Dallas herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1849-1873, 1873-03-08
Prison Torture in Fngland-EXtra-
ordinary Statements Of Daniel Red
ding, q Fenian Prisoner

Are the british convict prisons hells o.
torture, crammed with helpless victoWt
and iucnrnate fcnds7 Charles Rcsdc, IN
,Ncvcr Too La,c to Mend" drtw picIure'
of life in English .inils tich curdl'd will
borrow the blood of the render, hut Charles
Rcade il was snrd, exaggerated, and even
if his pictures were true twenty years ago
prison discipline since then has been sup
posed to have vastly improved, nnd nj the
international Congress of prison phllan-
thropis,s held here last GUNNER the Brit
ish prisons were represented MS models OF
perfection. But il some nfidavits read
before the Court of Qucea's Bench day he
fore Yesterday he irue-nny, if ene'tenth
part Of the m he tIue-thc English prisons
arc worse than bells. Whnt do you say Of
the conduct of prison physician who is
SO "loyaW thnt he selects the political
prisoners under his charge and subjects
them TO months of exquisite torture tel
ling them that their crimes against the
Queen were not sufficiently punished by
their imprisonment, but must be expintcd
by additional suffering; who starve some
of them; who orders h parolyzcd man, who
is unable to walk, TO be dragged around
ell his clothing, places him in punish
men cell, and hns him beaten with staff,
leaving him there TO lie naked on the
stones for t0ur hours; who burns him with
red-hot irons and picrces his legs with
heated needles; who blister his flesh until
il is raw and then ties galvnnic battery
to the exposed flesh and subjects him TO
the intense pain Of repeated shocks;
who pulls him from his wretched bed
by the heels and dIags him
over the stones, his bleeding head
knocking against the rough ings; who
rigs him up with n harness If ropes and
jerks him about; who makes the ward"rs
toss him high in tie air and let him fall
violently back; who himself heats him in
the stomach with such violence Tint the
wretch vomits blood; and who, failing TO
quite kill him, turns him out of the prison
Mt the end of his five years such wreck
that the surgeon OF the hospital to which
he was removed testifvs that, after three
months of the mos careful nursing, he
can scarcely move or speak? You say,
probably, that this is all n romance; but it
is the subsistence Of n solemn affidavit made
by Daniel Redling, n FcnGn prisoner
CUuNlCieu IN NONClIDPr, lou Ut hHhNHss'
ter, and sentenced to five years imprisoE-
ment, which ended on the 2jth Of October
last. The affidavit was read, as have said,
before the Court of Queens Bench in sup
port Of an application for r,ile nisi, cal
ling upon Dr. Burns, medical officer OF
Chatham prison, and Dr. Wilson, medical
officer of aliltank prison, to show cause
why criminal infot nation should not be
fled against them. The court, with strange
reluctance, however, granted the rule, and
the case will comc on next April. Every
one may not know how extremely ditlicul,
it is TO prevent atrocities like those in
prisons sand to obtain proof of them when
committed. The inspection is sham -
the officers Of a prison all hang together
and defend each other--the prisoners Of
ten do not dare to speak, when questioned,
for they know that If they make com
plant the officers will revenge themselves
cruelty upon them--anG if one in his des
pair does venture to compllin, the chances
are ninety. nine to one that the inspectors
diebclieve him, Ireierring to tnke the
word of the honest wardcps rather than
that of the convicted rascal. But it GER
iainly ought TO he within the power Of the
English Government to protect the prison.
crs from such tor'nIes as those which this
Fenian swcars he has suffered.