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

thy day so shall thy strength be." In this my strength I
shall prevail.

Samraond's evidence in support of the charge of my
1g nine times out of ten made false entries, is contained
the following words : I give the whole of the testimony,
to avoid the possible charge of fighting shy in the matter :
" It was the daily practice of the chaplain, when he came
to the prison, with some few exceptions, of making false
entries in this book, as to the hours of coming and departure.
1 witnessed it on many occasions, and saw it was almost a
daily practice, that when the chaplain came in the morning
he would put down, in some cases 91, in some cases 10, as
the hour of his attendance, when in fact it has been half-past
10, 11, and quarter-past 11, when he came.
" The practice in the afternoon was, that he would leave
the gaol, in some instances at 1, hall-past 1, and 2, but did
not mark the time on his leaving the prison. The next day
the chaplain would, on attending at the gaol, mark the time
of departure on the preceding day, I have noticed on one
occasion two hours, frequently an hour, an hour and a half,
later than he left—sometimes half an hour : it was nine
times out of ten wrong.

" I cannot say than have reason to believe that Dr. Buck
was engaged on gaol business when out of the prison, at the
times the incorrect entries were made. I cannot think he
was engaged out every day. There was generally an error in
••

Now, gentlemen, from the following evidence, given by
the same person, judge of the animus which led the witness
to designate my entries as False; by which he must have
meant, deserving of execration as wilfully untrue.
" The chaplain stated to me one morning, on more than
one occasion, that the cause of his putting an hour, or hour
and a half, earlier than when he came to the prison, was that
he had been engaged on gaol business. I wish to convey it.
that he accounted for the difference of time, that he had left
his house an hour or half an hour earlier, and being engaged
on prison business before coming to the gaol, that he did not
calculate from the time he had left his own house, but from
thp time he had commenced gaol business.
" / have in course of duty had to come to the Town-hall:
I have had to wait there. 1 have heard Dr. Buck say he has
been kept waiting long there.

" About the 21st of January, this year' the governor came
into the office and asked me if Dr. Buck had comae. I said
he had. He asked what time. I told him the doctor had
made a mistake in his time, or was wrong in the time of entry
this morning."

Hence, awn, Mr. Salmond knew, that I openly avowed
the practice of charging all the time passed in corporation
business, whether inside the prison or outside, to my own
credit ; that I had, at least on some occasions, been detained
at the Town-hall, on such business ; and he has declared
that he spoke of it to the governor as a mistake—an error.
I do not now stop to point out the force of these incon-
sistencies ; I have only to complain, that now, well knowing
that it would be acceptable in certain quarters to prove that
my veracity was not to,.be depended upon, he is ready to de-
. •

signate my entries as false: he will come up to the 'mark—
he will not on any account fall short ; hence, after I objected
to the use of such language, from such a person, against the
chaplain of the prison, he added the remark, I can only call
such entries false. The reiteration of the expression was
deemed by Capt. Williams so favourable to the object of the
inquiry, that he expressly called for the words to be taken
down.

All that this criminatory part of Mr. Sammond's evidence
amounts to is, that on many occasions, the time of my enter-
ing the prison, or leaving it, did not correspond with the
times, for which I gave myself Credit in the time-book, he
acknowledging that I had expressly mentioned to him, on
more than one occasion, that I did not intend my entries to
be supposed to imply that I was necessarily within the walls
of the prison, the whole time intermediate between the re-
corded entries ; for that 1 always gave myself credit, for
time passed outside of the prison, in pure gaol business, as
well as outside : this evidence can go no further. I should
add, that he speaks of the difference of the times as three
hours, two hours. one and a halt hour, one hour, and some-
times only half an hour.
This will perhaps appear to be of some importance before
the termination of my reply. That there may however he
no mistake, that we may fully understand each other, I will
now in few words state the different ways in which my times,
from the time of my appOintment have been entered. The
lawfulness, the propriety, the innocency of my conduct. I
shall not avoid inquiring into; because on this point I aim
at establishing the fact of my moral, and also of my legal
innocence.

