The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1826-09-29 00:00:00

RT. PATRICK ASSURANCE COMPANY:

An adjourned Meeting of the Shareholders of this OHM
pasty took place on Saturday last, in Dublin, for the pot/.
pose of receiving the Report of the Committee eppointed
to investigate the affairs of the Company, when, after
very stormy dilacuision, a further adjournment took_ plate
M ol
to Saturday next,.. the 34th instant. After the eetin
was over, ten of the Directors tendered their resignations.
`Chat ti can it be possible that these teh gentlemen can ets
pect, by the mere form of resigning, to escape the heavy
responsibility which attaches t 4 them? i o, no; let then:
not lay such flattering unction to their souls, for this act of
theirs comes too late. ft is quite cleat., from the special
Act of Parliament obtained for the regulation of the unite
of this Company, that the Shareholders are collectively-04
individually responsible to the event of the &posed capital
of the Company, and
nap aztioti Will lie against one and all
who, in the mad spirit Of speculation, have Involved theme
selves in this anti other. Institutions sittrilarly.replatedt
whether by Act of Parliorisent or Deed of Settlement.
There is a sum of about Mono/. ter/lathing of the funds
of this CCmpany, against which Is to be placed no lest than
1,000,0001. sterling of risks, indeilendent of outatanding
averagei and other known claims. The liabilities to which
the shareholders in general are thus expifted cannot be
contemplated without the most painful feeling of commie
seratien ; and happy will it be for other Companies if they
will take warning by the disclostwe which is made in this
instance. Doubtless the example here set by resignation
of Directors may be attempted to be followed in other Ins
stitutions, when their general reiponSibility lit otanage.
meat, 113 well as their personal liabilities, threaten them
whit tl!nger ; it is impossible, hoseever, that either law or
eqt_ity can sanction such sprocutsking:
fhe one thousand an4one bubbles wilt Welt folly and
cupidity amused John flull art daily bursting! let thesti
who wish to avoid a similar fate st ones bring pursiits to
a conclusion that can never lOd o prof t. The evil day
may be put off, but it must come at last ; and theonly way
is to hack out with present lass rather than proceed {Often
the consequences must be ruinous. The awful responsibt.
lity which pressct upon thole Who have the direltoleLf
Public Companies cannot be too soon underitood.
may hope, in the event of failure, to find a loop-hole cut
at which to effect their escape ; but the honourably-minded
man will never allow himself such an altittnative, The
delay of s day may be ruinous tb indithinals, and involve
the commercial Character of the country ; let, therefore, an
immediate suspension of business be the consequence—let
the Directors boldly meet present difficulties, ratter than
pruce d in the profligate consolation that chance may
efli:ct that Which reason teThs us can never take place.

ALLEG;I6 TOR TU.IiE THR RI CIIMO.XD

PENITENTIARY, DUBLIN.

itlld!t A I'ItIVATE LEiTZIO
DUBLIN, Sap?.
Whilst the Etoile is labouring hard to persuade its readers
that a Protestant inquisition, supported by the Government,
exists in Ireland, in which racks, iron helmets, thumb•
crews, ind such other instruments of torture, are in daily
use, to transmute Pipi:lts into sound Protestants; and, ott
the other hand, while the London Journals, and a portion
of the Irish Press, which thow nothing at all of the mat-
ter, effect to laugh at the folly of such iMputetions against
the liberality of the age, it reiiy not be entirely uninterest-
ing to gitie you true information cn the subjects. I must
first tell You that the Richmond Penitentiary is a .State
Triton, established under a special Act of Parliament, fcr
employing at hard labour convicts under rule of transpore
tation, and that, in point of fast, the Lord Lieutenant ii
the Goveistor of it. This institution is Considered in the
Courts a kind of ins:dated Botany
.11ily and when a con.
vict enters thelustitution he is,to all intents and purposes,
1,-,torpoyted. Unlike other prisons, its management is ex.
Clurivesy under the control of the Goi,ernor, and not at
all open to she inspection of die Committee. 'The Inspec.
tors-General of Prisons visit it occasionally ; and in their
last Report to Government described itt Condition in terms
of the warmest panegyric. The principal officers of the
prisms now are, Mr. If. W. RowanGotehlenr ; Rev. Mr.
Higgin, Protestant Chaplain;, ltev. fly. Donovan, Catholic
Chaplain; Mr. Orpen, Physician. Ten prisoners Manus
M'Lochlan, Michael Lynch, John Connell, Catherine
Connell, John Haffey, Peter Capper, Thomas Kelly,
Joseph White, Peter Douge, and Was. Gavigan, liberated
by order of the. Lord Lieutenant on. the 20th (If April latr,
presented, On their discharge from prison, a memorial to
Dr. Murray, the Catholic Archbishop, commencing in the
following terms:—
" An Appeal to his Gram the Most ger. Dr. Murray, Roman

