Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1880-07-21
From Our Regular Correspondent
Our European Letter.
LONDON, Eng July 5. 1880.

LONDON. Eng July 8, 1880.
The old queens bench prison viii soon
join its brother in antiquity-Temple bar
in ranking as of the past. There may be
some living now who will call to mind
many pleasant hours passed within its
walls. Hear what Thack-
cray says: Strange though it may seem,
there arc, perhaps, no places in Europe
where jollity is more practiced than in
prisons for debit" and, indeed, a great deal
of latitude seems to have been allowed to
the inmates of this particular one. Pris-
oners were not compelled to dwell inside
the walls, providing they lodged within a
certain radius; and days holiday was
not at all an impossible thing to procure.
paid it a visit last week. zThe first sight
of that formidable forty-foot wall sur
rounding the building must have struck a
chill into the heart of many poor debtor
who had no hope Of ever being able to
pay. A bell high up in the wall was the
means of admttance. the wicket being
opened by shabby old man, who appeared
much better acquainted with the inside of
the prison than the out, and who-with a
voice thick with emotion or brandy
ANONYMOUSLY babe me ",walk straight on
AMI turn to the left" Already the sacri-
legious hands of the demolishers were
busy, and high heaps of bricks and rub.
Dish were all that remained of the immor-
tai " tape" shop and keepers lodge. The
admission of spirits being contrary to the
prison regulations, tape " in the form of
brandy use TO be retailed Mt exhorbitant
prices Turning to the left, l passed
through an archway, and, in Charles
Dickens words as applied to the Marsh :
alsea, looked upon the rooms in which
the debtors lived, and stood among the
crowding ghosts ofmany miserable years"
Before me lay the college Green,
on which l could picture the scene of
thirty years ago-the gaudy leg, calmly
promenading with cigar, glancing su-
perciliously at the motley crowd around,
chuckling over his last financial exploit,
or planning another for the future, the
broken man, gazing dejectedly at the bare
wall opposite, after fighting the world for
years, brought there at last, and a family
depending upon him for bread; the gen.
tleman, still trying TO remember that he is
one, despite the surroundings, forced
thither by unsuccessful speculations, having
given out to his friends that " he is in the
country" as if they did not know where
the country" is; the unfortunate, the
younger son of lord, who will be out to-
morrow; the bankrupt tradesman, who
will be there for life; around them, OIL
between their legs, u host of squalling
dirty children, playing as happily in prison
as they would anywhere else. The present
building was erected in 1871, the previou:
one having burnt down, together with the
fleet, by the Gordon rioters in 1880. Wha
glorious time the riots must have made
for the roughs! How delighted they must
have felt to be able to shout, bawl rush
fight, swear, without the slightest check
When the act for the abolition of impris
onment for debt was passed the queens
bench was turned into military prison
and the impress Of the latter regime il
more discernible than that of the former
The windows, the lower half blocked up
the upper covered with wire, and strong
iron bars fixed across; the heavy locks
the peepholes, the signals for the warders
the dark cells. was incarcerated in on,
| for about ten seconds; it measured twelv'
feet by three feet; every atom of light
ever particle of sound was excluded;
plank bed with wooden pillow was tn,
furniture,a nda trap in the door was wher,
the rations were thrust through.
England is styled free country; tn
country may be free, but every one of tn
inhabitants is dependent for happines
upon the pleasure of somebody else. Tina
grand lady, who reigns absolute in he
small circle of acquaintance, is despotical
>ly ruled by little Billy at home; tina
pompous elderly gentleman, who override
everybody else in conversation, is com
pletely at the mercy of his redfaced cook
When quilted the interior of the prison
and returned to the College Green"
found ~ party being conducted d" over" b
an old man who had once been warde
there; and whilst the lovers of antiquit
were eagerly pumping him for history an
particulars of the place. he was relating
long account of his rheumatism and col
in the nose. Bestowing small gratuit
(Which was received with abundan
thankS) upon the " brandifed old gate
keeper, passed through the small pos
tern and entered the world of fact one
more. ALPHA.