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Ex tibris
C. K. OGDEN

CHAPTERS

PRISONS AND PRISONERS,

THE PREVENTION OF CRIME.

JOSEPH KINGSMILL, M.A.,

'It is the duty of society not only to punish the crimes committed, but also carefully to seek
out their causes, and. so f:ir as it is in human power, to remove them."

Otcar, King of Sweden.

irti Coition,

LONDON:
LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS.

1854.

LONDON :

REED AND PAEDON, PIUNTERS,
FATEENOSTEB ROW.

PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION.

THIS book has, thus far, been successful beyond the ex-
pectations of the writer. The incidents of criminal life
interspersed through the various Chapters, have been de-
scribed by literary reviewers, as " facts stranger than fiction,"
and more instructive ; and its suggestions and information
have found a favourable response amongst the intelligent and
influential public. It has not, however, carried off the
suffrages of all ;

" Omne tulit punctum, qui miscuit utile dulci."

The professors of the modern science of penology, who ad-
vocate protracted and indiscriminate separate confinement,
as the best hope of reclaiming criminals, consider it little
short of a betrayal of the cause of Prison Reform. The well-
meaning friends of total abstinence and compulsory temper-
ance, look upon its silence respecting their plans for pro-
moting national morals, naturally enough, with disapprobation.
But most of all, do the disciples of Roman doctrine dislike
it ; and, it is to be feared, if they should now favour it with
a perusal, they will dislike it more heartily. Not that the
writer has grown more intolerant or uncharitable towards
others in the carrying out their opinions and conscientious
convictions, (the reverse is the truth, if he knows anything
of his own heart ;) but because, in the treatment of his subject,
he has been led to adduce facts calculated to show that the

20151S7

iv PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION.

papal system of Christianity, which arrogates to itself exclu-
sive sanctity, is more prolific in irreligion and vice than the
most fanatical Protestant sect in England. Notwithstanding
this drawback, the book before the reader professes to be an
improvement upon its predecessor. The subjects treated
upon are more copiously illustrated by living characters.
It is less documentary, and gives the history of Convictism
in a more readable form, from the days of Botany Bay, to its
last phase in England, as the home-ticket-of-leave system,
and Mr. Lucas's effort in Parliament to have attached to
our gaols salaried Roman Catholic chaplains.

How far such influence is worth paying for, (in pre-
ference too, to other claimants,) in the hope of reforming
criminals, which is proved so signally to have failed, in com-
parison with other denominations, above all proportion, and
fair consideration of circumstances, in keeping people out of
prison ; or how far it is consistent with English notions of
religious liberty to fasten its chains upon those who have lost
their civil rights, whether willing or unwilling to submit, is
left to others to consider. The writer only refers to the
subject in these pages in order to vindicate himself from the
animadversions of Mr. Lucas in the House upon his conduct
as Chaplain of Pentonville Prison, in reference to convicts of
the Honourable Member's adopted communion.

As regards the volume itself, it may be added, although
not deteriorated in any respect, (indeed, it reflects credit-
upon the press from which it issues,) it is reduced in price ;
and if any wish to present it to bond fide FREE libraries, or
institutions supported by voluntary aid, it may be worth while
on their part to communicate with the Author.

THE HJGHT HONOURABLE

THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY,

IX UNFEIGNED ADMIRATION

TALENT, BANK, AND INFLUENCE,

DEVOTED TO THE GOOD OF MANKIND,

IN THE REPRESSION OF IMMORALITY AND CR1MK,

THE ALLEVIATION OF HUMAN SUFFERING AND M1SKRY.

AND THE ADVANCEMENT OF TRUE RELIGION IN THE WORLD,

Efjts Uclutnr,

AIMING IN AN HUMBLER SPHERE AT THE SAME NOBLE OBJECT!?,

is. WITH HIS LORDSHIP'S PERMISSION, MOST RESPECTFULLY

DEDICATED I!V

THE AUTHOR.

CONTENTS.

INTRODUCTION.

(Page 1.)

CHAPTER I.

CLAIMS OF THE SUBJECT DPON PUBLIC CONSIDERATION.

PAGE

Expense Enormous Cost of 14 Criminal Boys Amount stolen A Gang
of Thieves Moral Injury Young Men and Women who have not lost
Character used as Tools Schools for teaching Picking Pockets The
Interests of Humanity Bishop of St. David's admirable Sentiments
Beautiful Lines hy Prisoners Convict Soldier on his Mother's Death, &c. 7

CHAPTER II.

THE CHARACTER AND CHIEF CAUSES OF CRIME IN ENGLAND.

Proportion of Crime to Population Crime in England and France compared
Number of Irish Criminals in England Cardinal Wiseman's Testimony
respecting Westminster Causes of Crime Seduction Nefarious Traders
in this Crime Account of two young Ladies entrapped by these Monsters
Luxury of the Age Fraudulent Modes of Business The Public-house
Testimony of Forty-seven Chaplains on the Beer Bill The Stage Re-
form of Theatres attempted by Mr. Macready Gambling, &c. &c. . . 32

CHAPTER III.

THE PUNISHMENT OF CRIME BY IMPRISONMENT.

State of Prisons when Howard began his Inspection Present State of some
The Newgate System Scenes in Prisons of this Kind The Silent-
associated System Separate Confinement King of Sweden on Separate
Confinement Prison of Civita Vecchia Murdering and Fasting . . 93

CHAPTER IV.

CONVICT SYSTEMS, PAST AND PRESENT.

Botany Bay Norfolk Island Assignment System Probation System of
Lord Stanley Earl Grey's Scheme Government Home Prisons Reviewed
New Ticket-of-leave System in England Brixton Female Convict Pri-
sonRoman Catholic Chaplains 129

Vlll CONTENTS.

CHAPTER V.

ILLUSTRATIONS FROM A PRISON.

PAOK

Notes of Ten Days' Routine of a Chaplain's Duties Visit from Cell to Cell
Refractory Ward The Visiting and Parting Room Affecting Scenes
Causes of their own Crime stated by a Hundred Convicts Letters to and
from Prisoners Prisoners' Lives saved by gallant conduct of a Governor
Remarkable Address from a Convict to his Fellow-Prisoners Some cases
of Clever Deception by Convicts 207

CHAPTER VI.

A CHAPTER FOR OFFICERS IN CHARGE OF PRISONERS.

Rules in Government Prisons Officers addressed from these Rules A good
Discipline Officer a great Help to Reformation of Prisoners How best
to discharge his Duty Officers of Low Habits warned by Examples
Chaplains and Governors Addressed Suggestions to Magistrates upon
selection of Officers, &c 307

CHAPTER VII.

EFFECTS OF CHRISTIAN TREATMENT IN GENERAL UPON PRISONERS.

Convict-ships in former times and of late years Sir Edward and Lady
Parry at Port Stephen Elizabeth Fry Sarah Martin, of Yarmouth-
John Howard, Sketch of his Life and Labours 342

CHAPTER VIII.

ON CAPITAL PUNISHMENTS FOR MURDER.

The Right of the State to inflict Capital Punishment The Expediency
Public Executions Howard on Capital Punishment . . . .376

CHAPTER IX.

THE PREVENTION OF CRIME.

Prevention of Relapse Continental and Home Institutions Prevention
of Crime in Classes most in danger Benevolent Plans Reviewed Pre-
vention of Crime by National Improvement The Result of Revived State
of Religion The Pulpit The School The Family Numbers of Roman
Catholics in England, and the Deplorable Excess of Crime amongst
them, &c 386

APPENDIX.

1. Comparative Statistics of Crime in England, Scotland, and Ireland . .491

2. Report of Chaplain of Pentonville Prison, referring to Changes in the

Discipline, &c. &c 493

3. The Crystal Palace Opinions of 599 Medical Men in the Metropolis,

on the subject, also of Seventy Prison Chaplains 502

4. Names and Localities of Convict Prisons .507

5. Form of a Ticket-of-leave as now granted in England .... 508

CHAPTERS

PEISONS AND PRISONERS,

INTRODUCTION.

THE following pages have no pretensions to
literary merit, and, therefore, neither invite nor de-
precate criticism. They are the productions of a
hasty pen, noting down under convenient heads
such facts and observations as seemed likely to be
of use in meeting the question, WTiat shall we do
with our criminals ? and in promoting that other
more important one : What shall we best do to pre-
vent crime altogether ? or, if this cannot be looked
for, to check its progress in the land ?

They aim also, all through, at being useful, by
way of warning and example to the young and inex-
perienced, in the hands of those to whom the Chief
Shepherd has intrusted the care of souls parents,
pastors, and employers, and I would fain hope even
in their own. Tor although there is not very much

* B

2 INTRODUCTION.

here to arrest the lively and the gay, most people, in
our inquiring age, like to know what is passing in
the world around them, even in things most foreign
to their own pursuits, and to be able to form an
opinion for themselves, on subjects popularly debated
in parliament and elsewhere : and all have their
moments either of vacuity or thoughtfulness, when
a book, on a subject not the most inviting, would
not be despised in lieu of a better.

It would not have been difficult (at least in other
hands) to make the subject more attractive to the
lover of light reading. There is more romance in
real life than is generally supposed, and there exist
materials in abundance within the walls of a prison,
for the construction of the most exciting tales. To
attempt, however, to gratify a taste of this kind
would be, in the writer's judgment, to pander to a
morbid appetite, and to plant with one hand some of
the germs of criminality in the breasts of the young,
whilst professing to eradicate them with the other.
Therefore, only such facts are here referred to as
seemed calculated from their truth, their painfulness,
and their moral, to engage the healthful sympathies
of the heart, and instruct as well as interest the
mind. A Christian cannot trine with the guilt or
misery of his fellow-man.

Much of the utility of the work will depend on
the manner in which it is taken up by my brethren
in the ministry; and by that great community
of Christians of every name in the land, who
holding in common the great principles of truth, are

INTRODUCTION. 3

seeking, by active, believing exertions, to promote
the Redeemer's kingdom, and the good of mankind.
Such individuals are labouring at the right end for
the prevention of crime, particularly when the sub-
jects of their benevolence are the labouring poor, or
the young. Eor their works and labours of love,
the writer desires to be a mere gatherer of the rude
material, " a hewer of wood or a drawer of water,"
while he earnestly commends to their prayers and
sympathies the less promising field of labour, which
prison chaplains are called to cultivate. Happily,
our work is unsectarian, and may claim the sympathy
of every Christian heart.

I rejoice to know that already these humble pages
have attracted thus the attention of many pious
persons in and out of the Established Church, and
that some pastors have here found facts by which
to illustrate and enforce their godly admonitions
from the pulpit. It is also no small satisfaction to
find, that not a few families, saddened and dis-
honoured by the crime and punishment of some
unworthy, but still much loved, relative, (alas !
many a respectable and virtuous home has this
bitter grief,) have found some alleviation of their
sorrow, from what they have here read, of the mercy
mixed with justice in the present generally-received
mode of treating prisoners in England, as well as of
the abundant means provided for their reclamation,
and the happy results, through the Divine blessing,
in cases not a few.

Painfully does the writer's heart sympathize with

B 2

4 INTRODUCTION.

such persons in their sore afflictions ; but he would
earnestly entreat them to bear in mind, that
" affliction cometh not forth of the dust, neither
doth trouble spring out of the ground;" that it is
God himself who sends the trouble for some wise
and gracious purpose. Therefore, whilst they bitterly
bewail the grievous fall of some relative or friend,
and pray and long for his recovery and salvation, let
them " hear the rod, and who hath appointed it"
themselves. Let them receive the trial as from
heaven, and turn to the Lord with all their heart.
Thus, through grace, may their greatest troubles
prove the best blessings of their lives, and the bitter
tears of unprofitable regret give place to humble and
adoring confidence in Him, who can bring good out
of evil, and light out of thick darkness.

"No chastening for the present seemeth to be
joyous, but grievous : nevertheless afterward it
yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto
them ivhich are exercised thereby"

St. Paul teaches us to recognise an all-Avise and
gracious Providence in such dispensations, when he
writes to Philemon, concerning Onesimus, converted
under the preaching of the Apostle : " Perhaps he
therefore departed for a season, that thou shouldest
receive him for ever."

God grant it may be so in your case, afflicted
reader, who have son, or brother, or husband, or
father, in the sad condition of a prisoner.

Whilst putting these thoughts to paper, a letter
from a clergyman to his brother here unhappily

INTRODUCTION. O

a prisoner passed through my hands, which em-
bodies these sentiments very appropriately. As a
Christian, the writer sees the hand of God in the
terrible domestic calamity; and looks beyond the
disgrace and loss, to the fruit of the affliction
sanctified, as he hopes and prays it may be, to his
poor brother's salvation adding, what is very
affecting to my own heart, and very instructive to
persons in like circumstances :

" We seldom go to bed without praying for you ; I think I
never do. The sentence in the Litany, that God would show
mercy upon all prisoners and captives, has always a response in my
heart. ' We beseech thee, good Lord.' As I walk through my
parish, often is my heart lifted up to God on your behalf ; and at
the Lord's table, I always make special mention of you, my poor
dear brother."

Yes, dear reader, this is the only way by which
the sorrows of your heart can be assuaged.

There is an eye that never sleeps
Beneath the wing of night ;

There is an ear that never shuts,
When sink the beams of light

There is an arm that never tires,
When human strength gives way;

There is a love that never fails,
W T hen earthly loves decay.

That eye is fixed on seraph-throngs
That arm upholds the sky;

That ear is fill'd with angels' songs ;
That love is throned on high.

INTRODUCTION.

But there 's a power which man can wield

When mortal aid is vain,
That eye, that arm, that love to reach,

That listening ear to gain.

That power is Prayer, which soars on high,

Through Jesus, to the Throne,
And moves the hand which moves the world

To bring salvation down.

CHAPTER I.

CLAIMS OF THE SUBJECT UPON PUBLIC
CONSIDERATION.

" Nihil humani alienum a me puto."

THE subject of prisons and prisoners has become
a painfully interesting one, whether the expense
be regarded, the public morals, or the claims of
humanity. Pew persons, except those who are
compelled to encounter the repulsive study of blue-
book literature, or who are connected with the
detection or punishment of crime, have any ade-
quate idea of the magnitude of this evil, when viewed
in any of these respects.

The expense is enormous. The annual cost of
prisoners in England and Wales, Scotland and
Ireland, exclusive of the capital sunk in prison
buildings, the expense of the police force, the pro-
secution and trial of offenders, and the enormous
charge of a complete standing army of constabulary
and regular soldiers in the sister country, is about
one million sterling.

Let the matter be viewed a little in detail :

Mr. Rushton, the late experienced magistrate
of Liverpool, when giving evidence before Lord

8 CLAIMS OF THE SUBJECT

Brougham's Committee, in 1847, made the following
statement concerning fourteen criminal children :
" The average cost of these fourteen prisoners,
during their confinement, exceeded sixty guineas
each, exclusive of the expense of transportation,
subsequently, of the greater part:" which, upon a
moderate calculation, he estimated at forty more, or
a total loss to the public of one hundred guineas
each. And what was the result of all their impri-
sonment ? " Pour years afterwards," says Mr.
Hushton, " I went back to these fourteen cases, and
I ascertained what had become of them. Ten out
of the fourteen children had been transported ; one
had died ; one is now in custody ; one is among
the criminal population ; and of only one is there
any hope of reformation, and that one I have never
heard of.

Of the loss to the public in property stolen, it is
not possible to form any correct estimate. Some
approximation, however, to the probable amount
may be arrived at from such facts as the following :
The total number of convicts that is, persons
sentenced to transportation annually in England and
Wales has been, communibus annis, about 3000. Now
in one year, I ascertained that 500 prisoners of this
class, taken as they stood in order on the register-
book, had stolen property to the value of 10,000,
as estimated upon their trial. But, as these men
had, on an average, been convicted once before, this
sum may be safely doubled on that score, which will
give 120,000 as the aggregate discovered amount

UPON PUBLIC CONSIDERATION. 9

stolen by the total number of convicts. Now, to
this may be added, at the most moderate calculation,
as much more, on account of depredations com-
mitted by the same parties when they escaped
detection, making in all about one quarter of a mil-
lion's worth of property taken from its rightful
owners by 3000 convicts i. e., by about one- thir-
tieth part of the total of individual criminals who
annually pass through our prisons ; so that it does
not appear unreasonable to suppose making very
large allowance for the more advanced stage of
crime in the convict or transported class that the
entire loss to the community, in annual depredations,
does not fall short of two millions sterling.

To give other data for the calculation of loss to
the public in stolen property, it may suffice to say
that thieves in all our great towns act on a system
of aggression, concealment, and defence, as complete
as can well be imagined ; that they are, as a body,
more than ordinarily clever, fertile in resources by
study and practice, and incomparable actors; that
the whole business of thieving is subdivided, in some
measure like that of a manufactory, so that each one
obtains as great a facility in his branch as ingenious
artisans in their respective trades. The consequence
is, that fraternities of such persons often share enor-
mous booty, each, however, if at 'all possible, de-
frauding his fellow. But, male parta, male dilabun-
tur ; ill-gotten, ill-gone; a man of this sort lives, as
a man of fortune, dresses, and smokes his cigar, as
gentlemen are supposed to do, attends the races,

10 CLAIMS OF THE SUBJECT

theatres, and other places of public amusement in
the character of a gentleman, and has expenses on
other accounts which cannot be so well specified.
How does he keep this up ? Exclusively by plun-
der. Yet it is notorious that he does not get more
than an eighth of the value of stolen goods from the
receiver.

Nor is this the case only with the well-dressed
and well-educated swindler, and the confreres of
the swell mob. A very ordinary, but expert house-
robber or shop-lifter, will plunder to the amount of
hundreds of pounds in a year, and must do so to get
a mere living, if he has addicted himself to the horrid
trade of thieving. All this loss, however, is only a
part of the pecuniary injury inflicted by a single
thief on the community, which has then to be
taxed for his detection, his punishment, and his
reformation.

Some curious particulars on this point are given
by my excellent friend, the Chaplain of Preston
House of Correction, in his Report for 1850.
Speaking of a gang of male and female pickpockets
which came under his notice, Mr. Clay goes on to
say : " The extensive demoralization laid bare by the
Clarkes, Planagan, and others, cannot but shock the
religious sense of every one who desires the real wel-
fare of aU classes. No doubt the moral aspect of the
case is, beyond all measure, of the greatest moment ;
at the same time, it will not diminish solicitude if I
present an economical view of it, and show how
much the public has probably been plundered of by

UPON PUBLIC CONSIDERATION. 11

this very small detachment from the pickpocket
division of ' la classe danger euse' Flanagan's
fourteen years' course, and Kelly's twenty years'
(the latter worthy being still in practice), show, .too
plainly, that the law, or at least the police, is
unequal to a successful contest with such characters;
and it may, therefore, be of service to exhibit to the
public the amount of depredation they are exposed
to, that they may obviate, by their own watchfulness,
those losses which, if once sustained, can seldom be
recovered.

" Estimate of the loss inflicted on the public by
the undermentioned pickpockets, &c., during their
several careers :

1. Eichard Clarke, during a career of 6 years 2820

2. John Clarke, 5 500

3. Edward Clarke, 3 1650

4. Ellen Clarke, (O'Neill) 2| 1550

5. John O'Neill, 9 1450

6. Thomas O'Gar, 6 800

7. James O'Brien, 3 1400

8. Thomas M'Giverin, 7 1900

9. Thomas Kelty, 20 8000

10. John Flanagan, 14 5800

11. John Thompson, 5 ,, 1800

12. John Bohanna, 6 1500

13. J. Shawe, 3 600

14. W. Buckley, 7 2100

15. Sarah Dickenson, 3 630

32,000

"To give a more exact idea of the extent to
which the public may be plundered by a single

12 CLAIMS OF THE SUBJECT

hand, I subjoin the particulars of such robberies
as Flanagan can remember to have committed.
These particulars are arranged from Flanagan's MS.,
in the order of their dates. In making out his list,
E. was directed to enumerate those robberies only in
which the value exceeded 10. He stated, how-
ever, that his robberies under 10 would far exceed
in amount those above that sum. * Oh, sir,' he said,
' when Macready would be acting at the Manchester
Theatre, I could get three watches of a night, besides
purses.'

1838 and 1839.

Value. Where robbery committed. From whom.

20 Concert, Liverpool . . A gentleman.

15 Theatre, Liverpool . . A gentleman

11 Zoological Gardens . A lady.

30 Coach-office, Liverpool . Proprietors.

46 Auction, Broughton-road A lady.

30 Auction, Cheetham-hill . A lady.

1 5 Auction, Pendleton . . A lady.

21 Manchester . . . A till from a liquor-vault

50 Manchester . . . A till from a public-house

Leek, Stafford . . . A shopkeeper.

85 Hanley Races . . . A gentleman.

49 Northallerton Fair . . A drunken farmer

Liverpool Packet . . A passenger

18 Liverpool Packet . . A passenger

30 Liverpool Packet . . A passenger.

45 Horncastle Fair . . A. lady

17 Leeds Fair . . . A butcher.

1840 and 1841.

10 Lincoln Fair . . . A gentleman.
14 Lincoln Fair . . . Captain of a boat.

UPON PUBLIC CONSIDERATION. 13

Value. Where robbery committed. From whom.

10 Spalding Fair . . .A farmer.

11 Horncastle Fair . . A maltster.

10 Liverpool Kaces . . A gentleman.

16 Liverpool Races . . A farmer.

17 Chester Races . . .A lady.

11 Manchester Races . . A lady.

1841 and 1842.

Manchester Theatre .

A lady.

Bury Fair ....

A cattle-dealer.

