his expectation. "The chaplain feels much pleasure in closing his journal at the expiration of the year, with stating, that the general conduct of the prisoners during their confinement in the penitentiary has been most satisfactory. The repentance and amendment of many of them is visible; and there is every reason to presume, that on their leaving the prison they will become honest and industrious members of society."

Your committee are fully aware of the expense which the plan of building a new prison will entail on the finances of the country, but they cannot consider the cost entirely additional, or one of which, if the object to be attained is brought into account, the public can have any right to complain. At present the children committed to the different prisons are main tained at the county or city charges. And your committee do not propose to shift that cost on the public treasury; they have been informed by persons who have taken pains to obtain a correct estimate as to the expense of the maintenance of prisoners, that on an average, the cost at the Philan thropic, the Refuge for the Destitute, and the common prisons, may be taken at 127. per annum ; and that part of that expense may be defrayed by the labours of the prisoners.

Upon the important question of employing convicts in the different prisons, as well as on board the hulks, both as to the moral no less than the economical consequences, your committee at present wish to give no decisive opinion. They, however, entertain little doubt that the whole system VOL. LIX.

of maintaining the convicts of the country is susceptible of great improvement, and they trust they shall be enabled to enter more fully into that subject early in the ensuing session.

Your committee feel conscious that they have not made as full a report upon the various subjects of their inquiries as perhaps might have been expected from them; they have thought fit to separate these subjects into distinct heads, and they have brought them before the House in the order of their importance. There are, however, many points which they are anxious to take into their serious consideration; viz. the establishments of the police; the attendance of the magistrates; the duties of the inferior parish officers; the state of the public streets; the laws concerning the suppression of disorderly houses; all of them are, in their view, objects of great public importance; and in order to bring them in the most advantageous manner under the view and consideration of parliament, your committee trust they shall be permitted to renew their labours in the ensuing session.

tions regarding Extents in Aid, which have been presented to the House in this Session of Parliament, were referred; have, pursuant to the order of the House, examined the matters to them referred, and have agreed to the following report:In the execution of their duty, your committee, adverting to the specific terms of their appointment, have considered it as directing their attention not so much to speculative or historical inquiries, as to points more immediately practical; they have therefore refrained from going more at large into the origin and history of extents in aid than seemed necessary to the elucidation of the subject; and they have the more willingly adopted this course, because these writs having commenced in the early ages of our monarchy, when the frame of society differed so widely, in almost every point, from that state of things which we now witness. However interesting such an inquiry might be as a subject of antiquarian research, it could not be expected to afford much practical instruction. They might perhaps even suggest, that the very antiquity, which in some cases might be regarded as a sanction to legal proceedings, would be more likely in the present instance, if held up as a precedent, or proposed as an example, to delude and mislead.

When our monarchs, in the days of the Edwards and Henrys, depended for the success of their expeditions on the produce of the estates of the crown, of scutages on knights' fees, and other feudal services performed or commuted, or of duties let out to farm, and a

thousand occasional exactions, in which neither justice nor the convenience of the subject were much regarded, it will not appear surprising if the sheriffs, or other arbitrary collectors of such revenues, were vested with very summary powers; especially as the king himself was, in reality as well as in theory, too much engaged about the "ardua regni” to pay the necessary attention to his treasury; and matters of finance were not then systematized as now, and placed under the management of public officers assembled in boards, whose only business is to superintend the different departments, so as to ensure just, regular, and efficient collection. There seems also reason to apprehend that the sheriffs were sometimes compelled to undertake this task, and made in some degree responsible for its execution; but the officer, his duties, and his powers, were known. His most frequent debtors seem also to have been the persons he was obliged to employ in the temporary custody or transmission of his receipts, who, if they became defaulters, had probably been either negligent or criminal; and of whom, therefore, there was some colour for seeking the repayment of the king's monies with despatch and even rigour. In those times, too, little national inconvenience, comparatively, could arise from such proceedings; commerce, so far from forming, as in the present day, a main pillar of our national strength and prosperity, being then unimportant.

Even in 1433, during the memorable reign of Henry V., as appears from the records of Parliament,

liament, the customs on wood, goods, and tonnage and poundage, amounted only to 40,688/., which may be taken as equal to about 250,000l. of money at its present value. But another reason also presents itself for limiting our observations to more recent periods; for, although regulations connected with this subject are to be found in the statute-book certainly as far back as Edward I., yet it is the statute of 33 Henry VIII. cap. 9, on which extents at the suit of the crown are founded; and whatever may be thought of the character of Henry or of his government, yet the tenour of that statute affords a strong presumption that the courts thereby created for the king's lands (and which in the 1st of Mary were united to the Exchequer) were intended to take cognizance only of debts bona fide due immediately to the king; and that the extensions of the process which have since arisen have been unwarranted encroachments.

That the temptation afforded to individuals speedilyproduced abuse, we have indeed convincing evidence in the privy seal of 12 Jac. I. (1614), which in the strongest terms acknowledges and condemns the practices by which the "prerogative had been made an instrument of oppression and greefe to his loving subjects," and "the commerce, intercourse, and dealing between men and men greatly hindered;" nor could James's love of power, or high notions of prerogative, render him insensible to these evils, or to the duty of correcting them. Notwithstanding this royal and wholesome inter

ference, however, we find that in 1639, 15 Car. I., it became expedient to frame rules in the Court of Exchequer, apparently for the remedy of similar inconveniences : since which time, your committee observe with concern, that the issue of this prerogative process has increased in a degree inconsistent with the equitable spirit of the Bankrupt Laws, and the ease of the subject, and peculiarly illsuited to the state of things produced by that extended commerce of which this country so justly boasts.

