The Express.
London, England, 1848-11-20 00:00:00

APPOINTMENTS.—rhe vacant clerkship in th•
Registrar's Office of the Court of Chancery has been given
to Mr. A. Ellis. —The Hon. Lionel West, attaela at Lisbon,
proceeds in the sane rank to the British embassy at Naples.
—F. H. A. Forth, Esq., is appointed superintendent
Turk's Island.—Lieut. George Butt, R.N.. is appointed a
stipendiary magistrate in British Osiaaa.—Obserrer.

PLAYS AT WINIMORCASTLE.—We before announced
the fact that some theatrical performances were to take place
at Windsor Castle during the Christian holidays. The fol-
lowing has Dien issued as the intended programme of the
amusements, which are, it Is said, to be under the direction
of Mr. C. Bean : lst night, Dec. 28 : " The Merchant of
Venice ;" 2nd night, Jan. 4 : " Used Up," and " Box and
Cox ;" 3rd night, Jan. 11 : Hamlet ;" 4th night, Jan. 18
" The Stranger" and " Twice Killed ;" bth night, Jan. 25:
"The Housekeeper," and "Sweethearts and Wives."—
Dramatis persona "The Merchant of Venice :"—Sheloek,
C. Kean; Duke, Diddear; Bassani°, Wigan; Antonio.
Bogen ; Grattan, Webster ; Lorenzo, Leigh Murray;
Salarino, Conway; Salanio, Boyce; Lancelot Gobbo, Kee-
ley ; Old Oobbo, Meadows; Portia, Mrs, C. Kean ; Suisse,
Mrs. Keeley; Jessica, Miss E. Montague.—" Hamlet :'•
Hamlet, C. Kean; King, Diddear; Ghost, Vandenhoff ;
Polonins, W. Farren ; Horatio, Howe; Litertpa, Leigh Mur-
ray; klueen, Mac. Wisner; Ophelia, Mrs. C. Kean; Actress,
Mrs. Sueltingliam.—" The Stranger:" The Stranger, C.
Kean; Baron Steinfor,, Creswiek ; Count, Ilowe ; Francis,
Webster; Solomon, Compton; Peter, Keeley; Mrs. Haller,
Mrs. C. Kean; Countess, Miss P. Vining; Charlotte, Mrs.
Keeley ; Savoyard Girl, Miss P. Horton.—Cgarles Mathews
is to play his original character of Sir Charles Coldstream,
in " Used Up;" Mr. Buckatone and Mr. Ilarley will ap-
pear in Box and Cox," and Mr. Wright as Billy Lackaday,
in " Sweethearts and Wives."

MARYLEBONE VESTRY.—THE PROPOSED
NEW PRISON.
On Saturday Mr. Williams's notice of motion re-
specting the taxation and expenditure came on, and attracted
an unusually numerous attendance of members and strangers.
The latter crowded the gallery. Mr. Bridgeman presided.
Mr. WILLIAMS moved that a committee be appointed to
inquire into the expenditure of the enormous amount of
county rates imposed on the parish. He thought that the
Tate-payers ought to know how the rates were disbursed, the
mere especially as it was contemplated to expend 200,0001.
ea the erection of a new prison, which job would have been
carried out, had not the county magistrates defeated it. Ho
wished to learn what was to be done with the new-fangled
system of separation and silence introduced here from the
Unit d States, where it was given up as a decided failure ?
That had been introduced into this country by parties who
wanted places. As a proof of its failure in America, the go-
vernor of the prison in Philadelphia, where it was first
tried, told him that instead nf being reformed, those who had
bent confined there returned four times to it. lie (Mr.