250

In the street, at Manchester

An officer.

Knutsford Races

A jockey.

Doncaster Races

A publican.

Nottingham Races

A butcher.

Derby Races

Unknown.

Crovvle, Lincoln

A publican's wife.

Caister, Lincoln

A farmer.

Market Raisin .

A gentleman's servant.

Brigg Fair

A farmer's wife.

Louth, Lincolnshire .

A coachman.

&c. &c. &c."

The depredations of Flanagan are given at length
by Mr. Clay in the subsequent years up to July,
1850, when he was apprehended at Burnley, and
transported.

This man was imprisoned about seventeen times.
" He was also apprehended and discharged for want
of evidence about fourteen or fifteen times."

This professor of thieving gave an account ol
female pickpockets, which will show how systematic
is this crime even in provincial towns :

" The women now travelling look so maidenlified and comely
in their person, that no human being would suspect them being

14 CLAIMS OF THE SUBJECT

pickpockets. Their attire is generally of the best, but it is not
so with all. Some of the female-ic/re* are dressed in the first
style. There are three of them attending the shops where the
most ladies go to : one woman acts as servant while the wire acts
mistress. When they go into one of these shops, as any other
lady might do, they are on the watch to see when purses are
pulled out, and the ' mistress' gets close to a lady who has shown
a purse, wires her of it, and then contrives to give it to the ' ser-
vant,' who goes away, while the mistress remains in the shop,
and, if she is clever, gets another purse before leaving it. There
are now in Manchester, three of the cleverest lady-tares travel-
ling: one from Birmingham, one from Leeds, and one from
Liverpool. The oldest of these three is about twenty-four, and
the youngest about sixteen. This youngest keeps a young man,
who is dressed like any gentleman, with his gold watch and curb
chain attached to it ; and she dressed so, that any magistrate
who saw her would say she never could be anything of the sort ;
only her speech instantly condemns her. Last summer, at Birken-
head and Chester Railway stations, one or two of these lady-like
wires attended regularly. They frequent, also, private sales in
town and country. One may see them with books in their hands,
like other ladies, and giving now and then a bid for an article,
but they never come away with anything fcn^fc at the sale. They
look into the newspapers for intelligence about sales, and also
about concerts, which they attend. I knew one woman and her
man who got more money than any three women travelling.
They had their own horse and gig, riding about from fair to fair.
Not long after coming out of Wakefield, where she had been
twelve months, both she and her man got transported about three
years ago at Derby. There is now in Manchester and Liverpool
about fifty or sixty of these -women-wires, one day dressed up in
their best, another day quite plain, to escape any information
that may have been given."

I saw this worthy (Elanagan) in Portland Convict
Prison in 1852. He was then near the close of his
probation, and I suppose by this time is at the
diggings. Of his success there I have no doubt.

Thus far with the mere money view of the subject.

UPON PUBLIC CONSIDERATION. 15

But who can calculate the moral injury endured by
society from this source, when he considers that an
accomplished robber, in the climax of criminality,
becomes a teacher of gambling, a trainer of thieves,
an insinuating, and, too often, successful tempter of
young men's fidelity in offices of trust or service,
and the heartless seducer of female innocence in the
houses of the wealthy, often that he may perpetrate,
in greater security, his plans of robbery ?

The ramifications of vice from this quarter alone,
in our great towns, are extensive beyond all ordinary
belief. Inveterate and practised thieves work,
wherever they can, by means of dupes or victims
who have not yet lost character. Such tools are too
ready at hand for their purpose, young persons
of both sexes who have neither sufficient principle
to keep them from improper places, nor resolution,
when they find themselves in danger, to flee before
they are overpowered and ruined ; and who, in
general, by extravagance and folly, are in pecuniary
difficulties. For, truly, just as religion received
into the heart makes every one an agent for good, in
a greater or less degree ; so vice and ungodliness
are self-propagating, and, alas ! in too congenial a
soil. Wherever ungodliness is fully developed as
in the class of persons referred to, and its kindred
one in the other sex there will be found an active,
zealous, and successful missionary of evil.

Young men, as w r ell as young w r omen, in business,
and in service, should be made alive to the dangers
of this kind, which beset their path in life.

16 CLAIMS OF THE SUBJECT

To form no acquaintance with any but persons of
known respectability in their walk of life ; to spend
their evenings in reading well-selected books; in
communications with home, or in the family of a
virtuous friend ; and to be content with rational day
amusements, upon such occasions as almost every
employer will afford to his dependents is, it may
be thought, to be very precise, and to lose much of
the pleasures of youth ; but it is necessary, if young
persons would guard their virtue and integrity from
being tampered with by designing parties, who lie in
wait to deceive, and it is to lay the foundation of
real respectability and true happiness.

It is another horrid feature of this subject, that
there are places in all our large towns for directly
teaching the various branches of thieving ; and the
pupils, in these schools of infamy, are just that class
of children who, if taken in hand by kind and Chris-
tian instructors in time, seem most likely to become
active, useful members of society ; having, in general,
more than ordinary energy of character, shrewdness,
and ability.

In the following brief account, given by my
valued friend, the Chaplain of the City of London
House of Correction, there is reference to one of
these seminaries :

"James L 's father was a soldier, and died when he was

very young, leaving his mother unprovided for. The only means
of her support was obtained by begging in the streets. She died
about nine years ago. James, consequently, was left very young
without any one to look after him ; he soon fell amongst thieves,
and was taken to Wentworth- street, in Whitechapel, to a house

UPON PUBLIC CONSIDERATION. 17

where he was boarded and lodged for six months, when he was
taught to pick pockets. He says, that there were twenty more
hoys kept, beside himself, for the same purpose, by a man and
woman who lived by their plunder. Daily the woman dressed
herself, put a bell in her pocket, also a purse, containing fid. ;
any of the pupils who could take the purse from her pocket,
without causing the bell to tingle, got the 6d. as a reward for his
dexterity. He remained until he was a proficient pickpocket."

The following account is from the painfully in-
teresting records of a City Missionary, concerning a
man who had kept a house of this sort, but was
apparently brought under religious convictions :

" The missionary found, on conversing with him, that he had
been twenty years living a criminal life, and had been twenty
times in prison. He resided in a low lodging-house, where he
carried on his craft of training young lads to steal. The best
hands among them were sent into the streets, and they brought
home the plunder, on which the criminal school lived. He was
too well known to the police to dare to go out himself. ' But,'
said he, ' I never can keep the young 'uns long, for as soon as
I have made them clever at their profession, if they are not taken
by the police, they leave me and start for themselves ; so that I
am obliged to look out for new hands.' This led the missionary
to ask him how many lads he supposed he had trained to be
thieves during the twenty years. He had kept no account, and
he could not exactly tell, but of this he was sure, that it was not
less than Jive hundred. How ramified the evil which this one
man had effected ! What a cost had he been to the country !
How perfectly fearful the amount of wretchedness and ruin which
he had effected ! Happy that individual who has effected the
good which this one man had effected of evil."

Nor does the mischief stop here ; for a corruption
of morals goes on in prisons, subsequently, to an
amazing extent ; especially where the comparatively
innocent are not separated from the desperate and

18 CLAIMS OF THE SUBJECT

hardened, as will abundantly appear when I come to
that part of my subject.

The following extract from the Report (1849) of
the devoted Chaplain of Durham Gaol, will, how-
ever, here not be out of place :

"Eor the most part, all prisoners for trial do
nothing ; sometimes five or six months are spent in
perfect idleness, by which most injurious habits are
acquired. But this is not the principal root of the
evil. All prisoners for trial sleep in rooms contain-
ing six or eight men or boys each. Here it is that
burglaries and robberies are planned, and systems of
begging and fraud are discussed. Here they learn
each other's vices, and plot outrages during their
nocturnal association.

" An instance of the corruption of morals which
takes place among these prisoners, may be men-
tioned : Three men, one old and two young, were
committed for trial for a highway robbery of a few
pence. The old man made no secret of his guilt :
and stated, that he had never seen the two younger
prisoners before he met them on the road, onjfche
night of the robbery, and that they had nothing to
do with it. The young men further protested their
innocence ; and, after waiting several months in
the trial-room for the assizes, no evidence was
offered against the younger prisoners, and the old
man pleaded guilty. These men who, up to this
time, had borne a good character, had so well learnt
their lessons from their companions in the trial-
ward and sleeping -rooms, that both have since, at

UPON PUBLIC CONSIDERATION. 19

different times, been convicted of felony, and each
confessed, that he had not worked from the time of
his discharge until he returned to gaol ; and that
the bad example and advice of his fellow-prisoners
had led him to adopt a course of crime for his support.

" From the age of twelve to twenty, young
persons easily receive impressions for good or evil ;
and in this prison, I observe a curiosity in the boys
to know all about the crimes of their fellow-pri-
soners ; and soon they learn to look upon the man
who has been oftenest in gaol as the greatest hero.
Thus the young are taught the vices of their elders,
and many who enter the prison naughty boys, it i^s to
be feared, leave it accomplished thieves.

" In the female part of the prison, all that can be
done is now done, to prevent contamination and to
maintain order ; yet it is to be lamented that, from
the form of the building, ten women at one time,
during this year, were all day without control in
the trial-room for many weeks. Among these,
were two of the worst women of Sunderland, and
two servants for stealing from their mistresses in
respectable places. One of these servants has re-
turned to prison. When discharged, she was met
by her parents at the gaol gates, and taken home,
where she remained only one week, and then ran
away to Sunderland, to the infamous lodging-house
of a prison companion, from whence she returned to
gaol. For one example of the utter ruin of morals,
thus directly traced to the prison contamination,
hundreds take place unknown."

20 CLAIMS OF THE SUBJECT

But the interests of humanity have a claim at our
hands, as well as those of economy, or even of
morals. It was a noble sentiment from the lips of a
heathen: " Nihil humani alienum a me puto"
" What concerns man concerns me ;" and it met
with a hearty response in the breasts of a people,
pagan in religion, and fierce and terrible in war.
The Christian must go further. The heavenly doc-
trines of the gospel teach us, not merely to regard
all men as of one race, having common sympathies
and interests, philosophically, (these Romans noto-
riously did little more ;) but to do good unto all, and
to feel and act towards every one in distress as to-
wards a neighbour or a brother.

To neglect the virtuous in distress, and to honour
not the upright man struggling with adversity, and
still maintaining his integrity, is to fall below the
virtue of some heathen. To have no pity for the
guilty and depraved is, certainly, not to rise to the
character of the Christian.

Let vice be detested. None can so intensely
abhor it as the follower of Christ. Let crime be
punished promptly and severely; Christianity en-
forces the claims of human justice. Let the man be
pitied, and, if possible, restored.

What would have become of the best of men, if,
in the love of God towards his creatures, there
existed only complacency and delight towards those
who never sinned, and not compassion also for the
fallen ? " God commendeth his love toward us, in
that, while we were yet sinners., Christ died for us."

UPON PUBLIC CONSIDERATION. 21

Some classes of criminals may be specified as par-
ticularly entitled to compassion.

Look at the case of the young. " When we are
considering the claims of such individuals upon our
pity," to use the language of the Bishop of St.
David's, preaching in behalf of the Philanthropic
Society, "we can only look upon them as our
fellow-creatures ; as partaking of our common
nature, with all its frailty and corruption, and with
all its dignity, its high destinies, and boundless
prospects ; but placed, by the inscrutable dispensa-
tions of Providence, in a situation widely different
from ours. And when we reflect on the disadvan-
tages to which they have been subjected, and on the
privileges which we have enjoyed, can we help ask-
ing ourselves, whether the vast difference between
our lot and theirs has been owing, either to their
fault or to our merit ? But, when the difference of
circumstances affects the interests, not merely of
time, but of eternity : when the health and safety
of the soul, and its final doom, the means of grace
and the hopes of glory are at stake, then, to be
distinguished by peculiar advantages, to abound
while others want, is indeed a high and precious
privilege : but it is, likewise, a most mysterious and
awful one, and, to a well-disposed mind, it would be
almost an insupportable burden, unless it were ac-
companied by the consciousness of an endeavour to
make a right use of it, and of a wish to communicate
it, as far as possible, to others."

So must every true Christian think, and be ready

22 . CLAIMS OF THE SUBJECT

to say, with the holy apostle : " Who hath made us
to differ?" or, with the blessed martyr, when he
saw a criminal pass to execution, " Only for the
grace of God there goes John Bradford." Indeed,
the individual who is farthest from sympathy with
the crime, or, in other words, has imbibed most of
the spirit of Jesus, has generally the largest share of
pity for the criminal. He, who alone was without
sin, had of all that ever lived upon earth, most com-
passion for the sinner.

But, waiving such high considerations, there are
others which cannot fail to have weight with the
reflective and humane. All prisoners are not guilty.
Of the individuals committed to prison for trial, in
any year, there will be found about one in twenty,
or in the aggregate 4,000 or 5,000, against whom,
either no bills will be found by the grand jury, or
who will gain their acquittal at the bar. Now, a
large number of these are really innocent. Of the
condemned, even, some are subsequently proved to
be innocent, and are discharged by the Crown. This
is, it is true, a very rare occurrence ; but it happens
sufficiently often to justify a larger amount of
charity towards prisoners in the mass, than many
are willing to concede.

There is another class, which, although guilty,
and depraved, often in the highest degree, cannot be
viewed without emotions of deep concern.

I refer to the dupes and tools of primarily guilty
parties in concerted robberies, and, amongst female
prisoners, to the victims of wicked seducers, or

UPON PUBLIC CONSIDERATION. 23

diabolical persons of their own sex,* who having
been beguiled, betrayed, or sold for money, have
after a little while been cast into the streets to perish,
and to spread around, in their moral death, a con-
tagion which affects the moral as well as the phy-
sical health of multitudes. Over these a Christian
may weep and not be ashamed, when he remembers
the example of his Lord.

It is a melancholy view of the subject, which a pri-
son chaplain, rehearsing proofs of the magnitude of
known crime, must give, when he declares that some
of the most heinous crimes, which are too the cause
of a long train of others, are little cognizable by
human law. Surely, there is a judgment to come,
in which " God shall render to every man according
to his works."

Then there are many in a prison who have fallen
into dishonest acts by a temptation the force of
which none but the very poor can really know : the
pangs of hunger in their own ill-fed bodies, or their
children's cry for bread when they had none to give.
There are the ignorant also, who had never the
opportunity of instruction; and the children of
drunken and unchaste parents, who, if not actually
trained to infamy, have been left to shift for them-
selves at the tenderest age, under circumstances
and in places wholly adverse to virtue or common
honesty, indeed, almost incompatible with either,

* There are not less probably tban 400 abominable miscreants
in London alone, of both sexes, apparently respectable, who get
their living by inveigling poor girls into a course of infamy.

24 CLAIMS OF THE SUBJECT

capable as I have said, at one time of being trained
for useful life, but, neglected when it was possible,
they have been made miserable outcasts, a pest, a
burden, and disgrace to the community, which can
hardly ever be got rid of.

One class more of prisoners may be named, over
whose degraded condition, pity may drop a tear,
the educated and well brought up.

Such was the writer of the following lines within
these walls :

" TO A WITHERED LEAF.

" ' Wither'd leaflet, wildly dancing
In the autumn's chilly breeze,
While the morning sunbeams, glancing,

Flicker through the sighing trees
Laurel leaflet, prithee say,
Whither speeding now away ?'

'" Care-worn mortal, wistful eyeing

As I hurry headlong by,
Soon thou'lt see me lowly lying,

Cast in some lone place to die ;
And the fate which falls to me
Will not linger long from thee.

" ' When the rays of summer morning

Fell on yonder laurel bough,
Bright I shone, the future scorning

So in heedless youth didst thou.
Falls that burning tear I see
For thyself, or is 't for me ?

" ' Balmy zephyrs, gently blowing,

Nourish'd me with silvery dew ;
O'er me thus, in beauty growing,
Quick the genial season flew :

UPON PUBLIC CONSIDERATION. 25

So hath pass'd thy summer time,
When young life was in its prime.

" ' Wither'd now and tempest-driven,

See me fly before the gale :
Ne'er to me shall rest be given,

Till in yonder peaceful dale
I am trodden deep in earth,
Whence I had my primal birth. 1

" Thine my wretched fate resembles

Now beneath the chilling blast,
Lo ! my coward spirit trembles,

From its hopes for ever cast !
Oh, to lie in death with thee,
By some aged moss-grown tree ! "

"These lines," he adds, " embody something deeper than a
passing sentiment. They were composed in the exercise-ground
of a prison, where, on a fine, clear July morning, the fresh breeze
blew a brown, withered laurel leaf over the head of one whose lot
in life might have been as happy as waywardness and guilt have
made it miserable."

What Christian can read that note and moral,
written by the prisoner's hand, and that last and
saddest sentiment,

" Oh, to lie in death with thee !"

so expressive of a state of mind without Christ, and
having no hope beyond the grave, and not feel a
desire to bring comfort, if possible, and salvation
to his heart ? Alas ! he knew the way to seek it,
but he sought it not. His mind was absorbed with
literary trifles, poetical fragments, and pagan fables
common sense seemed utterly to have left him,
and religion was wholly distasteful.

26 CLAIMS OF THE SUBJECT

The following lines by another Pentonville prisoner,
with less poetic merit, breathe a better spirit.

"THE PEISON BELL.

" 'Twas night and through my lonely cell
The pale moon's playful shadows fell ;
So bright I dreamt that all on earth
Was changed once more to smiles and mirth,
That tears were fled, that sighs were flown,
And so were all the griefs I'd known.
I woke, alas ! but through that cell
There echoed still the Prison Bell.

" The morning dawn'd the rising sun
His glorious course through heaven begun,
And honest toil, with hast'ning stride,
Went whistling by the prison side ;
While I in bonds, with heart downcast,
Deep grieving present and the past,
Lay half unconscious in my cell.
Till summoned by the Prison Bell.

" Day closed and when all days are past,
And I on death's dark waves am cast,
May there a pitying Saviour be
To set the captive prisoner free :
Then tears no more shall tinge my cheek,
Nor griefs my bleeding bosom break,
For I in endless joy shall dwell,
And hear no more the Prison Bell."

Often, doubtless, have the thoughts of the curious
and imaginative, the deep feeling of the benevolent,
and the pious aspirations of the Christian inhabit-
ants of this part of the metropolis, been awakened
by the sight of our prison. The gloomy aspect of
its massive porch perhaps attracted attention; the

UPON PUBLIC CONSIDERATION. 27

cheerless monotony of its shrill matin and vesper
bell has struck painfully on the ear ; or its 500
solitary lamps have met the eye, extinguished suc-
cessively, as the clock strikes nine, by an unseen
hand emblem of happiness extinguished by the
just providence of God, and which His mercy alone
in Christ Jesus can light up again. But whilst the
thoughts of the free thus scaled the prison wall, and
passed from cell to cell in silent observation, perhaps
they little imagined that the captive's mind as free
as theirs, but pensive and mourning was roaming
without, mixed with the busy throng or noisy crowd,
longing to drink again the cup of pleasure, or wish-
ing to discharge neglected duties, and soothe hearts
broken by his misconduct.

There remain two points to which, before I close
this chapter, I would direct the reader's attention.
They are worthy of deepest thought and feeling. I
refer to the cup of sorrow which the innocent rela-
tives of the prisoners are doomed to drink, and the
terrible remorse and anguish which, when he comes
to himself, the prisoner is made to feel on their
account. It is a cruel mistake to suppose the con-
nexions of all criminals bad, it is often the very
reverse. One of our most painful duties, as Chris-
tian ministers in this place, is to endeavour to bind
up the broken hearts of such persons. Never truly
did I witness before such heart-rending scenes, nor
ever more devoted family attachments, than I have
seen since I became chaplain of a gaol.

It is a very sad reflection, that human punish-

28 CLAIMS OF THE SUBJECT

xnents fall so frequently with greater weight upon
the virtuous relative than the guilty criminal. In-
deed, the higher the degree of innocence, the more
sensitive is the feeling of the infamy attached, so
undeservedly, hut so commonly, to the family in
which a son, a husband, or a brother, has been con-
victed of crime. Oh ! that young people would
pause and consider what misery and ruin the first
act of rebellion against a father's command or
mother's counsel the first sabbath profaned the
first improper connexion formed, may bring upon
those who love them so tenderly, as well as upon
themselves. Little do they think, at the moment of
indulgence or waywardness, what remorse, on this
account, they are creating for themselves in after
life.

It often falls to our painful lot to communicate to
prisoners the death of relatives. Upon many of
these occasions the first burst of grief is very affect-
ing, and the expression at the moment often escapes
the lips : " I have been the cause ; I have broken
my poor mother's heart ; I have brought my father's
grey hairs with sorrow to the grave ! " In one year
I counted the number of those who said so to me,
and found that out of about 600 prisoners fifteen
had this intolerable burden upon their consciences,
in addition to all their sins.

The accompanying letter from a prisoner under
such circumstances will speak more to the heart
than any description of mine. To the intensity of
the writer's grief I can bear witness, and, through

UPON PUBLIC CONSIDERATION. 29

the grace of God, to his subsequently hopeful and
consistent profession as a Christian.

