gaol should be brought before it. He within four or five yards of the window of would, however, go as far into it as his apartment, and from that wall was rethe report of the commissioners and flected a light so strong and dazzling as the petition of Mr. Hunt would bear him to be extremely distressing to the eyes, out. It would, no doubt, be recollected as he (sir F. B.) had himself experienced that Mr. Hunt, on receiving his sentence, on visiting the prison. In consequence did, before he left the court, ask the judge, of this, Mr. Hunt's eyes had suffered with great readiness and sagacity, whether severely. When he entered the prison it was intended he should suffer solitary he was ushered into a room which had a confinement? and that the court said in | stone floor, and no sort of accommodation. reply," By no means." Now, when Mr. In this place he found two persons conHunt was sent to Ilchester, it was said in fined, who were to be his co-prisoners, that House, that he had been sent there his companions in this quarter of the because it was one of the healthiest and gaol. They were intended to be his sleepbest conducted gaols in England. If such ing companions, upon two truckle beds were really the motive for sending him which adjoined the apartment; and one there, when that gaol was found to be one of them, in his gaol-dress, was kindly apof the worst conducted gaols in the pointed to assist Mr. Hunt in the room of kingdom, and to be insalubrious to a his own servant. The other prisoner who degree that could hardly be credited, he was to be his companion, was a halfhad a right to say, that even those who witted fellow, but a whole rogue, who inflicted the sentence on Mr. Hunt never was charged with an attempt to murder intended to submit him to the inconve- his own wife and children. Mr. Hunt niences which he had since suffered; and naturally enough objected to the social he was glad to observe, that no gentleman enjoyment of such company; they were, in that House had ever contended that he thought, rather too good for him; and Mr. Hunt should be punished in the at his desire these fellows were remanded manner he had been. Not even the hon. to other cells. It was at this time that members for Somerset had justified the sir John Acland visited Mr. Hunt in his treatment which Mr. Hunt had received. apartment; and it was due to sir John to One of them had said, that he did not state, that so far as he was personally believe the charges which Mr. Hunt had concerned, Mr. Hunt always received at preferred against the gaoler, but at the his hands the most considerate attention. same time admitted, that he ought to Sir John, at the visit to which he alluded, have all possible accommodation in the apologized to Mr. Hunt for wearing his prison. The other who was as incredulous hat in the room, and called on Mr. Hunt as his colleague to the misconduct of the to do the same thing, as he feared the gaoler, declared, that Mr. Hunt ought consequences of cold, from his head being not to be permitted to suffer any other in- exposed in so damp a place. He ordered convenience than that of imprisonment in a board, to stand upon while he refor two years and a half, which was in-mained in the apartment, and recomconvenience enough in all conscience. After such declarations, no doubt the two hon. members would, upon finding - that Mr. Hunt had really been treated in the manner which he had described in his able petition, agree that the House ought to do every thing it could, to relieve that gentleman, and that the duration of his sufferings ought to be diminished as their severity had been increased. When Mr. Hunt was first sent to Ilchester, he was put into the northern ward of the prison, where no sun ever came for five months of the year-into a room which was cold and damp, and liable to all the changes of the weather and atmosphere, and into which, when the sun did shine it shone not to bless but to annoy his sight; for it shone upon a high white-washed wall, mended Mr. Hunt to take the same precaution against dampness in his feet on such a spot. Sir John also gave directions that the stone-floor should be immediately boarded over, the windows well closed and secured, and, in short, the apartment made as decent for Mr. Hunt, as it was capable of being rendered under the circumstances of the prison. Mr. Hunt acknowledged this attention on the part of sir John Acland, and felt grateful for it. This showed the previous state of the gaol, which they had been told was selected for the accommodation of Mr. Hunt, as a mark of favour; but which was in every respect calculated to produce an aggravation of the severe lot of his imprisonment. It was impossible to impose greater hardships upon any prisoner than those which restrictions