The following letter is from one whose opinion should have some weight. Few persons have better opportunities of forming a correct judgment. The Government will not be wise if it should despise his warning.-R.O. TO MR. RICHARD OASTLER, QUEEN'S PRISON. July 29, 1843. My dear friend, Day by day I have had it in my mind to fill a sheet to you, and as often has some untoward hindrance interposed. I hope, however. now to fulfil my purpose, and that without first settling the point whose turn it is to write, for I believe it is yours, and I long to have a full sheet from you or from your faithful mate, to say all how and about you, about Mrs. O., Miss T., all your healths respectively, and anything, in fact, which would make me think that I was peeping through Graham's bars from your cell. May that poor man repent, and make restitution before he gets behind some closer bars himself. How unhappy must he be. You, my friend, are a prince compared to your gaoler. read your weekly lucubrations, and see yourself unchanged in them; but I am afraid your good sermons fall on leaden ears, and are addressed to adamant hearts. My persuasion is, that England's (Britain's) sun is fast descending; and the vague boast that we hear of our magnificence our extended dominion-our sea-girt isle-our Bible Mission and Philanthropic Societies, &c., all is too little to allay my apprehensions and silence my forebodings. I see the brand of hypocrisy on our national front; and the burning words of the holy Prophet Isaiah, chap. 57, often ring in my ears:-"I will declare thy righteousness and thy works, for they shall not profit thee." What means it that we extend the most blessed boon of Christian knowledge to the savage and the civilized Pagan, if we violate its plainest precepts so unblushingly at home? Our police offices regularly teem with cases of DEATH inflicted by law, or under colour of law, upon the unoffending poor! That inexpressibly infamous and anti-Christian Statute, dooms the poor, by its practice, to death, whilst it hypocritically pretends to befriend him. It is to teach him providence, forsooth, and good morals; but in the face of the most undeniable fact, that thousands are poor, houseless, starving, and that from uncontrollable necessity, it interposes such vexatious delays and obstacles, and at last insists upon such conditions (imprisonment and separation to wit) for the receipt of a wretched modieum of relief, that, in the face of Heaven's dark frown, thousands linger, and perish, and die an hundred deaths in dying one. Do I rave in thus writing? You know, my friend, that I write the very words of truth and soberness, and so do I. Many are the battles we have fought, and the sufferings we endure to this day, in our emphatic protest against this wretched piece of Satanic philosophy. Now here is proof. I saw this week a very benevolent man-a Poor Law guardian, in regular attendance on the board of one of the most populous unions in England. I called to plead for his protection, if he could render any, for a poor old British labourer. I stated the case. He reached down a vile book, entitled, General Orders of the Poor Law Commissioners.' "There," said he, "is our torment. These General Orders, and the creatures who haunt our boards, prevent our doing almost any good." He then spoke with regret of the harshness of the "governor" of the unionhouse, and that several guardians had gone through the wards alone, and questioned the "paupers" as to their treatment. One of these was evidently near his end; and to an inquiry how they were treated, the dying man, with an awful emphasis, distinctly and somewhat loudly replied—“ Ir is TREASON TO SPEAK THE TRUTH HERE." Full well did he know, poor fellow, that he was nigh to a state where such treason" would not attach to him. Ye Ministers of England's Queen, heard ye that dying Briton's moan? And thou, Royal "Albert, have thy noble sympathies ever been roused by such a voice? Let thy Cousort know "then let her who sways the sceptre over thee and me. (but not now over the utterer of those awful words,) let her know that traitors in office, in high office, using her name and her seal, are robbing her Crown of the brightest of its jewels-Mercy, and creating a treason, a crime, which will surely overturn her Throne and the Throne of her fathers. It is even so.' Let them say that we rave, are extravagant, and so on, but after all Cowper is right— "To smite the poor is treason against God." "O, Victoria! bright as is thy diadem, and wide as is the sway of thy sceptre-firm and broad as are the deep foundations of thy throne-sweet and endearing though thy domestic enjoyments "be, yet in that dying man's testimony there sounds a death-knell to all thy glory and power. Charge thy Lords and Commons, in God's name, to repeal that Statute, so branded with infamy ; and say, thou grand-daughter of the good old King,' that the house of the poor shall be a refuge of mercy, where to speak the truth is no treason." Truly, my friend, I have digressed," and knew not that I had written so far; but what avails it? I fear our doom is sealed. Look at unhappy Ireland-bewitched by a foreign priesthoodfull of restless ambition-oppressed by many lords of the soil, who have no pity-sordid as Satan, Such (and thank