703 rior malversations—and the invaluable means | False accusation; and to condemn him who ment while his crime is uncertain. Nay, it is not only uncertain, as to all who are untried, but it is the fixed presumption of the law that the suspicion is unfounded, and that a trial will establish his innocence. We suppose there are not less than ten or fifteen thousand persons taken up yearly in Great Britain and Ireland on suspicion of crimes, of whom certainly there are not two-thirds convicted; so that, in all likelihood, there are not fewer than seven or eight thousand innocent persons placed very imprisonment, though an unavoidable, is beyond all dispute a very lamentable evil; and to which no unnecessary addition can be made without the most tremendous injustice. The debtor, again, seems entitled to at least as much indulgence. "He may,” says Mr. Buxton, "have been reduced to his inability to satisfy his creditor by the visitation of God,-by disease, by personal accidents, by the failure of reasonable projects, by the largeness or the helplessness of his family. His substance, and the substance of his creditor, may have perished together in the flames, Human foresight cannot or in the waters. always avert, and human industry cannot always repair, the calamities to which our nature is subjected ;-surely, then, some debtors are entitled to compassion."-(p. 4.) Of the The charm is in the little word PUBLICITY! -And it is cheering to think how many wonders have already been wrought by that pre-annually in this painful predicament-whose cious Talisman. If the House of Commons was of no other use but as an organ for proclaiming and inquiring into all alleged abuses, and making public the results, under the sanction of names and numbers which no man dares to suspect of unfairness or inattention, it would be enough to place the country in which it existed far above all terms of comparison with any other, ancient or modern, in which no such institution had been devised. Though the great work is done, however, by that House and its committees-though it is there only that the mischief can be denounced with a voice that reaches to the utmost borders of the land—and there only that the seal of unquestioned and unquestionable authority can be set to the statements which it authenticates and gives out to the world; there is still room, and need too, for the humbler min-number of debtors at any one time in confineistry of inferior agents, to circulate and enforce, to repeat and expound, the momentous facts that have been thus collected, and upon which the public must ultimately decide. It is this unambitious, but useful function that we now propose to perform, in laying before our readers a short view of the very interesting facts which are detailed in the valuable work of which the title is prefixed, and in the parliamentary papers to which it refers. Prisons are employed for the confinement ment in these kingdoms, we have no means of forming a conjecture; but beyond all doubt they amount to many thousands, of whom probably one half have been reduced to that state by venial errors, or innocent misfortune. Even with regard to the convicted, we humbly conceive it to be clear, that where no special severity is enjoined by the law, any additional infliction beyond that of mere coercion, is illegal. If the greater delinquents alone were subjected to such severities, there might be a colour of equity in the practice; but, in point of fact, they are inflicted according to the state of the prison, the usage of the place, or the temper of the jailor;and, in all cases, they are inflicted indiscriminately on the whole inmates of each unhappy mansion. Even if it were otherwise, "Who," says Mr. B., "is to apportion this variety of wretchedness? The Judge, who knows nothing of the interior of the jail; or the jailor, who knows nothing of the transactions of the Court? The law can easily suit its penalties to the circumstances of the case. It can ad judge to one offender imprisonment for one day; to another for twenty years: But what ingenuity would be sufficient to devise, and what discretion could be trusted to inflict, modes of imprisonment with similar variations?"—p. 8. But the truth is, that all inflictions be rond that of mere detention, are clearly illegal.-Take the common case of fetters - from Bracton down to Blackstone, all our lawyers declare the use of them to be contrary to law. The last says, in so many words, that "the law will not justify jailors in fettering a pri soner, unless where he is unruly or has at- | mitted, that in that quarter some alteratin tempted an escape;" and, even in that case, the practice seems to be questionable-if we can trust to the memorable reply of Lord Chief Justice King to certain magistrates, who urged their necessity for safe custody "let them build their walls higher." Yet has this matter been left, all over the kingdom, as a thing altogether indifferent, to the pleasure of the jailor or local magistrates; and the practice accordingly has been the most capricious and irregular that can well be imagined. "In Chelmsford, for example, and in Newgate, all accused or convicted of felony are ironed. At Bury, and at Norwich, all are without irons.