The National Register. — London, England, 1819-03-21 00:00:00

NT ARCH al. STATE OF PRISONS. Mr. J. J. Cdrney, the brother ..1 the philanthropic Mn. Yrs, and thr ant bor of a 'recent ‘sui.X upon the above guttiret, ;Le; ad.treAcd the roltna•iug Later to the Magistlates of the County and City of Kure PaSt • &CM: t) FRI F:4 DS, Filmed be wanting both in justke to thyself ant} in respect towards y. u, were 1 to take no notice of your address to the public, erintaiurd in r•,e Norfolk. hro vide turf Norwich Alerenry of lust week. I w 111, there tore, now trouble you with a few observations. I beg leave, in the first place, distinctly to assure you, thst when I wrote the 1:a agru*ph in.. my little work OH pi re specting the Jail at Norwich, ',Cad not the Oast remote in fection of casting any retlesion on the Magistrates of thls City. la a country like England, where public opt ~ ~ hap pily for tuo, is so much the regulator of public conduct, I do iddced deeth it to he of go eat importance, that the teal state of the pritrou .I.ould be grimily and getter - ally known. Whilst I have enileaviiured to make it known, I have been particularly careful, iu every part of my work, to avoid ini putiiig blame to the Alagistracy because lam persuade,' that very few p 13006 have until lately been assure, how twiny evils ybe avoided, and how much good 'nay be ef fected, by a correct and enlightened system of prison pliue -by that system which is norw so geueraily approved, but which fwenterl,y was little adverted to and little under stood. In the particular paragraph to %Web yea' allude, and of which you have been pleased to cite so very inadequate au extract, my truly &Wet was to support act important argu ment by adducing a particular fact. This may easily be per ceived by any our who is ill do me the favour to peruse the whole passagr. It is as follows t —`• Amongst the male pi i somers, Nardi-ma kilns, shah—making, the tread-wheel, careen tering, and other handicraft trod s, may easily be introduced, where there is n.. opportunity for conducting a regular mu arnictury. In the City dart of Norwich the buitdinglar ds no such oppottunity, and it has lootg heel, a scene of total and ea/ruining idleness. About tio ..e months ago, it sirs übserted that one of the five pr;s:mer. then in the Jail had been accustomed to make shoe, lie readily undeitourk to .teach Ids COMpilllloll4. Toni, leath,'r werr provided. A what sale dealer undertook to furnish work The wheel am, easily set : and this siuk of idleness soon asiulned the pleasing aspect of conynrative ha/spit:Cm and colt-Aunt Judah ry." _ . Permit me, Gentlemen, to enquire of you, whether it was quits fair :owned; Mr, and (if your reputation can really be directed by any words of 'Moe) whether it was quite prudent on your own arc aint, to throw before the public the expres- Maga which you deeds " sere e," and ;shot!) to omit the no tice of another clause :11 the same semen( e, s kick could nut fail to produce tr totally opposite impression.—Ce taistly, wheal I wren' that sentence, I hod mo ititeotion tithe' to blume or to poise t but Flualti any of soy reads•rs feel it dis position to censure you, Veaus-, ander your novices, the Jail was a sink of idleness; surely such a disp , tititits must be instantly removed by the (-milder:olmi, that nailer the muse airseirts it had " attumed the pleasi aspect of co tips- Mice happiairss aad constam! iodastry." I is et ilent. therefore, Ilsat this paragraph was not cal, %t -hied (as assuredly it was not iistemled) to divot -age your magisterial character. And now having etuteus•asred to prove that I have brought no charge egoist/ you, you muds allow me tie say u few words in answer to the cli r,tu which you have thought proper to prefer against ins. You attribute to me—if 1 riJitly undesstand your lan wge—a want of or:odour and a want of truth. As I really believe that you intetsded sin personal incis itity, I shall make no en anent. opua the •• severity" of these changes; but shall proceed at once to establish my very contciesitions plea of " Not Guilty." With respect to my " want of candor." you have inform ed the public, that previously t' the p Wishing of ins book, (cseitaiiiing tae pas..ao supposed to be so olesssive) I vi-ited the Jail is C ttttt puny ith John Brno iie anti Sheriff Itackliam, and that on this occasion, 1 expressed mu satisfac tion at the present awl probable future state of the Jail. This stutemeot is not perfectly correct. I is true that I vis ted the Jail its compaisy with .hose gentlemen, that I was grate ful theta for the.r politeness, and that I was pleased to observe the efforts of the writ thy A &moan, to