The Sun.
London, England, 1853-10-25 00:00:00

LONDON, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1853.

" Friends !" interposed the man, in a voice
Which rattled in his throat, "if I lay dead at
the bottom of the deepest mine in the world,
tight screwed down and soldered in my coffin,
rotting in the dark and filthy ditch that drags its
slime along beneath the foundations of this pri-
*son, I could not be more forgotten or unheeded
than I am here. I am a dead man—dead to
society, without the pity they bestow on those
Whose souls have passed to judgment. Friends,
to see me ? My GOD ! I have sunk from the
prime of life into old age, in place, and there
this

is not one to raise his hand above my bed, when
1 lie upon it, and say—` It is a blessing he is

gone !' "
Seldom has even CHARLES DICKENS penned
a more powerful, a more heart-rending de-
' scription than that of the Chancery prisoner
in the Fleet Prison ; and yet he has failed to
convey an adequate notion of the fearful reality.
It was no fancy sketch that he depicted. There
was a living witness who could, even at
that period, before the writer had acquired the
fame and distinction since most deservedly ob-
tained, have fully and completely verified the
accuracy of his statement, who might have sat for
the portrait and complained that all its fearful
features had not been depicted in the strongest
light. That witness still exists, unless within the
last few weeks he has " obtained his discharge"
from a more merciful Judge than any he has met
with during his deplorable career—unless his name
be inscribed on the black catalogue of those who
have fallen victims to the atrocious system of im-
prisonment for debt. Yes, the real sufferings of
WILLrA If MILLAR far exceed those of the imaginary
captive so forcibly detailed by CHARLES DICKENS.
Twenty years of hopeless incarceration had been
endured by the Chancery prisoner before its
termination by his solitary lingering death.
Forty tedious years has WILLIAM MILLAR pined
in his living tomb! Having seen friends and ene-
mies alike pass away, and forgotten even by the
representatives of his detaining creditor—who has
gone to his last account—or only thought of in
respect to the claim which may yet be put forward
for an account of the sums received from his pro-
perty, of which it is said they are still in posses-
sion and enjoyment !—the Chancery prisoner,
although long enough confined "to have lost
friends, fortune, home, and happiness," had, in
consequence of his twenty years' imprisonment,
" acquired the right of having a room to himself,"
which he was enabled to let to a more wealthy
prisoner, and thus obtained the means of pro-
curing necessaries and such humble comforts as
were sanctioned by the prison regulations. The
forty years' incarceration of WILLIAM MILLAR con-
ferred no privilege, he had no earthly possession
which he could barter for a crust of bread or
an ounce of animal food ; and even if he had,
money would have been of no use. He would
not have been allowed to purchase anything
to eke out his scanty food, or to obtain even
a blanket to ward off the chills of his horrible
dungeon, or a bed on which to rest his
aged and weary limbs. In place of an apart-
ment to himself, he was placed in the D wing,
under the felons' gaol. In place of being permitted
to mingle with human beings, it was but rarely
that WILLIAM MILLAR was allowed the companion-
ship of a fellow-creature—(he had been four years
in solitary confinement when seen by Mr. THOMAS
WENHAM). In place of being allowed to see an
acquaintance at any hour during the day, any
casual applicant would have been dismissed unless
it happened to be a visiting day. In place of
being allowed to purchase a little wholesome
food, or the humble luxuries of a glass
of beer, or a little snuff or tobacco, if the
charity of a stranger should enable him to obtain
such unwonted luxuries poor MILLAR obtained,
or could obtain nothing but the dreary and in-
variable four ounces of bread and a pint of gruel,
(and such gruel !) for breakfast and supper, and
for dinner on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Fridays,
four ounces of bread and three of cheese ; on
Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays, the same
quantity of bread and four potatoes, and on
Thursdays the invariable four ounces of bread
and a pint of liquid, facetiously termed " soup,"
but which was really the water in which " the
meat was boiled for the more fortunate and better-
fed felons." This is no imaginary or unsupported
statement. It has been put forward on oath by
one who had himself nearly perished through the
fearful privations he sustained during seven
months in the Winchester Bastile, who, after he
had been confined to his bed for two days with-
out breaking his fast, applied to the sur-
geon for a little tea, and was answered
by " There it is," while the finger of the
humane officer was pointing to the revolting food
which the sick man was unable to touch. The
same witness gave the following description of the
treatment practised at the new County Prison,
Winchester :—" All the prisoners are put on the
same allowance. We do not associate with other
prisoners, but are compelled to be quite alone.
No visitors are allowed to see you. There is a
separate place both day and night for each pri-
soner. The place for exercise in the day is 30
feet by 20. It is precisely the same as the
felons' !"