which it was the object of Mr. Hunt endured in this prison. What reason upon earth could there have been for denying him the assistance of his own-It was while suffering under these cruel servant? The small ward in which Mr. Hunt was confined was, strange to say, intended by the prison directors for an infirmary, an office for which, of all other places, it was the worst calculated: it was, indeed, the very best place that could be selected to prepare a man for the benefit of an infirmary; but the worst possible one to secure for him any fair chance of achieving a cure. And on the subject of an infirmary, it was a remarkable fact, that no such place was, up to the present moment, provided in Ilchester Gaol. In this part of the prison Mr. Hunt was placed; and he was not aware that in the whole prison a better apartment could be found for him, except in the gaoler's house. When he was first confined he was only allowed the benefit of air in a small close yard, about 24 feet in length; from it a door opened into a larger yard, one, perhaps, twice the length of that House, and from which alone any adequate ventillation could be procured for the ward in which he lived; but to the larger yard he was for a long time denied access. At last, however, that indulgence was granted, to do away, perhaps, the effect of his previous solitary and dreadful confinement. And here, in justice to Mr. Hunt, he ought to say, that so reasonable and moderate were his demands, that whenever the parties to whom he applied could be got to consider his applications, they were usually successful. Sir Charles Bampfylde, the late sheriff, who on this, as on every other occasion, demeaned himself like an upright magistrate, issued an order against Mr. Hunt's solitary confinement, and directed that his visitors, both male and female, should be admitted to see him; and that, in fact, a more liberal system of treatment should be observed towards him; but even before that worthy sheriff had retired from office, the rev. Dr. Colston-a visiting magistrate, unfortunately, of this prison, interfered, in spite of sir Charles's positive orders for an amelioration of Mr. Hunt's treatment, and enforced against him the most unjustifiable restrictions. The reverend doctor acted in this case in the most unjust, imperious, cruel, and ungentlemanly manner in his treatment of Mr. Hunt; and three times, in defiance of the sheriff's orders, renewed the scandalous, degrading, and disgraceful orders that Mr. Hunt was struck with the gross malversation carried on in the gaol, and the necessity, if possible, of some inquiry, in the hope of exposing so much cruelty. It was under these circumstances of restriction and privation, which few men could bear up against, and with an energy rarely possessed, that Mr. Hunt surrounded by difficulties, having before him, as things then stood, an impossibility almost. of obtaining a fair hearing, and little chance of getting a full or fair inquiry, it was under such circumstances, and superior to them all, that Mr. Hunt had called for, or rather demanded, an inquiry into the prison abuses. He firmly demanded it, too, against a gaoler, who had acquired a sort of character for integrity in his office; who had, in fact, obtained not only the ear of, but a degree of ascendancy over, the magistrates that should have controlled him, who used to dine at table with some of them, rather upon the footing of a companion and friend, than as a subordinate. This gaoler had succeeded, by a course of deceit, by un. accountable cunning, by a tissue of hypocrisy, in insinuating himself into the confidence of those about him, and in having so imposed upon honourable and worthy men, as to have obtained a high character for probity and humanity. It was this successful deceit which had unfortunately enabled him to continue so long a dreadful instrument of inflicting human suffering, to a degree hardly to be equalled in the annals of tyranny within the sphere of a gaoler's opportunities. Mr. Hunt first applied in the way of charge to the visiting magistrates; and at last, after stating various strong and convincing facts of harshness and oppression, he compelled them to give ear to his complaint. The gaol-committee, then, at his suggestion, or rather upon his firm demand, instituted the inquiry; and they had not proceeded more than three days in the investigation, when, struck with the confirmatory evidence of the truth of the complaints, they offered a sort of compromise to Mr. Hunt; they agreed that the gaoler ought to be dismissed; they said his resignation should be tendered, if Mr. Hunt were satisfied not to press for further proceedings. Mr. Hunt treated this proposal as it deserved. He said "No; it is your province to determine upon the conduct of the gaoler As you shall think proper, and to decide upon the facts as they shall appear in evidence. I charge your public officer with being guilty of great public abuse; and I am ready to prove that charge, and let you see the nature of his conduct. I must call for inquiry, not only with a view to his punishment, but also to secure future prisoners from the recurrence of such cruelty: it is for you to conclude the matter, I shall not consent to its suspension."