ditors, he chose to
spend all the effects which should have paid the creditors, and at last
perished in misery.

But now the case is altered; men make so little of breaking, that many
times the family scarce removes for it. A commission of bankrupt is so
familiar a thing, that the debtor oftentimes causes it to be taken out
in his favour, that he may sooner be effectually delivered from all his
creditors at once, the law obliging him only to give a full account of
himself upon oath to the commissioners, who, when they see his
integrity, may effectually deliver him from all further molestation,
give him a part even of the creditors' estate; and so he may push into
the world again, and try whether he cannot retrieve his fortunes by a
better management, or with better success for the future.

Some have said, this law is too favourable to the bankrupt; that it
makes tradesmen careless; that they value not breaking at all, but run
on at all hazards, venturing without forecast and without consideration,
knowing they may come off again so cheap and so easy, if they miscarry.
But though I cannot enter here into a long debate upon that subject, yet
I may have room to say, that I differ from those people very much; for,
though the terror of the commission is in some measure abated, as
indeed it ought to be, because it was before exorbitant and
unreasonable, yet the terror of ruining a man's family, sinking his
fortunes, blasting his credit, and throwing him out of business, and
into the worst of disgrace that a tradesman can fall into, this is not
taken away, or abated at all; and this, to an honest trading man, is as
bad as all the rest ever was or could be.

Nor can a man be supposed, in the rupture of his affairs, to receive any
comfort, or to see through his disasters into the little relief which he
may, and at the same time cannot be sure he shall, receive, at the end
of his troubles, from the mercy of the commission.

These are poor things, and very trifling for a tradesman to entertain
thoughts of a breach from, especially with any prospect of satisfaction;
nor can any tradesman with the least shadow of principle entertain any
thought of breaking, but with the utmost aversion, and even abhorrence;
for the circumstances of it are attended with so many mortifications,
and so many shocking things, contrary to all the views and expectations
that a tradesman can begin the world with, that he cannot think of it,
but as we do