§ Lord Althorp moved the second reading of the Insolvent Debtors bill. He said that one of the principal objections which had been made to this bill was the clause which gave the creditor a power to compel the surrender of the debtor's effects, and afterwards to imprison him. It had been contended, that it would be hard to compel the debtor to surrender his properly, when he had rather remain in prison; but he could not help considering this as one of the great advantages of the bill. It was extremely desirable to give effect to the principle which gave the creditor a power over the property rather than the 1629 person of the debtor. In the present state of the law, a man might remain in prison for any length of time, and set his creditors at defiance. As to the making of freehold property liable to the payment of debts, an arrangement would be made on this point, which would, he hoped, prove satisfactory. The strongest objection had been made to the clause giving the creditor a power of imprisonment after the debtor surrendered, which had been considered by many persons as a very severe and unnecessary power. As the law stood at present, the debtor must remain three months in confinement previous to being brought up for judgment, and this was agreeable to the principle of imprisonment, which was to be regarded not as a punishment but as a security for the creditor. When, however, the cessio bonorum was adopted as the principle of legislation between debtor and creditor, the imprisonment was to be taken more as a punishment than before, and if not resorted to, those persons would escape with the greatest impunity who had contracted debts with the least ability to discharge them.
§ The bill was ordered to be read a second time this day fortnight.