-[Hear, hear.] It was a sin gular coincidence, that the moment Mr. Hunt rejected this proferred compromise, the gaoler's solicitor, Mr. Joddrel, who, by the way, was mixed up with all these proceedings, served Mr. Hunt with the copy of an attachment for costs, which he represented himself to have been put to, by an application to the court of King's Bench, made by Mr. Hunt, in the hope of getting relief from some of the scandalous acts of oppression and exclusion to which he found himself exposed. This attachment, he repeated, was served the moment Mr. Hunt refused to stifle inquiry. And another strange coincidence was, that on the heels of it came another legal process, demanding payment from Mr. Hunt of Excise penalties, for what was construed to be a breach of the law; but which it was on all hands admitted, was quite unintentional: it was for an act, which, he must say, did not in any sense come within the purview, not to say of the severity, but of the plain and obvious meaning of these harassing laws: It was for a discovery, that roasted wheat or rye was capable of being made into a good, cheap, and wholesome breakfast-beverage as a substitute for coffee for the poor. For this discovery, meritorious and useful as he pronounced it to have been, Mr. Hunt was convicted by the Excise, and ordered to pay a penalty of 100l. for selling the article, and another penalty of 100%. for making it. No man believed, when Mr. Hunt made this breakfast-powder, that he dreamt of infringing upon any Excise law. He could have had no private or public motive to induce him to evade that law: but, notwithstanding this evident innocence on the part of Mr. Hunt, he was, by a technical construction of the law, exposed to a severe and cruel penalty. Besides, he understood that a law officer of the Crown in that House had intimated, that it was not intended to press for those penalties. Yet so it was, the penalties were enforced. When this Crown extent was issued, notice was at the same time served upon Mr. Hunt's tenants, not to pay him any rent; so that at the very moment the demand for payment was made, under all the terrors of the law, to a prisoner in close custody, the parties making it took the decisive step of cutting off from him all means of satisfying their imperative demands. [Hear, hear.] Mr. Hunt in this situation, requested that the sheriff would collect the rents in satisfaction of his extent. Oh, no! the sheriff refused to collect them; and proceeded at once to advertise his estate for public sale, on account of the Excise penalties. Every body knew what was the nature of a sheriff's sale, and the condition in which all property was placed when subject to it. In consequence, a general notion prevailed that the estate was abandoned to summary confiscation, and exposed to the dilapidations which usually precede such sacrifices. He believed some timber was wantonly cut down and removed and other spoliations committed by marauders on the occasion. The day of sale was first fixed for the 10th of February, and afterwards a nearer day, the 7th, was named for the sheriff's auction. Mr. Hunt, however, found means to raise the 2007. to pay the penalties, and thereby saved his estate from the confiscation which threatened it. How did it happen, he must again ask, that these penalties were not called for until Mr. Hunt was engaged in detecting and exposing local abuses? Was Mr. Hunt to be told, that he could not venture to do his fellow-subjects service, but at the expense of his property? Was he to be told, that what would have been meritorious in any other person, was in him an offence, for which there was a determination that he should incur a harassing responsibility? Independant of the hardship, there was great impolicy in this proceeding. At a time when general complaints were made of the pressure of agricultural distress, when one cause of the complaint was, that the glut in the market was such, that there was no suitable demand for the commodity, here was a man who, by his discovery, opened a new channel of consumption in the market, which served both the seller and the consumer, and yet he was to be pu nished for his sagacity! He should have rather been presented with a reward for his ingenuity, than a penalty for a violation of law which he never