a night have been given for a bed; but the usual price is from fourteen shillings to one guinea per week. Mr. Brooshooft says, that some delay necessarily takes place in the delivery of chum tickets, and that it is sometimes difficult to provide situations on the emergency of the moment, fitted to the station of life of the claimants, and who are therefore inclined either to look out for themselves, and find a lodging in the prison, or to wait, in the expectation of some one going out, when they can succeed to the

yacant room.

The rule of chummage is, that the person who has been longest in prison keeps his room free from having another prisoner chummed on it, till all the rooms held by those of a junior date to himself have each a prisoner chummed on them. The system purports to be one of rotation; and if the prisoner be poor, and wishes to be bought out, he is chummed upon one who can afford to pay him; if he wish to remain, he is placed in the room of a person who will keep him, and he has accordingly a chum ticket upon the youngest prisoner in one or other of these classes.

Your Committee sat several days within the prison, and have endeavoured to understand the manner of delivering of the chum tickets; but though there be a rule stated to exist, by which this delivery is regulated, yet it appears that so many exceptions are made to that rule, that the whole system seems to be one of favouritism and partiality, and liable to great abuse. It is in evidence that, contrary to the orders, and, what is more extraordinary, without the knowledge of the Marshal of the King's Bench, the turnkeys, criers, waiter at the coffee-house, &c. hold rooms within the prison, which they furnish and let to prisoners, the criers and the waiter at the coffee-house having no wages or salary, but deriving a portion of their income from this resource. It was also admitted by Mr. Morris the chum-master, and confirmed by Mr. Brooshooft, and by some of the parties themselves, that a person by the name of Gore was a prisoner within the walls of the prison; that as such he was chummed on a room; that he paid out his companion; that he furnished the room and let it ; and that, though he be now out of the prison, living with his wife within the rules, being also an assistant tipstaff, he was permitted to keep possession of the room, and to let it to prisoners at the rate

of 20s. per week. It appears also, that Mr. Morris and Mr. Brooshooft were both acquainted with all the circumstances of the case, and voluntarily winked at the abuse.

Your Committee have also to observe, that the whole management of this branch of the economy of the prison seems most de fective. Though the Marshal has published an order, that extras vagant demands shall not be made by one prisoner on another, and that no alterations shall be attempted in any of the rooms, and that a system of antient date for the successor to a room to buy the fixtures, and pay for the alterations of his predecessor, should be broken through, and no longer be permitted to exist, yet the prac tice is most prevalent, and several witnesses have declared that they have paid considerable sums of money for what were called fixtures. Though no evidence went directly to prove the fact, as having recently occurred, yet Your Committee feel themselves warranted in declaring it to be their opinion, that there appears to be an understanding in the prison on the part of some of the officers, to chum those persons only in particular rooms who are enabled to be at the expense of making these purchases, Great abuses prevail in the whole system, and the orders and regulations of the Marshal are nugatory. Of the 192 rooms in the prison, though there were 440 prisoners within the walls, 80 were occupied singly; many of the other rooms were occupied by 6 persons, or more, of the poorer classes. Mr. Burnet, à prisoner, and by profession a surgeon, and who gratuitously attends the sick, in formed Your Committee, that such was the crowded state of some of the rooms, and the consequent offensive smell, that, if he had not been used to an hospital, he could not have borne it; and that a corpulent patient under his care was getting into a bad way, from the crowded state of his apartment.

Mr. Brooshooft says too, that there is no limit imposed by, the rules of the prison to any number of prisoners as shall so think fit, crowding together in the same room, the effect of rapacity on one side, and necessity on the other; and that if ten persons were to lie together, no one would interfere. In some of the rooms, when Your Committee visited them, there were 5 or 6 persons; not including women and children, of whom there were within the walls, on the 13th of March, 180,

The prison was formerly divided into Master's Side and Poor Side; that distinction has long ceased, though there are a few of the lower rooms, at the back of the prison, exclusively occupied by the poorer classes. Those may be considered however on the poor side, who receive the 3s. 6d. per week under an Act of Parliament, and who swear they are not worth 107. in the world, as well as those who are entitled to the charities and the proceeds of the poor's box, and who take an oath that they cannot command 51.

terms:

