The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-11 00:00:00

How Prisoners are Fed in Newgate.

Yesterday Mr. Sergeant Payne held an inquest in her
Majesty's Gaol of Newgate, respecting the death of a Pri"
soner, convicted of burglary, named Auguste Batalet.or
0.
Mr. Edmund James Jonas said he was the Goveor:.n July,
Newgate. The deceased was brought in on the7t;iht I
the fol-
charged with having committed a burglary, and
penal Lord
vitude. sessions he was sentenced to seven /tern he was told
vitude. He saw him the previous daydiairt a
surgeon had
that he was in a fit. He then heard_rdered that he should
kept out of the water.
been previously sent for. Witnesiled
be placed in a warm bath, and his head
mr. Gibson, surgeon of
Mr. Thomas Clarke, assistant
„,a„ sent for to see the de-
Newgate, said that yesterday be ''
illiite pulseless.
lately, and saw him just coming
sndand found a large
ceased. He attended immediately,
from a bath. He was the_rtaiinusthenesicabl:sea
He examined him to testicking in his throat, and which
[ piece of meat whir
.c. producing asphyxia.
had caused death
s', 0 officer of the prison, said that on the
William Thoraaave
if the deceased his dinner, which con-
previous do,' 11 o.z. of beef, cut into several pieces, when he
sisted of 31 °I.- drink of water.
John Rowland fors •
asked
land Gibson said he had seen the deceased daily
.
his committal. He had no knife or fork allowed—
' sin" prisoners had that
.0 eof the privilege.
- ram this stage of the proceedings a piece of meat extracted
from the deceased's throat was produced. It was about
three inches long, and apparently an inch and a half wide.
The Coroner—Who was it supplied the meat in this
manner to the prisoners ?

Mr. Jonas (the governor)—The cook generally had the
cutting up of the meat for the prisoners who were consi-
dered not to be in a fit state to be entrusted with knives and
forks.

A Juror—I think it highly culpable to send up meat to a
prisoner, knowing that ho is deprived of both knife and
fork, and the meat is sent up in pieces three or four inches
1011 g. How is a person, I should like to know, able to eat
it? Is he to tear it to pieces by his lingers and hand ?
Witness (continued)—Ho had received an order from
Mr. Humphreys that he was not to be allowed a knife and
fork. He had his meat served up in the same way, but pro-
bably cut at times in smaller pieces.
The Coroner—Now, supposing he felt himself choking,
how was he to let any one know ?
Witness—There was a bell which he could have rung
and which would have communicated to the authorities of
the gaol that he required assistance.
The Jurors having consulted, returned averdict of " Ac-
cidental death from suffocation ;" but at the same time wished
to express an opinion deprecating the serving out of meat in
such pieces to those who were deprived of knives and forks.

The second expedition from Galicia into Volhynia.
has been as unsuccessful as the first. That is to say,
it has been a total and most disastrous failure. We
have now seen four detachments endeavour to cut
their way from Galicia into the most important of
the three southern provinces of ancient Poland—
those of Horodycki, Wysocki, and Minniewski,
under thegeneralcommand of Wysocki ; and within
the last few days that of Leszek Wiszniewski (who
must not be confounded with Kasimir Wiszniewski,
slain at the head of his regiment of mounted gen-
darmerie on the 18th of last month). Leszek Wis-
zniewski had scarcely 200 men under his orders ;
phdsaeooremetnsei
nnaaoncttenhoimeuti
matter
ibttatsate:sr:a:
eyhao2tiw:so, others only 180, but cer-
is
tainly not more than 200 crossed the frontier. It
t
irtniagtheoeusdliyairbinutt, that it iitnwteans
intended,
ohdi
ea.
tcttmbhehysetiao,ilisfteafiyearnrirßussians
insurgent
dsf
uea
yrriget enth
enough
oVwduiwotgnorthoil
would
te
ohbwt
oaesceovkunketi
fora
efitrismt
eminomthenetwtohoadts w
Russians. The Poles crossed thePm,ooel:efooosrrnoidw.nooutti
thgebherht
fought
second
snyt
theyhin
which
were
separateperceived
Galicia b
from
Volhynia, and Volhynia from the" Goverhntoemmreenm:tlerao°oionilfr-
Lublin, in the kingdom of Poland." A squadron of
Hungarian Hussars, drawn up in the garden and
°kat,
fields of Count Komarowski, kept the ground on
the Austrian side, and the battle was fought so close
to the frontier that the Russian bullets fell, from
time to time, among the neutral lookers on. Capt.
Szirma, one of the officers on duty, had the sheath
of his sabre shot away, but, as far as I can learn,
no one on the Austrian side was wounded,
Oat of 200 insur gents who in this last mad foray
entered Volhynia (which is held by a well discip-
lined army of nearly 20,000 men) 30 have come
back sound and free, 70 have been taken prisoners
by the Austrians, and the remainder are either
killed, wounded, or captive in the hands of the Rus-
sians. In other wor3s, the Poles have lost 170 out
of 200 men. They have also lost their chief. Leszek
Wiszniewski is thought to have been killed ; but,
alive or dead, his body remains with the enemy.
I find now that the losses in Wysocki's expedi-
tion to Volhynia must have amounted to at least
half of the entire force—and they would have been
greater still bad there been more fighting. Min-
niewski never got across the frontier, but half of his
men were made prisoners by the Austrians. Nearly
half of Wysocki's detachment (at all events a
sufficient number to render two companies of in•
fantry out of four next to useless) disappeared under
fire. Finally, out of 250 men who composed the
whole of the infantry, under Major Synkiewicz,
when Horodycki led his detachment into Radziwil-
low, 214 are now missing. The battalion when it
was counted in the wood of Nakwasha numbered
nearly 340, but about 40 took to flight when the
outposts were fired upon, before the passage of the
frontier, and some 30 were afterwards sent back
from the Russian side as unfitted for the dangerous
and desperate work in view. The chosen band of
250 (without counting the cavalry, who, when they
are well dressed, are more ornamental than useful)
consisted of 150 riflemen and 100 sithemen, and,
whether they had to attack 800, 900, or 1,000 Rus-
sians, certainly did their duty most heroically. If
the Russians had not been confused by the intrepi-
dity of the Polish attack—on leaving as well as en-
tering the town—they could not have allowed one
man to escape. As it was, 214, out of an entire
force of 280, were killed, wounded, or captured,
while out of eight infantry officers—all men of ex-
perience and of tried valour and ability—six, in-
cluding the colonel, fell. The major and one of the
captains (not poor Tchozewski, as was at first re-
ported) have alone returned alive, the latter with-
out a wound, the former wounded only by the
leeches which stuck to his legs when he was in the
water without the boots.

