han 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.

The wilful debtor is, first of all, a thief and a robber, because he
retains unjustly the lawful possessions of another. There is no
difference bet