Fair play is a jewel: the turnkey shall be heard as well as the prisoner. Would that the same justice could be obtained by us from "outsiders."-R.O.

TO MR. RICHARD OASTLER, QUEEN'S PRISON.

Queen's Prison, September 22, 1643. SIR. Having observed, in your paper of this week, a very intemperate letter to you, signed H. Cayley, I cannot, without great injustice to myself, suffer such falsehoods to be circulated without contradiction. I am, therefore, reluctantly compelled, holding a public situation as I do, to vindicate my own character. The facts, so strangely misrepresented by Mr. Cayley, are these. This "delicately nurtured female," (using his own words,) had been into at least one publichouse, the Britannia, opposite the prison, with a char-woman, who is employed by several respectable gentlemen in the prison, notwithstanding Mrs. Cayley's assertion that she was her own private servant. That some person being present at the time, came over and told Elsworthy, the officer on duty, that a char-woman, with a red shawl on, in company with another female, were in the Britannia, and they intended bringing in spirits. He came to me to say, that from information he had received, he should have to send some person up to be searched. I immediately left the room, as usual upon such occasions, and went down stairs. I there saw Mrs. Cayley and the char-woman in the lobby the latter, upon examination, having in her apron some eggs, wood, celery, and a red herring; but upon being asked what she had, Mrs. Cayley interfered, and said, "You had better search me-she has nothing concealed about her." As I was standing by at the time, I considered, under such circumstances, she ought to be searched also, and consequently, requested them both to walk up stairs to my daughter, who, I should here state, is a female officer duly appointed for this purpose. At this, Mrs. Cayley became highly indignant, although she had asked Elsworthy to search her in the lobby, and said she would go to the Governor. I recommended her to do so, but never threatened to lock her out if she did, as falsely stated by Mr. Cayley in his letter to you. She did go to the Governor, who was also of opinion that she ought to be searched. She then went up stairs to my daughter, for this purpose; but how she could have imagined that she was seated on a sofa, there being no such article in the room, I know not; or that she had a glass of water offered to her, which, together with other statements, are equally false, and which I can prove by the testimony of a respectable young lady, who, being on a visit to my daughter, was present the whole time.

No spirits having been found upon either, I presume they had been prevailed on by persons whom I have since learnt endeavoured to persuade them not to bring it in.

I must now, Sir, call your attention to the insulting expressions made use of by Mr. C. towards me, such as "Jack-in-office"-“most brutal and violent conduct”—“brutal treatment of a debased and degraded under-strapper”—“ low-minded turnkey," &c. Is this gentlemanly lan. guage? I would ask. Does Mr. Cayley forget, or does he consider occasional pecuniary accommodation brutal treatment; and this too without ever receiving one word of thanks from him. I need only add, that I fearlessly leave my conduct upon all occasions to the voice of the inmates generally, as to its being satisfactory or otherwise. No respectable person will question it, I am sure. And if Mr. Cayley can believe there is any truth in what he has written, I am quite prepared to prove that no person here exceeded their duty.

I am, Sir, your very obedient servant,

H. COLWELL.

Hear a second Voice from a Debtors' Prison !-R.O.

TO MR. RICHARD OASTLER, QUEEN'S PRISON.

London, September 2, 1843. MY DEAR SIR,-I enclose the supplement to my friend's graphic description of the discipline pursued towards debtors in Her Majesty's gaol of Gloucestershire.

In my last notice, I pointed at the probable origin of this otherwise unexplained treatment of the unfortunate: perhaps the following considerations may serve to account for the continuance at all of the system of imprisonment for debt, and the great difficulty opposed to its immediate and final abolition.

