66

to half the fees, and, by himself paying the other half, restored several of these unhappy creatures to liberty. Some," he tells us, "had children dying with the smallpox, others had hardly rags to cover them. But this distress had no more effect on the clerk of the crown, sheriffs, and gaolers, than to engage them to give up half their fees." 1 In one matter prison discipline in Ireland was distinctly in advance of that in England, for Howard found, not without some surprise, that no liquors were permitted to be sold by gaolers in any of the prisons that he there visited; and on inquiry learnt that an Act of the Irish Parliament had been passed against it some years before.

The good effects of the Act unfortunately were not so great as they might have been, for spirituous liquors were freely introduced by others. Thus, at the city Marshalsea in Dublin, "the wives and children of the debtors, living with them, bring in spirits, and this makes most of the lower rooms gin shops." "2 In other matters there was no improvement, and the want of cleanliness may be imagined from the following note:-"The only building designed for a bath, which I saw in the gaols in Ireland, was in the court yard at Trim, June 17, 1782. I looked into it, and found it was the gaoler's pigsty." 3

1 The State of Prisons, p. 204.

2 Lazarettos, p. 80.

3 Ib. p. 207.

CHAPTER VI

FOREIGN PRISONS AS HOWARD FOUND THEM

Absence of Gaol Fever in Foreign Prisons-Better State of things generally than in England - Good Rules in Switzerland and Holland-Less Drunkenness than in England—Abuses—Horrid Dungeons at Vienna-The Ducking-stool-Torture.

H

OWARD'S researches into the condition of foreign prisons were made, it must be remembered, not primarily for the sake of dragging to light such abuses as might be found in them, but rather with the object of discovering what might be learnt from them by way of example, for the reform of prisons at home. Consequently, he was always on the look-out for good points, and for such things as might seem worthy of imitation. One thing which impressed him greatly was the absence of gaol fever. This scourge of our English prisons was almost if not quite unknown on the Continent. It is strange that it should have been so, for in many places the dirt and filth were as bad as in England, and the neglect

82

66

of elementary sanitary precautions was as disgraceful as anything that Howard had disclosed at home. In Denmark the Stock-house at Copenhagen was in a shocking state. "Dirty beyond description" is Howard's note; and he adds that "the offensiveness of this prison always gave me a headache, such as I suffered at my first visits to English prisons." 1 In Sweden the prisons were as dirty and offensive as those in Denmark," and when Howard attended at the trials in the Court of Justice at Stockholm, "the want of fresh air, in consequence of the windows being shut," affected him "so much as to make him ill a considerable time afterwards." 2 At Lille, where there were small and dark dungeons fifteen steps underground, he actually caught fever from visiting the sick; but of the gaol fever proper he found no traces anywhere. In Germany he testifies that the Germans were well aware of the necessity of cleanliness in prisons, and that care was generally taken to build their gaols and houses of correction in suitable situations. An exception is noted in the case of the house of correction at Brunswick, where, although the person who conducted Howard over carried a pan of charcoal through the rooms, " his fumigation could not overcome the offensiveness of this dirty 1 The State of Prisons, p. 78.

3 Ib. p. 164.

2 Ib.

P. 82.

house." 1 At Lausanne he had a conversation with an eminent medical man, who " expressed his surprise at our gaol distemper, from which Switzerland was entirely free"; and he added that "he had not heard of its being anywhere but in England."2 In Italy Howard thought that from the heat of the climate the gaol fever would be very likely to prevail, but notes that he did not find it in any of the prisons.3 Russia was entirely free from it, and he saw no symptoms of it in Moscow, or in any part of the country.4 At Vienna, where were many "horrid dungeons," Howard thought that he had succeeded in discovering a case. In one of the dark dungeons, down twenty-four steps, was a poor wretch loaded with heavy irons and chained to the wall; "anguish and misery appeared with clotted tears on his face. He was not capable of speaking to me." It seemed a clear case at first. "But on examining his breast and feet for petechia, or spots, and finding that he had a strong intermitting pulse, I was convinced that he was not ill of that disorder." 5

There can be no doubt that at this time England was behind rather than before many other countries, and that right principles of prison discipline were far better understood in several

1 The State of Prisons, p. 71.
4 Ib. p. 94.

2 Ib. p. 125.
5 Ib. p. 103.

3 Ib. p. 117.

states of continental Europe. It was from the prison for juvenile criminals at San Michele, in Rome, that Howard drew the motto from Cicero, which he prefixed to his book; as over the door of this house he found inscribed what he justly calls "the following admirable sentence, in which the grand purpose of all civil policy relative to criminals is expressed" :-Parum est improbos coercere poena nisi probos efficias disciplina.1

The wretched custom of demanding "garnish" from newcomers was almost peculiar to England ; at any rate it was "not common in foreign prisons." 2 In France it was strictly prohibited.

1 The State of Prisons, p. 114.

2 Ib. p. 84. The regulations might not recognise garnish, but it is to be feared that it was very commonly exacted by the prisoners. James Choyce, a master-mariner who was taken prisoner by the French in 1802, certainly speaks of it as if it was common. "We remained five days in the prison at Limoges, where there were a number of French villains of notorious character, who insisted on our paying our footing, and, as we had no money, tried to strip the clothes off our backs. This we naturally resisted, and the jailors hearing the row put us in a separate apartment, otherwise we should have been stripped of every rag we had on. This we found to be the custom in all large gaols, where felons were confined, who, having nothing to lose but rags and dirt, endeavoured to plunder all newcomers, whether French or English; and any poor conscripts, who had deserted and been caught, and were sent from prison to prison till they reached the army, fell a prey to these merciless scoundrels." The Log of a Jack Tar, p. 159, cf. p. 175, where Choyce