heard this, and fastened the door, while her husband hid him self in
the loft. The bailiff called in a locksmith. The wife's room door was
forced, and they found the woman had hanged herself! The sight of
the corpse did not delay or prevent the officer hunting for the husband.
'I arrest you.' 'I have no money.' 'To prison, then.' 'Very well, let me
give my wife good-bye.' 'That be hanged, like she is herself. She's
dead.' What can you complain of, M---? we only print your own words,
which minutely and blackly paint this frightful picture."

This same paper quotes three or four hundred facts, of which the
following is a fair sample:--

"On collection of a 300 franc debt a warrant-officer charged 964
francs! The debtor, a workman with five children, lay seven months in
prison."

For two reasons, the present writer quotes from "_Le Pauvre
Jacques_," firstly, to show that the chapter just read falls below
reality; and again, to prove that, if merely in a philanthropic point
of view, the maintenance of such a state of things (the exorbitance of
extras, illegally extorted by public servants,) often paralyzes the
most generous intentions. For instance, with 1,000 francs there might
be three or four honest though unfortunate workmen restored to their
families from a prison whither petty debts of 250 or 500 francs had
driven them; but these sums being tripled by a shameful exaggeration
of costs, the most charitable persons often recoil from doing a good
deed at the thought of two-thirds of their bounty merely going to
sheriffs and their officers. And yet, there are few hardships more
worthy of relief than those befalling such unfortunate people as we
speak of.]