such laws as produce good, as well as prevent or punish evil, which may be comprehended in the true term and exercise of justice.

An evil of the greatest magnitude, in this and most other countries, is the expence and uncertainty of obtaining justice in the courts of law, or rather the inequality of the means of obtaining that justice which every subject is entitled to. In all cases of litigation, one party must be right and the other party must be wrong; but the acts and operations of the law are so intricate, that no one can know who is right or wrong, until the case has gone through an immense process and course of law; and perhaps, at last, it is settled by some error, or loop-hole in the law, which no one could have foreseen or contemplated. The difficulty of knowing who is right and who is wrong, in the practice of common law, leads to immense expences; which, perhaps, the party truly aggrieved and injured is not able to support, and thus the injured further suffers, and the oppressor comes off victorious.

It has lately been remarked, in the foreign jour. nals, that for a man to succeed and prosper in England, he must be in the possession of the law. It is also become proverbial, even in this country; but none but foreigners can be unaware of the difficulty to obtain possession, or the knowledge of the law. The whole wealth of the country, nearly, is either in the hands, or under the control and power, of lawyers or the government; and so may be said at

the people, who are either actively or passively concerned in law or government, against which there seems to be no security but that of poverty. In consequence of which, the industrious part of the community, who are able, are quitting the country as fast as possible, and will ultimately leave government and the lawyers to settle the affairs of the country between themselves; for few, who have any thing to lose, which they can carry away, will be here to assist them. But there is a great difference between the state and situation of the two parties. Government derives its revenue from the prosperity of the country, for no other revenue can last; the lawyers derive their revenue from the distresses of the country, which seem most likely to last; and, therefore, unless there be more heavy taxes, by stamps or otherwise, laid upon the law, the lawyers will be more likely to absorb the remaining part of the capital of the country than the government. The government is possessed of a great part of the capital of the country; but it seems impossible that they can possess themselves of much more. The lawyers are likewise possessed of a great part of the capital of the country, and it appears likely that they will obtain the principal part of the remainder; but how the lawyers and the government alone will be able to support the country, without its national industry, is a question not easily answered. The capital of this country, or a great part of it, has always flowed in the wrong channel,

and nothing but the most persevering industry of the people, under all privations and restrictions, could have made this country what it is. And what would it not have been under other circumstances? Once this country was priest-ridden, now it is lawridden. Once the barons and the church possessed all the property; now the lawyers and the government either possess, or have control over, the whole.

Perhaps, in a free country, as it is called, like England, nothing can be more defective than the practice of the common law. The term common, one should suppose, must imply common, free, and impartial to all; but, whilst law is so expensive and -uncertain, it cannot be called free or impartial, for a poor man may receive wrongs which he has not the power to defend. It may be said that he has nothing to lose, and therefore he cannot be materially injured on this account, and it is true that he cannot fear the loss of that which he does not possess; but if he has not money, or landed property, he may have that to lose which is dearer to him than money or land, and a property of a more valuable kind; and should this be taken from him, he loses his all. He has his personal liberty, his character, and industry, the means by which he lives; deprived of these, he has nothing left. To enumerate all the disadvantages which a poor and honest man labours under, in obtaining justice, on account of the expence, delay, and uncertainty of the law, would be useless, even, if it were possible. They

are also too well known to require any exemplification. Poverty and forbearance prevent many occurrences of the kind, otherwise they would be more numerous than they are. It may be sufficient, perhaps, to state one circumstance, among thousands, which happened some time ago with respect to the law of arrest. A gentleman, from Hamburgh, came to London to recover a debt of eight thousand pounds, justly due to him from a person in the city. He pressed hard for the payment without effect, and at last threatened to have recourse to law, upon which his debtor issued a writ against him for double the amount of what was justly due to himself; he was thrown into prison, where he was kept from June to November, it being so large a sum no one would bail him as a foreigner. He was then liberated, the plaintiff not proceeding against him; but he had, in the interim, made off with the money justly due to the defendant. who had then no remedy for the recovery of his money, or indemnity for the loss of his liberty.

The law of arrest often defeats the ends of justice, and cannot be said to be consistent with the liberty of the subject. If a man contract a debt which he is unable or unwilling to pay, and he does this knowingly and willingly, it is a crime for which he ought to suffer, the same as if he had picked the pocket of his creditor; but he has not the same chance, and is treated with less lenity than a thief. The cause of a thief is examined before he can

even be committed, and, without strong evidence, he cannot be sent to prison; but an honest and poor man may be seized and imprisoned for debt, and have his liberty taken from him without ever being heard, or without examination, to know whether the cause be just or unjust, right or wrong; it requires nothing more than the simple affidavit of a man, who may be instigated by malice, or be a villain; and if any transactions, or accounts, have passed between them, it covers the plaintiff against perjury, or action for false imprisonment, let the cause be otherwise ever so unjust. If it appear that there may be a balance due to the plaintiff, the defendant lies in prison, perhaps four or six months, until the cause can be tried; and if it prove that he owes the plaintiff some trifling amount, which he might otherwise have been able to pay, he is thus deprived of the means, by being robbed of his liberty, and by the debt being increased, by expences, to perhaps double or treble its original amount. Here is one man ruined, and another man no ways benefited; but the practitioners of the law take care that some one shall pay their expences, and if the defendant cannot, the plaintiff is attacked; the attorney then gets hold of both, and from him there is not much mercy to be expected. Thus the misfortunes of one man fall upon many; their friends, their families are involved, and desolation extends itself to all around them.