The National Register.
London, England, 1819-03-07 00:00:00

I!! ARCH 1.

and has anxiously endeavoured to make provimons for
those which might arise. If I may be allowed to apply
the term, I think that the remedy tier such evil, has
bean threstalled by the Legislature. There is one thing,
however, whieli in viewing the subject is of the last
im-
port/nee, and which in the regulation of prisons should
be considered as a duty we owe to mankind—that
tbit especial care should be taken to separate- virtue
from vice and that those who are muff, ring under the
lash of the law should not be mixed with- those who
may be perfectly iunocent, or at 'emit whose guilt has
not been proved. Ido not mean to imply that those
who have been pronounced ctiminal should be visited
with more than wholesome severity, or be made more
wretched than they are ;. (God forbid !) but it is the in-
dispeneahle duty of the Magistracy to see that the good
le separated from t e bad. That the Legislature con-
templated this, there can be no dunbt. $u long ago as
he 3:d Geo. 11. orders were given to Grand Juries, to
tenvire into the State of Gaols, and particularly in the
Islt:tropelis and great cities. Persons confined for debt
were the peculiar objects of this Act. The great statute,
However, which eml raced the E iquir into the State
of*County (aids was the 21. th of the King, 1784. This
Act laid down in the cleanest manner the principle of
elaesification with respect to prisoners, empowering
Magistrates to see, and Grand Juries to enquire, whe-
ther a proper sep,ration was made of the prisoners who
had been tried min those who were untried—of those
who were convie.ted of very bad crimes from others
misdemeanors only—and, above all, of the
indis7ensuble separation of male from female prisoners
I do not perceive that at this time there was any regard
to the chiseilication of v isoners as t • age. Of the se-
paration dint:of :. from matured delinquency. Es-
pecial car', . owever. ,cetus to have heen taken with re.
grrd to rat . ~ • o.arly as to the prevention of tip-
line in prisot,• -Lilt it later stain,' than this, and which
• male a c ee, o,le noise ill the country, was passed
by the Legisl iture, in order to the imoroeement of gaols
eed the cone,' t and aeiel rati .0 p isomers. Vais
was the :31st Geo I I woer.: chapter 46, it was
s7i.;e Li gaols be taken into eee_
s:deration at the Sessi o: As mid that visiting!
Ma,;ier te.•; s.tnuil b - ..v am were pericularly ;
sequi rel w era eine i.O , the e:a • diem of the eri
sours to amines a eanli. s and to -.ince, ita. in
fait, to ....ciao possibh: the co of r. .
of tl.e Yon tv.ll no d ioUt 0 se, p:i,e 1, Gen-
tlemen, titer hese views at-ii pn..caations ol* the 1,2- -
Olature, that evils .slmuld still evest and that the state
of prisons slemio at present eng-ags so much of th:
lie ca•eation. That eves do exist there can be no nimbi
and you have a strong instance in your own County
Gaol. I know tat in many respects great blame is at
tachithie to the keeper of prisons, but I do not mean by
this to make a reflection upon the Gaoler of this Coun-
ty ; the contrary, from all I know and le rn, he is a
most rospectable individual, and most hu ane and effi-
cient in his situation. If the classification, therefige,
which has been pointed tett by the Legislature, has not
been attended to in your prison, either from its con-
struction or want of room, from its crotvdeit state, that
is not the fault of the keeper. But by attention to the
Act I have last cited, the evil migit hove been remedied,
for in the 11 tit section, the visiting Magistrates are
bound to point out the state of the Gaols, and particu-
larly the non-classification ut prisoners, from want of
means or othur canoes. This should be done from one
Session or Assize to another, until the evil be removed
As to employing prisoners, that is a subject which at-
taches itself more to.persmis wlee are tent to the Haase
of Correction.
, It is not so attended to in County
Gaols, but still Magistrates have tae power, and there
is a provision for them, to cause prisoners .o work if they
please. There is a great evil immediately flowing from
this non-attention to the employment and classification
of the prisoners, nail that is, that if 11 person, at the ex-
piration of his imprisonment, be turned adrift without
rooney, end perliart without clothes, there is every pro-
LaLility that he will return to vice and his former bud
habits By the Ittli Fection of the Act mentiened, the
Magistrates are provided with power of inepectil„;
prisons, in such a way Os to obtain a ciimpieto know-
of the coaduct of its inmates, and to report to the
Juries of Assize tiny individnal, whose behaviour may
derircd w,:rtlty anotice. A prisoner thes reported,
rit•ty have his punishment cum:tutted. and may go forth
Eros: impri •inincilt. I have heard of ninny instances,
an; have hia.vn some myself, where persons who had
eemilictol themselves lrc pe7•ly, li.we beta employ-
ed in prisons, thus ring fertle and who hare after
w,irtla conducted tin:lost:lves well in society. On the
certrary, I have known e erems who lied bten turned
adrift, :.s in the former instance, haring sewn returned
again to tie very prison ;tom wlii:11 they :lad been dis-
charged. The most imror:ant olject, however, of all,
is the regulation of prisons, in IA:. opinion is, the culti-
vation of rclicion a.n.i morality. The attenclacce of the
tlereiiire, for this purpose, is indispeesuble,
although Clotplains are appt inter' to tlis soveral gaols,
tiny are not sufficiently relic:re:rated to-enable them to
perform the duty which is so essentially required.—
This is! matter which must depend almost entirely on
the liberality of the ceentry, and w %arch, for its own