Star.
London, England, 1818-02-19 00:00:00

CITY PRISONS.

Mr. Alderman WOOD said, in moving for a Com-
mittee, it was not his intention to trespass on the
House with unnecessary arguments. Much had been
said of the abuses that prevailed in the Prisons of the
Metropolis ; but he believed a full investigation
would establish the conclusion, that where evils ex-
isted, as he was willing to admit some did exist, they
were not to be attributed to any oblivion of duty on
the part of the Magistrates. There were many things
that required alteration. Great abuse arose from
the number of convicts that were kept in these pri •
sons. But when he stated that evil, it was a duty he

owed to the Noble Lord at the Head of the Home
Department, to state, that he had done every thing
to remove these convicts as rapidly as circumstances

per nkted. Bat to attach reproach to the Magis-
trates of London, he believed the investigation would
prove, was unfounded. His Honourable Friend (Mr.
Bennet), and who could feel disinclined to testify to
his meritorious exertions in alleviating the miseries
of the wretched and the destiti te! had, however, given
the Magistracy a severe lecture, though k would be
found that the evils for which the Magistracy were
blamed, were imputable to the want of room in the
prisons. Besides, later customs had operated to fill
the prisons prematurely. Formerly, in Middlesex,
as it was now in London, prisoners were not removed
to Newgate until the Thursday immediately pre-
ceding the Sessions. The numbers now from Mid-
dlesex committed on the final examination, were, as
to the London Commitments, in a proportion of seven
to one. Before he concluded, he wished to advert
to one circumstance, which he sincerely hoped would
attract the attention of the Committee. It was the
casualties that occurred at sea in convict ships, where,
from the season at which these people were em.
barked, for instance, in the midst of winter, then sud-
denly exposed to the violent transition of heat under
the Line, and then again to extreme cold in the. high
southern latitudes, mortality must be prevalent. It
was so much so, that in 1814, out of 200 convicts

embarked, 50 had died before the vessel reached
%New South Wales. He should only say, that if any
delay occurred in carrying the wishes of the Magis-
tracy of London into effect, in regard to those pri-
sons, it arose from circumstances over which they had
no controul. He moved then for a Select Committee.
Mr. BENNET observed, that it was not his intea.

tion to offer any opposition to the present motion, but
as allusion had been made by his Honourable Friend,
who was so strong an eulogist of the conduct of the
Magistracy of which he was himself a Member, to a
Publication of his, he was anxious to make some re-
marks on what had fallen from his Honourable
Friend. It was trite that the London Prisons were
rendered more grievous to the unhappy persons con,
fined in them from want of room. Young and old
were huddled together in indiscriminate and crowded
masses, to the extent of making these prisons not
schools of reform and instruction, but schools of crime
and depravity. But want of room was not the only
defect, there was also a want of clothing and of food
--(hear, hear). He bad himself seen an infant, with-
out shirt, shoes, or stockings, and on inquiry he had
ascertained the same miserable spectacle had been
witnessed by the Visiting Committee. It was with
no view to self-applause, that he was compelled to
say, that he had himself given the necessary clothing
to this unfortunate infant—(hear, hear). Want of
food was also experienced by the prisoners. It was
impossible to look at a collective body of the con-
fined, without being able at once to discern the longer
imprisoned from those more recently committed.
The squalor careens was visible amongst the older
prisoners. The scantiness of food was the cause; in-
deed those who were there for any time appeared in
a starving condition. There was one observation
which he wished the House would bear in its mad-,
lectior.. It was this—athat whatever improvements
the Committee proposed might find on their inspec-
tion of the prisons, was to be attributed to the expo-
sure made in that House. Since that moment, all
was solicitude, ocalpation and haste on the part of
the London Magistracy to correct abuses. Dilapida-
ttons of years congnuance were now repairing—the
walls of the jails were now white-washing—even the
baker had been chinged within the last four dais--
(hear). In their anxiety for sudden improvement,
even the Sunday wis not held sacred. The House
would, therefore, recollect, that if the prisons of Lon-
don presented all these improvements to the COM.
mittee, they would be seen in their Court dress—
(hear, hear). To the inotivg he bad no objection, in

the hope that the prisons of London would no longer
be discreditable to its wealth and character, and that
in place of being schools for the propagation of every
species of crime, they will be made schools for the
moral reformation of the miserable, the vicious and
the neglected. •
Sir WILLIAM CURTIS considered all the state-
ments of the Honourable Member exaggerated, or
that if the facts were true, they did not bear him
out in the way he had put them. What did he want?
Were not prisons places for punishment, not for com-
fort? The food he denied to be bad. The bread he
bad often tasted, and it was as good as any Gentle-
man would use in his own family, or was used by
his Majesty's troops. There was a sufficiency of
meat. A'hat, was not four pounds of meat a day
enough for one person—(A laugh)?—He meant four
pounds a week. Did the Honourable Member want
to have the prisons furnished with Turkey carpets?
Men, it was to be recollected, were sent to prison
for their crimes. The windows of the New Prison
were broken wantonly, and those who broke them
were told, that either they must mend them at their
own expense or suffer. As to the white-washing, of
which the Honourable Member spoke, he knew no-
thing about.
Mr. BENNET, in explanation said, that on Fri-
day last he visited Newgate, and saw with his own
eyes the preparation making for the inquiry. If the
worthy Baronet (Curtis) had done his duty he would
have seen them also, and not been in ignorance of,
the fact of the white washing. He had also tasted I
the bread frequently, and found it heavy and sour.
The reason given was, that it was baked on tin.
Mr. WARRE observed, that as one of a former
Committee he had visited the Borough Compter, and
found more bricklayers and carpenters than prisoners
the day he went. The Committee were, however,
too alert for the Magistrates, and were fully impres-
sed with the motives for that sudden exertion of im-
provement. He then adverted to the case of John
Bundy, who had died in Tothil-fields, and whose
death the Coroner's Inquest, after mature delibera-
tion, had recorded as having arisen from the want
of food and medical aid. The turnkey of the prison
had on that occasion given most equivocal testimony,
and he would wish to know whether or not such a
man was continued in his employment ?
The Motion for the Committee was then carried.