several matters referred to their consideration; and in the investigation of this subject, have directed their inquiry to the general state of adopted for its regulation and management. the said prison, and the plan which has been would, I am persuaded, produce the hap- I piest effects in promoting the security and happiness of both kingdoms, and in confirming and augmenting the stability, power, and resources of the empire." Report of the Committee of the House of Commons on the State of Cold Bath Fields Prison.] April 19. Mr. W. Dundas made the following Report from the Committee appointed to inquire into the State of Cold Bath Fields Prison, Clerkenwell: REPORT. Your Committee have, pursuant to the order of the House, proceeded to examine into the with foreign nations, or her own colonies and dependencies, consideration being duly had to the circumstances of this country. I am flattered with the expectation of receiving the most positive assurances from It appears to your committee, not only from the evidence adduced to them, but also from their personal observation, that the prison is erected on a high and dry situation; that it is kept perfectly clean; that the cells for solitary confinement are dry and airy. It also appears, from the evidence laid before your committee, that the health of the prisoners has been generally good, and that when, from two hundred and fifty to three hundred prisoners were in the prison, there grace will have every merit I can give you. I have only to assure your grace of every support necessary to carry this measure, and of the most confidential return to every communication_you think the public service may require. I entirely agree in your grace's reasons of their support in carrying such a bill through for putting as speedy an end as possible to the both Houses of parliament; and in case such present session, unless the measure you have an object could be obtained, I should presume in contemplation can be obtained. The king that it would be very advisable to trespass upon is at Windsor, and every one else out of the patience of this country to bring it to per-town; I therefore only write the sentiments fection, even in the present moment. Your of your grace's faithful servant. fordship may depend upon the earliest account of my success and progress in this business. I have, &c. PORTLAND. No. VI. From Lord Shelburne to the Duke of Portland; dated June 9. SHELBURNE. No. VII.-Extract of a Letter from the Duke of Portland, to the Earl of Shelburne; dated Dublin Castle, 22d June, 1782. The disappointment and mortification I My lord;-In the very instant of the de- suffer by the unexpected change in those disparture of the messenger with the dispatches positions which had authorized me to entertain accompanying this letter, I have the honour the hopes I had, perhaps, too sanguinely exto receive your grace's of the 5th and 6th. pressed in the letter which I had the honour The contents of the letter are too important of writing to your lordship the 6th instant, to hesitate about detaining him, while I as- must not prevent my acquainting you, that sure your grace of the satisfaction I know your for the present those expectations must be letter will give the king. I have lived in the given up. I trust, and am inclined to flatter most anxious expectation of some such mea- myself, they are only suspended, and that sure offering itself. Nothing prevented my they will be revived when the temper of this pressing it in this dispatch, except having re- country shall have recovered its tone, and acpeatedly stated the just expectations of this quired that degree of composure which must country, I was apprehensive of giving that the give it the firmness necessary for effectuating air of demand which would be better left to a so wise and salutary a measure. Mr. F spirit of voluntary justice, gratitude, and fore will have informed your lordship of some sight. I gave your grace confidence for watch- very unpleasant circumstances which were ing the temper of those you had to deal with, likely to have happened a very few days before and cannot express the pleasure it gives me the adjournment, the traces of which are to find that confidence justified. Bargains strongly marked in the address from the Leinand compacts may accomplish little objects ster volunteers, which I have this day the Great ends must be obtained by a nobler and honour of transmitting to you, but which, I more generous policy. No matter who has think, are to be attributed to a suspicion of the merit, let the two kingdoms be one, the possible effect of a negotiation. By the which can only be by Ireland now acknow-account of the event of those three or four ledging the superintending power and supremacy to be where nature has placed it in precise and unambiguous terms. I am sure I need not inculcate to your grace the importance of words in an act which must decide on the happiness of ages, particularly in what regards contribution and trade, subjects most likely to come into frequent question. Your days, and of the timidity and jealousy of the first people in this country, it is clear to my apprehension, that any injudicious or offensive measure may be prevented, but that any attempts to conciliate the minds of this nation to any such measure as