The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-11-13
CUR|OS|T|ES OF . v. NAVIGATE CASTLE Some Interesting Facts of Old
 Prison OLDEST IN THE WORLD It Was Used for n Prison in the Days Of King John and It Is still
 Used for the Same
 Purpose
OLDEST IN THE WORLD
From the New York Press.

From the New York Press.
 Newgate is much older than any oth- CT prison in the world. It is believed to have a history that goes as far back as the building of the London Tower. It was a prison house in the days of King John; 1t is prison house today. It is not of course, the identical build ing that was the Newgate of the time when the Great Charter was drawn up, but it has always been penal es- tablishment There is a good deal that is quaint about Newgate. The saddest feature of the Newgate of the past is the great number of persons who are known to have been incarcerated there in for life in thorough defiance of the constitutional rights of arraignment and trial.
 There died in the prison in Septem- ber 1732, a man who had been 40 years an inmate, who had never been con yicted and who is supposed not to have been guilty of the offense that was made the basis of his detention. Mac aulay mentions the case in his pie turesque fashion as being that of a man whose long Imprisonment at length shocked generation which could not remember his crime. The un- fortunate was a soldier He fought un- der James II in Ireland and had risen to the rank of major
 As he had previously served in the Dutch army under the Prince of Orange suspicion rested upon him in 1896, when arrests were made in connection wltn the plots on the life of William III. dIllU convicted and executed for their share in the at tempted assassination, but against this officer Mai. John Bernardi by name, and five others there was an absence or evidence. It was thought, however, that evidence would be forthcoming, and to give time for the government to obtain this evidence the habeas corpus act was suspended for nine months When the nine months came to an end and evidence to secure a conviction was still unat- tainable, the judges remanded for fort night. and in the interval an act of par lament was passed authorizing the 1m- prisonment of the men for another year. The injustice thus begun was perpetu- ated. A second measure of like import was enacted and eventually third bill passed into law authorizing the confine- ment of Bernardo and his companions during .'his majesty's pleasure" which was tantamount to a Sentence of impris- ment during the Kings life, for it was not until the King died that these men were again heard from.
 That was in 1703. The prisoners then applied to be tried or to be admitted to bail. It was an unfortunate application. Parliament fell back upon precedent, and passed an act to confine Bernardi and his companions during the pleasure OF Queen Anne. Anne was more merciful than William. She released one of the six, but when she died Parliament re- peated the injustice, and successive acts condemned the unhappy men to remain in jail during the pleasure of George I. and again of George II. Then came or ders of release. however, against which all human schemes were powerless. When George II. ascended the throne there were only Bernardi and two others alive, and eventually Bernardi, now an octogena- rian, was left alone to petition for jus tice. For him. as for the others. the only release was death.
 His long detention in Newgate, however, was not all gloom. Fortunately for him, prison discipline was much more lax then than it is now. Newgate became a roof