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THAT approbation with which my first account of debtors was honoured by the publick, and the benefit which some of them have received by County allowances in consequence, has induced me to present to it a second statement; which, I am sorry to say, contains a very faint picture of the great misery, and still greater corruption and depravity, which exists in Bridewells, and Houses of Correction, and which I was led by accident to make a part of my plan of inspection into prisons; but which I shall esteem particularly fortunate, if the result of it shall call the attention of the Magistrates of our country to the amelioration of the miseries of my fellow-creatures in those situations; and if it shall tend to the correction of those vices which their characters exhibit, vices which have not only a ruinous tendency to the real interests and welfare of our country, but which must, if they do not meet with some salutary correction, necessarily operate, with other causes, to its decline and fall.

I do not presume to tread, passibus aquis, with the good and great HOWARD, who has preceded me in the inspection of prisons; but I must observe that, if Bridewells and Houses of Correction are to be continued receptacles for convicts from gaols, and that these convicts are to be in constant communication with those who are young offenders, and who are committed for lighter offences, for the correction of which, and for the prevention of greater ones, Bridewells and Houses of Correction were originally and solely designed; and if also offenders committed to such situations are not classed and separated according to the nature and degree of their offences; and if no religious attentions are paid to them, as is in too many instances the case; vice and corruption must increase, and Bridewells and Houses of Correction must become, in a greater degree than they have hitherto been, nurseries for our gaols; and the melancholy list of our executions will be added to, in a tenfold degree more shocking to humanity than it is at present.

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HINTS AND OBSERVATIONS

FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF

THE PRESENT EXISTING LAWS

RESPECTING

PERSONS IMPRISONED FOR SMALL DEBTS.

BY JAMES NEILD,

TREASURER OF THE SOCIETY, &c.

1. A Total abolition of Fees and Lodgings, and a Salary allowed to the Gaoler by the County in Lieu thereof.

Because, When a debt is liquidated by being for

given, by Supersedeas, or an Act of Insolvency, the gaoler detains the debtor for fees and lodgings during pleasure, or even life: thus the debt increases with his inability to pay it; and the gaoler becomes judge, jury, and executioner.

II. An equal provision from the County to every debtor certificated as a pauper.

Because, In some gaols the county-allowance is 25. in others Is. 9d. 1s. 6d. and Is. per week, whilst in many there is no allowance at all.

III. The

III. The time of imprisonment for sums, not ex

pro

ceeding any given sum, say 100l. to be portioned to the magnitude of the debt. Because, When a man finds himself insolvent, and in daily expectation of a Gaol, he very often wantonly increases his debt, knowing that he shall as soon get his discharge for 100l. as for 20l. We have many instances. where a debtor, on his being arrested, has offered 8s. 9s. and even 10s. in the pound, to his creditor, which, being rejected, he has (very naturally) spent for his support in prison.

If the Magistrates, at the quarter-sessions, were impowered to receive this composition †, and lessen the quantum of imprisonment, it would serve essentially to discriminate between the unfortunate and fraudulent debtor.

IV. A power in the quarter-sessions to grant a debtor his sixpences.

Because, The affizes are held only twice a year, and in some counties only once. The creditor

* See WHITECHAPEL Gaol, p. 282.

I am well aware of the objections which may arise from lodging such a power in the justices; therefore, perhaps, a better mode would be to fix it in a jury (as I have before suggested), to hear and decide, according to the particular circumstances ; the imprisonment would then operate as a punishment inflicted by a proper forum.

must

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