Cold neglect

Cold neglect ... deep disease

If cold neglect, injustice, and intrigue, And poverty with deep disease should league; If the high spirit must forget to soar, And stoop, to strive with misery at the door; To soothe indignity, and face to face, Meet sordid rage, and wrestle with disgrace, To find in hope but the renewed caress, The serpent-fold of wily faithlessness; If such the ills, which mortal strength assail, What wonder if, at last, the firmest fail.

By Vindex, 1830

The above verse was written about Alexander Still, a previously successful merchant of Sydney, who fell on hard times, could not repay his debts, was imprisoned, and died in March 1830.

The Coroner’s report of the prison conditions described over-crowding, stench and foul air. Still’s supporters were angered that an insolvent should be placed in such a place “among felons, lodged in a crowded room, and literally under the gallows”. They described the prison as a “nuisance to the town, and a disgrace to the Colony”, and called for a debtor’s prison to be created, to prevent such unfortunates from being incarcerated amongst “murderous highwaymen, and burglars … in constant peril of meeting by lingering disease, the fate of Alexander Still”.

Obituaries Australia, Australian Dictionary of Biography