exclusive of the repairs of buildings), amounts to 187. a year, or nearly 78. a week. There is a great difference in the expenditure incurred on account of salaries to the officers of prisons. At the county gaols, salaries are much higher in proportion than where the gaol and house of correction are united, although in the latter case a greater degree of vigilance and attention is required. At the houses of correction the allowances are lower than at either of the other descriptions of prisons. The total cost of the county prisons in England and Wales, in 1832, was 230,1267., of which 157,483/. was for the maintenance of prisoners, and 72,6431. for the salaries of the officers. The expense of building and of the repair of the same prisons, during the same year, was 83,494/.

During the year 1832, the greatest number of sick at one time in the several prisons of England, included in the Gaol Act, was 1,178, being in the proportion of 1 to 15. The aggregate of cases was 1 to 8 of the commitments. This extent of sickness, however, is but apparent, and does not imply the prevalence of serious complaints, or even the admission of the patient into an infirmary, the slightest temporary affection being included. Such cases on the commitment of vagrants are of frequent occurrence. The number of deaths in the prisons in 1832 was 345, being 24 per cent. of the average at one time in confinement, and less than per cent. of the whole number in custody in the year. Of the deaths, 156 were from cholera: the remainder is less than the number of ordinary deaths in the same prisons during the two preceding years. There are yet a few prisons which have no separate infirmary. The practice is still continued in some places of retaining lunatics, after they have been acquitted on the ground of insanity, instead of sending them to an asylum. In not less less than 20 county prisons are to be found persons thus afflicted. The number in solitary confinement during the year, for various periods, either in pursuance of sentence, or as a prison punishment was 6,948, being in the proportion of 1 in 14 of the whole committed. In 28 prisons this mode of correction had not been adopted. — (Crawford's Report, p. 33.)

Scotch Prisons. With but few exceptions, the prisons of Scotland are in a worse state than those of England. Many of them, particularly in the smaller boroughs, are old, insecure, ill-ventilated, and afford no means of separating, or even of classifying, prisoners. The law, as it at present exists, compels all royal boroughs to maintain a secure gaol, the maintenance of the prisoners before trial falling on the county, and on the borough after it. This imposes an unfair and oppressive burden on small boroughs, and prevents the erection of large district prisons, that might be placed under proper regulations. But this defective state of the law will, it is most probable, be obviated at no distant period. Mr. Hill, the intelligent Inspector of Prisons for Scotland, classes their defects under the following heads:

1. Want of the means of separation of prisoner from prisoner, and of the means of preventing intercourse from without.

2. Want of employment, and of a provision for instructing the prisoner in a trade, or other means of earning an honest livelihood, on leaving prison. 3. Want of mental, moral, and religious instruction.

4. Insecurity of the prisons.

5. Want of arrangements for securing that the condition of prisoners shall in no respect be better than that of honest labourers.

6. Great expense of many of the prisons, especially the smaller ones. 7. Frequent incompetency of the keepers of the prisons, and want of female officers.

8. Want of the means of inspection.

9. Want of cleanliness and ventilation.

10. The excessive quantity of time which the prisoners pass in bed.

11. Want of an adequate motive in the separate burghs and counties for

taking effectual measures for preventing the recurrence of crime, and for promoting the reform of the offender.

12. Paralysing effect on the administration of criminal justice, arising from the bad state of the prisons.

13. Injustice of the present system, which often entails considerable expenses on a small burgh or county, in the punishment of offenders not residing within it, and for whose crimes it is not justly accountable.

