The Fleet: Its Rivers, Prison, and MarriagesAshton, John
History
The Fleet: Its Rivers, Prison, and Marriages
Ashton, John
Fleet Prison (London, England); Fleet, River (England)
But in the _Annual Register_ for the same year on Dec. 21st there
was a long report respecting it during a debate on the suspension of
the Habeas Corpus Act. Mr. Courtenay said, that, "having visited the
prisons, he found the prisoners without fire, and without candles,
denied every kind of society, exposed to the cold and the rain, allowed
to breathe the air out of their cells only for an hour, denied every
comfort, every innocent amusement, excluded from all intercourse with
each other, and, each night locked up from all the rest of the world.
He supposed it was scarcely necessary to inform the House, that the
prison of which he had been speaking, was that in Cold Bath Fields,
known by the name of the Bastille." There was a lot more nonsense
of the same type talked by other M.P.'s and, it is needless to say,
that the exaggerated statements were anent a political prisoner--who
afterwards suffered death for treason. And in the remainder of the
debate even the very foundation for the libel was destroyed. It is a
curious fact, that people have an idea that political prisoners, who
have done as much harm to the commonweal as they have the possibility
of doing, are to be treated daintily, and with every consideration for
their extremely sensitive feelings. We, perhaps, in these latter days,
may read a profitable lesson in the suppression of treason, from the
proper carrying out of the sentences legally imposed upon those who
resist the law out of pure malice (legal).
In the _Gentleman's Magazine_ for 1796, is the following letter to--
_Dec. 10, 1795._
Mr. URBAN.--Your respect for the memory of Mr. Howard, will
induce you to insert the inclosed view of the House of
Correction for the County of Middlesex, formed principally on
his judicious suggestions. It is situated on the North side of
London, between Cold Bath Fields, and Gray's Inn Lane. The spot
on which it is erected having been naturally swampy, and long
used for a public lay-stall, it was found prudent to lay the
foundation so deep, and pile it so securely, that it is supposed
there are as many bricks laid underground as appear to sight.
What is more to the purpose, the internal regulations of this
place of security are believed to be perfectly well adapted to
the salutary purposes to which the building is appropriated.
"Yours, &c., "EUGENIO."
Still Cold Bath Fields Prison had an evil name--in all probability,
because prisoners there, were treated as if they had sinned against
the social canons, and were not persons to be coaxed and _petted_ into
behaviour such as would enable them to rank among their more honest
fellows, and in this way wrote Coleridge and Southey in "The Devil's
Walk," which was suggested by the _pseudo Christos_ BROTHERS who as
these gentlemen wrote:--[43]
"He walked into London leisurely,
The streets were dirty and dim:
But there he saw Brothers, the Prophet,
And Brothers the Prophet saw him."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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