by many eminent writers on morals and jurisprudence. Into the discussion of this question, however, the Committee presume not to enter. Whatever might be the objections to which it would be liable if now proposed for adoption, the practice has been so long sanctioned, that any essential change could not fail to produce unexampled confusion in a country, whose system of credit is in a great measure the foundation of her commercial greatness. But, whatever opinions may be entertained on this subject, it must be admitted that the practical evils of some parts of that system are of a serious character; affecting not the interests of the debtor only, but also the welfare of society at large. The practice of summary arrests is a wellknown and fruitful source of oppression. The debtor is treated as if his insolvency were wilful, and punished not only in his person but his purse. Every step by which he is conducted from his home to his prison is attended with expense. There are the fees of the sheriff, the fees of the undersheriff, the fees of the bailiff, the fees of the bailiff's followers, the fees attendant on legal documents, and the fees of the spunging-house. When he quits this place for the gaol, there are the fees of the keeper, the fees of his officers, the fees to his fellow-prisoners, the fees for the space he occupies, and even for the bed he sleeps on; and these charges are wrung from the man who is known to be insolvent, though his wife and children stand around him, the participators in his griefs, and the victims of the extortion. In prison he is mixed up with the miserable and depraved-bereft of his usual resources for procuring a livelihood-with

out any means for the discharge of his debts-his affairs becoming increasingly embarrassed, and himself demoralized by a forced association with the idle and dissipated. When he returns into society, he finds himself shunned and suspected, his wife and children paupers, and himself cut off from the means of pursuing an honest livelihood. There are, in England alone, above fifty gaols, exclusively appropriated to the confinement of debtors. Several of these places, although the prisons of the King, are under the control of manorial and obscure jurisdictions, and subject to a great variety of regulations. They are, nearly without exception, distinguished for their filth and misery, and few other prisons can equal them in vice and wretchedness. In a criminal gaol, the law allows no person to suffer from the want of food, clothing, bedding, and medical aid; but, in many debtors' gaols, these necessary comforts are unknown. Nor is the prisoner more fortunate in the attention which is paid to his moral welfare. He is surrounded by profligacy in various forms, and no protection is afforded to him, however desirous he may be to counteract the effect of corrupt society. It is peculiar to most debtors' gaols that the families of prisoners are allowed to remain with them; and thus many young persons are constantly to be found within their walls, to the injury of their health, and the ruin of their morals.

Few debtors' gaols are exceptions to these remarks; but in none may the representation be more extensively realized, than in the prisons of this description in the metropolis. The King's Bench is under the immediate superintendence of a marshal, who is a

patentee of the Crown. The average amount of his income is stated in the Parliamentary Reports to be from £3000 to £4000 per annum. The salary of the deputy marshal appears also to be from £300 to £400 per annum, and that of the clerk of the papers from £600 to £700 per annum. These salaries, besides those of subordinate officers concerned in the management of the prison, who, are appointed by the marshal, are all derived from the pockets of the prisoners. A prisoner, on his entrance, must pay a fee, before he can be allowed to inhabit a part only of a room. By the regulations in force, the various rooms in the prison are disproportionally occupied-the prisoner who has money, being permitted to purchase of another his right to a share in a chamber; and thus it is common to find an individual occupying an entire room, while several persons-consisting of distinct families-men, women, and children-are crowded into a small apartment, where they pass the night as well as day. A prisoner, under mesne process, who makes oath that he is not worth £10, can claim daily an allowance of sixpence; and when in execution, this sum is paid to him by the creditor.* With this exception, there is no allowance whatever, in the King's Bench prison, for food, clothing, coals, or bedding. Until within the last few months, there was no medical relief, a deprivation that was at times sensibly felt by the diseased and the dying. There is no internal inspection or discipline. The state of the interior is but little known to the marshal or his officers; and a few years backsince which no essential alteration has taken placethe escape of a prisoner, who left it on a Sunday, was

There are, however, several debtors' gaols where the prisoners have no allowance whatever.

not discovered till the following Wednesday or Thursday; and then, as it would appear, only by accident.* As the apartments of the prisoners are not officially visited at stated times, their cleanliness depends entirely on the habits of their several occupants. There is a regular coffee-house and tap; wine and beer are sold without restriction, and the marshal derives a profit from their sale. Men and women, of the most profligate character, are admitted into the prison at all times of the day; and no description can convey an adequate idea of the state of a place where it is difficult to say which is most prevalent, misery or vice; where one part of the inhabitants are entirely destitute, and the other part utterly depraved.-Nor is the state of the Fleet less revolting. There also, the emoluments of the warden and his several officers, which are very considerable, are raised by fees collected from the prisoners. The system of apportioning the rooms is also nearly the same as that enforced at the King's Bench, nor is the management of the place in other respects very dissimilar. As in that prison, so also in the Fleet, there is no allowance of food, clothing, coals and bedding, and no medical attendance until lately, when two persons died under circumstances which strongly excited the public interest. There is no effectual separation of the female from the male prisoners; the rooms of each opening into the same gallery. Three or four beds are frequently occupied by different parties in one small room, and a man with his wife and children are of course on such occasions exposed to the indecency of having

* Vide Parliamentary Reports.

strangers as night lodgers in the apartment. There has been no change in this respect in the prison since it was inspected by a Parliamentary Committee, when a prisoner, who acted as a surgeon, declared that he was called upon professionally, in a case of miscarriage, and found the woman in bed with her husband, there being also another man and his wife and a single man, all sleeping in the same small room. Children are also exposed to the baneful influence of such associations. Scenes of riot and assault are frequent, especially in the night; and but feeble means, if indeed any, are employed to prevent and punish acts of oppression and extortion among the prisoners. Prostitutes are freely admitted at all hours when the gates are opened; and the late warden declared before a Committee of the House of Commons, that he believed the prison to be the greatest brothel in the metropolis. The chapel is but thinly attended, and rarely by the warden, who does not reside in the prison. A considerable number of men, women, and children, pass through this miserable abode in the course of a year, and it is scarcely possible that any one can quit it, uncontaminated by its various abominations.

It were easy to multiply facts of this description, by adverting to the condition of other gaols for debtors; but enough perhaps has been stated to prove the ruinous consequences, in a moral point of view, of such imprisonment. It is really extraordinary-these places of confinement having been at different periods investigated by Parliamentary Committees that the abuses pointed out in their Reports should have been per