The Glasgow Bridewell is by far the best managed of the Scotch prisons, and is, indeed, one of the very best that is any where to be met with. It approximates in its plan to that of some of the American penitentiaries. The leading principles on which it is conducted are, the full employment of the prisoners, and their total separation from each other. The employment is of various kinds, according to the age and capacity of the individual. The prisoner works 11 hours a day, beginning at six in the morning, summer and winter, and continuing, with short intermissions, till eight at night, when his hammock is brought into the room, and he goes to bed. "This round continues day after day, and night after night, through the whole period of his confinement; during which he scarcely ever sees the face, or hears the voice of a fellow prisoner; and this total seclusion from the corrupting society of his companions is brought about without the infliction of great mental suffering, as is proved by the fact, that the prisoners enjoy as high, nay, a higher degree of health, while in the bridewell, than persons of the same class of life do when at large." Hence, also, instead of being a heavy burden on society, the Glasgow Bridewell nearly supports itself. The total cost, including the salaries of officers, &c., of the prison in 1835, was 2,506/.; and of this sum no less than 1,8687., was defrayed by the labour of the prisoners, leaving only 6387. to be made up by the city and the county! The average number of prisoners in the gaol was 339; so that they did not really cost, deducting their earnings, more than 17. 17s. 7d. each! This, however, was an unusually favourable year; and in ordinary years the expense of the prisoners may amount, deducting as above, to about 37. each. Mr. Hill says, that the lowest expense of a prisoner in any other gaol he had visited was about 10, while in some it was nearly 301., and that the general average was not below 167. or 17.! This sets the superior economy of the employment plan in the most striking point of view. - (Fourth Report of Prison Inspectors, p. 6., &c.)

The number of prisoners committed to gaol annually in Scotland may amount to about 13,000; the maximum in prison at any time being supposed to be about 2,300 or 2,400.

Irish Prisons. - The statute 7 Geo. 4. cap. 74. "for the better Regulation of Prisons in Ireland" was framed on the basis of the English Gaol Act; but by the new law, a power was vested in the Irish government of appointing two inspectors-general, whose duty is to visit the prisons of Ireland, to suggest improvements in their construction and regulation, and to report annually to government on their condition. The grand juries of each county and city are also required to appoint a board of superintendence, and a local inspector, whose duty it is to visit the prison twice at least in every week. Much benefit has been derived from the adoption of these measures. Before the act in question, the gaols were in a deplorable condition, but various improvements have since been effected. Tread-wheel labour and employments of various kinds have been introduced into several county prisons; and increased attention is paid to moral and religious instruction. To comply with the provisions of the act it was found necessary to build new gaols in several counties, and to enlarge others. Many of the small bridewells and prisons belonging to local jurisdictions have been abolished in pursuance of the statute, though a good number still exist. — (Crawford's Report, p. 36.)

A total of 21,498 persons were committed to the different gaols and houses of correction in Ireland in 1833; the maximum number of prisoners in gaol

at any one time being 3,848. The total average cost of each prisoner varied from 361. in the city gaol of Waterford, to 117. 16s. in the county gaol of Sligo. The value of the labour performed by the prisoners was inconsiderable, not exceeding in all 3,1357.-(Appendix to Crawford's Report, p. 181.)

CHAPTER II. IMPROVEMENTS

IN FOOD, CLOTHING, AND

LODGING. CLASSIFICATION AND INCOME OF THE PEOPLE.

