The ordinary business connected with bankruptcy is conducted before commissioners, of whom there are five, who sit in Courts provided for them in one building in Basinghall Street. The chief judge in bankruptcy cases is one of the Vice-Chancellors, who sits in Lincoln's Inn. There is also a Court for the relief of Insolvent Debtors, conducted by three Commissioners, who hold their sittings in a Court, somewhat more suitable in its appearance than are the County Courts, and more convenient in its arrangements, situated in Portugal Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields.

There are eleven Police Courts, presided over by magistrates for the metropolis and its suburbs, exclusive of Courts of a similar character for the city only, held at the Mansion House and Guildhall, presided over by the Lord Mayor and an Alderman, for the investigation of criminal charges previous to committal for trial, and for the decision of minor charges of disorderly conduct, trifling misdemeanors, &c.

PRISONS.

In 1796 there were eighteen prisons in London, some of them of very ancient date. Newgate (the City gate) was a gaol in the reign of King John. The prison-house pertaining to one of the Sheriffs of London, called the Compter, in the Poultry, hath been there kept and continued, says Stow, time out of mind, "for I have not read of the original thereof." About 1804, the old Poultry Compter became too much out of repair to be used as a prison, but the night charges were still taken there. The Marshalsea and King's Bench were both very ancient prisons. In 1381, the rebels of Kent, says Stow, "brake down the houses of the Marshalsea and King's Bench in Southwark, took from thence the prisoners, brake down the house of Sir John Immorth, the marshal of the Marshalsey and King's Bench," &c. It was to the latter prison that Henry, Prince of Wales, afterwards Henry V., was committed by Judge Gascoigne, for striking him when on the bench. During Lord George Gordon's riots the King's Bench was thrown open, about 700 prisoners released, and the prison set on fire. The Marshalsea was so called from having been originally placed under the control of the Knight Marshal of the royal household. Its jurisdiction extended twelve miles round Whitehall, the City of London excepted. The persons confined there before its discontinuance in 1842 were pirates and debtors; and it contained sixty rooms and a chapel. This prison stood near St. George's Church in the Borough. The King's Bench originally stood near the Marshalsea, in the Borough High Street. In Stow's time there was a prison in Southwark, called the White Lion, on St. Margaret's Hill (now called the High Street), near St. George's Church: it was originally the county gaol for Surrey, before the one in Horsemonger Lane was built, at the suggestion of Howard. It was called the White Lion, “for that the same was a common hostelrie for the receipt of travellers by that sign;” that is, it was probably built on the site of an inn so named. Stow says: "This house was first used as a gaol within these forty years last," and it was then the county gaol for Surrey. In the thirteenth century the postern of Cripplegate was used as a prison, "whereunto such citizens and others as were arrested for debt, or common trespasses, were committed, as they be now (says Stow) to the Compters." Speaking of Ludgate, he says: "This gate was made a 'free' prison in 1378;" and in 1382, "it was ordained that all freemen of this City should, for debt, trespasses, accounts and contempts, be imprisoned in Ludgate; and for treasons, felonies, and other criminal offences, committed to Newgate." Bridewell was given by Edward VI. to the City in 1553, to be a workhouse for the poor and idle persons of the City. The Tower was the great state prison, from the middle ages down to the present times.

The number of the metropolitan prisons is now only thirteen. The Fleet Prison and the Marshalsea were discontinued in 1842, and the prisoners (debtors) were transferred to the Queen's Bench, now called the Queen's Prison. It is situated at the bottom of the Borough Road, Southwark, contains 224 rooms, and the number of debtors has often exceeded 500. The new Act for its regulation abolishes the dayrules. The old practice was for the "rulers" to pay ten guineas for the first £100, and five guineas for each succeeding £100, for which they were in custody. Liberty to go out of the prison for three days was purchased at the rate of 4s. 2d. for the first day, 38. 10d. for the second, and 3s. 10d. for the third. These days were specified on the "liberty tickets." Of course good security was given to the Marshal that the "rulers" should not decamp. The emoluments of this officer in 1813 were stated to be £3590 a year, of which £872 arose from the sale of beer, and £2823 from the rules. The regulations of the prison are now to be framed by one of the Secretaries of State; and the Act provides for the classification of the prisoners. The Borough Compter, removed to Mill Lane, Tooley Street, was formerly used exclusively for debtors from the Borough of Southwark; but in consequence of the crowded state of Giltspur Street Compter, it is now occupied by convicted women: forty-five are there confined, and the inspector, in his fourteenth report, gives a favourable account of its state. The prison in Whitecross Street is exclusively a debtors' prison for London and Middlesex. Debtors are also confined in the Surrey County Gaol, Horsemonger Lane, and in the Westminster Bridewell, Tothill Fields; both likewise prisons for criminals. Debtors were confined in Newgate and Giltspur Street before the prison in Whitecross Street was built. The late Sir Richard Phillips, in a letter on the 'Office of Sheriff,' published in 1808, said:"The very circumstance of being committed for debt to Newgate has a tendency to degrade an unfortunate individual, more than confinement from the same cause in any other prison."

