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 Old French Prisons.

36.5

OLD FRENCH PRISONS.

THE CONCIERGERIE. THE prisons of France were formerly considered merely as places of deten tion for persons accused of offenses and crimes (custodia reoruni), and not as means of punishment. Punishment was either capi tal or corporal; the former consisted in death, or the galleys for life; the latter in branding, banishment, the galleys for a term, or temporary confinement in a hospital or house of correction. According to this prin-

had not too frequently rendered prisons the eternal abode of misfortune and persecution. Under the early princes the prisons con sisted of subterranean dungeons, destitute of air, light, and fire, where the bed and the pillow were of stone, and where the prisoners were at the mercy of cruel jailers. The first amelioration of criminal legisla tion in France was by an ordinance, in 1670, for the reform of divers abuses. Secret trials

PLAN OF THE CONCIERCERIE.1

ciple, the administration of prisons would have been of little importance, if the delay of trials, the numerous appeals for the revision of judgments, arrests for debt, and, above all, arbitrary detention by Iettres de eaehet, 1 A. B. C. D.

La petite cour. Le guichet. Le greffe. L'arriere greffe (where the condemned made their toilet). E. Le cachot where condemned women were imprisoned while awaiting the executioner. G. Corridor. H. Large dark corridor now called the rue de Paris. I. Vestibule. J. Preau des femmes.

were abolished; the accused were con fronted with their accusers; judgments were revised more promptly by the upper courts; warrants for apprehension were subjected to formalities which rendered their execution K. Charnbres de pistole. L. Stairway leading to charnbres de pistole. M. Small court (where the massacres of September took place). N. Chapel where the Girondists were confined the night preceding their punishment. O. Stairway leading from the Cachot des Girondins to the hall of the revolutionary tribunal. P. Small cell in which Robespierre was confined. Q. Cell of Marie Antoinette, opening into cell R. where the gendarmes were stationed.