shoes or stockings. The moment a prisoner arrives, he is turned in among the rest, however filthy or diseased he may be.

The irons are remarkably heavy-and all who are confined for felony, whether for re-examination, for trial, or convicted, are loaded with them; and those who are double-ironed cannot take off their small-clothes. The food is one pound and a half of the best bread, and nothing else, the jailer said that many of them had friends, who sent them provisions and these did very well; but many who had been apprehended at a distance, never received any thing beyond the prison allowance, and in such cases he observed a gradual decay of health.

Let it never be forgotten, that of these poor creatures, some are vagrants; often Irish labourers, who have fled from starvation at home, and wandered into England in search of employment, guilty of begging to sustain life; some are convicted of the most trifling offences, and many are untried; that is, after having spent a night wedged in with this mass of uncleanness, they may be proved, on the morrow, as innocent of the imputed crime as the judge who tries

them.

Is this justice,-is it humanity? We live in a free country, and we boast that the rights of the meanest man amongst us, are as inviolable as those of the greatest; we are followers of Christianity, which teaches that we should do unto others as we would that others should do unto us; but we must renounce our pretensions to the one, and abdicate the principles of the other, or we must correct these high and grievous abuses.' pp. 43-44.

From Mr. Nield's volume, it would be easy to extract numberless parallel instances of inhumanity and neglect in all parts of the kingdom. The total of vice and wretchedness thus immediately and continually produced, by this pernicious system, could it be realized in a mass, would appal the imagination.

In Kingston gaol, Mr. Nield found a poor debtor, named Richard Holt, confined for a debt of six guineas, for rent: the costs incurred against him had amounted to 31. 38, and 9d. This poor man told him, that he had maintained a wife and brought ' up ten children, without parochial assistance; but having been in confinement eleven weeks, his wife, and the three younger ' children were then in the workhouse.' Here was no allowance whatever to provide him needful food, nor even water accessible to the prisoner. He was found standing to beg in a narrow passage, fourteen feet long by three wide, with an iron-grated window looking towards the street; and but for the casual inter'ference,' says Mr. N. of sympathy in others, could no longer ' have existed than human nature can do without food.' gaoler, who has no salary,* was a sheriff's officer, and kept a public house.

6

The

* This is a very frequent case. In other cases the salary is 51. or 61. 6s.

In the Kingston Bridewell, Mr. Nield found eleven prisoners who had been committed to hard labour, but not one of whom was employed. Thus it is,' (he quotes the remark from Sir George Paul) that the operation of the law seems rather to resent the injury, than to correct the offender.' Angling in a river was, in one instance which Mr. N. met with, the offence visited with fine and imprisonment!

In Bristol gaol, the condemned room,' as it is termed, is eight feet by thirteen, and nine feet high. Their dungeon, (the Pit) to which you descend by eighteen steps, is seventeen feet in diameter, and eight feet six inches high. It has barrack bedsteads, with beds of straw in canvas; and some benevolent gentlemen of the city occasionally send a few rugs.' This close and dreary place, which has only a very small window, was, in 1801, chiefly appropriated to convicts under sentence of transportation, seventeen of whom are said to have slept there every night! The turnkey himself told Mr. Nield, that when he unlocked the door in a morning, the putrid stream issuing from the dungeon, was enough to strike him down.

In Caermarthen castle, Mr. Nield found in 1808, six debtors, and sixteen felons. Here is one spacious court for both men and women debtors, in which there is a well, and a reservoir is prepared to supply the prison with water; but this having been out of repair four months, at the period of Mr. Nield's visit, the prisoners had been all that time without that necessary article, except what they bought at a halfpenny for a jug-full.Trans'ports have not here the king's allowance of 2s. 6d. per week; and, from sickness, want of water, and filth, were in a state bordering on desperation, and begging to be sent any where to get out of so miserable a place. One of them, a woman, who had been two years under sentence of transportation, had a young child at her breast, of which she said, the late gaoler was the father, A similar instance I met with in Dover town-gaol, in September, 1801.* Several of the prisoners I 'found here ill; and one in particular could not turn herself in bed; yet, they told me, the surgeon had not, for two months, either seen any of them, or sent his assistant, though frequently applied to.'

The name of this woman is afterwards given, Isabella Mode. She had been in Dover gaol three years, under sentence of transportation, and had a young child born in the prison, of which she asserted that Harris, the late keeper, was the father. This hapless female had an allowance of ten-pence a day during her detention, and one shilling on a Sunday, for the maintenance of herself and her infant.

Few persons who visit Dover castle, have any idea of there being within it a prison for debtors; yet such is the fact, and pitiable is their condition. There is no allowance for them whatever; chaplain, none; surgeon, none.' Each prisoner pays 28. 4d. per week for a bed, two sleeping together, and they are frequently obliged to pay a man for bringing them 'the common necessaries of life; which, in consequence, stand 'them in 20 per cent. above their value: nay, sometimes, even 'a pail-full of water costs them a penny. They are also obliged "to pay a woman for washing out their rooms, as neither mops, pails, brooms, fire, nor candle, are allowed.' The fees, which are to be paid by every prisoner, over and above the weekly rent, on his gaining a release, amount to no less a sum than 24, 78. id. At the suit of the crown, a prisoner may lay eleven months in the town gaol of Dover, and from ten to twenty months in the Castle gaol, without a trial, or being brought before a court of justice, there being with regard to this, as a privileged' gaol, no regular or settled times for gaol-deliveries!

