[176]. See Murray, English Dictionary, under “Bull,” iv. B.
[177]. See Report of the Committee of 1729, p. 9. Brit. Mus. Cat. 522, m. 9 (28).
[178]. There were seven trials for murder in 1730.—Du Cane, p. 36.
[179]. The old-time prisoners depended mainly upon their friends and upon outside charity for their sustenance (vide Britton; Bracton, lib. iii., etc.). After the reign of Elizabeth they were supposed to receive 1d. or 2d. a day, or seven to eight ounces of bread. (Du Cane, p. 40.)
From 1759, by 32 Geo. II. c. 28, each debtor was ordered to receive 2s. 4d. a week from his detaining creditor, but Howard found (p. 6) that, in practice, they could not get it, and numbers actually starved.
[180]. By an Act passed in 1784 (24 Geo. III. c. 54) the gaolers were to receive payment as compensation for the loss of their former profits made out of alcohol, which they were thereby forbidden to sell to prisoners from the year 1785.
[181]. Howard, p. 16.
[182]. Report of the Committee of 1729, p. 2.
[183]. Howard, p. 5.
[184]. Mayhew and Binny, “Criminal Prisons of London” (quoting from the Fifth Annual Report of the Prison Discipline Society), p. 97. London, 1862.