In 1810, at Oswestry, Lieutenant Julien complained that the Agent, Tozer, had insulted him by threatening him with his cane, and accusing him of drunkenness in the public-houses. Tozer, on the other hand, declared that Julien and others were rioting in the streets, that he tried to restore order, and raised his cane in emphasis, whereupon Julien raised his with offensive intent.
Occasionally we find complaints sent up by local professionals and tradesmen that the prisoners on parole unfairly compete with them. Here it may be remarked that the following of trades and professions by prisoners of war was by no means confined to the inmates of prisons and prison-ships, and that there were hundreds of poor officers on parole who not only worked at their professions (as Garneray the painter did at Bishop’s Waltham) and at specific trades, but who were glad to eke out their scanty subsistence-money by the manufacture of models, toys, ornaments, &c.
In 1812 a baker at Thame complained that the prisoners on parole in that town baked bread, to which the Transport Office replied that there was no objection to their doing it for their own consumption, but not for public sale. It is to be hoped the baker was satisfied with this very academic reply!
So also the bootmakers of Portsmouth complained that the prisoners on parole in the neighbourhood made boots for sale at lower than the current rates. The Transport Office replied that orders were strict against this, and that the master bootmakers were to blame for encouraging this ‘clandestine trade.’
In 1813 the doctors at Welshpool complained that the doctors among the French parole prisoners there inoculated private families for small-pox. The Transport Office forbade it.
In the same year complaints came from Whitchurch in Shropshire of the defiant treatment of the limit-rules by the prisoners there; to which the Transport Office replied that they had ordered posts to be set up at the extremities of the mile-limits, and printed regulations to be posted in public places; that they were fully sensible of the mischief done by so many prisoners being on parole, but that they were unable to stop it.
Still in 1813, the Transport Office commented very severely upon the case of a Danish officer at Reading who had been found guilty of forging a ‘certificate of succession’, which I take to be a list of prisoners in their order for being exchanged. I quote this case, as crimes of this calibre were hardly known among parole prisoners; for other instances, see pages [320] and [439].
Many complaints were made from the parole towns about the debts left behind them by absconded prisoners. The Transport Office invariably replied that such debts being private matters, the only remedy was at civil law.
When we come to deal with the complaints made by the prisoners—be they merely general complaints, or complaints against the people of the country—the number is so great that the task set is to select those of the most importance and interest.
Complaints against fellow prisoners are not common.