6

6

But with regard to the treatment of debtors, no prison, at the time of Mr. Nield's statement, presented so great enormity of abuses as the King's Bench prison. The fees and emoluments of the marshal's office amounted, according to the Report made in July, 1809, to 2,6601., but from a statement sent to Mr. N. they appear to have been upwards of 7,900l. per annum! This office was formerly hereditary in a private family; but in the 27th of George the Second, an Act was passed in order to render the gaoler removable; and 10,500l. of public money was paid to the family as an indemnity: the consequence is, that the place is now disposed of by purchase. The income of the deputy is stated at 2107. and his office is a sinecure, the duties of it being executed by the clerk of the day rules. There is no allowance 'whatever.' Surgeon, none: sickness, accompanied with po'verty, finds here,' says Mr. N. neither pity nor relief.' chaplain's salary, estimated at about 100l. per annum, is stated to arise from proceedings in suits against prisoners, which are 'taken for, and paid to him, by the several judges' clerks at 'their chambers?' The prison is adapted to accommodate not more than 220: the prisoners actually within the walls, are, on an average of ten years, from 500 to 700. They are generally 'chummed together, two, and sometimes three, upon a room.' When a debtor is first committed to this prison, he is entitled 'to have what is called a chummage, as soon as he has paid 'his fees. This chummage is a ticket given him by the clerk of the papers, to go into such a room; and whether it be to a 'whole room, the half, or the third of a room, must entirely de'pend on the number of prisoners within the walls. But as it is

The

465

more convenient for persons, when they first come to this prison, to hire a bed for a week or two, there are always great numbers of distressed persons willing to hire out their beds, on being paid two or three shillings per night. Others, who are distressed, let their right to half a room at 5s. per week, and sleep in the tap-room, on the benches, in hammocks, or on te mattresses. The clerk of the papers has the entire management and disposition of the rooms. eldest turnkey, who goes round every Monday morning, and He is assisted by the receives the weekly rent of one shilling.'

When once prisoners are admitted on the poor-side, they become entitled to their share of all charities, bequests, gifts, and donations: a list of them ought to be put up in some conspicuous part of the prison; but, for some reasons, it is not complied with. Every person, as soon as he is admitted on this charity, must also take his turn to hold the begging-box at the door; which prevents many, who have lived in respectable situations, from applying for relief in this way. Nay, there are instances of men that have held situations in the army and navy, respectable merchants and tradesmen, who, (sunk in misfortune and abandoned by their former friends,) rather than submit to this degradation, have shut themselves up for months in their rooms, and become so emaciated, from the want of wholesome and necessary food, as to lay the foundation of those disorders, which ended in their death.'

In Ilchester gaol, Mr. Nield paid the fees of a poor debtor, hose plaintiff had forgiven him his debt; but there was nother demand, of six shillings and eightpence, by the underheriff of the county of Somerset, for his liberate, before the ischarge of which the prisoner could not be set at liberty.'

In Hertford gaol, this indefatigable philanthropist found, at ne of his visits, twelve house-of correction prisoners, four of hom were sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment, without ny employment whatever, although they much wished for it; nd bitterly, says Mr. N., did they complain, at not being allowed more than one hour of enlargement out of the twentyfour, to get a little fresh air; at no firing being supplied to them in cold weather; and at being denied the indulgence of either soap or towels, for personal or prison cleanliness.' At a ubsequent visit, four years afterwards, Mr. Nield found the cells ess offensive, owing to the prisoners being permitted the use of court-yard, which indulgence, he was informed by the keeper's On, was in consequence of his remarks at former visits.

'It has been exceedingly painful for me,' pursues the benevoent Writer, to observe, though Truth and the Duty of humanity, call me to it, that those prisoners committed to the Felons' Gaol, (and some of them even for comparatively trivial VOL. IX. N.S. 20

i

offences, and before a trial) are here immediately put in irons,* and at night are fastened (two together) down to the flooring of their cells, by a chain passed through the main link of each man's fetter, and padlocked to a strong iron staple in the floor; and with this additional aggravation of their daily misery, are left to pass the hours destined by Nature to ease and refreshment, upon loose straw only, scattered on the floor. A man may thus suffer six months imprisonment under the bare suspicion of a crime, from which, at the end of that dreary term, his Country may, perhaps, honourably acquit him. Under circumstances of this kind I saw four prisoners here on the 20th of Sept. 1808. The severities which may be practised under imprisonment, are justly reckoned by Judge Blackstone as most dangerous, because the least public, and the least striking engine of arbitrary Government, for it is there that the prisoner's sufferings are forgotten or unknown.'

In Hereford Gaol, there are, in one of the courts, down eleven steps, two horrid dungeons, totally dark, which, it is said, are now never used. The felons have three close offensive sleeping rooms, which Mr. Nield found scattered over with loose straw, 'dirty and worn to dust. Here is likewise one room, justly denominated The Black-Hole, which, if not impenetrably dark, has no light or ventilation, save what is faintly admitted through a small aperture in the door. It is supplied with a barrack 'bed-stead and loose straw; and in this wretched sink-hole was found a poor deranged man, in the most filthy and pitiable 'state that it is possible to conceive.' Mr. Nield was, however, subsequently informed that this wretched gaol was undergoing great alterations.

The most pitiable objects in the British gaols, are in general the Debtors. In some prisons within or near the Metropolis, as well as in others far remote, the Debtors have no bread, although it is granted to the Highwayman, the Housebreaker,

*Nothing (says Mr. Buxton,) can be more capricious than the existing practice with regard to irons.

In Chelmsford, and in Newgate, all for felony are ironed.

At Bury, and at Norwich, all are without irons.*

At Abingdon, the untried are not ironed.

At Derby, none but the untried are ironed.

At Cold-bath fields, none but the untried, and those sent for reexamination are ironed.

At Winchester, all before trial are ironed; and those sentenced to transportation after trial.

At Chester, those alone of bad character are ironed whether tried or untried.'

* When I say none are ironed, it is to be understood, without they are refractory, or attempt to escape.'