against the culprit, and all losses incurred must be
ascribed to "an act of God," as the coroner says. For no mart can be
held to what is impossible.

Chief among these moral, as well as legal, bankrupts is the
good-for-nothing fellow who is sorry too late, who has nothing, has no
hopes of ever having anything, and who therefore can give nothing. You
cannot extract blood from a beet, nor shekels from an empty purse. Then
a man may lose all his belongings in a catastrophe, and after striving
by labor and economy to pay off his debts, may see himself obliged to
give up the task through sickness, misfortune or other good causes. He
has given all he has, he cannot give more. Even though liabilities
were stacked up mountain-high against him, he cannot be held morally
responsible, and his creditors must attribute their losses to the
misfortune of life--a rather unsubstantial consolation, but as good a
one as the poor debtor has.

There are other cases where the obligations of restitution are not
annulled, but only cancelled for the time being, until such a time as
circumstances permit their being met without grave disaster to the
debtor. The latter may be in such a position that extreme, or great,
want would stare him in the face, if he parted with what he possesses
to make restitution. The difficulty here is out of all proportion with
the injustice committed for, after all, one must live, and charity
begins at home, our first duty is toward ourselves. The creditors of
this man have no just claim against him until he improves his
circumstances; in the meantime, the burden of responsibility is lifted
from his shoulders.

The same must be said when the paying off of a debt at any particular
time, be it long or short, would cripple a man's finances, wipe out his
earnings to such an extent as to make him fall considerably below his
present position in life. We might take a case during the late coal
famine, of a man who, in order to fill his contracts of coal at six
dollars a ton, would be obliged to buy it at fifteen and twenty dollars
a ton; and thereby sacrifice his fortune. The thing could not be
expected, it is preposterous. His obligee must wait and hope for better
times.

A man's family is a part of himself. Therefore the payment of a just
debt may be deferred In order to shield from want parents, wife,
children, brothers or sisters. Life, limb and reputation are greater
possessions than riches; consequently, rather t