57th section is as follows : " Whereas it is expedient to limit the present power of arrest upon final process, be it enacted, That from and after the passing of this act, no person shall be taken or charged in execution upon any judgment obtained in any of her Majesty's superior courts, or in any county court, court of requests, or other inferior court, in any action for the recovery of any debt wherein the sum recovered shall not exceed the sum of 201. exclusive of the costs recovered by such judgment." The 58th section provided that upon application to a judge, of one of the superior courts of law at West minster, or to the court in which such judgment as is mentioned is section 57, shall have been obtained, all persons in execution at the time of passing this act be discharged, when the debt exclusive of costs did not exceed what is specified in the 57th section. Accordingly, such persons, on making application pursuant to the 58th section of this act, were dis charged from prison in England and Wales.
The consequences of the legislation contained in the 57th and 58th sections of 7 & 8 Vict. c. 96, were these. All persons who were in confinement for debts under 201., exclusive of costs, might get their liberty ; but the judgment upon which the debtor was taken in execution remained in force (§ 58), and the judg ment creditor or creditors had their re medy and execution upon every such judgment against the property of the debtor, just as they might have had if he had never been taken in execution upon such judgment. The 59th section gave to the judge who should try such cause (§ 58), being either a judge of one of the superior courts or a barrister or attorney at law, power to imprison the defendant (debtor) for such times as are mentioned in § 58, if he should appear to have been guilty of fraud in contracting the debt, or had contracted it under the other circumstances mentioned in the 59th section.
The amount of debts in England and Wales under 20/. must always form a very considerable proportion of all the debts that are at any time due in Eng land and Wales. Such debts comprehend
a large part of the dealings of shopkeep ers and petty tradesmen ; probably in a very large number of cases debts under 201. may comprehend every debt that is due to a large body of petty tradesmen. The tradesmen no doubt do in many cases give credit to persons who have no rea sonable means of payment, and with whose character and condition they are very imperfectly acquainted. Many persons are always willing to contract a debt, but never intend to pay if they can help it. Another class of debtors consists of those whose morality is not so well fixed as to make them good and willing payers, but who will pay and do pay under the combined influence of some feeling of honesty and some fear of the consequences of non-payment. A third class, which we hope may be the most numerous of all, is willing to pay, but often requires time, and must be de prived of many comforts if they cannot command the credit which their charac ter and earnings fairly entitle them to. [CREDIT.] The 57th and 58th sections of the 7 & 8 Vict. c. 96, deprived creditors of their hold upon their debtors for sums under 201., and left to all persons who had claims upon persons in prison for sums above 201., the power of still keeping their debtors there. As to debts under 201. existing before the act, and for which the debtor was not in execution, it left the creditor no remedy except against his property. And here we may remark that the question as to the imprisonment of debtors seems reducible within narrow limits, if we view it merely as it affects the interests of the community. The ob ject in allowing a debtor to be seized is not to punish him as a debtor, but that he may be subjected to a complete examina tion for the purpose of discovering what his property is, that he has not parted with it to defraud his creditors, and that there was no fraud in the contracting of the debt. The simple fact of being in debted and unable to pay should not be punished. The contracting debts under such circumstances as amount to fraud ought to be punished. The principle then which should guide a legislature should be, not to punish a man simply because he is indebted and cannot pay his debts, but to punish him for any fraud that is committed either in contracting the debt or in attempting to evade the payment of it. Now in the case of a debtor, fraud, both in contracting a debt and in attempting to evade payment, is known by experience to be a thing of frequent occurrence; and it is therefore just and reasonable that judgment cre ditors should have the power to secure the person of their debtor until he has paid his debts or made a full and honest statement of his means of payment The effect of the last-mentioned act was of course to diminish the credit given by small dealers to all persons.