but

if he have no work, that that man goes a conspiracy to break into, than to through more punishment in one month break out of, prison. The mob outthan a man who is employed, and receives side may, indeed, envy the wicked a portion of his labour, three months; ones within; but the felon who has still I should like to have employment, left, perhaps, a scolding wife, a battered cottage, and six starving children, has no disposition to escape from regularity, sufficient food, employment which saves him money, warmth, ventilation, cleanliness, and civil treatment. These symptoms, upon which these respectable and excellent men lay so much stress, are by no means proofs to us that prisons are placed upon the best possible footing.

because a great number of times I took men away, who had been in the habit of earning sixpence a week to buy a loaf, and put them in solitary confinement; and the punishment is a great deal more without work. Which of the prisoners, those that have been employed, or those unemployed, do you think would go out of the prison the better men? I think, that let me have a prisoner, and I never treat any one with severity, any further than that they should be obedient, and to let them see that I will do my duty, I have reason to believe, that, if a prisoner is committed under my care, or any other man's care, to a house of correction, and he has to go under the discipline of the law, if he is in for the value

The Governor of Bury jail, as well as Mr. Gurney, insist much upon the few prisoners who return to the jail a second time, the manufacturing skill which they acquire there, and the of a month or six weeks, that man is in a great deal better state than though he complete reformation of manners, for stays for six months; he gets hardened by which the prisoner has afterwards being in so long, from one month to an- thanked him the governor. But this other. You are speaking now of solitude is not the real criterion of the excelwithout labour; do you think he would go lence of a jail, nor the principal reason out better, if he had been employed during why jails were instituted. The great the month you speak of? No, nor half; because I never task those people, in order point is, not the average recurrence of that they should not say I force them to the same prisoners; but the paucity do more than they are able, that they or frequency of commitments, upon should not slight it; for if they perform the whole. You may make a jail such any thing in the bounds of reason, I never an admirable place of education, that find fault with them: the prisoner who it may cease to be infamous to go is employed, his time passes smooth and there. Mr. Holford tells us (and a comfortable, and he has a proportion of his earnings, and he can buy additional diet; but if he has no labour, and kept under the discipline of the prison, it is a tight piece of punishment to go through. Which of the two should you think most likely to return immediately to habits of labour on their own account? The dispositions of all men are not alike; but my opinion is this, if they are kept and disciplined according to the rules of the prison,

very curious anecdote it is), that parents actually accuse their children falsely of crimes, in order to get them into the Philanthropic Charity! and that it is consequently a rule with the Governors of that Charity never to receive a child upon the accusation of the parents alone. But it is quite obvious what the next step will be, if the parents cannot get their children do more than six; I am certain, that a in by fibbing. They will take good man who is kept there without labour care that the child is really qualified once, will not be very ready to come there for the Philanthropic, by impelling him again." (Evidence before the Committee to those crimes which are the passport of the House of Commons, pp. 398, 399.) to so good an education.

and have no labour, that one month will

clothed, and well fed, to be instructed in

Mr. Gurney and Mr. Buxton both "If, on the contrary, the offender is to lay a great stress upon the quiet and be punished simply by being placed in a content of prisoners, upon their sub-prison, where he is to be well lodged, well ordination and the absence of all plans of escape; but, where the happiness of prisoners is so much consulted, we should be much more apprehensive of

reading and writing, to receive a moral and religious education, and to be brought up to a trade; and if this prison is to be within the reach of the parents, so that

they may occasionally visit their child, and tions upon this point in Mr. Holford's have the satisfaction of knowing, from book, who upon the whole has, we time to time, that all these advantages are prisons, and best understands them. think, best treated the subject of

conferred upon him, and that he is exposed to no hardships, although the confinement and the discipline of the prison may be irksome to the boy; yet the parents may be apt to congratulate themslves on having got him off their hands into so good a berth, and may be considered by other parents as having drawn a prize in the lottery of human life by their son's conviction. This reasoning is not theoretical, but is founded in some degree upon experience. Those who have been in the habit of attending the committee of the Philanthropic So ciety know, that parents have often accused their children of crimes falsely, or have exaggerated their real offences, for the sake of inducing that Society to take thera; and so frequent has been this practice, that it is a rule with those who manage that Institution, never to receive an object upon the representation of its parents, unless supported by other strong testimony." (Holford, pp. 44, 45.)