In the case of persons not traders, (and more recently with a few peculiar and occasional exceptions.) the Insolvent Court is the only aceessible tribunal by means of which the property of a debtor can be distributed among his creditors, and disclosures of this property enforced upon him. But the prison is the turnpike-gate of the Insolvent Court; and it follows at once that men having privilege of Parliament, and therefore not being liable to this process, can never be forced to pay their just debts, excepting so far as the nature and situation of their property is notorious, so as to allow the creditor to resort to it after judgment obtained; and in cases where the legal estate is in the name of trustees, this is of course impracticable. The debtor himself, if privileged. cannot be examined; and as to Chancery, the name is generally sufficient to satisfy any creditor for a moderate amount. But give a cessio bonoran, or power of distributing the debtor's property by a speedy and direct process, in one case, and you must give it IN ALL; and thus, I submit, it is apparent why all Lord Cottenham's efforts to procure the enactment of such a measure have failed. Persons having privilege of Parliament would become subject to it, and therefore have resisted, and will resist it. With such a law, the property qualification could not exist for an hour, or half the aristocracy must leave the House of Commons, or perjure themselves; for who would confer (secundem arlem) a qualification, which might on the next day be subjected to the member's debts?

I know you are one of those loving the "rerum cognoscere causas," and I have sent this accordingly. A straw sometimes shows" which way the wind blows."

Believe me to be, my dear Sir, yours faithfully,

K

TO THE RIGHT HON. SIR JAMES R. G. GRAHAM, BART., SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT.

Gloucester, County Gaol, Sept. 14, 1843. SIR. If there be one feature more prominent than another by which we may know the face of a tyrant-by which we may most certainly detect the cloven foot of plain deformed oppression-by which we may identify the monster at once, whether appearing in his ordinary Eastern garb, or disguised as the Constitutional Minister of a limited monarchy-it is the feature of CAPRICE. When we find two sets of edicts, each of the most arbitrary character, and of an exactly contrary effect, to be enforced upon the most helpless class, placed in the same circumstances, going forth from your official sanctuary of Whitehall within about a year of each other, and in actual operation at the same time, in different English prisons, upon those who should be in no prison at all, what must be the instant impression of such manifest caprice on a subject, and from a quarter where we have a right to expect fixed rules? That each code is equally the offspring of a mind drunk with its own power, reeling to and fro with every fresh gust of its exercise, and crushing or consoling→ overwhelming its subjects with indignity and oppression, or indulging them in relaxations-not according to the dissimilarity of their circumstances, but those being precisely alike, according only to the "sic volo" of to-day, and the “sic jubeo" of to-morrow.

And now, Sir James, for facts-facts which, few though they be, will, I warrant, exhibit you hefore your courtrymen as the ne plus ultra of disposition enthroned in the office of an English Minister, and wielding, to the disgrace of her name, the arbitrary power of your Sovereign!

"Whitehall, 16th of March, 1842.-The foregoing Rules and Regulations for the government of the Gaol, the Penitentiary, and the Houses of Correction for the county of Gloucester, with the additions and alterations above mentioned, I hereby certify as proper to be enforced.

J. R. G. GRAHAM."

Such. Sir James, is your manifesto of last year, by virtue of which the department of the gaol in which I write is now actually governed ;-and now for a specimen of its import and embodiment, which I shall give in a PARALLEL with another set of "Rules for the conduct and treatment of prisoners in the Queen's Prison," also" approved, J. R. G. GRAHAM," on March 7, 1843." Can both be right?-are either right ?-are not all merely based upon the will of one who has the power, and the submission of slaves who must obey?

"GLOUCESTER COUNTY GAOL.
"Debtors-Class 1, 2, 3.

REGULATIONS.

"Class 1.-Those who have been remanded by the Insolvent Court, or whom the Visiting Justices may send to this class for repeated breach of the Rules.

"Rule 293.-Prisoners in Class 1. shall receive no visits, except that each may see one visitor once a week for half an hour on a Thursday; such visitor not to be a woman, unless in the relation of wife, sister, mother, or daughter."

I pray you, Sir James Graham, if you were put to the rack for it, could you furnish the outraged English people with the ghost of a reason why you ordain that a debtor of Class 1. in the prison of Gloucestershire shall receive the consolations of social intercourse but from one visitor for half an hour only upon a Thusday, that he shall never see his betrothed, or his cousin being a woman; and that for six days in the week (i. c. 313 days of every year) he shall be immured in, may be, total solitude? Yet that in the Queen's Prison, the man in the corresponding class shall be permitted his visitors with no restriction but that of peace and order in the prison?

REGULATIONS.