-At Abingdon the untried are not ironed.-At Derby, none but the untried are ironed!-At Cold-bathfields, none but the untried, and those sent for reexamination, are ironed.-At Winchester, all before trial are ironed; and those sentenced to transportation after trial.-At Chester, those alone of bad character are ironed, whether tried or untried." pp. 68, 69. But these are trifles. The truth of the case is forcibly and briefly stated in the following short sentences: "You have no right to deprive a man sentenced to more imprisonment of pure air, wholesome and sufficient food, and opportunities of exercise. You have no right to debar him from the craft on which his family depends, if it can be exercised in prison. You have no right to subject him to suffering from cold, by want of bed-clothing by night, or firing by day. And the reason is plain-you have taken him from his home, and have deprived him of the means of providing himself with the necessaries or comforts of life; and therefore you are bound to furnish him with moderate indeed, but suitable accommo dation. "You have, for the same reason, no right to ruin his habits, by compelling him to be idle, his morals, by compelling him to mix with a promiscuous assemblage of hardened and convicted criminals, or his health by forcing him at night into a damp unventilated cell, with such crowds of com: panions, as very speedily render the air foul and putrid, or to make him sleep in close contact with the victims of contagious and loathsome disease, or amidst the noxious effluvia of dirt and corruption. In short, no Judge ever condemned a man to be half starved with cold by day, or half suffocated with heat by night. Who ever heard of a criminal being sentenced to Rheumatism, or Typhus fever? Corruption of morals and contamination of mind are not the remedies which the law in its wisdom has thought proper to adopt." might be desirable, though, in his apprehe "About four years ago, Mrs. Fry was induced to visit Newgate, by the representations of its stre made by some persons of the Society of Friends "She found the female side in a situation whic no language can describe. Nearly three hundrai women, sent there for every gradation of crist some untried, and some under sentence of deat were crowded together in the two wards and twe cells, which are now appropriated to the untried, and which are found quite inadequate to cont even this diminished number with any tolerable convenience. Here they saw their friends, and kapt their multitudes of children; and they had no other place for cooking, washing, eating, and sleeping "They all slept on the floor; at times one hatdred and twenty in one ward, without so much w a mat for bedding; and many of them were very nearly naked. She saw them openly drinking The abuses in Newgate, that great recepta- spirits; and her ears were offended by the m cle of guilt and misery, constructed to hold terrible imprecations. Every thing was filthy # about four hundred and eighty prisoners, but excess, and the smell was quite disgusting. Every generally containing, of late years, from eight one, even the Governor, was reluctant to go hundred to twelve hundred, are eloquently amongst them. He persuaded her to leave bet watch in the office, telling her that his presente set forth in the publication before us, though would not prevent its being torn from her! She we have no longer left ourselves room to spe- saw enough to convince her that every thing bad cify them. It may be sufficient, however, to was going on. In short, in giving me this account, observe, that the state of the Women's wards she repeatedly said- All I tell thee is a faint prewas universally allowed to be by far the ture of the reality; the filth, the closeness of the worst; and that even Alderman Atkins ad-rooms, the ferocious manners and expressions a the women towards each other, and the abandoned wickedness which every thing bespoke, are quit indescribable.' "-pp. 117-119. I do not now reprint the detailed statements which formed the bulk of this paper, as originally published; and retain only the account of the mar vellous reformation effected in Newgate, by the heroic labours of Mrs. Fry and her sisters of charity of which I think it a duty to omit nothing that may help to perpetuate the remembrance. Her design, at this time, was confined & the instruction of about seventy children, who were wandering about in this scene of horror and for whom even the most abandoned o BUXTON'S INQUIRY. 