We now come to enquire into the condition of mind produced by the
seclusion (limited in duration as Lord Grey limits it) which is
purchased at this great cost in money, and this greater cost in
stupendous injustice. That it is a consummation much to be desired, that
a respectable man, lapsing into crime, should expiate his offence
without incurring the liability of being afterwards recognised by
hardened offenders who were his fellow-prisoners, we most readily admit.
But, that this object, howsoever desirable and benevolent, is in itself
sufficient to outweigh such objections as we have set forth, we cannot
for a moment concede. Nor have we any sufficient guarantee that even
this solitary point is gained. Under how many apparently inseparable
difficulties, men immured in solitary cells, will by some means obtain a
knowledge of other men immured in other solitary cells, most of us know
from all the accounts and anecdotes we have read of secret prisons and
secret prisoners from our school-time upwards. That there is a
fascination in the desire to know something of the hidden presence
beyond the blank wall of the cell; that the listening ear is often laid
against that wall; that there is an overpowering temptation to respond
to the muffled knock, or any other signal which sharpened ingenuity
pondering day after day on one idea can devise: is in that constitution
of human nature which impels mankind to communication with one another,
and makes solitude a false condition against which nature strives. That
such communication within the Model Prison, is not only probable, but
indisputably proved to be possible by its actual discovery, we have no
hesitation in stating as a fact. Some pains have been taken to hush the
matter, but the truth is, that when the Prisoners at Pentonville ceased
to be selected Prisoners, especially picked out and chosen for the
purposes of that experiment, an extensive conspiracy was found out among
them, involving, it is needless to say, extensive communication. Small
pieces of paper with writing upon them, had been crushed into balls, and
shot into the apertures of cell doors, by prisoners passing along the
passages; false responses had been made during Divine Service in the
chapel, in which responses they addressed one another; and armed men
were secretly dispersed by the Governor in various parts of the
building, to prevent the general rising, which was anticipated as the
consequence of this plot. Undiscovered communication, under this system,
we assume to be frequent.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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