There is an Indian proverb that it is wise to go to law once, foolish to go twice. I asked an Indian about this.
"Why is it wise to go once?" I asked.
"Because," he answered, "you learn a great deal, quite a great deal, which you never forget. You learn, anyhow, not to go twice."
"But," I objected, "suppose on a subsequent occasion money were due to you which you couldn't get, would you sit down under the loss?"
He looked at me and laughed. "Well," he said, "if it were a small debt I should let it go. If I thought the man could not pay I would let it go, big or little; but if I thought he could pay and wouldn't, I wouldn't sue him; no, but I wouldn't put up with him either."
"What then would you do?"
"Well," he answered reflectively, "I think I should rob him."
"But that might bring you into a Criminal Court," I remonstrated.
"So it might," he replied; "but the Criminal Courts can't be worse than the Civil; and, anyhow, it would be a change."
As to the Insolvent side of the Civil Courts, perhaps if I say that it is no nearer the people than any other side, enough will have been said, and later on I shall have a story to tell of some of my experiences, but this is not the place.