De wet van 1842 vermeldt, dat in de Marshalsea Prison_ook gevangenen van de
Admiraliteit werden ondergebracht: Volgens Grant werden in de Marshalsea Prison
ondergebracht officieren en anderen, die door de militaire rechtspraak van de Royal
Navy waren veroordeeld wegens muiterij, desertie, e.d., alsmede personen
gearresteerd wegens schulden of 'confempf of Court' door het 'Patace Court'.
Alinea 2 van Book 1, ch.6 in Little Dorrit is dus correct:
Itsel a close and confined prison for debtors, if contained wifhin it a much closer
and more confined jail for smugglers. Offenders againsf the revenue laws, and
defaulters to excise or customs who had incurred fines which they were unable to
pay, were supposed to be in-carcerated behind an iron-plated door closing up a
second prison, consisting of a strong cell or two, and a blind alley some yard and a
half wide, which formed the mysterious termination of the very limited skiffle-ground in
which the Marshalsea debtors bowled down their troubles.
Supposed to be incarcerated there, because the time had rather outgrown the
strong cells and the blind alley. In practice they had come to be considered a little
too bad, though in theory they were quite as good as ever; which may be obeserved
to be the case at the present day with other cells that are not at all strong, and with
other blind alleys that are stone-blind. Hence the smugglers habitually consorted with
the debtors (who received them with open arms], except at certain constitutional
moments when somebody came from some Office, to go through some form of
overlooking something which neither he nog anybody else knew anything about. On
these truly British occasionss, the smugglers, if any, made a feint of walking into the
strong cells and the blind alley, while this somebody pretended to do his something;
and made a reality of walking out again as soon as he hadn't done it - neatly
epifomissing the administration of most of the publico affairs in our right little, tight
little, island.
Van de Marshalsea Prison is een beschrijving en plattegrond opgenomen van
William Jenkins, de Deputy Marshal. Hef rapport van 1818 vermeldt:
ti appears to us that this prison, although the greater part of this prison was built
only about six years ago, is in may particulars much inferiorto that of the Fleet, and to
the generalty of modern prisons. The form amd dimensions of the building will be best
understood by the plan, and by the description of the prison given by the witness
William Jenkins, both of which we have caused to be annexed hereto.
The boundary wall comprehends so contracted a space, and the body of the
building is in all parts so near to it, as to leave no sufficient area for any active exercise
except walking; nor is there any convenience for any sort of exercise in bad
wheather; but there is contiguous to the wall on the outside, a void space of ground
of about two hundred and seventy-eight feet by fort-five feet, which, if purchased
and securely inclosed, might be made to contriute to the comfort, health and
cleanliness of the prisoners, and would afford the means of im-proving. the drains.
The prison is separated into two divisions, one called the Admiralty division, and is
appro-prated to criminal prisoners, but does not appear to have beèn used for some
