circuit, besides others, as Bristol, Ely, Litchfield, &c.: that those I had not seen in the circuit, in a few days I should set out to visit them: that I released a person out of Norwich City gaol, who had been confined five weeks for the gaoler's fee of 13s. 4d.: that at Launceston the keeper, deputy keeper, and ten out of eleven prisoners, lay ill of the gaol distemper; at Monmouth, last Wednesday se'night, the keeper lay dangerously ill, and three of the prisoners were ill; at Oxford, eleven died last year of the small-pox.
"That as to fees, those in the Western counties were highest, as at Dorchester, 1l. 3s. 9d. Winchester, 1l. 7s. 4d. Salisbury, 1l. 6s. 4d.: but in the county of York only 9s.
"That the gaols were generally close and confined, the felons wards nasty, dirty, confined, and unhealthy. That even York-castle, which to a superficial viewer might be thought a very fine gaol, I thought quite otherwise; with regard to felons their wards were dark, dirty, and small, no way proportioned to the number of unhappy persons confined there. Many others are the same; as Gloucester, Warwick, Hereford, Sussex, &c. The latter had not for felons, or even for debtors, at their county gaol at Horsham, the least outlet; but the poor unhappy creatures were ever confined within doors without the least breath of fresh air.
"I was asked my reasons for visiting the gaols? I answered, I had seen and heard the distress of gaols, and had an earnest desire to relieve it in my own district as well as others. It was then asked me, if it was done at my own expence? I answered, undoubtedly. Some conversation passed relative to gaolers taking off their prisoners irons; but that was private, and not at the bar of the House.
"The above account, including that of garnish, which was from 3 and 4s. to 8s. which I said was a cruel custom, and connived at and permitted by gaolers, was the whole of what passed at the House as to myself, except the great honour they did me in their thanks nem. con."
This true Patriot addressed the printer a second time, March 7, in the same year.
"Sir,
"I shall set off for the gaols in Westmoreland, Cumberland, and Northumberland, next Monday, and also visit again some which I have already seen, likewise Lancaster, Chester, and Shrewsbury, if I am not taken off with the gaol distemper; as Dr. Fothergill says, 'I carry my life in my hand, and it is a wonder I have not been taken off.'
"The misery in gaols is great beyond description; Sheriffs for many years not having set foot into the prisons of most of the counties in England. There are many of them (the felons wards
I mean) dirty, infectious, miserable places; so that, instead of sending healthy useful hands to our Colonies as transports out of our gaols, they become infectious, sickly, miserable objects: half of whom die on their passage; and many of those that arrive at the places of their destination infect the families they enter into. I saw lately in your paper, what I knew our Colonies complained of from Philadelphia: 'An Act passed to prevent infectious diseases being brought into that Province.'