THE GOVERNMENT'S DISGRACEFUL TERMS OF REMISSION
With just two months remaining of John Collins' and William Lovett's 12 month sentence as political prisoners in Warwick Gaol the British government (Melbourne administration) became so ashamed of their treatment of the two men that they magnanimously (and illegally, according to one Member of Parliament) offered to release the two men from prison under their own recognizance of £50 to keep the peace for the next 12 months.
Had the prisoners accepted the government's conditions of release they would in effect have been silenced for a further 12 months beyond their prison term and, additionally, would infer their admission of guilt. Instead, they completed their sentence and Collins was able to tour the country and help revive the flagging chartist movement from the moment he was released from prison.
Below is Lovett and Collins' reply to The Queen’s Secretary of State for the Home Department, together with a letter from Collins to a Birmingham supporter announcing his intention. Also letters to the editor from the well-known chartist William Cardo and the Scots Times that appeared in the Birmingham Journal:
Had the prisoners accepted the government's conditions of release they would in effect have been silenced for a further 12 months beyond their prison term and, additionally, would infer their admission of guilt. Instead, they completed their sentence and Collins was able to tour the country and help revive the flagging chartist movement from the moment he was released from prison.
Below is Lovett and Collins' reply to The Queen’s Secretary of State for the Home Department, together with a letter from Collins to a Birmingham supporter announcing his intention. Also letters to the editor from the well-known chartist William Cardo and the Scots Times that appeared in the Birmingham Journal:
|
"Warwick Gaol, May 6 1840
"To the Right Hon the Marquis of Normanby, "Her Majesty's Secretary of State for the Home Department "My Lord: "The visiting magistrate of the county jail of Warwick having read to us a communication, dated Whitehall, May 5, and signed S. M. Phillips, in which it is stated that your Lordship will recommend us to Her Majesty for a remission of the remaining part of our sentence, provided we are willing to enter into our recognizance in £50 each for our good behavior for one year, we beg respectfully to submit the following as our answer. To enter into any bond for our future good conduct would be an admission of past guilt; and however a prejudicial jury may have determined that the resolutions we caused to be published, condemnatory of the attack of the police, were a violation of the law of libel, we cannot bring ourselves to believe that any criminality attaches to our past conduct. "We have, however, suffered the penalty of nearly ten months' imprisonment for having, in common with a large portion of the public press, and a large majority of our countrymen, expressed that condemnatory opinion. We have been about the first political victims who have been classed and punished as misdemeanants and felons, because we happen to be of the working class. Our healths have been injured, and our constitutions seriously undermined by the treatment we have already experienced; but we are disposed to suffer whatever future punishment may be inflicted upon us, rather than enter into any such terms as those proposed by your Lordship. "We remain your Lordship's most obedient servants, "William Lovett & John Collins – Warwick Jail, May 6, 1840." |
|
"Warwick Gaol, May 6 1840
"Dear Barlow,
"I am now enabled to inform you, that all suspense respecting my liberation is now at an end, and that I am to remain in prson till the expiration of the full term, for which I was sentenced, unless I will consent to enter into my own recognisance, in 50 pounds sterling for twelve months from the time of my liberation, which I cannot think of for one moment.
I had been led to hope that I should have been enabled to have supported my wife and children by my own industry, in a few days, and so have relieved my friends from this trouble, but I am thus prevented. What may be their opinion of my refusal to do so, I know not; but this I know, I cannot consent, even by implication, to acknowledge myself guilty of a breach of the peace, whatever may be the consequences.
"Whilst I regret, extremely, the necessity that exists for my family remaining a burden to any of my friends, yet I must leave them in the hands of the committee for a few weeks longer; nor do I think that they will neglect them, after having so generously attended to them til now. Mr Lovett joins me in best respects to Messrs. Ashmore, Thompson, Bridgewater, and all friends, and believe me,
"Dear Barlow, yours truly,
"John Collins"
"Dear Barlow,
"I am now enabled to inform you, that all suspense respecting my liberation is now at an end, and that I am to remain in prson till the expiration of the full term, for which I was sentenced, unless I will consent to enter into my own recognisance, in 50 pounds sterling for twelve months from the time of my liberation, which I cannot think of for one moment.
I had been led to hope that I should have been enabled to have supported my wife and children by my own industry, in a few days, and so have relieved my friends from this trouble, but I am thus prevented. What may be their opinion of my refusal to do so, I know not; but this I know, I cannot consent, even by implication, to acknowledge myself guilty of a breach of the peace, whatever may be the consequences.
"Whilst I regret, extremely, the necessity that exists for my family remaining a burden to any of my friends, yet I must leave them in the hands of the committee for a few weeks longer; nor do I think that they will neglect them, after having so generously attended to them til now. Mr Lovett joins me in best respects to Messrs. Ashmore, Thompson, Bridgewater, and all friends, and believe me,
"Dear Barlow, yours truly,
"John Collins"