He was a Highland soldier, sentenced to trans-
portation for striking, in a fit of drunkenness, a non-
commissioned officer :

" MY DEAR SISTER,

" I received your letter, and I need not say that I was grieved
to the heart. But what makes it lie heavier on my heart is my
undutiful conduct. If I had been a kind son, this stroke would
have been less severe. But I cannot describe to you the remorse
that is within me at the present moment. I am convinced that
my cruel and unfeeling conduct has hastened our dear mother's
death the mother that was so kind to me so affectionate to
one who had the hardness of heart to leave her when I should
have been a help and protection ; not only so, but to throw dis-
grace upon her unspotted name, by being the mother of a trans-
port. This has given me many a sore heart ; but I was living
in the expectation that I would wipe that stain off my character
by a new and dutiful life, if the Lord should spare me to regain
my liberty. But God has taken away her who it was my earnest
prayer should see the change. Oh ! if God had spared the life
of our mother till she was gratified with the sight of her
unworthy son, that she might have blessed him, and that he
should have acted the part of a son in carrying her to the grave !
But His will, and not ours, be done. That this sacred duty
should be left to a stranger ! All her kindness rushes now on
my mind, and accuses me of being a heartless scoundrel.

"And you, my dear sister, have been afflicted in a double
manner : you have lost your promising boy. The Lord has
been pleased to afflict us severely for our sins. Let us fly to
Him, that He would remove His hand from us, and we, acknow-
ledging his visitation, for the future live only to His service.
And let us pray for one another, and console ourselves in the
hope that our dear mother and the dear boy are enjoying one
another's society in heaven ; and that we strive to enter into the
same place, never to part more, where there will be no grief to
wring our hearts.

" My dear sister, God, who sees our hearts, only knows how I

30 CLAIMS OF THE SUBJECT

feel for your situation. I am of no use to you, instead of being
your protector, and the conductor of our blessed mother's
remains to the grave. Few are the tears I have shed. It seems
to me as if my heart would burst, but no tears. Not even our
brother-in-law can follow our mother's remains to the grave.
But although the hand of a stranger shall lower her body into
the pit, let us hope that the husband of her youth, and the
children gone before, shall welcome her spirit to heaven, through
the sake of that Saviour in whom she trusted.

" A. M. P."

On looking over the copy-books, distributed to
prisoners from time to time, I subsequently found
in this young man's the following prayers, written
before his mother's death :

" Lord God, my heavenly Father, I here prostrate myself
before Thee to beg Thy blessing, grace, and mercy upon my
earthly parent. Cast her not away in the time of her old age,
forsake her not when her strength fails, but have compassion,
Lord, on her infirmities, and help her in all her weakness ! O
that the true wisdom may be in her, and abundant grace upon
her, that her hoary head may be found in the way of righteous-
ness, and her soul be ever precious in Thy sight. Let goodness
and mercy follow her all the days of her life. Let her last days
be her best days ; and the longer she lives in this world, make her
the fitter to die, and to dwell with Thy blessed self in life ever-
lasting. be Thou her guide until death, and in death her
support and comfort; and when heart and flesh, and all here
shall fail her, do Thou never fail her, but be the strength of
her heart, and her portion for evermore. Amen."

" Lord, my God, infinitely kind and good, I have, through
Thy gracious indulgence, long enjoyed my freedom in the world.
But now that I am under restraint and confined to this place, O
how much sore affliction ought I with patience to endure, for
turning my liberty into licentiousness, and for wandering (as I
have done) from Thee, and wearying myself in the ways of
wickedness ! This confinement I acknowledge to be but a light
correction indeed to one who deserves to be shut up in the

UPON PUBLIC CONSIDERATION. 31

eternal prison, from whence there is no redemption. But for
Thy dear Son, my blessed Saviour's sake, I beg, Lord, that this
restraint may be not in judgment, but in mercy to me; that it
may bring me to timely consideration, and to a deep repentance
for all those sinful liberties which I have taken. Let it remove
me out of the way of temptations, and engage me more closely
and dutifully to attend upon Thee, that in Thy service I may
find a better freedom than that which I have lost. Let me
obtain, by means of it, a freer access into Thy presence, and
power to tread down the enemies of my soul whensoever they
rise up against me. O that now I am sequestered from the
world, I may also be crucified unto it, and may leave it in affec-
tion, as I am shut out from its conversation. Let me in heart
and mind ascend and dwell above, and have my conversation in
heaven, and enjoy such fellowship with Thee, my God and
Saviour, as shall be infinitely preferable to all the society and
enjoyments of the world. If the Son of God shall make me free,
I shall be free indeed. O pity me, tied as I am and ' bound with
the chain of my sins.' Bring my soul out of prison, that I may
give thanks unto Thy name. ' Set my feet in a large room, that
I may be at liberty to run the way of Thy commandments.'
Then, however confined as to my body, even though I were to
lie in a gaol or a dungeon, I should be ' a prisoner of hope, look-
ing for that blessed hope to be delivered from the bondage of
corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.' I
ask this, for the sake of Him who was apprehended, and con-
fined, and put to death for us, and now liveth and reigneth with
Thy eternal self and Holy Spirit over all, God blessed for ever-
more. Amen."

Thus

" Short is the course of every lawless pleasure ;
Grief, like a shade, on all its footsteps waits,
Scarce visible in joy's meridian height ;
But downward as its blaze declining speeds,
The dwarfish shadow to a giant spreads."

MILTON.

CHAPTER II.

THE CHARACTER AND CHIEF CAUSES OF CRIME IN
ENGLAND.

"Nemo repente fuit turpissimus."

MACAULAY, in his brilliant pages, gives the follow-
ing account of the social state of England in bygone
times :

" In the reign of Charles II., the traces left by
ages of slaughter and pillage were still distinctly
perceptible, many miles south of the Tweed, in the
face of the country, and in the lawless manners of
the people. There was still a large class of moss-
troopers, whose calling was to plunder dwellings,
and to drive away whole herds of cattle. It was
found necessary, soon after the Restoration, to
enact laws of great severity, for the prevention of
these outrages. The magistrates of Northumber-
land and Cumberland were authorised to raise
bands of armed men, for the defence of property
and order ; and provision was made for meeting the
expense of these levies by local taxation. The
parishes were required to keep bloodhounds, for the
purpose of hunting the freebooters. Many old
men, who were living in the middle of the eight-
eenth century, could well remember the time when

CHARACTER OF CRIME IN ENGLAND. 33

those ferocious dogs were common. Yet, even with
such auxiliaries, it was often found impossible to
track the robbers to their retreats, among the hills
and morasses ; for the geography of that wild
country was very imperfectly known. Even after
the accession of George III., the path over the
fells, from Borrowdale to Ravenglass, was still a
secret carefully kept by the Dalesmen, some of
whom had probably in their youth escaped from the
pursuit of justice by that road. The seats of the
gentry and the large farm-houses were fortified.
Oxen were penned at night beneath the overhanging
battlements of the residence, which was known by
the name of the Peel. The inmates slept with arms
at their sides ; huge stones and boiling water were
in readiness to crush and scald the plunderer who
might venture to assail the little garrison. No
traveller ventured into that country without making
his will. The judges on circuit, with the whole
body of barristers, attorneys, clerks, and serving
men, rode on horseback from Newcastle to Carlisle,
armed and escorted by a strong guard, under the
command of the sheriffs It was necessary to carry
provisions ; for the country was a wilderness, which
afforded no supplies. The spot where the cavalcade
halted to dine, under an immense oak, is not yet
forgotten. The irregular vigour with which cri-
minal justice was administered, shocked observers
whose life had been passed in more tranquil dis-
tricts. Juries, animated by hatred, and a sense of
common danger, convicted housebreakers and cattle

34 THE CHARACTER

stealers with the promptitude of a court-martial in
a mutiny, and the convicts were hurried by scores
to the gallows. Within the memory of some who
are still living, the sportsman who wandered in pur-
suit of game to the sources of the Tyne, found the
heaths, round Keeldar Castle, peopled by a race
scarcely less savage than the Indians of California ;
and heard with surprise, the half-naked women
chanting a wild measure, while the men, with brand-
ished dirks, danced a war-dance."

This retrospect is consolatory to one viewing the
evils of the present times. England, after all, is not
retrograde.

The following account from the Athenceum of the

daring conduct of Italian brigands, not long since,
shows that this cannot be affirmed of other parts of
Europe :

" About eight o'clock in the evening, the greater
part of the inhabitants of the town of Eorlini-Popoli
a place of about 4,000 inhabitants, and within
less than three miles of the considerable city of
Eorli, to which in some measure it forms a suburb
were assembled in the theatre to witness the per-
formance of ' The Death of Caesar.' The first act of
the play was over, and the curtain had fallen, when
it was again suddenly raised, and discovered to the
audience not the artistes of the theatre, but a picked
company of brigands of the band of Pessatore !
These ruffians were plentifully supplied with carbines
and pistols, and were not slow in reducing the audi-
ence to inactivity, by threatening to fire on the first

OF CRIME IN ENGLAND. 35

person who attempted any resistance. In a few
moments all the avenues to the theatre were seized
by another and more numerous detachment of the
gang, and every person in the building was placed
entirely at the mercy of the invaders. When the
agitation had a little subsided, and the captain of
the band had still further completed his command
over the town, he politely advanced to the front of
the stage, and said, ' Ladies and gentlemen, you will
perfectly understand, by this time, that we are
your masters. Behold, here are the keys of your
city ' (producing the keys) ; ' any resistance on your
part can only compel us to go to extremities, which,
if you please, you may avert. Understand, then,
what you have to do. I shall proceed to pronounce
the names of several among you ; and on the in-
stant that I pronounce the names of any of this
audience, I expect that particular person to step at
once out of his seat, and hasten to his house with
one of my friends, who will assist him to convey
here all the money he has in his possession, without
leaving behind a single papetto.' The orator drew
from his girdle a list, and at once commenced the
proscription. The first person summoned was the
Gonfalonier, or chief officer of the town ; and as
six of the twelve dragoons of the Papal force, who
formed the garrison of Forlini-Popoli, had been
already secured in the theatre, and the other six
locked up in their own guard-house, the Gonfalonier
and his fellow-citizens found themselves compelled
to submit to the brigand's terms. The process of

D 2

36 THE CHARACTER

individual assessment by means of these domiciliary
visits was of course rather tedious ; and by way of
engaging the attention of the rest of the audience
during the interval, the most expert of the band
undertook a tour through the different parts of the
theatre, collecting into a capacious pouch, the
chains, ear-rings, purses, loose cash, ornaments, and
choice articles of dress of the less aristocratic part
of the spectators. By midnight the spoliation of
the town of Forlini-Popoli, its theatre, its inhabit-
ants, its garrison, and its Gonfalonier, was com-
plete ; and Pessatore led off his freebooters in
perfect safety, carrying with him a sum of about
1200 in money, and about 2000 in jewels and
ornaments. On the following day, of course, a
strong detachment of Austrian and Papal troops,
from the regiments stationed at Porli, were sent off
in hot pursuit of the robbers ; but long before these
lumbering myrmidons of justice could be put in
motion, Pessatore could have dispersed his men
among the fastnesses of the Apennines, or perhaps
led them far across the Tuscan frontier. Surely
these are facts which exhibit in the plainest manner
the imbecile and miserable condition of the govern-
ments which profess to rule the Italian provinces.
In this country there has been nothing like the sack
of Porlini-Popoli by the banditti of Pessatore since
the time of the Border "Wars ; and it is very
probable that, if we put down the material and po-
litical civilization of South Italy at about three
imndred years behind that of these islands, we

OF CRIME IN ENGLAND. 37

shall not be very wide of the truth. We must also
endeavour to form some idea of the abject condition
of a population where it is better worth the while of
its more intelligent and active men to become ban-
ditti than to become industrious citizens."

" One of the brigands," writes the Roman corre-
spondent of the Daily News, concerning another
transaction, " who recently extorted 6,000 scudi for
the ransom of an inhabitant of Terracina, has been
captured. The system adopted by these scoundrels,
on gaming possession of a wealthy victim, is to cast
lots amongst themselves who shall undertake the
perilous message of venturing into the town to
inform the prisoner's relations of the sum required
for his release. The messenger presents himself
with the unwelcome tidings, adding, that if he is in
any way denounced, or prevented from returning to
his expectant comrades by a certain hour the
prisoner will be murdered. Anxiety for the hostage
usually insures the safety of the brigand, who
returns to the mountains with a messenger from the
family, bearing the required sum of money. If the
first brigand sentry perceives more than one indi-
vidual accompanying his comrade, or that one
armed, or discovers any appearance of gendarmes,
he fires his musket as a signal of alarm to the band,
who immediately stab their victim, shout tradi-
mento, and make off to a more distant lair. If, on
the other hand, the appearance of the messenger
and money-bag is en regie, the intelligence is con-
veyed from sentry to sentry, the hostage brought

38 THE CHARACTER

down and consigned to the messenger, who pays his
money and departs homewards with as calm a step
as he and his released friend can muster on the
occasion."

The aspect of crime, however, in England and in
our times, is sufficiently serious to merit the most
thoughtful investigation of its probable causes, and
to demand from every one, in the writer's position,
the best help he can afford, towards the satisfactory
solution of its difficulties.

Under a sense, then, of grave responsibility, I pro-
ceed to the consideration of the subject, supplying to
the reader, in the first place, a series of facts con-
cerning criminals, who were for a long time under
my own care, which seem to me calculated to
remove some generally received incorrect ideas on
the subject.

The labours of the statistician, I am well aware,
have little of the character of mathematical cer-
tainty criminal statistics, least of all. The parties
examined have, or imagine they have, an interest
in falling in with the opinions of their superiors.
They have, in too many cases, the ability, moreover,
and the wish, to deceive. At all events, persons so
placed, naturally throw undue blame on circum-
stances, and especially on such as are thought to
extenuate crime as ignorance, drunkenness, and
the like.

I have no wish that my observations should be
considered above all necessity for caution. Let them
be compared with the statements of others, having

OF CRIME IN ENGLAND. 39

like opportunities. All I can say is, that they are
the result of long, patient, and impartial research,
on a subject important as it is difficult.

First, on education :

Of the first 1,000 convicts, as they stand on the
registry of this prison, in order (and the history of
subequent thousands is not materially different),
845 had attended some sort of school, as children,
for periods averaging about four years. Of these,
347 had received education in schools kept by
private persons, 221 in national schools, 20 in
grammar-schools, 92 in Sabbath-schools, and 160 in
other kinds. The attainments of these men were
not equal to their opportunities. More than half
could not read with understanding, or write their
own letters ; and 758 had no knowledge of any rule
in arithmetic beyond addition. The disproportion
between the periods of instruction, which these per-
sons had enjoyed in early life, and their state of pro-
gress when examined in prison, is to be accounted
for, probably, by the indifferent character of the
education itself, their own more than ordinary way-
wardness, and the labouring condition of life of by
far the greater part.

The convicts who could read with intelligence
were readers only of the light and trifling productions
of the day. Their minds were, therefore, like an
un weeded garden, in which the useless predominated.
The less educated had not tried, when at liberty, to
improve themselves in education. There was no thirst
for wholesome knowledge.

40 THE CHARACTER

It is most deplorable to observe, that as many as
15 in the 1,000 were men of liberal education. Three
of these were schoolmasters, possessed of more than
ordinary talents and acquirements ; one had stolen
books, the others were condemned for forgery. The
cause of the ruin of these individuals was plainly

marked frequenting taverns, and other places of

resort, where their abilities enabled them to take
the lead. This drew two of them into habits of
intemperance, and the third, a man of extensive
reading and some genius, to gambling.

The knowledge of revealed religion, in all classes,
was less than of secular subjects. Children of nine
or ten years of age, in a well-ordered Christian
family, know as much as the very best informed in
this respect, with very few exceptions. These ex-
ceptions were found where some degree of piety had
marked the father or mother. Of children, trained
at all aright, the number is small indeed, which we
have had the pain of seeing here in the character of
the felon and the outcast ; but in such melancholy
cases that is, where there seem to have been any
pains bestowed, even by one parent, to train up the
child in the nurture and admonition of the Lord,
there is in general more than ordinary ground for
hope. There exists a chord in the hearts of such
still, even when apparently most callous, which can
be touched. The last thing forgotten, in all the
recklessness of dissolute profligacy, is the prayer or
hymn taught by a mother's lips, or uttered at a
father's knee ; and the most poignant sting of con-

OF CRIME IN ENGLAND. 41

science, in solitude and adversity, is that which the
recollection of filial disobedience and ingratitude
inflicts.

Dividing the prisoners into classes, according to
previous education, I ascertained that two-thirds of
the crimes of those described upon reception as well-
educated, were forgery and embezzlement ; also, that
the total amount of property, taken by 1,000 pri-
soners, being, according to its estimated value on
trial, upwards of 20,000 the average proportion
to be set to the account of each man, in the well-
educated class, was above 50, but in the most
ignorant class, below 5. Further, only ten per
cent, of the well-educated seem to have fallen
through strong drink, but they were almost all
frequenters of evening entertainments, licentious
and extravagant. Some were plainly ruined by
gambling. The same love of excitement, and of un-
lawful or dangerous pleasures, marks all the classes,
varying, according to grade in life, and descending
from the tavern or saloon to the beer-house or
gin-shop. As we descend in the scale of education,
the proportion increases of those who fell from strong
drink. In the lowest class, full 50 per cent, fell
from habits of drinking in public houses. In crimes
of violence, a larger proportion exists ; and the
military offences which have come under our notice,
have been, in almost all cases, the result of strong
drink. Drunken habits, however, the source of such
multiform misery, disqualify, like gross ignorance,
for success in thieving.

42 THE CHARACTER

Here arises a most important question. Had
these convicts fewer opportunities, or even smaller
attainments, than the classes of the population in
general from which they came? Probably, not
at all. What, then ! is education of no value as a
preventive of crime ? Education, as it is generally
communicated, is worth nothing for any purpose,
good or evil. The scanty and imperfect knowledge
acquired in school is soon lost in the hard daily
labour or service to which the poorer classes are so
early consigned. Education, intellectually what it
ought to be, is, to persons of good natural sense, or
who are surrounded by circumstances favourable to
virtue, of great value in a temporal point of view ;
and, if they are really Christian, it increases greatly
their usefulness. It advances the possessor in the
social scale, and supplies sources of enjoyment
superior to the indulgence of the more sordid or
sensual appetites. To those who are without good
common sense, or real religious principle, it is a
dubious benefit. It removes some of the grosser
temptations; it suggests others, which often lead
to worse results. New desires are created ; wants
are multiplied beyond means; steady, plodding
labour is despised ; the dress is altered, and the
outward appearance perhaps improved ; the inner
man is unchanged. Education, without motive and
sound Christian principles, is as the moving power
to machinery which has no regulator, or as wide-
spread sails to a ship which has neither chart nor
compass to steer by. Mere education changes the

OF CRIME IN ENGLAND. 43

character of crime. It gives increased power to the
dishonest for planning schemes of robbery, and then
of concealment and escape from justice. Education,
based on a Divine foundation, and carried out in its
fair proportions by Christian instructors, is of inesti-
mable value.

If asked to state the comparative value which
experience has led me to place upon the different
sorts of education, in their bearings upon religious
or merely social obligations, I should place first of
all that education which has received its first im-
pulse from a pious mother's lips, and is carried on
under a godly father, who inculcates, by his own
example and by cheerful discourse in the family,
lessons of wisdom and truth, until the impression is
made upon his children, that independent, hard-
working honesty is infinitely better than riches
without right, or advancement in life without fitness,
and who honours God by a stated religious service
in his family daily, and by the solemn, but happy,
observance of the Sabbath. Next would be the
instruction given in the really Christian Sunday-
school ; and so on, downwards, from that which is
religious in the highest sense, and only secondarily
educational, to that which is highly intellectual,
but godless.

Indeed, I must acknowledge, confining my view
still to the unhappy class with which I have had to
do, that where the desires were enlarged by an
increased grasp of mind consequent upon cultiva-
tion, but not satisfied with that which alone meets

44 THE CHARACTER

the wants of the soul, the individual only became
more expert in wickedness, more mischievous, and
more miserable. This experience of a Gaol-Chap-
lain manifestly agrees with every intelligent per-
son's in ordinary life ; for few persons, whatever may
be their own religious character, selecting a servant
or agent to whom much was to be intrusted, would
hesitate to choose for the purpose the member of a
simple godly family, in preference to the better
educated, and more clever person, known to have
been reared by those who feared not God, an in-
voluntary homage, truly, of the world's experience
to Divine truth I

Next let us look at the means of Heine/ which
these criminals had. Of the 1,000 convicts, 67 had
been employed in office of trust, 71 as in-door and
out-door servants, 388 were tradesmen and me-
chanics, 50 weavers and factory-labourers, 100 farm-
labourers, 25 colliers, 15 boatmen, 10 common
sailors, 18 in the army and navy, and 256 general
labourers and hawkers. Their average earnings
(until character was lost) amounted, in the well-
educated, to upwards of 40s. weekly; in the next
highest school class to about 25s. ; in the next to
15s. ; and in the lowest to 12s. I expected to find
scarcely any who had saved money from their earn-
ings ; but as many as thirty-nine had put by money
from their wages beyond common annual savings
for clothes. This money was lost, in general, sub-
sequently by gambling, speculation, business, or
sudden fits of extravagance, which broke through

OF CRIME IN ENGLAND. 45

all bounds. These facts point rather to the mode of
spending earnings, than their inadequacy or want of
employment, as a cause of crime. Natural poverty
is no doubt a cause of crime, but poverty which is
the result of a bad course of life, of very much more.
It is distressing to see, in these returns, so many
as sixty-seven persons, previously engaged in places
of trust, and seventy-one domestic servants, all
young men who began life a few years back with
excellent prospects, according to their station.
Exposed, alas ! to all the seductive snares of our
great towns, betting-houses, theatres, concerts,
dancing, billiard-rooms, &c., in most cases without
sufficient warning as to what was before them, or
one wise and friendly hand at first to steady and
direct their course, without home, without religion,
they miserably fell, involving others as well as
themselves in ruin and disgrace. Eew masters
care, as they ought to do, for the young people
whom Providence has placed under their direction
and control. Many, alas ! instead of guarding and
helping their servants against temptations, put
them in their way ; and instances are, alas ! too
frequent, of employers directly teaching and requir-
ing their shopmen and shopwomen to be dishonest,
to defraud the public, and otherwise corrupting
their morals to such a degree, that to retain their
situation, and at the same time their integrity and
virtue, is perfectly impossible.

