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¬remedy for the recovery of debts, the adminis- tration of justice, from no faults of its own, be- came unpopular, and many reformers started up. Temporary expedients were first resorted to — The public councils frequently throwing open the gates of the prisons throughout the whole country; but such acts of necessity produced as many sufferings as they redressed; — they could reach only those who were in custody when they passed, but could take no account of many more who were subject to imprison- ment by the insolvency of their debtors who were set free, and thus the ruined creditors of redeemed prisoners soon took their places, without any hope of redemption, until the intervals between such statutes had passed away. — This was a system of manifest injustice ; yet such is the danger of meddling with old establishments, however imperfect, that although many able and benevolent statesmen clubbed all their talents for its reformation, their new law, even in its infancy, is more destructive of credit, and more injurious to both debtors and credit- ors ¬