God there be such) as would befriend the poor, are singled out for slaughter, and their lives jeopardized for their religious consistence. Is it possible for this crisis to pass without bloodshed? I fear not; and if not, then will it be confined to Ireland? Ah, no! Preparations are, I fear, made in all the large towns where O'Connell's men are located for an uprising. Mad as it may be, they will try. Good Father Matthew, you see, is sent over to organize the Pope's army here as in Ireland-then they are ready. He perhaps (but I am not sure) is a dupe. I used to think so, but now I hesitate. If all this should fall out, who is to protect our hearths? Dare Sir James, your gaoler, send the English yeomanry to Ireland? Dare they leave their homes? Dare they, I say, when in union-workhouses it is treason to speak the truth—when the dying im precations of the victims of anti-Christian" Philosophy" unceasingly cry to Heaven for vengeance ? But enough-God be with you and yours. Ever truly yours, THE FLEET PAPERS. NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS. JOHN PERCEVAL, Kensington.-His letter to the Poor Law Commissioners as soon as possible. SEVERAL CORRESPONDENTS.-MR. OASTLER has not written any article or paragraph for The Cerberus. He has no connexion with that paper. JOSEPH HALL, Lancaster Castle.-His pamphlet on "Lancaster Castle" is received; and a very instructive little work it is. Those who suffer under the vengeance of the practice of the Courts," (it should always be remembered that imprisonment for debt is not inflicted by law) can best describe the feelings of the prisoners. They know best what irreparable injury is done thereby to individuals, to families, and to the country at large. All this mischief-all this expense is incurred, to gratify the worst passions of the worst of men. There is now living one wretch, who has sent no less than seven married men to prison, for no other motive than to afford him a better opportunity to attempt the seduction of their wives. See what misery that monster has caused what loss. what ruin to the parties-what cost to the country !—what disgrace to our institutions! After all, we are taught that this country is Christian!-nay, a Christian minister is engaged, at an immense salary, to aid and encourage those rascals in tormenting their victims! SQUIRE AUTY, Bradford, Yorkshire, Asks.-What bishop ordained RUSSELL, the Prison InIt is a disgrace to the Church of England, as MR. spector? MR. OASTLER cannot tell. AUTY justly observes, that men who have solemnly vowed to devote themselves to the work of the Christian ministry, should be hired to torment poor imprisoned debtors. MR. AUTY, being indignant, as all true Churchmen must be, exclaims.— "I have been a Churchman all my life; but such acts as these from those who profess to Oh! Sir, how my blood boils while I be successors of the Apostles, completely disgusts me. write this. But what a contrast between one minister and another. When your own Parson BULL, as you call him, was here, he was continually going about doing good, not tormenting people. I have been out on a stormy winter's night, at 11 or 12 o'clock, visiting the abodes of wretchedness and misery, and when he found these cases out, he would scarcely let his sleep depart from him, before he had some person off, either with food for them, or if naked, with clothing, or if without bedding, as it was winter time, with blankets, or quilts, or sheets, or anything they wanted, for he knew the whole concern as well as any woman. I say, OASTLER, what a contrast, could you find room in your valuable Fleet Papers, to set these two men side by side-oh! what a difference. Pray let the public know, so that they will see that all Church of England ministers are not RUSSELLS." A greater disgrace to a nation or a church cannot be found, than the different rewards of those two men-Bull and Russell! CHARLES SPENCER, Bankfoot, Bradford, Yorkshire.-His leller shall be inserted as soon as possible. THE FLEET PAPERS are regularly published every SATURDAY, at 2d. each; also every four weeks, in Parts, conLaining four Numbers, at 9d. each. A few copies, bound in cotton, of Vols. 1 and 2 of the Fleet Papers, at 10s. each volume, may be had of the Publishers, or of Mr. Oastler, at the Queen's Prison. Charge for Advertisements as under: Seven lines and under 6 Half a page An entire page LONDON: J. CLEAVER, 80, BAKER STREET, W. J. PORTMAN SQUARE; AND JOHN PAVEY, 47, HOLYWELL STREET, STRAND. To MR. RICHARD OASTLER, QUEEN'S PRISON. 61, Moorgate Street, July 31, 1843. Dear Sir.