It would be well if all, who, being placed at the
head of a family or business establishment, have a

46 THE CHARACTER

conscience in this matter, would examine them-
selves as suggested by the good Bishop in the
sermon already referred to.

"Has all the influence which you derive from
your station in society been uniformly exerted to
promote piety and virtue? Has the tendency of
your example, and of your conversation, been
always wholesome and edifying to those who have
been looking up to you for countenance and au-
thority, for instruction or advice ? Or, rather,
ought I not to put the question in a different form ?
Are you sure that you have not contributed, if not
by positive and flagrant breaches of morality, at
least by your carelessness and indifference, by your
levity and neglect, by some of those idle words of
which we shall have to give account in the day of
judgment, through some of those innumerable
channels by which evil communications corrupt
good manners ; are you sure, I say, that you have
not contributed, directly or indirectly, more or less,
to increase the amount of that licentiousness, guilt,
and misery, against which it is the object of this
Institution (the Philanthropic) to provide a remedy?
I fear there are few amongst us, who, if we would
seriously examine ourselves, and review our past
lives, as in the Divine presence, would not find
that they have something of this kind to answer
for."

Oh, that heads of houses did but consider what
terrible destruction to the virtue and happiness of
the most promising young persons in situations of

OF CRIME IN ENGLAND. 47

trust or service, even carelessness and want of
proper discipline on the part of masters, have
produced upon many to my knowledge ! I could
recite many a painful tale of the kind, from my
own experience, and shall have to refer to not a few
in a subsequent chapter. I prefer here to give an
illustration from another source, of a most touching
and instructive character, in the hope of directing
the reader to a work, which every master and every
mistress especially, should read, " The Prisoners of
Australia " (Hatchard).

" Another instance," writes the pious authoress,
" is that of a woman, now also a convict at Sydney,
sentenced to transportation for life upon the charge
of robbing, to a considerable extent, the lady with
whom she had lived for many years, in the high
and respectable capacity of lady's-maid. Her
history, too, is replete with the lamentable results
arising from an irreligious mistress ; but we will
not detail more than a brief outline of her story.
She was most respectably connected, entered service
in her nineteenth year, and became exceedingly
attached to her mistress, who deemed her worthy of
unbounded confidence. But she totally neglected all
her religious duties, was persuaded to believe it no
harm to work on Sundays, which her mistress fre-
quently required her to do; she rarely went to
church ; she never prayed ; nor did she even read
her Bible. On returning to England, after an
absence of some months on the Continent, whither
she had accompanied her mistress, she passed a

48 THE CHARACTER

short time with a sister who lived as upper servant
in a pious family; and who, grieving to see the
total indifference of poor Maria to all that concerned
a future state, ventured seriously to expostulate with
her upon the sin of remaining longer in a family
whose ungodly habits had so fatally influenced her
own mind ; earnestly reminding her, that no bless-
ing could rest upon such an engagement, however
lucrative it might be. But it was all in vain. She
was happy and prosperous in a worldly sense, and,
scorning the affectionate, and, as she thought, the
'puritanical' counsel of her sister, she returned
to where she feared neither God nor man, in her
thoughtless course of impiety. Soon did that sister,
whose warning she despised, see her again but it
was in a prison I She wept over her, prayed for
her, and, without a reproach, now patiently en-
deavoured to urge her to ' repent and believe ; '
and it was then, as she told me herself, that she
would have given all she possessed, could she
have begun life again as the poorest and meanest
of creatures, to be the humble, honest, happy
Christian, which she was whose religion she had so
often ridiculed and denied. Vain was now alike the
wish and "the regret ! Allured by a bad man to
commit a deed of the most aggravated dishonesty,
and that, too, against a mistress who, with all her
faults, had loved and trusted her she was about
to suffer for life the just but dreadful sentence of
perpetual exile. Yet, it is a striking fact, that,
softened and self-condemned as she was, in many

OF CHIME IN ENGLAND. 49

respects, she expressed a bitterness of remembrance
towards her mistress, tracing all her own wicked-
ness to the ungodliness in which, under her guard-
ianship and example, she had been trained both
painful to hear, and unprincipled in her to admit,
against one who had been, to her at least, a kinc^
and generous benefactress. True, it manifested the
worst so ; l of human nature, untouched by Divine
grace ; but would it have thus sprung up in weeds
of such deadly and unhallowed passion, had it been
cultured, watered, and planted with seeds of hea-
venly instruction, by the hand of a Christian guard-
ian ? No ; bad and ungrateful as the reproach
was, uttered under such circumstances, what was it
but the reaction of principles; evil falling back
upon evil ; ' the grain reproduced, but with thorns
around the ear ? ' for, ' Whatsoever a man soweth,
that also shall he reap.' ):

To recur to the table of occupations of the 1000
prisoners : one is astonished at finding in that
return so small a proportion of the most ignorant
and neglected part of the whole community factory
labourers, colliers, and boatmen. There is no cause
for rejoicing, however, in any superior morality in
these classes. An acquaintance with them in their
own districts, as well as in prison, enables me to
speak with greater confidence on this point; the
causes of the small proportion of criminals in those
classes being, rather that their wants are few ; that
they are accustomed from their childhood to the
hardest toil, and that, worn out by overwork, they

50 THE CHARACTER

have little energy left for good or evil. Such a
condition is far from satisfactory. It is due to
society, to humanity, and to religion, to elevate
such classes, by proper intellectual cultivation, to
their proper station in a Christian land; and I
am fully persuaded, that thereby gross moral turpi-
tude would he greatly diminished, although, at
the same time, prepared to expect, from an en-
largement of their desires by education, and their
acquired notions of refinement, an increased craving
for money : and, from their increased power to do
evil, as well as good, an increase of crime as well as
an increase of virtue.

Let the domestic condition of the same convicts,
antecedent to legal criminality, now be viewed.
The proportion of the married to the single
amongst these convicts (whose age is from about
twenty to forty years), is the very reverse of that
which exists in a sound state of society. Three-
fourths were without the means appointed by God
for the security of man against a sin which most
prominently marks criminals, and which is so
conspicuously disastrous in its consequences to
youth, not in the matter of crime only, but of social
degradation, and bodily and mental disorder also.
In considering the causes of legal crime in those
convicts, we have, in fact, been only viewing so
many profligate persons, who, not having the fear
of God before their eyes, and driven by their
dissolute habits to the urgent want of money, were
led to commit acts of dishonesty to right them-

OP CRIME IN ENGLAND. 51

selves, and again go on in their licentiousness.
With regard to the married convicts, the greater
part had no excuse for the wicked course they pur-
sued, in the character of their homes. Beginning
with drinking, and the neglect of their families
and place of worship, for the excitement of the
ale-house, or other improper place of resort, they
went on to form associations with abandoned
women and men, and consummated their career
by crimes from which they would, at first, have
shrunk with horror. Many of the number, never-
theless, had no home such as it ought to be, and
such as it would be if more attention were paid
to the thorough training of young women for
domestic life. When home is not a rest to a
labouring man ; or when, what is worse, dissatis-
faction, suspicion, and jealousy enter his mind, from
the conduct of his partner, the public-house is
looked to for relief, and ruin comes upon all. The
want of a home stands prominent in the history of
my whole people. The greater part were without
its blessed influences ; a good number through their
own sad wilfulness and a desire to be free ; some
from unhappy circumstances, as the death, or
profligacy of parents, or the second marriages of a
father or mother; a great many, from ambition
or covetousness, desiring to better their condition,
when they were favourably situated, as regards
virtue; but not a few, also, from the impulse of
those necessary laws of society which enjoin upon
every one grown up, independent labour, al-

E 2

52 THE CHARACTER

though it may, unhappily, be far from home and
kindred.

The total absence of religion in these men pre-
viously is even a more prominent feature of their
condition than the want of home associations. That
one expression in our ancient form of law, " Not
having the fear of God before their eyes," describes
their previous state in this respect. In the greater
number of instances, this fear had never been im-
planted ; and in the rest, by indulgence in sin, it
had almost disappeared. The following case may
serve for an illustration : A prisoner states, that,
going into a part of the premises on which he was
employed in farm-service, he saw the carter's box
accidentally left open, and in this a smaller one,
which he had reason to think contained the proceeds
of a sale of farm produce, just effected. He opened
the box, and counted the gold, but, terrified with
thoughts of the consequences, put it back and went
away ; but the thirst for the gold followed him, and
he returned and took it. He told me that at the
time not one thought of God passed his mind : "if
it had, he could not have done the deed ; for, as it
was, he had a struggle." It was his first offence
against the laws of his country.

In the 1000 there was less infidelity than I was
led to expect. Where it did exist, it appeared rather
as the consequence of a reckless and abandoned life,
than as the cause. The mass, however, were prac-
tically atheistic " without Christ, having no hope,
and without God in the world." About one-fourth

OF CRIME IX EXGLAND. 53

of the prisoners were stated to have regularly
attended, at one time of their lives, some place of
worship ; but not more than 1 in a 100 a short time
previous to crime.

Another mark of irreligion in these young men
was their neglect of parental counsel, their dis-
obedience to authority. No one sentence so often
strikes the eye in reading prisoners' letters to
parents as this : " Had I taken your advice, I never
would have been here." No sin is more universally
brought to remembrance amongst criminals than
filial disobedience, nor is any remorse more poignant.
I have seen the stoutest men subdued, and the
almost reprobate crying like children, at the recol-
lection of despised instruction or warning from a
mother's or father's lips. Sabbath-breaking, filial
disobedience, licentiousness, and an inordinate
desire for money, not in the way of accumulation,
but to have to spend upon what is described in Holy
Writ as " the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes,
and the pride of life," were in a greater or less de-
gree the prevailing characteristics of these criminals,
and I believe of all. " The usual process," said the
late Chaplain of Clerkenwell, speaking of the descent
into crime of 100,000 prisoners, " has been impa-
tience of parental restraint, violation of the Sabbath,
and the neglect of religious ordinances. I do not
recollect a single case of capital offence where the
party has not been a Sabbath-breaker. Indeed, I
may say, in reference to prisoners of all classes, that
in nineteen cases out of twenty, they are persons

54 THE CHARACTER

who have not only neglected the Sabbath, but all
religious ordinances." They had cast off the fear of
the Lord, and lived in open violation of those insti-
tutions and of that authority which the Creator has
placed at the foundation of all social well-being and
religion. It is no wonder, then, they were unable
to resist temptation in one particular species of
transgression, when opportunity and their imperious
necessities urged them to its commission.

Thus far concerning the character and causes of
crime in those 1000 convicts. I now proceed to
give the results of more extended observation since
the above facts were collected.

To make my statements more specific and intelli-
gible, it will be best, perhaps, to view in classes the
criminals of England and Wales.

1. We begin with those of the worst kind : viz.
persons convicted of murder.*

The number of these is so small (less than one in
a million of the population), that little need be said
as to the causes of the crime itself, with reference to
any remedy. The crime of murder in Great Britain
forms a minute though terrible exception to the

* The average commitments for murder in England and
Wales is the same for the last ten years as in the ten preceding,
viz. sixty-seven ; the average convictions also nearly the same,
being under twenty annually. The greater publicity given of
late to the crimes of enormously guilty persons, and the uncom.
mon prolongation of preliminary proceedings before coroners and
magistrates, as well as subsequently of the trial itself, bv the in-
genious ability of advocates, have left the erroneous impression
on the public mind that this crime is on the increase.

OF CHIME IN ENGLAND. 55

general character of the whole country. It is an
isolated act. It excites the horror of the people,
even in the lowest grades of society. It proceeds
neither from popular ignorance nor from popular
education. If the ignorance of some murderers be
profound, the acute perception, great mental vigour,
and good attainments of others, are no less remark-
able. The worst species of this awful crime seem
to have come, of late years, from persons more
clever and better educated v that; the generality of
their class.

Murder generally in England is the result of some
sudden impulse, ungovernable passion, or execrable
covetousness, that auri sacra fames which so com-
monly characterizes the crimes of mankind.

In almost every case, however even where the
impulse seems to be most hasty there has been a
gradual depravation of morals and religion by spe-
cific sins, as adultery, fornication, and drunkenness.
Nemo repente f nit turpissimus. The contrast, in re-
spect of murder, between this country and other
countries of Europe, may be judged of by the report
of the Minister of Justice for France for 1849, in
which the following numbers are given; (let it
be observed, there are no Coroners' inquests in
France) :

"Among the number of prisoners accused of
crimes against the person (6983) were :

Parricides . . . . 19
For Poisoning ... 35
Attempts at Murder . . 824

56 THE CHARACTER

Infanticides ... 203

Murders , . .329

910

Allowing for acquittals and population, this would
give at least fifteen or twenty cases of murder in
Prance in a million. Ireland, unhappily, resembles
her continental friends more than she does England,
in this particular ; for, even in the improved state
of things there in the same year, there were no fewer
than "175 charged with murder and shooting at
persons."

2. The next class of criminals to which I would
refer, consists of those who are undergoing the
penalty of the law for aggravated offences against
the person, unnatural crimes, and the worst kind of
robberies. This also is much less than is generally
imagined.

The annual mean for eight years, ending about
the same period, of persons transported for life was
153, the number of life sentences, in 1842, being
220, or 1 in 73,266 of the population, but only 91 in
1849, or 1 in 195,235. The sentences in 1842, for
21 years and upwards, the next in severity, were 36 ;
but in 1849, only 26.

In the returns of the French minister, we find the
following enumeration of offences, which in this
country would for the most part come under life
sentences, or at least twenty-one years :

OF CRIME IX ENGLAND. 57

Cutting and Wounding . . . .516

False Swearing and Subornation of Perjury 75

Coining 121

Forgeries 503

Eape 260

Criminal Assaults on Children . 478

1958

In the same category may be placed the greater
part of the following crimes in Ireland :

Manslaughter 150

Arson . . . . . . .155

Attacking Houses 108

The character as well as the amount of crime in
Ireland, compared with England, shows how back-
ward that country is still in civilization.

In Ireland, in 1849, 5275 were charged with
offences against the person. In England, Wales,
and Scotland, with a population more than treble,
2852 ; offences against property, with violence, were,
in Ireland, 26S2 ; in Great Britain, 2786 : malicious
offences against property in Ireland, 707 ; in Great
Britain, 369. There has been since some improve-
ment. (See Appendix.)

3. Erom the highest order of crime, let us turn
now to the most venial in the estimation of the law ;
i. e. to cases summarily disposed of by the magis-
trate.

This is the largest class, and of late years, the

58 THE CHARACTER

only one materially on the increase. Thus, whilst
the number of more serious offences tried by jury
at the assizes and sessions, has been gradually
lessening being in 1842, 31,160, or 1 in 511 of the
population ; and in 1849, 28,752, or 1 in 615 ; the
number of summary convictions, which was in
1842, 70,507, or 1 in 229, rose, in 1849, to 90,963,
or 1 in 193.

It is important to notice some of the elements of
this increase. There was an increase, then, of about
2000 under each of the following heads : malicious
trespassing, police acts and assaults (chiefly in
drunken broils and public-houses), the latter having
risen to 12,968 in 1849. The increase under those
heads no doubt is to be ascribed in part to the
greater number and efficiency of the police, espe-
cially in rural parts, before but little protected ; but
it was chiefly caused by the vast increase in the
formidable army of marauders, the vagrants, which
from 20,888 in 1842, grew into 28,139 in 1849 ; and
one is bound to state his persuasion, that were it
not for the influx of a pauper and disorderly popu-
lation from the sister island, for many years going
on, but particularly of late, England would now be
congratulating herself on the progressive and con-
siderable annual decline in the number of her
criminals.

The parish of Westminster will serve to illustrate
these remarks. Of this locality we have the follow-
ing graphic description from the pen of no less a
personage than Dr. Wiseman \

OF CRIME IN ENGLAND. 59

" Close under the Abbey of Westminster there lie concealed
labvrinths of lanes, and courts, and alleys, and slums ; nests of
ignorance, vice, depravity, and crime, as well as of squalor,
wretchedness, and disease ; whose atmosphere is typhus, whose
ventilation is cholera ; in which swarms a huge and almost
countless population, in great measure, nominally at least, Catholic ;
haunts of filth which no Sewage Committee can reach; dark
corners which no Lighting Board can brighten. This is the
part of Westminster which I covet, and which I shall be glad to
claim and to visit, as a blessed pasture in which sheep of Holy
Church are to be tended," &c.

" This witness is true ! " It appears by a return
from the House of Correction at Westminster, of
the different religious persuasions of prisoners, from
June 1, 1848, to May 31, 1849 (see Inspector of
Prisons' Report), that more than one third were
non-English, the numbers being :

Of the Church of England . 5711
Roman Catholic . . . 3281
Other Dissenters . 195

9187

The following account, of a single assizes lately
held at York, by a barrister, presents a similar
view.

" Number of prisoners :

In the Calendar . . . 119
Out on Bail .... 7

Total . . .126
Of these 27 were Irish : or about 25 per cent, of all the crime

60 THE CHARACTER

committed in Yorkshire, and tried at the last assize, was com-
mitted by Irishmen.

" Of these crimes, ^9 were crimes of violence, murders,
manslaughters, robberies, and assaults ; and of these crimes,
19 were committed by Irishmen ; or about 66 per cent, of the
crimes of violence in Yorkshire.

" Of these orimes of violence eight resulted in death in
murder or manslaughter ; and of these eight crimes, six were
committed by Irishmen ; or 75 per cent, of the murders and
manslaughters in Yorkshire."

If we turn our eyes to those parts of the coast
where the debarkation of the Irish chiefly takes
place, we shall find the above view strongly corrobo-
rated. Mr. Clay gives the following account of the
matter :

" It is worth while to note the increase of the committal of
natives of Ireland within the last three years :

1846. 1847. 1848.

Sessions Cases . . .30 40 41
Summary Convictions . 6-2 98 196

"The Irish committed to the sessions, it will be observed,
have not augmented in the same proportion as those committed
summarily. The latter class chiefly consists of persons who
have recently come over to this country ; and who, whether from
previous habits, or, as it rather appears to me, from newly and
easily acquired practice, are plausible and incorrigible mendi-
cants. When these wretched people, however, settle in a to\vn,
their children contribute largely to the hopeless class of young
offenders. Had they (the children) remained in Ireland, pro-
bably in a rural district, and forming part of a population more
or less scattered, ignorance, indolence, and begging, might have
constituted the worst features of their character. But in a town
e "ch habits soon grow into more deplorable vices. In the most
?hed and filthy localities, parents and children herd together

OF CRIME IN ENGLAND. 01

until an Irish colony is established. The boys and girls are sent
out systematically to beg! but the temptations of a town, the
thronged streets, the places of low amusement, the open doors
of yards and dwellings soon convert the little beggar into an
adroit and bold thief. One instance out of many which have
come under my observation during the past year, will serve to
illustrate this state of things. Six girls, whose ages varied from
eleven to sixteen years, were committed together as 'rogues and
vagabonds.' Their offence consisted in entering an unoccupied
house, and pilfering whatever was capable of removal. Most of
them had been driven out by their parents to beg ; and, accord-
ing to their own statement, were beaten or otherwise ill-used,
unless they carried home a certain sum in the evening. They
had been in the dangerous habit of lighting fires in the unoccu-
pied house. They had formed an acquaintance with a boy
employed in a dram-shop, who supplied them occasionally with
stolen spirits, and with which some of these little girls got
drunk. ' Worse remains behind.' The younger ones had been
trained by the oldest to a kind of profligacy for which, at their
early age, natural propensity could scarcely be alleged in excuse.
All these girls were the children of Irish parents ; the latter
settled in Preston, or tramping through the neighbouring dis-
trict, and living by imposture and vagrancy. I may add here,
that of nineteen juvenile offenders committed from the borough
of Wigau, eleven were the children of Irish parents."

" The proportion of Irish prisoners has been rapidly increasing
for the last three years, and particularly for the year now closing.
Out of a total increase, in three years, of 1837 prisoners, 1241
were Irish. . . . The number of felonies committed last year
in Liverpool by persons born in Ireland was 222 ; while the
whole number committed by persons born in Lancashire was
only 269. " To this statement by the Governor of the Liverpool
Prison, Mr. Hill, the Government Inspector, adds : " If to the
prisoners who are strictly Irish, those who, though born in
England, are of Irish parentage, were added, the proportion of
Irish prisoners would be yet greater. A return was made of
these two classes of prisoners on one day of my inspection, and
I found that they formed more than one-half of the whole
number of prisoners."

(J2 THE CHARACTER

If England has thus suffered from the influx of a
disorderly, vagrant, and dishonest population from
Ireland, let it be borne in mind, that she has had
the occasion (followed more generally than is
imagined, by the result,) of removing prejudices
from a mistaught people ; of imparting instruction
in the arts of industry ; and of exhibiting to them
the blessings of liberty, and order, and peace. The
residence in England, even for a season, of the poor
Irish, is an education and training in habits, by
which many profit and return to their own country,
to propagate them amongst their countrymen.

