ed. They have a little better accommodation with respect to room; but, as the average number of debtors has been computed. at about two hundred persons, the gaol is not sufficiently large to admit of a separation of classes, suited to their different habits and feelings. They are, besides, subjected to many restraints, which are not imposed on those who are confined in the Fleet and King's Bench prisons. The very circumstance of being committed for debt to Nervgate, has a tendency to degrade an unfortunate individual, more than confinement for the same cause in any other prison. The character and appearance of this gaol are suited to the exclusive reception of felons. The unhappy debtor feels debased, in his own estimation, by imprisonment under the same roof with thieves and murderers; and the assistance which he would often receive in any other place, is denied him in a gaol where he most requires it, and where, it is falsely presumed, that none but the most degraded and worthless of mankind are detained. Like the soldier disgraced by corporal punishment, he often ceases afterwards to put a just value on himself in the station in which he is placed. The plan of appropriating Newgate for the reception of felons alone, and of confining debtors in a separate prison, which has been often proposed, and is strongly recommended in the work under consideration, could not fail to be productive of great advantages; especially if strict attention were given to the important point of dividing the prisoners into such classes as might prevent all the injurious consequences arising from that indiscriminate mixture of persons, which surely cannot be too severely censured.

In the want of room, Sir Richard observes, is comprehended most of the evils which belong to this prison. Separation cannot be effected among the different classes of the prisoners, while there is only one small yard, containing but two wards, for every description of women, and while there are but two common yards for every description of men. Those only committed for trial; those actually convicted; hardened and first offenders; the profligate and the evildisposed; the innocent and the guilty, ought not to be mingled indiscriminately together. While this is the practice, Newgate is necessarily little better than a public seminary of vice, and for teaching the art of thieving. I have been shocked to see boys of thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen, confined for months together in the same yard with hardened and incorrigible offenders. Those committed for first, or for small offences, are constantly placed within this same sphere of moral contamination. I have attempted all that could be done with two yards; and for many months the transports and respites from death have been kept in one yard, while the fines, and persons committed for trial, have been kept in the other. Of course, however, amidst persons of these two general descriptions, would be

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found every shade of depravity; and it would have afforded me the highest satisfaction to be able, if I had possessed the means, to divide the convicts into two classes, and the others into thrce, consisting of old offenders, of first offenders, and of boys.

Among the women, all the ordinary feelings of the sex are outraged by their indiscriminate association. The shameless victims of lust and profligacy are placed in the same chamber with others, who, however they may have offended the law in particular points, still preserve their respect for decency and decorum. In immediate contact with such abandoned women, other young persons are compelled to pass their time between their commitment and the sessions, when, of course, it often happens, that the bill is not found against them by the grand jury, or they are acquitted by the petty jury! Separation in any degree would be useful and I think it possible, at some expense, even in the present size of the building, to divide these females into their two distinct classes. But if the city of London should make the addition to the prison which I have previously suggested (by purchasing the building of the College of Physicians), all the degrees of separation may take place, which are necessary to the comfort and reform of these unhappy persons. › p. 93-96. To relieve the crowded ftate of the prifon, and to remove some of the female prifoners from this school of vice, the sheriffs concurred in recommending the cafes of fifty of them to the immediate compaffion of government. But as the course of proceeding which they propofed, was confidered both as unprecedented, and inconfiftent with the established administration of justice, they afterwards limited their applications to ten or twelve cafes only; and the refult is acknowledged to have been fatisfactory. Sir Richard enters, however, into an idle and frivolous årgument against the practice, uniformly adopted by government, of referring all petitions, in the first inftance, to the judge who tried the respective parties. Convicted perfons,' he fays, who addrefs petitions to the Throne, and fend them, pro forma, to the Secretary of State's office, do not apply for law, but for mercy.' But, furely, it is of material importance to afcertain the grounds upon which the prifoner may be regarded as entitled to mercy; and, after the witneffes are difmiffed, no one but the judge can be fully in poffeffion of all the circumftances of the cafe. Sir Richard appears to have taken but a narrow view of the fubject. He does not perceive, that the adminiftration of our criminal laws would foon be brought into difrepute, if the fentences of the judges were, without any reference to their reports, expofed to frequent reverfal.

Finding themselves once engaged in correfpondence with the Secretary of State, the theriffs appear to have enlarged their views; and, conceiving that the punishment of tranfportation for feven

years

years operates, with refpect to female convicts, as a fentcnce of transportation for life, they addrefs, in the fhape of a memorial, a remonstrance to Lord Hawkesbury on that fubject. Not content with fimply ftating the grievance in queftion, they proceed, in the character of politicians, to argue the point with the Secretary of State. That this ftyle of reafoning was not altogether acceptable in the quarter to which it was addreffed, feems pretty evident from the manner in which it was noticed. No answer appears to have been returned, except a mere acknowledgement of its receipt. Nothing, indeed, can be more evident, than that the fheriffs of London had no right, in their official capacity, to apply to the Secretary of State for an alteration of the general law. With regard to the subject of their application, though it be evidently impoffible to justify or approve of the unlimited extenfion of a punishment, the legal duration of which is limited to a comparatively fhort period of time, yet, with regard to female convicts, the hardship is perhaps lefs feverely felt than is commonly imagined. The fituation of female convicts is fuch, that they fenfibly feel the dependence of their condition; and this very circumftance facilitates the formation of permanent connexions, which fupply them with very ftrong motives for continuing in the colony after the term of their refpective fentences has expired. Befides, as they hold there a higher place in the scale of character than they would be able to maintain, in the event of their returning to this country, their feelings fuggeft to them the convenience of remaining in a place where they are likely to be exposed to the leat difrefpect. The great expenfe attending the tranfportation of convicts is certainly entitled to the economical confideration of government. It can fcarcely amount to 12cl. per head, as stated by our author; but the fum of tool. per head, at which it has been estimated by perfons well acquainted with the fubject, including every contingent expenfe, together with the contract, muft occafion a very large expenditure, when it is confidered that about feven hundred perfons are annually transported to Botany Bay. Such a punishment may therefore be faid to be felt by the nation, as well as by the individual who incurs this penalty for his tranfgreffions.

