T HE word prison connotes crime; a place of punishment and detention where misdeeds are expiated and penalties enforced. A certain sense of shame attaches to all who have been committed to durance; for according to the old law, the “natural inherent right of liberty cannot be surrendered or forfeited unless by the commission of some great or atrocious crime.” This doctrine was coeval in one country at least, England, with the foundation of the constitution. Yet the seclusion and detention of ind

The great debtors’ prisons of England notorious for their callous neglect and inhuman treatment—Denounced by John Howard, the philanthropist—The Fleet, the King’s Bench and the Marshalsea—Origin of the Fleet—Early government—Closely connected with religious and political persecution—Bishop Hooper—Account of the Fleet at the beginning of the seventeenth century—Charges of cruelty brought against Warden Alexander Harris—Charitable bequests—Fees extorted—Prices charged for chamber-rent—Deplorable s

The Fleet, the appointed prison of the Star Chamber—Trial and conviction of Prynne and of “Freeborn” John Lilburne—Horrors in the Fleet and other debtors’ prisons reported by Moses Pitt—House of Commons Committee 1696—Ill treatment of Jacob Mendez Solas, a Portuguese prisoner—Shameful malpractices of Huggins and Bambridge—Case of Captain Mackpheadris and of Captain David Sinclair—Committal of Huggins and Bambridge to Newgate—Their trial and verdict of not guilty—Hogarth’s great picture of the Fl

Deplorable condition of debtors throughout the country as detailed by Howard—Famous Inmates—The Chevalier Desseasau, the Prussian—Captain Johnson R. N., a professional smuggler employed in naval expeditions—Arrest—Daring escape—Employed as pilot for the Walcheren expedition—His project for rescuing Napoleon from St. Helena—The “no-Popery riots”—The Fleet burned and rebuilt—Royal Commission to inquire into imprisonment for debt—Debtors’ privileges and extravagances—Graphic picture of the Fleet gi

Earliest mention—Lord Chief Justice and Prince Hal—The first prison destroyed by the Lord George rioters—Rebuilt—Notable inmates—Richard Baxter—Sir William Reresbury—Chatterton—Smollett’s description in “Roderick Random”—George Morland frequently a prisoner—John Wilkes imprisoned and the disturbances that resulted—His career and death—William Hone, the well known litterateur, lodged in the King’s Bench for debt, where he compiled his “Every Day Book,” “Table Book,” and “Year Book”—Colonel Hanger

Relations between debtor and creditor in England continue a disgrace—Abuses in procedure—Writs issued in error—Excessive costs the cause of prolonged detention—Processes irksome, very sweeping in their action and entailing disastrous consequences on many prisoners—Debtors’ prisons and their purlieus centres of vicious life—Drunkenness, gaming, self-indulgence prevailed—The “Rules” enclosed an area swarming with idle, reckless, dissipated persons—A prisoner regularly drove the night coach from Lo

Earliest mention by John Howard in 1756 when taken by a French privateer and lodged in the castle of Brest—Twenty-five years later again visits the French War Prisons and animadverts upon what he saw—Extends his inspection to British war prisons—Old war-ships or “hulks” brought into use in England—Many objections—Large prison establishments erected inland—Norman Cross in Huntingdonshire which accommodated five thousand—Another large prison designed in 1806 on Dartmoor—Opened in 1808—Occupied by

Description of the Proteus —Story of a French sufferer—Aspect of his fellow prisoners—Below decks—System of discipline—Overcrowding and bad sanitary conditions—Dietaries coarse and insufficient—Employments on board—The “Rafalés,” their misery and degradation—Attempts at escape often successful—Escapes at Dartmoor—Prisoner walled up in a chimney—Naval officer’s uniform stolen—Some figures giving number of French prisoners in custody. W E may leave Dartmoor for a time and return to the Hulks, whic

Increase of war prisoners by arrival of Americans in 1812—Mr. Andrews’ account, published in New York, 1815—Officers on parole—Others confined on board the Hulks at Plymouth—Daily duties on board—Removal from Hulks to Dartmoor—Description of interior—Precautions taken to prevent escape—Mr. Andrews’ account of the French prisoners—Sufferings increased by intense cold and snow of the winter of 1814—Stock of rations runs low—Starvation threatened—Release of French prisoners—Great schemes of wholesa

French war prisons in Napoleon’s time—Civilians detained in France in large numbers—The various prisons on the north-eastern frontier—General Wirion, a cruel and rapacious gaoler—Verdun described—A hot-bed of vice and iniquity—Wirion’s exactions—Treatment of prisoners—Wirion’s suicide—Succeeded by the inhuman Colonel Courcelles—Evidence of a subordinate, Anthony Latreille—Fierce reprisals—Life at Verdun described by an eyewitness, Captain Seacombe Ellison—Breaks out of the citadel of Verdun and

Perpetual attempts to escape from Bitche—Brutal measures of oppression—Many casualties from accident and murderous assault by guards—Fresh attempt at escape by Captain Ellison and comrades—The majority of the party captured—All taken back to Bitche—Again committed to the cachot , then to the Grosse Tête—They escape through the floor above and descend to the outer ramparts—Painful pilgrimage to the Rhine, which they cross—They land in Baden and finally arrive at the Austrian frontier—They are pas

War-prisoners in other countries—The worst in the United States—British prisoners during the Revolution—Prisoners during the Civil War—Important Confederate prisons, Libby, Belle Isle—Sufferings of Union prisoners—Attempts to tunnel out—Andersonville; situation, crowding, lack of food—Horrible suffering and high mortality—Conditions at Salisbury, North Carolina—Federal prisons—Suffering at Fort Delaware—Descriptions of prisoners held there—Johnson’s Island—Horrible suffering from cold—Dr. Wyeth’