of the grave, with a chillness upon the blood, and a tremor
in the spirits. Breaking is the death of a tradesman; he is mortally
stabbed, or, as we may say, shot through the head, in his trading
capacity; his shop is shut up, as it is when a man is buried; his
credit, the life and blood of his trade, is stagnated; and his
attendance, which was the pulse of his business, is stopped, and beats
no more; in a word, his fame, and even name, as to trade is buried, and
the commissioners, that act upon him, and all their proceedings, are but
like the executors of the defunct, dividing the ruins of his fortune,
and at last, his certificate is a kind of performing the obsequies for
the dead, and praying him out of purgatory.

Did ever tradesman set up on purpose to break? Did ever a man build
himself a house on purpose to have it burnt down? I can by no means
grant that any tradesman, at least in his senses, can entertain the
least satisfaction in his trading, or abate any thing of his diligence
in trade, from the easiness of breaking, or the abated severities of the
bankrupt act.

I could argue it from the nature of the act itself, which, indeed, was
made, and is effectual, chiefly for the relief of creditors, not
debtors; to secure the bankrupt's effects for the use of those to whom
it of right belongs, and to prevent the extravagant expenses of the
commission, which before were such as often devoured all, ruining both
the bankrupt and his creditors too. This the present law has providently
put a stop to; and the creditors now are secure in this point, that what
is to be had, what the poor tradesman has left, they are sure to have
preserved for, and divided among them, which, indeed, before they were
not. The case is so well known, and so recent in every tradesman's
memory, that I need not take up any more of your time about it.

As to the encouragements in the act for the bankrupt, they are only
these--namely, that, upon his honest and faithful surrender of his
affairs, he shall be set at liberty; and if they see cause, they, the
creditors, may give him back a small gratification for his discovering
his effects, and assisting to the recovery of them; and all this, which
amounts to very little, is upon his being, as I have said, entirely
honest, and having run through all possible examinations and purgations,
and that it is at the peril of his life if he prevaricates.

Are these encouragements to tradesmen to be negligent a