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 than jeopardize these, one may, for the time, put aside his obligations to make restitution.

All this supposes, of course, that during the interval of delay the creditor does not suffer inconveniences greater than, or as great as, those the debtor seeks to avoid.  The latter’s right to defer payment ceases to exist the moment it comes into conflict with an equal right of the former to said payment.  It is against reason to expect that, after suffering a first injustice, the victim should suffer a second in order to spare the guilty party a lesser or an equal injury.  Preference therefore must be given to the creditor over the debtor when the necessity for sacrifice is equal, and leniency must be refused when it becomes cruelty to the former.

Outside these circumstances, which are rare indeed, it will be seen at once that the creditor may act an unjust part in pressing claims that accidentally and temporarily become invalid.  He has a right to his own, but he is not justified in vindicating that right, if in so doing, he inflicts more damage than equity calls for.  The culprit has a right not to suffer more than he deserves, and it is mock justice that does not respect that right.  If the creditor does suffer some loss by the delay, this might be a circumstance to remember at the final settlement but for the present, there is an impediment to the working of justice, placed by the fatal order of things and it is beyond power to remove it.

CHAPTER XCIX.  DEBTS.

Before closing our remarks, necessarily brief and incomplete, on this subject, so vast and comprehensive, we desire in a few words to pay our respects to that particular form of injustice, more common perhaps than all others combined, which is known as criminal debt, likewise, to its agent, the most brazen impostor and unconscionable fraud that afflicts society, the man who owes and will not pay.  More people suffer from bad debts than from stealing and destruction of property.  It is easier to contract a debt, or to borrow a trifle, than to steal it outright; it is safer, too.  Imprudence is one of the chief characteristics of this genus of iniquity.  “I would sooner owe you this than cheat you out of it:”  this, in word or deed, is the highly spiritual consolation they offer those whom they fleece and then laugh at.