Thus we have in the working of imprisonment for debt everything that is undesirable. The liberty of the subject is at stake, but there is no right of trial by jury, such as the fraudulent bankrupt or any other misdemeanant is entitled to; the evidence on which the debtor is convicted and sent to gaol is any evidence that the judge thinks good enough, and within the limit of six weeks the imprisonment is anything that each particular judge determines. There is, of course, no appeal, and when the prisoner comes out of gaol he still owes the debt, though he cannot be imprisoned again for the same debt or instalment. The multiplicity of these proceedings is appalling. There are over a million small debt summonses issued every year and nearly four hundred thousand judgment summonses, of which about a quarter of a million are heard. What a waste of time and energy it all means. Judges, registrars, solicitors, bailiffs, debt collectors, the piling up of costs and fees on to the original debt, the dragging off to gaol of an occasional debtor _pour encourager les autres_, the breaking up of some poor home, the blackmailing of friends and relations very little better off than the poor debtor himself, the squeezing of the pittance out of the bellies of the little children to keep the father out of prison--what a picture to leave on the canvas of our own generation for our grandchildren to scoff at. And the business result of it! Even when the debt is paid--if it is paid--after years of waiting and hours spent coming down to the Courts seeing if the money is yet paid in--or 20 per cent. paid to a debt collector to do it for you--when all is finished, would it not have been far better if you had recognised that you had made a bad debt and stood yourself a few shillings worth of righteousness in forgiving your debtor his indebtedness? Certain it is that the system is useless to, and very little used by, the respectable individual creditor. Indeed, if he tries to use it, he stumbles into so many pitfalls and finds the procedure of it so troublesome and uncanny that he very often fails to stay the course, and, after a few wasted days, goes his way and leaves the debtor to go his. The best customers of the County Court, indeed the only people to whom the system of imprisonment for debt is of any real service, are those traders who carry on a business which can only be carried on and made to pay by reason of the sanction of the shadow of the gaol which is of the essence of the contract.