At what particular time the law acquired that latitude of interpretation, of which some individuals have not scrupled to avail themselves with such mischievous effect, does not exactly appear. That sudden and excessive growth of the issue of these writs, which alarmed and irritated the whole country, did not occur until 1815: their previous use having been almost wholly confined to the department of stamps, out of which alone nearly half of all issued since the year 1806 have proceeded. From the accounts in the appendix, it will appear, that the whole number of extents in aid issued from the office (the king's remembrancer's), from 1801 to 1814, both inclusive, had been only 207, or less than 15 per annum, of which the majority, probably, had a legitimate object, i. e. the recovery from the parties of monies which really belonged to the public, and might otherwise have been lost.

Of the multitude which have lately been granted, a very small proportion can pretend to this 2 B 2 character,

character, but have been obtained for the purpose of gaining an unjust priority in the recovery of private debts, in direct contradiction to the law, as formerly laid down ; and an inspection of the documents will yield the strongest presumption, that many persons have procured themselves to be made crown debtors, with the express and sole view of abusing the power they surreptitiously obtained.

The avowed object of these writs being to obtain this preference over all other creditors in the division of an insolvent's effects, in defiance, as your committee think, of the common dictates of justice, and of the intention of all the laws respecting bankrupts, it is of their very nature to inflict hardship; without this they do not attain their end but in order better to illustrate the full effect of the process, it will be expedient shortly to trace it from its commencement, leaving the more full detail to be collected from the minutes of evidence.

:

The crown debtor, suing for the process in his favour, must first record his own debt; if it be on bond, by the exhibition of that bond; if otherwise,* by a commission, as it is called, composed of two persons, one of whom is generally a clerk in the Remembrancer's office, and the other the under sheriff, or his clerk, who receive one guinea each for their return; on this the extent issues against the crown debtor, which

⚫ It appears to be the soundest opinion that no other debtor could claim it at all. See Evid. p. 22, et al. App. No. 4. Bunbury.

however may properly be termed collusive, as it is not only done at his own request, for his own exclusive advantage, on evidence furnished by himself only, but the words directing the seizure of his body, goods, and lands, are omitted in the warrant. The debts due to this crown debtor are then found by an inquisition or inquiry, made before the sheriff and a jury summoned for that purpose; when the viva voce testimony, or even the affidavit of the creditor himself, or of a third person (often without any examination), is accepted as sufficient proof of the debts, though the debtor not only has no notice to attend to make objections, but, unless by accident, has no means of knowing any thing of the proceeding against him and the jury seem to be of a description most incompetent to perform any duty of delicacy or difficulty; men whose office is considered as wholly formal; who rely on the direction of the under sheriff, or some one in his employ, generally acting as their foreman; and of whose quality a proper estimate may be formed from their receiving one shilling each from the prosecutor on giving their verdict, and in cases where "they have had any extraordinary trouble, sometimes a guinea being thrown among them." After the proof of the debt, by this evidence, and before such a jury, an affidavit is made in which the following particulars are stated; viz.

1st. The debt due to the crown: 2d. The debt due to the crown debtor by his debtor :

3d. That such debtor is in bad circumstances, and the debt in danger of being lost :

4th. That it is a debt originally due to him, and without trust:

5th. That it has not been sued for elsewhere:

6th. That by not recovering it, the crown debtor would be less able to pay the crown. On each of these points a few observations may be expedient:

1st. The statement of the debt to the crown.-As the real object throughout is solely the advantage of the individual, so he can in most cases make this debt appear larger or smaller, as may best suit his purpose, especially if it be a bond debt; by stating either the whole sum for which he is bound, or that portion only which is due or demandable at the time.*

2dly. The debt due to the crown debtor. This being taken on his own evidence, without any means of contravening it, instances are not wanting of persons resorting to an extent in aid as the shortest mode to obtain pa,inent of a disputed account : for which, indeed, it affords facilities which no other process will give.

3dly. "That the debt is in danger, unless means more speedy than the common course of law can be resorted to."

Formerly this made little or no difference, because on proof of any debt due to the crown, however small, a man might procure an extent in aid against his debtor for any debt, however large; but this gross absurdity, as well as injustice, having been remedied by the act just passed, it may now become, in some cases, of consequence to prove the debt to the crown as largely as possible; and it will be seen in the Appen dix, that a sub-distributer of stamps has called himself a bond-debtor to the crown in 1,2001. when his sale or distribution varied from only about 4001. to less than 8001. per annum.—Evid. p. 21.

This part of the affidavit, though implying the injury done to the other creditors, and therefore justifiable only on the strong presumption, at least, that the public interest would suffer from the loss, is deemed indispensable in all cases; and, therefore, when the private creditor is anxious to secure himself at all events, it is not wonderful that the assertion should sometimes be hazarded on slight grounds; accordingly it has been stated, on the loosest evidence— mere assertion of hearsay; and the " fiat," with all its destructive consequences, has been granted on no better foundation. It has happened, that after all the mischief has been accomplished, and the man ruined, the extent itself has been set aside for want of sufficient proof on this necessary

point.

4thly. That the debt is originally due to the party without trust. Your committee must doubt if this can be truly sworn, when, at the request of a man holding a bill of exchange, a bond debtor to the crown consents to take it of him, knowing at the time that the party to pay it is insolvent; and when the matter comes before the court, rather chooses to abandon it than proceed to trial. The transfer of debts for

this purpose, by taking bills of exchange, has been frequent notwithstanding this deposition.

5thly. That the debt has not been put in suit in any other court ;- -a proceeding rarely ne