own, and carried away by the said William Acton (the keeper)
and John Grace.'--_Parliamentary History_, viii. 736. Hence the deaths
from starvation reported by Colonel Oglethorpe's Committee.

The reports of the committee were varied by statements of atrocious
cruelties committed on the prisoners, by their committal, whenever the
prison-officers thought fit, to damp and loathsome dungeons full of
filth, by heavy irons being forced on them, and even by the
application of the thumbkins, and other such tortures as were applied
in the previous century to the Covenanters. Thus, after narrating an
attempt made to escape, and the severities used on those who had
participated in it, the committee say: 'One of them was seen to go in
(to the keeper's lodge) perfectly well, and when he came out again, he
was in the greatest disorder; his thumbs were much swollen, and very
sore; and he declared that the occasion of his being in that condition
was, that the keeper, in order to extort from him a confession of the
names of those who had assisted him and others in their attempt to
escape, had screwed certain instruments of iron upon his thumbs, so
close, that they had forced the blood out of them with exquisite pain.
After this, he was carried into the strong room, where, besides the
other irons which he had on, they fixed on his neck and hands an iron
instrument called a collar, like a pair of tongs; and he being a large
lusty man, when they screwed the said instrument close, his eyes were
ready to start out of his head, the blood gushed out of his ears and
nose, he foamed at the mouth, and he made several motions to speak,
but could not: after these tortures, he was confined in the strong
room for many days with a heavy pair of irons called sheers on his
legs.'

It is not to be denied that some of the charges made by the committee
were not ultimately confirmed. It is natural for humane men, becoming
for the first time acquainted with extensive cruelties, to tinge their
narrative with the indignation they feel, and thus give it a
prejudiced and exaggerated tone. Even committees of the House of
Commons are not entirely exempt from such failings. But for our
purpose, which is that of noticing the progress of civilisation and
humanity in the period that has elapsed since the inquiry, it is
sufficient to know, that there must have been an extensive foundation
in facts for the horrors detailed by the committee. If it could not be
distinc