Besides the 440 persons confined within the walls of the prison, there were 220, on the 13th of March, who enjoyed the benefit of the rules; these rules extend in circumference about two miles and a half. But it is ordered by a rule of the court of King's Bench, of the 35th Geo. III. that all taverns, alehouses, and places licensed for public entertainment, should be excluded out of and deemed no part of the said rules. With these exceptions, and with the permission of the Marshal, any prisoner for debt may live in any house within the precincts of the above-mentioned district. The Marshal, on an application for this permission, takes security from the applicants by way of indemnity for the debt with which they stand charged; and the purchase is made on the following -If the prisoner takes the rules for a debt of 1007. or more, 8 guineas is demanded for the bond, stamp, and other fees, and 4 guineas for every succeeding 100%.; if the sum be large, and the security good, a fee is sometimes taken in a smaller proportion; if the debt be under 100l. 6 or 5 guineas are demanded. But in many instances the rules are given without expense and some persons are now within the rules, who have paid nothing for that permission the Marshal indeed grants these rules as a mode of clearing the prison, and in 1813, a great number of persons were admitted to them by a public notice circulated in the prison, which gave that liberty upon the claimant finding proper security, and paying only for the stamp. The profits arising from the rules are very considerable; Mr. Jones states, that he once received 300%. from one person for granting them; and that the annual average value of this source of his emoluments amounts to 2,6001.

There are also day-rules, which any prisoner can obtain during term time, by permission of the Marshal, upon sending a petition to the clerk of the day-rules, which petition is presented to the

court of King's Bench, and the liberty is so granted; the fee paid on this by each prisoner, is 4s. 2d. which is divided in the manner set forth in the table of fees. The safe return of the prisoners within the rules, is considered as sufficiently secured by their recognizances: and those within the walls, give a bond to the tipstaff, renewable every term, the expense of which is 3 guineas. When the sum for which a prisoner is detained is small, and under 6007. the tipstaff can of his own authority, and at his own risk, consent to his applying for a day-rule; when the debt amounts to a larger sum, a special application must be made to Mr. Jones, who requires security before he will consent to the rule; but in case of a prisoner not being able to find such security, he may avail himself of a day-rule, by giving the tipstaff one guinea, who furnishes a man to take care that the person does not escape, on whom the expense of maintaining this guard falls; the prisoner may be out of the prison from nine in the morning to nine at night. The profits to the Marshal from the day-rules, amount to 2231. per

annum.

Besides these, there is a manner by which a prisoner has been permitted to go out of the prison, which is known by the name of a "run on the key." It is a liberty granted by some of the officers of the prison to any of the prisoners, to go into the rules for the day. The Marshal, being examined upon this practice, stated,. that he had discovered that such permission had during the last year been given, that he censured his officers for acting so improperly, and that if he detected them in the repetition of the act, they should certainly be discharged from their situations. Your Committee have not only discovered that the practice, though diminished in its extent, still continues, but that money is taken for that permission; one of the prisoners stated to your Committee that he paid, and Mr. Morris acknowledged that he received, a one pound note, which was to have been divided among the turnkeys, who considered themselves, if the prisoner escaped, as liable for the debt with which he stood charged. Mr. Brooshooft however thinks differently from the Marshal upon this subject; he has thought proper to tell the Committee, that though the Marshal has forbidden it, he should have no difficulty, if a gentleman came to him on the morrow, and intended to go out either to his attorney or to buy any thing of

which he stood in need, in granting him that indulgence; «and that he should think it extremely odd if he had not a right to act for himself in many cases.' The nature of the situation of Mr. Brooshooft, beyond that of private clerk to Mr. Jones, your Committee have not been enabled to learn: he appears to have the sole direction and management of the prisoners, and is known to the prisoners by the name of the Deputy Marshal, and described as such: but his conduct in this respect, to say the least of it, is in direct opposition to the orders of his superiors, and your Committee think it their duty to mark their sense of the impropriety of such a procedure,

The receipt of money on the part of the turnkeys opens a wide field for every species of abuse; and the mere circumstance, of their considering themselves as liable to the payment of the debt, neither lessens the impropriety of disobedience to the commands of a superior, nor changes the real nature of the transaction, which is neither more nor less than the taking of a bribe to commit a breach of their duty.

The present system of the rules is of considerable long standing; but your Committee are of opinion that it ought to be subjected to some regulations. It would perhaps be too severe an aggravation of the law of arrest, to deprive prisoners of the liberty of the rules altogether; but, as the practice now stands, the fraudulent, no less than the honest and unfortunate debtor, can, upon the payment of a sum of money, place himself in a situation that can hardly be called imprisonment, by which he eludes the sentence of the law, and may dissipate that fortune which, in justice, is no longer his own. It appears to your Committee, that the Marshal ought not to be permitted to exact such large sums from the persons who apply for the liberty of the rules. As a mode of relief to the crowded state of the prison, he occasionally grants that permission, upon the parties finding security for the debt and the payment of the law expenses; and there therefore seems to be no reason why the practice should ever be otherwise, except that of enabling the Marshal to derive a large income from those sources. The sum of 2,6001. per annum is surely much too large to be drawn from the pockets of debtors; as it is ever to be remembered, that whatever is paid by that unfortunate, though sometimes criminal class of