"In former times, men were deterred from pursuing the road that led to a prison, by the apprehension of encountering there disease and hunger, of being loaded with heavy irons, and of remaining without clothes to cover them, or a bed to lie on: we have done no more than what justice required in relieving the inmates of a prison, from these hardships; but there is no reason that they should be freed from the fear of all other sufferings and privations. And I hope that those whose duty it is to take up the consideration of these subjects will see, that in Penitentiaries, offenders should be subjected to separate confinement, accompanied by such work as may be found consistent with that system of imprisonment; that in Gaols or Houses of Correction, they should perform that kind of labour which the law has enjoined; and that, in prisons of both descriptions, instead of being allowed to cater for themselves, they should be sustained by such food as the rules and regulations of the establishment should have provided for them; in short, that prisons should be considered as places of punishment, and not as scenes of cheerful industry, where a compromise must be made with the prisoner's appetites to make him do the common work of a labours of the spinning-wheel and the loom journeyman or manufacturer, and the must be alleviated by indulgence."

It is quite obvious that, if men were to appear again, six months after they were hanged, handsomer, richer, and more plump than before execution, the gallows would cease to be an object of terror. But here are men who come out of jail, and say, "Look at us - we can read and write, we can make baskets and shoes, and we went in ignorant of everything: and we have learnt to do without strong liquors, and have no longer any objection to work; and we did work in the jail, and have saved money, and here it is." What is there of terror and detri. ment in all this? and how are crimes to be lessened if they are thus rewarded? Of schools there cannot be too many. Penitentiaries, in the hands of wise men, may be rendered excellent institutions; but a prison must be a prison a place of sorrow and wailing; which should be entered with horror, and quitted with earnest resolution never to return to such misery; with that deep impression, in short, of the evil, which breaks out into perpetual warning and exhortation to others. This great point effected, all other reformation must do the greatest good. There are some very sensible observa--they will work during the stated hours VOL. L

"That I am guilty of no exaggeration in thus describing a prison conducted upon the principles now coming into fashion will be evident to any person who will turn tiary, Millbank,' in Mr. Buxton's Book on to the latter part of the article' PenitenPrisons. He there states what passed in conversation between himself and the Governor of Bury gaol (which gaol, by the bye, he praises as one of the three best prisons he has ever seen, and strongly recommends to our imitation at Millbank). Having observed, that the Governor of Bury gaol had mentioned his having counted 31 spinning wheels in full activity when he left that gaol at 5 o'clock in the morning on follows:-'After he had seen the Millthe preceding day, Mr. Buxton proceeds as bank Penitentiary, I asked him what would be the consequence, if the regulations there used were adopted by him? "The consequence would be," he replied, "that every wheel would be stopped." Buxton then adds, I would not be considered as supposing that the prisoners will altogether refuse to work at Millbank

Ꮓ

Mr.

338

The female prisoners should be under the care of a matron, with proper assistants. Where this is not the case, the female part of the prison is often a mere brothel for the turnkeys. Can anything be so repugnant to all ideas of reformation, as a male turnkey visiting a solitary female prisoner? Surely, women can take care of women as effectually as men can take care of men; or, at least, women can do so properly, assisted by men. want of a matron is a very scandalous and immoral neglect in any prison system.

This is good sound sense; and it is jurisdictions and powers should be a pity that it is preceded by the usual clearly arranged. the tide of blasphemy nonsense about and sedition." If Mr. Holford is an observer of tides and currents, whence comes it that he observes only those which set one way? Whence comes it that he says nothing of the tides of canting and hypocrisy, which are flowing with such rapidity?—of abject political baseness and sycophancy of the disposition so prevalent among Englishmen, to sell their conscience and their country to the Marquis of Londonderry for a living for the second son- or a silk gown for the nephew or for a frigate for my brother the captain? How comes our loyal carcerist to forget all these sorts of tides?

This

Let

Irons should never be put upon prisoners before trial; after trial we cannot object to the humiliation and disgrace which irons and a parti-coloured prison dress occasion. them be a part of solitary confinement, and let the words "Solitary Confinement," in the sentence, imply permission to use them. The Judge then knows what he inflicts.

