The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1873-03-12
Prison Torture in England.
EXTRAORDINARY STATEMENTS OF DAM
TEL BEDDING, A FENIAN PRISONER.

lei BEDDING, A FENIAN PRISONER.
Are the British convict prisons hell
oftorture, crammed with helpless vic
tins aud incarnate fends {? Cba,le,
Reade, in "Never Too Late to Mend
drew pictures of life in English iaiI.
which curdled with horror the blood -,
the reader, but Charles Reade, it was
said, exaggerated, and even if his mir.
,ures were true twenty years ago pris.
on discipline since then has been SIM
posed to have vastly improved. and pt
the International Congress of nrison
pIilantbropists held here last summar
the British prisons were represented -
models of perfection. But if some offi :.
davits read before the Court of Queens
Bench day before yesterday be true
nay, if one-tenth part of them be true
the English prisons are worse than
bells. What do you say of the CON-
duet ola prison physician who is SO
"loyal' that he selects the political
prisoners under his charge and sinh
jects them to months of exquisite tor
ture--teling them that their crimes
against the Queen we've not sufficien,lv
punished by their imprisonment hnt
must be eSpatiated by additional snf.
fpring; who starves some uf them. who
orders paralyzed man, who is unohIe
to walk, to be dragged around the ev.
ercise ground; who strips him of all his
clothing, places him in a pnpisbman,
cell, and has him beaten wish a STAFF
leaving him there to lie naked on tI,a
stones for four hours; who burns him
with red-hot irons and pierces his le~s Il
with heated needles; who blisters LiS Il
flesh until it is raw and then ties oai-
vanic battery to the exposed flesh and {
subjects him to the Intense pain of re-.
peated shock; who pulls him from his
wretched bed by the heels and drags i
HIM over the stones, his bleeding head
knocking against the rough flars. who t
rigs him up with n harness Of rcras f
and jerks him about; who makes tha t
wardens toss him high in the air and il
let him fall violently back; who him.. fl
self beats him in the stomach with such p
violence that the wretch vomits blood. f,
and who, failing to quite kill him ii
turns him out of the prison at the end C;
Of his five years such q wreck that tLe S
surgeon Of the hospital to which he il
was removed testities that, after three OF
months OF the most careful nursing. he
eau scarcely move or speak? You saw W
probably, that this is all a romance: h;
but it is the substance of a solemn ,Hi M
iavlt made by Dau!el Reddinr. n Fem fe
an prisoner, convicted iu November bG
COZ, at Manchester, and sentenced ~ co
I've years, imprisonment, whicI, ended Iii
u the 23tl' OF October last. The All "a
a7lt was read, as | have said. before ii,
he Court OF Queens Bench in supnort XII
an Application for rule nisi. cuI. wi
ing np"n DR. Burns, medical officer of tai
NATHAN prison, and DR.. Wilson, ned fo,
al oillcer OF Milbank prison, to show be,
lnse why a criminal information a 7
IouId not he fled against them. Tha tito
'urt, with strange reluctance, bower- tic
: granted the rule, and the case will the
me on next April. Every one NAV pat
u Know how extremely difficult il is tie,
prevent atrocities like those in pris- dus
is and to obtain proof of them when the
The system of inspectIon can
a sla'n--the officers of a prison nil wit
ng together and defend eacl, other ign
prisoners often do not dare tn tia
eaK, when questioned, for they plu
ow that If they make complaint Sou
Officers will revenge themselves mo,
Jelly upon t|'em-and if one in his mis-
'palr does venture to complain the al y
lhces are ninty 70 one that the A
peetors dishelieve him; preferrino in
take the word of the honest wardens tim,
her than that of the convicted ras- com
, But it certainly ouslltto he with. tim
he power of the English Govern Sou,
't :" protect the prisoners from such cial
.nres as those which this Fenian the
ARA he has sufered.-[Wo,ld Lon who
Letter. and