MILITARY AND CIVIL. 35 
     
    
   
   
    
     condition and, it is to be hoped, the splendor of its future may 
     
     outshine the glory of its past. 
     
    
   
   
    
     As early as June, 1769, a petition was sent home, the prayer 
     
     of which was to have a Church, Court House and Jail 
     
     established at Charlottetown. In compliance with the request 
     
     of this petition a small one-story building of about forty feet in 
     
     length and some twenty-six feet in width, was erected as a 
     
     prison, upon what was afterwards known as Pownal Square. 
     
     Inside of this building a strong wall passed through the centre, 
     
     from one end to the other, thus dividing the prisoners’ cells 
     
     from the private apartments allowed to the keeper. The 
     
     windows of the prison were protected by strong iron rods, 
     
     crossed and framed into the woodwork. A high fence 
     
     enclosure formed a jail yard, which completed the establish- 
     
     ment. The diet of a criminal during this early period consisted 
     
     of hard ship biscuit and water, supplied in sufficient quantities 
     
     to keep him safely over the border line of starvation. Imprison- 
     
     ment for debt was then in vogue, remaining so for over a 
     
     century, but these unfortunate prisoners had the option of find- 
     
     ing their own table during confinement. Of a prisoner of this 
     
     class—in after years—we shall add a few words : Michael 
     
     Burke was incarcerated for many years, during which he on 
     
     three different occasions contrived to escape the custody of the 
     
     jailor by breaking from prison and was as often recaptured and 
     
     returned to confinement. At length, however, during the 
     
     session of the Legislature, in the year 182 5, Burke, through a 
     
     medium of a petition to the House of Assembly, made a state- 
     
     ment of his inability to discharge the heavy liabilities standing 
     
     against him, begging for the active sympathy of the House in his 
     
     behalf. The Speaker thereupon directed that Burke be 
     
     brought to the Bar of the House, where, in obedience to this 
     
     order, he appeared heavily shackled, in charge of the Sheriff 5 
     
     his limbs were then disengaged of their iron burdens and by an 
     
     unanimous vote of the House of Assembly he was set at liberty. 
     
     In reference to Burke being in irons, it had become necessary 
     
     to curb his actions, as he had violated his privilege by 
     
     attempting to escape so often from prison and was so shackled 
     
     by the direction of the Sheriffs. Thus ended the prison career 
     
     of Burke, who was not alone in making an effort to escape, as 
     
     other prisoners had, at various times, broken the limit of their 
     
     confinement as well as he.