70 consisted of the wife of a clergyman, and eleve (female) members of the Society of Friends. The professed their willingness to suspend every othe selves to Newgate; and in truth, they have performed their promise. With no interval of relaxation, and with but few intermissions from the call engagement and avocation, and to devote them of other and more imperious duties, they have since lived amongst the prisoners.' their wretched mothers thanked her with tears of gratitude for her benevolent intentions! while several of the younger women flocked about her, and entreated, with the most pathetic eagerness, to be admitted to her intended school. She now applied to the Governor, and had an interview with the two Sheriffs and the Ordinary, who received her with the most cordial approbation; but fairly intimated to her "their persuasion that her efforts would be utterly fruitless." After some investigation, it was officially reported, that there was no vacant spot in which the school could be established; and an ordinary philanthropist would probably have retired disheartened from the undertaking. Mrs. Fry, how-wretched mansion, "would inevitably fail." ever, mildly requested to be admitted once more alone among the women, that she might conduct the search for herself. Difficulties always disappear before the energy of real zeal and benevolence: an empty cell was immediately discovered, and the school was to be opened the very day after. that correct the incredulity of men of benevolence and knowledge of the world. The Reverend Ordinary, though filled with admiration for Even this astonishing progress could not the exertions of this intrepid and devoted band, fairly told Mrs. F. that her designs, like many others for the improvement of that The Governor encouraged her to go on-but confessed to his friends, that "he could not see even the possibility of her success." But the wisdom of this world is foolishness, and its fears but snares to entangle our feet in the career of our duty. Mrs. F. saw with other "The next day she commenced the school, in again to the Sheriffs and the Governor;-near company with a young lady, who then visited a prison for the first time, and who since gave me a fore them, and, with much solemnity and eareyes, and felt with another heart. She went very interesting description of her feelings upon occasion. The railing was crowded with half naked nestness, engaged to give the strictest obedione hundred of the women were brought bewomen, struggling together for the front situa-ence to all the regulations of their heroic benetions with the most boisterous violence, and begging factress. A set of rules was accordingly with the utmost vociferation. She felt as if she was promulgated, which we have not room here to going into a den of wild beasts; and she well recol-transcribe; but they imported the sacrifice of Tects quite shuddering when the door closed upon her, and she was locked in, with such a herd of novel and desperate companions. This day, how. ever, the school surpassed their utmost expectations: their only pain arose from the numerous and pressing applications made by young women, who longed to be taught and employed. The narrowness of the room rendered it then impossible to yield to these requests: But they tempted these ladies to project a school for the employment of the tried women, for teaching them to read and to work." med all their darling and much cherished vices;- Mayor, the Sheriffs, and several of the Aldermen, "When this intention was mentioned to the friends of these ladies, it appeared at first so vision. ary and unpromising, that it met with very slender encouragement: they were told that the certain consequence of introducing work would be, that it would be stolen; that though such an experiment might be reasonable enough, if made in the country, among women who had been accustomed to hard labour, it was quite hopeless, when tried upon those who had been so long habituated to vice and idle-tion ness. In short, it was predicted, and by many too, whose wisdom and benevolence added weight to their opinions, that those who had set at defiance the law of the land, with all its terrors, would very speedily revolt from an authority which had nothing to enforce it; and nothing more to recommend it than its simplicity and gentleness. But the noble zeal of these unassuming women was not to be so repressed; and feeling that their design was in tended for the good and the happiness of others, they trusted that it would receive the guidance protection of Him who often is pleased to accomplish the highest purposes by the most feeble instru ments. during the time of reading, their orderly and painful impressions made by a scene, exhibiting, "With these impressions, they had the boldness to declare, that if a committee could be found who would share the labour, and a matron who would engage never to leave the prison, day or night, they would undertake to try the experiment, that is, they would themselves find employment for the women, procure the necessary money, till the city could be induced to relieve them, and be answerable for the safety of the property committed into the hands of the prisoners. The committee immediately presented itself; it 89 family. "The magistrates, to evince their sense of the importance of the alterations which had been ef- a Bible in her life, which was received wite se trud fected, immediately adopted the whole plan as a part interest and satisfaction, or one, which she thinks of the system of Newgate; empowered the ladies more likely to do good. It is remarkable, that the to punish the refractory by short confinement, un-girl, from her conduct in her preceding prison, and dertook part of the expense of the matron, and in court, came to Newgate with the worst of che louded the ladies with thanks and benedictions." acters."