-To you who have worked so long and so ardently to make the case of the wretched and oppressed heard by the great and mighty of the land, that so the day of fearful calamity, the day of mighty retribution, might be averted, it may not be uninteresting to know, that in the very parish in which you are placed by your persecutors, for fearlessly avowing your opinions of their internal policy, the New Poor Law is producing its natural fruits. Bad legislation, like bad or ignorantly constructed machinery, destroys more power than it gives. So it is with the legislation of the last ten years-showy and specious in appearance, but producing the reverse of what it prerends to be. Thus the Reform Act is evidently, in practice, a most corrupt Act. It has not only given more corrupt Parliaments, but more corrupt voters; and has given, conventionally, wrong and false meaning to words, which before were simple and honest. "Liberal" is now IlliberalFree Trade" is Commercial Monopoly, which none but the wealthy capitalist can touch-" Reform" is Deform-and Amendment Acts" are Destructive Acts. One of their celebrated Amendent Acts was, so said their mouth-piece, the great Harlequin-the principal Buffoon-the alternate actor of Doctor and Merry Andrew-the State Pauper of 5,0001, a year out-door relief-the libeller of the peasants-the slanderer of the poor-they said, through such an insane channel, that their Act was to raise the labourer to independence, the mechanic to comfort, and elevate the moral con dition of all. But what says the Report made to Sir James Graham by his own Commissioners for 1843? Que gentleman, not only honourable by family distinction, but his testimony stamps him a patriot and a Christian—the Hon. and Rev. S, Godolphin Osborne-reports thus from Dorsetshire:—“I Lave seen a room thirteen feet square, in which was three beds, In one lay the mother, a widow, dying of consumption; on another two unmarried daughters, one 18 the other 12; on the third a young married couple, whom I myself married two days before. The next case was the tale of a married woman, wife of a labourer of thorough-good character, describing scenes which he declined to put to paper." And all this improvement in the moral condition of the poor, because the meaus of comfort was inadequate; and no uncommon thing now, he adds, for employers, in offering wages to the sturdiest labourer, that or the union." Now for the effect of "that or the union" upon us in St. George's, Southwark. It has thrown upon us, in addition to our own parochial poor, from 80 to 100 every night of casual destitute poor, jo the last stage of wretchedness and despair, which so often leads to outrage, that we are fast Jending a hand to break down, or rather wear out, the tread-mill at Brixtou. The room (the only one we have, unless we extend upon the already twice extended building since 1836. and near 60007. in debt, with higher rates,) is 25 feet by 19, in which last night, a Christian Sabbath, with Reform Christian practice and feelings, we lodged 83 of our fellow creatures, just 5 feet 9 inches for each to sit, lay, and stand in. Our fellow creatures! No, that's a mistake-they are paupers; and we littered them in straw, like dogs, to elevate their condition! Yet, for all this, they are only mending à la Reform, the wrong way; for, for months past, the weather being warm, and the Stench of this pest-house so insufferable even to themselves, they have taken to strip themselves naked, and exhibit themselves to the dwellers in the opposite buildings, for the improvement of the morals of their families and pa-sers-by-torn and cut up their ragged garments, leaving us no alternative but to send them naked to the magistrate for a pass-port to the tread-mill, or give them lean clothes to put on the latter of which the magistrates of late have directed to be done thereby adding to an already over-burthened parish, and accelerating the time when many now paying rates must be recipients of similar comforts. The habits of the men having become so independent by The amended Act, and they having learnt an easy way of exchanging vermin and rags for clean and wholesome cloches, last week the females followed their example, and exposed themselves naked, for the same reasons, and are beat.ng us, in the same way. Notwithstanding we have six ounces of bread by night, and seven ounces in the morning, with water laid on for them to drink as long as they like each, and police magistrate and tread-mill to boot at our backs, yet we are beaten, and Just be, I fear, from worse to worse, until the base, peruicious, anti-social system, ends us in anarchy. Let me implore you to send your Fleeters forth-spare not the oppressors of the poor-and with your all-powerful pen hold them up to scorn; and be assured you will not only have the applause of all loyal men, but the prayers of all those who believe that there is a God that judgeth the earth. I remain, dear Sir, yours most respectfully, THOMAS BOXER. The following documents show what busy, meddling, tyrannical, useless creatures These Poor Law Commissioners are. Pity that John Bull cannot spend his money better than by paying enormous salaries to such things.-R.O. THE POOR LAW TYRANTS OF SOMERSET HOUSE AND THE POOR LAW GUARDIANS OF SAINT LUKE, CHELSEA. The following correspondence has lately passed between the guardians of the poor of Chelsea and the tyrants of the poor of Somerset House, on the enormious and unpardonable sin of the guarGans permitting their poor in the workhouse to be made as comfortable as circumstances would acmit. It would appear that these mighty men, the Kings of Somerset House," being much at leisure, and taking into their gracious consideration the peculiar season of the year (Easter), thought proper to make the Chelsea guardians a present of an " Easter offering," in the person of Mr. Assistant Poor Law Commissioner Hall, who then visited the Chelsea workhouse, ostensibly for the purpose of inquiring into the condition