be wretched,
and several humane persons had made charitable bequests for their
support. Colonel Oglethorpe's Committee made inquiry as to the
employment of these charities, and disclosed incidents of singular
villainy. It appeared, for instance, that in the Marshalsea there were
several charities; and that the prisoners might be sure of benefiting
by them, it was arranged that they should elect six constables, and
that these constables should choose a steward, who was to receive and
disburse the charities. Like a corporation, the steward had a seal
which he appended to the receipts for the money received for the
charities. The officers of the prison had carried on a systematic
perversion of these charities, either through connivance of the
steward elected by the constables, or by imposing on him. In the year
1722, however, it happened that a man named Matthew Pugh, an active,
clever exponent of abuses, was chosen steward. He discovered several
charities, the knowledge of which had been entirely suppressed, the
proceeds being drawn by the officers of the prison. He found, that to
facilitate their fraud, they had got a counterpart of the common seal,
with which they certified the receipts. Pugh got a new seal made; and
to prevent a new system of fraud being carried out, he got a
safety-chest fixed to the prison wall, with six locks, requiring for
opening it six separate keys, which were put into the hands of the six
constables. The committee, in describing how audaciously these
precautions were defeated, shew distinctly how slight were the checks
on the conduct of prison-officers in the reign of George II. They say:
'But this public and just manner of receiving and disbursing the
charities was disliked by the keeper and his servants; and they
complained to the judge of the Palace Court, and gave information that
the said Pugh was a very turbulent fellow, and procured a rule by
which it was ordered, that Matthew Pugh should no longer be permitted
to have access to the said prison or court; and the prisoners are
allowed to choose another steward; and accordingly, John Grace, then
clerk to the keeper, was chosen steward by those in the keeper's
interest; but the constables, in behalf of the prisoners, refused to
deliver up the keys of the chest, where their seal was, insisting that
all receipts should be sealed as usual in a public manner, that they
might know what money was received; and thereupon the said chest was
broke d