"GLOUCESTER COUNTY GAOL. "Rule 304.-No visitor shall come into the Awards, except that a wife may attend her husband, a parent a child, or a child a parent, in a prisoner's private room; but no prisoner shall be allowed to receive more than one such visit in a fortnight, or in Class 1, in three weeks."

"QUEEN'S PRISON.

"Hours of locking and unlocking gates. The prison gates are to be unlocked at eight o'clock in the morning, and locked at nine o'clock every evening, except in term time, and then at ten o'clock."

So that the debtor in prison in Gloucestershire shall be allowed to speak to no visitor, no friend, not of his family circle, except through an iron grating, in public, and exposed to the air,

nor even the members of his family, oftener than one and once a fortnight,or once in three weeks; whilst in the Queen's Prison, you order free admission and egress to friends of prisoners between the hours of nine in the morning and nine in the evening! How is it, Sir James, that in your code debt is so much more criminal in Gloucestershire than in London?

"GLOUCESTER COUNTY GAOL.

REGULATIONS.

"Rule 294.-A prisoner in Class 1, if not on county allowance, shall be allowed, out of his own money in the Keeper's hands, diet not exceeding that specified in Schedule C; but he shall not receive or have in any way any superfluities, or any food or drink whatever, except as above; nor shall he be allowed, out of his money while in prison, anything except the diet as above, clothes and bedding, or all of them, and any expenses incurred with a view to his discharge.

"Rule 295.-Prisoners in Class 2. shall not receive or have in any way anything except from the county.

"Schedule C, of food, referred to.-Every day 1 lb. of bread, coarse, seconds, a day old; a quart of porridge at breakfast, with leeks and onions. Women only a pint.

"Dinner.-Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays, 2 lb. of potatoes and of an oz. of salt. Tuesdays and Fridays, 4oz. of rice and of an oz. of salt. Thursdays and Sundays, 1 lb. of potatoes and of an oz. of salt, and 3 oz. of boiled bacon or 4 oz. of cheese per day. And debtors who have been four months in prison, on Thursdays and Sundays shall have 6 oz. of beef.

** Rule 296.-Prisoners in Class 3, may have any property of their own with them in prison, but no food or drink, or other consumable articles, beyond the amount of two shillings a day."

"QUEEN'S PRISON,

"Prisoners of the first class.-Rule 62.— They shall be divided into two divisions-those who maintain themselves, and those who do not. The prisoners who do not receive any allowance from the prison, may procure for themselves, or receive at proper hours, from the Marshal, a reasonable quantity of plain food; and they mav purchase for themselves, or receive from their friends, in each period of 24 hours, wine not exceeding one pint, except in cases in which the surgeon shall permit a larger allowance on the ground of health; such permission, and the grounds thereof, to be entered in his journal.

"Second class.-Debtors not included in the first class, who (under the provisions of the 53 Geo. 3. c. 113) shall make oath that they are not worth 107., may receive from the Keeper 5s, per week during the first six months of their im prisonment, and 3s. 6d. per week during the second six months, [when it shall cease]; and they may procure for themselves, or receive from their friends, at proper hours, a reasonable quantity of plain food and malt liquor, not exceeding one quart in each 24 hours."

Sir James Graham how do you dare to insult the administration of justice in a prison of England by solemnly directing to be enforced" against a debtor who maintains himself “out of his own money in the Keeper's hands,” your prison dietary of Schedule C, by which such debtor is entirely deprived of the use of fish. flesh, and fowl until he shall have been four months in prison; and then graciously permitting him to enjoy six ounces of your prison beef (bought with his own money) twice in the week only? But if that is a proper regulation to be enforced in the gaol of Gloucestershire, how could you, consistently, promulgate a parallel rule for the debtor in the Queen's Prison, permitting him choice of food ad libitum, and wine and ale in reasonable proportions? By what principle. Sir James, have you been led to such contrary conclusions in the two cases, or is the debtor in Gloucestershire totally out of the protection of the laws and reach of Parliament; and is it therefore that you are free to work with him your tyrannic will? But though the most favoured Class 3. debtor, (or person confined on such imputation,) is in the gaol of Gloucestershire forbidden the use of wine, nor allowed to expend of his own money, in provisions and ale, more than two shillings a day, you have actually been more liberal to the prisoners in the criminal department of the same prison; for, by Rule 351, it is expressly permitted to felons and misdemeanants awaiting their trial, to expend three shillings per diem in meat and drink.

