The Sun.
London, England, 1842-05-20 00:00:00

THE 1300 K OF THE BASTILES.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
SIR,—I trust that you will be so courteous as to
allow me space in your paper to make a kw observa-
tions upon the review of my "Book of the Bastiles,"
which appeared in The Sun of Monday evening last.
There are some misrepresentations and misconcep-
tions in, that review, friendly as I admit it to be,
which I wish to rectify and explain; and which, if
permitted, unnoticed by me, to pass current in so po-
pular and extensively circulated a newspaper, as I
understand The Sun to be, would be calculated to de
my character, and that of my work, much injustice—
would give both, to use a hackneyed quotation, a
" heavy blow and great discouragement."
In the first place, you have made it appear to the
public, that I am a very dangerous and discreditable
subject, and that the principal tendency of my Anti-
New-Poor-law writings is, to
" Whisper low
Unhallow'd vows to guilt, the child of woe,"
and incite the populace to vets of insurrectionary and
predatory violence against the friends and favourers
of the New Poor-law, and, more especially, against
the Poor-law Commissioners, and Mr. Edwin Chad-
wick, their Secretary.
Your objectionable Words are, " Here Mr. Baxter
encourages young blackguards of twenty-two, or there-
abouts, to commit burglaries in Somerset-house, and,
perhaps murder both the Poor-law Commissioners,
and their poor Secretary, at one fell swoop." Really,
Sir, no passage in my " Book of the Bastiles" can justify
such a construction being put upon it, and certainly
not the passage to which you have annexed the above
scholium. If you will take the trouble to turn to
page 53 of my work, you will perceive that the article
from which the extract, which caused your inappro-
priate remark, is taken, is not addressed to the Poor-
law Commissioners at all ; but is entitled " What will
be the End of it ? or A Few Words addressed to the
British Nation, deprecating their Extreme Apathy in
the Affairs of the New Poor-law Amendment Act:'
And its tenour is to warn, not to threaten—not to ex-
cite violent feelings, but to point out, in vivid sooth-
saying, to the upper and middle classes, the moral,
social, and national evils which will assuredly occur,
if the administration of the Malthus set be continued.

I dare say these words of yours, against the use of
which I am now entering my protest, were printed by
you without any malice prepense, and merely as a
pleasant joke. it may be so; but, to use a prevalent
Oxonianism, "yours non est yours ;" and I should not
in the least be surprised if this said joke of yours sub-
jected me to legal proceedings ; anA that the Poor-law
Commissioners, not contented with the cowardly and
malignant manner in which they have persecuted me,
ever since I commenced " eolonelling against their
abominable enactment, will now add a Crown pro-
secution to their previous pitiful proceedings ; and, in
the end (for there is little justice to be had in
England in these latter days,) immure me in a gaol
for libel, or sedition, or for some such ridiculous pre-
tence, as they will procure a ready verdict-made
jury to call it.
To that passage from my " Book of the Bastiles,"
in which I hold up my voice in indignation, " that
paupers' limbs should be tied up or mannacled, if at
any time, in the bastile prisons, they happened to
converse with their wretched friends and relatives ;
and that the bodies of paupers should, without the
decent ceremonial of book, bell, and pall, be
trundled into an unconsecrated hole," &c., you have
united the following :—" We have always under-
stood that those who died in workhouses were buried
according to the rites of the Church of England ; and
and we never heard that manacles were used to re-
strain the inmates, like desperate malefactors."

Now, nothing, I beg to say, could possibly be more
annoying to my feelings than to be suspected of
publishing unfounded charges against the New Poor-
law—an enactment which has supplied an over-
abundance of cases of barbarity, without its requiring
the manufacture of artificial grievances to create ab.
horrance of its cruel workings.

But to substantiate the fact that those who die in
union workhouses are not always buried according to
the rites of the Church of England :
" House of Lords, April 25th, 1842.—Earl Stan-
hope presented a petition from Mr. William Roberts.
The petitioner stated, that lie has traced the inter-
ment of about 354 dissected pauper bodies, between
October, 1839, and July, 1841, to have been buried
in an unconsecrated ground, called Globe-fields, and
that an undertaker's man has represented a Church
of England clergyman by reading the established
Church Burial Service over the shells interred."
With regard to the manacling of paupers' limbs in
the union workhouse, and to show that such treat-
ment has really occurred :
" Amongst the cruelties exercised on the inmates
of the Disney union is the silent system. It appears
that husband and wife, and that children are sepa-
rated, and never see each other, except at meals, and
then they are not allowed to speak to each other, on
pain of being tied up, viz., by having one leg tied up,
and being obliged to rest on the ether for half an
hour."—Oxford Chronicle, Jan. 1, 1839.
Here, 1 think, I have well substantiated the asser-
tions which I have made in the pages of the "Book of
the Bastiles," that the bodies of the poor who die in
the Bastiles are frequently (for I could bring forward
much further proof to corroborate the statement than
Mr. William Roberts has adduced) " trundled into
an unconsecrated hole, like deceased dogs, cats, rats,
and stots ;" and that, in many a union workhouse, as
a tcrture' the limbs of the pauper inmates have been
(and still are) "tied up and manacled."—l have the
honour to be, Sir, your most obedient servant,
G. R. WYTIIEN BAXTER.

llereford, May 12, 1842.
[We are still sceptical respecting the mode of
burial and the ropes and manacles, notwithstanding
the authority quoted by Lord Stanhope and the
Oxford Chronicle The author did not mention the
Commissioners certainly, when he described persons
as being driven to desperate deeds by the severity of
the Poor• law, but Mr. Baxter 4inust know that a per-
son may be pointed out without his name being given.]

