THE GAOL CHAPLAIN:*

OR, A DARK PAGE FROM LIFE'S VOLUME.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

SOLITARY CONFINEMENT.

Occupation is a blessed relief to the miserable. Of all the ingenious modes of torture that have ever been invented, that of solitary confinement is probably the most cruel-the mind feeding on itself with the rapacity of a cormorant when the conscience quickens its activity, and prompts its longings.

FENIMORE COOPER.

POUNCE was right. The authorities had decided that this unfortunate man, Lyppyatt, should have an opportunity of forming his own opinion of that terrific punishment, solitary confinement. The culprit was noisy, vehement, and ungovernable. No advocate, however friendly, could defend his conduct, for it was subversive of all discipline. But still, after lengthened consideration of the subject, and highly favourable opportunities for ascertaining its tendency, I hold it to be a punishment which no human being has a right to inflict upon another. Its results are too frightful, its tortures are too great, its penal consequences are too permanent. Lacerate the body, if you will; punish the man, if the dire extremity of the case call for it, even with the lash; subdue a thoroughly rebellious and ungovernable spirit by the infliction of spare diet; subject the refractory prisoner to severe and continuous labour; abridge his period of relaxation, and enlarge his period of toil; feed him "with the bread of affliction, and with the water of affliction;" but spare the intellect. Tamper not with the mysterious empire of the mind. That leave to the judgment and award of THE GREAT ETERNAL.

I know that this is not the popular doctrine; I know that farsighted statesmen and fluent legislators have insisted on the "utility" of solitary confinement, and have averred that "it is a system which must be, and ought to be, carried out to its utmost practicable extent." Indeed! Is this conclusion-arrived at after lengthened experience, and on competent authority-to be wholly disregarded:Solitude always developes insanity in those who have been insane before, just as the tread-mill brings out phthysis in those predisposed to

it."

Is utter indifference to be ours, as to the diversified suffering and anguish which this new and desperate punishment has inflicted upon numbers of our fellow creatures? Are consequences to the individual never to be weighed by us? There are those, let us remember, towards whom society ought not to forget its duties, because they

The following errata occur in our last number:

Page 293, line 13 from bottom, for fume at, read fume at it.

294, line 8 from bottom, for the pleasure with which I frequent the Coverley bowling green is to this hour indescribable, read the pleasure with which

I frequent to this hour the Coverley bowling-green is indescribable.

298, line 6 from bottom, for in the memory, read in memory.

299, last line, for fear, read fears.

have, unfortunately, forgotten their duties towards it. There are those-helpless, it is true, and in our power-who have a right to say to us, "Proportion our punishment to our misdoing; macerate, if so it please you, the bodily frame, but abstain from the infliction of secret and daily torture of the brain."

Mine, I know, is tender ground; but on paper, if nowhere else, I may venture to say, that the advocates of the system have little reason to felicitate themselves on its success. It is matter of public record, that at the Spinning House at Cambridge, where there are two cells termed solitary, the keeper has declared that "he is afraid to confine them (the women) for a longer period than eight or ten hours, lest they should commit suicide, two having attempted to strangle themselves!" Nor is this horror of solitary confinement entertained by female prisoners only. The surgeon of Brecon county gaol observed, that "SOLDIERS placed in solitary cells suffer much both in body and mind-in winter additionally, from the coldness of the cells. They have complained to him of the want of books, and have said, that they would rather be hung than remain there." The medical officer of the Spalding House of Correction remarked, "I only visit the prisoners in solitary confinement when sent for; but I scarcely recollect one who has not sent for me, and in the generality of cases I have found it to be the mind that has been affected" But all these statements, sad as they are, yield, in point of horror, to the Monmouth tragedy. There the tendencies of this system were fully developed. Its warmest advocate must shrink from such a result of his theory. During a recent year, in the month of February, a man "died in Monmouth County Gaol, apparently from fright. He was put into a solitary cell, and was found dead the next morning. There were no indications of the cause, excepting congestion of the brain. There was a rumour that the cell was haunted. He was a fine and powerful man. The verdict ran, "Died from apoplexy, produced by the effect of a superstitious dread of solitary confinement" Some of the prisoners heard him cry out. The turnkey thought him low-spirited when he placed him in the cell. On the previous day the deceased told a companion that he was going into solitary confinement, and that he feared he never should live the week out. He added that there was some one walking there."

