he arrival in this
country of the account of the ratification of the treaty of Ghent,
an increased degree of restlessness and impatience of confinement
appears to have prevailed amongst the American prisoners at
Dartmoor, which, though not exhibited in the shape of any violent
excesses, has been principally indicated by threats of breaking
out if not soon released.

On the 4th of this month in particular, only two days previous to
the events which are the subject of this inquiry, a large body of
the prisoners rushed into the market-square, from whence, by the
regulations of the prison they are excluded, demanded bread
instead of biscuit, which had on that day been issued by the
officers of the depot; their demands having been then almost
immediately complied with, they returned to their own yards, and
the employment of force on that occasion became unnecessary.

On the evening of the 6th, about 6 o'clock, it was clearly proved
to us, that a breach or hole had been made in one of the prison
walls, sufficient for a full sized man to pass, and that others
had been commenced in the course of the day near the same spot,
though never completed.

That a number of the prisoners were over the railing erected to
prevent them from communicating with the sentinels on the walls,
which was of course forbidden by the regulations of the prison,
and that in the space between the railing and those walls they
were tearing up pieces of turf, and wantonly pelting each other in
a noisy and disorderly manner.

That a much more considerable number of the prisoners was
collected together at that time in one of their yards near the
place where the breach was effected, and that although such
collection of prisoners was not unusual at other times (the
Gambling Tables being commonly kept in that part of the yard) yet,
when connected with the circumstances of the breach, and the time
of the day, which was after the hour the signal for the prisoners
to retire to their respective prisons had ceased to sound, it
became a natural and just ground of alarm to those who had charge
of the depot.

It was also in evidence that in the building formerly the petty
officers' prison, but now the guard barrack, which stands in the
yard to which the hole in the wall would serve as a communication,
a part o