[List-Cumbria] Carlisle Patriot, 08 Feb 1823 - Local News (2)

[Petra Mitchinson]

Saturday 08 Feb 1823   (p. 2, col. 5 and p. 3, col. 2-3 + 5)     [continued] 

 

In consequence of a letter, or petition, addressed to the High Sheriff, drawn up by a person named BROWN, a debtor under
confinement, and signed by all, or nearly all, his fellow-prisoners, in a similar situation, Mr. BLEAYMIRE, the Under Sheriff,
arrived here on Monday last, to inquire into the state of the gaol. The petition asserted, we understand, that the Police
Magistrates, in their great zeal for the Public Office, had committed vagrants infected with typhus fever, thereby hazarding the
lives of every inmate of the gaol, unable to fly from the contagion. Mr. ANDERSON, the surgeon, attended Mr. BLEAYMIRE in his
investigations, and, by a statement of facts, convinced that gentleman of the gross exaggerations and injurious aspersions of the
complainants. Some time ago, a man, his wife, and several children, were brought from Thursby, vagrants, by the parish-officers, and
left in a cart, on a wet day, at the entrance of the Police-office, in a totally helpless state; and a county magistrate sent them
to gaol, under the vagrant act, from the double motive of humanity and obedience to the statute:—a woman, with a young child, had
also been committed as a vagrant. The House of Correction is small, and ill-ventilated. The family alluded to were grossly filthy in
their habits, and there they lay in a state quite sufficient to generate a contagious disease. They were ill in succession, whether
of typhus fever or not, Mr. ANDERSON could not decide under the circumstances; they got better, and were enlarged; but one of the
children has since unequivocally shown typhoid symptoms. The poor woman was in the last stage of a consumption when committed, her
child was horridly diseased, and both have since died, and would probably have died in any situation. Mr. BROWN, the turnkey,
however, displayed decided cal [sic] symptoms of typhus, last week, was removed to the fever-house, and, we are sorry to add, died
on Tuesday morning. The manner in which the Police has been coupled with these unfortunate circumstances, both in the letter to the
Sheriff and in the Carlisle Journal, shews a wish to make the most of them. "We are sorry to hear (quoth the Journal) that from the
over anxiety shewn by the Police-officers of that excellent institution called the 'Police-office' in apprehending persons begging
in the streets (whom probably hunger and starvation have compelled to seek that precarious subsistence) and committing them to
prison, where they are allowed to associate with debtors, and other prisoners committed for minor offences, has been the means of
introducing that dreadful malady the typhus fever amongst them, and has, we are informed, exposed to the contagion upwards of
seventy persons, who are unable to fly from its horrid effects. Surely the magistrates ought to order such persons to undergo an
inspection by some medical gentleman before they run the risk of endangering the lives of the unfortunate individuals whom the
pressure of the times have immured within the walls of prison, by compelling them to associate with vagrants tainted with contagious
diseases. The activity of the Police-officers is easy to be accounted for, for by a late Act of Parliament they are entitled to 5s.
for each vagrant they apprehend, and who shall be committed to prison." The meaning of this is obvious enough: the cloven-foot,
however, is too visible to deceive. If the new vagrant act allows 5s., the old one allowed 10s.; but we are assured by a Magistrate
that the officers of the Police obtain only one shilling for each vagrancy conviction; so that their activity is not quite of so
mercenary a cast as the Journal wishes to represent. With regard to the committal of vagrants to our gaol, candour compels us to
admit, that in its present wretched and insufficient state, when classification is impossible, it would be much better to dispose of
them in some other way; but we should bear in mind, that if there is danger in sending these wanderers into a prison, when infected,
there is still more danger in permitting them to wander from town to town, and house to house. It is uncertain whether the fever was
carried into the gaol, or generated there: however this may be, means have been adopted to eradicate contagion by fumigation and
white-washing. We will not insult the Magistrates by further defending them against the insinuations which we have noticed. 

 

The week before last, Mrs. MILLIGAN of the Black Cock public house, near Whitehaven, met with an accident as extraordinary and
dreadful as we ever heard of. On the day in the evening of which the accident occurred, Mrs. M. had been washing, and had left the
tubs on the kitchen floor. Some company in the parlour called for warm water, which Mrs. M. went to procure, and hastening back with
a jug, she ran against one of the tubs, fell, broke the jug, and her neck coming in contact with one of the fragments before it had
found its horizontal position, the rough edged fragment cut her throat in front of the wind pipe, in a most ghastly and dangerous
manner; an artery being divided, she bled most copiously, losing little less than three quarts! A doctor was immediately sent for,
and the neighbours, who had of course been called in, used every means they could, to arrest the hæmorrage, till he arrived, when
the wound was sewed up, and the sufferer was put to bed. She is in a fair way of recovery.—Cumb. Pacquet. 

 

Mr. Thomas WILSON, of High-house, St. Bees, has now in his possession six ewes, which have yeaned ten lambs since the commencement
of the present year, all of which are likely to do well. 

 

The corporation of Newcastle are at present pulling down the Merchants' Court, commonly called the Maison Dieu, on the Sandhill,
with an intention of rebuilding it to face down the Quay, with a fish-market underneath. A small erection in the coroner [sic] of
this building, occupied by a barber, has literally become a freehold, by the corporation not having exacted an annual
acknowledgment, and the owner of it is asking an exorbitant sum to quit, which the corporation, it is said, has declined giving. It
will, therefore, probably be left standing when the old building behind is levelled, and must wait the effects of the first high
wind. The present occupant pursued his vocation while a customer could be found hardy enough to sit patiently under the operator,
with such a dreadful pother over his head. 

 

The Hon. C. E. LAW, second son of the late Lord Ellenborough, and John MIREHOUSE, Esq. have been elected Common Pleaders for the
City of London. 

 

The Commissioners of Roads for the County of Dumfries perceiving the dangerous state of the bridge over the river Annan, at that
burgh, have at last found ways and means to erect a new one;—in all probability it will be begun in a few weeks. 

 

A woman, who had formerly been a servant with a respectable farmer in the neighbourhood of Dumfries, being about to leave the
country, to join her husband in England, fell upon the expedient of "raising the wind" for her journey, by calling at the shops of
several of our merchants, with written orders for goods on account of her late master, in the course of Tuesday last. These orders
were readily answered, and she decamped with the spoils next day for England, arriving at Carlisle on Saturday. Meantime, some one
of the sufferers, who entertained suspicions, having made enquiries, found that several of his neighbours had furnished goods on
similar orders, and to a considerable amount. Inquiries were next made as to the genuineness of the orders, which turned out to be
perfect fabrications. Pursuit was instantly made, and the culprit having been seized at Carlisle, was lodged in our jail yesterday,
after undergoing an examination before the Sheriff. The whole property, we are glad to hear, has been recovered.—Dumfries Courier. 

 

The Cumberland, GRAYSON, from St. John's, N. B., is arrived at Liverpool. 

 

Spoken at sea—The Mayflower, from Whitehaven for Antigua, on the 17th ult. in lat. 47, 42, lon. 12, 58. 

 

 

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