To enter fully into the consideration of these interesting subjects would require, not a short chapter, but a large volume. The real influence and practical operation of improvements in the arts and sciences is to be measured by their influence over the condition of the great bulk of the people; and, tried by this test, it will be found in Great Britain, as in most other countries, that they have been singularly advantageous. The comforts of all classes have been wonderfully augmented within the last two centuries. The labouring orders have, however, been the principal gainers, as well by the large numbers of them who have succeeded in advancing themselves to a superior station, as by the extraordinary additional comforts that now fall to the share even of the poorest individuals. From the age of Henry VII. improvement in England has, a few short intervals only excepted, been uniformly progressive; and, since 1760, its advance has been rapid beyond all former precedent. The vigorous and selfish policy of Henry, assisted, no doubt, by the course of events, subverted the foundations of the feudal system, and provided for the exaltation of the crown and the law upon the ruins of the feudal nobility. The Reformation in the next reign, the rise of foreign commerce in the reign of Elizabeth, and the foundation of the colonies in North America and the West Indies in the reign of James I., gave a stimulus to industry and improvement which even the civil wars could not countervail; but which did not receive its full development till after the Restoration, or rather till after the peace of Paris in 1763. Without going farther back, we may mention, in proof of the disorderly and wretched state of the population in the early part of the sixteenth century, that Harrison tells us (Description of Britain, p. 186.), that 72,000 “great and petty thieves were put to death during the reign of Henry VIII." This account of the disorderly state of the kingdom, at the period in question, is corroborated by a statement preserved by Strype, written by an eminent justice of Somersetshire, in 1596, wherein it is stated that "Forty persons had been executed (in that county), in a year, for robberies, thefts, and other felonies; 35 burnt in the hand 37 whipped; 183 discharged that those who were discharged were most wicked and desperate persons, who never could come to any good, because they would not work, and none would take them into service: that, notwithstanding these great number of indictments, the fifth part of the felonies committed in the county were not brought to trial; and the greater number escaped censure, either from the superior cunning of the felons, the remissness of the magistrates, or the foolish lenity of the people: that the rapines committed by the infinite number of wicked, wandering, idle people were intolerable to the poor countrymen, and obliged them to a perpetual watch of their sheep-folds, pastures, woods, and corn fields: that the other counties of England were in no better condition than Somersetshire; and many of them were even in a worse: that there were, at least, 300 or 400 able-bodied vagabonds in every county, who lived by theft and rapine, and who sometimes met in troops to the number of 60, and committed spoil on the inhabitants; that if all the felons of this kind were reduced to good subjection, they would form a strong army: and that the magistrates were awed, by the

associations and the threats of confederates, from executing justice on the offenders." (Strype's Annals, vol. iv. p. 290.)

These disorders were partly, no doubt, occasioned by the dissolution of the monasteries, the consolidation of small farms, and, more than either or both of these causes, by the depreciation of the value of money, caused by the discovery of the American mines, and the enfeebling of the standard by Henry VIII. The necessity of providing some remedy for these aggravated disorders, or rather for obviating the poverty and destitution in which they mainly originated, led to the final establishment of the poor laws. But, independently of the accidental circumstances now adverted to, the condition of the great bulk of the people in the sixteenth century was the most depressed imaginable. "The bread throughout the land," says Harrison, who wrote in the reign of Elizabeth, "is made of such graine as the soil yieldeth; neverthelesse the gentilitie commonlie provide themselves sufficientlie of wheat for their owne tables, whilest their household and poore neighbours, in some shires, are inforced to content themselves with rie or barleie; yea, and in time of dearth, manie with bread made either of bran, peason, or otes, or of altogether, and some acorns among; of which scourge the poorest doe soonest tast, sith they are least able to provide themselves of better. I will not saie that this extremitie is oft so well to be seene in time of plentie as of dearth; but, if I should, I could easilie bring my triall.". (Description of England, p. 168.)

Sir F. M. Eden, whose elaborate researches have thrown much light on this subject, truly states that the substantiality of diet, for which the sixteenth century is renowned, was confined chiefly to the tables of persons of rank. "A maid of honour, perhaps, breakfasted on roast beef; but the ploughman, in these good old times, as they are called, could, I fear, only banquet 'on the strength of water gruel.'" (State of the Poor, vol. i, p. 116.)

But, if their provisions were coarse and deficient, their clothing and lodging were incomparably more so. The houses, even of the rich and the great, were, in the sixteenth century, mostly destitute of glass windows; and the cottages of the poor were not only universally without them, but also without chimneys! The luxury of a linen shirt was confined to the higher classes. The cloth used by the bulk of the people was mostly of home manufacture; and, compared with what they now make use of, was at once costly, coarse, and comfortless. All classes, from the peer to the peasant, were universally without many articles the daily enjoyment of which is now deemed essential even by the poorest individuals. Tea and coffee were then wholly, and sugar almost wholly unknown: and notwithstanding all that is said of the rude hospitality, and of the consumption of ale and beer in these remote times, it is abundantly certain that the labouring classes consume at this moment ten times more malt liquor than their ancestors ever did in either the fifteenth or the sixteenth century.

