A LETTER ON THE NATURE AND EFFECTS OF THE TREAD-WHEEL, AS AN INSTRUMENT OF PRISON LABOUR AND PUNISHMENT, ADDRESSED TO THE RIGHT HON. ROBERT PEEL, M.P. HIS MAJESTY'S PRINCIPAL SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT, &c. &c. WITH AN APPENDIX OF NOTES AND CASES. BY ONE OF HIS CONSTITUENTS, AND A MAGISTRATE OF THE COUNTY OF SURREY. Jain I LONDON: PRINTED FOR JOHN HATCHARD AND SON, No. 187, PICCADILLY. 1824. 265 38598 It is perfectly true, that the labour of the Tread-wheel, unless it be regulated with great care, may, to use the language of an able and experienced Governor of a Prison (in a recent communication with the Committee) become, in the hands of some, AN ENGINE OF TERRIBLE OPPRESSION. Fifth Report of the Committee of the Society for the Improvement of Prison Discipline, p. 36. Printed by J. Brettell, Rupert Street, Haymarket, London. ADVERTISEMENT. THE Writer of the following pages disclaims all literary pretensions; and is sensible how inadequately his humble talents have enabled him to point out the various and complicated evils of this new and formidable engine of terror, the Tread-wheel. He is aware that by omitting some remarks, and modifying others, he might have less exposed himself to censure and opposition: but he took up his pen to record the honest sentiments of his heart, and the deliberate conviction of his mind. He loves his country, and the judicature of his country—that justice and impartiality with which its laws have been administered to every class of society; to the poor and friendless, equally with the rich and powerful: and he now comes forward to appeal against a departure from wholesome and established usages; and to deprecate a system which has an essential tendency to harden the heart, and to oppose many of the soundest principles of the morality as well as the policy of our forefathers. Quæ tanta insania, cives! Aut hæc in nostros fabricata est MACHINA muros, Aut aliquis latet error. |