Item Info

Accession Number: 87-527
Physical Description: [1] page
Transcription:

3 Hanover Terrace, Regents Park

Twenty Fifth March, 1861.

Dear Sir

I have read your pamphlet with much interest; the rather, as I have often tried hard to attract attention to the enormous absurdity of the separate solitary system, and to the great harm done to society by the proceedings of injudicious chaplains.

In the course of the ensuing month I shall hope to render some little aid towards making your views better known.

Dear Sir

Faithfully Yours

Charles Dickens

C. P. Measor Esquire

MssDate: Twenty Fifth March 1861
Media Type: Letters
Source: Rare Book Department
Notes:

The pamphlet mentioned is The Convict Service: a Letter to Sir George Cornewall Lewis [Home Secretary], 1861, by C. P. Measor, Deputy-Governor, Chatham Convict Prison.

"The main target of Measor's attack on prison-chaplains was the Rev. Joseph Kingsmill, Chaplain of Pentonville. Measor's comments on the guillibility of chaplains are close to CD's in "Pet Prisoners", HW, 27, Apr 50, 1, 97; as is his criticism of the separate system and of the "monstrously" increased cost of the convict prisons. Measor published further pamphlets on the punishment of convicts." (Pilgrim vol. 9, p. 395, n1-2)

CD wrote Thomas Beard on the same day about Measor's pamphlet, and Beard's notice of the pamphlet, "A Dialogue concerning Convicts", appeared in AYR, 11 May 61, v, 155. (Pilgrim v. 9, p. 396n)

Recipient: Measor, Charles Pennell
Provenance: Benoliel, Mrs. D. Jacques 11/57

Bibliography:

 The British Academy Pilgrim Edition: The Letters of Charles Dickens, Volume Nine, 1859-1861. Graham Storey, ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997, p. 396.

Country: Creation Place Note:3 Hanover Terrace, Regents Park
Country:England
City/Town/Township:London

Creation Year: 1861
Call Number: DL M463 1861-03-25
Creator Name: Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870 - Author