W.) was astonished at the splendid appear ince of the
New Model Prison, which was built and conducted after
that in Philadelphia, and which resembled tke House of
Lords. (Laughter.) The prisoners' cella were fitted up in
a style of comfort that could not be found in one
out of 100,000 cottages, and they were taught several
trades under =eaten that were paid 1,7241., while
their work only produned 1,6001. a year. Upon the same
principle Reading Jail was built where the annual ex-
penditure averaged 681. a man. The 'tad of utticers attached
to Pentonville received 7,3451., including to the lamp-
l:ghter, and 1871. to perscns fur cleans*. °theca, duties that
should be performed by the prisoners themselves. It was
prepared to build a second model-prison in lieu of Coldbath-
field', for which there was not any necessity, as there was
not a better regulated prison than Coldbath-fields, where
the prisoners only cost 211. each, and were more comfortably
lodged than were her Majesty's Guards or the city clerks.
As 138,0001, was about being expended on a lunatic asylum,
anti as it was proposed to squander 200,0001. on a new county
prison, he felt bound to move for a committee of inquiry
into the income and expenditure of the county.
Sir Perms Levata seconded the resolution. He said he
held in hand a pamphlet in reference to the prison palace at
Reading, and which very much resembled in appearance the
House of Lords. (Laughter.) Hie friends, Sir James
Hamilton and Mr. Charles Elliott, would remember that
they had, as magistrates, once or twice received the thanks
of that vestry for checking a recklessness in the county ex-
penditure, and he hoped thatthey should on this occasion be
actuated by similar motives. The history of this silent sys-
tem was exceedingly curious. There were certain noblemen
who believed that it was di sirable to do away with trarepor-
tation ; and they were under a notion that it was only to
confine a criminal in a solitai y cell for a time to make him
come out reformed. But what had been the effect of this sys-
tem? Hewes prepared to prove that it produced insanity.(Hear)
Within five years there had been sent to 13etblehern,over which
institution he (Sir P. Laurie) bad the honour to preside, no leas
than 49 persons, six only of whom were out of county prisons,
and all the rest out of government prisons, where the solitary
system was in practice. The government had, to their
honour be it spoken, abolished that system in the Millbauk
Penitentiary, and had adopted what they called the " asso-
ciated" system. The bubble had, in fact, burst, and instead
of sixty separate cells, they had now 320 persons sleeping in
dormitories. As a proof of the dangerous effects of the soli-
tary system, be (Sir P. Laurie) begged to refer them to what
Sir Eardley Wilmot said of the " exiles," for they were no
longer convicts, received from the Model Prison nearly a
year after their liberation. He said :—" I should say, from
say own observation as well as the reports of other!, that they
are depressed in spirits, and appear as if their mods and
energies still felt the weight which their peculiar treatment
at home appears to have produced." 'I his Act had forced
itself upon the government, and now the associated
system was adopted even at Pentonville before the
prisoners were sent away. He begged to tell the
vestry that with all this before them there was an
attempt on the part of certain magistrates to establish a
prison for the county upon such a principle, and he much
'eared that in the adjoining county of Surrey, which had no
Marylebone vestry to call public attention to the aets of the
m ig.stratee, the erection of a prison, taking that at Pentan-
e-ale for its model, would take place. It was a fact, as
dated by Mr. Williams, that the keep of a prisoner in
Reading Gaol was 511. per annum, and although the chap-
lain bad declared that those wholaad been turned out were
doing well, it had been proved to be the reverse. One
fellow, on being discharged, expressed his regret to the rev.
gentleman, and asked him how he was to finish the " Ephe-
Mane ." he soon found the way, however, for fie was shortly
sent back to the gaol again for horse stealiag. (Laughter.)
