The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-01-26 00:00:00

known to me, or to the magistracy, well knowing that they
must eventually be produced before the inspector : to that
very time, when, apparent friendship commencing, his son
receiving instruction at my hands, followed by entrusting his
daughter to Mrs. Buck's care, followed again by a loan of
money to me, showing most clearly the kindness of his feel-
ing, and, finally, followed by his application to you to allow
me to hold the charge of the prison during his absence, as his
substitute, 1 being the only officer in the prison in whom he
could place trust. The inspector arrived : prosecution of the
chaplain was determined on : and the profesion of respect
and attachment burst as an air bubble, into its original no-
thingness. But let us now consider Mr. Batcheldor's account
of the time when as well as the reason of his communications
on this subject with his clerk : He declares that Mr. Sam-
mond informed him of the astonishing fact of my false entries,
a little before January, 1840, certainly not a month before.
Thus, then, for the first time, the chaplain's villainy came to
his knowledge. Contrast this with his former evidence.
" The errors in the entries in the time book by the chap-
lain, were detected a long time before the change made in the
entries ; I did not speak to Dr. Buck when I first observed
them."
Still, however, gentlemen, remember I beseech you the
circumstances. He did not think it his duty to enter the
matter into his journal, nor to mention it to any magistrate,
notwithstanding clerks, turnkeys, gatekeepers, all parties.
were fully aware that Dr. Buck, in nine entries out of every
ten he made, was inserting falsehoods in the book. By the
way, gentlemen, is it not remarkable that some two or three
or half-a-dozen errors were not at the time clearly taken
down, verified, and reduced to writing, properly attested, and
then carefully preserved to be now producable as an extin-
guisher, well adapted to put out the light most effectually ?
This was a masterpiece : the want of such care and fore-
thought will overthrow a well meant advice. This was
assuredly a sad omission—for the prosecutor, however fer-
tile in preparing accusations, cannot have anything to do
with the creation of evidence, though it may be within his
views of rectittole to seek for it, even should charity be re-
sorted to as the means.
" I finical," says Mr. Batcheldor, " that the entries of the
chaplain in the time book were a subject of conversation in
the office, as to not being correct."
How easy it would have been for M. Batcheldor, with all
his previous knowledge of the circumstances, to have put
matters right, and to have stooped this conversation'
" I noticed it from the fact of the chaplain not making the
entry of leaving until the following morning."
The governor has told you, in another part of his evidence,
that it had been brought distinctly under his notice previous
to October 1838, and again previous to October 1839.
" The chaplain said to me he had many duties to perform
after leaving the prison, and he thought lie had a right to
make his entries for the whole time he was occupied." En-
tirely corresponding with the original statement. "He (the
chaplain) said he should wait upon the town-clerk, and con-
sult. He told me afterwards the town-clerk was of opinion
that he not bound to state the precise hours of attend-
ance. The act was then referred to by us both."
This fixes the time to be now considered when Mr. Sam-
mond tells you my entries were incorrect-3, 2, 14, 1, or an hour, nine times out of ten. Now consider the following
morceau, only adduced to shew you the petty
annoyances to
which I have been exposed. No one would like to have a
little cur following his heels, with his shrill bark and attempt
to bite.

