fhut 4 a ar

2 a 3d 1 a 2d hut

2 a 3d 1 a 2d fhut

[Printed by NICHOLS AD. SON, Red-Lion-Patíage, Fleet Street.]

J. BRANSCOMB, Stock-Broker, at the Lucky Lottery Office, N° 11, Holbourn,

A

,08 fair

56 19,62 howery
57 ,82 fair

56 ,60 fhowery

II 58 68 57 30.03 fair

AVERAGE PRICES of CORN, from the Returns ending Aug. 18, 1804,

AVERAGE PRICES, by which Exportation and Bounty are to be regulated.

THE GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE,

For

MR. URBAN,

AUGUST,

LETTER IX. ON PRISONS.
Sambrook Court,
August 20.
HE motives which
have given rife to
the remarks on Pri-

T

fons, and fimilar Inftitutions, originated from an ardent defire to remove their abuses, and to promote their improvements. Grateful would be the pleasure to record the latter; and under this fentiment, the County Goal at Chelmsford, and the Bridewell at Halfted, are introduced in the fubfequent letter; where the reader will find much to approve, and little to cenfure. Happy would it be for the community, as well as for the objects of confinement, were eulogy more generally applicable; but fcarcely does the eye furvey this prifon with approbation, when a contraft is prefented, in fome of the bridewells, workhouses, and houfes of correction, of nakedness, filth, and disease.

It is truly painful to meet with fuch frequent occafions of recording neglect and mifmanagement, and it may become difgufting to the reader; but abufes that are fraught with danger to individuals, and to the community, imperiously demand animadverfion and cenfure, in order to ftimulate attention, and produce reformation. In reverting to preceding letters, and connecting the following, it is a matter of furprize that infectious fevers are not more generally extended. The numbers of poor objects crowded into one apartment, almoft without light, and, ftill more deftructive, without air, or change of raiment,

1804.

are fufficient to generate peftilential fevers in every town expofed to thefe prolific fources of contagion, and which endanger the fafety of every individual.

To extend and rivet the mischief, water, a moft important article of prevention, is denied, and every fpecies of uncleanliness tolerated. To augment the miferable fcenery, immorality is fuper-added, where divine fervice is neglected, or totally excluded. Alas! what a picture of human infelicity and depravity do thefe letters pourtray! Do any animals, or collection of brutes, afford fuch a complication of wretchedness?

How many fellow-creatures commonly die in this Empire by infectious fevers is not afcertained; but, from the returns in London, the aggregate may be estimated at 40,000; for, in this Metropolis, my refpectable friend Thomas Bernard, efq. whofe caution and accuracy no perfon will doubt, calculates the number of victims at 3000 each year.

*

In contemplating this deplorable mortality, fo eafily to be leffened, or prevented; the mind feels fome' gratification in reflecting upon the philanthropy of feveral individuals, who have affociated together, for the purpose of preventing contagion, by establishing an House of Recovery for the reception of infected perfons; whilft their habitations, containing the feeds of difeafe, are purified. This has produced the moft falutary effects in Chefter, where the plan was firft fuggefted, by my refpectable and highly-valued friend, Dr. HAYGARTH. A kindred friend, I have

* We could have wished that this house had been more insulated. EDIT.

the

the pleasure of claiming in the
amiable Dr. PERCIVAL, who in-
troduced the fame into Manchester.
Liverpool, Dublin, and other towns,
have followed the example, in the
promotion of which London now
participates; and the falutary ef-
fects, confidering the productive
caufes of difeafe, preferved in and
iffuing from Prifons, Bridewells,
Workhouses, and other fources of
infection, already exceed expecta-
tion;
and, fhould the Magiftracy
generally and uniformly co-operate
in cleaning the numerous Augean
ftables under their jurifdiction, we
may hope to see this scourge of the
human race nearly, if not totally,
exterminated; and thus about
40,000 useful lives fnatched from
the deftructive operation of conta-
gion *.

If to this pleafing view we add the preservation of 48,000 victims to the Small-pox, which may now be preferved by the Cow-pock, we have in our power to poffefs the fublime contemplation of forming a faving fund of human life of nearly 88,000 perfons annually in this Empire, by the exercife of reafon, philanthropy, and judicious policy! There is a circumftance of fingu

lar importance noticed in my friend NEILD's letter refpecting the prifon of Newgate, which is applicable to every place of confinement, in order to prevent the propagation of infection. It is very well known, that a perfon who has furvived an infectious fever, and appears convalefcent, and indeed apparently well; may, for a confiderable time, be capable of conveying the fame infectious fever to an healthy perfon; and more certainly if he have not had a change of raiment. It hence becomes a neceffary fecurity to the welfare of the publick, that a room fhould be fet apart for prifoners who have been in the fick ward of any place of confinement, to receive them, till all fufpicion of conveying infection fhall have been removed, before they are allowed to mix indifcriminately with the healthy prifoners. It is this circumftance which is judiciously alluded to in the fubfequent letter; and it fortunately happens, that we have afcertained a fite in Newgate, that may be made adequate to the object required, as a room of recovery. It is, however, to be lamented, that our recommendation has not hitherto been adopted.

To promote this beneficial effect, every place of incarceration should be fuperintended by a medical gentleman. Prifoners in county gaols are ufually placed under fuch care; but, by the annexed Resolution of the Magiftrates at Chelmsford, this benefit is not extended to debtors.

"ESSEX: At a General Quarter Seffion of the Peace of our Sovereign Lord the King, holden at Chelmsford, in and for the faid County, on Tuefday in the week next after the Tranflation of St. Thomas the Martyr, to wit, the eleventh day of July, in the twenty-fixth year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord George the Third, now King of Great Britain, &c. before Thomas Berney Bramfton, efquire, the Right Hon. George Earl Waldegrave, John Bullock, John Sturt, John Henniker, Eliab Harvey, John Yeldham, the younger, Thomas Ruggles, Zachariah Button, James Barwick, Job Mathew, efquires, the Reverend Nicholas Wakeham, doctor in divinity, Thomas Abdy Abdy, Philip Salter, John Bull, Brook Bridges, clerks, and others, their companions, Juftices of our Sovereign Lord the King, in the faid County; and alfo, &c.

It being the unanimous Opinion of this Court, that the Order made at the General Quarter Seffions of the Peace, here holden in and for the faid County, on the fifth day of October, in the 30th year of the reign of his late Majefty, King George the Second, appointing a Surgeon and Apothecary to take care of and adminifter phyfic to the poor prifoners confined in the Gaol and Houfe of Correction at Chelmsford, in and belonging to this County, for the time being, doth not extend to, or comprize therein, any perfons confined in the faid gaol for debt; this Court doth therefore order, that the Clerk of the Peace for the faid County do fignify fuch their opinion, and conftruction of the faid Order, in writing, to the keeper of the faid gaol; and that the faid keeper do cause two or more copies thereof to be forthwith printed and fixed up in fuch parts of the faid gaol as are moft convenient for the purpose of notifying the fame. BULLOCK, Clerk of the Peace.”

By the Court.

(Signed)

The