Criminal Prisions of London and Scenes of Prison Life

II. London Labour And The London Poor

By HENRY MAYHEW.

Three volumes, 8vo, price U. 2s. Qd.} cloth, THE LONDON STREET FOLK.

COMPRISING!,

Stkeet Beggars. I Street Performers.

Street Sellers. J Street Artizans.

Street Einders. j Street Labourers.

The Extra Volume, price 10s. 6d.f cloth, THOSE THAT WILL NOT WORK.

comprising,

Prostitutes, I Swindlers,

Thieves, | Beggars.

By Several Contributors.

III. One large volume 8vo, price 10s. 6d. cloth

THE PRISONS OP LONDON,

AND

By HENRY MAYHEW.

With Numerous Illustrations from Photographs.

THE

CRIMINAL PRISONS

OF LONDON

AND

SCENES OF PRISON LIFE.

BY

HENRY MAYHEf,

AUTHOR OF "LONDON LABOUR AND THE LONDON POOR."

AMD

JOHN BINNY,

AUTHOR 0? " THIEVES AND SWINDLERS/' IN " LONDON LABOUR AND THE LONDON POOR."

WITH iEFIJIMIEIROTJS ILLUSTRATION'S FROM PHOTOGRAPHS.

LONDON: GRIFFIN, BOHN, AND COMPANY, STATIONEES' HALL COUET.

MDCCCLXII.

LONDON:

T. HABRIiD, P^^R> SHOS LAKE, i

HEM STREET.

ADVERTISEMENT.

The present volume completes the series of papers on the lower phases of London Life, so ably commenced by Mr. Henry Mayhew.

In the first portion of " London Labour and the London Poor/1 the respectable portion of the world were for the first time made acquainted with the habits and pursuits of many thousands of their fellow-creatures, who daily earn an honest livelihood in the midst of destitution, and exhibit a firmness and heroism in pursuing "their daily round and common task" worthy of the highest commendation. Yet these had long been regarded as the dangerous classes, as men and women who were little higher than Hottentots in the scale of civilization ! The publication of Mr. Mayhew' s investigations, illustrated by the recitals of the people themselves, for the first time led to a knowledge of the poorer world of London, of which the upper classes knew comparatively nothing. Acquaintance with disease is half way towards its remedy, and the knowledge thus acquired, has led to various ameliorations of the hardships undergone by these classes, and to a better understanding between the various ranks of society, although much still remains to be done.

In the second department of the series " Those who will not work," Mr. Mayhew and his able assistants have laid bare the really festering sores of London, and have shown which are in reality the dangerous classes, the idle, the profligate, and the criminal j those who prey upon the health and the property of others, and who, or many of whom, would not be tolerated in any other European capital. Here, however, the extreme jealousy with which the law guards the liberty of the subject when not engaged in any criminal act, so ties up the hands of the executive, that vice is allowed to parade itself with the most brazen effrontery.

In the present volume the readers will, also for the first time, find a complete ' account of the Criminal Prisons of London, compiled, like the preceding portions of the work, from actual investigations, mostly made within the walls, or supplied by the officers connected with them. It is scarcely necessary to point out the great contrast which the prisons of the present day present to those of the past century and the early part of the present. Formerly the only object in view was punishment, occasionally of the most careless leniency, and at other times of the most iy

ADVERTISEMENT.

atrocious severity. Criminals were allowed to go on from crime to crime, and from bad to worse, until the police of the day thought them sufficiently advanced for promotion to the penal colonies, or to the gallows, which was ever crying out for fresh victims ; prevention was unthought of, punishment was regarded as the only means of repressing crime. Modern philanthropy has pointed out the better and the cheaper course; it pleads that it is the duty of the State to see that the children of the poor should be taught the difference between right and wrong, and to take such measures with regard to crime that if its prevention be impossible, detection and punishment shall be almost a matter of certainty, not of chance.

Of the punishment of crime this volume more particularly treats. Prisons were formerly hotbeds of vice : prisoners, young in crime, came out confirmed miscreants. Old offenders of the gravest description and young misdemeanants were herded together, and reformation was a thing unknown. Now times are changed ; prisons are places of punishment ; idleness, which was formerly the rule, is now almost banished, and consequently, the habits of order and industry, which are forced upon all inmates, are so irksome to the idle, that prisons are in reality places of punishment, and to be avoided. Still better, they are reformatories also; the prisoner is now taught that honesty is not only the best but the happiest policy, and the majority of persons who have completed their term, at least all but confirmed delinquents, leave the walls of the prison with the determination of not again breaking the law.

The publishers think it right to state that, in consequence of Mr. Mayhew's absence from England, they placed the completion of the volume in the hands of Mr. Binny, who has supplied all after page 498. They also take thist opportunity of thanking the governors and the various prison authorities for the facilities they have rendered and for much useful information supplied.

Stationers5 Hall Cotria, April, 1862.