could have contemplated-[Hear, hear.] And yet such had been the hard fate of Mr. Hunt. There were, however, other parts of Mr. Hunt's treatment of a yet more atrocious character; for instance, the refusal of admittance to his visitors; and amongst them, the denial of permission to an anxious and dying sister, to take the last opportunity she was likely to enjoy of seeing an affectionate and afflicted brother. Would it be believed, that this refusal to a dying sister, to take a last farewell of an imprisoned brother, was given by a man of station in society? Or, still more would it be believed, that that man professed to be a teacher of the lessons inculcated by the mild spirit of Christianitythat he was a minister of religion, and that religion the Protestant faith-a believer in the religion of Christ? Would it, he said, be believed, that from such a man the hard-hearted and cruel refusal came to an expiring woman to take her last leave of a brother whom she loved. But so it was: she was refused this sad consolation, and she died, without ever again seeing her brother [Hear.] How far a refusal, under the circumstances in which she was placed, tended to accelerate that doom to which she was approaching, he could not pretend to say; but this he knew, that the refusal was the most outrageous, the most atrocious, and the most repugnant act to every feeling of humanity and justice, that he knew upon record. This act had been done by the Rev. Dr. Colston, and in doing it he had not only violated his sacred duty as a clergyman, but his legal duty as a magistrate: he had paid no attention either to law or to gospel; but had ventured to forget both by a more heartless, more wicked, a more cruel and flagrant act, than had a parallel in the transactions of the most atrocious institutions that ever cursed mankind in the most cruel of times. [Hear, hear.] It was worse, taking all its attendant circumstances into the account, than any thing he had read of in the dark proceedings of the Spanish Inquisition. It was one of the singular circumstances attending the malversation in Ilchester gaol, that the very enormity of the wickedness practised within its walls, furnished, for a long time, its best protection. The flagrancy of the deeds was such as to stagger credibility. They were, however, unfortunately proved to be too true: they were, through the persevering and unappalled energy of Mr. Hunt, confirmed by irrefragable evidence: and he (sir F. Burdett) would say, that for bringing forward such an inquiry, and for the ability he had displayed in conducting the investigation when it was commenced, Mr. Hunt was entitled to public thanks: he deserved that tribute for his fortitude at such a moment; but, above all, he was entitled to it for the benefit which his country could not fail to derive from the inquiry. Every man in England would have cause to rejoice in the consequences of that investigation; and that individual had a strong claim upon public gratitude, who had put an end to this atrocious system of prison op pression, and had held out to all the gaolers of the empire, both now and here→ after, a memorable example of disgrace and punishment. The government, too, had a right to feel indebted to Mr. Hunt, inasmuch as he had been the means of relieving them from the odium which must necessarily attach to them for any acts of cruelty or injustice committed under their government; for in every case ministers were responsible for the guilty acts of those subordinate officers over whom it was their duty to keep a vigilant eye. This reverend doctor (Colston) among his many other acts of oppression towards Mr. Hunt, had, during Mr. Hunt's solitary confinement, by his order, and while he was, through that severity, severely afflicted with cramps and spasms in his stomach, refused his application to have the professional aid of a medical gentleman in Ilchester, who had previously attended him. The reverend doctor had treated this application with the utmost contempt, and referred Mr. Hunt to the regular gaol doctor. Now, when the House should look at the evidence respecting this gaol doctor-when they found him mixed up as a party with almost all the acts of the gaoler, and, according to his own evidence, guilty of misapplying the great means which the healing art furnishes for alleviating human affliction, for the purpose of inflicting torture upon his fellow creatures, they would cease to wonder that Mr. Hunt preferred trusting to nature and a good constitution, rather than place himself in the hands of this humane gaol doctor. It was not enough that there were to be found in that prison, chains, stocks, handcuffs. No, this would not do. There was a doctor, who did not hesitate to apply a blister to the head of a man in irons. Why? Because he was ill? be cause his health required it? No such government of the gaol was the very rething. The blister was applied because verse of what it ought to be; that the the man was considered to be" a trou- very situation of the gaol rendered it imblesome fellow" [hear, hear!]