If others have not ventured to produce the gaol act to
prove that I have offended against its provisions, I shall not
shrink from bringing it forward, to show that I have acted
lawfully, according to the clear meaning of the law ; accord-
ing also to the universal practice of every officer, save one in
the prison ; and that he on one occasion, actually adopted
the same line of conduct—that one occasion being the only
one on which he has been engaged without the walls of the
prison, upon pure gaol business.

Either my entry has been made at the moment of arriving
at the prison, by an inspection of the clock in a room at the
back of the office, that inspection being made personally, or
at my request by.a clerk or turnkey, in strict accordance
with the hour of the morning; that is in cases where I had
walked direct from my residence to the prison ; or the entry
has been what 1 will pro Mc vice, call antedated. If I had
previous to my arrival been occupied out of my own resi
dence on business simply and entirely arising out of my
office as chaplain of the prison, I have calculated how long it
has detained me, or in other words, kept me from being at
the prison by my usual time : thus, if arriving at half-past
ten, I knew I had been occupied in the proper duties of my
office, one hour, I wrote down in the time-book half-past
nine. This has been my universal practice, from the date of
my appointment, as I will show by evidence already before
you, evidence which cannot be disproved, because incapable

of error
On leaving the prison a very similar method has always
been employed. If at the time of my departure I believed I
had finished every duty of the day. I entered the office,_
looked at the time, either in person, or through the means of
any officer who might be present, and made a correct and
final entry ; except in some few instances, in which being
perhaps pressed for time, or later than usual, I have said to
any officer 1 have seen between the gates, be so good as en-
ter my time for me ; or, I may add, when entering the of-
fice in the company of Mr. Archer, one of us, has filled up
the time for both. When, however,' in the midst of my
duties, I have been suddenly (as has frequently happened)
sent for, either to the Town-hall, or which has happened, to
the Police-court, and being engaged longer than I expected'
or not being willing to undergo the extra fatigue of returnio
to the prison, merely to enter my name, I have not at that
same day returned to the prison, on my next arrival there,
supposing my time of quitting the gaol to have been half-past
one, and that I had been occupied two complete hours, I
should enter half-past three as my proper time. Again a
similar practice was adopted, when leaving the prison early
for the purpose of attending to mere gaol business arising
out of the nature of my office, and which required to be
transacted without the walls. In fact, I have always looked
upon the entry-book as of all documents in the prison, the
best possible record of my time of labour, in the service of
the corporation, and I have always spoken of it as such.
The entry of my time in my journal, when I kept it, was
the counterpart of the other. The omission of the practice
altogether, since July 1840, will show, that no wish of de-
ceiving the justices could be on my mind.
I next inquire whether my practice was or was not well
known to the governor? whether he thought it proper or
improper ? legal or illegal ? in accordance with or contrary
to his own wishes or expectations ? for evidence now given
having an opposite tendency, can not disprove the presump-
tion derivable, from his continued acquiescence in the plan ;
no public notice having been taken by him of a matter, now
for the first time said to be false, deceptive, and contrary to
well known law.
Mr. Batcheldor has told you on his oath, that so early
after my original appointment as October, 1838, having
occasion to state in his annual government report, the length
of time employed by me, in my attendance at the prison,
(and I beg to remind you that this was previous to the
arrival of the inspector of prisons in that year), he conversed
with me expressly and designedly on the subject, and fully
understood that the time represented by my entries, included
duties performed outside as well as inside the prison. In
consequence of, and in accordance with, this conversation he
made up his entries in his return.
He does not suggest that he expostulated with me for
having adopted a wrong course ; he did not enter this very
peculiar evil, this system .of falsehood, on the face of his
journal; he did not report the matter to the magistrates; he
did not make known the startling, fact to the inspector of
prisons, but having adopted the abomination as his own act
and deed, by transmitting the report to government without
note or comment, he quietly permitted me to pursue the
same course, until the annual report of the year 1839 became
due ; he had then and not till then a second conversation
with me ; and without warning, or reproving, or reporting
me, he again filled up his annual return, and sent it as a cor-
rect, proper, and true statement, to government; he at that
time, if his present impressions of my wicked line of con-
duct were then entertained by him, well knowing, that he
was giving utterance to a monstrous falsehood. Again, I
repeat he did not expostulate with me, he did not attempt to
prove to me that I was acting in error, he made no entry in
his journal, as must have been his duty ; he made no private
communication to the clerk of the peace, nor private nor
public report to the magistrates ; no, all was quiet, all was
calm ; the time for charges against the chaplain of the prison
had not yet arrived. "There is, says the wise man, a time
for all things." Well, then up to October, 1839, the gover-
nor of your prison was fully aware that the chaplain made
his entries without rebuke, without report, and as I argue,
in consequence, under the direct sanction of the chief officer
of the prison. " Semper qui non prohibet mandari cre-
ditur.'