promote, by I inprov.ineist, in the building, n better classification of the ' prisoners : hut, that I ever expressed the sli,ghtest approba tion of this Anson, in its ocigha: slat-, 1 heg lents. Mow dis tinctly to deny. After I tissd dev.dril mw h attention to the subject, and had formed the opinions, sibich are stated at large in my hook, it was (pile impossible that I could feel satisfwd w ith such nJoil ; n Jail vi bich Aar hien proved to he Insecure; in %bleb the prima: rs are heasilyfrttered; which aitords nn opportimitv of impertion ; in st hich th“ petty thief and desperate offender, the lousier! and rornrieted pri mmer, are herded toothei without any d;st!tretiod; h lastly, uutil very lately the illiterate aniengst the criminals, were lams instructed. and none of them were employed. It most, indetd, he confessed, that our Jail was at that elm; wanting in almost all the principal reqnisites of a amid prison. Without inspection, eltrorifietitstat, instruction, mid ensployment,, a pr son cannot prochree reform; hot on the color/try, will ever be found the prolitic marry of serious awl deplorahle evil. lint to proceed to your yet heavier charge—yon state it at your opinion that she expresx'inms,lo which you in my account of the Norwich are " unfounded t", other words, that they have "so fmn , lation." Osi wnat basis this charge is gronntlesl,lt ant Wholly wt,st loss to di s. rover. You are perfectly Melds aware that for many years the erialimila in this Jail w ere totally tlestitote of employ mein. Habitually as yon have visited llis!Jails yon le's° have been arquainted with the fart, I too, ;Month the kindness of successive Sheriffs, have freciiently la,peeteil your prisms; HMI I have witnessed within its wall the listless yawn, the game at marbles, the loud laugh, the rode and impetnons conversation, hat she employment of its unfortunate though guilty imitate's, ktntll lately I have never witnessed. Now, I observe, that Dr. Johnson con siders " idleness and absence of employment' to be syno nymous; at any rate they are indivisible companions. It is indispittallste, therefore, that the Norwich Jail has "long been a scene of total idleness ;" amid it Mete be any tenth in the prowl's of Asitistaity or hi the moral lessons of daily experience. it Is (rally inili,putahle, that hit Jail has "!mug 1”.. n a scene of total and corrupting idleness." Willi regard to the subsequent words, Siuk of idle. n,'," I bast. Item mere r,otopliauco with your wishea, NATIONAL ItEG directed my printer to alter them in any futnte 0 my book. llitt I alit Colitist itt yell that I fins" , ifi' ,4l thisordor at the imminesit ',mil of tillitlnt my Fm l ;dr"Fil; fur it it in Vaal) that I have searclobtl tor other terms equally descriptive of the tenth. Were i called upon to &lino the extressioto, " Sink ut itlitoess," I should say that it nignlfies " a place into which persons itf Mk Rallis /Ince is fekekary to he gathered, mid in whirl, suites they are unto go tkzre 1 , their /taints of tikneui are (mutilated and ronfirostel." Orrtainly no desctlption can be more accurately applica ble to any prison, in which criminals arc pi f.videti with lid kind of occupation. It is with pleosnrr, Gentlemen, and 0 holly wititont irritation, that I mitt ()nit the subject of our grove deloVeil in order to notice a mach more in portant 'powitibi Pll eb it appears that we are I n.ly agreed. In one port of your add' ess to the pnblic, you State, that " the Magistrates have Inv( r discouraxedinaernptoyntent of the pi in nee ro ;" again, !ou say that " the Magiairate* would he glad to see the prisoners employed ;" an.l I have now lying before me a docoliteut width goes still fin ther —ss hich proves that you, nut only di not discourage the eon ployment of yout pt tenni r< ; that you not only ori•ti for it; hot that you actaallf inietal to pursue that Milieu tont uojer t. The ductuneot to nine's I a litotle in a resolution passed at tha General Quarter Sessions, held by adjostrunitut on Ilse 2,1 d of last month, before B. lo'inato, Esq. Mete or, Rohl. Alderson, Esq. St o Ward, Crisp Brower, Esq. John Poltr oon, Esq. and utliets their fella**. It is as follows .. " Resoli.etl, that the !hook. of this Court be given In J. J. Gni ney, Esq. fur his conionunication lespriiiita the Jail; and that lie or accpiaiutett that it is the intention of the Al Ag i n u a t,, t o pur sue seine plan tor the employment of pet sons confined in the prison, t• 1 thin city." In the pursuit of this object. however, you appear to labour under t o me little difficulty, which I oil' now shortly endeavour to remove. "It is well known," you say, " they (toe pr.soners) cannot ho compelled to work, nor have the Magistiates the power to provide materials for them." • A lor-e proportion of the prisoners now in Norwich have been rwire% to a term of imp ell in a House of Correction. knee can, of course, and otig.it to be " compelled to work."