But this country is not open only to such influx
from Ireland, to jostle out her own poor from the
market of labour, and to press them into dwelling-
places and localities which have become the seed-
plots of crime, England is the gold diggings of
Europe, where needy adventurers of all nations look
for a rich harvest :

Exilis domus est ubi non multa supersunt,
Et dominum fallunt et prosunt furibus.

We have, therefore, the vices of the continent
largely incorporated with our own.

4. I will now direct the reader's attention to
another class of prisoners ; viz. persons convicted of
dishonesty of the ordinary kind. These are either
professed thieves, or unhappy persons guilty of an
isolated act of dishonesty. I will confine my obser-

OF CRIME IN ENGLAND. 63

vations to the latter class, both because from this,
the former receives its recruits, and because it will
serve my purpose the better, of warning young
people who are yet respectable, but in the midst of
temptation, against those things which lead in
general to the first criminal acts.

At the head of the multitudinous causes of punish-
able crime in the land, must be placed in my judg-
ment that wickedness which itself escapes the arm
of the law, but which necessarily tends to de-
moralize those classes in society from which
criminals chiefly come. Tw^o species of this may be
particularized ; seduction, and the fraudulent prac-
tices of employers. Take, for instance, the case of
a libertine in the higher ranks, or in any class, who
has brought one woman to ruin. That ruined indi-
vidual descends into a lower deep, becomes in turn
the seducer of virtue, not in one, but hundreds of
young men ; robs them of their strength, their
money, their character; and then confederates them
in those bands of midnight robbers, and those
hordes of swindlers and gamblers, which make
necessary an army of police for the protection of
property and life; and innumerable prisons to
punish, correct, and lead them, if it be possible,
back to virtue. The deliberate seducer of female
innocence, whatever his position in life, should be
cast out of society as a liar, a robber of the vilest
description, and a murderer. It is not so, however.
Yet, thank God, there is an increasing feeling of
detestation of this crime in the better ranks of

64 THE CHARACTER

society. With God, such a man will have an awful
reckoning, when the broken heart of the parent, the
sin of the seduced, and the loss of an undying soul,
are brought home to him as the chief cause. " If
we pursue the effects of seduction," says Paley,
"through the complicated misery which it occa-
sions, and if it be right to estimate crimes by the
mischief they knowingly produce, it will appear
something more than mere invective to assert, that
one-half of the crimes for which men suffer death
by the laws of England, are not so flagitious as this."
" Yet the law has provided no punishment for this
offence beyond a pecuniary satisfaction to the in-
jured family ; and this can only be come at by one
of the quaintest fictions in the world by the father's
bringing his action against the seducer, for the loss
of his daughter's service, during her pregnancy and
nurturing."

There are many shades, it must be confessed, in
this crime. The sin which leads so generally to
such devastation of character such a blight upon
the happiness of home such an obliteration of all
religion and hope, is often mutual; yea, not un-
frequently the greatest sufferer is first in the trans-
gression.

Pew women, strictly and uniformly modest in
dress and manner, have to complain of the ap-
proaches of badly-intentioned men. There is a
dignity in female modesty and virtue, powerful
enough to repel, in general, the first assaults of

OF CRIME IN ENGLAND.

the base seducer, whilst nothing so much excites the
admiration and affection of honourable men.

I have referred to monsters in human form who
live by trafficking in seduction, and pandering to
the lusts of the rich libertine and debauchee. These
are generally pretended masters and mistresses of
households, and their victims are simple girls from
the country, looking for place, or young women
thrown out of service by some haste of temper, or
liking for fine dress, or love of amusement and
change, who unhappily possess an attractive appear-
ance ; or children of tender years. The victims of
this abominable traffic are by no means exclusively
from the lower classes. Not long since, I heard a
nobleman mention the following heart-rending
tale :

A gentleman of rank in Ireland had two daughters
receiving education in Paris. They were to return
home during vacation. A friend was to see them
on board at Boulogne, and another had undertaken
to receive them in London. They arrived in town,
but have never been since seen nor heard of by
their family. The friend in London was not at his
post : a woman fashionably attired had ingratiated
herself into their favour, as was noticed on board
the packet, and on arrival took them to her home,
no doubt one of those elegantly furnished houses in
the West End (described by prisoners within these
walls), where gentlemen, whose fortunes are equal
to their atrocious villany, and who can satisfy the
cupidity of those traders in seduction, systematically

66 THE CHARACTER

seek, by false introductions, visits to the opera, wine
(if needful, drugged), and other means, even to vio-
lence, to destroy a woman's innocence, happiness,
and soul, for ever.

The following is told by a trustworthy witness :
" Not long since, the only child of a respectable
tradesman in London, quite a young girl, was de-
coyed from her peaceful home and loving father by
a procuress. It was not done at night, but during
school hours, or when the girl was returning from
school. Vigilant search was made by the distressed
father, (" who, for a whole fortnight, never took off
his clothes,") accompanied by the officers of justice.
But it was not before the lapse of several weeks that
the girl was traced, and then not in time to save
her from ruin. When restored, her wonted inno-
cence and simplicity had departed, and such a
marked alteration was visible in her features that
her friends, at first, could scarcely recognize her,
and worse still, she had become so degraded as to
be careless whether she returned home or not. The
writer can testify to the truth of this statement,
the unfortunate father being intimate with his
family."

Rarely can the law reach a case of this mon-
strous kind ; still more rarely could it do so, were
it not for the exertions of a noble, but too little
known Society, The London Society for the Pro-
tection of Young Females; and when the law does
lay hold on the guilty party, it cannot inflict so
heavy a punishment as is every day awarded to the

OF CRIME IN ENGLAND. 67

stealer of a few shillings or pence-worth of paltry
property !

In like manner, the master who teaches his
shopmen to defraud the public, and make a spoil
of the simple, or who employs the agency of
his servants in vitiating the food of the people ; at
once corrupts their integrity, makes them deceitful
and dishonest, and creates, as far as his miserable
cupidity can accomplish it, another tributary source
towards t^it congeries of vice and crime in the
country, which becomes so difficult, if not impracti-
cable to remove. The lying and frauds practised in
business are numberless, and their effect upon the
morals of the young people employed, male and
female, is disastrous and shocking in the extreme.

Nor is this all, for, as it is easy to conceive,
where moral principle is set at nought in the
matter of truth and honesty by the employer, other
vices must luxuriate and thrive ; and they do so to
the most fearful extent.

The most successful swindlers in such shops are
the favourites of the employers, and these are in-
dulged in every vice. The scrupulous, and those
who are not willing to part with their virtue, are
dismissed.

Looking at the less noticed causes of crime, we
are not to pass over the luxurious habits of the
wealthy, who multiply attendants beyond all possi-
bility of moral control; and who expose them by
their own habits, in the pursuit of pleasure, to
so manifold temptations beyond what is unavoidable

r 2

68 THE CHARACTER

in the condition of a servant. The corruption of
morals which goes on in a great man's house where
the fear of the Lord is not the governing principle,
exceeds all ordinary belief. Nor is it confined there.
The contagion spreads to the families next in station,
and so downwards to the lowest. In the transactions
between servants, tradesmen, and shopkeepers,
fraud, in a variety of ways, is perpetrated and in fact
systematised, to such a degree, that it has almost
ceased to be thought culpable.

Of the 1000 convicts, let it be remembered, 71
were domestic servants ; of 1000 abandoned women
in the streets, even a larger proportion would be
found. Yet these are only some of the fruits of the
dissipated habits acquired by inexperienced persons
of the humbler classes, in the houses of luxury and
fashion.

" Increase of power begets increase of wealth,
Wealth luxury, and luxury excess ;
Excess the scrofulous and itchy plague
That seizes first the opulent, descends
To the next rank contagious, and in time
Taints downwards all the graduated scale." COWPEB.

Thus far with respect to the less noticed sources
of crime. Let us now view, for a little, a few more
obvious. Amongst these, special prominence is to
be given to the drinking habits of the lower classes
of the people.

Of the 28,752 prisoners tried at the assizes and
sessions in England, in the year referred to, 10,000
may be put down, without fear of exaggeration, as
having been brought to their deplorable condition,

OF CRIME IN ENGLAND. 69

directly or indirectly, by the public-house ; whilst of
the 90,963 summary convictions, 50,000, I fear not
to state, were the result of the drinking habits of the
individuals themselves or their parents. Yet, as I
am led to think, the evil results of drunkenness are
to be looked for elsewhere, even more abundantly
than in prison, especially among women. Drunken-
ness is in truth a monster evil in the land a drain
upon the national resources a stain upon the cha-
racter of England a plague in the midst of us,
more fatal than any malady which ever visited our
shores. Not one single vice contributes more to-
wards filling with wretched inhabitants the poor-
house, the hospital, the asylum, and the gaol. In
the year 1836, being a parish clergyman (in the
Staffordshire Potteries), I was led to make the fol-
lowing remark in an address to my parishioners :
" The people of this place take an awful part in this
pernicious expenditure. In our population of 12,000
people, there are 158 public-houses or beer-shops ;
that is, one for every 76 persons ! All these houses
are filled on Saturday night, and the early part of
the week ; that is, while the working classes have
any money to spend ; but on Thursday, Eriday, and
Saturday morning, riot and drunkenness have
ceased, and all is quietness and peace." It is too
true, I fear, yet of the same place, and of thousands
of others in this country. When I entered on that
parish, in the spring of 1833, the evil of the Beer
Bill was beginning to be felt. That measure had
for one of its objects, the drawing people off from

70 THE CHARACTER

public-houses, by affording them a wholesome
beverage to be consumed at home at their meals ;
but the effect was, that a lower style of drinking-
place was opened in every quarter, and by a trifle
more tax and house-rent, the beer might be " drunk
on the premises ;" and thus the temptation of an
inferior public-house was brought to every poor
man's door. Frightful immoralities became common
in the place, and the vice of gambling was rapidly
generated. A bookseller in the town stated that the
demand for playing-cards was quite surprising, con-
sequent upon the opening of these houses. A similar
testimony I am sure would be borne by every clergy-
man who witnessed the opening of beer-houses in his
parish, under that calamitous Act of the Legislature.

The Opinions of Forty -seven Chaplains on the " J3eer
Bill" extracted from the Evidence before Lord
Harrowly's late Committee:

1. "Is convinced by experience of the evil effects of beer*
houses in the production of crime, the majority of cases of theft
and poaching being traceable thereto."

2. "Has ascertained by investigation that about four- fifths of
the offences committed by the agricultural population are trace-
able to beer-houses."

3. " Attributes most injurious effects to beer-houses ; several
prisoners under twenty years of age being now in custody, who
acknowledge that ' the beer-shop has done it all.' "

4. " Beer-houses are the sources of a very large proportion of
crime, the prisoners almost universally admitting that they trace
their disgraceful position to them."

5. " Believes the several Acts relating to the sale of beer to
have been productive of the most demoralizing effects."

6. " Suggests that the Legislature should repeal the whole of
the Acts relating to beer-houses."

OF CRIME IN ENGLAND. 71

7. " Gaols must continue to be filled with prisoners, unless
something be done to put down Jerry-shops."

8. "Judging from information obtained from prisoners, con-
siders beer-houses one of the most fruitful sources of crime."

9. " Considers beer-houses a curse in any parish, and produc-
tive of great domestic misery."

10. "Has no hesitation in stating that the number of beer-
houses, and their vicinity to the dwellings of the poor, has a
very pernicious effect."

11 "They (beer-houses) cannot be regarded otherwise than
as positive nurseries of vice and crime."

12. " Is convinced, from the additional experience of every
year, that beer-houses are one of the most fruitful sources of vice
and immorality in every form."

13. " Finds that nearly all houses of ill-fame are beer-houses,
and that spirits are sold in them, though the proprietor has no
license for so doing."

14. "Is inclined to consider beer-houses as dangerous to
public morals."

15. "Has been informed by prisoners and others, that much
of the seduction and corruption in early life among females is
to be traced to their being entrapped into these houses."

16. "For fostering vice, and for consummating reckless and
self-incurred pauperism, the beer-shop appears to furnish the
most fatal channel."

17. "However lucrative they may be to the revenue in the
way of excise duties, it is at the expense of the best interests of
the labouring poor, and entails an enormous expense in the
punishment of crimes concocted in the beer-shop."

18. "The effect of beer-houses is, and hitherto h&s been, to
let loose a flood of vice and immorality."

19. " Has no doubt as to the demoralizing effects of beer-
houses."

20. " Beer-houses the chief cause of crime."

21. " Is of opinion, formed deliberately and from long experi-
ence, that beer-houses are the promoters of crime."

22. " Is enabled to say, from seven years' experience, that the
operation of public-houses and beer-houses, in the production of
crime, is beyond any other instrumentality."

23. " From the facilities afforded by beer-houses to drinking,

72 THE CHARACTER

many offences and crimes are therein committed, or committed
after leaving them."

24. " Certain beer-shops and public-houses are the constant
resort of youths who subsist upon whatever articles they can
steal and convert into money."

25. "From conversations with prisoners, concludes that the
tendency of beer-houses, in a moral point of view, is exceedingly
bad."

26. " It is a matter of frequent occurrence that young men, in
writing home, speak of the beer-shop having proved their ruin."

27. " From experience can express a very confident opinion,
that beer-houses must be looked upon generally as so many
nurseries of crime in the land."

28. " Has no hesitation in saying, that the beer-house has
been the source of ruin to most of the inmates of this gaol."

29. " Has no hesitation in declaring, from long experience,
that beer-houses are greatly and constantly productive of crime."

30. " Is led to conclude, from experience, that beer-houses, by
increasing the temptation to drunkenness, have greatly con-
tributed to the increase of crime."

31. " Having closely interrogated each prisoner as to the cause
of their incarceration, has received answer from every one (with
one single exception), that it was the facility afforded in beer-
shops for the indulgence of their drinking propensities."

32. " Beer-houses operate in producing crime, by providing
occasions, more numerous and cheaper than otherwise would
exist, for contracting drinking habits, bad companionships, and
directly criminal engagements."

33. "Cases of poaching, sheep-stealing, and labourers for-
saking their families, have originated in the facility with which
they (the labourers) could frequent beer-shops."

34. " Is of decided opinion that beer-houses in general operate
in the production of crime."

35. "A very considerable proportion of the crime for which
men are committed arises from their frequenting beer-houses.
Such houses are a crying evil to the country at large."

36. "The situation of many of these houses in by-places
just suits the views of poachers, thieves, and midnight
assassins."

37. "Crimes generally, if not invariably, originate in the

OF CRIME IN ENGLAND. 73

frequenting of beer-houses; and as corroborative of this, 15 out
of 20 men have so confessed during their imprisonment."

38. " Considers beer-houses exceedingly injurious to the lower
orders."

39. " The present law is decidedly pernicious in its con-
sequences, beer-houses being frequently resorted to by persons
bent on the commission of crime."

40. " Beer-houses are at least the means of spreading crime,
from the effects of bad company."

41. " It would be hard to overstate the extent to which the
beer-shop is connected and mixed up with the crime of the
country. Is at a loss for words to express the amount of evil
every day produced by the multiplication of these dens of iniquity
and curses of the poor."

42. " By far the great proportion of prisoners committed have
been in the habit of frequenting beer-shops."

43. " Drunkenness has increased in proportion to the facilities
given by the licensing of beer-houses."

44. " I have found them the resort of all sorts of thieves,
young and old, and places where the young find a ready instruc-
tion in crime."

45. "A very considerable portion of crimes may be traced to
the habits of idleness, intemperance, and profligacy engendered
in beer-houses."

46. " Beer-houses one among many causes which tend greatly
to the production of crime."

47. " I believe it is impossible for human language to describe
the misery and wickedness added to the previous sum of our
moral and social ill by beer-houses." Rev. J. Clay, Chaplain of
the Preston House of Correction.

Of the dram-shop worse must be told even than
of the beer-house, and it is important to note, that
just in proportion as you increase the facilities for
the sale of spirituous liouors, so do you increase
crime and the necessity for more police to repress it.
This is borne out by the following testimony. It is
part of the evidence given before the Parliamentary

74 THE CHARACTER

Committee on Public Houses and other places of
public entertainment and amusement, by Mr.
Daiison, who appeared on behalf of the licensed
victuallers :

Mr. Barrow : Are you aware at all, of the comparative amount
of drunkenness between Liverpool and Manchester ? We have
got the number of population where cases of drunkenness are
reported for Dublin, Glasgow, Liverpool, London, Birmingham,
and Manchester, and in those cases we find that in Dublin there
is 1 out of 21 of the population.

Chairman: Convicted of drunkenness? Yes ; in Glasgow, 1 in
22 ; in Edinburgh, 1 in 59 ; in Liverpool, 1 in 91 ; in London,
1 in 106; in Birmingham, 1 in 113; and in Manchester, 1 in
600. In the three first places, Dublin, Glasgow, and Edinburgh,
there is the largest amount of drunkenness, and in those places
there is the free licensing system, where it is sold from grocers'
shops or any other place. Manchester is the largest population
of the kingdom, with the smallest number of licenses, and con-
sequently the smallest number of drunken persons ; and I
believe, for the amount of population, the smallest amount of
police are employed. Tn Liverpool there are 1470 public-houses,
as you will see by this return, and in Manchester there are 578.
In Liverpool, with a population of 25,000 less than Manchester,
we have 900 police. In Manchester there are only 443 police.

Chairman : Is the return which you have made of the propor-
tion of convictions for drunkenness in different towns for the
purpose of showing that the greater the facility afforded for
selling spirits the more is the drunkenness ? Yes.

11 Scotland affords a melancholy proof of the effect of cheapen-
ing spirits to a people, writes Mr. Thompson, of Banchory, in
his lately published work, (Nisbet), entitled Social Evils, their
Causes and Cure :

" In former years Scotland probably was, and certainly did
boast, ay, and still boasts, of being the most religious portion of
the empire. It was formerly, at least in the lower classes, the
most sober and temperate of the three kingdoms ; but one single
financial measure changed the whole aspect of the land. In
1825 the duty on whiskey was greatly reduced; intemperance
began to increase, and, in the 27 years which have since elapsed,

OF CRIME IN ENGLAND. 75

the consumption has become nearly fivefold greater ; crime,
disease, and death have increased in similar proportion ; and
the sober, religious Scotland of other days is now proved, by its
consumption of spirits, to be, without exception, the most
drunken nation in Europe."

Referring to this testimony of Mr. Thompson,
Colonel Jebb, in his report for 1852, as Surveyor-
general of Prisons, remarks :

It is a striking fact, in confirmation of the above view, that
no sooner does a regiment go to Scotland or Ireland, than the
same causes which operate in demoralizing the people there
are immediately perceptible in the increase of crime amongst
the soldiers.

In the statistics of the military prisons, which appear in my
Report for the year 1852, it will be found that whilst the com-
mittals for drunkenness among the troops quartered in England
amounted to about 7 in 1000 men, in Scotland and Ireland they
have amounted to about 20 in 1000.

Next to the drinking habits of the people, as an
obvious source of crime, may be reckoned the dif-
ferent licensed places of amusement, pleasure
gardens, dancing and concert rooms, night saloons.
&c. Many who drank deeply of the pleasures of sin
in the metropolis, and ended their miserable career
in this prison, have given me full descriptions of
these places and their consequences. They will not
bear recital in pages intended for general perusal.
These night rooms, allowed to be open under the
plea of providing places of refreshment for night
cabmen and persons coming to the early markets,
have naturally been converted into places of ren-
dezvous for the abandoned of both sexes, to prey
upon the persons and property of young men who

76 THE CHARACTER

are enticed thither, when, heated with wine and
excitement, they are returning from the theatre, by
companions farther gone in sin, or acquaintances
formed at the play-house. In those infamous houses
everything calculated to steal away the heart is pro-
vided, music, wine, women, dancing, cards, &c.
Here may be seen the vilest and most depraved of
the human kind, mixed with young men of all ranks
and classes who have a genteel appearance. None
but well-dressed persons are admitted. Clerks,
warehousemen, gentlemen, country tradesmen, and
persons of such years and position as should guar-
antee better things ; shopmen, lads scarcely out of
their boyhood, thieves of the first class, and the most
attractive female deceivers.

Some visit these places " to see life," and in gene-
ral they pay dearly for their folly. " There 's no
fear," they would say, if remonstrated with by a
a friend. They buy repentance at a dear rate. The
excitement, the drink, the allurements of " the
stranger that flattereth with her tongue," over-
power reason ; and the victim of presumption and
folly " goeth after her straightway, as an ox goeth
to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of
the stocks ; till a dart strike through his liver ; as
a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that
it is for his life." A very few visits to such places
will serve to turn a virtuous youth with the best
prospects into an unamiable and ill-tempered brother,
a corrupter of his shopmates, a grief to his mother,
and a shame to his father, a shoplifter, or one of

OF CRIME IN ENGLAND. 77

the confederates of the swell-mob, haunting the
very place for prey where he himself was entrapped.
Nightly balls, masquerades, &c., in pleasure
gardens, of course are precisely of the same cha-
racter. Booths and sleeping- places are provided in
those places, under the pretext of accommodation to
parties coming from a distance. Dancing and
music-rooms, licensed under Act of Parliament
passed in George the Second's reign, better in some
particulars, are in this respect, perhaps, worse,
that virtuous young women, servants, milliners,
&c., frequent them in greater number, in common
with abandoned persons, and with the like disastrous
consequences.

It is a very small matter, when one is considering
the magnitude of the direct evils of such places, to
mention that everything which chemical knowledge
can suggest, and the most practised ingenuity of the
dealer in wines, spirituous liquors, &c., can devise, is
done to impose upon the consumer, instead of the
genuine article, some factitious compound, adulte-
rated, and often medicated with poisonous ingre-
dients. However, adulteration of these things is not
confined to such places.