-p. 134. pp. 130, 131. We can add nothing to this touching and elevating statement. The story of a glorious victory gives us a less powerful or proud emotion-and thanks and benedictions appear to us never to have been so richly deserved. "A year, says Mr. Buxton, has now elapsed since the operations in Newgate began; and those most competent to judge, the late Lord Mayor and the present, the late Sheriffs and the present, the late Governor and the present, various Grand Juries, the Chairman of the Police Committee, the Ordinary, and the officers of the prison, have all declared their satisfaction, mixed with astonishment, at the alteration which has taken place in the conduct of the females. "It is true, and the Ladies' Committee are anx: ious that it should not be concealed, that some of the rules have been occasionally broken. Spirits, they fear, have more than once been introduced; and it was discovered at one period, when many of the ladies were absent, that card-playing had been resumed. But, though truth compels them to acknowledge these deviations, they have been of a very limited extent. I could find but one lady who heard an oath, and there had not been above half a dozen instances of intoxication; and the ladies feel justified in stating, that the rules have generally been observed. The ladies themselves have been treated with uniform respect and gratitude." pp. 132, 133. compar The change, indeed, pervaded every de partment of the female division. Those wh were marched off for transportation, instea of breaking the windows and furniture, and going off, according to immemorial usage, with drunken songs and intolerable disorder, a serious and tender leave of their ions, and expressed the utmost gratitude u their benefactors, from whom they parted with tears. Stealing has also been entirely suppressed; and, while upwards of twent thousand articles of dress have been man factured, not one has been lost or purloined within the precincts of the prison! We have nothing more to say; and w not willingly weaken the effect of this pressive statement by any observations ours. Let us hear no more of the difficulty of regulating provincial prisons, when the prostitute felons of London have been the easily reformed and converted. Let us seve again be told of the impossibility of repres ing drunkenness and profligacy, or introduc habits of industry in small establishment when this great crater of vice and corrup has been thus stilled and purified. And, ab all, let there be an end of the pitiful apoy of the want of funds, or means, or agents, effect those easier improvements, when men from the middle ranks of life-when quiet unassuming matrons, unaccustomed t business, or to any but domestic exertions have, without funds, without agents, without aid or encouragement of any description trusted themselves within the very centre d infection and despair; and, by opening the hearts only, and not their purses, have effect At the close of a Session, many of the reformed prisoners were dismissed, and many new ones were received-and, under their auspices, card-playing was again introduced. One of the ladies, however, went among them alone, and earnestly and affectionately explained to them the pernicious consequences of this practice; and represented to them how much she would be gratified, if, even from regard to her, they would agree to re-ed, by the mere force of kindness, gentlenes nounce it. "Soon after she retired to the ladies' room, one of the prisoners came to her, and expressed, in a manner which indicated real feeling, her sorrow for having broken the rules of so kind a friend, and gave her a pack of cards: four others did the same. Having burnt the cards in their presence, she felt bound to remunerate them for their value, and to mark her sense of their ready obedience by some small present. A few days afterwards, she called the first to her, and telling her intention, produced a neat muslin handkerchief. To her surprise, the girl looked disappointed; and, on being asked the reason, confessed she had hoped that Mrs. would have given her a Bible with her own name written in it! which she should value beyond any thing else, and always keep and read. Such a request, made in such a manner, could not be refused; and the lady assures me that she never gave and compassion, a labour, the like to which (April, 1806.) Memoirs of Richard Cumberland: written by himself. Containing an Account of his Life and Writings, interspersed with Anecdotes and Characters of the most distinguished Persons of his Time with whom he had Intercourse or Connection. 4to. pp. 533. London: 1806.