Prisoners of War in Britain 1756 to 1815 by Francis Abell

Author:Francis Abell [Abell, Francis]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780722277379
Google: tNpCAAAAIAAJ
Publisher: H. Milford
Published: 1914-01-15T04:16:28+00:00

‘Dartymoor’s bettern they deserve anyway. I should like to know what’s too bad for them as makes war on us. ’Tis only naked savages, I should have thought, as would dare to fight against the most civilized and God-fearing nation in the world.’

Finally, it is much to be feared that the jacks-in-office and petty officials at Dartmoor, secure in their seclusion as they thought, were exacting and tyrannical to a degree not ventured upon in other places of confinement more easily accessible to the light of inspection, and unsurrounded by a desert air into which the cries of anguish and distress would rise in vain.

All the same, it was not long before the condition of prison life in Dartmoor became known, even in high places.

In July 1811, the Independent Whig published revelations of the state of Dartmoor which caused Lord Cochrane, member for Westminster, to bring the facts before the notice of the House of Commons, but he expressed his disappointment that his exposure had been without result, asserting that the Government was afraid of losing what little character it had. He declared that the soil of Dartmoor was one vast marsh, and was most pestilential. Captivity, said he, was irksome enough without the addition of disease and torture. He asserted that the prison had been built for the convenience of the town, and not the town for the convenience of the prison, inasmuch as the town was a speculative project which had failed. ‘Its inhabitants had no market, were solitary, insulated, absorbed, and buried in their own fogs.’ To remedy this it was necessary to do something, and so came about the building of the prison.

The article in the Independent Whig which attracted Lord Cochrane’s attention was as follows:

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.