other causes; nor will it neglect to announce the number of those who are CHARLES N. BALDWIN, supplied with food from that inestima AND PUBLISHED BY JOHN B. JANSEN, No. 15 Chatham-street, At two dollars per annum, payable quarterly in advance. Persons at a distance may have the paper regularly forwarded to them by mail, provided they forward the requisite advance, post paid. TO THE PUBLIC. THE chief object of this publication will be to spread before an enlightened public the deplorable effects resulting from the barbarous practice of imprisonment for debt-to exhibit the misery of its wretched victims, and the unfeeling conduct of unpitying creditors. By these means, "with truth as its guide, and justice for its object," it will, it is hoped, gradually prepare the minds of the community for the entire abolition of a law which exists a dishonor to the precepts of Christianity, and as a blot on the statute book. It will be published weekly, in an octavo form, each number to consist of eight pages, comprising a succinct and correct history of the interesting incidents which daily occur in the debtors prison-a correct Journal of prisoners received and discharged from ble body, the Humane Society, to whom the profits of this publication will be faithfully applied, as a small testimonial of the gratitude felt by the unfortunate inmates of the prison, for their distinguished beneficence. It will contain interesting extracts from the latest European and American publications. In its columns will be found a variety of communications on various interesting subjects, from gentlemen without the prison walls, who have kindly volunteered their services to furnish us with essays on the ARTS and SCIENCES, criticisms on the DRAMA, POETRY, &c. This work will be edited, and its matter carefully revised by several prisoners, who, if they cannot themselves enjoy the benefits of their labor, may at least feel a pleasure in the reflection that after ages will bestow a pitying tear on their sufferings, and bless them for the exertions made to rescue their country from the only vestage of feudal tyranny remaining in a land that boasts of freedom. The small pittance paid for its perusal, will, it is beleived, procure for it the patronage of a generous public, who will be amply remunerated in performing a duty subserving the great and benign ends of Charity, while in return they are furnished with a species of reading not to be met with in any other publication. From the National Advocate. BANKRUPT LAW. ATTEMPTS have been so frequently made in Congress to obtain the passage of a bankrupt law, and without success, that the states must now relinquish the hope, and modify their insolvent laws to suit the exigency of the times, and give a reciprocal protection to debtor and creditor. In this state there is much to be done. The law is very defective in several respects; and instead of being a benefit, which it was intended to be, it operates as a real grievance to many honest debtors we say honest, because, if there are rogues in trade, it will not be disputed that honest men may be unfortunate. A creditor may "call a jury at the first hearing," and when the trial comes on he may upset the application. From this there is no appeal, although no fraud may have been made to appear: yet a specification, however irrelevant, is made good. This irrelevant specification is confirmed; that, however, is of no moment to the jury-they find the specification true, and, the court not examining whether the specification contains objections embraced by law, the applicant is put back; and in conse quence of the right of appeal being refused, he has to go over the whole of the proceedings, which will take him an additional three months, making it six months before the poor broken down insolvent can obtain his release, and even then he may be put back upon the ground of some informality! 1st. The law ought to contain a clause allowing an appeal or postponement where evidence is wanting and can be had, (but which the insolvent was not aware of, until his appear. ance before the jury) and no fraud shown. law now stands, we are made to learn, for the first time, that none but freeholders can do justice to a creditor, or between man and man. 3d. The commissioner ought to have power to compel the attendance of jurors, or supply their places. It has already happened that an insolvent's case was postponed nearly a month in consequence of some of the jury not attending when summoned. 4th. The law ought to be rendered plain and intelligible. A case recently occurred, where the insolvent was put back, and upon irrelevant specifications; and, after going through all the forms of a second application, the creditors opposed, on the ground, that he had no right to a second hearingthat his first petition being dismissed, he was barred from embracing the benefit of the law. 5th. A clause ought to be inserted which should release the bail, for the insolvent, upon his handing an authenticated copy of his discharge to the sheriff. As the law now is, the discharge of the insolvent does not release the bail, without going to the trouble and expense of exonerators. Such is the uncertainties of this abortion of a law, and that such gross crudeness should have been sanctioned by a former Legislature, is truly surprizing. It is to be hoped the present Legislature will remedy its defectsand if they are not disposed to follow the enlightened