The Sun. — 1842-10-28 (London, England)

CHRONICLE.—The inquest at Northleach has terminated in a verdict "That Charles Beale died of disease of the lungs, brought on and aggravated by the punishment and mode of treatment he received whilst a prisoner in Northleach House of Correction, and the Jury express their unanimous disapprobation of the conduct of the Governor Townsend, the Surgeon Bidwell, and the -under-turnkey Harding." All the Jurors at the same time signed a memorial to the Secretary of State for the Home Department, praying for an inquiry into the treatment of prisoners and discipline of Northleach and the other prisons and houses of correction in the county. The extension of the inquiry to all the prisons is quite necessary. In another column our readers will find a communication from a gentleman, intimately acquainted with the prison system of Gloucestershire, who has communicated to us his name and address, from a wish to decline no responsibility. From that communication it will be seen that Beale is but one of many victims to the murderous system enforced at Northleach. Our Correspondent states cases that came within his own knowledge when his avocations led him to become acquainted with the subject—and that the other prisons in Gloucestershire are all more or less chargeable with the rigours, the exposure of which, in the case ofNorthleach, has deservedly excited in the public mind the strongest feelings of indignation. It is now evident that the public have but a slender guarantee, in the official vigilance of a Secretary of State, that only suitable regulations will be enforced in our prisons ; and from what has transpired in the course of the late inquest, and at the Quarter Sessions atGloucester, it would appear that no great dependence is to be placed on the Visiting Magistrates. The prisoners dare not tell the truth when questioned as to their treatment. The visits of the Magistrates have been few and far between, and, seeing only through the eyes of the gaolers, they have found everything as it ought to be. The death of Beale is laid by the Jury on the system pursued at Northleach, But, though the Jurors have only named Townsend and -Bidwell, and Harding, the public will look higher than these instruments. Lord Erskine leaped into professional eminence in one day by dragging, in the Greenwich Hospital case, the higher cul-. prits before the Court, in spite of the threats_ of the Judge. Powerful men are imlicated this revolting system. Throughout tale length and breadth of the land, the indignant voice of the country has been raised against the horrible system of' Northleach. After the medical evidence obtained in the Parliamentarysinquiry, to which the enormous mortality in the Penitentiary, from insufficiency of food, led, there is no longer an excuse for the adoption of a dietary in prisons on which men cannot be maintained in health. The law may be over severe or over lenient; but whatever punishment the law orders should alone be inflicted. When the law says death, let the  criminal die. But when the law says, punish this man fur seeking to obtain that work elsewhere which he cannot obtain in his own vil' lege, with three mouths' imprisonment, he ' ought not to be starved to death, or sent from the dungeon with a broken constitution from insufficiency of food. The torture of famine is not a punishment ivhieli the law contemplates. If Magistrates will tske it upon them to give effect to a system by which an offence of a venial character is punished with more severity than the law contemplates for the most heinous crimes, on their heads be the responsibility. We are far from wishing to contend for any improper indulgence to prisoners. Nay, we arc doubtful whether the endeavour to make prisons anything but places of punishment be not productive of more evil than good. We wish to see the reform which keeps men from gaohn and not the retinas' which would break down the distinction between poverty and crime. It has always appeared to us that little dependence is to be placed on the reform wrought under the constraint of a gaoler. We wish to see prisons remain really prisons— places not to be desired but dreaded by offenders.