The presence of female visitors, and instructors for the women, is so obviously advantageous and proper, that There is a great confusion, as the the offer of forming such an institution law now stands, in the government must be gladly and thankfully received of jails. The justices are empowered, by any body of magistrates. That by several statutes, to make subor- they should feel any jealousy of such dinate regulations for the government interference is too absurd a supposition of the jails; and the sheriff supersedes to be made or agreed upon. Such those regulations. Their respective interference may not effect all that but the present incentive being wanting, zealous people suppose it will effect; the labour will, I apprehend, be languid but, if it does any good, it had and desultory.' I shall not, on my part, better be. undertake to say that they will do as much work as will be done in those prisons in which work is the primary object; but, besides the encouragement of the portion of earnings laid up for them, they know that diligence is among the qualities that will recommend them to the mercy of the Crown, and that the want of it is, by the rules and regulations of the prison, an offence to be punished. The Governor of Bury gaol, who is a very intelligent man, must have spoken hastily, in his eagerness to support his own system, and did not, I conceive, give himself credit for as much power and authority in his prison as he really possesses. It is not to be wondered at, that the keepers of prisons should like the new system: there is less trouble in The prison inspector the care of a manufactory than in that of a gaol; but I am surprised to find that would, of course, have a good salary; so much reliance is placed in argument on that, in England, is never omitted. the declaration of some of these officers, that the prisoners are quieter where their It is equally matter of course, that he work is encouraged by allowing them to would be taken from among Treasury spend a portion of their earnings. It may retainers; and that he never would naturally be expected, that offenders will be least discontented, and consequently look at a prison. Every sort of attenleast turbulent, where their punishment tion should be paid to the religious is lightest, or where, to use Mr. Buxton's instruction of these unhappy people, own words, 'by making labour productive of comfort or convenience, you do much but the poor chaplain should be paid every possible duty towards rendering it agreeable;' but I a little better; must be permitted to doubt whether these is expected from him and he has are the prisons of which men will live one hundred per annum. in most dread." - (Holford, pp. 78-80.)

We object to the office of Prison Inspector, for reasons so very obvious, that it is scarcely necessary to enumerate them.

Whatever money is given to pri- [ there is but one objection. The present soners, should be lodged with the duration of punishments was calculated governor for their benefit, to be applied as the visiting magistrates point out — no other donations should be allowed or accepted.

If voluntary work before trial, or compulsory work after trial, be the system of a prison, there should be a taskmaster; and it should be remembered, that the principal object is not profit.

Wardsmen, selected in each yard among the best of the prisoners, are very serviceable. If prisoners work, they should work in silence. At all times, the restrictions upon seeing friends should be very severe; and no food should be sent from friends.

for prisons conducted upon very different principles;-and if the discipline of prisons were rendered more strict, we are not sure that the duration of imprisonment would be practically shortened; and the punishments would then be quite atrocious and disproportioned. There is a very great disposition, both in judges and magistrates, to increase the duration of imprisonment; and, if that be done, it will be dreadful cruelty to increase the bitterness as well as the time. We should think, for instance, six months' solitary imprisonment to be a punishment of dreadful severity; but we find, from the House of Commons' Report, that prisoners are Our general system then is that a sometimes committed by county magisprison should be a place of real punish-trates for two years* of solitary conment; but of known, enacted, measur-finement. And so it may be doubted, able, and measured punishment. A whether it is not better to wrap up the prisoner (not for assault, or refusing rod in flannel, and make it a plaything, to pay parish dues, but a bad felonious as it really now is, than to show how it prisoner) should pass a part of his three may be wielded with effectual severity. months in complete darkness; the rest For the pupil, instead of giving one or in complete solitude, perhaps in com- two stripes, will whip his patient to plete idleness (for solitary idleness death. But if this abuse were guarded leads to repentance, idleness in com- against, the real way to improve would pany to vice). He should be exempted be, now we have made prisons healthy from cold, be kept perfectly clean, and airy, to make them odious and have sufficient food to prevent hunger austere - engines of punishment, and or illness, wear the prison dress and objects of terror. moderate irons, have no communica- In this age of charity and of prison tion with anybody but the officers improvement, there is one aid to priof the prison and the magistrates, and soners which appears to be wholly remain otherwise in the most perfect overlooked; and that is, the means of solitude. We strongly suspect this regulating their defence, and providing is the way in which a bad man is to them witnesses for their trial. A man be made afraid of prisons; nor do we is tried for murder, or for housebreakthink that he would be less inclined ing, or robbery, without a single shilto receive moral and religious instruc-ling in his pocket. The nonsensical tion, than any one of seven or eight and capricious institutions of the Engcarpenters in jail, working at a com-lish law prevent him from engaging mon bench, receiving a part of their counsel to speak in his defence, if he earnings, and allowed to purchase with had the wealth of Croesus; but he has them the delicacies of the season. If no money to employ even an attorney, this system be not resorted to, the next or to procure a single witness, or to best system is severe work, ordinary take out a subpoena. The Judge, diet, no indulgences, and as much seclusion and solitude as are compatible with work; always remarking, that perfect sanity of mind and body are to be preserved.