policy of Pennsylvania and Tennessee, in finally abolishing imprisonment for debt, they may be led to discover, there is as much real barbarity in a creditor locking up a poor and honest debtor, without means to support him, as in putting to death captives taken in battle. This is not alone our opinion of the defects of the law, but the opinion of others more conversant on the subject. At all 2d. Any citizen qualified to vote events, a weekly allowance should be ought to be allowed to serve as a jury-paid by creditors to sustain life in their man in an insolvent's case. As the imprisoned debtors if imprisonment for debt is not abolished, or the law modified. And while we are on the subject, it is well to repeat, that the filthy dungeon in which debtors are confined, is a disgrace to humanity and to the city. The miserable occupants of that dilapidated building cannot breathe a pure or wholesome air. Grand juries should present it as a nuisance, and the different benevolent institutions in the city should make it an object of their particular attention. It is the decayed condition of the building, and its want of every comfort and convenience, that renders it a nuisance to the neighborhood and its tenants. The following interesting article on imprisonment for debt, is from the pen of Samuel Woodworth, Esq. The elegant temple of JUSTICE, for this city and county, yclept the City Hall, is correctly esteemed as the paragon of architectural beauty, shape, and proportion. It is pleasantly situated near the centre of the city, at an equi-distance between our two great rivers, with a verdant promenade spread before and behind, intersected with gravelled walks, and planted with flourishing trees, whose refreshing shade render it at once inviting and healthy. In the rear stands an extensive edifice consecrated to the arts and sciences-the New-York Institution, the centre point or focus which collects the rays of genius from every section of our country. On the highest pinacle of her temple, we behold an effigy of the goddess Astræa, displaying the symbols of her office, and apparently claiming homage for equity and admiration for elegance. But, alas ! on her right and left stand two frowning monsters that give the lie direct to her modest pretensions. Were she not deaf as well as blind, she might hear the curses of the guilty on her right, sadly responded by the groans of the suffering innocent on her left. Were she not a wooden idol, senseless as the prejudice which worships her, she might perceive pampered felony, on the one hand, fed from the public coffers, and starving honesty on the other, depending upon the precarious pittance of casual charity; the former planning schemes of future depredations-the latter drooping in despair for unmerited sufferings! O ye framers of laws, and guardians of human rights "Call you this Justice?-to your trusted hands She gave her scales, and you weigh falshood with them She gave her sword, and 'gainst herself you turn it Of all her awful ensigns, ye retain The force of prejudice, education, and custom, is truly astonishing. It is nothing else that reconciles man to the monstrous inconsistencies which surround him. It is this alone that kindles the funeral pyre of the widowed Hindoo, and feasts their giant idol with human blood. It is this that fills a Turkish seraglio, an Italian convent, and a Spanish Inquisition; and it is this, and this alone, that preserves our Debtors Prisons from the fate of the French Bastile. The Inquisition and the Bastile we now reprobate with horror, and pity while we wonder at the terrible infatuation which could have instituted and supported them. Thus we readily perceive the mote in our brother's eye, but are not aware of the beam in our own. reflect that posterity may read of our persecutions with equal horror, and pity the infatuation of their fathers. We do not The "march of mind" is slow, but certain. The night of Gothic darkness has fled, and the dawn of reason is succeeded by the rising of a glorious As it assun which will never set. cends to the meridian of the moral 1 SABBATH.No. 1. Another week of Imprisonment, is added to more than twenty already en hemisphere, the clouds of bigotry, prejudice, and superstition, will be all gradually dispersed; enlightened reason will become the faithful hand-dured. If by prosecution and persemaid of Revelation, and the monsters we now cherish and hug to our bosoms, (because our fathers called them good) will be consigned to their native hells. They will then be remembered with the same feelings that we now experience while reading of the human sacrifices of Asia; the auto de fees of Europe, the unhallowed traffic of Africa, and the persecutions for quaker-alms will do. Ah! lovely children! ism, and executions for witchcraft, which have disgraced America. ་ It is only because we dare not think for ourselves, but suffer the reins of our intellect to be held by the fleshless shrivelled hand of Tradition, that we are guilty of so many follies, absurdities, and inconsistencies; among which may be ranked Imprisonment for Debt; putting liberty and property upon a par; the birth-right of angels and men in one scale, and a heap of earth in the other. The former is spiritual, and aspires like the soul to heaven-the latter is dirt, and descends like the body to its kindred earth. The system is a monster; the blackest fiend in the court of Beelzebub-yet he has so imposed