. This ap- possible to have effective improvement; plication of blisters appeared to have been that as to regulations for the management a favourite punishment in Ilchester gaol; of the prison, they were in too many infor, by the evidence, it appeared, three stances unattended to; and that the visitpersons, Evans, Halkins, and Gardner, ing magistrates had been remiss in the had all been blistered. One was blistered due performance of their functions; that in order to "mend his manners;" ano- they, in fact, had trusted too much to the ther, because he was "a troublesome discretion and judgment of the rev. Dr. jockey;" a third because it was thought Colston. Indeed it was apparent, that "he shammed;" and so this last person the other visiting mngistrates rather was blistered on the side. Was it sur-leaned to screen this man's acts, than to prising that, with these facts before him, investigate and correct them. With reMr. Hunt should decline availing himself spect to the powers and conduct of the of the assistance of this kind and humane magistracy as a body, he was as ready as gaol doctor? Having suffered under re- any man to admit their beneficial effect, peated spasmodic attacks for eleven days but he must protest against the lumping and nights, Mr. Hunt made application way in which some gentlemen were prone to the Court of King's-bench, and an order to speak of the acts of the magistracy. was made for the admission of his medical It was said that they ought to be protected attendant; and in consequence Mr. Hunt in the performance of their disinterested was now as far recovered as a person and gratuitous duty; that they ought not placed under such circumstances could be to be exposed to too rigid a scrutiny; expected to be. Soon after this, a new and that what they did wrong, should be chairman was appointed by the magis- overlooked for its motive, and not be tracy; and that gentleman took every afterwards made the subject of inquiry. step in his power to make Mr. Hunt's si- He protested against this doctrine. He tuation as comfortable as circumstances objected to the opinion that because they would admit. But it was for what Mr. were unpaid they should be irresponsible. Hunt had suffered-it was for the punish- If receiving no pay entitled them to freement that had been inflicted upon him dom from inquiry, in God's name let them beyond the law-that he now called upon be paid for their services, and held anthem to adopt the measure which he was swerable for their acts! But unfortuabout to propose. That Mr. Hunt had nately the great body of the upright masuffered more than was intended by the gistracy of the kingdom were thus inCourt which sentenced him, was evident sulted, and their real utility decried, by from the fact of that Court having, upon being mixed up with these ignorant medhis application, afforded him relief from dling, pettifogging individuals, who had certain restrictions under which he la- crept into the magistracy to gratify some boured. Let it not, therefore, be said, pusillanimous desire for petty powerthat by adopting this measure, they would and consequential authority, and made a interfere with the jurisdiction of the courts gaol the scene of their tyranny, or the inof law. In support of the allegations strument of their malicious or corrupt opwhich he had made, he should feel it ne- pression. cessary to read a few extracts from the report of the commissioners. When he saw the names of the gentlemen appointed on the commission, among whom was a relation of his own (Mr. Munday), he felt the fullest confidence in the result of their labours, and in that confidence he was fully justified. At the same time. the commissioners instead of giving a colour, or endeavouring to make out a bad case, had softened down the facts stated before them as much as it was in their power as honest men to do. Yet, notwithstanding this, they came to the conclusion that the But, to return to the state of this prison: its locality exposed it to every kind of disadvantage. There were no means of effectually cleansing it, except by the constant application of human labour. The pumps for supplying the gaol with water were constantly contaminated with filth, and the various drains which ought to carry off noxious ingredients, never swept away the impurities. Nay, strange to say, although there was a river within a stone's throw of the gaol, it was deemed too great an indulgence to suffer debtors to be supplied with water |