[59] ‘Buxton,’ p. 271.
[60] Still in existence, and still deserving of praise.
[61] Stated at length the title is, ‘An Inquiry whether crime and misery are produced or prevented by our present system of prison discipline, illustrated by descriptions of various prisons.’
[62] ‘Wm. Smith on State of Jails,’ 1776, already referred to, vol. i. cap. x.
[63] 19 Charles II. c. 4.
[64] ‘Buxton,’ p. 23.
[65] In 1823 the society reported that “prisoners for assize at one county gaol are double ironed on first reception, and thus fettered, are at night chained down in bed, the chain being fixed to the floor of the cell, and fastened to the leg fetters of the prisoners. This chain is of sufficient length to enable the prisoners to raise themselves in bed. The cell is then locked, and he continues thus chained down from seven o’clock in the evening till six o’clock next morning. There were but two gaol deliveries in the county for the year, so a prisoner may continue to be thus treated for from six to eight months, and be then acquitted as innocent.” The double irons for the untried varied in weight from ten to fourteen pounds.
[66] Mr. Buxton, while most loudly inveighing against the foul state of most British gaols, fully exonerates the governors. “None of the grievances represented,” he says in his preface, “are occasioned by the gaolers; that class of men are often subjected to undistinguished abuse; my experience would furnish me with very different language. Without any exception, I have had reason to approve, and sometimes to applaud, their conduct; and I can truly say that of all the persons with whom I have conversed, they are the most sensible of the evils of our present system of prison discipline.”
[67] See post, chap. v. The privilege of getting in extra and more luxurious articles of food long survived.
[68] See ante, p. 106.