He called upon the vestry not to be lukewarm in this matter,
for though defeated for the preterit, the reject was still going
ondhaving been referred to a committee, and Mr. H. Rose
had declared that the House of Correction should come
down. it was the practice of Lord Althorp, when he
brought forward a 'Leasure to say, " Is there much noise
about it out of doors 1" and when he received a reply that
there was, he would say, " oh, thou we cnu't go on." It
was the thunder from without that had the effect, and he
hoped the thunder item without would have effect in this
instance. For the sake of the ratepayers' pockets, and for
the sake of the poor, he called upon the vestry and all other
parishes to denounce thin model prison and model system in
that county. The attempt had been tried in the City of
London and failed. When Lord John Russell was tho
I Home Secretary the government offered the City 7,0001. out
of the consolidated fund if they would pall down Newgate
and rebuild it on the solitary and silent system, but they re-
fused. The fact was, that the gaols were made so comfort-
able that they would not get people to break stones or do
any other kind of labour whilst they could go there. He did
I hope the vestry would unanimously consent to the committee.
Mr. Eimer, deputy-lieutenant of the county, and Major
Sir J. HAMILTON, But., opposed the motion as unnecessary,
because the plan of a new prison would not be tolerated.
Mr. Bitoeunrore, police magistrate, defended the new
model prison and the government prison discipline; urging,
is the words of Burke, "That true economy does not consist
in saving money ; but in the due and proper expenditure of
money."
Mr. STRPHINS said it appeared that 138,0001. had been
voted for the New County Lunatic Asylum, whereas he had
understood that the lowest tender which had been put in for
the building was 186,0001., which was 28,0001. more than
the sum voted for it. Now, if this was the ease, it was highly
necessary for the painless to watch over the matter, ea, it the
lowest estimate was 166,0001., the probability was that the
actual cost would be a great deal more. (Hear.)
Mr. Joszeit wished it to be distinctly understood that
there was no reflection meant as to the honesty er integrity
of the bench of Middlesex magistrates—(hear)—but, at the
same time, he considered it was peculiarly the province of
that vestry, which, on the part of the parish, paid one-seventh
of the enure county rate, to inquire into the expenditure of
the money so collected. (Hear.) It was true that the vestry
had no control over this expenditure, and that the only
power left to them was remonstrance. lie did not see any
objection to the practice of teaching prisoners trades in
itself ; but it was when they came out that the evil was felt,
for they came into the already overstocked labour market,
and frequently deprived the honest and industrious man of
his labour. With regud to the comparison of prison diet
with that of workhouses, he held in his hand the diet-table
of St. George's, Ilanoversquare, and he bound that, whilst
the poor had in that workhouse but fifteen ounces of animal
food per week, the criminais in Pentonville Prison had
twenty-eight ounces. (Shame.) This, he declared, was a pre-
mium offered for crime, and not at all calculated to make per-
sons dread being the inmates of a prison. The reason assigned
tar this allowance was the depressing effects of a solitary prison,
rendering the frames of the prisoners so preetrete, that un-
less kept up by high living and stimulants, human nature
could not stand it. If that was the fact, then it was a
monstrous pkce of cruelty. If eh_..emotiou were not carried,
its thought the debate which had ensued upon this ques-
tion would not be without its heath." • &co 'and with
the attunes. so ^`.-"-`•

.liebtoes."
Qom"wo e oi utaw, aim even
,ortation, it would roma an important quer.
*ion as to what was to be .ions with the criminal—how
they were to distinguish vice from virtue. (Rear.) He
thought that. as it was 'proposed to erect a county prison
upon the model of that at Pentonville, the honoure.le
mover was perfectly 'in order in showing 'the evils of that
system, and hoped the motion would be carried.
Atter a few observations fr lir. Soden and Dr.
Rutherford,
Mr. W. WILLIA•Iit, in reply, remarked that, as a proof
that the fatal of pulling down the House of Correction,
and building u
•,'11,2e w" 'VA abandoned, he begged to Ray that since the
new prison on the plan of that of Penton-
°,
_°°.,`se. 4'4 begun, he had been in termed that Mr. Itotch
°L°4 the last few days declared he would not abandon
it. ;tear.)
fie resolution, on being put from the choir, was carried
14 an overwhelming majority, there being about niue or
ten hands against it.