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 rectitude to seek for it, even should charity be re-
sorted to as the means.
" I found," says Mr. Batcheldor, "that the entries of the.
chaplain in the time book were a
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 stopped 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 he 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 was not bound Lto state the precise hburs 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
tnorceau,
which I have b only aeendduex ced to shew you the petty annoyances to
exposed No one wou like to have a
little cur following heels, with his shrillld 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 leis time. I have spoken to
other. officers about not being
exact. I rather think that I
did speak to Dr. Buck about a small deference 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
bender my control. He was of so hasty a temperament
th was at the town-clerk's office immediately if I spoke
to him. The subject of his false entries"—observe 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 my 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 lie spoke to use,
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.
has remarked them, an expressed his great surprise.
(Mr. Archer says, " Mr. Sammond pointed out to me, o
one or two occasions, that Dr. Buck had entered in the
book that he had remained a longer time than wbn'
tually the case.)

;übject of conve;.ationln

The surgeon

.t was ac-

" Was it a common subj
" 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
that he was surprised at Dr. Buck doing it, as others might.
The 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 juxta 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 intermeddling, 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.

et of conversation in the office

Now, gentlemen, I entreat your attention to the attendance
book, and to the waj 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, in compliance
with the clause in the act. It is understood by me that the
entries on it include the hours of coining 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 hook for this ;—the officers absence book."
The time book is only for time in the prison.
" I 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 so passei : absences would have to be
deducted."
Mr. Sammond tells you—
" It was their practice to enter the time spent in the pri-
son."

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.
resident officer coming on dut
ing. He puts down that tini
the task-master, the clerks, L ,
be absent for breakfast, for dinner, or he may be en
of the prison for hours. He may also (as Mr. fi „,
acheldor
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 attunduncc book bhould shun- only thy, tint. paao.,l
within the walls, whereas a turnkey may not have bet
.

ppose the case of a non-

He may, as in the case of

and, as I believe, of any officer

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.

wnen 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 reitrence to the
seniors. - - -

he time occupied

[lasing dr4

a iuii j
he replied, no. F
Dr. Buck when employed in purchasing for tl)e gaol would,
in a similar way, not have entered that time.
Mr. Archer said, that when officers called at his house for
certicates 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
corresr.-- related to the obtaining of situations 6.-
_

.....Jr dis-
charged prisoners, or the introductiod of fernsl es into peni-
tentiaries.

)i jour-

pals, and preparing quarterly reports
Pn every occasion where I have ere

it has been under one Other of the following cases::-:—''
Ist.—Attendance at the Town-hall, or at the Police--court,
o 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.
3d.—Seeking, through all parts of the town, to ascertain
the characters of prisoners—that I might give just informa-
tion to the fnr

i,eleues exteruni
the dischame of distressed debtors.
Ith.—Calls on friends of convicted u
before the expiration of their sentence
conciling such parties or of obtainin
the ' •

—with a hope of re-
assistance to enable

iti'."l--Seekink situations for discharged juveniles-,
111 t,
bv4 Feat measure, though not entirely, taken from .
duty'l'e appointment of the schoolmaster to this peculiar
perfor
The attempt to draw a line of distinction between duties
those which
rebefore entering, and after leaving, the prison, and
be simply
chilaare,sattended to intermediately, appears to me to
play. If entering the prison at 9, and being
there occupied till 1, and I then leave, and urn occupied in
proper gaol business peculiar to my office, during three hours,
and then enter the office of the prison for the mere purpose
of writing down 4 o'clock, I am, by the arguments brought