— ith untried prisoners, to whom you probably intend to allude, compulsion is certainly inoropet: but it is also need:as ; for !. with persons are generally !build .1 embrace with (wetness the opportunity of employment. To fill the vacancy of mail a tedious hour, arid to accumulate for future occasions. a small sum of money, arc the oat Ind objects ut their desire; and no thing surely can be more worthy than suck a desire, of encourage uncut 1 because it is by putting then very inmates into oaten tout we are MilSt littzly to produce tabrinats:ai, Of the three criminals in your jail, now employed in shoe-making, two are untried prisoners. From your other supposed impediment mint-tin.; materials. it is in my power entirety to relieve you, for there is an Act of Parliament on that specific subject It is the 19th of Charles 11. chap. 4, and runs in the following tentui:—" Wherras there is not yet any sufficient provision made ter the relief and setting on work of roor and needy persons committed to the common gaol fur felony and other misdemeanors, who miry times perish before their trial, and the poor there living UPI mid onemptrycol bemuse debourhed and come 'bras to:Irk:lel in the practise of thievery and inane ss ; for remedy whereof be it enacted, &c. that the Justices of the Peace of the rc•pective counties at any of their General Sessions, or the major part of them t:ren there assembled, if they shall Lind it needful so to do, may proMde a :fork of :nets material, us they And rotivenient.fir the wiling poor plisoners art sank, in such instinct and by such ways as other county charts by the laws and statutes of the realm are and may be levied anti raised." The provisitios of this Act (which I pre sume by construction tooe available for cities as *ell as for counties, and which is clearly available for tho "comity arid city" of Norwich.) are confirmed and enlarged by 31 Geo. 111. c. aG. You are, thorefore, furnished with full authority to provide your prisoners with materials for work ; but were it otherwise, it could be of no importance, because ii system ot labor in prisons, if judiciously conducted, may always beniade to pay its owls ex. penes. I sin confides% Gentlemen, that all your difficulties in pro moting so excenent an object will presently subside; and I am equally confident (I My it With teal sincerity) that your deter mination, if vigorously acted on, will nut only place you beyond the reach of censure, but will call forth in your behalf, the cor dial gratitude and commendation of the community over which you preside. That regular and constant employment is a most Important means of ptirducing atnendrnent in throe depraircal and dissolute p e rsons, who mostly inhabit our )orisons, is a tact not to be contradicted. It is probable on theory and ascertained by practice. I have only to add, on this subject, that my humble efforts in the promotion of so good a cease, coutintle to be much at your serVicc • but you arc well aware, that nothing material can be effected in it, without the full countenance and support ot ma gisterial authority. Before I aincinde, I -fill trice the lib...l'y once more publicly to &dare my opinion. tile: the evils and deti..cts existing in our present Jail and Bailie - ell, are, lion' the nature of the build ings, quite incapable of being completely remedied. lam con vinced that a new prison might be goo ad .1 Norwich. (to serve the purptwes both of a Jail and a Penitentiary) which. it' con ducted on the excellent principles .adopted at Bury, Ikhester, Ploiledelphia, Ghent, and other pl.wes, would not only be of the greatest advantage to ourselves, but would alliord a beneficial example to tile whole country. I hear ti ly desire that you andyour brother liagi crates may be indeed maturely to weigh this important *object, before you finally discard it. Should you institute any prOceedings towards the accomplishment of so great an object, I fully believe you will meet with the *medial and liberal en-operation of your fellow citizens; many of whom are thoroughly convinced, that no measures are so worthy of support—that none are so truly cc mo one-al—as those which are calculated to improve and prcsoive the morals of the people.