It would be endless to describe the different
places of nightly excitement in the metropolis,
thrown open to our young men after the day's
business is over. They are arranged so as 4o meet
every taste. They all agree in an unprincipled thirst
for gain, and utter disregard to the ruin of the cha-
racter of individuals and the peace of families ; and,

78 THE CHARACTER

without exception, generate in a frightful degree
drunken habits and profligacy.

Let theatrical amusements be considered:
Theatres vary very much in the character of their
pieces, their actors, and their company. I suppose,
however, no night's whole performance was ever wit-
nessed, in the best, not chargeable with the guilt of
downright profanity in tragedy, of immodest allu-
sions in comedy, and lascivious acting in the opera
and ballet. The greater number directly propagate
vice, immorality, and crime. Those for the lower
order seem as if this were their only business. On
the stage of the minor theatres may be witnessed
scenes of murder, housebreaking, highway robbery,
gambling, and thefts of all descriptions, drunken-
ness in high and low life, &c., without the pretext
of a moral ; and through them all runs a vein of wit
or humour, intended to tell upon the corrupt affec-
tions of the heart and inflame the passions. In the
house itself, drinking is carried on among the men
and women, spirits being carried in for the purpose,
and scenes of vice, theft, and angry contention are
enacted by the rabble spectators, which baffle all
description. " In the boxes and dress circles," says
one of my informants, himself once an actor, " may
be seen a great number of respectable people. What
can possess them to come to such houses," he adds,
" I cannot conceive." Many will freely denounce
places like these as the sources of crime, who can
see no evil in those which they themselves frequent.
I believe the difference to be simply this : The

OF CHIME IN ENGLAND. 79

minor theatre directly teaches crime and immorality;
the superior sort, more speciously, immodesty and
vice, ichich tend to crime. The former effects its
mischief on the lowest class of society ; the latter,
amongst the middle and higher classes. The ques-
tion of the performance itself is a small part of the
matter. The necessary and uniformly accompany-
ing attendants upon the play-house are to be
weighed; and these are worse than can be described,
and numberless. What respectable neighbourhood
or proprietary, it may be asked, would not rise up
in arms against the location of a nightly place of
amusement, theatre, or opera-house amongst them ?
Why ? Because it is notorious, that the erection of
such an edifice would be an intolerable public nui-
sance ! Under its shelter immediately would spring
up, as in a kindred soil and congenial atmosphere,
infamous houses of every description, like so many
upas-trees ; and all persons who had respect to the
character of their daughters, or the morals of their
sons, would be compelled to flee. There are those
who see clearly enough the evils of drunkenness,
and yet patronize the stage. I would have such,
then, to consider whether drunkenness, so horribly
hideous, and the parent of such multiform wicked-
ness and misery, is not the natural result, as well as
the invariable accompaniment, of popular amuse-
ments. This I believe to be the fact ; and, there-
fore, that the theatre is to be considered, not merely
per se, with its own peculiar train of evils, but as
contributing largely to the vice of drunkenness.

80 THE CHARACTER

The retailers of strong drink should be good wit-
nesses in this question ; but these persons as may
be already gathered from what has been said are
constantly offering their schemes of pleasure at a
mere nominal price, or even loss, as baits to catch
the simple in their nets their drinking and
smoking rooms. The temptation to take strong
drink, be it remembered, is neither the earliest nor
the most potent in our nature. No man is born
a drunkard. The love of pleasure, company, and
lascivious associations of thought, is innate in
fallen nature. The records of the prison-house,
if fully analysed, would show, that the first penny,
or the first pound, taken by a son from his parent,
or abstracted by the young man from his master's
desk, is for the theatre, not for the public-house.
But youth, being corrupted by the pleasures of sin,
drunkenness follows, and becomes the associate, or
the substitute of licentiousness, and completes the
ruin. Money becomes indispensable, and it is
gotten by some desperate and wicked means, at
the possibility of which, a few months before, the
mind would have recoiled with indignation, like
that of Hazael, when reproved by the prophet :
" Is thy servant a dog, that he should do this great
thing ?"

The theatre produces habits inimical to frugality,
chastity, and uprightness. Time is wasted ; money
lavished away; the love of excitement generated;
the passions inflamed ; home made distasteful, with
its sober realities, and business odious ; associations

OF CRIME IN ENGLAND. 81

with the fallen and profligate formed ; till at last,
poverty comes, like an armed man, upon the
child of idleness and folly, and then crime, to be
punished by the law. It is well if poverty alone
comes, and that early ; by this means, a good
Providence interferes, sometimes, to rouse the
votary of pleasure from what else must be the sleep
of death. When all is spent, the wise counsel of a
friend may be heeded ; some kindly influence may
attract the wanderer, and the virtuous attachment
of home return. The grace of God may find the
sinner, and lead him to salvation and true
happiness.

Reformers of the stage have appeared, from time
to time persons of chaste lives and unblemished
character, who blushed for the immoralities and
vice of their unhappy profession. All their at-
tempts at reformation signally failed. Referring
to this, not long ago, Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton
himself a writer for the stage in introducing the
health of Mr. Macready, at a public dinner given
to that eminent actor at the close of his theatrical
career, makes this remark : " That was only half
the merit of his management. He purified the
audience ; so that, for the first time since the reign
of Charles II., a father might take his daughter to
the public theatre, with as much safety, and as little
fear of any shock to decorum, as if he had taken
her to the house of a friend" Mr. Macready, in
his acknowledgment of this compliment, refers to
his conduct as follows : " To my direction of the

82 THE CHARACTER AND CHIEF CAUSES

two patent theatres, on which my friend has so
kindly dilated, I wish to say but little. The pream-
ble of their patent recites, as a condition of their
grants, that the theatre should be for the promotion
of virtue and instruction to the human race I
think these are the words. I can only say, it was
my determination, to the best of my ability, to
obey that injunction ; and, believing in the prin-
ciple that property has its duties, as well as its
rights, I conceived that the proprietary should have
co-operated with me. They thought otherwise, and
I was reluctantly compelled to relinquish, on disad-
vantageous terms, my half-achieved enterprise.
Others will take up the unaccomplished work."
No ! never, Mr. Macready, with such an example
of failure before them ; if any do, it will only be
to subject them also to chagrin and loss.

The following is an illustration of the same thing
in America. The account is from a Boston corres-
pondent, to the Editor of the "New York Ob-
server :" " The Tremont theatre is in trouble. It
proves to be a losing concern ; and there appears to
be no way to make it profitable. It was built with
the avowed intention of raising the respectability of
the drama ; and I believe the manager has honestly
done his best to meet at once the demands of those
who love theatres, and those who love good morals.
Several years since, he abolished his bar for the
sale of intoxicating liquors ; in consideration of
which, he solicited, and obtained, a license for his
theatre, without paying the usual tax. He after-

OF CRIME IN ENGLAND. 83

wards attempted another reform, which he deli-
cately announced by a notice, that no lady would be
admitted to any part of the theatre unless accom-
panied by a gentleman ; thus excluding all ladies
in whose company no gentleman would be willing
to be seen. This was necessary, because so many
of both sexes utterly refused a place of amusement
where it was known such ladies would form a part
of the company. But the loss of the patronage of
such ' ladies,' and of those who stayed away when
those were excluded, was more than the manager's
purse could bear ; and, in a few iveeks, the rule was
suffered to fall into disuse. Of late there has been
an investigation of the affairs of the company, and
a report has been published, from which it appears,
that even if the manager had the building rent free,
the receipts would fall considerably short of meeting
the other expenses.'"'

Thus, the taste of the immoral, pleasure-loving
mass must be gratified, and the presence of aban-
doned characters allowed, or no theatre will pay the
proprietor. The more virtuous, the greater the loss.
The great by their wealth, or the virtuous in middle
life by associating together, may purchase for them-
selves immunity from some of the most offensive evils
of the place ; but ordinarily, persons must be con-
tent to let their wives, their daughters, and their sons,
sit side by side with the well-dressed and attractive
courtesans and their shameless paramours. I have
spoken the more largely upon this point because,
from the extreme popularity of the theatre, with all

84 THE CHARACTER AND CHIEF CAUSES

classes, and the difficulty of fully exposing the
corrupting nature of its associations, I suppose,
moralists and divines have too much kept it out of
view. But the faithful minister of Christ, into
whose hands these pages fall, who would give to
all their portion in due season, will not fail, it is
hoped, when he looks into the matter thus brought
before him, to denounce the stage, with the Augus-
tines and Chrysostoms of old, as " the pest of souls,
the ruin of virtue and modesty, the fuel of the
passions, and as the pomps of this world, which
Christians solemnly denounce."

Another popular amusement, the abundant source
of crime, is the Race Course, the effects of which are
thus portrayed by the Rev. C. B. Tayler, from per-
sonal observations :

" I could, cite the testimonies of others to prove the evil of
races. I could refer to brother clergymen at Epsom and Don-
caster, who have spoken to me in decided terms of the effects
produced by them in both those well-known places ; but I confine
myself to the city of Chester, because I can speak from my own
experience, and record facts for the truth of which I can myself
vouch. The crime, the sorrow, the ruin, the deaths, which I have
witnessed, the lamentations which I have heard, are not to be
forgotten; and I would add, with all Christian gentleness, but with
all Christian faithfulness, they must not be kept back. I can well
conceive that many who defend and promote the evils of which I
speak have been ignorant of these things : but I have not been
ignorant ; and at the risk of displeasing some kind and friendly
persons, who, 1 fear, do not desire to have their eyes opened,
I must record my faithful testimony. Perhaps there is no place
in England in which the evils of the race-course are so mixed up
with the population of the place as the city of Chester : the race-
course may be said to form part of the place. There is no need,
as in other towns, to go even a short distance to be a spectator

OF CRIME IN ENGLAND. 85

of the proceedings : a person standing on the western walls of
the town, has the whole race-course spread out at his very feet.

"During the last few years, owing to the exertions of a worthy
magistrate of the place, at the time he was a mayor, the first day
of the race was altered from the Monday to the Tuesday, to
avoid the awful profanation of the Lord's -day with which that
day commenced.

" Before that change took place, the tumult of the streets,
even during divine service, was so great, that it was a continual
interruption to the congregations assembled in the churches.
I have been jostled almost off the steps which led from my own
church door, as I descended them, by a crowd of ill-mannered
fellows who came up arm in arm, one of the party puffing the
smoke of his cigar in my face : and the Sabbath evening in that
ancient Christian city presented on every side scenes that would
have been disgraceful even to a heathen land. Carriages of all
sorts came rolling into the town during the whole of the day ;
and there were sights and sounds on every side, as the night
drew in, ill-suited to the Christian Sabbath, drunkards reeling
and shouting about the streets, and the inns and public-houses
of all sorts filled to overflowing with noisy revellers.

" There was, a few years ago, one room in my own parish
which has been so crowded by the mixed multitude of gamblers
assembled thei-e, that the men sat upon one another's knees, and
there hundreds and thousands of pounds were betted and taken;
and not only there, but in every quarter of the old city, the gambler
and the blackleg of high and low life might be seen, with care-
worn brow and eager look, intent upon their close calculations
the bold and reckless gambler ready to stake his all upon his
favourite horse the selfish and the cautious exercising all his
skill in ' hedging' to secure and enrich himself.

" Year after year it seemed as if some advancement was made
in winning souls to God, and humanly speaking this was the
case : many an individual began to manifest a desire to walk in
the ways of godliness, and to take delight in the things of God ;
but perhaps at the very time that the snare of the fowler seemed
broken, and the soul about to escape, the snare was again set,
the temptation again presented, and the captive again secured.
I believe that this is not only my testimony, but that of several
other earnest and anxious ministers of Christ in Chester.

86 THE CHARACTER AND CHIEF CAUSES

" How often have I seen some individual in whom I had
begun to take a deep interest, and by whose apparent consistency
in attending the means of grace I had been led to hope that he
was indeed strengthened, stablished, and settled, fall away, and
prove that he was utterly unable to resist the influence of the
periodical mania of the Chester race week ! With his eyes fully
opened to the folly and the sin of the way which he was about
to take, he had started aside from his new profession like a
broken bow, and realized the strong expression of the Apostle
Peter : " Like the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the
mire." Many an ingenuous youth well known to me has
deplored, with shame-stricken countenance and fast-falling
tears, the gross immoralities of that season. I have before
me the instance of two young men especially, in whom the
consistent godliness of several years was totally overthrown.
I rejoice to think that they have been both, by the grace of God,
brought back to the paths which they had forsaken, wiser and
humbler from their fall, and have since been enabled to stand
in a strength which they had not earnestly sought before. But
alas ! how many there are who have not returned, and who have
ended by hardening their own conscience, after having begun
by resisting its checks.

" There was a fine manly fellow of eight-and-twenty, appa-
rently a steady, sober-minded man, a constant attendant for
some time with his godly sister at my church. He was a kind
son, an affectionate brother, a good workman, and high in the
confidence of his employers. He had joined my Bible class
of young men, and had won my esteem by the simple frankness
of his disposition, and the plain manliness of his whole bearing.
But gradually he withdrew himself from the church, and from the
Bible class, and all my remonstrances, seconded by those of his
widowed mother and sister, were civilly and quietly received, but
steadily and inflexibly resisted. And yet there was no apparent
immorality to be discovered. Nothing in his life or conduct
which either I or his relations could censure, except his utter
disregard of the Lord's-day, and of all other means of grace.
He was still the same affectionate son and brother, he brought
faithfully to his mother, at the end of the week, the sum of
money not a small one which he had agreed to give her for
his board and lodging. But his anxious mother sighed in secret,

OF CRIME IN ENGLAND. 87

and felt that there was something wrong, though she hardly
liked to own it to herself, while his pious and exemplary sister
openly deplored to me the sad change in her beloved Charley.

" He was seized with an illness which filled them with alarm.
He had worked to the last moment ; and one morning about
eleven o'clock, he came in from his work quite exhausted, and
throwing himself on a chair, said, with a countenance of deep
sadness, ' I must give it up ; I can work no more.' He took to
his bed. His illness was of a lingering character, and at times
he seemed to rally ; but, although his apparent recovery filled
their hearts with more hope, still he was but the shadow of his
former self; and at last he returned to his bed, never to leave it
again. They wished him to see me, and I went to him imme-
diately. The poor fellow was pleased to see me, and many an
hour did I spend at his bedside. It was impossible not to be
pleased with him ; but though as his friend I loved him, as the
minister of Christ I could never feel satisfied with his state.

" He owned to me that he had given up every hope of
recovering his health. He said that he knew he should die ;
but there was something I could not discover it which made
me feel that there was no reality about his repentance, nothing
genuine in his faith. It was no immorality in the common sense
of the word to which he had yielded ; I questioned him plainly
but delicately on all such points. There was, however, a
holding back of something, a coldness, a want of heart in all
that he said, when replying to my earnest appeals on the one
point of vital importance.

" One evening on entering his chamber I found him in close
and earnest conversation with another man, a grave, middle-aged
man, who seemed to be as steady and respectable as himself.
His dress showed that he was well to do in the world, and his
manner was more than commonly civil and respectful. He
continued to converse with the sick man for a few minutes in a
calm, quiet voice ; but I saw a look exchanged between them,
and he rose up and took his leave. I remained with my poor
friend about my usual time, but the visit was, as before,
unsatisfactory, and yet I could hardly tell why. After I had
left him, I was again suddenly summoned to the house. The
mother met me with looks of alarm : poor Charley, she said,
had been suddenly taken much worse ; she feared he was actually

88 THE CHARACTER AND CHIEF CAUSES

dying at that very time. I hastened up to the chamber, and his
sister quitted it as I entered. I think her brother had requested
to be left alone with me. He was, indeed, to all appearance a
dying man. Never have I witnessed so profuse a death sweat in
any dying person ; his hands, his face, his hair, his own linen,
and that of the bed, were reeking with the cold and heavy
moisture, its chilliness, when I touched his hand, alarmed me.
I placed my finger on his pulse, it was scarcely perceptible.
I spoke to him : his manly voice had died almost to a whisper.
I said no more. I saw what was needed, and instantly
quitted the room. ' I must have some strong hot brandy and
water immediately for him,' I said to his mother. ' But he is
forbidden,' she replied, ' to take wine or spirits of any kind.
The doctor has ordered nothing but gruel.' ' He must have
brandy, or he will sink at once,' I answered, ' and I will take the
risk upon myself.' The cordial was given, and he gradually
revived. I continued sitting by his bedside. I soon felt his
pulse returning to its strength, and not long after he was enabled
to speak to me. ' I must tell you, Sir,' he said, ' what is the
cause of all this. It is not bodily illness, it is not death, it is
the state of my mind. I must tell you everything : if I keep my
secret any longer it will kill me. I have made up my mind to
speak to you in confidence, as my friend. But you will promise
me not to tell my mother and sister : it would break their hearts
to know what my course has been, and how shamefully I have
deceived them.

'"Ah, Sir, those races ! they have been my ruin ! I had given
up for a time, when I came to your church, and to your young
men's class, my gambling and my betting ; but I did not know
my own weakness; and by degrees I fell back again: and the
worst of it all is, Sir, the secresy with which I have been going
on in my bad ways. I have had my betting books at many of
the public-houses, not only at Chester, but in Liverpool. The
man you saw in my room to-night is just such another as myself,
a respectable, industrious workman, but as entirely given up as
I was to that wicked gambling. He came to speak to me on the
subject, to-night ; but I had told him just before you entered
the room, never to come to me again, for that I had done with
the thing for ever.

" ' And now, Sir, let me tell you what have been the ways of

OF CRIME IN ENGLAND. 89

our set. We were all of us sober men, men of good character,
industrious, and well respected, but given up secretly to this
betting and gambling. And it was on the Lord's-day that we
made our plans and settled our books. We used to go quietly
one by one, from our own houses, taking a round by some of the
back streets of the town, to our place of meeting at the river
side, and there take a boat and go up the Dee for a few miles ;
and then when we were out of sight and hearing we settled our
business. You would scarcely believe, if I were to tell you, the
large sums that we have lost and won from our calculations and
our bets on the various races throughout the country. We made
it a matter of downright business, and carried on the work with
the same coolness and steadiness that we gave to our regular
calling. Oftentimes I have trembled to think of the risks I have
run, and the difficulties in which I have been entangled, and
the sums that were at stake, and the ruin that stared me in the
face.

" ' The wonder has been, how I have been able to bring my
mother my weekly pay, and to deceive her and poor Mary as I
have all along done ; but it is the secret deceit of the whole
that has cut me to the heart ; and as I lay and thought of it to-
night, it took me in such a way, that I think I have gone through
all the pains, and all the dreadful weakness and faintness of a
dying hour. Ill as I am, Sir, it was not my illness that reduced
me to the state you saw : it was this, and only this the horror
that came over me, and the shame, when I thought how I had
taken you all in ; and, Sir, I have never been in earnest though
I am all but a dying man notwithstanding all the pains you took
with me, and all the kindness you showed me till now. I have
never cared, really cared, for my soul, never loved my blessed
Saviour. How could I, Sir, keeping back my sin, and hiding
my secret in my heart as I have done ? But I am glad that I have
told you ; and that I have been open and plain-spoken at last.
Ah ! Sir, perhaps you never knew till to-night what a curse
these races have been to many a respectable man like myself, in
a secret way. Only let me beg that what I have told to you, you
will not let my poor mother and sister know ; for I cannot bear
to think of the grief which they would feel.'

" I said but little to him that night. There was now no cause
to impress upon him the greatness of the sin, of which he was

90 THE CHARACTER AND CHIEF CAUSES

so deeply conscious. But in the little that I did say, I gravely
assured him how fully I concurred with the view he took of his
sin, how thoroughly I agreed with him in the abhorrence he felt
at the course of continued deceit which he had pursued ; and
kneeling down heside him, we poured forth together our solemn
and humhle prayer to Him who alone had the power and the
will to forgive him, in that prevailing name by which only the
guilty sinner can hope to find pardon and acceptance with an
offended and heart-searching God.

" When I went to him on the following day, his sister begged
to speak to me before I went up to his chamber. Charles had
told her and his mother everything. On quietly thinking the
matter over, he had judged it right to do so ; and though they
had not said a word in excuse of his sin, he had met with
nothing but tender affection from those two loving hearts. I
found him much better the burden which from the beginning
of his illness had oppressed his spirit had been removed, and he
had been enabled, not only to confide it to his earthly friends
he had laid the whole weight on that gracious Saviour who has
borne our own sins in his own body upon the tree, and who is
as willing as he is able to receive the returning and repentant
sinner. He was enabled to rejoice in that great assurance, that
' if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our
sins.' He was strengthened in spirit, for he was now rejoicing
in hope ; and his bodily health, though he was unable to quit
his chamber or his bed, had apparently improved. The short
interval thus graciously granted to him, proved a season of great
blessedness. There could be no doubt that the Lord had put
away his sin, and had accepted him; and when his strength
once more failed him, and his redeemed spirit departed, it
seemed to all around him as if the Lord had said unto him,
' Go in peace.'

" I am well aware that the worldly reader may say that, after
all, his sin was not a flagrant one. But those who have been
brought to know, that the dealings of God are with the heart,
will take the same view as poor Charles did of the course of
conduct which he had pursued, and will see in the peculiar
tenderness of his conscience, and the anguish of mind which
he suffered, a proof that he had at last entered into a true con-
ception of the character of God and the evil of sin. All however

OF CRIME IN ENGLAND. 91

must see from his case how fatal a snare those races had proved
to him." Facts in a Clergyman s Life.

I pass over for the present the subject of gam-
bling in general.

