comforts, which are so apt to make a man forget that which he ought always to keep in his mind's eye, and to make him overlook, palliate, and even forgive, that which he ought never to forgive. But, as they are resolved that I shall not sink into a sort of inglorious ease, I ought, I am sure, to feel more disposed to thank them for their hostility, however malignantly intended, than to entertain any anger towards them. In fact, they are more entitled to my pity than to either: I will, therefore, without further preface, insert a copy of a letter to Mr. Justice Bailey, and then inform you of the proceedings that have taken place thereon.

TO SIR JOHN BAILEY, KNIGHT.

" SIR,

"Ilchester Jail, September 16, 1820.

"On the 5th of May last, you, in your judicial capacity, as Senior Puisne Judge of the Court of King's Bench, passed the sentence upon me, “that I should be imprisoned in this Jail for TWO YEARS AND SIX MONTHS." I then made an application to you personally, to know if the Court meant that it should be solitary confinement; upon which you warmly replied, "that the Court meant no such thing; that the Court made no such order ;" and you were pleased emphatically to add, "that, in case I should have any reason to complain of my treatment, an application to the Court would be attended to, and that if any grievance should arise, (beyond that of imprisonment), it would be remedied." These, to the best of my recollection, (and I believe that I shall never forget any part of the proceedings of that day,) were your precise words. It appeared to me that you, Sir, at the time, were thoroughly impressed with the conviction, that the extreme length of the period of the imprisonment (being upon a common calculation, FULL ONE QUARTER OF THE REMAINING PART OF MY NATURAL LIFE,) was quite sufficient punishment, without having inflicted upon me any torture; your language and your manner evidently conveyed to the understanding of every one present, that the Court did not contemplate any thing

further than that of safe custody; and, I believe, that this assurance, given by you, Sir, in some measure softened down, in the eyes of the public, that which otherwise was generally considered as a cruel and vindictive sentence.

"I am fully impressed with a belief that I am addressing myself to a gentleman, a man of feeling, a Christian, (and setting aside state policy,) a humane Judge: therefore I shall be very brief and very candid in stating the reasons that have at length induced me to appeal to you, Sir, as a man of honour and integrity, to fulfil the solemn pledge which you made in the name of the Court, to remedy any grievances of which I might have to complain.

"I will not trouble you here with a lengthened detail of the disgusting circumstances accompanying the execution of the privations which I have endured since the 15th May; because, although I know you have been placed by your official duty in a situation, which has imposed upon you the painful and awful task of frequently consiguing your fellow creatures to eternity, with a single breath from your lips; yet I would fain believe that a bare RECITAL of the loathsome practices of this jail, which have been attempted to be exercised upon me, would at once fill your breast with indignation, and freeze your blood with horror. I shall, therefore, merely submit, for the present, that my son, a youth of seventeen, who was in the court at the time, was so astounded at hearing you pronounce the words two years and six months, 'that he fell senseless upon the floor, and would probably have in this way breathed his last, had it not been for the humane and 'skilful assistance of a medical gentleman who happened accidentally to be present. When the information reached my 'home, the unexpected, unexampled severity of the sentence produced such an effect upon the nervous system of one of the female branches of my family, that she was suddenly seized with a paralysis, a total loss of the use of all her limbs, which baffled the skill, the unwearied care, and kind attention of one of the most eminent physicians in the metropolis for five weeks; during which time she suffered in consequence great bodily pain and mental anguish, and was never able to stand one moment alone. Under these appalling

