before; and to force me into bankruptcy,
which would end in my creditors not getting
paid a penny, nor a halfpenny, in the pound.
I was so far the sufferer, that I had to
look out for another situation and begin the
world afresh; my creditors were so far the
sufferers, as that I was—or would very soon be—
legally free from all my liabilities towards them.
So much for imprisonment for debt, and our
present law of bankruptcy.

My first meeting—playfully called that "for
choice of assignees"—being over, my second—
called "for examination and discharge"—was
fixed for a day some six weeks later. By this
time I was quite up to all the moves on the
bankruptcy board, and had fully imbibed that
spirit which possesses a man who is hunted by
difficulties and creditors. I saw that my game
lay in keeping my assignee, Tossels, and his attorney,
Ferkinson, in good humour. The ten pounds
promised to the former I paid, as well as five
pounds for making up my accounts, and five
pounds more as a fee for trouble. The original
amount of the bill of which Tossels was the
holder, was a hundred and twenty pounds. Of
this, about sixty pounds remained due. I had
paid, under various pretences, twenty pounds
to Tossels, so there remained but a balance of
forty pounds. I now proposed—through a
third party—to give him two bills of twenty
pounds each, payable at three and six months,
provided he gave his word that he would
not oppose me at my meeting for discharge.
He objected that, in consequence of my
being out of any engagement or situation, my
signature was worth nothing. But he said
that if my father-in-law would give a written
undertaking to a third party—Tossels's name
not being mentioned in the letter, though he
was the person to benefit thereby—that, if I
obtained my discharge at the next meeting, he,
my father-in-law, would give the said party two
bills for twenty-five pounds each, at three and
six months, then Tossels would not only not
oppose me, but would make it his special
business to facilitate my going through the
court smoothly. This my father-in-law agreed
to, and so my path was smoothed with what
justice we will not discuss.

When a bankrupt's assignee has been chosen,
it is in the power of that assignee to worry and
annoy the bankrupt very much. The rule
through this stage of the whitewashing process
is—like the rest of the proceedings in
bankruptcy—the rule of thumb; there is, in fact,
no rule. I know of one young man, who,
after having, like myself, lost his situation
in a merchant's office owing to being
imprisoned for debt, obtained, with great difficulty,
another situation shortly after the choice of
assignee. The latter owed him a grudge, and
insisted that he should attend upon him to
verify accounts at three P.M. every day, the
hour when the young man was busiest in
his office. He remonstrated, but the assignee
would listen to nothing, and said that
if he did not attend at that hour he (the
assignee) would represent to the Commissioner at
the next meeting that the bankrupt had not
done his utmost to give an account of his estate.
He had to give up his appointment, and was
ruined.

But having satisfied my assignee, I had no
such consequence to fear. On the day appointed,
I appeared in court, and the whole affair did not
last half an hour. "In re Smith," said the clerk
of the court; when up got Ferkinson and said,
"I appear for the assignee, your Honour, who is
perfectly content with the assistance the bankrupt
has afforded him in making up his
accounts." "I should like to examine the
bankrupt," said the Commissioner. I stepped
into the witness-box; and being duly sworn,
said that I attributed my failure to insufficiency
of income arising from trade being bad, and
from my commissions as a commercial traveller
being very much reduced; also, to pressure
from creditors. The Commissioner was very
kind in his manner, and, it being officially asked
two or three times whether there was any
opposition "In re Smith," and no answer being
given, I was declared discharged, and was
thenceforward free. My father-in-law kept his
word; Tossels in time got his money. I
obtained another situation.

And now, if any one asks why I wrote this
description of my "difficulties," I reply that I
wrote it to point out the anomalies of our
English bankruptcy laws. Some one has said that
the worst thing you can do with a man is to
hang him. I add, that the next worst thing you
can do with him is to put him in prison. And
above all, as I pointed out in my second chapter,
how is it that, in a country which boasts of its
justice, a man who owes a comparatively small
sum—and who is consequently supposed to be
a comparatively poor man—can be imprisoned
again and again for twenty days at a time, and
yet the debt not be discharged?

Abolish imprisonment for debt, and a great
deal of the rash credit now given will be
abolished with it. Men of all classes will live
more within their means. I do not say that
there should be no remedy for creditors. But
it is not through the imprisonment of debtors,
nor through the Bankruptcy Court, that they
will find their remedy.

PROLL.   A MYSTERY.

IN the last will and testament of Mr. John
Smith, of Allsop-terrace, Halifax (the instrument
may be consulted by the incredulous at
the usual expense of a shilling and patience),
will be found a paragraph to the following
effect:

"Also, I give and bequeath to 'Proll,' whatever
or whomsoever that may prove to be, his
or her heirs or legal representatives, the sum of
three thousand pounds Three per Cent Consolidated
Bank Annuities, desiring that my executors,
hereinafter named, shall make every reasonable
effort for the discovery of the aforesaid 'Proll,'