Abuses discovered, whereby the Creditors are merely cheated, the Officers of Law, and gaolers are unjustly enriched, and the poor debtor and their families Tyrannically destroyed.  
AMongst many the Considerations I have had of the oppressions common amongst men, this hath seemed to me none of the least, That one man is suffered to devour another, and that by colour of Justice, as in the case of Arrests of men's persons by colour or debts, before Judgement, or Legal conviction. And hearing of your pious endeavours to beget a Law for Redress of such heavy Oppressions and Cruelties now used in that kind, and the Reforming the Ancient Common Law of England in that particular, Do in my Zeal and Sense of other men's Sufferings (and that divers times very unjustly) represent to your view some former Collections of mine, of the many inconveniences which attend such Restraints, before it doth appear that there is a clear and just Debt.  
In the first place therefore, I take the Law to have been fundamentally, That no man's person was liable to Arrest at the Common Law for Debt, no not upon Execution; which you may see 13. H. 4. Fol. 5. That the Statute of 25. Ed. 3. Cap. 17. was the first Law that subjected the Person to Arrest, in case of Debt, the Process before that Law, being Summons, and Capias against the Lands.  

The Abuses and Oppressions introduced since that Law, and under pretence of Justice, are numberless.  
1. That many have been, and are daily Arrested upon feigned Accounts, where no debt is due at Law: And this is a common thing in London; and other Corporations.  
2. Upon Specialties for Debt forged and feigned.  
3. Upon Sleeping Specialties, that have long before been discharged, but the Bond not given in, nor canceled, as they ought; which daily experience showeth upon Bills in Equity for relief in that particular.  
4. Upon Specialties lost or miscarried, and come to the hand of Strangers, who feignedly take Administration.  
5. Upon pretended Debts and Promises.  
6. Upon Accounts for 1000 l. whereas the debt is not an hundred.   
Upon all which, or any of the said Accounts, the party that is arrested must be answerable to the Action, be the debt never so small true, or false, and must therefore lie in Prison until he put in bail: which if in a Corporation, or otherwhere, will be hard for the party Arrested to procure, if not impossible, without troubling his Security for the same debt, binding his hands, to free his heels. Besides, the charge of his Habeas Corpus, in such cases, to remove himself, and put in bail above; when as all this while it doth not Judicially appear whether the party arrested be really indebted or not.  
By this means, the Law, (which truly was intended for Redress) becomes the destruction and ruin of thousands of Families; and the support and maintenance of undersheriffs, Sergeants, bailiffs, gaolers, and catchpoles; the latter of which feed upon the miseries of honest men, or grow rich out of others ruins, and the Debtor thereby more disabled to pay his just debts. And M. Horn in his Mirror of Justice saith, That by such Writs many are destroyed wrongfully: Fol. 233. a. And Fol. 64. b. he saith, The Ancient Law of this Kingdom was, That no Judge was to hear the plaintiff in his cause, if he did not first put Sureties to answer his Adversaries full damages if he complained of him wrongfully.  
And the Ancient proceedings in Chancery was, that the Complainant upon exhibiting his Bill, was to enter Bond to prove the Surmise thereof; otherwise the Defendant was not compealable to answer the same.  
Men are in danger of Arrest several ways and means. By Latitat out of the King's Bench into any County. By Capias upon Original in the Common Pleas. By Capias upon the Exchequer. By Bill upon the Exchequer. By Bill of Middlesex. By Sergeants of the Mace, in Corporations, Towns, and Cities. By bailiffs of Liberties. By Writs of privileges, in nature of Muchmen out of the Chancery. So that the Poor Debtor, nay the non-Debtor, est undique circumventus.  

The Oppressions by colour of Law, are intolerable.  
By Arrests, The Sergeants in Corporations, and Sheriffs, bailiffs, and catchpoles, for making Arrests over and above Fees, take excessive Extortions, as 10. l. 20. l. &c. much more for Arrests: Besides their cruel usage of the Prisoner, his chargeable restraint for diet, Lodging 2 s. 6 d. per night for his bed, and running the Prisoner into extraordinary expenses for Tobacco, Wine, Beer, Ale, which these Harpies will call for, doubling the debt, if little, and enlarging of it, if it were great before.  