circumstances I was dragged away suddenly from town, without a moment's notice, down to this distant jail, without being enabled to take a parting farewell of my afflicted family. So you will perceive, Sir, that in the execution of the first part of the sentence, I had to encounter no common privations, and to endure no common sufferings; yet, I believe that I should have borne this with silent disdain, together with the accumulated torture of solitary imprisonment, which has since been inflicted upon me here, had not that innocent and unoffending family been again made the victims of my persecution, and rendered more than partici pators in my sufferings. In one word, Sir, after that family had travelled 150 miles in the hope of soothing the miseries of my confinement by their kind attentions, and of softening the rigours of a jail by procuring and providing for me those common necessaries of which, in consequence of my unexpected and hasty departure from London, I stood so much in need, and without which life itself is rendered of very little value; you will scarcely believe it,' Sir, but that family was not only prevented from performing these common acts of kindness and benevolence, but they were literally pro hibited from SEEING me, unless it were under such abhorrent and disgusting conditions as are revolting to human nature, and which would have rendered the interview ten thousand times more distressing to me than even death itself. I have only to add that this unnatural prohibition was inflicted without the slightest cause of complaint having ever been urged against me by any one, the jailor still protesting to me, and to the magistrates, that he never had the shadow of a reason to be dissatisfied with any part of my conduct. I have, therefore, to appeal to your justice to perform your pledge, to interpose so far with the local authorities here, that they may place me upon a similar footing with my co-defendants, Johnson, Bamford, and Healey, who are imprisoned, (although for a much more reasonable period), in Lincoln Castle. I do not mean as to local situation, because it is impossible to render this confined, crowded, and pestiferous jail, equal in comfort to the salubrious, airy, and commodious castle of Lincoln; but I request, with confidence, that

Although I was of opiniou that the Magistrates were almost bound to make some enquiry into such charges as are contained in my letter; yet, personally, I thought that I had no reason to complain, because their declining to do so, was a clear demonstration to me that they intended to do away with all reasonable cause of complaint on my part, since nothing could justify them for departing without making the necessary enquiry, except a full determination to do away with the odious and unnatural restrictions in future. I therefore rest perfectly satisfied that they will not lend. themselves to the disgraceful DRAKE-eyed policy that governed those who made the order at Wells, which was as follows:-"That no female visitors whatever should be admitted to come to see me, except my wife and children.” Now, my friends, what think you of this? when I inform you that there was never before any such order as this mode for any other persons since this jail was built. There are now persons confined in this jail for every species of crime in the catalogue of human depravity:-Some for rapes, some for brutal assaults upon females, one for BEASTIALITY of the most revolting kind, some for forgery, for house-breaking, manslaughter, murder, &c. &c.--yet, not one of these persons is prohibited from seeing his FEMALE friends upon the same terms, and at the same time and place that he sees his MALE friends.-You will not fail to perceive, my friends, how well these humane Magistrates, with the notorious FRANCIS DRAKE at their head, understand the method of inflicting torture upon a political opponent, when they chance to get him into their clutches. Kind souls! they say you may see your wife and children, when they all knew at the time that I had been separated from my wife, by mutual consent, upwards of eighteen years; and that I had no female children. What tender-hearted creatures! They knew that I had sisters, and other female friends and relations, as respectable as their own families, but they took care to exclude all these, and say you may see your wife! Was there ever such mockery of the feelings? Was there ever such canting hypocrisy? Was there ever such refinement upon cruelty? But it may be said, all this will cer

tainly be done away with at the Sessions. I must, nevertheless, intreat you, my friends, to look at the injustice and cruelty that has been dealt out to me for the last two months. I will shew you that this torture was reserved for me alone. I will shew you that they have made these odious rules expressly to torture me.

I will shew you how they have treated other prisoners, and leave you to settle by what motives they have been actuated in their conduct to me. The only other person ever sent here by a sentence of the Court of King's Bench except myself is Mr. Kinnear, who was sentenced for two years for a conspiracy also. I suppose I shall be answered that this was not a political offence, but the court sentenced Mr. Kinnear to be imprisoned in Ilchester Jail for two years, and when I came here as a sentence is a sentence, of course I had every night to expect to be treated as well as this gentleman. After Mr. Kinnear had been in this jail a few days, his treatment at first being very similar to that which 1 experienced on my arrival; he applied to the magistrates for those accommodations which were necessary for his comforts and his convenience, and now let us see what were the rules and regulations of the jail then. The magistrates very properly attended to his request, and he was immediately removed into the Governor's house, where he was accommodated with every thing consistent with reason and common sense. He had a private sitting and bed room, and he took his meals with the Governor's family. He went to, and left there when he pleased, none of his friends, male or female were prevented free access to him at all hours when the jail doors were open, which I believe was from six or seven in the morning till eleveu or twelve at night, at all events, he saw all the visitors male and female that came to the house, and, I believe, that he was never locked into a room the whole of the time, aithough he has never told me so, and I believe a key was never turned upon him more than it was upon the Governor, with the exception of the door at the lodge. Before this, a person by the name of DUNCAN CAMPBELL was sentenced to be imprisoned here for six months for having shot a man at Lansdown fair, near Bath,