The gaol staff was slightly strengthened, and a Visiting Magistrate and two Chaplains were put on its estimates, which, on the ist January, 1847, were thus particularised:—Gaoler, Mr. George Wintle, per annum, ,£150 ; Visiting Magistrate, Mr. James Smith, per annum, , £ 4 0 ; Church of England Chaplain, Rev. A. C. Thomson, per annum, ^£25 ; R o m a n Catholic Chaplain, Rev. J. J. Therry, per annum, ,£25 ; Medical Attendant, Dr. Cussen, per annum, £&o ; Clerk, M r . D. M'Tavish, per annum, ^£84; Superintendent of Treadmill, R. M'Cord, 3s. 6d. per diem ; Turnkeys, 4, each 3s. 6d. per diem. There was a foundry at this time in Melbourne, and its proprietor (Mr. Fulton), anxious for the condition of the treadmill, took it in hand, and for ^£120 covenanted to put it to rights—no cure, no pay. His doctoring was pronounced to be very satisfactory, for the "stepper" was once morefitfor pedestrian recreation, and warranted to travel at the rate offiftypaces per minute—a degree of speed far from relished by the most jiggishly disposed of those for whose behoof the expensive "constitutional' was prepared. A LUNATIC DIFFICULTY.
There was another use to which the prison was necessarily put, which must have increased the troubles and responsibilities of the gaoler in a large degree. There was no distinct place for the detention of lunatics, and as those remanded from the police courts had to be put somewhere, to gaol they had to go. In the beginning of 1847, there werefifteenof such miserable creatures (men and w o m e n ) on the gaoler's hands, without any special means for insuring their safe custody, or keeping them apart from the other prisoners of both sexes. Still it is wonderful h o w no accidents occurred, and more wonderful that, during the ten years ending June 30th, 1847, only two prisoners died in gaol, though on one occasion (in the old Collins Street prison) there were 113 h u m a n beings confined there, and fever had shown itself more than once. This is a fact which speaks volumes for the medical skill and attention of Dr. Cussen, the acting colonial surgeon of the time. O n e day in June, 1847, Jacob Jacobs, a runaway convict from over the water, arrived in a craft from Launceston. H e had a cabin all to himself during the passage, for, prior to the sailing of the schooner, he stowed himself away in an empty case, and so travelled incog, to Melbourne, where he succeeded, no doubt with the complicity of some of the crew, in disembarking in safety. T h e escapade leaking out by some means, Mr. Jacob Jacobs was hunted up by the police, discovered, and remanded pending the receipt of information from V a n Diemen's Land. T h e Melbourne gaol was his resting-place, where, during the night of the 12th July, he cut or forced a panel of his cell door, got out, and concealed himself in an unoccupied cell in the ground tier. T h e cook of the establishment had his cubiculum upstairs in the second tier, and early in the morning a turnkey proceeded to rouse the cook to prepare breakfast. Whilst the Janitor was so occupied in the upper story, Jacobs, slipping out of his hiding-place, ran into the front yard, and, jumping on to the cook-house, got over the wall and slipped down at the south side, where there was no sentry, cleared out, and was never more heard of. Occasionally sensational canards of cruelty to lunatics and prisoners used to circulate outside; but sometimes the complaints were well founded. Towards the end of this year, serious accusations were made against the gaoler and turnkeys Griffin and Walton. A board of investigation was appointed, and resulted in the dismissal of the turnkeys. A s regards the gaoler the whole case broke down, but it oozed out that when he and his wife were staying in a private cottage at Collingwood, they employed a female prisoner as a servant without leave or licence, THE TREADMILL DESCRIBED.
The treadmill did not after all benefit permanently under the Fulton treatment. It would be quite the correct thing for a week or two, would then take grumpyfits,and so shake the fellows trampling it as to subject them to the action of a sort' of galvanic battery that, every five minutes or so, nearly jerked the life out of them. They would blaspheme and howl like so many foul-tongued fiends; would gnash their teeth, and look with murder in their eye-balls at the gentle M'Cord, the manager. But they could only use their