Catholic Archbishon of Dublin.
" May it please your Grace—M'eos'aose names ate underaigned,
unworthy members of that Church of which your Grace Is head in
this diocese, consider it a duty which we owe to ourselves, to our
brethren who have suffered, to those who are now suffering. and
to those who IMO: hereafter suffer, for conscience' sake, most hwy.
bly to submit the following statement of .what we have heard and
a yen whilar we had the mirfiwturfc to be cotigleed in the kiebrnoad
General Penitentiary in Dublin.
" Horrified at the cruel sufferings and drtadfut prodannertt
which we and others have endured in this prison, on the wee of rel.
gion, we were induced to believe that we should, in the first ir.
stance, publish an account of it to the world ; but conceiving that,
in your Grace's prudence, acme efficacious means can be adopted to
inquire into these cruellits and ptimsliments, In order to prevent
sir recurrence, by a respe lit:I application to his Eaceliency the
Lord Lieutenant, hefor, w ish those facts, we t#ias• loftily
submit them to your G-,te's ror,ideration, beseeching your Grace
to make use of all your inEuence to have those,unhcard-of treelike
aboli hed.

" To satisfy your Grego, or any person or presorts who may be
authorized to examine tWs case, we pledge ourselves, individuaUv
and collectively, to certify the truth of whatlwe here rate upon
oath, when called upon ; and, that our testimony may be the more
cl...arly proved to be correct, we most humbly pray that your Grace
will solicit Ids Excellency the Lord Lieutenant to command an in-
quiry to ba immediately instituted into the internal regulatiors of
the Richniond Ge.ncral P.nitcntiary, and to order that the Gover-
nor, door-keepers, ward-cleaners, chaplains, and prisoners, be ex-
amined upon oath, to ascertain if what is here stated be strictly
true." •

After this preamble, the memorial went on to state the
charges, which certainly are of a terrific nature, and which,
there is no doubt, are tinctured largely with exaggeration.
The Catholic Archbishop, on rect ipt of this memorial, for-
warded it to Cokmel Shawe, the Private Secretary of the
Lord Lieutenant. The letter of this esteemed Prelate set
forth his own utter ignorance of the facts or the parties,
and even said. that although from their revolting atrocity
he could not believe the facts to be true., still that he
;bought them, under the circumstances, to be a fit subject
for investigation, expressing, at the same time, his certain
conviction that his Excellency the Lord Lieutenant would
14 be most anxious that the agents of his Government shoUld
be tree from even the suspicion of adding to the miseries of
the unfortunate prisoners the infliction of religious perm-
etition. I shall not occupy your attention by detailing the
subsequent proceedings of the. Government; be it sufficient
to say that a Commission of Inquiry it as opened at the Pe-
nitentiary, to investigste the allegations in the memorial, on
the 10th July last. The Commissioners were J. S. Tow ns-
bend, Eatj. R.C., and the Inspectora-General of Prisons,
Majors W oolward and Palmer. The appointment of the lat-
ter officers caused some surprise here. Although they are
doubtlessly honourable men, it was thought to be rather an
Irish way to Met stigate complaints to send officers whoseown
conduct was in some measure involved in the issue of the pro-
calings, to report upon the facts ; and it was ccnsidered ad-
ditionelly inexpedient to employ these gentlemen in such
a business, when their own Prison Report, lately presented
to the Irish Government, contained the warmest expression
possible to be conveyed of' their approbation of the
management of the Richmond Penitentiary. Still there is
no doubt that these gentlemen will do justice. The Com-
mission accordingly sat. I shall not now ativirei you,of
the proceedings; but I cannot close without assuring you,
that the letter which was written to Ole 'froth-Teller
efts a nos lneendo), and On which the Ftoile has foinuled
so much dramatic embelliAment, was extremely false in it:
details; and with regard to using an iron helmet that
compressed the and, as it were, rendered the bra;:t
therein contained more fit. for the reception of Protestant
doctrine, there was no proof whatever adduced. It is
true, en iron helmet, the fitness of which to he us,d under
any eircumsninces may became a proper subject for in4niry
in a Court of Law, was once used in the prison, in a ease
of mutiny among the convicts; but there is no proof what-
soever that it was ever used to mute Protestants ; atilt less
is there any ground even for the suspicion that any pro-
ceedings, either by rermaein or Ly puttishtnent, if tithe.

LUCans should be proved to have been resorted to, were
used ih the prison for pm-posies of proselytism to the 'Pro-
'titan* religion, under the sanction, or by the direction, of
the Cio•ernment of the country. duds &declaration ii ut-
terly false and unfounded.—kceftiog Parr.

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