We heartily join with Sir Richard in reprobation of the long eftablished, but most objectionable practice, of compelling pri foners to pay the falaries of the gaolers in the fhape of fees. They fall with peculiar hardship on the poorer clafs of individuals from whom they are demanded; and, in the cafe of the unfortu nate debtor, they bear almost a character of extortion. Where the gaol fees are not fixed, frequent impofitions appear inevitable. Where the laws impofe only perfonal reftraint, they operate as fines. But their effect, as far as relates to infolvent debtors, feems

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to be in decided oppofition to the fpirit of the law; for the very remedy for debt provided by the law, tends to increase the embarraffments of the debtor, and, confequently, to aggravate the evil that requires this remedy. Detention for the payment of fees is, in the inftances fpecified in the 14. Geo. III. c. 20., declared to be illegal; and we have little doubt that it in moft, or in all cafes, is the fame. A certain procefs of law is requifite to be obferved, before any perfon can be confined for debt; but, when circumftances enable him to discharge the debt, the gaoler, before fetting him at liberty, demands the payment of certain fees; and, if they are not paid, he ftill detains him in prifon. Is he authorifed by law to exercife, at his own difcretion, this power of detention? This point fhould be determined. If the gaoler has á legal claim to certain fees, the law will enable him, by the ufual procefs for debt, to enforce the payment of them; but it does not appear that he retains, in his own hands, the power of enforcing the payment of his fees, previous to the liberation of his prifoner. The only effectual mode of obviating thefe diftreffing difficulties, is to give the officers connected with gaols and prifons fixed falaries, and to recognize no other demands on perfons confined in them, than thofe which they ought in reafon to pay for articles of extra-accommodation. So long, however, as the practice of demanding fees is perfifted in, the plan propofed in the letter to the Livery, of affixing a table of them in the prifon, ought to be adopted, to prevent prifoners from being expofed to impofitions.

The scenes of mifery and want which the duties of their office frequently compelled them to witnefs, induced the fheriffs to make an appeal to the benevolent part of the public, in order that a fund might be raised, to be called the Sheriff's Fund, and to be appropriated to the following purposes.

1. The temporary relief of the distressed families and dependants of persons in confinement.

2. A temporary provision for persons, who, on being discharged from confinement, have no means of present subsistence.

3. The purchase of such tools, implements and materials, as may be conducive to habits of industry in debtors and criminals.

4. The pecuniary aid of other objects of distress, who come under the official cognizance of the sheriffs of London and Middlesex. In the courfe of the year, about 500l. were collected, and relief was extended to many diftreffed individuals and their families. Want of room prevented the third object of the fund from being carried into effect. The difbursements to March 1808, amounted to nearly 3col. We cannot help noticing one of the items in the statement, in order that the generous may fee what extensive relief may be derived from even a fmall charitable contribution, when judiciously applied.

For

For legal assistance, by means of which twenty-nine poor debtors have been liberated from Newgate, after long imprisonments, (the number of whose wives and children exceeded one hundred and twenty souls), and many of them were sailors arrested by crimps on sham actions, or persons imprisoned on false pretence, 231. 10s.'

The expenses of advertising and printing, we are forry to perceive, amount to a very large fum; but this may perhaps neceffarily attend the first establishment of such a fund, and may, in future, if its existence (hould become permanent, be confiderably diminished. The application of the fund, as stated in the Appendix, feems, for the most part, to have been judicious. From oneitem it appears, that porter was allowed to feveral prifoners threatened with low fevers for want of adequate fuftenance. The general allowance to the prisoners in Newgate is hardly fufficient for their support. Whenever they are expofed to fevers from want of nourishment, this allowance ought furely to be immediately augmented. The fevere difcipline of the army inflicts, in ordinary cases, only that degree of chaftifement which the foldier is able to bear; and the difcipline of the gaol ought to be equally careful of the lives of thofe who are fuffering the penalty of imprifonment. As the duties of the sheriffs demand a frequent infpection of the gaols and prifons within their jurifdiction, they must neceffarily be enabled to judge in what inftances relief may be granted with propriety and effect; and we earnestly hope, that those who are now in office will ftrenuously exert themselves in fupport of a fund, which may fo easily be rendered a fource of fuch extenfive and invaluable relief.

It is unneceffary to conduct our readers through the other prifons. They exhibit nearly the fame scenes as those we have just quitted. They are generally crowded to excefs; and the inconveniences arising from this circumstance, and from the indifcriminate mixture of the prifoners, are fuch as have been already described. In general, however, their condition is not fo comfortless as in Newgate; and, in fome of them, the prisoners have the benefit of more air and exercife, and fome few advantages in point of accommodation.

The laft point which our limits permit us to notice, relates to the fheriffs' officers and the lock-up houfes. The writs annually addreffed to the fheriffs of Middlesex, our author computes at no lefs than twenty-four thousand. The duty of executing and returning them is for the moft part confided to certain perfons, who act as deputies to the under-fheriffs. In the city of London, this duty is executed by the fecondaries, who are permanent underfheriffs, and who obtain their appointments from the corporation by purchase. Thirty-nine fheriffs' officers, or bailiffs, each hav ing two or three afliftants, are employed by the office of the fheriff

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