date

2 Aug. 1812 Evidence Object
2 Aug. 1812

Evidence Object

Introd

Ch.26. Imprisonment for debt

'4

the most [...?], the means no less so Insolvency is not spoken of as /called/ a crime, but yet is punished more severely[?] than most crimes

'4. The needlessness of it is demonstrated by experience.

Unjustifiable in this case in the character of an instrument of punishment, inadequate and unjustifiable in the character of an instrument of compulsion, it is unjustifiable in every imaginable character, unjustifiable in every imaginable point of view.

To what possible ends or objects can it have been directed

Not to the benefit of trade - i.e. for augmentation of the security of traders.

It is in this application of it if to this purpose application had been made of it, that the colour for it the colour put upon it would have been most plausible. But it is precisely in this case in which there would have been best pretence for it in which the pretence for employing it would have been most plausible, that it is not employed, that the insolvent is exempted from it. Upon giving up all his property a person deemed a trader is under the name of a Bankrupt exempted from imprisonment.

In the days in which it took its rise there was no such thing as what is now understood by the word trade in existence /no such thing was in existence.
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    2. Pecuniary interest - the lot of it brought into action in the primal[?] instance, so far as the application /action/ of it intends is a principle of considerable power, and capable in many instances of encountering with advantage the united force of the opposing motives. But in point of extent, it extends to but a very small part of the whole number of the individuals from whom so far as depends upon knowledge and power, information of the sort in question might be to be expected, were they prompted /if prompted/ to /by/ it by motives of sufficient efficacy. In the case of the professional smuggler his rivals among the fair traders are but here and there: his customers are every where. In the case of all assessed[?] or say direct taxes, the smuggler is cash deficient should contributer, the contributors in this case are still more numerous than customers in the other, and /but/ the deficient contributor has no natural adversary, correspondent to what the fair trader is to the professional smuggler to what /that which/ the professional smuggler has in the fair trader.

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