“A fit—he’s not in a fit!” (He was standing on his feet.)
“Nonsense,” said the governor, “he never had a fit. If this man has any more of his tricks report him to me.”
Further, the governor had sent the supervisor to bring up the prisoner for this same feigning of a fit, and had sentenced him, without medical testimony, to three days’ bread and water. Yet this very Chinnery had been in the prison under a previous sentence, and had been lodged always next door to a warder, so that assistance might always be at hand when he had a fit.
The next charge was that the governor had sentenced three boys for opening their Bibles in church, to seven days’ bread and water, censuring them for such conduct, “which he considered irreverent.” (The words are Baker’s.)
The third charge was that a prisoner who had assaulted and wounded a warder with a pair of scissors, had not only been flogged, but the governor had specially sentenced him to be deprived henceforward of all instruction, religious or moral.
The fourth charge referred to a prisoner, Bourne, whom it was alleged the doctor had neglected, refusing to see him, although he was actually in a dying state. At length the officer of his ward sent specially to the doctor, who came and had Bourne removed to the infirmary, where he died two days afterward. “It was the governors plain duty to have prevented such a catastrophe,” said Baker.
Fifth: a prisoner, Harris Nash, died of dysentery after three months of the ordinary discipline. “The body was what may be termed a perfect skeleton.”
Sixth: another prisoner, a boy, Richmond, from Edinburgh, died after four months, having been confined in a dungeon on one pound of bread and two pints of water per diem, for an unlimited number of days. At night he lay upon the boards and had only a rug and blanket to cover him.
Seventh: several prisoners who had been present at the infliction of corporal punishment had immediately after hanged themselves, shocked by the sight they had seen.
Eighth: many instances were quoted of the governor’s harshness and partiality: fines inflicted unequally, old officers punished through his misrepresentation, others deprived of their situations as inefficient, though for years they had been considered efficient; while several had resigned sooner than submit to such tyranny.