To this system of severity in jails

we are told, is his counsel,-this is sufficiently absurd; but it is not pretended that the Judge is his witness. He solemnly declares that he has three or four witnesses who could give a House of Commons' Report, 355.

MAN TRAPS AND SPRING

GUNS. (E. REVIEW, 1821.) Reports of Cases argued and determined

in the Court of King's Bench, in Hilary Term, 60th Geo. III. 1820. By Richard V. Barnewall, of Lincoln's Inn, Esq. Barrister-at-Law, and Edward H. Alderson, of the Inner Temple, Esq. Barrister-atLaw. Vol. III. Part II. London, 1820. Most of our readers will remember, that we very lately published an article upon the use of Steel Traps and Spring Guns; and, in the course of discussion, had occasion to animadvert upon the Report of Mr. Justice Best's judgment, in the case of Ilott and Wilkes, as reported in Chetwynd's Edition of Burn's

completely different colour to the transaction; but they are sixty or seventy miles distant, working for their daily bread, and have no money for such a journey, nor for the expense of a resi dence of some days in an Assize Town. They do not know even the time of the Assize, nor the modes of tendering their evidence if they could come. When everything is so well marshalled against him on the opposite side, it would be singular if an innocent man, with such an absence of all means of defending himself, should not occasionally be hanged or transported; and accordingly we believe that such things have happened. Let any man, immediately previous to the Assizes, visit the pri-Justice, published in the spring of the soners for trial, and see the many wretches who are to answer to the most serious accusations, without one penny to defend themselves. If it appeared probable, upon inquiry, that these poor creatures had important evidence which they could not bring into Court for want of money, would it not be a wise application of compassionate funds to give them this fair chance of establishing their innocence? It seems to us no bad finale of the pious labours of those who guard the poor from ill treatment during their imprisonment, to take care that they are not unjustly hanged at the expiration of the terin.

present year. In the Morning Chronicle, of the 4th of June, 1821, Mr. Justice Best is reported to have made the following observations in the King's Bench:

"Mr. Justice Best said, Mr. Chetwynd's book having been mentioned by my Learned Brother Bayley, I must take this oppor tunity, not without some pain, of adverting to what I am reported in his work to have said in the case of Ilott v. Wilkes, and of correcting a most gross misrepresentation. I am reported to have concurred with the other Judges, and to have delivered my judgment at considerable length, and then to have said, 'This case has been discussed at the Bar, as if these engines were exclusively resorted to for the protection of

From the Clonmel Advertiser it ap-game; but I consider them as lawfully pears, that John Brien, alias Captain Wheeler, was found guilty of murder at the late assizes for the county of Waterford. Previous to his execution he made the following confession:-

"I now again most solemnly aver, in the presence of that God by whom I will soon be judged, and who sees the secrets of my heart, that only three, viz. Morgan Brien, Patrick Brien, and my unfortunate self, committed the horrible crimes of murder and

burning at Ballygarron, and that the four unfortunate men who have before suffered for them were not in the smallest degree accessary to them. I have been the cause for which they have innocently suffered death. I have contracted a debt of justice with them and the only and least restitution I can make them, is thus publicly, solemnly, and with death before my eyes. to acquit their memory of any guilt in the crimes for which I shall deservedly suffer!!!" (Philanthropist, No. 6. 208.)

Percunt et imputantur.

applicable to the protection of every species of property against unlawful trespassers.' This is not what I stated; but the part which I wish more particularly to deny, as ever having said, or even conceived, is this -'But if even they might not lawfully be used for the protection of game, I, for one, should be extremely glad to adopt such means, if they were found sufficient for that purpose.' I confess I am surprised that this learned person should suppose, from the note of any one, that any person who ever sat in a Court of Justice as a Judge could talk such wicked nonsense as I am made to talk; and I am surprised that he should venture to give the autho rity he does for what he has published; for I find, that the reference he gives in the Appendix to his book is 3 Barn. and Ald. 304, where there is a correct report of that case, and where it will be found that every word uttered by me is directly contrary to what I am supposed, by Mr. Chetwynd's