THE INSTALLATION AT CAMBRIDGE.—We have
every reason to believe that an extraordinary number of
visitors, including many distinguished individuals, will
honour Cambridge with their company at the Installation
of the Chancellor. The preparations for the grand ball
in the Fitzwilliam Museum have already been begun,
and in addition to the arrangements, steps have been
taken for holding a grand horticultural exhibition on
Thursday, the 7th of July. The musical performances
will take place as follows :—Saturday evening, July 2, a
concert ; Monday evening, July 4, an oratorio ; Tues-
day morning, the performance of the Installation ode ;
Tuesday evening, a concert ; and on Wednesday morn-
ing, an oratorio, " The Messiah." The oratorios will be
held in Great St. Mary's church, and the concerts in the
Senate- house. The band and chorus will consist of up-
wards of 140 performers, including the elite of the Phil-
harmonic and Opera bands. Engagements will be offered
to the most eminent vocalists.—Cambridge Chronicle.
Last week a woman named Leger, residing at
Pont-Saint-Martin, near Nantes, was left alone with her 1
grand-daughter, a little girl three years old, her son-in-
law and daughter having gone to the fair of Villeneuve,
when some malefactors entered and pierced the unfor-
tunate woman with nineteen blows of a knife, and the
unfortunate child with twelve. They then robbed the
house of 4,000 f. and departed. Their twe victims are
since dead. Active search has been instituted to discover
the perpetrators, but without effect.
On Sunday last, the tower of the Church of Epoye, '
near Rheims, was struck by lightning. The electric
fluid descended into the body of the church, where a eon-
"-regation
was at vespers, affected four or five persons
lightly, and escaped without doing. any further damages.
HosTmE MnETING.—A 'hostile meeting took place
at Marsden. near Smith Shields, on Saturday, at noon,
between Mr. Richard Spoor,•of Whitburn,- one Of the
Sunderland borough 'magistrates, and Mr. Joseph .Tohn
Wright, of Sunderland, solicitor. It is understood the
point of difference arose out of Mr. Wright's allusions to
Mr. Spoor, in a letter iiddressed by Mr. Wright to the
Marquis of Londonderry, and which was read by that
N obleman in the House of Lords on Monday evening last,
and the parties exchanged shots without effect, when the
seconds interposed ; an explanation took place; the
parties shook hands, and left the ground with their
friends. Mr. Spoor was attended by Mr. Crawford, son
of the late M.P. for London, and Mr. Wright by Dr.
Miller. This occurrence has caused a great sensation in
Sunderland and the neighbourhood.
The Carlsruhe Gazette of the 13th states, that ac-
cording to letters from Buchorest, dated the 24th ult.,
the opposition against Prince Ghika was becoming every
day more violent ; it was feared that he would experience
the fate of Prince Milosch. The Russian State Coun-
cillor Tschefflin was expected at Belgrade, whence he
would proceed to Buchorest.
DEATH OCCASIONED BY EPSOM SALTS.—An in-
quest was held at Sawtrey on the body of Daniel Cox, a
labourer, who died on Wednesday night. It appeared
that the deceased was drinking at a public-house on
Tuesday, and was rather intoxicated, when some persons
in the room put a quantity of Epsom salts in his beer,
which acted so violently upon a constitution enfeebled
by habitual drunkenness, as to occasion death on the
following night. The Jury returned a verdict of " Man-
slaughter against Thomaa, Staynton, William Ashbridge,
Mary Scotney, and William Newton," the foolish per-
sons who administered the salts. The three former were
held to bail to answer the charge, and the latter bad not
been taken into custody.—Stockport Advertiser.
The Seguisian Mercury, of St. Etienne, says, it
has been assured that large orders for muskets have
been received by the manufacturers of that town from
the East India Company. This is, however, exceed-
ingly improbable. With so many bands unemployed at
Birmingham and elsewhere, the East India Company
needs not either as regards cheapness, expedition, or
good workmanship, send their orders out of the country.
A letter from Athens, of the 27th ult., states that
the shocks of earthquake, which were felt there on the
18th, were experienced also in various parts of Greece,
in some of which the effects were serious. At Kalamata
all the houses were more or less injured ; at Androusa
some churches were thrown down ; and in some villages
of the province of Maina many peasants were killed by
the falling of their houses. Another shock of earth-
quake was felt at Patras on the 25th, but it was not
pro-
ductive
of any serious injury.