It is very probable that the majority of the prisons will never be seen by the casual visitor to London; but this is not the case with Newgate, and its use is at once apparent, for there is not a more characteristic edifice in London, and it is admirable both in spirit and design. Old Newgate prison, built after the fire of 1666, was partly pulled down to make room for the present edifice and partly destroyed during the Lord George Gordon riots in 1780. The new building was begun in 1770, and not completed till 1783. It is from the designs of George Dance, who also built the Mansion House. At the commencement of the present century nearly eight hundred prisoners were confined at one time in Newgate, and in consequence of its crowded state a contagious fever broke out. Many improvements have been made since this period. In 1810, in consequence of the strenuous exertions of Sir Richard Phillips, a committee of the Common Council passed a resolution for building a new prison for debtors; and in 1815 Newgate ceased to be a debtors' prison, the debtors being transferred to Giltspur Street Compter. This latter place ceased to be a debtors' prison in consequence of the erection of Whitecross Street prison. In 1811 public attention was strongly directed to the subject of penitentiary houses, and some attempts were made at a classification of the prisoners in Newgate. Still it has often been stigmatised as one of the worst managed of the large prisons of England. The casual offender, committed on some slight charge, was thrust into the companionship of beings scarcely human, men transformed into demons by the vilest passions, and a life nurtured from infancy in the lowest depths of vice and infamy; the young were placed with the old, the healthy with the sick, the clean with the filthy, and even the lunatic was there the sport or the fear of the prison. From the contaminating nature of such association there was no escape, and the young offender

came out of prison fit for any desperate scheme of villainy. "I scruple not to affirm," says Howard, "that half the robberies committed in and about London are planned in the prisons by that dreadful assemblage of criminals and the number of idle people who visit them." Should the uninitiated in crime at first shrink from intercourse with the prison rabble, he was subjected to every species of annoyance until, openly at least, he was compelled to embrace the brotherhood. His contumacy, so long as it lasted, became the subject of mock trials, in which generally the oldest and most dexterous thief acted as judge, with a towel tied in knots hung on each side of his head for a wig; and he was in no want of officers to put his sentences into execution. Garnish," or "footing," or "chummage" (for it was called by all the three names), was demanded of all new prisoners. Pay or strip," was the order, and the prisoner without money was obliged to part with a portion of his scanty apparel to contribute towards the expense of a riotous entertainment, the older prisoners adding something to the "garnish" paid by the new-comer. The practice of the prisoners cooking their own food had not been long discontinued in 1818. Among other objectionable practices were the profits which the wardsmen derived from supplying prisoners with various articles, so that often they benefited by means which tended to promote disorder. The difficulty of introducing a proper classification of prisoners in Newgate led the Parliamentary Committee on Metropolitan Gaols, in 1818, to propose the classification of the prisons themselves, as Newgate for felonies before trial, and other prisons for different classes of convicted offenders.

It is now nearly forty years since the late philanthropic Mrs. Fry commenced her well-known attempts to improve the female prisoners in Newgate; and notwithstanding that gradually a number of improvements have taken place in the discipline and administration of Newgate, it is still defective, and radically so, for the present building does not admit of the application of a proper system of discipline. In 1836 the Inspectors of Prisons justly found fault with the evils of gaolcontamination which prevail within its walls. The prisoners were enabled to amuse themselves with gambling, card-playing, and draughts. They could obtain, by stealth it is true, the luxury of tobacco and a newspaper. Sometimes they could get drunk. Instruments to facilitate prison-breaking were found in the prison. Combs and towels were not provided, and the supply of soap was insufficient. In 1838 the Inspectors reported, that "this great metropolitan prison, while it continues in its present state, is a fruitful source of demoralization." In their Report (the Seventh), dated 5th April, 1843, the Inspectors say :-" It has been our painful duty again and again to point attention to the serious evils resulting from gaol association and consequent necessary contamination in this prison. The importance of this prison in this point of view is very great. As the great metropolitan prison for the untried, it is here that those most skilled in crime of every form, those whom the temptations, the excesses, and the experience, of this great city have led through a course of crime to the highest skill in the arts of depredation and to the lowest degradation of infamy, meet together with those who are new to such courses, and who are only too ready to learn how they may pursue the career they have just entered upon with most security from detection and punishment, and with greater success and indulgence. The numbers committed, nearly 4000 per annum, which have rapidly increased, and are still increasing, render this a subject of still greater moment. Of this number about one-fifth are acquitted; many of these return to their associates with increased knowledge and skill in crime; with lost characters; with more hardened dispositions from their association here with others worse than themselves; and with their sense of shame and self-respect sadly diminished, if not utterly de