"Alea, scylla vorax, species certissima furti ;
Non contenta bonis, animum quoque perfida mergit ;
Fceda, furax, infamis, iners, furiosa ruina."

This destructive habit is, I fear, not on the de-
crease. The higher classes, improved in this respect
since the early days of George IV., must go farther
if they would suppress crime, and discountenance
wholly by their example a vice so ruinous to the
morals of a people.

In the foregoing remarks I have referred to what
I conceive to be the chief causes of crime in this
country; others might be mentioned, did space
permit, as the infidel and licentious literature of
the day, Sabbath desecration by pleasure traffic, &c.
In Ireland, where the proportion of serious crime is
still frightfully high, there are sufficient additional
causes to which to trace that excess. Happily, as
we believe, they are in process of removal. Edu-
cation is making resistless advances on the
ignorance and superstition of the people ; and
above all former years' experience, the Word of
God has access to the people to teach them what
true religion is, and to dispense the blessings of
liberty, order, obedience to the law, and industry
around.

The crimes of Ireland indicate a country emerging

92 THE CHARACTER OF CRIME IN ENGLAND.

from barbarism, or relapsing into that state. De-
fiance of law violence and rapine treachery and
assassination, are the main features of the dark pic-
ture. As Popery declines in Ireland, so will her
crimes. Directly or otherwise, these, for the greater
part, are the fruits of a system of religion which,
preferring darkness to light, and the abject servi-
tude of its votaries, to their advancement in the
scale of civilization, thwarts or opposes the law,
maligns the magistracy and government, and endea-
vours to keep from her shores those who would
develop the riches of the country, and employ its
people.

CHAPTER III.

THE PUNISHMENT OF CEIME BY IMPKISONMENT.

" The criminal legislation and the penal institutions of a coun-
try involve questions of great extent ; they enter into the
moral life of the state, and form essential conditions for its
order and peace. They belong as well to the jurisdiction
of religion, as to those of justice and politics." Oscar, King
of Siceden.

PUNISHMENT for crime should be exactly what
the law imposes, and nothing more. An imprison-
ment which inflicts upon the condemned bodily,
mental, or moral injuries, beyond what is unavoid-
able, from the nature of all punishment and the
lapse of time involved in the sentence, is unjust
and cruel.

Let prisons, as they were, be viewed in this light.

The state of the prisons of England, when the
illustrious Howard began his work of inspection,
was wholly in contravention of this principle, and
in the highest degree disgraceful to the nation.
Constructed without regard to any of those con-
ditions now deemed so essential, I will not say to
the comfort of the unhappy prisoner, but to his very
existence, they were farmed out to individuals
willing to take charge of the inmates at the allow-

94 THE PUNISHMENT OF CRIME

ance of 3d. or 4d. per day for each ; the profit from
which, with fees made compulsory on the prisoners
when discharged, constituted the keeper's salary.
The debtor, the prisoner discharged by the expiring
of his term of sentence, by acquittal, or pardon from
the crown, had alike to pay those fees, or to lan-
guish in confinement.

It requires no reasoning to show the consequence
of a system so thoroughly vicious as this, carried
out by persons willing to trade in the sufferings of
their fellow-men. A committal to prison was in fact
equivalent, in many cases, to a sentence of death by
some frightful disease ; and in all, to suffering by
the utmost extremes of hunger and cold. One
disease, generated by the want of proper ventilation,
warmth, cleanliness, and food, became known as the
gaol fever. It swept away hundreds every year, and
sent out others on their liberation miserably en-
feebled. So rife was this disorder, that prisoners
arraigned in the dock brought with them on one
occasion such a pestilential halo, as caused many in
the court-house to sicken and die.

If such was the care shown for the bodily condi-
tion of prisoners, one may conceive how little con-
cern was felt for their souls, or their morals.

In some gaols men and women were together in
the day-room ; in all, idleness, obscenity, and blas-
phemy reigned undisturbed. The keeper cared for
none of these things. His highest duty was to keep
his prisoners safe ; and his highest aspiration, the
fees squeezed out of their miserable relatives.

BY IMPRISONMENT. 95

The picture as regards debtors, who had of course
greater liberty and in general more money, is still
more revolting. The following account of the Fleet
Prison (now happily razed to the ground) may
serve as an instance : " This ill-regulated prison,"
observes Dr. Aikin, Howard's first biographer,
" presented, indeed, every possible temptation to
dishonesty, riot, and dissipation. There were the
billiard-room, the fives and the tennis court, the
skittle-ground for the gambler to continue the
baneful practice which had brought him here, and
to qualify him for leaving as a finished sharper
the place of confinement. Wine clubs and beer
clubs, each lasting till one or two o'clock in the
morning, contributed, too, their ready and powerful
aid to drown every feeling of regret for the past,
every purpose of amendment for the future. To
crown the scene of iniquity, there had been printed,
in the very year in which Howard first visited
this prison, a code of laws enacted by the
Master's side debtors for the internal economy of
its various parts, some of which were immoral on
the very face of them ; such, for instance, was that
which required from every new-comer, upon the
first Sunday of his matriculation, in addition to
two shillings to be spent in wine, one shilling
and sixpence to be appropriated to the use of the
house."

Things are happily now changed, and almost the
worst prison in the country in our day is better
than the very best when the philanthropist probed

96 THE PUNISHMENT OF CRIME

and laid bare to public observation such flagrant
abuses. In many prisons, however, the improve-
ment as yet has been chiefly in the physical treat-
ment of prisoners.

The prisons of England may be classed under
three heads : prisons on the old system of associa-
tion, as Newgate, Horsemonger-lane Gaol, &c. ;
prisons on the silent associated system, as Coldbath-
fields and Westminster Houses of Correction ; and
prisons on the separate system, as Pentonville and
Reading Prisons, the Middlesex House of Deten-
tion, &c.

There have been of late years, in the first kind of
prisons, attempts made at classification. The mis-
demeanants and the felons are, as far as can be,
kept apart. Such classification is of little value.
Legal distinctions of crime form an imperfect
criterion of moral character. Convicted murderers
also, if possible, are kept separate ; but the receiving
yard takes in all the untried, the old and the
young, the confirmed villain and the novice in
crime, the thoughtless youth who has fallen into the
guilt or suspicion only of one solitary offence, as well
as the most hardened and brutal wretch.

It is not possible to convey to the mind of the
reader any adequate idea of the corruption in moral
feeling, and the completeness of education in crime,
which go on in the common gaols of the country,
especially before trial, when the legal presumption
of innocence prevents the application of discipline.

A boy commits a trespass steals some fruit

BY IMPRISONMENT. 97

runs away from his master, or does some mischief ;
he is committed to prison forms acquaintances
learns generally some art in thieving, and gets the
impression that the life of a thief is better than that
of the honest, hard-working labourer, and, to the
clever and successful, one of distinction ; he comes
out of prison in a few weeks with his instructors,
or, at least, new acquaintances they invite him to
their haunts and amusements he is seen in their
company, and suspected finds a difficulty in getting
back to the factory, or farm, or shop, if inclined to
make the effort, and often has no home to go to
he commences the tour of the vagrant, or the trade
of the pilferer, or, in fact, both.

The scenes which take place in gaols of this
description, especially at night, when fourteen or
more are locked up together in one room, without
inspection, and with such light only as the moon
and stars furnish through the grated windows, baffle
all description. Gambling with stealthily fabricated
dice or cards for the next day's food, fighting, singing
vile songs, reciting tales of villany and debauchery,
teaching or concocting crimes, with the most virulent
oppression of the few who may be better disposed,
are the common features of the horrid scene. If
there be men who have a turn for the drama, plays
are acted, and the most solemn scenes of the court
of justice are the popular subjects. The most guilty
criminal is the one most looked up to.

The day-room or night-room in a prison of this
kind is a school of thievery and every vice, and a

98 THE PUNISHMENT OF CHIME

place of torture to whatever right feeling may still
linger in the breasts of unhappy persons who have
fallen from better things. Nothing can be advanced
for the continuance of such places save the expense
of substituting better, and this truly must be a very
short-sighted economy.

Persons unacquainted with the deep and practised
cunning of professed thieves may well ask, How is
it possible that scenes should take place of the kind
referred to, in any prison ? The following extracts,
from accounts given by prisoners, will answer such
questions :

" You may inquire (says one to me) how gambling can go on
in prisons, when, on admission, all are deprived of their money,
&c. There is no difficulty in the case of the untried ; and, through
them, the other classes can work in one way or another. The
untried may write as often as they please to their friends; and,
for this purpose, can receive as much paper as their friends may
send them, together with postage stamps. The stamps, of
course, would pass as money in their gambling transactions.
The winner would pass them out to his friends, under pretence
that, if removed to some other prison, they might he of no use ;
the losers would get more from their friends, and thus the prac-
tice went on."

" The way we used to pass our time away (says another pri-
soner) was, some one would repeat over the robberies he had
committed, and how he did them, and when he failed. I know I
was wicked enough myself; but I heard more in that time than
in all the years I had lived. At other times, we would play at
draughts. They made the form of a frame on the table one
took the iron heel off his shoes, and made it sharp on the hearth;
then some of us cut pieces of the upper leather from our shoes,
and made the draughts. Some would play for so many spoonfuls
of their gruel, others for their dinner, and so on. I saw two
fights there, after we were locked up, from the parties that lost

BY IMPRISONMENT. 99

refusing to pay the winner, and eating up the food when it
came."

" I was now (says another) with such a desperate host of vaga-
bonds as no person can imagine, who has not been in the same
unhappy circumstances. There was nothing to be heard but
blaspheming, cursing, and vowing vengeance on policemen and
others who were the means of bringing them to prison, in short,
it was a hell upon earth. After a little while, I discovered my
pocket turned inside out, and my bread gone. The discovery
caused a laugh, and much amusement on all sides. The account
which a young man gave me of what kind of a night I was likely
to pass, quite alarmed me ; so I determined to see the Governor,
and importune to be removed to some other part. The Deputy-
Governor did so immediately, to the best ward in the prison."
In this place, however, occurred the following affecting circum-
stance, as related by the same man : " The clock of St. Paul's
having announced the time for retiring to sleep, every one made
preparation for doing so, and most were soon stretched out at
full length ; but I noticed two men who did not seem anxious
to retire like the rest, for they remained sitting at the table-
When all seemed quiet, however, they prepared to da so likewise;
but, before this, one knelt down to say his prayers, and then the
other but some wretch threw a bundle of somewhat at them,
which alighted on the head of one of the men."

" In the assize-yard (writes a prisoner) there was a considerable
number of what are called first offenders, nine or ten, including
myself, the remainder forming an overwhelming majority ; two
of them murderers, both of whom were subsequently condemned to
death. I cannot reflect without pain on the reckless conduct of
these two unhappy men during the few weeks I was with them
As regarded themselves, they appeared indifferent to the pro-
bable result of their coming trial. They even went so far as to
have a mock trial in the day-room, when, one of the prisoners
sitting as judge, some others acting as witnesses, and others as
counsel, all the proceedings of the court of justice were gone
through, the sentence pronounced, and mockingly carried into
execution. I shall not soon forget that day, when one of these
murderers was placed in the cell amongst us, beneath the assize-
court, a few moments after the doom of death had been passed
upon him. Prisoners on these occasions eagerly inquire, 'What

100 THE PUNISHMENT OF CRIME

is the sentence ?' Coolly pointing the forefinger of his right
hand to his neck, he said, ' I am to hang ! ' he then hroke into a
fit of cursing the judge, and mimicked the manner in which he
had delivered the sentence. The length of his trial was then
discussed : all the circumstances that had been elicited during
its progress were detailed and dwelt upon, the crowded state of
the court, the eagerness of the individuals present to get a sight
of him, the grand speech of his counsel, all were elements that
seemed to have greatly gratified his vanity, and to have drugged
him into a forgetfulness of the bitterness of his doom. He then
dwelt upon the speech he should make on the scaffold, was sure
there would be an immense concourse of people at his execution,
as it was a holiday week ; and from these, and numerous other
considerations, drew nourishment to that vanity and love of dis-
tinction which had, in no small degree, determined, perhaps, the
commission of his crime. To minds in the depths of ignorance,
and already contaminated by vicious and criminal courses of life,
such a man becomes an object of admiration. They obtain from
him some slight memorial such as a lock of his hair, or some
small part of his dress, which they cherish with a sentiment for
which veneration is the most appropriate term; while the noto-
riety he has obtained may incite them to the perpetration of some
act equally atrocious.

" Remand-wards are hotbeds of crime. During my stay in
the remand-wards myself, fifteen or sixteen boys, varying in age
from eight to fifteen years, passed through the remand-ward of
that prison. Throughout the whole day, these boys were asso-
ciated with men who had been in nearly every prison in London.
The offences for which these boys were arrested were in all cases
of a comparatively light nature ; and what appeared to me to
aggravate the evils induced by this vicious system was, that two
thirds of these boys, when brought up for examination a second
time, were acquitted. Here, then, we see a number of boys
condemned to association for four or five days with those whose
whole lives have been spent in a course of crime ; here they listen
to their relations of feats, the cleverness of which they can
readily perceive, whilst their minds are not sufficiently culti-
vated to feel the immorality; nay, they are even trained in
such places to that manual dexterity which characterises an
accomplished thief.

BY IMPRISONMENT. 101

" A very young boy, seven years of age, was brought in a few
hours after me, charged, in company with other two boys, some-
what older, with stealing some iron piping from the street. The
little fellow it was the first time he had ever been in such a
place cried bitterly all the afternoon of the Saturday, but by
the Monday morning the exhortations of his companions, and
their sneers at his softness, had reconciled him to his situation,
and the eldest of the three was teaching him to pick pockets,
practising his skill on almost all the other prisoners. His
mother came to see him in the forenoon, and the boy was
again overwhelmed with grief. Again his companions jeered
him, called him by certain opprobrious epithets in use amongst
such characters, and in a short time the boy was pacified, and
romping merrily with his associates."

Another prisoner writes as follows :

" In the month of January, 1844, I "was committed to the

Gaol, in company with ten others, charged with

various crimes, but the greater part theft. Of the women who
formed a part, one had been discharged from the House of
Correction only three days before ; but having met some of
her companions, who were waiting at the prison gate for her
release, went to the nearest public-house, and became the worse
for liquor, and forthwith went and stole a large roll of cloth.
She was not the least disconcerted at her situation, and consoled
herself with the idea of being able at no very distant period to
see her father and mother, both of -whom had been transpoi'ted
five years previous. The remaining portion of this precious
cargo, men and women, amused themselves with singing obscene
songs, &c. The persons who drove the van indulged them by
stopping at every public-house on the road. After reaching the
gaol, and being freed from our fetters, we were ushered into
what is called by the prisoners the ' pen,' a kind of dungeon,
from which we were taken one at a time to be searched and
described. I was conducted into the felons' yard, being first
furnished with a quart wooden pail, bound with rusty iron
hoops, and also a wooden spoon. The yard was about twenty
yards square, and on one side I perceived the hall, which was
crowded with prisoners. I was ashamed for a long time to join
them, and continued to walk the yard with my wooden pail and

102 THE PUNISHMENT OP CRIME

spoon I was reflecting on the uncertainty of human

affairs, I, who was only a few days previous pursuing my
business in seeming security, enjoying the affection of my wife
and children, was now thrust into a den of thieves. I was not
allowed to proceed further with this train of thought, for the
turnkey coming towards me, requested me to come into the hall,
at the same time taking my small hundle of shirts, &c., which I
had under my arm. He led the way and I followed. After we
were in the hall, he said, ' I had better put your things in my
closet, or some of these gentlemen may fancy a shirt or a pair of
drawers.' This being done, he requested that they would turn
out in the yard, and allow the new men to smell the fire, a
command which was instantly obeyed. I had now an oppor-
tunity of warming myself, and the turnkey had now a proper
time to ask me the nature of my offence, of which he was anxious
to know. I told him as briefly as possible. He did not seem
satisfied with my statement, but as the bell had rung for prayers,
he was prevented from putting farther questions.

" The prayers being over, to the apparent satisfaction of all,
preparations were made for the supper. At this time it was
impossible to distinguish any voice in particular ; all was con-
fusion. The noise occasioned by so many wooden pails and
spoons (with some of the prisoners who were bartering their
supper before they had received it, for a cotton handkerchief or
a bit of tobacco) is beyond description. A second bell now rang
for the prisoners to assemble in the yard to receive their supper,
which consisted of one pint of gruel and half a pound of bread.
I received mine with the rest, but I could not eat it. The
suppers soon disappeared, after which the prisoners repaired in
groups to the pump situated at one side of the yard, to wash
their spoons and pails. When this operation was completed,
the bell rang to prepare for bed. Accordingly, all the prisoners
had to form a line along one side of the yard, that their names
might be called over. During this time, I was wondering
where the sleeping apartments were situated. However, by this
time the foremost of the line had entered a small door, and I
soon found myself ascending a flight of stone steps. We were
ordered to halt on reaching the second story of the prison,
which being done, a large iron door was opened, through which
we entered. When we arrived at the iron door, our line had

BY IMPRISONMENT. 103

been cut into parties of eight men. My group halted at 37 cell;
the door was opened, and we entered. On the door being
secured, I found myself in the company of seven indescribables.
They began by telling me that the night previous they were
singing, and being heard, the head turnkey came into their cell,
and ordered them into the passage, giving them only their
mattresses, and no covering whatever ; and as they could not
get any sleep themselves, they were determined the other
prisoners should have none ; therefore they ran whooping in the
passage the whole night. The bedsteads were of iron, each
fastened to the wall with a large chain. I threw myself on the
one I chanced to select, without undressing, and for a moment
could scarcely believe the scene reality. I, who had always the
greatest abhorrence of a thief, was now in the company of seven,

and in prison They had every one been

previously convicted. One of them, committed for horse-
stealing, had been, as he stated, tried twenty-four times. ' The
next,' said he, ' will make twenty-five,' and singing at the same
time a line from Rory O'More, 'There 's luck in odd numbers.'
' Yet,' added he, ' I would rather have left off with two twelves.'

They now began singing. They continued to

sing until about eleven o'clock, when they one by one dropped
to sleep. At a quarter to eight the cell door opened, and a gruff,
hoarse voice ordered the windows to be thrown open, which
being done, we entered the passage, and put on our boots, &c.,
and descended into the yard. The turnkey was waiting in the
hall to receive us, and gave the order for the prisoners to wash,
and straight their hair. This being done, he called me into his
closet, and told me that I could wait until all the prisoners were
washed, and he would then allow me to wipe on his towel, stating
that there were only four towels for the whole of the prisoners. I
thanked him for his kindness. He now persuaded me to keep
myself, adding, that he had ascertained the nature of my crime,
and was glad to find they had not got me right, and for little
things I wanted he was my humble servant ; ' and as to letters,
that could also be made square.' The prisoners were now all
washed, and he gave me his towel, and told me to leave my coat
on the hall table. I washed, and proceeded to my coat for my
pocket-comb. But what was my astonishment when I found
that all the pockets had been emptied !