of this refractory parish, (Chelsea, in 1841, compelled "the King's" to separate it from the Kensington Union, in which it had been ruinously incorporated for four years,) but with an ulterior design, as the sequel will show, of trumping up a charge against the guardians of Chelsea, and their management of their own workhouse. It appears that these mighty charges are the mere sweepings of a "new broom”—(Hall has just been appointed to the metropolitan district); and this over-haul of Mr. Assistant Commissioner Hall will be found to prove “nothing at all," except “(H)all in the wrong," and that the Poor Law Commissioners are the real tyrants of the poor. Poor Law Commission Office, Somerset House, May 27, 1843. SIR,-The Poor Law Commissioners regret to learn that their Assistant Commissioner, Mr, Hall, on visiting the Chelsea workhouse, found it in a very unsatisfactory state. There was throughout a want of order, cleanliness, and ventilation, the heat in the female wards being exces sive, in consequence of there being a number of unnecessarily large fires kept up, not only in the day, but also in the bed-rooms of the occupants. Some of the paupers were in their own clothes, (!) Article 7 of the workhouse rules having been, in this case, neglected. Smoking was going on in several of the rooms, both bed-rooms and day-rooms. The Commissioners think the allowance of such a practice, particularly in the bed-rooms, highly objectionable; and it is contrary to Article 28 of this workhouse rules. The Commissioners also learn that extra articles of food are freely admitted to be brought into the workhouse. The Commissioners think it desirable that a dietary should be prescribed for the inmates of the workhouse; and they request that the guardians will fix upon such a dietary as they consider suitable, and forward the same for the sanction of the Commissioners. The practice of allowing provisions to be brought into the workhouse as presents, cannot, in the opinion of the Commissioners, fail to produce many irregularities, and may probably cause spirits or other prohi bited articles to be introduced into the workhouse. To Mr. T. M. Loveland, Clerk to the Guardians, I am, Sir, Your obedient servant, E. CHADWICK, Secretary, Answer to the Commissioners' letter: Office, Chelsea Workhouse, June 15, 1843. GENTLEMEN,—I am directed by the board of guardians of this parish to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 27th ultimo, and to express their surprise at the charges contained therein. The guardians (although aware of the general good state of the workhouse,) caused, on the receipt of your letter, a minute inspection of the house to be made, and have to state, that with the exception of the want of a little whitewashing, and that only here and there, and which is about to be done throughout the house, as usual, at this time of the year, there is no want of order, cleanliness, and ventilation in the Chelsea workhouse, as erroneously stated in your letter. As to the charge of the heat in the female wards being excessive, in consequence of there being a number of unnecessarily large fires, kept not only in the day, but also in the bed-rooms of the occupants," the guardians have to state that there is an error here, as they find there has been for some time past but one fire, and that only a moderate one, in the infirm wards, (where a fire is required.) and none whatever in the sleeping-rooms. As to some of the paupers wearing their own clothing, there are some who do so; but they are of the elder class, and who have been allowed to wear their own clothes on account of their former respectability. As to smoking going on in both the bed-rooms and day-rooms," the guardians find it is confined to five old innrm women, who smoke medicinally, and for no other reason; and to some of the nurses, who find it necessary to smoke, they state, on account of the duties they have to perform in the cancer and other diseased wards. Some old men also smoke, but which is allowed by the guardians. As to "extra articles of food being freely admitted." these, the presents of friends, have been and are permitted to be introduced, but it is to a trifling extent. As to an altered dietary being made, the guardia.s consider such unnecessary, and beg to epclose the one now in use. The guardians having at all times used the greatest exertions to keep the workhouse in a healthy and proper state, and to enforce order and regulation therein, feel the injustice of such charges (as contained in the Commissioners' letter); and they think the Assistant Commissioner, Mr. Hall, ought to have properly ascertamed the state of the workhouse, before such information had been given by him to the Poor Law Commissioners. To the Poor Law Commissioners, Somerset House. I am, your obedient servant, T. M. LOVELAND, Clerk to the Board of Guard.aus, Saint Luke, Chelsea. To this answer, the following was sent from the Commissioners: Poor Law Commission Office, Somerset House, July 1, 1843. SIR, I am directed by the Poor Law Commissioners to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 15th ultimo, in which you express the surprise of the guardians of the parish of St. Luke, Chelsea, at the observations in the Commissioners' letter of the 27th May, respecting