" I will not be certain," says Mr. Batcheldor, in his evi-
dence, " whether I had a conversation with Dr. Buck as to
a difference of three minutes in his time. I have spoken to
other officers about not being exact. I rather think that I
did. speak to Dr. Buck about a small difference of his time,
which led to the book being closed. I spoke to other officers
at.the same time. I cannot say whether it was only a few
minutes or more. It was part of a conversation with him
on the general incorrectness of THE entries"—not, you will
observe, of my entries, but the general incorrectness of the
entries.' " I never referred Dr. Buck to an entry of three
hours." And yet he has sworn—" I never assumed to my-
self to caution him respecting his duties. I never considered
him under my control. He was of so hasty a temperament
that he was at the town-clerk's office immediately if I spoke
to him. The subject of his false entries"—obsenve the
phraseology of this meek, this unassuming man !—" had
been a matter of conversation for some months before I
spoke to him. It would be just prior to the 25th January,
1840 ; not a month prior to that time. I never made any
application to the magistrates on the subject, that I am
aware of. My interference on the subject was a sense of
what was due to Dr. Buck's character. The subject was
become a talk in the office to the injury of his character."—
Now, gentlemen, this exposes the whole mystery—the whole
cause of conversations among turnkeys. The fact is, as Mr.
Archer states in his evidence, that Mr. Sammond called his
attention to Dr. Buck's entries as incorrect. It was this
miserable three minutes which laid the foundation of all the
unkindness and harshness of judgment which he has formed
to illy disadvantage. Had he known the real facts of the
case, he would have been the first to have resisted such an
attempt at petty tyranny. As to all the supposed conversa-
tions among the turnkeys to my disadvantage, I can only
say that they are supposititious. There are officers in the
gaol who must have heard all such rumours had they existed,
and they would undoubtedly have reported them to me.
Remember the old adage, " Bad news flies apace." Either
from good will or ill will, I must have heard of them. The
same holds good of Mr. Archer. He must have heard of
them, had they occurred. He tells you distinctly, in his
evidence, he never heard anything of the kind. All his
knowledge arose in what Mr. Sammond had said to him.
" Mr. Sammond said that Dr. Buck made incorrect entries,
and pointed out some which he said were incorrect." From
all which it appears that the clerk, who thought he would
be overstepping the clear path of his duty if he spoke to me,
yet thought it altogether within the compass of that duty to
report to the governor and surgeon, to make it the subject
of inquiries of the gatekeeper, and of conversation amongst
the clerks and turnkeys.
" I have been on friendly terms with Dr. Buck up to the
last moment. I have frequently expressed my great regret
that he was under accusation. I did not volunteer evidence
on this occasion. I have never expostulated with Dr. Buck
about it. I should have thought it very much out of place.
There was much talk among the clerks about these entries.
I have talked with the governor about them. The surgeon
has remarked them, and expressed his great surprise."—
(Mr. Archer says, " Mr. Sammond pointed out to me, on
one or two occasions, that Dr. Buck had entered in the
book that he had remained a longer time than what was ac-
tually the case.)

" Was it a common subject of conversation in the office ?
" I cannot say."
" The observations made by the clerks were disadvantage-
ous to the character of the chaplain. They felt surprised that
the chaplain could do such a thing. It was expressed on se-
veral occasions, not only by the two clerks but by the gate-
keeper. They were made by the gatekeeper to me. His
name is William Dillicate. The substance was to the effect
Thel). at he was surprised at Dr. Buck doing it, as others might.
way of his knowing it was, my asking whether Dr Buck
had not gone."
The clerk's account of the supposed errors in time must, to
see his own case completely, be placed in junta position :
whilst the one complains of hours—three hours,—the other
complains of minutes—three minutes :—the doctor being a
hasty man, unwilling to put up with such pitiful, such con-
temptible intertneddling, fearless of exposure, (for he is a
hasty man) rushes to the Town Hall, and obtains a legal opi-
nion that he is not called upon by the gaol act to specify
any times. Oh what a time for exposure had now arrived !
Now the pettishness, the hastiness of the chaplain would cer-
tainly meet with a severe check. Nothing of the kind occur-
red. Mr. Bacheldor sees his darling plans defeated, but does
not expose the chaplain, which it would have been his para-
mount duty to have done if he had really thought him culpa-
ble. Again I say, gentlemen, the time, the due time, had
not arrived : the accusation must be hidden a few months :
it might then be brought forward with better hopes of suc-
cess.

Now, gentlemen, I entreat your attention to the attendance
book, and to the waf in which entries are therein made. Mr.
Batcheldor tells you that he intended it, and always consi-
dered it to be a book which, at a single glance, would show
to the magistrates the exact time which each officer actually
passed within the walls of the prison. It was not designed,
he tells you, to show how long an officer was occupied in the
service of the corporation, i. e„ on gaol business, but to show
how long he had been locked up within the walls of the prison.
Mr. Bacheldor says—

" I established the time book in the prison. It was for
the officers to make a return, as I thought, i❑ compliance
with the clause in the act. It is understood by me that the
entries on-it include the hours of coming and departure, with-
out reference to gaol business out of the prison. That was
the object of the book. I did not allow any inferior officers
of the prison to make entries in the book, inclusive of some
employed outside the prison on gaol business. There is ano-
ther book for this ;—the officers absence book."

