The Express.
London, England, 1865-08-03 00:00:00

WIN BROGDIN'S GOLD CHAINS.

JOHN DP.OGDENV GOLD GL ELRD 0RA1248.

TWIN NROGDZNI3GOLISALBKRT

JOHN BROGDENS GOLD BROOCH CHAINS.

dvalimmels talmZed for If; 7:11' Lard.. Ivrea.
1 , wart be at the Mow 10.• bl Two
01:k on Wady at pabbratkr.

The OVPre9S•

MAIIMAILICAT.
Tim Imam. THII MIDDY ABHORL lllr Clan DenvlE
—THU LADY OP LYONS. MEWL Fltaiames, Sinclair, Neville.
No.on, and Walter ; Mtn Beath sail lits. Marston.

_ *j I

Tins ITWPS. ITIANT:GiIiiiiO3 IND VIDDLIATEINGS,
—MCRAE( NA POl. Maim D. Deridesaft, J. Brougham,
IL Vand•allof. Dom.
)labar, D. Murray, Soya" Omrlas : Kra D.
liondarrat and Ma M. Olium—Lad AM AMPLE APOLOGY.

BRITANNIA.
Tem Hymns°, THIRD CLASS AND nut CLASH Messrs.
Crauford, Drummond, Moved, and Parry ; Mesdames Yaruold.
Morton. ant deott —Weill SHALL I DWI? Mr. J. Rey.
nada —And TUE EIRBILIW DIAMOND. Min Ms ale

MGM WATIZ AT LONDON-111DM
I= DAT Karam 106 Wat.....Aftersoaa. 11b. fa
Tirmwszow IllkelmllL 42m.....Afteraixr. 011. Oa.

LONDON. THURSDAY. AUGUST 3.

Ma. B•aoN Proarr, when presiding ontheCrown
side of the Court at Croydon on Tuesday, had toliaten
to • strange tale of a convict's experiences. The re-
port of • criminal trial which then and there took
place informs us that one THOMAS Jsavis, • tailor,
aged 43, who " seemed to be quite • cripple, and
" who had to limp into the dock upon crutches,"
was charged with an attempt to do some grievous
bodily harm to Mr. WruLtir Moss, a Scripture
reader at the Woking prison, the establishment
where the prisoner was confined. From the evi-
dence given before the Court, it would appear that
on the 29th of Jane last the prisoner was confined
iu one of the " refractory " cells of the Bison, and
that Mr. Moss went to visit him for the purpose
of imparting religions instruction and oonsolation
to a man in distress. Without the slightest

reason, and without giving • moment's warning,
the prisoner, who had been sitting on the bed by
the side of Mr. Moss, " shifted towards him and
" made two stabs at him, wounding him near the
" wrist and at the back of his arm." The wounds
bled • great deal, and Mr. Moss had to be attended
by Dr. CAMPBELL, the medical officer attached to
the prison. For this very grave and unprovoked
crime JARVIS was committed for trial, and on
Tuesday last appeared in the criminal dock of the
Croydon Court, where be displayed the fluency
and readiness of tongue of a professional advocate.
Extraordinary, however, u was the crime, the
defence was yet more strange, and still more won-
derful to read are certain parts of the evidence
which were brought forward by the prisoner on
his own behalf. It would appear that JARVIS com-
mitted the offence with the aoleintentiouof exposing
what he calla "the cruel and diabolical practices"
to which he and his fellow convicts are subjected,
and that the conduct of those officials under whose
charge he was, drove him to do what he had done,
" for the purpose of escaping from the h►nds of
" those whom be looked upon as his intended
" murderers." "The public," so the prisoner
declares in his defence, "are led to believe that
" the convict system is just and merciful, and that
" means are afforded prisoners of • moral and
" religious reformation. But this," he declares,
" is far from the fact," and when a convict leaves
prison, "he is ten times more the child of hell than
" before." This, of course, is mere ex park state-
ment of a man who has been four times convicted,
and in eight prisons since 1849, and once sentenced
to twenty years' transportation ; but still in the
evidence given before the court there was enough
to prove that in more than one instance the
prisoner, when suffering from • most painful com-
plaint in the prison infirmary, was treated with
great and needless harshness, if not with positive
cruelty. The principal warder of the refractory
ward at the Woking prison, as well as another
warder, called GEORGE UNDIEWOOD, and Mr.
Dios, the Scripture reader who was wounded, all
gave evidence, upon cross-examination by the pri-
soner, that the latter had, during the eight years
be had passed in the prison, " always behaved
" civilly and respectfully," as " • prisoner should
"do towards an officer." One of these officials
deposed that he was in charge of the refractory
ward, and that whenever the prisoner had been
brought there it was for complaints made
of his conduct in the infirmary. On the other
hand, the same witness gave evidence upon being
cross-examined, that on one occasion the prisoner
was sentenced to six months' penal class diet,
when he was in great pain and confined to bad
from inflammation of the bladder, and that for two
months he had been obliged to live upon a pint of
milk and twenty ounces of bread a day, the other
food which was given to him being most hurtful to
his complaint. This witness—Guiana UNDERWOOD,
one of the warders—said that the prisoner had asked
for other food, on account of oatmeal porridge
being injurious to his complaint, but that the me-
dical man had refused to grant his request. Dr.
CAMPBELL, the medical officer of the prison, admit-

tad in his cross-examination that the prisoner was
suffering from spinal disease, as well as from
chronic inflammation of the bladder ; and also said
he was aware that he had lived for two months
upon no other food than a pint of milk and twenty
ounces of bread a day. But with all this he did
" not see anything in the eau" which would
justify him in altering the food given to the pri-
soner,
and also considered that he was " scheming
" as much as he could to get off being paniehed."
The jury do not seem to have sided with the
prison authorities in this cue, for they acquitted
JARVIS of the felonious part of the charge, and
found him guilty only of unlawfully wounding ; !
and for this offence he was sentenced yesterday to
fire years' penal servitude.
Granting even that a great deal of this
hardened criminal's plausible statement in
his defence cannot be proved true, and ad-
mitting that a considerable portion of it is
mere ex parts, there appears to have been more
than sufficient evidence before the court to jus-
tify the Rohn Srcasxnav in ordering a rigid in-
vestigation into the management and discipline of
the convict establishment at Woking. The pri-
soner has made good his assertions so far as it was
possible for him to do so, but there are far more
grievous charges against the officials in general—
and against the medical man in particular—
behind. Throughout his defence the prisoner makes
complaints against the prison authorities, which
Gun oannot permit to pees without so

Sir disown'