[Illustration: THE ANCIENT RIVER FLEET, AT CLERKENWELL, 1825.]
Howard, writing in 1789, held that capital punishment should be abolished except for _murder_, _setting houses on fire_, and for _house breaking, attended with acts of cruelty_. And speaking of his Penitentiaries, he says:
"To these houses, however, I would have none but old, hardened offenders, and those who have, as the laws now stand, forfeited their lives by robbery, house breaking, and similar Crimes, should be committed; or, in short, those Criminals who are to be confined for a long term or for life....
"The _Penitentiary houses_, I would have _built_, in a great measure, _by the convicts_. I will suppose that a power is obtained from Parliament to employ such of them as are now at work on the Thames, or some of those who are in the county gaols, under sentence of transportation, as may be thought most expedient. In the first place, let the surrounding wall, intended for full security against escapes, be completed, and proper lodges for the gate keepers. Let temporary buildings, of the nature of barracks, be erected in some part of this enclosure which would be wanted the least, till the whole is finished."
This was a portion of his scheme, and he suggested that it should be located, where it was afterwards built, in Cold Bath Fields--because the situation was healthy, that good water could be obtained from the White Conduit, as the Charter House no longer required that source of supply, it being well served by the New River Company--that labour was cheap--and so was food, especially the coarse meat from the shambles at Islington.
The prisoners were to have separate cells, so as to prevent the promiscuous herding of all, which had previously produced such mischievous results, and these cells were to be light and airy. The convicts of both sexes were to _work_, and their food was to be apportioned to the work they had to do. Also--a very great step in the right direction--they were all to wear a prison uniform. Howard, philanthropist as he was, was very far from lenient to the rogue. He was fully aware of the value of _work_, and specially provided that his rogues, in their reformation, should pass through the purifying process of hard labour. In later times, the way of transgressors was hard in that place, and it became a terror to evildoers, being known by the name of the _English Bastile_--which, however, amongst its patrons, was diminished, until it finally was abbreviated into "the Steel" by which name it was known until its abolition.[42]
