The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-01-12 00:00:00

So much for the speculative part of this first charge, the
disunion, &c, &c, created by the pamphlet. The only dis-
union I have known has arisen from the arrival of a gentle-
man armed with power of taking secret reports from all de-
scriptions of persons, of bringing any individual against whom
he entertains an unkindly feeling to trial, without affording
him a copy of the charges intended to be advanced. Observe,
I pray you, the injustice of such a proceeding.—The prosecu-
tor is seeking for, not proving a case , he produces, unex-
pectedly, as it regards the accused, all the evidence within
his power, and out of that part of it, which is not shattered
by a random cross-examination, he frames charges which he
thus makes to be very difficult of answer. The party incul-
pated, ignorant of the matters intended to be laid to his
charge, is in a constant state of suspense, as to the importance
or bearing of evidence adduced against hlm. And where he
is subject to roaming charges, who can tell the effect upon
the judges of the accumulation of petty charges. In the next
place, and which is perhaps more important than all, the ac-
cused is necessarily all abroad in cross-examining the wit-
nesses. Whereas, if he knew what was to be alleged against
him, he might shew from the witnesses themselves, that the
matters to which they bear testimony, were done, 'or said,
under circumstances of innocency, justification, or extenua-
tion.—The arrival of Captain Williams has caused a spirit of
disunion which no time will heal—has taught each officer of
the prison that he may to-morrow be the victim of espionage
—has shown him that in England, so boasted of for its open
administration of equal justice, he may be tried, condemned,
punished, degraded, and ruined, in a way unknown to Eng-
lishmen, unknown to the principles of .the British constitu-
tion.

I as a clergyman, favoured with education, and not altoge-
ther unacquainted with the laws of my country, as a sincere
and ardent friend of rational liberty arid improvement have
now, for the first time learnt, that in these days of boasted
liberality, a power contrary to and overbearing the established
laws of the kingdom, is tolerated and upheld by men who
haue always professed to advocate the cause of liberty.

Job, who lived long before the schoolmaster was'abroad,
before the march of intellect had made such rapid strides,
said, " Oh that my adversary had written a book," or, as
the words ought to be translated, had let me have a written
indictment—had specified his accusation! I join with him
in his complaint, and can only now regret that the lapse of
perhaps 37 centuries has tended so little to the improvement
of the first principles, of justice. There is not a word in my
pamphlet that would lead any persrn to suppose it related
peculiarly to Liverpool. Mr. Pryme, of Cambridge, writing
to me said, he supposed I had gained my views from the
report in the state of the Newgate prison, in London.

_
To prove that my pamphlet had a peculiar reference to the
prison of which I was chaplain was needful, ere I could be
accused of evil in bringing my opinions of prison discipline
before the magistracy, and, through them, to the knowledge
of the public. As already stated, no remark in my letter
could shew this. It was written in the most general terms
against what is technically called the silent system. Artifice,
therefore, became needful : a Beaching question must he pro-
posed : it might, through the known habits of the chaplain
of at once expressing his feelings without a care for conse-
quences, be acknowledged by him, that scenes be himself had
witnessed had led to some of his conclusions. Hence, in the
midst of conversation, on a subject far removed from prison
lterjectional remark was made—" By the way Dr. 8.,

me, the

'ou have witi
sztvposed no

Certainly,
ry case I

the bait had taken, and h

lecusation—
st me being

brotight ag

and admitted by him to refer to the discipline anforced in
the Borough Gaol. Through fear of giving offence, I ab-
stain from saying one word on the subject of espionage in a
free state.

It has, however, gentlemen, been brought to my remem-
brance that a line of conduct somewhat similar led to the
condemnation of the bishops in olden time ; and paved the
Way for the subsequent loss of sovereignty by one of the former
rulers of this land of liberty. I proceed to shew that the
publication of my sentiments on prison discipline has not
tended to make the government of the prisoners more diffi-
cult; and on this point I need only remind you that, so far
from the conduct of prisoners being worse than it was, it has
greatly improved—the number of punishments for offences
against prison rules a year since was nearly 5 per cent. daily.
I take the governor's statement, they are now a little more
than one per cent. ; and, if their severity be taken as a test,
I have only to say that the dungeons were then always full—
they are now for the most part receptacles for brushes,
brooms, and stones for cleaning cells.
I now turn to the principal part of the charge, and read my
report dated 26th October, 1839.

