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INSOLVENCY [BR] 3.
Give a sequestration of half the profits of a place requiring
skill, attendance, & oustable: Not more, least
he should not find it sufficiently worth his while
to abstain from incurring a voluntary forfeiture to—
shake them off or by undesigning remissness. A forced
absence from the Scene of duty in such cases his doubtless
often the affect of serving the Debtor without giving
satisfaction to the Creditor. In Bankruptcy the
Assignees might be appointed Receivers and those
whom it concerned obliged to pay after due notice—
& so toties quoties upon his taking any other place—
the Debtor-Placeman's name being registered for that
purpose upon every such first occasion.
So in case of an insolvent Debtor not a Trader &
so not a Bankrupt—Any one Creditor might—
sequester upon due notice given for others to come in.
An Insolvent Debtor or Bankrupt concealing his
effects; so also a person who undertakes to exhibit an
inventory in order to procure a mitigation of a fine
may be punished as for Theft or Embezzlement, ad
valorem: such a retention after the Oath taken being
a real embezzlement, & performed without pretence of
Title
The objection against limiting the time of imprisonment
for Debts on contract has no application to
debts imposed by a Court for delinquency as in the
case with damages given by a Jury in actions upon
Torts—For this has nothing to do with credit—
In this way a man becomes often subjected to imprisonment
for life by sentince of a Jury, whether they
know of it or no, & whether they design it or no.
The complaints that have been so constant & abundant
and against the Law on the
score of this deficiency
are not to be esteemed groundless,
till some answer has been given to them to
show that they are ill founded. No such
answer has been given.+ attempted.
The bias of the people II unless |^^^| always leads to mercy:
it is will be an event always very improbable that
any innocent persons should be condemned.
On the other hand many knavish debtors
will escape they all escape. At the same time it is not to be
doubted but that every now and then at least an example
will be made, that may serve to propagate state in salutary terms
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Nothing can exceed the awkwardness of this
maneuver. Use indeed reconciles use to it, as to
any thing else. Those who first adopted it
were impelled driven into it by the unenlightened
instinct of humanity, set in motion by the clamours of the distressed without any accurate
intelligence of the inducements to it.
One sees well enough It is sufficiently apparent what is was that first gave
birth to it such a measure: the mere instinct of benevolence
unenlightened by any perspective of examination in to causes
and consequences. It came wholly from
the heart: men's judgments can never have
been exercised about the matter. Such a
confounding confusion of guilt the ideas of guilt and
of misfortune, of the use of it imprisonment considered as
a punishment, on the Debtor with the use of it considered
as a means of relief to the creditor, is what
never could have obtained under any calm
and deliberate deliberate exercise of the discursive faculty. .
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To operate the good that is attained II attainable by
a distinction between + by distinguishing the fate of |^^^| guilt and innocence
it is not necessary [that] in every individual
instance that distinction should be
actually made. It is not necessary, for
it is not possible that the mode of proceeding
should be such as to ensure this. The
bare announcement, the bare profession
could not fail to have salutary effects. If it
is difficult, if to a person standing in the
station of a Legislator it must appear too
difficult, to effect such a discrimination,
those difficulties will not shew themselves to
the great body of the people. If it be difficult
in such an investigation to ensure success, it is
not every one that can see it: but the Law
will be loved and esteemed for the very attempt.
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Identifier: | JB/070/282/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 70.
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070 |
of laws in general |
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282 |
insolvency |
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001 |
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recto |
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[[watermarks::gr [crown motif] [britannia with shield motif]]] |
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23397 |
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