Other prisoners deposed that whereas a table of fees had been laid down by a commissioner in the third year of Queen Elizabeth and exhibited in a frame hung up in the common hall of the prison; and whereas the scale of fees had been further established by the 22nd and 23rd Charles II., the warden of the Fleet, Richard Manlove, levied larger fees and threatened to put the prisoners in irons if they were not paid.
There does not appear, however, to have been any redress of these grievances. The difficulty in the minds of the judges was not as to the treatment of the prisoner by the wardens, but as to their safe custody and the keepers’ court before which the wardens should be tried in case of allowing the prisoners to escape. In other words, a prisoner for debt was regarded partly as a criminal who was rightly punished by being kept in a damp dungeon, and nearly starved to death, and partly as an obstinate person who refused to pay his just debts and was therefore very properly maltreated.
In the year 1613 Mr. R. J., moved by the consideration of the wickedness to be found in this City, and of the dangers and temptations to which young men are exposed, completed a pamphlet of warning and exposure. It is entitled “Looke on me London.” The title page goes on:—
“I am an honest Englishman, ripping up the bowels
of mischief lurking in thy Suburbs and Precincts.
Take heed
The hangman’s halter and the Beadle’s Whip,
Will make the Fool dance and the Knave to skip.”
The pamphlet shows, what one might have suspected, the protection afforded by the suburbs and parts of London outside the City and the liberties where the Lord Mayor had no jurisdiction. It was at an innocent-looking ordinary that the young man first met the companion who led him to destruction. He was a handsome, well-dressed, well-spoken gentleman; he was free with his money; his manners were easy and courteous; he laughed readily; he was known at the house, where the drawers ran to fetch him all he wanted; it was an act of courtesy when he spoke to the young gentleman come up from the country to study law, as becomes one who will be a country gentleman and will live on his estate. This brave gentleman not only condescended to speak to the stranger, but he began to talk to him of the sights and pleasures of the town. Would he see the play? The Curtain Theatre was open that afternoon. Would he cross the river to see a famous fencing match at which two would fight till one was disabled? Would he choose rather a bear-baiting? There would be one in Paris Gardens, or, if he liked it better, the gentleman knew where a gaming table could be found, or a quiet hour could be spent over the dice. Or—and here he whispered—would the young gentleman like to visit a certain bona roba of his acquaintance? Upon her and her friends this friendly person enlarged with so much eloquence that the young gentleman was inflamed, and, forgetting his principles and his virtue, begged his friend to take him to the house of these celestial beings.
Now this gallant of such worshipful appearance was nothing but a “shifter” who lived by picking up such simple persons, enticing them into the company of disorderly women, cheating at cards and dice.