The superior condition of the people in our own times over that of their ancestors in the periods alluded to above, is, indeed, too obvious to be disputed by any one acquainted with the facts. But their superior condition at the present moment, as compared with their condition a century ago, or in the reign of George II., may not, perhaps, be so generally admitted. In point of fact, however, the progress of improvement since the middle of last century has been even more rapid than at any former period. It will not be difficult to demonstrate this.

Mr. Charles Smith, the well-informed author of the tracts on the corn trade, estimated the population of England and Wales, in 1760, at 6,000,000, which, as we have previously seen (antè, 406.), was pretty near the truth. He then estimated the consumers of each sort of grain, the quantity consumed by each individual, and, consequently the whole consumed by man, as follows:

Now, it will be observed, that of the 6,000,000 of people in England and Wales, in 1760, Mr. Charles Smith tells us that no fewer than 888,000 fed on rye. But at present we are quite sure there are not 20,000 who use that species of grain. The rye eaters have universally almost been changed into wheat eaters; and, except in the county of Durham, where a mixture of wheat and rye, called maslin, is grown, the culture of rye is almost unknown. Nearly the same may be said of the consumption of barley. In the northern counties of England, at the middle of last century, and for long after, very little wheat was used. In Cumberland, the principal families used only a small quantity about Christmas. The crust of the goose-pie, with which every table of the county is then supplied, was, at the period referred to, almost uniformly made of barley-meal. (Sir F. M. Eden on the Poor, vol. i, p. 564.) But no such thing is now ever heard of, even in the poorest houses. Almost all individuals use wheaten bread, at all times of the year. It is, in fact, the only bread ever tasted by those who live in towns and villages, and mostly, also, by those who live in the country.

It has been the same every where throughout the kingdom. In Cornwall, from 30 to 40 years ago, the small farmers, with the agricultural labourers, and those employed in the mines, almost invariably used barley; but at present they do not use it to any thing like the same extent as formerly, and in many extensive districts it has been entirely abandoned.† The same thing has happened in Somersetshire, and in every other county where either barley or oats was formerly made use of. Wheat is now the all but universal bread-corn of England; and in some of the manufacturing towns, within the last few years, the use of the inferior sorts of wheaten bread has been a good deal restricted; and is rejected, indeed, by all but the very lowest and poorest classes.

The change that has taken place during the last half century, in the consumption of butcher's meat, is still more extraordinary than that which has taken place in the consumption of corn. The quantity made use of has been wonderfully increased, and its quality signally improved. From 1740 to about 1750, the population of the metropolis fluctuated very little; amounting, during the whole of that period, to about 670,000 or 675,000. Now, during the 10 years ending with 1750, there were, at an average, about 74,000 head of cattle, and about 570,000 head of sheep sold annually in Smithfield market. In 1831, the population had increased to 1,472,000, or in the ratio of about 218 per cent.; and at an average of the 3 years ending with 1831, 156,000 head of cattle, and 1,238,000 head of sheep were annually sold in Smithfield; being an increase of 212 per cent. on the cattle, and of 217 per cent. on the sheep, as compared with the numbers sold in 1740–50. It consequently appears that the number of cattle and sheep, consumed in London has increased, since 1740, about in the same proportion as the population. The weight of the animals has, however, a good deal more than doubled in the interval. In the earlier part of last century, the gross weight

* Tracts on the Corn Trade, 2d ed. p. 140.

+ Evidence of Edward Coode, Esq., Report of 1833 on the State of Agriculture,

p. 169.