Let any disinterested and unprejudiced person
peruse this deplorable account of the sufferings of
WILLIAm MILLAR. Any man untainted by the
crotchets of the " prison philanthropists "—any
man who does not tax his ingenuity in devising
new restrictions to torment and inconvenience his
fellow-creatures, to render their lives miserable,
and to reduce their diet to the lowest scale that
could possibly support existence, simply because
they are unable to satisfy their obdurate credi-
tors let any such person, we say, carefully
consider these simple statements, and say whether
" truth is not indeed stranger than fiction," whe-
ther the plain, unadorned facts do not transcend
the most vivid imaginings of the most brilliant
and powerful living author ?
And this is the system under which some of the
best and bravest of England's sons have suffered,
and are still suffering—men who have fearlessly
fought her battles by land and by water, to
whom the protection of their country, honour, and
safety, at home or abroad, at sea or in the tented
field, might well be entrusted—men who have
earned honours and distinction in either branch
of her MAJESTY'S service, and who have been re-
warded by--a prison. Good GOD, have we those
who endeavour to ameliorate the condition of the
slave, but forget the more painful position of the
white slaves of their native land. How well
might the ladies of America have retorted on
the fair and high-born dames of Britain the stain
and reproach that hung upon their own institu-
tions ? How well might they have pointed to
this foul blot on our National Escutcheon, and
told them to obliterate the Statutes relating to
imprisonment for debt from the Commercial Code
of " The United Kingdom" before they presumed
to arraign the United States for the milder and
more tolerable form of slavery there sanctioned.
It is true that the slave may be separated from his
family, and sent to labour in a distant land, but
not even SIMON LEGREE himself would deny the
imprisoned husband or father permission to visit
his dying wife or child, to take a last sad fare-
well of one very dear to his heart, who had been
the object of his early and unaltered affections, or
of his future hopes, from whom he was separatel
but a few hundred yards, or a few miles at most.
The slave system would not tolerate such barbarity;
it is reserved for the quasi philanthropy of the pseudo
humanity of the British law to sanction such
horrible cruelty ! Women of England—wives,
mothers, daughters, lovers—call upon those over
whom you may exercise a legitimate influence to
cause an inquiry to be instituted into this atrocious
system ; ask them to consider the sickening sub-
ject in all its details ; to ascertain what are its
advantages, if any, and to weigh them against its
innumerable disadvantages—to say how locking
a man up in gaol, and starving and tor-
turing him to death, can enable him to pay
debts which he could not satisfy when free ;
and unrestrained—tell them to enable the credi •
tor to seize the property, but not the person of
his bondsman—to punish the fraudulent, but not
the innocent debtor—in a word, command them
to remove the beams from their own eyes, so that
they may see clearly to extract the motes from
those of their trans-Atlantic brethren. Do these
things vigorously mid effectively, as you can do it,
if you think proper, and so will you call down a
blessing upon your country of which it is not now
deserving. Then, indeed, you may claim the
proud titles of " Children of a land of Liberty !"

The operatives of Preston may already judge
of the degree of dependence which can be placed
on the promises of the Committee of the Opera-
tive Union. It was distinctly and unequivocally
stated that ' 4,000/. per week should be paid to

