CURIOSITIES OF NEWGATE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVI, Issue 4531, 6 December 1884, Page 3

CURIOSITIES OF NEWGATE.

To study the Baatila, and what passed within its walls, from the day its cells were firet opened until an angry people stormed the building and set free the captives, is to got a glimpse of French statecraft and character surpassing in importance and "ividness anything the ordinary national documents covering tho same period have to tell. The story of the Newgate of our own country has an even greater value. Newgate is much older than the Bastile. It is believed to have an history that goes back as far as the building of tho Tower. It was a prison-house in the time of King John, and it is a prison-house to-day. Itisnot,itistrue, the building it was when the Great Charter was drawn up; but it has always been a place for offenders, real or imaginary, and the time is out of reckoning when the name suggested one of tho entrances to the city, and not a place of doom. There is a good deal that is quaint about Nowgate. The saddest thing of all about tho New-

gate of the past is that persons arc known to have beon detained in it as though on a lifo sentence, in thorough defiance of the

constitutional rights of arraignment and trial.

Thero died in the prison in September, 1732, a man who had been forty years an ininato, who had never beon convicted, and who is not supposed to have been guilty of tho offonco which was madtt the excuse foe his detention. Macaulay mentions tho case

in his picturesque fashion as being that of a man whose long imprisonment at length shocked a generation which could not remomber his crimo. This unfortunato was a soldier. He fought under James 11. in Ire-

land, and had risen to tho rank of major. As ho had previously served in tho Dutch army under tho I'rinco of Orange, suspicion

rested upon him in 1C96, when arrosts wero mado in connection with tho plots on tho life of William 111. Eight portions wcro duly tried, convicted, and executed for their sharo in tho attempted assassination; but against this oilicer—Major John Bernardi by name —and five others there was an absonco of evidence. It was thought, howovor, that evidence would bo forthcoming; and to give time for this the Government of the day 1 wont to tho extreme course of suspending the Habeas Corpus Act for nine months. When tho nine months came to an end, and evidence to secure a conviction was still unattainable, tho judges remanded the case for a fortnight, and in the interval an Act of Parliament was passed authorising the imprisonment of tho men for another year. Tho injustice thus begun was perpetuated. A second measure of liko purport was cnactcd, and ovontually a tnim bill passed into law authorising tho confinement of Bernardi and his companions during His Majesty's pleasure. "His Majesty's pleasure '' was tantamount to asentence of imprisonment during the King's life, for it was not until tho King died that these poor men wore again heard from. This was in 1703. The prisoners then applied to be tried or to be admitted to bail, it was an unfortunate application. I'arliament fell back upon precedent, and passed an Act to confine the prisoners during the pleasuroof Queen Anne. Anno was moro merciful than William. She released one of the six, but when she died Parliamont repeated tho injustice, and successive Acts condemned the unhappy men to remain in gaol during the pleasure of George I. and again of George 11. There came erders of release, however, againßt which all human schemes were powerless. Wh»n George JI. ascendod tho throne there were only Bornardi and two others alive j and eventually Bornardi, now an octogenarian,, was alone left to petition in the vain quest for justice. For him, as for the others, the only release was death. His long detention in Newgate, however, was not all gloom. Fortunately for him, prison discip-

line was much more lax then than it is now. Newgate became a roof-tree to the poor prisoner. He courted and married within the walls of the gaol; and his wife, in every way a helpmeet to him, bore him ten children. Bernardi was entitled to all the liberty tho prison officials could allow him. But there wero some prisoners who ware arrant rogues, to whom privileges were accorded that seem almost incredible in these days. In not a few instances, men convicted of capital offences wero allowed to hold levees and to welcome any number of friends. A notable example of this class was the notorious Claudo Duval. Duval was a handsome rascal, and being a Frenchman, he had a certain amount of politeness which rather helped than hindered him iv his nefarious trade-; -but in no sense was he the