on the eye of prejudice, as to be mistaken for an angel of light. But his reign, we trust, is nearly at an end. cution my creditor can get payment of the debt due from me to him, he is indeed in a fair way of recovery; for he can make a levy on the Soup furnished me by the good Samaritans, the Humane Society, or by a seizure of my wife and children. But the latter he will not do; they must be fed and clothed, which none but me or the public Poor little helpless innocents! love and respect your mother, and your Heavenly Father will love, guard and protect you; he will provide for you food and raiment, conduct your footsteps, and bring you at last to his Heavenly home. But of my wife, my dearly be loved Maria, what blessing can I give her; of money I have none; I have nothing to offer except a husband's love. At this moment I am interrupted by the sight of my wife, trudging amid rain and sleet to the door of the Prison, and bearing on her arm my basket of food, and dangling by her side comes my poor little Mary. The ringing of the bells in the various Churches, announce that we have rea ched another Sabbath; but it is to me no Sabbath, for the messenger of mer cy cheers not the tenants of this gloo my Prison, by proclaiming the com Enlightened and benevolent minds, passion and mercies of Him, who said in all countries, and of all denomina-"I was sick and ye visited me; tions, are daily becoming convinced of in prison and ye came unto me." the injustice, impolicy, and cruelty of the system we oppose. The sacred cause of justice and humanity is now urged from the pulpit, the rostrum, and the press-and the friends of mercy will never hold their peace, but continue to cry aloud and spare not,' until complete success shall crown their pious labors. TO BE CONCLUDED. I was I am now dandling my darling child o on my knee, and the rigours of impri sonment seem softened by the patience and fortitude of my wife, under accu mulated sufferings the tear of melan choly has been kissed and wiped from my cheek by this innocent cherub, who has beguiled two hours of their visit. It is now time for their attendance at St. George's Church, and my mind seems involuntarily drawn to the con that a work emanating from this place should be conducted with much talent, our situation and our previous pursuits have not been literary. We have ge templation of that passage to be found in our old Prayer books, wherein it is said in the Lord's Prayer, "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our Debtors," and I am constrained to acknow-nerally and almost universally, heretoledge that I am pleased to observe that this hypocritical part is changed to something more congenial to the feelings and practice of civil society as it now is. Away they go, clad in dresses of cleanliness, to meet their dear helpmates, brothers and sisters, and receive the blessing of Him who in old time said, "Suffer little children to come unto me, for of such is the kingdom of Heaven." The Reverend Pastor of this respectable church will teach them the initiatory duties of children, by hearing their recitals of the Catechism, and by giving them to understand its primary obligations, and by comforting their dear mother in her privation and distress. O blessed Saviour and Redeemer of the World! it was for trials and sufferings like these that thou made thyself manifest in the flesh, and proclaimed the glad tidings of universal salvation to all who should believe on thy divine mission, be pleased to receive the offering of an humble and contrite heart, and continue to afford that protection to my destitute family, which thou hast heretofore provided, and the Husband and Father will be alleviated. DANVERS. [TO BE CONTINUED.] SATURDAY, APRIL 8, 1820. THE novelty of the publication which we this day present to our readers, will, it is believed, attract the atention of many who have not as yet discerned the multitude of evils grow ng out of Imprisonment for Debt; and will perhaps, gain the notice of nany a desultory reader. It cannot se expected by an enlightened public, fore, obtained a livelehood by mercantile and mechanical industry-and while on this subject, we beg leave explicitly to state, that waging war as we are with the barbarous practice of Im prisonment for Debt, we shall most rigidly abstain from the mention of the names of any of those individuals who hold prisoners in confinement; and that scurrility and abuse shall never find a place in our columns. With these assurances, and the avowed object of the publication kept steadily in view, we ask the patronage of a liberal and generous community. Mr. J. B. JANSEN having kindly volunteered his services to undertake the agency of this work, the public is respectfully informed that a Subscription Paper is left at his store, No. 15, Chatham-street, where those citizens who are favourable to the undertaking are invited to leave their signatures. Discipline of the Prison.-We owe it to truth, justice, gratitude, and to ourselves, to state that there is not any thing in the regulations and discipline of the prison that meets our disapprobation. But that whilst virtue is respected, kindness esteemed, benevolence valued, and the precepts of Christianity followed, Thos. Lowndes, the keeper, has an irresistible claim upon every generous feeling of our hearts. And we should be wanting in the discharge of our duty were we to omit to mention the polite and gentlemanly |