English Gaols a Century Ago.
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ENGLISH GAOLS A CENTURY AGO. By Hampton L. Carson. JOHN HOWARD, one of England's im- of calamity and suffering which he grew •* mortal philanthropists, was sheriff of daily more and more anxious to alleviate. Bedford County in 1773. The distress of He found also that the number of the pris prisoners came directly under his notice. oners was constantly recruited by miserable The special circumstance, however, which wretches who were brought from the Bride excited him to ac wells, work houses and places of cor tivity in their be half was the infa rection for va my of gaoler's fees. grants. He saw men who In 1774 he ap had been tried and peared before the acquitted, after House of Com having been con mons and was ex fined for months amined upon the awaiting trial, subject. He then dragged back to visited the prisons gaol, and locked of Europe, and, up again until they in 1777, published had paid sundry the results of his observations. fees to the gaoler, the clerk of assize, Such was the origin and the turnkey. of his famous book The same extor entitled : "The State of the Prisons tion was practiced upon those as to in England and whom grand juries Wales, with Pre had ignored bills, liminary Observa and others, whose tions, and an ac JOHN HOWARD. count of some prosecutors d i d not appear. The Foreign Prisons." common excuse was that there was no It was a large octavo volume of five hun precedent for charging the county with the dred pages, dedicated to the House of expense of maintaining the gaol, and that no Commons, in gratitude for the encourage salary could be paid to the gaoler in lieu of ment given to the design, and for the honor conferred upon the author. An original fees. Pained and astonished, Howard rode into copy lies before me, and it is my purpose several adjoining counties in search of a to state briefly its contents and to dwell precedent. He soon learned that the same upon some of the features of English crim injustice was practiced there. Traveling inal law which, though not touched on by from place to place, he visited all of the Howard, are closely connected with his county gaols in England, and beheld scenes subject.