those who in obedience to the dictates of the self-
constituted body had abandoned their employ-
ment, and surrendered wages to more than three
times the promised. amount. We have already
pointed out how very inadequate such a payment
would have been for the support of the mis-
guided individuals who quarrelled with their best
friends, and created a breach which cannot
easily be healed or repaired. Still even one-third
of the relinquished wages, if punctually and regu-
larly paid, would have averted actual destitution,
and provided the necessaries, although none of the
comforts, of existence. But how have these
pledges been redeemed ? How have the tempters
dealt with their victims ? We find Mr. GEORGE
COWELL, the accredited leader of the movement--
the person who now fills the position occupied by
Mr. W. NEWTON during the "Engineer difficulty,"
exulting in the great fact, that 1,750/. had been
placed in the hands of the Committee, and was
available for distribution. This sum had not been
altogether collected during the week. No—
there had been a balance remaining on hand from
the preceding week, which was seized on just as
failing companies trench on their " reserved
fund," in order to keep up a dividend and
maintain a show of solvency for an addi-
tional period. As usual on such occasions,
the prospects of those who were thus exhaust-
ing their resources were described as being
more than usually brilliant, and their position as
being " exceedingly satisfactory." Mr. COWELL,
the general of the insurrection, was peculiarly
facetious. He polished off those caitiffs, the edi-
tors of the daily journals, who dared to give sound
advice to the people, and to caution them against
the whole corps of pot-house legislators with
extraordinary severity—not only scalping his
victims, but executing a war dance over
their prostrate remains. ." They (the operatives)
had men among them of sterling character
and ability men who could use both their
tongues and their pens !" GOD help then those
traitor editors who do not support the confederacy,
who venture to predict that the result of the
struggle may be different from that ►vhich, for the
time being, the COWELLS, and SWINGLEHURSTS,
and JOLLYS, and GREENS, et hoc genus ontne,
desire to be believed. No quarter shall be ex-
tended to those miscreants, they shall be handed
over to the tender mercies of the champion equally
ready with the tongue and pen, who will make
the scoundrels " quail and flee before them."
Mr. COWELL is not, however, an original
genius. He does not disdain to copy from his
great prototype. While JACK CADE assured his
mob, in terms of indignant surprise, that " the
nobility think it scorn to wear leather aprons,"
Mr. COWELL is equally astonished because the cotton
lords " had not been in the habit of going to the
ale bench"—adding, with virtuous wrath, " they
(the cotton lords aforesaid) had not been content
with drinking their beer !" (What else, then, did
they do with it, or what new mode of consump-
tion had they devised ?) "No ; they must have
their wine, and their servants to wait on them !
Their wives were luxuriating in silks and satins,
while the operatives must be content to wear
miserable cotton dresses." Here, then, we have
some slight inkling of the end and object of the
strike. We are to have a realisation of the utopian
visions that foresaw a complete equality between
masters and operatives, when the hands worked or
not as they thought proper—drank the rich juices
of the grape of Spain or Portugal—had their tables
covered with abundance of rich viands, and
groaning under the magnificence of the fare
provided for the invited guests, and their wives
and children, if not arrayed in purple and fine
linen, were at least clothed from top to toe in
silks or satins.

These are the intoxicating visions displayed to
the astounded gaze of the gaping crowd. Surely,
for such a prospect, they would freely and will-
ingly submit to some temporary privation. MAHO-
MET promised his votaries all the sensual enjoy-
ments that could excite their ardour or inflametheir
passions. But he wisely reserved the performance for
another and a better world. The more liberal Mr.
COWELL, however, holds out hopes of immediate
gratification within a few weeks, when the masters
are compelled to succumb to their workmen, and
nit and perfect equality reigns on earth—or at
least in Lancashire and Yorkshire. Does it,
however, occur to any of the verdant audience
to inquire where all the wine is to be grown, all
the silks and satins made, to supply the ex-
tensive demand ? Where the servants are to
be found to attend on every family ? Surely,
in the golden age of universal equality,
none will consent to act as servants, or even
" helps," to others who can have no claim to such
assistance. We have not even the safety-valve sup-
plied in America where the black population per-
form the domestic offices. If "Uncle Tom"
could be imported into Preston, he would proba-
bly follow up the inquiry of "Whether he was
not a man and a brother ?" by a rather stringent
visitation to the head of his would-be master, in-
flicting what the journals of the fancy de-
signate as, a regular " stock dollayer" behind
the ear of his " Governor." No. The very
introduction of such topics proves how weak is the
foundation, how rotten the reeds on which the
hopes of the misguided multitude are resting. It
shows how humiliating is the estimate formed of
their intelligence and common sense, when such
nonsense can be gravely uttered, and the contemp-
tuous sneer of the orator is scarcely suppressed.
Let them, then, take the advice of their best
friends, while there is yet a prospect of an amic-
able arrangement, and abandon the internacine
contest, which, whatever may be its result, must
inflict the deepest injury on themselves, and all
most dear to their hearts, their hapless wives, and
innocent children.