The Express.
London, England, 1853-10-27 00:00:00

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To COI:RESPONDENTS.

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ALOt I: n ••• avende•l 'or " The Lapeer," Landun Lei ciao P-.^r.
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day ut pub.:anon.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
11." DAT 1116 Wm Alterman, l a. •nu
T.o4.)uww—Nlarninl. 111L411a, Aftwasor, lli. 2lw.

LO DOS, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 27.

A LETTER, addressed to US by the Chaplain of
Winth.,ter Gaol, appears in another part of this
day's impression. Both in this commuuication, and
in his circular epistle to the Visiting Justices, the
Rev. Gm:tic:li "ins to be in a sad quoutlitry. He
apologises in the st abject manner for doing what
is right. The printed circular to the Jas:icts, which
he ve:vs was meant to be private and confidential,
he adirms was addressed to them "in compliance
with the Act of I'arliameut, which require. that the
Chap cis s'etlt Lompewitieute front time 6. !inn, ahy
wAirh NW./ ham cusne to his knowledje." So
far Irci,i answering this description, the document
in question is a laboured special pleading in his own
defer. ee for having failed to comply with the injune-
tiers of the Act. In the opening paragraph he states
that the letter is "in reply to the remark of the
Citairrizn, 'that the Chaplain was not fit for his
offl:e, if be had not brought the instrument of torture
for the prisoners ,ILder their notice.'" He admits
that he had not done this—he admits that ho had
also connived at t! :e employment of the prisoners,
contrary to law, in the private and domestic work
of the Governor—that he continued this connivance
for seventeen years. Ile assigns as a reason for this
prolonged neglect of duty his desire to act in con-1
formity with " Christian feelings and evangelical
principles:" but its clear from his letter that the
rerl actuating motive was fear of the Governor and
Matron, against whom ho did not venture to lift up
his voice, until, taunted by the Justices for ex-
premiers which had incautiously dropped from him,
he was compelled, as it were, to stand at bay.
And in like manner the letter which we publish
to-day is a sheer effusion of fright at what the
justices may do to him. He still thinks the instru-
ment of coercion an instrument of torture, and un-
likely to be successful in the treatment of criminals :
and yet, because ho is informed that tho instrument
has been in the prison under the authority of the ma-
gi-hates, he thinks ho was mistaken in his view of it.
In other words, it is not for a poor Chaplain to ex-
press dissent from the dicta of the worshipful quorum.
All this paltering and shunting goes tar, no doubt,
to weaken the credibility of the Chaplain. Ho is
evidently one of those men who lack courage when
brow-beaten by authority to act or speak upon his
own feelings and convictions. But though his words
may be discredited, his actions cannot. His trepi-
dation and panic reveal the system by which the
authorities of Winchester Gaol prevent the secrets
of their prison-house from transpiring. If the
lain has been taught to stand thus in awe of Gover-
nor, Matron, and the "tremendous Midasaes " of the
visiting coir.mittee, how may not the prisoners have
been drilled ?

The allegations of the Chaplain, it ought to be
kept in mind, are entirely different from those made
by the witness examined at the inquest on the pri-
soner JONES who died in the Queen's Bench Prison.
The charges by the Chaplain are cumulative with,
not corroborative of, the charges by POULTON. The
latter spoke to the insufficient dietary and other
hardships of the debtors, the former to cruelties
inflicted on the convicts, and to illegal misapplica-
tion of their labour by the Governor. POULTON
spoke of an isolated abuse, affecting one class of
prisoners; but if the statements both of POULTON
and the Chaplain can be substantiated, there has
been a general, long-continued, pervading system of
oppression and malversation in Winchester Gaol.
We say, " if the statements conk substantiated ;"
for, as we remarked iu cur comments on the evi-
dence delivered to the Southwark Inquest, Pout-
TON'S charges having been made in the absence of
the accused, can only be received as cx parte ; and,
as we have remarked above, the timid shuttling of the
Chaplain detracts from the weight of his evidence.
Yet, with regard to both, there are corroborative
facts which render their testimony, if not suflu•ient
to ensure conviction, sufficient to establish the neces-
sity of inquiry,
The evidence of POULTON appears to have been to
a certain extent corroborated by the condition of the
prisoner JONES (deceased), when forwarded from
Winchester Gaol to the Queen's Bench Prison. As
to the instrument used for coercing the prisoners in
Winchester Gaol, the description given of it by the
Chaplain, and his account of its effects upon those to
whom it is applied, are not called in question. The
defence set up for the Governor and Matron is not
that the instrument and its effects have been inseen-
ItAtely described, but that its use was sanctioned by
the Justices. Well, what is the nature of the in-
strument, the use of which is thus sanctioned These
are the Chaplain's words :

The apparatus is a frame of iron and leather to fasten
Yount!! the body of the prisoner, with iron sockets at tie hips,
into which are inserted iron uprights, or crutches, to be
find higher or lower, at the pleasure of the officer. The
tops of the crutches era formed to take the arm-pits ; and
when used, the arms of the prisoner are raised to a certain
height, at the pleasure of the officer, and the uprights
fastened to that position. When so fastened, the arms are
forced down over the iron crutches, and strapped to the
waist. Auy surgeon, or any ens having a knowledge of
mechanics, must perceive, at once, that the operation of
this apparatus would be to wrench or dislocate entirely, or
partially the shoulder.joint. lathe instance in which the chap-
lain saw it, it was used on a female prisoner, who had used im-
proper language. She was a darkened cell, to which the
chaplain was attracted by her streams of pain, and she was
Toth:lon the floor, with her arms black and entirely cold,
owing to the circulation being stopped.
No contradiction of this statement has been at-
tempted. The apparatus is apparently one of these dia-
bolical instruments of coercive torture formerly used in
mad-houses, from all of which they have been banished,
though retained by the gentle Justices of Hampshire
to torment the prisoners in their gaol. The Justices
d 3 not question the accuracy of the description given
of this instrument, or of tho effects attributed to
its use ; they expect the country to be satisfied with
their declaration that they have seen it and approve
of its employment. For their retaining in office a
Governor who, though repeatedly warned, hat con-
tinued to employ prisoners for his own private emo.
lament or advantage, it does not appear that they
have condescended to offer either explanation or
apology. And as to the customary diet and treat-
ment of the debtors, what could the Government In-
spector, who is said to have been sent to Winchester.
learn of these matters by a forenoon's lounge
through the gaol, engaged, as he seems to have
been, all the time in an agrees!ile chat with the
Chairman of the Visiting Committee? Indeed this

case, like that of Birmingham, goes to slow that the
present system of gaol inspection is a mere hollow
Sham—paid for by the taxes, but utterly worthless
to the nation.

Matters cannot be allowed to pass off in this easy,
pick tooth fashion. Suspicions, and more than sus-
picions, are accumulating and darkening round the
Gaol of Winchester. A meeting to contradict certain
charges leads only to the accidental advancement of
hers. Justices and officials grow heated, and tell