e English,
when I saw these poor soldiers! It is no wonder that people who only
see and judge of the Americans by the prisoners, that they conceive us
to be a horde of savages. They see us while prisoners, in the most
degraded and odious light that we ever before saw or felt ourselves
in. I can easily conceive how bad and scanty food, dirt, vermin, and a
slow chronical disease, or low spirits, may change the temper and
character of large bodies of men. I would advise all my countrymen,
should it ever be their hard lot to be again in British bondage, to
exert themselves to appear as clean and smart in their persons, as
their situation will possibly admit. That I may not be accused of
pronouncing the English a cruel people, without proving my assertions,
I will here ask my reader to have recourse to the speech of _Sir
Robert Heron_, made in Parliament, in April, 1816, where he recites
the treatment of the poor in the alms-houses at Lincoln. After a
painful recital of the miserable state of the work-house in that city,
he mentioned "that there were five cells strongly guarded with iron
bolts, not for the reception, of lunatics, but for the punishment of
such _poor persons_ as might fall into any transgression. In each of
these were strong iron staples in the wall and floor, to which the
_poor_ delinquent was _chained_. Among several instances of cruelty,
the worthy Baronet mentioned that a Chelsea pensioner, _seventy years
of age_, and _totally blind_, had been for a _whole fortnight chained
to the floor_, because he had been drunk! That a very young girl,
having contracted a certain disease, had been chained in a similar
manner to the floor, lest she should contaminate others. Would it be
believed, said Sir Robert to the House, that _one chain fixed round
her body, had been weighed, and was found no less than twenty-eight
pounds weight_!"--From what I have heard of the generous turn of the
_Prince Regent_, his sympathetic heart would be moved to compassion
for these two frail mortals, the one very old, the other very young.
But what are we to think of his master, the magnanimous _John Bull_? I
believe a soldier feels more of the martial spirit when in uniform,
than in a loose drab coat. The same feeling may extend to a judge in
his robes, and to a parson in his gown. They all may feel braver, more
consciencious, and pious, for this "outward and visible sign," of what
the inward ought to be.

These poor soldiers were, of