One very material objection to this machine arises out of the probability of abuse in the places where it is generally erected; an air of mystery has been thrown round houses of correction, which has acquired for some of them the odious name of bastile; even grand juries have been denied admission to them, on the ground that they are the prisons of the magistrates, not of the sheriff; we certainly do not understand either the policy or propriety of this distinction; that they should not be thrown open to the idle or merely curious we are ready to admit, but contend that they should be open to all official inspection; much must in every prison depend on the conduct and discretion of the jailors—to know that he is open to public animadversion is the best security for the due exercise of his office: a contrary assurance is well calculated to produce despotic feeling in ordinary minds; how much more then is it to be guarded against, when persons of the lower class are entrusted with extraordinary power of coercion, and are continually irritated by the refractory conduct of those who are placed under their authority. In such cases constant inspection, at uncertain times, and by _uninterested_ persons, is the best guarantee against abuse.
While this work was in the press several circumstances have occurred which it may be necessary to notice; first, as respecting the corporate medical bodies, His Majesty has been pleased to confer additional honors on the President of the College of Physicians, for which see the Preface;—the College itself is about to be removed from their late house in Warwick Lane to a more convenient site among the new buildings of Pall Mall East. A new charter has been granted to the College of Surgeons, but as it is not yet confirmed by Act of Parliament, it does not materially vary the public right of the College, or supply what was wanting in their jurisdiction. The Apothecaries’ Company have very properly exerted their powers under the Act of _55 Geo._ iii, for punishing illegal practice.[110]
The Marriage Act which is incidentally referred to, vol. i, p. 169, is in part repealed by an act of the last session, which in turn is about to be amended or repealed in the present. The _Portsmouth case_, _adhuc sub judice_, affords some curious illustrations on the subjects of impotence and insanity.