62. But, not only is the patient, in a hospital, thus so much more amply fed than the working man; the _prisoners in the jails_; aye, even the _convicted felons_, are fed better, and much better, than the working men now are! Here is a fine "_Old England_;" that country of "roast beef and plumb pudding:" that, as the tax-eaters say it is, "envy of surrounding nations and admiration of the world." Aye; the country WAS all these; but, it is now precisely the reverse of them all. We have just seen that the _honest labouring man_ is allowed 2-5/7_d._ a day; and that will buy him _a pound and a half of good bread a day_, and no more, not a single crumb more. This is all he has. Well enough might the Hampshire Baronet, SIR JOHN POLLEN, lately, at a meeting at Andover, call the labourers "_poor devils_," and say, that they had "_scarcely a rag to cover them_!" A pound and a half of bread a day, and nothing more, and that, too, _to work upon_! Now, then, how fare the prisoners in the jails? Why, if they be CONVICTED FELONS, they are, say the Berkshire jail-regulations, "to have ONLY BREAD and water, _with vegetables_ occasionally from the garden." Here, then, they are already better fed than the honest labouring man. Aye, and this is not all; for, this is only the _week-day_ fare; for, they are to have, "on Sundays, SOME MEAT _and broth_!" Good God! And the honest working man can never, never smell the smell of meat! This is "envy of surrounding nations" with the devil to it! This is a state of things for Burdett to applaud.
63. But we are not even yet come to a sight of the depth of our degradation. These Berkshire jail-regulations make provision for setting the convicted prisoners, in certain cases, TO WORK, and, they say, "if the surgeon think it necessary, the WORKING PRISONERS may be allowed MEAT AND BROTH ON WEEK-DAYS;" and on Sundays, of course! There it is! There is the "envy and admiration!" There is the state to which Mr. Prosperity and Mr. Canning's best Parliament has brought us. There is the result of "_victories_" and prize-money and battles of Waterloo and of English ladies kissing, "Old Blucher." There is the fruit, the natural fruit, of anti-jacobinism and battles on the Serpentine River and jubilees and heaven-born ministers and sinking-funds and "public credit" and army and navy contracts. There is the fruit, the natural, the nearly (but _not quite_) ripe fruit of it all: the CONVICTED FELON is, if he do not work at all, allowed, on week-days, some vegetables in addition to his bread, and, on Sundays, both _meat and broth_; and, if the CONVICTED FELON work, if he be a WORKING convicted felon, he is allowed _meat and broth all the week round_; while, hear it Burdett, thou Berkshire magistrate! hear it, all ye base miscreants who have persecuted men because they sought a reform! The WORKING CONVICTED FELON is allowed _meat and broth every day in the year_, while the WORKING HONEST MAN is allowed _nothing but dry bread_, and of that not half a belly-full! And yet you see the people that seem _surprised_ that _crimes_ increase! Very strange, to be sure; that men should like to _work_ upon meat and broth better than they like to work upon dry bread! No wonder that _new jails_ arise. No wonder that there are now two or three or four or five jails to one county, and that as much is now written upon "_prison discipline_" as upon almost any subject that is going. But, why so good, so generous, to FELONS? The truth is, that they are _not fed too well_; for, to be _starved_ is no part of their sentence; and, here are SURGEONS who have something to say! They know very well that a man may be _murdered_ by keeping necessary food from him. Felons are not apt to lie down and _die quietly_ for want of food. The jails are in _large towns_, where the news of any cruelty soon gets about. So that the felons have many circumstances in their favour. It is in the villages, the recluse villages, where the greatest cruelties are committed.