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¬ditor who sued him has only an equal claim with others zvho were at no expense at all, and even with collusive claimants, set up by the debtor, to cover such property as could not with safety be concealed. — Surely such a system is not merely defective, but is a dangerous nuisance. ¬If the cession of property be adopted as a general rule, it should not be left to the option of the debtor only, at the conclusion of a regular suit, but the creditor ought to have his election also from the beginning, and by the same summary forms as the debtor may resort to in the end, but this could not have been accom- plished without throwing the whole jurisdiction over contracts into the hands of inferior magis- trates, to the very extinction of our ancient courts of law, which would be exposed even to an insult- ing reproof, by having their immemorial juris- dictions swept away. — Upon the whole, there- fore, the practice of imprisonment for debt had far better been reformed and modified, without rashly subverting our legal constitution, which ¬it ¬