" The great—the crying evil of a prison, and which is amply
sufficient to account for the little good effected by incarcera-
tion, is that it is regarded as a place of mere coercion and
punishment, not as an atmosphere where moral feeling may
be engendered. So long as the tendency of prison discipline is
to annoy, distress, wound, and irritate the mind, it is impos-
sible that a beneficial moral change can be effected. So long
as it is known that the minister of religion is clothed with no
authority, is under no circumstance the channel through
which mercy can flow or advice proceed, the inmates of a
prison must almost necessarily suppose that his appointment
is rather a form which the law obliges to the observance of,
than a mean expected to be productive of good. So long as
the rule is acted on that no prisoner can speak to the chap-
lain without first obtaining the leave of a turnkey, the natural
impression must be, if I express a wish to speak, I become a
marked man whether to officers or to prisoners, and must
therefore expect ridicule and contempt from those amongst
whom I am doomed to associate : from the effects of which
the chaplain cannot screen me.

" What value, I would respectfully ask, can the prisoners
really suppose is attached to the reading of the scriptures,
when, during six months in the year, they may indeed read
them before rising from their beds in a morning, or after they
retire to bed at night, if the light in the cells he sufficient, and
the presence of those do not deter them, whilst, during the
six winter months, even this limited power is taken from
them by want of light?

" The fact that in this prison are two schools, under the
care of persons (certainly of most unblemished and valuable
characters) differing as to their religious tenets, the one es-
sentially, the other in a lesser degree from the chaplain, and
that he is not allowed the slightest oversight superintendence
and controul, appears to be an anomaly. It has, however,
frequently been brought by me under your notice, but whe-
ther it be supposed that a clergyman of the Established
Church must be necessarily a proselytizer, or, though
thought tit to be trusted with the religious instruction of
adults, is unfit to superintend the education of children
know not, the evil, for such it. undoubtedly appears to me to
be, continues unredressed. This benefit at least would arise
from a change. Had the chaplain the superintendance, one
essential part of his duty would be, to see that every boy and
girl irrespective of character should be under instruction,
whereas, under the present regimen, bad characters are ex-
ciuded—precisely those who have most need of moral training.
"In a prison, the largest save one in Great Britain, multi-
tudes of cases must arise in which the direst scenes of poverty
present themselves. I apprehend it will be readily allowed,
that no individual is so likely to hear of these cases, nay to
see them, as the chaplain. Now it is remarkable that the
stipendiary magistrate, the committee of magistratess, the
governor of the prison, have all funds whence they can mi-
nister to such wants as come to their knowledge, whilst the
chaplain, who meets with ten heart-rending cases to one over
all these partieS, has not a single shilling at his disposal to
relieve any one. Unlike the minister of religion universally,
whether in charge of parishes or chapels who have some
means of relieving distress, the chaplain of your prison has to
witness cases of woe and misery almost without number, and
is obliged to turn a deaf ear against all applicants, it being
utterly out of his power from his own most slender means of
subsistence to spare the merest trifle: he is thus debarred
the opportunity of cultivating the best feeling of human na-
ture, the ministering to the wants of the necessitous.

" In conclusion allow me to suggest, that moral discipline,
connected with really hard labour, kindness of demeanour
towards prisoners instead of habitual harshness, and the hope
of reward held out instead of the fear of accumulating punish-
ments, might go far towards rendering a prison a reformatory
rather than a receptacle of villany and a nursery of crime."

From this letter you will perceive that I seriously and so-
2rnnly, as chaplain of your prison, called your attention to
what appeared to me to be great evils.
One mouth afterwards the body of magistrates, through
the mayor, received the letter from which the pamphlet was
published.
tor of In the month of JP- a report, greatly re.

uary following
character, and making severe strictures on

fleeting on my
the October ret

s forwarded to government

e month, at your command, I waited
[—explained my conduct by reference
and, as I believed, and still believe, fully
gentlemen who had previously thought
that I was really free of blame and had
1, as I expected from English gentlemen

on you in the Town-hall

Med even those

ery culpa

tFd uprightly

and justices, you treated me with every mark of attention kindness—requested me to attend your clerk of the
peace, and arrange with him for the drawing-up of a paper
which should be satisfactory to my feelings, and which, when
approved by me, you agreed to sign by the clerk of the peace,
and to forward, in the name of the magistrates assembled in
session, to govern,, ent, to be appended to, and to be consi-
dered as an integral part of, your annual report ;—thus
pass-
ing an act of oblivion over the past, commencing anew with
original mutual confidence : and I appeal to you, in all the
boldness of innocence, whether, from that day to the time