The Sun.
London, England, 1842-10-29 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
ritozvr THE DAILY PAPERS OF YESTERDAY.
TIMES.—The public 'gill be well satisfied
with the finding of the Jury in the Northleach
case. The verdict is a reasonable and judicious
one. Whatever substantial truth there might
have been in a return of " Manslaughter," the
practical effect of such a verdict would have
been below the result which may be expected to
follow from the present finding. A criminal
trial must have then taken place : the special
pleadings of an advocate would have perplexed
the Jury: the Judge would hate thrown his
doubts into the prisoner's scale, and a verdict of
Not Guilty might have dismissed the criminals,
who would thenceforward have been regarded as
persecuted men ; so unsafe is it in England (and
long may it continue to be so) to press an ac-
cused person with the least degree of passion
or personal hostility. The present verdict,
however, avoiding this error, calmly declares
a fact which is apparent to the whole
world (al ways excepting the Gloucestershire Jus-
tices)—that Charles Beale owes his death to the
treatment received by him in Northleach House
of Correction. This finding, we take for granted,
dismisses all the parties concerned in that
lengthened cruelty. Their punishment is a mild
and lenient one, and we trust that it will be
quietly submitted to. It is but a few weeks since
a special inquiry was instituted by the Home-
office touching the hair-cropping regulations of
Dover gaol—an inquiry which at once produced
the resignation of the curl-destroying keeper of
that prison. But the matter now in hand is of a
graver description. It cannot be that one gaoler
shall lose his appointment for meddling with the
love-locks of a strolling player, and another pass
unnoticed who has "lifted " the victims of his
fearful discipline on the tread-wheel, which their
failing strength did not enable them to ascend;
and who has heard, and passed unnoticed, the re-
port of his surgeon, that " he could do nothing
more for them—better living was what they
wanted." Enough, however, of the minor crimi-
nals: 'the value of this verdict is, that it deals a
heavy blow to the system. The Gloucestershire Jus-
tices, when next they meet, must occupy them-
selves to better purpose than in railing at the
Times, or in arguing that the prison " cannot be
so bad a place as it has been represented, or so
many prisoners would not visit it a second time."
Comtbrtable as they seem to have imagined it—
with from 12,000 to 14,000 feet of ascent per day,
in the nine or ten hours' labour at the wheel, and
two-pennyworth of bread for the whole subsist-
ence of the prisoner—it will now be their duty to
augment this comfort into positive luxury, by
providing some better resting-place for the mi-
serable creature, reeking with his ten hours'
mill-work, than a cold and damp cell, open
to the wind and rain, with a stone for the
only seat. Nay, more, the labour must be dimi-
nished, or the food augmented, and that in no
trifling degree. One of the witnesses examined
on Monday last deposed, that when sent with
Beale into the potato-store, they both fell upon
the raw potatoes. He adds, " I dare say I ate
half' a peck. I had a good bellyful that day.
and I don't think I had another all the time I
was there." " Beale was, like mc, pretty nearly
fainished." Now, we are not aware that there
exists, in the whole accumulated mass of our
criminal enactments, any such punishment as
that of being " pretty nearly famished,"
whether with or without the accompani-
ment of ten hours' mill-work per diem. We
must, therefore, either have the punishment
legalised, or we must have it discon-
tinued. About this there must be "no mis-
take." The next gaoler that is found inflicting
this sort of torture (except, indeed, our law-
makers shall meantime adopt " famishing," as
"a good secondary punishment") must not expect
to escape so lightly as will the governor of North-
leach. From the whole Press of England, con-
ve) ing, not too strongly, the feelings of the en-
tire people of England, the corporation ofgaolers
have now received fair warning. The system
will be tolerated no longer ; " reform it altoge-
ther." Oil a minor topic we shall only add one
word. In alluding to the still existing doubt
and uncertainty as to the character of the Co-
roners' Court, we had not forgotten the legal
arguments and judicial decisions which, grew
out of the Oldham inquest. We spoke
merely of the confusion and want of sys-
tem visible in the present case. Here was a
Coroner admitting four reporters, as such, and
then peremptorily excluding, without any reason
assigned, a fifth. Of course he might, with equal
ease, have admitted the one, and excluded the
four. The only rule laid down was his own so-
vereign pleasure. Now, if this were carried oat
into general practice, we might have Mr. Wak-
ley, or Mr. Baker, excluding from all the metro-
politan inquests all reporters but one, or perhaps
two, of their own selection. Of course, these
favoured individuals would be the sole purveyors
for the whole London Press, aril the two Coro-
ners would thus gain the patronage of two very
valuable appointments. But does any man mean
to say that this is the law ; or that such a prac-
tice would be tolerated by the people of Eng-
land ? Nevertheless, it is essentially contained
in the privilege asserted by the functionary who
presided over the Northleach inquiry.