I intimated the hope of, would at this moment be delusive and impossible. petition, as to the facts alleged in it; and that they have themselves visited the prison, and have found every part of it in the highest degree of order, clean and dry, the prisoners healthy, and their food good and wholesome. were not more than four or five sick in the hospital at any one time; that the provisions are sufficient, good, and wholesome, and that no complaints at any time have been made to the magistrates respecting them. Your Committee have, however, to remark, that the printed regulations for the management of the prison, have not been hung up in a conspicuous part of the prison, as is required by the statutes relating thereto; and that the journals of the prison, as directed by the regulations, have not been fully and regularly kept. Your Committee have, besides, directed their attention to the petition of Edward Marcus Despard; which states, That he had been confined a close prisoner, under a warrant from the duke of Portland, since the 22d of April till the 25th of November last; that he was confined in a damp cell about seven feet square, with no article of furniture, except a bed laid on some oaken planks fastened to the wall, and that, during the first six weeks of his confinement, he had no allowance but bread and water. It appears in evidence to your Committee, that the circumstances of the time, and the public safety, rendered it indispensably necessary that Edward Marcus Despard should be kept, at the time of his commitment, in close and separate confinement; that the cell in which he was so confined was not damp as stated in his petition; that he was removed. on the 25th November, into a room with a fire in it, and glazed windows; that although for the first six weeks of his confinement, he had only the prison allowance for persons committed for re-examination, yet that during the whole of that period he was supplied with provisions sent in by his friends, or procured for him at a reasonable rate in the prison. It is also alleged in the petition, that his health was materially injured; but that certainly does not appear from the evidence before your committee, for he has never applied for medical assistance; and his only disorders seem to have been, after the fullest examination on this head, a return of rheumatism contracted abroad, and occasionally chilblains on his feet. It is stated in the petition, that he was not allowed to walk in the garden; but it appears that he had permission to walk in a court; and that, after the first two months of his confinement, he was permitted to walk a part of the day uninterruptedly with his wife in an open part of the prison, adjoining to and communicating with the garden, and distinct from the court of his cell. Your Committee do not think themselves called upon to state a variety of other circumstances which have come under their consideration; but they are anxious to refer the House to the evidence in the appendix, to prove how much it has been their wish and endeavour to fulfil the objects of their appointment; that they have examined the persons mentioned by Edward Marcus Despard in his Your Committee have also to remark, that from the very laudable vigilance and attention of the visiting magistrates, it is extremely improbable that any impropriety of conduct, or unnecessary severity in the gaoler, could long have escaped their notice. Your Committee have peculiar satisfaction in being able to state to the House the result of their inquiries, as a full and direct refutation of the unfounded statements, and absurd and wicked reports, which have been industriously circulated, with respect to the prison and its internal management: And upon the whole, your committee have come to the following Resolutions:-1. That it is the opinion of this committee, that the prison in Cold Bath Fields is erected in a dry and airy situation, and is well adapted for the purposes of its institution as a House of Correction, as well as for those of close and separate confinement and safe custody. 2. That all parts of the prison are kept perfectly clean, and that the health of the prisoners has been remarkably good. 3. That the attention of the magistrates to the general management of the prison, has been exemplary and meritorious, Debate in the Commons on the Report from the Secret Committee relative to Seditious Societies.] April 19. The House having resolved itself into a Committee of the whole House, to consider of the Report* which, upon the 15th of March last was made from the Committee of Secrecy, the Lord Mayor in the chair, Mr. Pitt rose and said :-Sir; It is not my intention to take up much of your time in the observations I am about to make: for the report of the secret committee is full of such convincing proofs, and the facts before you speak so plainly and forcibly, that it would be useless to recapitulate or to make any comments on any part of that report, the whole of which mind of every man in the House. I shall must have impressed conviction on the therefore confine myself to stating the outline of two bills which are become necessary from the statements contained in the report, and which, should the House think proper to adopt them, will, in my mind, prove effectual to check the present