Detachments are making ready for fresh incur-
sions into the Ruthenian provinces. I cannot be-
lieve that the Poles arc not, by this time, thoroughiy
-Qpvinced that in Volhynia they are, at least fur
the present, quite powerless. These repeated in-
vasions, of such an utterly hopeless character, can
only be looked upon as diversions made by men
who are quite ready to sacrifice themselves in one
part of Poland that their countrymen may have a
better chance in another. Although Volhynia,
Podolia, and the Ukraine remain perfectly quiet,
the Russians, not knowing at what moment these
provinces may be invaded from Galicia, hold them
with a force of nearly 50,000 troops; and, were it
not for the suicidal expeditions made from time to
time by men like Horodycki and Wiszniewski, at
least 30,000 of these troops might well be spared
for service elsewhere. _ _

The war in Poland is carried on in such a despe
rate fashion that no account can be taken on either
side of the position of non-combatants. Otherwise,
I do not think it would be unpatriotic on the part
of the National Government to reflect that every
incursion into Volhynia, and every attempt at in-
surrection in the province itself, subjects the Polish
inhabitants to the most cruel outrages on the part
of the Ruthenian peasantry. I asked a Polish
surgeon the other day, who brought back a con-
siderable number of wounded from Radziwillow to
the frontier, whether he received any assistance
from the local population. He said that a few
people outside the town ventured to give him what
aid they could, but that they all upbraided the
insurgents with having entered Volhynis,
and that
one man called out " Unhappy wretches, why did
you come here to be slaughtered, and get us
massacred also ?"
Several political prisoners were liberated here a few
days ago, among others Count Severin Borkowski
and Prince Radziwill. One of the captives, on being
set free, requested permission to wait a little longer,
and ultimately, being a person of influence, obtained
remain in prison until the evening. This
g
was not troubled with a " dead heart,"
lbeueantvtsel to
iemmpalyn wished to give an entertainment in his
cell. The banquet came off in the afternoon, and
is said to have afforded general satisfaction. I sup-
pose that this
are badly may be looked upon as a proof that if
political prisoners treated in Austria their
ill-treatment is at least not the result of any deli-
berate intention. Nevertheless, the position of the
great majority of persons now in confinement, on
suspicion of having aided the insurrection, is most
unfortunate for them and most discreditable to the
Austrian Government. It might at least be expected
of a Government which imprisons on the largest
possible scale that it should learn to keep its
prisons in something like decent order,
Count Mensdorff returned here a few days ago,
freshly decorated with the Grand Riband of the
Order of Leopold. Marks of distinction have also
been conferred on all the officials through whose
special activity the recent arrests aro supposed to
have been effected, such as the director of the police,
the president of the tribunal, &c. M. Merkl, one of
the chief police official of Cracow, has also been de-
corated, from which it may be inferred that his
Government quite rejects the story of M. Merki's
having become a Russian spy, and that it regards
the disgraceful letter recently attributed to him by
several newspapers as one of many similar forgeries.

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