Having now, I believe, made out my impeachment to the satisfaction of every one who takes the trouble to look through this paper;-having shown, out of your own mouth and under your own hand, the most glaring contradictions and inconsistency in your government of the same classes in two distinct prisons, and of different classes in the same prison;-having convicted you of dieting debtors in the same class on Schedule C. in the one gaol, and permitting them with wine and ale i the other-of denying them social intercourse here, and permitting it almost unrestrained there;having shown your superior regard for an untried felon" in the same gaol with a debtor who may be imprisoned without any trial at all, or any hope of one.-I now take my leave of Her Majesty's manager of the Home Department, with this piece of humble advice: whatever you are, whatever you would do--whether you would be merciful in Southwark, or tyrannical in Glouces tershire-recollect, that the SCHOOLMASTER has been introduced into our prisons, and that all who come and go there (and they are not a few thousands in the course of a year) can read, or learn, discuss, approve, or condemn the heartless, reckless, meddling, capricious inconsistencies of the Home Secretary. I have the honour to be, Sir James,

In Class 3,

A GENTLEMAN COMMONER,

CONCORDIUM PRESS, HAM COMMON, SURREY,

THE

FLEET PAPERS.

THESE Papers are principally intended for the perusal of the friends of Christianity and the Constitution; particularly the Clergy and the Aristocracy, and of all persons who are possessed of Property. The object of the writer will be to explain the reason for the present alarming state of English society, and the consequent insecurity of life and property; also to offer some remarks upon the folly and wickedness of attempting to uphold our Institutions, particularly that of Private Property, by the unconstitutional means of Centralization, Commissioning, Espionage, and Force; finally, to state his own views on the best mode of restoring Peace, Contentment, Security, and Prosperity, to every rank of the people of England.

The author is perfectly aware of the fact, that every Parliamentary leader is now only attempting to legislate for the present moment-putting off the evil day -making laws "from hand to mouth," in the hope that some unforeseen, fortunate event may enable succeeding Statesmen to legislate for permanency. He is also convinced that there is a mode of successfully re-establishing our Institutions upon their original foundation-Christianity;-and that that is the only way to preserve them from the encroachments of political partisans, who are now paving the way to universal Ruin, Anarchy, and Despotism.

NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS.

WM. WELLS, Gracechurch Street.-Thanks for a copy of "Judaic Law, versus English Military Law-Gaol Debt Law-the Pauper Law-and Factory Slave Law."-The pamphlet will be useful to Mr. Oastler.

REV. - HAWKER, Morwenstow, Cornwall.-Two Copies of "The Poor Man and his Parish Church" are received; thanks for them. Would that every rich man had read that Hymn. MANY CORRESPONDENTS have expressed a wish that Mr. Oastler would publish, in a handsome volume, the Fleet Papers on the anti-Church of England and unconstitutional principles of the New Poor Law, beginning with Number 32, Vol. III., and concluding with the last of the series on the New Poor Law, which will be No. 43. being 12 Numbers. They say. that the argument would go far to convince every friend of the Church and State that the New Poor Law must be repealed. Mr. Oastler is thankful for the good opinion of his correspondents, and would be delighted to adopt their suggestion, but want of money hinders. If funds were at hand, he would most gladly set about the publication immediately.

are regularly published every SATURDAY, at 2d. each; also every four weeks, in Parts, containing 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.

JOHN PAVEY, 47, HOLYWELL STREET, STRAND.

NOTICES OF THE FLEET PAPERS.

"The FLEET PAPERS.-NEW POOR LAW.-We take the following able and soul-stirring article from the forthcoming Fleet Paper of to-morrow. It is well worthy of a careful and attentive perusal by every man who professes to have one spark of patriotism in his bosom :— -The Wakefield Journal. August 11, 1843.

The FLEET PAPERS.-THE POOR LAW.-Mr. Oastler, in his Fleet Papers, continues to address letters to Sir James Graham on the subject of this law. In the forthcoming number of to-morrow, is a powerful and well-written article, which almost surpasses Oastler in plaintive and thrilling eloquence. We select the following. If any of our readers are desirous of seeing both this and other laws discussed with ability, fervour, and impartiality, we advise them to become subscribers to the little Fleeters.' "—Ibid. August 25, 1843.