danger. I shall take it for granted that there are not two opinions in the House with respect to the propriety of enforcing the measures of salutary precaution, which * For a copy of the Report, see p. 579 have hitherto proved such powerful bar- | fatal object. Yet, believing that many riers against the malignant, perfidious, weak-minded individuals have been drawn and destructive spirit of conspiracy. We into the snares that were perfidiously laid find, upon the report of the committee, for them, I propose only a prospective the necessity of enabling his majesty to remedy. After the mass of guilt which apprehend and detain the persons of the appears on the report, we should be justiconspirators; and it cannot be denied that fied in proceeding with greater severity. the measures which have been already But it will, I trust, be sufficient for us to taken for that purpose have been followed provide against future guilt. It will, I by the most beneficial effects. But it must hope, be sufficient for us to set a mark not pass unnoticed, that independently of upon that House into which the pestithe report of the committee, facts have lential breath of Jacobinism has entered. come out of so dubitable a nature, and so I mean to hold out a warning to prevent dangerous in their tendency, as would have the infection from extending, and at the justified us in enabling his majesty to same time to let the benefits of an amnesty continue those salutary precautions. The operate in the most salutary manner. object of my first motion will therefore But while we act with this indulgence, a be, not only to continue to his majesty light summary punishment should be the power of securing and detaining per- inflicted on the offenders. I therefore sons accused of treason and sedition, but submit that whoever shall continue to be to render that power more effectual, by a member of such societies, after a certain making it adequate to the necessity of the day to be named, shall have a small fine circumstances which have arisen, and may inflicted on him upon conviction before hereafter occur. I mean, Sir, that we a magistrate. There must, however, be should give to his majesty the power of degrees of guilt in the cases of individuals. transferring from the metropolis to any I therefore wish to give an option with part of the kingdom the persons detained respect to the recovery of the penalty, or for treasonable and seditious practices. to proceed against the offender in a court Both in this country, and in the sister of record, leaving it to the discretion of kingdom, one of the leading features of the court to punish him by fine, imprithe conspirators has been, to continue the sonment, or by transportation. There conspiracy during the imprisonment. They are three societies already too well have, in the place of their imprisonment, known-the Corresponding Society, the been industriously occupied in preparing United Irishmen, and the United Englishthe materials of sedition, and in providing men, but as it is impossible to guard means to diffuse the spirit of insurrection. against all the various shapes and forms With a similar view, I wish that his which treason may assume, it will be nemajesty should have the power of de- cessary to define those societies, the taining in this country those who have members of which are to be subjected to been confined in Ireland in consequence the proceedings now proposed to be inof the suspension of the Habeas Corpus stituted against them. I will therefore act. But it is not enough to confine our observe, that their peculiar characteristics selves within the line of preservation are contrary to every engagement prewhich has been marked out by the neces- scribed by the constitution, by morality, sity of the case. We must proceed still and religion. They are bound together farther. We are involved in a contest by ties of secrecy, and are connected by for every consideration that is most oaths, which not only conceal the names valuable to us, and it is our duty to make of the leaders from the knowledge of goprovisions suited to the case from time to vernment, but also from their associates time. In taking this general view of the themselves. I wish that societies conquestion, it is therefore one great and cealing themselves by such methods, leading object to prevent the existence of should be liable to similar proceedings as those societies, as detailed in the report those against the societies which I have of the secret committee. Societies which, expressly named. But, this is not suffihowever differing in name, have but one cient and it will be found requisite to common end the subversion of the accompany this measure by provisions constitution, and the diffusion of the prin- against the owners of public and private ciples of anarchy. They were all equally houses who shall harbour such societies, engaged in the common cause of ruin, These provisions will complete the first and their aim was directed to the same part of the plan. The second object will the name of the author or publisher be be, to prevent the existence of other so- It Mr. Tierney said:-The right hon. gentleman has not dwelt long on the report of the secret committee. I am not at a loss to guess the reason why he did not; for a report less supported