And yet this, we are told, is "a reformatory punishment," a punishment which will effect, if any human penalty can effect, amendment in the most hardened and callous offender!

It was to be tried upon Lippyatt. The order ran:—

"For refractory conduct, misbehaviour, and insolence, three days solitary."

He

Towards the close of the second day I took care to see him. was considerably altered in appearance; the mind seemed shaken. He complained to me of shadows passing across the cell, and that at times a large white bird perched itself at the foot of his bed, and jeered and jabbered at him. He implored me to intercede in his favour, and obtain his release, otherwise he was sure he should be tempted to make away with himself. I combated his terrors in the best manner I was able, and, with a faint promise of a representation in his behalf, at which he caught with affecting eagerness, I left him.

VOL. XV.

2 E

Mr. Trounce was the first visiting justice I encountered, and to Mr. Trounce I told my tale.

"Mr. Cleaver," responded that magistrate, with a most forbidding air, "I do not recognise your right to utter one single syllable upon this subject. Confine yourself, sir, I beg, to matters spiritual."

"My intention, believe me, is good," said I, returning to my point, undeterred by his frowns, and quite impervious to his rebuff. "You will remember, sir, that, ten days since, in the gaol of the adjoining county a prisoner in the solitary cell nearly effected selfdestruction, by cutting up his blanket into strips, and using it as a halter."

"Well! and what then?"

"This: that should poor Lyppyatt be driven to any similar attempt, it would, I am sure, be as painful to you as to me. He is on the verge of insanity at this moment."

Mr. Trounce looked at me with features rigid as marble, and at length, in a cold, unfeeling tone, replied,

This morbid sensitiveness relative to these degraded men, of whom, I repeat, Mr. Cleaver, you are the spiritual teacher, not the medical officer, is wholly superfluous, and very incomprehensible. This gaol, sir, is fortunate enough to possess a surgeon, in receipt of a certain salary, charged with certain definite duties; and when he acquaints me that this man's mind is affected by the endurance of solitary confinement, I am, and shall feel, bound to listen to him."

"But this wretched captive is a sailor; his life has been passed chiefly in the open air; exercise and exertion have been his the day through; and now, independent of solitude, this change to a small, damp, ill-ventilated cell cannot be otherwise than most injurious.” "He should have considered all these points before he came here," was Mr. Trounce's rejoinder.

"But, circumstanced as he is now, should not we consider them for him?"

"I don't see that," returned the visiting justice doggedly. "At all events, your enumeration of them will not avail him. Lyppyatt you will not liberate, and to yourself do no small injury. I detest," said he vehemently, "your grievance-hunters, and shall make a mental memorandum of the conversation you have addressed to me this morning."

I had reason enough to remember that "mental memorandum" subsequently.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

THE ENGLISH MATE AND THE RUSSIAN EMPEROR.

You may depend upon it that he is a good man whose intimate friends are all good, and whose enemies are characters decidedly bad.

LAVATER.

"WHAT availeth complaint from the friendless? It excites no attention, awakens no sympathy!" was poor Sheridan's remark, a few hours before his death. It is a brief but bitter indictment against the powerful; and mightily was I tempted to re-echo it, on receiving, ten minutes after my interview with Mr. Trounce, a further repulse from another acting magistrate.

"I decline all interference," was his prompt comment on my narrative. "I cordially approve of solitary confinement as a punishment, and am confident that this man-Lyppyatt do you call him? -will be the better for its infliction during the rest of his life."

"And my persuasion is equally strong-pardon my franknessthat he will be infinitely the worse. It will not contribute in any degree to the reformation of his refractory and rebellious propensities."

"Why?"

"Because imprisonment in a dark solitary cell-the change from solitude in light, in which a man may work, and, to a certain extent, amuse himself, to solitude in darkness, where he can do neither the one nor the other-is viewed by the sufferer as an unjust aggravation of that amount of misery and torture to which he is bound, as a prisoner, to submit. It will serve but to harden and strengthen him in his wickedness."

"Defective reasoning! anything but that of a philosopher!" said my companion. "No profound thinker would thus argue!" And he turned away with a sneer.

