that they pointed him out to me, through the medium of the valet de place, who acted the part of an interpreter, as a wretch deserving the strongest execration.
Many of the prisoners in the Rasp-house were not at work; and I learnt that this exemption from labour was to be purchased. On the whole, I was greatly disappointed in this prison. The Rasp-house of Amsterdam had been mentioned to me, by several persons in Holland, as an almost perfect model for a house of correction; and I had read in various books, relative to the United Provinces, a favourable account of it. But in every particular my expectations were deceived. The place was dirty, and its discipline cruel. Those indeed who could afford to bribe the humanity of the keeper were treated with tenderness, but the indigent prisoner, a wretch probably whom extreme want and pinching famine had driven to the commission of crimes, was wasted with severe toil, and jaundiced with continual severity.