by evidence, I believe, was never made to this House. I am ready to admit that the committee have stated nothing but what appears to them to be right; but feeling how very liable to failure, their judgments must be, I am justified in doubting the soundness of the conclusions they have drawn. I do not know the nature of the testimony that has been given to them, for they have kept that out of view; I therefore must be pardoned, if I withhold my assent to the mass of that report until I am made acquainted with the nature of the evidence on which it is founded. I need not say that I therefore withhold my assent to the measure proposed, because that measure is founded on that report. But supposing the report to be justified by the evidence, that would not be a reason for adopting the measure proposed. The present laws of the land are sufficient for the purpose of removing all the evil of which the right hon. gentleman complains. I agree that government ought to be strong, but I defy any man to point out to me a period in the history of this country, when go, vernment was so strong as it is at this hour. With the exception of France, what government ever possessed stronger measures against sedition than the present government of this country? They have all the powers of seduction, and the terrors of punishment that can be devised. Let gentlemen who doubt this, consider what is the present state of the influence of the crown; and let them compare it with what the influence of the crown was in this country in former times. The present government, or rather a much weaker one, has been found sufficient for the safety of this country for upwards of 100 years, with no other help than that of an occasional suspension of the Habeas Corpus act. That suspension, government have had the benefit of now for a considerable time. They have also the two bills against treason and sedition. Do they not provide, that to levy war, and to attempt to overawe the parliament, is high treason? Here is the principle of security which the right hon. gentleman has stated to night. But he is not contented; for he says, that measures of law should be adopted against all conspiracy; which seems to me to be only saying there should be no conspiracy. Why, the law has said that long ago. The law now upon this matter subjects every conspirator to punishment. The oaths which these conspirators are said to take are already declared unlawful. Is it a connexion with the French that you fear? To prevent any person from attempting to establish it, the laws are sufficient as they stand. Traitorous conspiracy with France is punishable with death; nay, to embark with an intent to go thither, is death. Administration have gained strength by the late regulations, with regard to newspapers: the proprietor is made liable for every thing that appears in his paper, and a great facility is given to any procedure against him. To endeavour to seduce the army or navy from their duty, is prohibited also under pain of death. Now I say, that coupling all these things together, the influence of the crown is greatly increased. The laws already in being are adequate to every good purpose of government. Is it then too much for me to pause before I assent to the granting of this new power? I voted for the suspension of the Habeas Corpus act the year before the last be cause I thought there was ground laid for suspecting that there were traitors in the country; but now I am called upon to vote for the continuance of the imprison. ment of those of whose innocence I am induced to think favourably since; they have been imprisoned a year without being brought to trial. I cannot agree to this. But there is a case in which a man was confined in a solitary cell, with no means of sheltering himself from the rain but by excluding the light. By whomsoever this was done, it was an inhuman exercise of discretionary power. In 1793 several persons suspected of high treason were taken due care of without any of this rigour. To send to a penitentiary house a man against whom there is nothing proved, but who is only suspected, is monstrous. When men like colonel Despard are sent to such a place, and are torn from society and their friends, it is enough not only to affect their health, but to overpower their faculties. Had I known that any such abuse as this would have been allowed, I never should have voted for the suspension of the Habeas Corpus act. With respect to removing persons to distant parts of the country, I can conceive cases in which that may be necessary. If the gaols be insecure, or if there be any apprehension of an insurrection in the capital, then government ought to have the power to remove prisoners: but is that the case? What is it, then, you want-close confinement, without light, to those whom you only suspect, but do not choose to try? They say, that much mischief has arisen in Ireland for want of due caution with regard to prisoners: to which I answer, that the neglect of the government of Ireland is no excuse for injustice in the parliament of England, nor any reason why we should impose new hardships on those who are innocent; for until they are tried, they are all supposed to be innocent. As to the second bill, it is of a description, the thought of which gives me infinite pain. |