"It is well," was my rejoinder, "if I act as a man ;" and I instantly resolved to search out the surgeon. He readily agreed to accompany me to the refractory cell. It was below the ground, and reached by a flight of steps from the main passage of the prison; damp, without light or ventilation, and piercingly cold.

"This will never do," whispered the doctor, after he had attentively regarded the prisoner's appearance, felt his pulse, and weighed the answers returned to his questions. "He must have an hour's exercise in the yard forthwith; in fact, the man's system is sinking under his punishment; that must be suspended for the present. Tell him this while I go and see the keeper, and, if he is obstinate, tender to him a formal written certificate. I am glad I accompanied you. The visit is most opportune; for another night of solitary confinement, and the morning would have found this fellow a maniac."

The gratitude of Lyppyatt may be readily imagined, and the terms in which that gratitude was expressed interested even that matterof-fact person the surgeon.

"That's no common seaman," said he, when we saw him together the next morning. "No "fo'castle Jack' could turn out his sentences 'taut' and square in that fashion."

"He is no common seaman," was my reply, "but the master, and, I believe, owner of a vessel, which has had contraband goods on board, and which the revenue officers have seized, he declares, unjustly. It is a perplexed and intricate history; and I have never cared to inquire into it, because I understood some actress of questionable character to be mixed up with the disclosure. He is ruined, poor fellow."

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"To a certainty, if he has trusted a petticoat with his secrets." The doctor was a bachelor, the world said a disappointed" one. With him it was evidently post meridiem, and its surest sign the readiness with which he snarled at the sex.

"Ruined by an actress! eh? Well, his predicament is not singular. He's not the only man who can date his overthrow from so attractive an associate. Harkee, my man, have you no friends, no relatives,

none that can intercede for ye with Government, and procure the release of your vessel ?"

"I think I possess some claim," replied he moodily, "upon the favourable consideration of Government. I ought to have. Services rendered to royalty are generally remembered. Another would make much of them; but in my case 'tis hopeless. Disaster tracks

me like a shadow."

"Tut! man," cried the surgeon cheerily, "'tis always darkest just before break of day. But as to services, of what description may yours have been, either to state or sovereign?"

"I speak not of myself," was his reply, "but of another. When the Duke of Kent held the command at Gibraltar, my father, then a young man, perilled his life for him. You have heard, perhaps, the story? The Duke, misled by bad advisers, shut up the wineshops, and the consequence was a mutiny, or something very near akin to it, among the soldiery. Matters for some hours wore an awkward appearance, and at length the Duke was counselled to reconsider his order, and finally to cancel it."

"He was the scape-goat," said the doctor, aside to me. "His royal father never forgave him the blunder he had committed in issuing the order, and the minister of the day never digested the concession he had made to insubordinate spirits in cancelling it. In all respects the results were melancholy. As to the Duke, they threw a shade, unjustly enough, over his military career to his dying hour. Well, my man, what followed ?"

"Four days afterwards, when the hubbub had ceased, and the affair was apparently forgotten, the Duke was recognised in a steep narrow street, leading up to the ramparts. It was a bad part of the town, chiefly inhabited by Jew-salesmen and vintners of the lowest class. As ill luck would have it, the Prince was on foot, and unattended. He was mobbed; threats were uttered; stones were thrown. There was an evident intention to injure him. My father was bargaining with a ship's chandler for some slops wanted on board the Maid of Devon,' when he heard a strange outcry, groans, hisses, and oaths shouted in every language under heaven. Turning round, in the centre of a crowd, he spied the Prince, and quick as thought understood his dilemma. One moment, and he stood by his side; the next he felled an ill-looking blackguard, who had approached his Royal Highness nearer than my father judged polite or necessary, warded off a sharp missile from another quarter, and, in doing so, received a hurt, the scar of which he carried with him to his coffin. That stone was aimed at the Duke, and, had it hit him fairly, the probabilities are, there would have been no Princess Victoria. The guard soon came up, and at the first sound of their measured tramp the assailants slunk away. My father was thanked, his name, and that of his ship, were asked; and a young officer, called Wetherell, I believe he rose the ladder of promotion so high as to become a general,-told my father that neither his name nor his assistance would be forgotten. But nothing came of it."

"Have you now, since you have been in trouble, represented these facts in the proper quarter?"

"I have, but vainly; no notice was taken of my application. I wanted backers. They are indispensable in England. My mate succeeded better at Odessa."