ecured in that Prison is admitted, but that more than a
few, Compared with those who are confined in the Prisons
of the County, and tried at the Hicks-Hall Sessions, are
sent thither by the Justices, is absolutely denied. And
how fallacious that Method of Estimation must be, which
represents the Prisoners sent to Newgate by the County,
as Two to One of the London Prisoners will appear by
the following State of Facts. The County have several
Goals, for the Delivery whereof they hold, eight Times a
Year, Sessions of their own; at those Sessions Petty Larce-
nies and Misdemeanors of all Kinds are tried, but the moe
atrocious Offences are tried at the Old Bailey ; sometimes
indeed Offenders of this latter King are committed, in the
first instance, to Newgate , where they remain till the Old
Bailey Sessions begin, which likewise are held eight Times
a Year; but these are not One in Fifty, and much oftner
are they sent to New Prison , Bridewell , and the other
Prisons of the County,and there they remain, till, in Pur-
suance of an Order of the Old Bailey Session, made in
May, 1726, doubtless for the Ease of the Court, they are
from Time to Time removed Six Days before the Session
begins, to be ready for Trial; and, after Trial, very few
remain for any Length of Time in Newgate; Hence it
appears that the City have the Custody of Middlesex Pri
soners, triable at the Old Bailey , for Six Days before, and
during every sessions, which very seldom hold a Week; Sup-
pose them we estimate their Time of keeping County Prisoners
at a Fortnight for each Sessions, it will follow that Four
Months in the Year is the utmost Time for which, with
Truth, the City may be said to have the Custody of Coun-
ty Prisoners, unless sometimes, by Accident, a few may
wait for Transportation, The Allegation of a Proportion
of Two to One against the City, would lead a Stranger to
the Belief that the County had no Goals of their own, and
that, all the Year through, and without any Intermission,
the Justices were sending in Prisoners to Newgate , in the
Proportion above mentioned, and that the City keep then
as long as they do their own Prisoners; The Facts above
stated are the Truth of the Case, and that Fallacy of the
City's Allegation is apparent.

Here it may be observed, that that respectful Obedience
which the County have always paid to the Order of the
Old Bailey Session, is what the Citizens Mean, when they
complain that the County Prisoners are Crowded into their
Goal.

The County of Middlesex have two Prisons, besides
Tothill-Fields Bridewell , which they built, and do main-
tain; and in these, though, except about Sessions Time,
they are generally full, no malignant Disease hath ever yet
appeared, and had the same Care been taken to prevent
the Accumulation of Filth in Newgate , as had been exer-
cised in the County Prisons, that malignant Disease, of
which the Citizens so loudly complain, had very likely
never appeared among them.

The great Stress which is said on the Circumstance of a
malignant Disease, makes it necessary to revert to Fact
that it is extremely fitting the Public should be acquainted
with. On the 27th of April, 1750. a great Number of
Persons, attending the Old Bailey Sessions, in a Crowed
Court, and uncommonly warm Weather, were seized
with a Fever, Communicated, as is generally supposed, by
the infection of the Newgate Prisoners, of which Disease
to the Number of about Forty Persons, among whom
were two of the King's Judges, and the Mayor of London
lost their Lives. The late Sir Michael Foster< no role > , one of the
Judges of the Court of King's Bench , has thought fit to
perpetuate this disastrous Event, in a Volume of Reports,
published by himself; and enquiring into the Causes of it,
Assigns for one, the Filthiness of the Goal, and the Avenues
to it.}
These

The Residue of this Paragraph goes to the real Merits of
the Question, between the City and the County of Mid-
dlesex, and there the City will Gladly meet them,

It is amitted, that County Prisoners are Secured in
this Prison, but it is said, that there is a Fallacy in the
City's Allegation, that the Proportion of the County
Prisoners to London Prisoners, is as Two to One.-If the
City should be mistaken in the Proportin, they will be
glad to be set right. They desire nothing more them that
the true Proportion may appear, but they are well assured,
their Calcution is Just.

The County say, they will make out the Fallacy of the
City's Allegation, by a State of Facts. Without following
the County into the Detail of their Facts, which is very
carelefsly penned, and wherein there are very great Mis-
takes, it will be a full Answer to their Argumentative
Proof of a Fallacy, to say the City too have their Goal and
their Sessions. That the London Prisoners are sent to
Newgate , in the same Manner as the Middlesex Prisoners,
viz. The Most atrocious Offenders are committed their in
the first Instance, other are sent from the Compters six Days
before the Session, under the same Order of the Old Bailey
Sessions, made in the Year 1726, and the City keep them
just as long as they do the Middlesex Prisoners, and no
longer.

If Fact,the Time for which the City have the
Custody of the County Prisoners (which is very ingeni-
ously but a little too necely Calculated, in the opposite
Column, at four Months in the Year only) rather in-
creases the Proportion against the City, and the County will
Probably admit this, and not their State of Facts, to be
the Truth of the Case, when it occurs to them that they
had quite forgot that there are Middlesex Debtors to be
taken into the Account, of whom there have been in
Custody in this Goal, in the Course of the last ten Years,
a Thousand and Fifty-fix, and only Forty-fix from London:
There remain in the City's Custody all the Year through,
without any Intermission and therefore swell the Propor-
tion, as has been observed, against the City,

It is somewhat extraordinay, that the County should so
entirely have forgot their Debtors, for whom there is no
other Goal but Newgate, when they were collecting the
whose Truth of a Case, in order to detect a Fallacy in the
City's Allegation.

Now they are put in Mind of them, it is to be hoped
they will attend a Moment to their wretched Situation, in
a Place little better than a Dungeon, on the North Side of
Newgate .

This Observation, which is repeated in another Part of
the Case, is not warranted by the Work crowded, in the
Sense in which that Word is used in the City's Petition, where
it is applied to the whole Number of Prisoners of London
and Middlesex , taken together, and not to the County
Prisoners only, and therefore will not admit of this Con-
struction.

The City of London will not be provoked by the most
ungenerous Treatment, to say any Thing harsh; but they
must insist that the County claim a Merit in respect of the
Management of their Prisons, which they are not intitled
to. It is a Fact, that the same malignant Disease which
the City so loudly complain of, hath frequently appeared
in the prisons refer'd to, and hath frequently been com-
municated from those Prisons to Newgate , and it deserves
Consideration, whether it would not be prudent and a
wife Measure among the Arrangements to be hereafter made
in the Goals, to prevent that Communication altogether.

For the rest.bet the Compiler of this Case indurge his
Petulance at the Expence of the City, if he pleases.But
it is barbarous to revive the Memory of that unhappy Ac-
cident which happened at the Old Bailey , to would many
Families, whose Relations, Friends, and Connections were
involved in that Calamity, only for the sake of an ill-natured
Comment

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