The time book is only for tirnein the prison.
"1 think that each officer states the whole time passed in the
service of the corporation between the time book and the ab-
Sence book. The time book would not alone make up all
the time each officer 60 passes : absences would have to be
deducted." _

Mr. Sammond tells you—
" It was their practice to enter the time spent in the pri-

Vv
Now I say, gentlemen, that the most casual view of the
attendance book will not show what it has been sworn to be
designed, to make most clear. Suppose the case of a non-
resident officer coming on duty at six o'clock in the morn-
ing. He puts down that time. He may, as in the case of
the task-master, the clerks, and, as I believe, of any officer,
be absent for breakfast, for dinner, or he may be engaged out
of the prison for hours. He may also (as Mr. Bacheldor
asserts to have happened) been allowed a half-day's holyday.
But he enters the prison at nine at night, to write down his
time. Nine p. m. is the entry he makes in the attendance
book, and any magistrate, inspecting that book on the fol-
lowing day, would suppose that A. B. had been within the
walls of the prison from six in the morning until nine at
night. You will not, I think, find in the absence book such
an entry as—" a half-day's holyday."
If the interpretation now contended for be tenable, namely,
that the attendance book should show only the time passed
within the walls, whereas a turnkey may not have been there
more than a few minutes, his entry must deceive. but if it
be designed to cover his whole time of duty, it does more
than fairly represent it. My entries are abundantly more
honest, for they clearly show the time of day at which my
proper labours commenced, and how many hours I had actu-
ally been employed each day.
On the only occasion when your surgeon had gaol duties,
peculiar to his profession, to perform outside of the prison,
he covered the time occupied by his entry. This he stated
in evidence.

the schoolmaster has acted on the same principle ; but
being deemed by the governor an inferior officer, he has been
referred, for the future, to the absence book for his entries;
a book which was never designed to have reference to the
seniors.
Mr. Archer was asked whether he would credit himself
with the time occupied in purchasing drugs fur prison use ;
he replied, no.
Dr. Buck when employed in purchasing for the gaol would,
in a similar way, „ot have entered that time.

----
•
,If. Archer said, that when officers called at his house for
perbioates of sickness, he did not count that time.
Dr. Buck similarly has not credited himself for time, oc-
cupied in correspondence in his own house, whether that
correspondence related to the obtaining of situations for dis-
charged prisoners, or the introduction of females into peni-
tentiaries. _ . .

The same observations will apply as to making up of jour-
nag, and preparing quarterly reports.
On every occasion where I have credited myself with time,
it has been under one or other of the following cases;--
Ist.—Attendance at the Town-hall, or at the ralice,court,
on business peculiar to the gaol—and which has actually de-
tained me the time charged from being within the prison.
2d.—Attending at the sessions as a part of my duty.
ad,—Seeking, through all parts of the town, to ascertain
the characters of prisoners—that I might give just informa-
tion to-the different societies extending their resources for
the discharge of distressed debtors.
4th.—Calls on friends of convicted prisoners, immediately
beforeonc. the expiration of their sentences—with a hope of re-
conciling such parties, or of obtaining assistance to enable
I.li charged prisoner to leave the town or the country.
in 'jtn
,—Seekiug situations for discharged juveniles—now,
byateat measure, though not entirely, taken from me,
duty. appointment of the schoolmaster to this peculiar

1(11- s
dutie
e attempt to draw a line of distinction between _
pertortned before entering, and after leaving, the prison, and
those which are attended to intermediately, appears to me to
be
there o simPly child's play. If entering the prison at 9, and being
proper gaol ccupied till 1, and I then leave, and am occupied in
business
and then enter the
office peculiar to my office, during three hours,of the prison for the mere purpoSe
of writing down 4 o'clock, I am, by the arguments brought