Great Britain -- Social conditions -- 19th century -- Fiction
“Here, Mr. Edward, compare these two, and correct or attest this as
a true copy--Twenty minutes' work--Two guineas; here they are on your
drawers;” and he chucked the documents on the bed, opened the shutters,
and drew the bed-curtains; and passing his arm under the father's, he
drew him into his own office, opened the shutters, put paper before
him, and dictated a will. Three bequests (one to Evans), and his mother
residuary legatee. The will written, he ran upstairs, made father and
son execute it, and then darted out, caught a fly that was going to the
railway, engaged it; upstairs again. The work was done, copy attested.
“Half a crown if you are at the jail in five minutes.”
Galloped off with his two documents-entered the jail--went to his own
room--sent for Evans--gave him Fry's book, and ordered himself the same
breakfast the prisoners had.
“I am bilious, and no wonder. I have been living too luxuriously; if I
had been content with the diet my poor brothers live on, I should be in
better health. It serves me just right.”
Then he sat down and wrote a short memorial to the Secretary for the
Home Department, claiming an inquiry into the jailer's conduct.
“I have evidence on the spot to show that for two years he has been
guilty of illegal practices. That he has introduced into the prison an
unlawful instrument of torture. That during his whole period of office
he has fabricated partial, colored and false reports of his actions in
the prison, and also of their consequences; that he has suppressed all
mention of no less than seven attempts at suicide, and has given a false
color, both with respect to the place of death, the manner of death and
the cause of death of some twenty prisoners besides. That his day-book,
kept in the prison for the inspection and guide of the magistrates, is
a tissue of frauds, equivocations, exaggerations, diminutions and direct
falsehoods; that his periodical reports to the Home Office are a tissue
of the same frauds, suppressions, inventions, and direct falsehoods.
“The truth, therefore, is inaccessible to you, except by a severe
inquiry conducted on the spot. That inquiry I pray for on public
grounds, and if need be, demand in my own person, as her majesty's
servant driven to this strait.
“I am responsible to her majesty for the lives and well-being of the
prisoners, and yet unable, without your intervention, to protect them
against illegal violence covered by organized fraud.”
Mr. Eden copied this, and sent the copy at once to Mr. Hawes with two
lines to this effect, that the duplicate should not leave the town till
seven in the evening, so Mr. Hawes had plenty of time to write to the
Home Secretary by same post, and parry or meet this blow if he thought
it worth his while.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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