* We certainly have no wish for the death however, to let authors tell their own story, of Mr. Cumberland; on the contrary, we hope as an apology for telling that of all their ace will live long enough to make a large sup-quaintances; and can easily forgive them for lement to these memoirs: But he has em- grouping and assorting their anecdotes of their barrassed us a little by publishing this volume contemporaries, according to the chronology, n his lifetime. We are extremely unwilling and incidents of their own lives. This is but o say any thing that may hurt the feelings indulging the painter of a great gallery of of a man of distinguished talents, who is draw- worthies with a panel for his own portrait; ng to the end of his career, and imagines that and though it will probably be the least like he has hitherto been ill used by the world: of the whole collection, it would be hard to but he has shown, in this publication, such an grudge him this little gratification. appetite for praise, and such a jealousy of Life has often been compared to a journey; censure, that we are afraid we cannot do our and the simile seems to hold better in nothing duty conscientiously, without giving him of than in the identity of the rules by which fence. The truth is, that the book has rather those who write their travels, and those who disappointed us. We expected it to be ex-write their lives, should be governed. When tremely amusing; and it is not. There is too a man returns from visiting any celebrated much of the first part of the title in it, and too region, we expect to hear much more of the little of the last. Of the life and writings of remarkable things and persons he has seen, Richard Cumberland, we hear more than than of his own personal transactions; and enough; but of the distinguished persons with are naturally disappointed if, after saying that whom he lived, we have many fewer charac- he lived much with illustrious statesmen or ters and anecdotes than we could have wish-heroes, he chooses rather to tell us of his own ed. We are the more inclined to regret this, both because the general style of Mr. Cumberland's compositions has convinced us, that no one could have exhibited characters and anecdotes in a more engaging manner, and because, from what he has put into this book, we actually see that he had excellent opportunities for collecting, and still better talents for relating them. The anecdotes and characters which we have, are given in a very pleasing and animated manner, and form the chief merit of the publication: But they do not occupy one tenth part of it; and the rest is filled with details that do not often interest, and observations that do not always amuse. Authors, we think, should not, generally, be encouraged to write their own lives. The genius of Rousseau, his enthusiasm, and the novelty of his plan, have rendered the Confessions, in some respects, the most interesting of books. But a writer, who is in full possession of his senses, who has lived in the world like the men and women who compose it, and whose vanity aims only at the praise of great talents and accomplishments, must not hope to write a book like the Confessions: and is scarcely to be trusted with the delineation of his own character or the narrative of his own adventures. We have no objection, I reprint part of this paper-for the sake chiefly of the anecdotes of Bentley, Bubb Dodington, Soame Jenyns, and a few others, which I think remarkable and very much, also, for the lively and graphic account of the impression of Garrick's new style of acting, as compared with that of Quin and the old schools-which is as good and as curious as Colley Cibber's admirable sketches of Betterton and Booth. travelling equipage, or of his cookery and servants, than to give us any account of the character and conversation of those distinguished persons. In the same manner, when at the close of a long life, spent in circles of literary and political celebrity, an author sits down to give the world an account of his retrospections, it is reasonable to stipulate that he should talk less of himself than of his associates; and natural to complain, if he tells long stories of his schoolmasters and grandmothers, while he passes over some of the most illustrious of his companions with a bare mention of their names. Mr. Cumberland has offended a little in this way. He has also composed these memoirs, we think, in too diffuse, rambling, and careless a style. There is evidently no selection or method in his narrative and unweighed remarks, and fatiguing apologies and protes tations, are tediously interwoven with it, in the genuine style of good-natured but irrepressible loquacity. The whole composition, indeed, has not only too much the air of conversation: It has sometimes an unfortunate resemblance to the conversation of a professed talker; and we meet with many passages in which the author appears to work himself up to an artificial vivacity, and to give a certain air of smartness to his expression, by the introduction of cant phrases, odd metaphors, and a sort of practised and theatrical originality. The work, however, is well worth looking over, and contains many more amusing passages than we can afford to extract on the present occasion. Mr. Cumberland was born in 1732; and he has a very natural pride in 1'ating that his |