the Chelsea workhouse; and you state that the guardians think that Mr. Hall should have properly ascertained the condition of the Chelsea workhouse before he reported to the Commissioners on the subject. The Commissioners have communicated your present letter to Mr. Hall, and they are informed that it was his impression, on his going over the workhouse, that the master, who accompanied him through the house, felt the justice of every remark he made. In many instances he reprimanded the person in charge of the ward, as Mr. Hall pointed out what he considered to deserve censure, which he did, whenever he remarked it, at the time and on the spot. The master especially called those persons to account for allowing more fires and larger fires to be kept up than he had ordered. In several of the wards there were two fires where one would have been quite enough. The Commissioners will further observe, that Mr. Hall visited the workhouse on the 15th of May; and as the master promised that he would immediately set about cleaning it, and removing, as fast as possible, what was disorderly and out of place, it is very likely that the aspect of things was so changed at the time when the guardians made their inspection after the receipt of the Conmissioners' letter, dated the 27th of May, as to warrant, in some degree, the surprise at the charges brought against the management of the house, that is expressed in your letter.* The guardians admit that paupers are allowed to wear their own clothes, but allege that this is a privilege granted to some of them on account of their former respectability. The Commissioners would remind the guardians that this is not a sufficient ground for exemption from a general regulation, applicable to all the inmates of the workhouse; and that if the rule be departed from in any particular instances, it is very likely to give rise to complaints on the part of some of the other paupers, to whom the same privilege has not been extended. The Commissioners also observe that the practice of smoking in the workhouse is admitted, but is stated to be confined to those cases in which smoking is used medicinally. The rules of the Commissioners, Article 28, make an exception for cases where smoking is ordered by the medical officer, but they think that the practice should be restricted to these cases. The Commissioners are also of opinion that the allowing inmates of the workhouse to receive presents of food from persons out of the workhouse, is liable to considerable abuse; as a proof of this the Commissioners will refer to the case of Judith Donnaghue, respecting which the master of the workhouse reported to the guardians on the 3rd of May last. To T. M. Loveland, Esq., Clerk to the Guardians, St. Luke, Chelsea. I am, Sir, Your obedient servant, GEORGE COODE, Mr. Ryder, the chairman, recommended the board to reply to this letter, by briefly, but firmly, re-asserting the injustice of the charges; but other members considering it lost time further communicating with the Commissioners on the subject, it was moved that no further notice be taken of the letter, which was carried unanimously. "DISGRACEFUL USAGE OF PAUPERS. "On Wednesday last, a poor woman who has been living at Stanley, appeared before the Wakefield board of guardians for relief, when the overseer of Stanley said that this woman and her five children had been removed to the parish to which she belonged, (Huddersfield,) and that on her arrival there the Huddersfield relieving officer had placed her and her children in a cabin, in which there was only a straw mattress and no furniture, along with a man, and she was told that she must remain there or if she was dissatisfied she must go back to Stanley; whither she returned, The female was questioned by the board, and she said weeping that such had been the case. Appleyard the overseer, was directed to take the woman before the Huddersfield guardians. Mr. Craven said that at the last Pontefract Sessions a similar case came before the grand jury, of which he was one. It was then stated in evidence that the relieving officer of Huddersfield had actually given a female pauper a ticket for lodgings in a common brothel!! and also that the relieving officer was in the habit of paying the lodging account at brothels for the paupers sent there!!! Comment on such a case as this is out of the question. We could not have believed that such a monster was in existence. Will any father support a law that gives to such inhuman brutes as this man such power? Will our Huddersfield correspondent send us the name of this relieving officer?" -The Wakefield Journal and West Riding Herald, July 22, 1843. * This was not so. There was no alteration or change in the aspect of things," as will be seen from the following extract from the report to the board of guardians, (dated June, 1843.) by the committee who inspected the workhouse In conclusion, it is perhaps necessary to observe, that there has been no alteration of any kind in the house since the receipt of the Poor Law Commissioners' letter (May 27) occasioning the present inquiry, nor, indeed, since the visit of Mr. Assistant Poor Law Commissioner Hall. Nor is there any diminution in the numbers of the inmates since then." CONCORDIUM PRESS, HAM COMMON, SURREY. |