" honest rogue "of the Rob Roy type. He would rob men on Hounslow Heath to the last farthing; but be was gallant in his way, jtiri.iia.l «iu.imuW .an fjui._fnrcmfc,hertjerrjor with the greaterpartof.it not atl.liernttmeyr This did not' prevent a price beinc put on Duval'a bead, and his name is first on the list iv an old proclamation against highwaymen. But it was not the era of detectives, and the old watchmen were a terror to no o le. Moreover, Claude Duval was quick at fence, and a suro and steady hand with a pistol. So long, therefore, as he attended strictly to his " business," he was fafe. He was in danger only when in search of pleasure. . And so it happened that the highwayman was caught one night when overcome with wina in a tavern. When he cime to his senses he was in Newgate. Thero are accounts of his trial in the papers of the time. There was evidence enough against him to convict a dozen Duvals, and Judge Morton took caro that the gallows should have its own. Nevertheless, it is a strange commentary on the times of Charles II that this monarch was approached by courtly dames with tears in thoir oyev begging him to sp*l"o the life of tins goodlooking ftlpn. The King was on the point of grunting a pardon, when the ]iulgo interfered with a threat of resignation if the law were not carried into effect. The best of a bad bargain was (hen made. Tho culpnt held receptions in tho prison; and when Jack Ketch hod done his grim function, the body was removed with much display to a mortuary chamber in a tavern—tho Tangier in St. GileeM :— wliare there were mute? and esc'itchions and tapers, and other miserable paraphernalia. There lay fee body in siate until once again Judge Morton interfered and put a stop to the disgusting exhibition. Some curious sentences were earned out iv this historic prison-house, and this was particularly the case in regard to penalties for adulteration and cheating. There was the pillory for the merchant whose sample was of better quality than his consignment, and for the shopkeeper, who sold unwholesomo meat. But there was more than the pillory for the taverncr whose supplies would not stand tho test of good quality. Ho was compelled, in addition, to take a bath in his own vile liquor. On one occasion a citizen accused the civic authorities of conspiracy, and for this offence he was condemned to appear in the pillory four times in the year, and to wear a chain round his neck, from which dangled a whetstone, with the inscription, "Falso liar." The whet-sto:-.e was intended as a sort of satire. It was supposed to mean that anlintruthful tonguo required sharpening, or that a man who was a liar must improve inhisart, seeing thit as he had been found out, no one was likely to believe him ■nhen bespoke the truth. Penalties of this nature seem generally to have boon rigorously enforced. But frequently when the sentence involved more serious" consequences the prisoner managed

ith but little difficulty to secure pardon

It fared well with one William Doinroio, who should have been hanged, for stealing £4, but "being an excellent drummer, fit to do the King service," he was reprieved and pardoned, another reason for .his lucky escape being that it was his first offence. Often enough men^ " fit to do the King service " had the doors opened to them, and occasionally culprits would obtain their liberty on consenting to go abroad. Men enough to form a company of soldiers, with a woman at their head to serve as a vivandiero, inarched out of Newgate in 1620, " to the end that thoy bo employed in the eervico of the King of Sw eden "■—the King of Swoden at that time being none other than Gustavus Vasa.

Money ami influence would generally help a man out of most scrapes in those old prison days. ACaptainCatnpbell,brotber of the Maeallam More of the time, abducted in 1690 a Kirl o! sixteen, who had a fortune of £50,000, and married the girl. The captain's family name was his pastport to liberty, but Sir John Johnson, who had helped to carry off the girl, was hanged for his share in the transaction. The marriage was declared void by Act of Parliament. There were many similar cases in the seventeenth century. A Clifford stopped a coach on Hounslow Heath in thei approved fashion of the, period, and carried Re occupant, an heiress, to Calais, where the lady was forced to many him. There was an outcry, and tfce lady was rescued. Clifford stood his trial, pleading guilty, but his excuse that "be caw no other wav of winning her must have gone in mitigation of sentence, seeing that he got off with a fine of £1,000 and a yew's detention in Newgate. •' i more famoua case of this description. WaV the abduction of Lady Ogle by Count Kouigsniavk in .1632. Kuuigsinark wus a Swede. The lady was but a child of thirteen. Nevertheless she was a widow, for her " housen and landa " had caused her to

be married early, and her beauty had brought about a second marriage, much against her will, with Thomas Thynne, who was as rich as' his little wife. After the second marriage, the lady went abroad and saw Konigamaik, who did what he could to engage her affections. Young as sho was, the lady knew where her duty lay, and repulsed the count. Thereupon Konigsmark set to work to remove the obstacle in the way. He hired a party of assassins, who waylaid Thynne and killed him. The principal and his assistants were arrested, and the latter were hanged, but Konigsmark, who had money at his command, spent it freely in bribes, and succeeded in getting out of the country and cheating Tyburn.

It is only within a century or so that the horrors of Newgate and other gaohrof the country have ceased to •xist. Much that was wrong in prison management- has only been remedied in our own time. Tho good work began when John Howard started on his "circumnavigation of charity." The system in our day is to pay the governor of a pri?on as we pay any other public official, and the salary is high enough to command the services of men of honour and education. Tho old style was to give the governorship of a gaol to the highest bidder. Ho ward found many gaols in .England where gaolers had paid large sums to secure tho appointment. At tho beginning of the eighteenth century the Governor of Newgate paid £1,000 for the place, and did not cons-tier the price too much. He became head, as it were, of a penal boarding-house. The poverty-stricken offender got little or nothing to cat, and led worse than a dogfe life in gaol. Tho man who had money at his command fared better, but it was at a heavy cost. There were " select" parts of Newgate, for admission to which a feo of twenty guineas was extracted. Beds had to be paid for in addition. Enormous sums Were charged for specially-cooked meals. One govsrnor is said to havo cleared £1,000 a month from the office, and as ovory uaderg.aoter exacted fees, it will bo inferred that imprisonment after the old style in England not only deprived a man of his liberty, but was apt to rcduco him to beggary.— "Tit Bits.1