date

1 Aug 1812 Evidence Introd
1 Aug 1812

Evidence Introd

Introd

Ch. 26. Imprisonment for debt

'.3. Bad no punishment

'3. its inapptitude, applied as it is, as an instrument of punishment.

In the character of an instrument, the infliction in question is it well grounded? is it necessary? or no, or a [...?] is it /is it or does it promise to be/ effectual?

Compulsion out of the question if to [...?] purpose /suffering purposely applied and directed to an end/ punishment be of use [...?] is to one or other of them then viz privation by example, prevention viz. of delinquency in the shape in question on the part of persons other than the delinquent in question - prevention of delinquency on the part of the person in question by depriving him of the power of [...?], or by depriving him of the will or the disposition or inclination, i.e. reformation.

In the case in question, delinquency in any shape - has it taken place? - because /for/ if not, all punishment is out of the question all consideration with object of punishment out of place.

Fraud or temerity - in one or other of these shapes delinquency, if on the occasion in question it really has had place must have operated.
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  • Title: [1 Aug. 1812 Evidence Introd]
    Description: 1 Aug. 1812

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    Introd

    Ch. 26 Imp[?]

    ' Bad for compulsion

    3. Upon the face of it to the purpose in question, the infliction in question does it carry any sufficient promise of being effectual? Not it indeed.

    At the charge of the Debtor himself effectual it can not be, in so far as property to the amount in question property fails of being in his /at his/ possession is at his command.

    At the charge of any other person, in the character of friend, prompted by sympathy to release /relieve/the Debtor from this infliction, that it should be effectual, is not for the common good of all persons concerned is not as hath[?] being shewn already a desirable result desirable.

    At the charge of the Debtor himself, where these necessary means are actually at his command, its efficiency, managed as it is is in a high degree imperfect in comparison of what is most obviously might and ought to be.

    To the many a bill, to the comparatively few a prison is though not /not indeed/ a paradise but however a place of comfort: of comfort obtained at the expence of the injured creditor, by /from/ the interested connivance of the Judge.

    Solitary confinement - to the purpose to which it /this severe infliction/ is least well adapted, for the purpose of punishment as in a most inordinate degree been with the most unthinking levels but too often applied. Solitary confinement continued for two years together, and the victim not yet [..?] broken nor reduced to a state of melancholy madness.
  • Title: [26 May 1804 Evidence Ch. Extraction]
    Description: 26 May 1804

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    In the case of a delinquent /delinquency/ - of an individual presumed or suspected of delinquency, all this rigour is laid aside. The law knows /admitts/ of no other infliction in the character of a compulsive process, the law admitts of no other infliction, than simple imprisonment. What is the consequence? that in many cases a long protracted course of suffering is produced - a long remainder[?] of life filled not infrequently with bitterness, and the object in view not compassed / / after all - : the quantity of suffering augmented, and the whole of it thrown away.

    Many a dishonest debtor in whom the juryman's torture would have produced immediate compliance, carries the fruits of this dishonesty with him to prison, and there consumes them, in defiance of his injured and impoverished creditors.

    In the case of bankruptcy, i.e. commercial insolvency non-responsion and false-responsion is /are/ indeed as far as concerns the concealment of effects /assets/ applicable in satisfaction of debts, made punishable and punishable with death; but even here the distant and eludible punishment is preferred to the unelludible and instant compulsory infliction; and in cases of non-commercial insolvency, and in all other cases in which evidence is supposed to be extracted

    simple imprisonment and that alone is applied, and is the only [074-427/2]

    infliction applicable. This infliction is indeed susceptible of prodigious variation, under the same name variable upon a prodigiously extensive scale: depending upon the localities of the prison - the accommodations afforded by the prison, and the exterior appendages /territory/ annexed to it: but the variations depend upon accident, are the result /product/ not of justice /wisdom/ but of negligence and in practice are not applied, nor indeed capable of being applied with uniformity to this purpose.
  • Title: [1 Aug. 1812 Evidence Introd]
    Description: 1 Aug. 1812

    Evidence Introd

    Introd

    Ch.26. Impris.[?]

    ' Bad for compulsion

    From p.4

    2. To the accomplishment of the proposed object, viz. discharge of the debt, supposing a debt [...?] is this infliction necessary? Another point this concerning /in relation to/ which the Judge refuses to inform himself.

    Altogether unnecessary it is as often as the solvency of the alledged debtor is out of doubt.

    Back to p.4.