HERALD.—We are informed, on respectable
authority, that the King of the French has dis-
cussed with persons in his confidence the pro-
priety of abdicating the throne in favour of the
Duke of Nemours. The advantages of such a
step are manifest, and many persons in the
French capital are of opinion that it is the only
way of consolidating the Orleans dynasty.
Louis Philippe, however, they add, is so fond of
power, that it is not likely he will voluntarily
give up the reins; and the report has been spread
more for the purpose of ascertaining
public opinion upon it, than with the
idea of carrying such a resolution into effect.
The Duke of Nemours is not generally liked,
though he is far from being absolutely unpopu-
lar, and it is more than doubtful how far he
could manage a nation so difficult to govern as
France, in case of the sudden death of his father.
Let the first year of his reign be conducted by
the able management of Louis Philippe, and the
others will follow in the same satisfactory man-
ner. Custom is as influential with the French as
with any other people, and they will, without di-
fficulty, submit to an authority under which
they have lived for a certain period. Without
expressing an opinion on the authority of the ru-
mours which have reached us, we give them for
the purpose of preparing the public for an event
which is not improbable to happen in the course
of the ensuing Session of the French Chambers.
CHRONICLE.—The inquest at Northleach
has terminated in a verdict "That Charles Beale
died of disease of the lungs, brought on and ag-
gravated by the punishment and mode of treat-
ment he received whilst a prisoner in sNorthleach
House of Correction, and the Jury express their
unanimous disapprobation of the conduct of the
Governor Townsend, the Surgeon Bidwell, and
the under-turnkey Harding." All the Jurors at
the same time signed a memorial to the Secre-
tary of State for the Home Department, praying
for an inquiry into the treatment of prisoners
and discipline of Northleach and the other pri-
sons and houses of correction in the county.
The extension of the inquiry to all the prisons is
quite necessary. In another column our readers
will find a communication from a gentleman, in-
timately acquainted with the prison system of
Gloucestershire, who has communicated to us his
name and address, from a wish to decline no re-
sponsibility. From that communication it will
be seen that Beale is but one of many vic-
tims to the murderous system enforced
at Northleach. Our Correspondent states
cases that came within his own knowledge
when his avocations led shim to become - ac-
quainted with the subject—and that the other
prisons in Gloucestershire are all more or less
chargeable with the rigours, the exposure of
which, in the case of Northleach, has deservedly
excited in the public mind the strongest feelings
of indignation. It is now evident that the public
l
• have but a slender guarantee, in the official
vigilance of a Secretary of' State, that only
suit-
able regulations will be enforced in our prisonsofthe;
and from what has transpired in the
.coursetsat
Glatt_
late inquest, and at the Quartern.Seasstio
dependencei
cester, it would appear that. nno36raeo.
is to he placed on the
prisoners dare not tell th,e_
yisittirnu,cliwziesntrgatueess.tiolnileide
visits of the Magis-
trates r between, and, see-
been few and
ey,e,f -a of the gaolers, they
y
treatment.
at
rsattoe stilliettivre
nthtieme sjyustt.eQL
t ought to be.
ii:aigl.,eonfolyandevery
through
the
everything as
the:
But, Jury
thougho
e
pursue
death odf
atß
have only named Townsend and Bidwell,
eNaloertishlleaaidelbi,y
Harding, the public will look higher than
these instruments. Lord Erskine leaped into
professional eminence in one day by dragging,
in the Greenwich Hospital case, the higher cul-
prits before the Court, in spite of the threats of
the Judge. Powerful men are implicated in this
revolting system. Throughout the length and
breadth of the land, the mdighant voice of the
country has been raised against the horrible sys-
tem of Northleach. After the medical evidence
obtained in the Parliamentary inquiry, to which
the enormous mortality in the Penitentiary, from
insufficiency of food, led, there is no longer an
excuse for the adoption of a dietary in prisons
on which men cannot be maintained in health.
The law may be over severe or over lenient; but
whatever punishment the law orders should alone
be inflicted- When the law says death, let the