The governor says, " the errors in the entries in the time
book by the chaplain were detected a long time before the
change made in the entries, I did not speak to Dr. Buck
when I first observed them."
" I did not report the circumstance to the magistrates, I
did not make an entry in my journal. I did not at that
early time speak to the chaplain on the subject. I did shortly
afterwards. I mean previous to my sending up the govern-
ment report for 1838. That was sent just before the October
sessions, 1838. From that time until January, 1840, I did
not allow the practice to, go on without, again speaking to
him on the subject : I have two documents at hand I can
refer to ; two annual reports. In the column on the annual
report, I, for the two previous years to the present, consulted
the chaplain, as to the time. He said he had a right to
have, as such time, the whole period, he was employed out of
the gaol. "It was entered in the return accordingly. But
in the return for the present year I have not entered the
chaplain's time. The matter had been under my knowledge
for a considerable time, I have often expressed my surprise
at it, in the office to the clerks, but not in Dr. Buck's pre-
sence. I did not, during this long interval, make any entry
in my journal. His general answer was, he had duties out
of the gaol, and I made no report of it, I have always
considered the chaplain independent of my authority. I
cannot say how often the inaccuracies occurred. I have
frequently asked for Dr. Buck, when he had left the gaol in
the afternoon, and he had not entered the hour of departure,
but which was done by him next morning. The chaplain
stated he had business outside the gaol—l never doubted his
word at that time:" observe these words, gentlemen. Re-
member, I pray you that all the above evidence extends
over the whole period from my appointment to January,
1840 ; or, as Mr. B. says, to one month before that period.
Now, gentlemen, Mr. Sammond says in his evidence, the
governor noticed the errors, and asked me if, it was the
practice? I informed him, " that it was."
:5 ronsuler what
•t
the governor says :
" I wont say whether I told Mr. Sammond, take notice
whether the chaplain's entries were correct or not. I thought
it a wrong practise, but attributed it to mistake, and at the
same time not being anxious to report the chaplain."
" About the 21st of January this year, the governor came
into the office and asked me if Dr. Buck had come. said
he had. He asked what time. I told him the doctor had
made a mistake in his time, or was wrong in his entry this
morning. I also added ` this is not the only instance,' rbe
governor then said I will speak to him,' I cannot say when
the practice began. I noticed it six months prior to the va-
riation in the entries (January, 1840)."
Permit me to suggest the enquiry—why, seeing Mr. Bat-
cheldor well knew my method of entering my times—a me'
thod which had been familiar to him, and against which he
had never protested during nearly two years, he should have
made any inquiry of his clerk on the subject—why now con-
sider that to be indefensible, nay, disgraceful, which he had
twice made known to government as correct, and had not re;
ported to the inspector, or to the magistrates as incorrect •
Mr. Sammond's original time of taking observations on the
subject, may possibly lead to the clue which will unravel the
mystery.
This date brings us back to the eventful period—seventeen
months ago, when the governor gave orders for notes of one
of my sermons to be taken down on paper ; exactly to thet.
time, when he laid by those papers without making the fait