• J have now only to apologize to you and to our common fiend " the ?music," for the Ivngth of my letter, and to subscribe myself, (as I can with the greatest truth) Your sincere friend and warns well wisher. JOSEPH JOHN GURNEY. wesspiewm.m. edition .1/1;P nthairs. :srl Illont;t 16 , 1 r, 1819. • Would that itmonpt such measures, could be numbered our Word Ricriernis; than which, as they are now conducted, fear by both parties) there cannot surely be devised. a more open *chive of scandithhis bribery and corruption a more ',m itigate waste of money ; a more convenient occasion for loos and blasphemous ribaldry ; a nio:l2 fruitful source of nii,ery, drunk ennzss, and crime; a more certain method of sapping the inde • pendency, and destroying the morals of the community , re,dlraishinx toth our roorlitouner and onrjailn! Alas! for that en-terms and honourable feclinir in all claw s of society, by wide') such degrading and disgusting scenes night yet be prevented. On SSamrday lot the HomEdnal+.l liribunt v. ad mitted to the freedom uf Norwich at a Court of Mavor y. lathtr was mode 411 honmary ficetmo .1731 A most humorous publication, from tie peu or tbe Author of Lana Bookh, has just made its a;►- pearance, under the title of, " Tam Crib's Memorial to Congress: with a Preface, Notes, and Appendix• By One of the Fancy." We make the follow•ieg extract:, from the Appendix ttA a sample, a n d may, perhaps, be tempted to continue them next %so:4. MY IITAIITIES! Suns by JACK llocstEs, the Coazhntan, at a lea litsiuez.s.l.: in St. Giles's, iu the Character of Lora C-:::T-••2.-t;1. I first was hir'd to peg a Hick They call " The BIM," sometime b^c! , -, Where soon I learn'd to potter „gash, To curb the lits and tip thr tr•h— Which pleas'd the 3:aster of rttE Catawar So much, he had me up to ”n, And gave me Itli of q,,kls a year, To tool "The Constitution" hems So, ya.hip, Ileartiza ! here ant I That drive the Constitution Fly. Some wonder how the Fly holds uut, ho r01a.% 'tit within, without ; So loaded, too, through thick and thin, And with such heavy crew-a lw. But, Lord, 'twill last our titne.—or if The wheel, should, now and then, get !stiff, Oil of i'a/dt's the thing that. sowing. Sets the 14.2tri amt./Woes going! So, ya-hip, Hmrties ! At. Sonic wonder, too, the tits that pull This rant concerti along, to full. Should never to. or .44 or kick The load and driver to Old ti irk. But, ti^ver l'em—the breed, though 13::Lialt, Is now no longer ironic or skittish; I:xcept, aomedmes, about their et 7n. Tenter Hutehttio , nts ne'er were Let. So, ya-hip, Hearties ! And then so sociably we tide While some have pia , e 4, snug, iaside, Some, hoping to be there anon, Through man) a dirty road hang vs. And when we reach a filthy spot, (Plenty of which there are, God wet) You'd laugh to see with what an air We take the spatter—each his ! se, ya-hip, Hearties! &e. The other song of Mr. Gregstin, which I have been lucky enough to lay hold of, was sung by Ohl .Prosy, the Jew, who went in the character of Major C- RTW—Glir, and who having been, at one time of his life, apprentice to a mountebank doctor, was able to enumerate, with much volubility, the virtues of a certain infallib!e • nostrum, which he called his ANNUAL PILL. The produnciation of the Jeti added toftsiderahly tb the effect. 'THE ANNUAL Sung by OLD Peoal, the Jett. in the Character of Milos C-RTV-11T. ViII nobodies try my nice Anaval nut% to purify every Ling nashty avay ? Mess ma heart, I.k,s ma heart, Ict ma say vat I Till, Not a Chrislaian or Shentlentaa miuds v,,t. I say 'Tis sit pretty a bolas !—just down let it go, And, at vonce, such a radical gunge you vill see, flat l'd not be surprislitl, like de horse in de stow, If our head. all verc fbnnd, s,:re our tailsh ought to be! Vill nobodies try my nice Annual Pill, lte. 'Twill cure all Electors, and purge away deli Pat nii. hey bail it hang doy've got in their hands— 'Twill cure, too, all Statevman, of dulness, ma tear, Though the met: vas as desperate as poor Mr. Vales, Dcre is noting at au vat dis Pill vial nut reach— Give the Sinecure Sl'endernan von little grain, Pim ma heart, it vlll act, like do seat on do leech, And he'll throw de pounds, shillings, and pence up again Vill nobodies try my nice Anitml Pill, An. 'Twould be tediotts, ma tear, all its peauties to paint— B ot, among oiler tings.jundamenta,:ly wrong, It viii cure the Prood l'ottom—a common coinplaint Among M. r.% and weavers—from tatting too long. Should sympt3ms of si,erching preak not on a dune*, (Vat often de case) it till stop de tlEease, And ring away all de long speeches at vonce, Dat else you'll, bk.: tape-worms, come by degrees ! Viii nobodies try my nice Animal Pill. Dees to purify every ring nahty avay Plea ma heart, pleas ma heart, let moray vat I yin. Not a Claris:,tian or Sleatlesnan minds vat I say I