(Extracted from the Wakefield Journal, Sept. 8, 1843.)

"OASTLER'S FLEET PAPERS.

"To the Editor of the Wakefield Journal.

"Dear Sir, I thank you for the perusal of some of Mr. Oastler's Fleet Papers: they are written in the spirit of candour and honesty, and full of truths and awful warnings. I have bespoken a complete set, and I advise every person of every degree and station to lay aside all prejudices, and, if they can spare twopence a week, to purchase the Fleet Papers, and to read and digest them with the attention they deserve.

"I am, dear Sir, yours faithfully,

"Sept. 7, 1843."

"AN OLD SUBSCRIBER."

(Extracted from the Times, Sept. 22, 1843.)

"OASTLER'S FLEET PAPERS.

"(From a Correspondent.)

"It is not necessary to tell the readers of the Times who and what Richard Oastler is. He is 100 well known as the author of the Fleet Papers, as a powerful and popular public speaker, and as the untiring and invincible friend of the poor, to need a formal introduction.

The Fleet Papers were commenced on Saturday, the 2nd of January, 1841, and from that time to the present a weekly number has been regularly issued. Mr. Oastler thus stated their objects at the outset :-(See the Prospectus on the title-page of this Cover.)

·To the principles here laid down Mr. Oastler has steadfastly adhered. Up to November 19, 1842, his writings hore the form of letters to Thomas Thornhill, Esq.;' subsequently they have been addressed to Sir J. Graham.

It is, in truth, high time to do justice to Richard Oastler. With him originated the factory question and those ameliorations which have taken place; and nobly was he seconded by the late Michael Thomas Sadler, who literally spent his life in his cause; by the Rev. G. S. Bull, now of Birmingham, an ornament to his cloth; and by Mr. John Wood, of Bradford, himself a manufacturer, whose pecuniary sacrifices were great for the promotion of a reform which it was pretended would be the ruin of the order to which he belonged, as if gain were paramount to humanity, or that a man of Mr. Wood's intelligence and experience were not as good a judge of a sound manufacturing policy as his neighbours. When we look back upon the exertions made by Oastler, Sadler, Bull, and Wood, from 1830 to 1836, we are struck with admiration; but we confess that our surprise overpowers our admiration as we turn over the records of later exertions in the same cause and nowhere find mention of the names of either Oastler, Sadler, Bull, or Wood. How little is this policy! Why, if Oastler, with his trenchant blade, had not hewn his way through the positive mountains of obstruction which were raised to it in the early stages of this brilliant advance of humanity and justice, Lord Ashley would never have had a standing-place; and we are sure that in thus reminding the noble Lord of what he owes to his predecessors in a work which gains for him so much genuine renown, we only suggest a duty, the neglect of which is a spot that greatly impairs the splendour of his exertions.

"We cannot better begin our citations from the Fleet Papers than by extracting from them the following important document, which flings a flood of light upon the Whig Conservative New Poor Law:- *

*

So far the commission. The distinguished persons to whom it was directed promptly met, and as promptly issued a series of Orders' to the high sheriff's, justices of assize, and of the peace, &c., all of whom were admonished to obey them under the penalty of condign punishment' for neglect. These orders' were accompanied by directions,' conveying the interpretation of the laws by the commissioners. Our desire is to append this consequent of the commission to the preceding extract, but it would make our article too long. We therefore reserve it for a second notice of the Fleet Papers.

Some of cur readers may, perhaps, take it into their heads to fancy that these documents are a fabrication ingeniously contrived so as to bear with peculiar force upon the Poor Law under which England groans at the present day; but we pledge ourselves to their authenticity. They are literal copies from the original, imprinted at Loudon by Robert Barker, printer to the King's Most Excellent Maiestie: and by the assignees of Richard Bill, 1630.'

For the present we shall only add, in the way of useful information to the reader, that the Fleet Papers are published by Cleaver, of Baker Street, Portman Square, and Pavey, Holywell Street; that they are not stamped, but as each number is within the penny-postage weight, there is 210 obstacle to the widest circulation."