By Habeas Corpus. A man arrested here in London, cannot remove himself by Habeas Corpus, from the Counter to any other Prison of King's Bench or Fleet, but it will cost him five Marks; or three pounds from thence to Fleetstreet, to bring him to the judge's chamber. The judge's Fee is (as I take it) 15. s. 4. d. and how many hundred there be of these in a year, may be gathered.  
If by Habeas Corpus the Prisoner be removed out of the Country Prisons, than it will be chargeable to him; 10, 20, 40. l. and according to the distance of the place from whence he is brought up to London.  
Added to these, the Fees of gaolers, Keepers of Prisons, and Turn-keys, the Marshal of the Marshalsea of the upper Bench, and Warden of the Fleet Fees, according to the several qualities of the Persons.   
Commitments, Of an Earl to the Fleet, 20. l. Of a Baron, 15. l. Of a Knight, 5. l. An Esquire, 5. Marks or 3. l. A Gentleman, 2. l. A Yeoman, 1. l. 6. s. 8.   

The seveaal Rates of Chamber Rents, according to the Quality of the Person and Chamber.  
Some 20. s. per week, some 15. some 10. some 5. some 4. shillings per week. And after the same rate for chamber rent a week in the Kings Bench.  
The Fees of Commitment by Habeas Corpus to the King's Bench, is chargeable to the Prisoner, at least 4. l. 12. s. 4. d. Besides for outgoings upon day Writs, 8. s. per diem, for outgoing upon favour. And by Baston. And charge of diet, which the Prisoner hath at great rates.   
When all these charges are heaped upon a man under arrest (perhaps for no just debt) it may be but for a small debt: what a heavy oppression is this to be suffered in a Christian commonwealth▪ A Man may call it a common misery. The debt (if any) is by these charges trebled, the Prisoner, his Children, and Family, dispersed and ruined, the Person himself made useless to the commonwealth, as being bur●●● alive, and more disabled to pay or satisfy his just debts and Creditors, than ever before.  
Sir, I have known when many poor people have been put to 10. s. for a supposed debt of 3. s. 4. d. or a trespass of that value, being Arrested in the Country 120. miles hence, by a Latitat, to draw a Composition, which rather than the poor man will travel to London to answer the Suit, submits unto: and this is the ordinary use of attorneys, which get by it 8. s. 4. d. or thereabout, although the Action might be tried either in the Court Baron of the manor, or country Court, for two shillings six pence Charge.  
So that in Fees to Judges, Lawyers, attorneys, Clerks; and others, and by the oppression and extortion of bailiffs, Sergeants of the Mace, and of Liberties, gaolers and catchpoles, there is exhausted 30000. l. per annum at the least, out of the estates of Debtors, 
You may remember the Act this Parl. for taking away the High Commission, and Commissary Courts, which was burdensome to the Subject, in extorted Fees, 10000 per annum.  and poor Prisoners, not a penny of their debts paid, their estates ruined, and their persons disabled for ever, which certainly was never the intent of that Statute, to undermine the common Law, which had man's liberty in so light an esteem, as if it were not liable to Arrest for debt.  
Sir, I have credibly heard that there hath been ●●●sed 90000. l. per annum by the profit of Imprisonment of Prisoners in the Fleet there. I pray what out of the Prisoners of the King's Bench, which hath larger Rules? And what extorted by gaolers, Sergeant of the Mace, in Corporations, by Clerks, and other Officers of the Country, in London, and throughout the Kingdom? And all this out of the livelihoods, fortunes, and estates, of men in a miserable and wanting condition. And surely, those riches cannot be said to be well gotten, which are drawn from men in misery, which are always as ill spent, for it is informed, that of the 90000. l. most thereof was sacrificed yearly for by favours, &c. and so de caeteris.  
W. G.