104 THE PUNISHMENT 01 CRIME

" The bell now rang for breakfast I fell in with the rest, but
did not take my allowance of gruel and bread. I stated to the
head turnkey, who served out the gruel, that I should maintain
myself. He stated that the prison diet was good enough for any
man. After all the prisoners were seated at their breakfast, my
homme a la provision, the turnkey, signified that we had better
prepare a ticket for the day's provision. Breakfast was now over,
and I was waiting to see how they employed their time between
meals. I observed a few Bibles and books on the shelves, with
some slates ; but, on a closer inspection, I found, from the dust
that was accumulated upon them, that they had not been
removed for sometime. The hall was so crowded with prisoners
that all could not be seated at one time. The turnkey offered
me his stool, which was close to the fire, which I gladly ac-
cepted. One of the prisoners now began to tell a story, which,
when he had finished, was loudly praised, and he was at liberty
to call on another prisoner for a second story. If the prisoner
so called upon can tell a story, and will not, from disinclination,
that prisoner must forfeit two potatoes out of his allowance at
the dinner to the prisoner who told the last story. A thief is
not considered accomplished unless he can tell a new story
almost every day ; therefore they take great pains to learn from
each other, or make an exchange of stories, each repeating bit
by bit until he has the whole story perfect. After spending
about two hours in this profitable manner, they were ordered
into the yard to walk ; the turnkey told me I was exempt.
When the hall was clear, he took another opportunity of telling
me of his readiness to serve me. I perceived his meaning, and
told him that, whether I wanted his assistance or not, I would
recompense him. This was what he was waiting to hear. The
hour for walking being expired, the prisoners returned to the
hall, and announced to the turnkey that the van for the convey-
ance of prisoners was just arrived, and that 'eight suits of county
were gone through the trap;' and now bets were offered as to
who was among the number of the prisoners arrived in the van.
So passed the time till the dinner-bell. After the prisoners had
entered the hall, all those from the town laid their dinners on
the shelves, in case that a companion might have arrived. About
half-past one, six men entered, who were instantly recognised
by their companions, and the dinners divided. Presently the

BY IMPRISONMENT. 105

county men made their appearance, but not one offered them
anything to eat. These men, as well as the others, had all been
in the prison before, and consequently knew that they would not
get anything to eat until the supper time. In the evening, on
the names being called over, one of the county men was placed
next to me. This change did not seem to please; they told the
county man that if he had sense enough to have kept out of gaol,
they should not have lost their companion. This met with no
reply from the county man. One of them asked him how many
horse-beans he stole. But they could draw no answer from him.
After a short time, the county man began to ask me a few ques-
tions, and to tell me the nature of his offence. It appeared that
he had borrowed a spade from the constable of the parish where
he was living, to complete a job of work that he had undertaken,
having broken his own previously. His work was three miles
from his parish, and it was his custom to leave the spade with his
work, and not to carry it to and fro every morning and evening.
The evening prior to his being given into custody, he had returned
as usual from his labour, and was partaking of his supper, which
his good wife had prepared for him, when his neighbour the con-
stable entered his cottage and demanded his spade, stating he
wanted to use it that evening, and must have it. The borrower
told him that he had left it with his work, but that he would
return it him the first thing in the morning. But this would not
do for the constable, who said he had sold it ; and the next
morning his neighbour took him to a magistrate, a few miles
from the parish, who committed him to prison. The other pri-
soners were too busy planning future operations to interrupt us
in our discourse. This story did not strike me as being true,
though it proved afterwards to be quite correct. After a little
more conversation he fell asleep. I pitied the man's case. The
other prisoners were now snoring, and I was left to my own
reflections. I repeated aloud several passages from Young's
' Night Thoughts,' also a prayer for my dear wife and children.
I slept soundly, not waking until seven o'clock in the morning,
and felt much refreshed. I seemed to have laid all my care on
Him who careth for us all. At nine o'clock I received a quantity
of letters one from my beloved wife, the remainder from Liver-
pool. I wrote a letter for the honest county man, and answered
my dear wife's. Nothing particular occurred throughout the

106 THE PUNISHMENT OF CRIME

day, the prisoners telling stories, and laying plans for future
operation, even beyond transportation. In the evening I was
shifted, and put into a cell with some Manchester pickpockets.
One only could write, and I was engaged to write for the whole
next day. Day after day did I pass in this way. The Governor
sent for me one day, to say that he felt obliged for my writing
the prisoners' letters, as he had less difficulty in reading them.
He ventured, at the same time, to say a little respecting my
case. He thought I had nothing to fear. I was now in the
confidence of all the prisoners ; every plan and every trouble
were communicated to me. About this time, it was drawing
near the sessions, and a more than usual quantity of letters were
being written ; and now I had to be taught the art of secret
writing, on the plan adopted by thieves when writing to each other
on important business. I venture to say that the receipt is not
to be found in all the books extant ; and the following is the

method I had my doubts as to the efficacy of this

ingenious gaol method, until I was convinced by seeing a
prisoner perform the operation on a letter which he had received

from a companion in Gaol. The thieves keep this

method a profound secret, as it is of especial service to them.
I still continued to sleep with the Manchester heroes, nor was
the county man shifted ; but I was astonished to hear, from his
sleeping companions, that he had agreed with them to rob his
parish church. He knew, they stated, where the church plate

was kept. They stated it would be a good thing, as Lord ,

on whose estate the church stood, had presented 150 to the
vicar, for a new service of sacramental plate; 'and then,'
continued they, ' there is the old besides.' "When this was told
me, I could scarcely credit it ; but on asking the man himself, I
found it quite correct. They had talked him into an attempt to
rob the church. They had represented to him that his character
was now gone, through coming to prison, and, whether acquitted
or not, he would always be looked upon as a thief; and there-
fore it was as well for him to do something, and deserve it. The
next market-day his bail released him. A Scotchman had, with
the rest, admitted me into his confidence. He was holding the
office of barber to the prisoners no prisoner being allowed to
shave himself. At this custom, a few desperadoes in the hall
would remark that, if they could be prevented from cutting the

BY IMPRISONMENT. 107

throats of others, there was no fear of them cutting their own.
My Scotchman was a returned convict, and was committed for
stealing a piece of beef-suet from a butcher's shop. He was
passing himself off as a sailor, which he did remarkably well.
He was also dressed in sailor's attire. He pleaded guilty to
having taken the suet, alleging to the committing magistrates
that he was drunk at the time, and had been in that state ever
since he was discharged from his ship ; and so well did he
manage his matters, that not only the magistrates and the
Governor believed him, but all the prisoners in the yard. He
was called Sailor Jack. He had not told this secret to any one
but myself, stating that he had had too much experience with
thieves, to trust them with secrets. The magistrates had
promised to speak for him at the assizes, so that his punishment
should be slight. He was intimately acquainted with every
settlement in Australia, and also with most of the notorious
convicts that had, in the preceding few years, been sent out.
He had also visited the Bermudas. He knew every street,
court, and alley in Sydney, and likewise all the convicts who
were keeping spirit-shops. Our numbers were now much in-
creased ; and those prisoners (chiefly boys) who were committed
for the sessions were removed into an adjoining yard. These
boys were desperate and daring thieves. One was stated to be
seven years of age, and so small, that, as the thieves of a larger
growth would sometimes say, 'he might be put through a key-
hole.' He had all the notions of a man, and prided himself in
being called, by those who knew him, ' The Pocket-pistol.' His
answers to questions that I would sometimes put to him were
really astonishing. I had much reason to believe that he was
at least ten years of age. He made several attempts to chew
tobacco, but it was too much for him. ' How,' said I, ' did you
spend your money?' 'Why,' said he, 'the greatest part was
spent at the theatre and the " Blue Pig " ' (a public-house
situated in a court frequented by male and female thieves of the
prisoner's own age). I would here add, that from conversations
I have had with prisoners of this description, they endeavour as
much as possible to imitate whatever character, in the shape of a
thief, they may have seen represented in the theatres ; and if
ever they purchase a book, it is certain to be the life of some
notorious robber. The name of a dead robber of note is venerated

108 THE PUNISHMENT OF CRIME

by a true thief. I have heard them dwell hours on a tale that
might have been related in five minutes. Tiie propensity for
thieving is so great in some, that they have declared to me, they
would rather steal a thing than have it given them. In this
state, I really believe it to be a disease of the mind, and totally
incurable. A thief, a native of Manchester, told me that he has
walked a mile, on some occasions, to a railway station, for the
purpose of feasting his eyes on the passengers' trunks and
boxes : though he well knew an attempt to steal would be fruit-
less. I had seen, in the turnkey's closet, some Voyages and
Travels in Persia, Palestine, and Arabia ; and I hit upon the
expedient of trying the effect of the Arab character upon them.
I now began to read the manners and customs of the Arabs.
This delighted them ; and numerous were the applications made as
to the distance between Australia and Arabia. I had no peace until
I had completed the Arab tales."

Thus, as the Bishop of London, in a sermon for
the Society for the Improvement of Prison Dis-
pline, wrote in 1828,

" The prison, instead of a school of discipline and
reform, may become the lazar-house of a moral pes-
tilence, in which those who are dying of the plague
and those who are only suspected of infection are
crowded together in one promiscuous mass of disease
and death. In this case, it is clear that the offender
is treated with injustice and cruelty. The punish-
ment which was justly decreed against him is aggra-
vated by unauthorised circumstances of horror
circumstances which inflict an undesigned but irre-
parable injury upon his soul, without adding in
any degree to the awfulness and exeinplarity of his
punishment. Upon the treatment which a youthful
delinquent receives when detected in his first offence,
depends, in all probability, his character and conduct

BY IMPRISONMENT. 109

for the remainder of his life, and his prospects in
eternity. To consign him, when only suspected (and
therefore presumed by the law to he innocent), or
even when convicted of a slight offence, to a com-
mon punishment and an indiscriminate intercourse
with the most hardened and abandoned criminals,
is to force him into moral contagion, and, probably,
upon spiritual destruction."

The Silent Associated System.

It was a great step towards real improvement, to
prevent communication amongst associated criminals
by what is called the silent system. A stop is put by
this method at once to all open blasphemy, profane-
ness, riot, and obscenity ; but this discipline clearly
fails in some essential particulars, if reformation of
morals, as well as correction of the offender, be
attempted.

It keeps alive old associations by perpetual exer-
cise. On every side the individual is surrounded by
persons of the same stamp. If long in the trade of
thieving, he knows a great number. If only for the
first time committed, he has made some acquaint-
ances, if not in the streets, in the remand-prisons.
He now recognises them. He is recognised in turn.
Every sessions and assize bring him news in some
new comer ; and the winking of the eye, the move-
ment of the finger, a sneeze, or a cough, is enough
to communicate what is desired. The length of
sentences is discussed in this way by a great nuin-

110 THE PUNISHMENT OF CRIME

ber, and in the mind by all. Prisoners come in and
leave at different times ; so that every week, almost
every day, in a large prison, tells some tale.

Classification of prisoners according to the tech-
nicality of legal distinctions allows no approach,
seemingly, towards separating the very bad from
the better sort. They are continually changing
places, those in for felony in one sessions being in
for larceny or assault the next, and vice versd.

If the classification were left to able and expe-
rienced governors it would perhaps be better; but
no classification could prevent the evils referred to.
They are essential to the system. As things are, it
is a most distressing sight to see a child of nine or
ten years old sitting by the side of a man grown
grey-headed in wickedness ; a novice in crime next
to a receiver of stolen goods, who will meet him in
the streets in a week or two, and urge him on to
crimes of which he himself may reap the profit ; a
modest woman, perhaps, committed for some petty
theft, by the side of a shameless and abandoned
person, or a foul betrayer of her own sex.

It does more than keep alive such associations
and habits of thought, although these alone, whilst
permitted in the mind, can allow no reformation ;
for either the sympathies of the man, true to nature,
and the feelings of a heart not yet hardened in
viciousness, are so drawn out towards his com-
panions in suffering that he gradually becomes one
of them at last, in disposition and character; or,
wrapping himself up in selfishness and sullen pride,

BY IMPRISONMENT. Ill

he hardens his heart against all feeling, and hates
officers and fellow-prisoners alike.

Then the silent system presents so many tempta^
tions to communication, as to render two things
inevitable, both unfriendly in the highest degree to
real reformation, perpetual surveillance and per*
petual punishment.

If there exist neither of these conditions in a pri-
son on that plan, then there must be the corruption
which marks the older styles of prisons. If strictly
carried out, the prisoner, though he mean to do
well, must be in constant fear. But the dread of
punishment is no element of real reformation. You
may make a man obedient by it, and passive even
under oppression, but in doing so you may be de-
stroying the only hope of such result. Distrust a
prisoner, and he will not trust you; oppress him,
he will kick against authority openly, or, retiring
within himself, will spend his time in concocting
plans for escape, for evasion, for annoyance. Treat
him as a fellow-man, though fallen and debased, and
there is hope.

How can a prisoner ever consider himself safe
from accusation or from punishment so surrounded
and so watched, watched in every movement of his
feet, his hands, his lips, his eyes, watched in his
sleep, watched in his very dreams ?

" The posture of stooping in which the prisoners
work at picking oakum or cotton (says a prisoner
from Lancashire) gives ample opportunities of carry-
ing on a lengthened conversation without much

112 THE PUNISHMENT OF CRIME

chance of discovery, so that the rule of silence
is a dead letter to many. At meals also, in spite
of the strictness with which they are watched,
the order is constantly infringed; but the time
of exercise affords an almost unlimited power of
communicating with each other. The closeness of
their position and the noise of their feet render
intercommunication a very easy matter. However,
all possible precaution is taken to prevent it, but, as
I have mentioned, without effect. But it may be
questioned (says this same man), whether this way
of forcing silence upon the prisoners, who are side
by side throughout the day, is not attended with
consequences as bad as might be looked for from
unrestricted conversation. Does it not (he asks)
conduce to the strengthening of deceitful habits, by
keeping all on the alert to avoid detection when
attempting to communicate with each other ? To be
sure, they attend chapel daily; but this may be
termed the golden period of the day to most of
them, for it is here, by holding their books to their
faces, and pretending to read with the chaplain, they
can carry on the most uninterrupted conversation."

The Separate or Cellular System.

Prom all these defects the discipline of separate
confinement is free. Under it the propagation of
crime is impossible. The young, the comparatively
virtuous, the penitent, are protected. All are
punished, and the worst most severely. The con-

BY IMPRISONMENT. 113

tinuity of habits is broken off, the mind is driven
to reflection, and conscience resumes her seat. The
individual whose intentions are good, may begin to
cherish those feelings to which we have referred as
impossible when associated with the vilest of the
vile. It is sufficiently severe as a legal punishment
in itself. There is no need of harshness of manner,
nor loudness of voice to enforce order, nor occasion
for those feelings in officers, which so often find
vent in irritating language towards congregated
criminals.

It is interesting here to view the sketch which the
sagacious Paley drew by anticipation of this sort of
punishment :

" Of the reforming punishments," he writes,
" which have not yet been tried, none promises so
much success as that of solitary imprisonment, or
the confinement of criminals in separate apartments.
This improvement augments the terror of the
punishment ; secludes the criminal from the society
of his fellow-prisoners, in which society the worse
are sure to corrupt the better ; weans him from the
knoAvledge of his companions, and from the love of
that turbulent, precarious life in which his vices
, had engaged him, is calculated to raise up in him
reflections on the folly of his choice, and to dispose
his mind to such bitter and continued penitence, as
may produce a lasting alteration in the principles of
his conduct."

Separate confinement must not be confounded
with what is usually called solitary, from which it

THE PUNISHMENT OF CRIME

is distinguished by several particulars, which
modify the severity of the punishment, and render
more effectual the means to be applied for the refor-
mation t)f criminals.

In separate confinement the solitude is relieved
by more frequent intercourse with moral and
religious instructors, and by a more liberal use of
the means of improvement. The learning and
practice also of some sort of manufacture, alleviates
the tedium of the imprisonment, and especially
when the individual is made to understand that
these things are intended for his reformation, and
for the re-establishment of his character and pros-
pects in after life. Nevertheless, separate confine-
ment, with all the favourable circumstances which
are found in this National Prison, is felt to be a
punishment of more than ordinary severity. The
severity of separate confinement consists in its
opposition to the laws and impulses of our social
nature, and in the pressure which it exercises on the
mind. Hence may be derived some of its strongest
recommendations as a mode of reformation ; but to
the same cause are due many of its difficulties in
application, for mental sufferings cannot be mea-
sured nor adjusted.

Criminals are persons who more than others have
shaken off all restraint, and indulged in licentious
freedom from their youth. They derive countenance
and support in a profligate and lawless career,
from confederacy with others of a like character ;

BY IMPRISONMENT. 115

and with companions in criminality they forget, in
continual excitement, all fear and self-reproach.
For such persons to be shut in from everything of
this kind, is to lose at once their only strength and
comfort. Their condition resembles that of the
drunkard after a night's debauch, when his frame is
subject to a painful depression. Men, before incon-
siderate, reckless, and self-willed to an amazing
degree, are now driven to reflection, not for a few
hours or days, but for months together; while
their hitherto dormant or untaught conscience is
aroused and enlightened by the Word of God. This,
without possibility of escape, constitutes a most
severe, but at the same time a most salutary, in-
fliction.

To form a just conception of separate confine-
ment as a punishment, we must not limit our view
to those persons who feel that they are actually de-
riving benefit from education, or other means of
improvement, for these have all the support which
progress and the prospect of bettering their con-
dition in after life supplies to the mind. To some
individuals in these circumstances, imprisonment
ceases almost for a time to be a punishment, be-
coming something eligible until they have acquired
enough of the knowledge or skill which they prize
for their own purposes. One should look also, and
I think more especially, because of the danger to
which they are exposed, at the condition of those
who, from previous education or acquired habits,

i 2

116 THE PUNISHMENT OF CRIME

take little or no interest in the occupation provided
for the prisoner, and are not deriving from their
situation any direct advantage.

Prom the severity and peculiar character of
separate confinement, it is calculated to strike
more terror into the minds of the lowest and
vilest class of criminals than any other hitherto de-
vised, whilst those who have not fallen so low, feel
more than compensated for its peculiar pressure, by
the protection and privacy which it affords, and
most of all the penitent. It will allow, also, from
these causes, a diminution of the term of imprison-
ment for minor oifences. This meets the objection
against its expensiveness ; and what is of greater
importance, it will thus prevent much evil, and
save whole families often from pauperism and
crime. In all cases, the disruption of domestic ties
for a lengthened period is most prejudicial in its
consequences. The wives of convicts, it is noto-
rious, who have but a distant hope of joining their
husbands, too often give themselves up to a reckless
way of living, and when they become degraded, the
children are suffered to grow up in ignorance and
vice, to be a charge or a pest to society.

Separate confinement requires no severity for
example's sake, I mean in punishing for prison
offences ; and so the peculiar character, disposition,
and circumstances of the delinquent, may fully be
taken into account in every case. A comparison '
between the punishments in Pentonville Prison on
the separate system, and Cold-bath Fields Prison,

BY IMPRISONMENT. 117

on the associated silent system, in any year, will
illustrate this.

Thus, in 1847 the number of punishments in
Pentonville was 220, the whole number of prison-
ers in that year being 701; in Cold-bath Fields,
10,807, amongst 8886 prisoners. It is to be noted,
also, that of these cases of punishment 25 men and
24 women were "in handcuffs or other irons,"
whereas in Pentonville there was only one case
which called for such an infliction.

Yet I am very far from thinking, that we have
attained to the full benefits which the individuality
of the separate system holds out for admonition,
expostulation, and the use of moral means of cor-
rection for the breach of prison regulations. In a
prison of this kind, where so many advantages in
the way of trade, or education, and books exist, this
moral discipline may be carried out most beneficially
by the withdrawing for a time such privileges as
have been abused, and by advancing in severity,
according to the repetition of the offence or its
moral turpitude, until the refractory ward be used
in its different degrees, terminating in the depri-
vation of light and ordinary food, the two last
things of which a prisoner should ever be deprived,
especially under separate confinement.

Separate confinement, relieved from the necessity
of inflicting disproportionate punishment, admits
also of the application, under the very strictest
discipline, of much kindness. The stout-hearted
can be kept down without brute force ; all may

118 THE PUNISHMENT OF CRIME

be reasoned with, and every single prisoner expe-
rience the influence of that which Inspiration so
beautifully calls THE LAW or KINDNESS. Now, of
all things, kindness most smoothes the ruggedness
of temper, subdues antagonism, and clears the
ground of impediments to the culture of right feel-
ings and principle. If this be combined with firm-
ness of purpose, and a superior mind in the
Governor, discipline becomes a very valuable part of
such reformatory means as can be used in a prison.

The following case will show some of the ad-
vantages of separate confinement :

" E. E. S was a Jew, a young man of a

respectable German family, who had the calamity
of being confined in a common prison in this
country. Naturally not good-tempered, and now
greatly depressed, he felt little disposed to join in
the rough and boisterous games which take place in
the night-rooms of that prison after locking-up time.
The discovery of his temper and pride to his fellow-
prisoners heightened their merriment: they now
had one whom they could all torment, and no oppor-
tunity was ever lost, day or night. Awakened out
of sleep by the infliction of a blow or some sort of
torture, he was perpetually calling for help and
shouting murder. Officers came, of course, to calm
the tumult, but his complaints were drowned in
those of his more cunning and confederated adver-
saries. The consequence was, he was frequently
punished. He sought for protection from the higher
authorities whenever they visited the place, and got

BY IMPRISONMENT. 119

no redress, but became as odious to bis officers as
he was to his oppressors. No prisoner dared to tell
the truth, though two or three were disposed to
stand by him. Eor months after he came to Pen-
tonville Prison the poor man could speak of nothing
but the injustice and cruelty of the English. At
last he became quiet, and even cheerful, under
different treatment ; studied most assiduously the
New and Old Testaments, in reference to the claims
of Christianity upon his belief ; withdrew himself
from the teaching of his Rabbi, who could not
satisfy Ms inquiring mind ; and before he left, pro-
fessed an entire acquiescence in the truths of our
Divine religion."

Against all these moral advantages of separate
confinement, it has been urged that, as a punish-
ment, it presses with undue severity upon the
physical and mental health of the prisoner. This is
not the fact, however, unless carried out with un-
necessary rigour ; to an extreme length ; or with an
absoluteness of rule, which allows no deviation of
treatment, notwithstanding the amazing diversity of
the human mind. It was, certainly, carried to an ex-
treme in America, with disastrous results ; also in
the Millbank Penitentiary after that model ; and it
has been proposed on the Continent, in different
places, to be carried out in the same manner. Thus
not long since, at the Congres Penitentiare held at
Frankfort: M. Mittermaier, President of the
Chamber of Deputies of the Grand Duchy of
Baden, stated that in Baden complete separation

120 THE PUNISHMENT OF CRIME

was limited, by law, to six years, unless the con-
demned expressly demanded a continuation of it.
M. Suringar, President of the Netherlands Society
for the amelioration of prisons in the same congress,
asks, " What should be the maximum duration of
separate imprisonment ?" " Formerly I considered,"
he replies, "six or seven years as the term. I have
changed my opinion since I have seen Pentonville ;
and I am now satisfied that if imprisonment should
be continued for a longer time, means will be found
to render it more supportable to prisoners."

The opinion formed by M. Suringar from a visit
to Pentonville, and that of the Chaplain of Penton-
ville, after more than 10 years' experience, and 100,000
visits to separated prisoners, are widely different.

In fact, I look with no small alarm at such an
extension of separate confinement, under the most
favourable circumstances, and I am persuaded that
the means to be found to render it supportable do
not exist on the Continent. In despotic govern-
ments, or in bad hands at home, separate confine-
ment would soon be converted into absolute soli-
tude, and become an engine of most cruel torture.

Pentonville Prison was opened with every advan-
tage, which a philanthropy enlightened by a tho-
rough acquaintance with the evils of other systems
could suggest, or a powerful Government could
bestow. The mind of the prisoner was sedulously
cultivated, and his thoughts in solitude occupied by
trade and books. His teachers in trade in no case
degenerated into taskmasters. He was not over-

BY IMPRISONMENT. 121

worked. If his trade proved too much for his
strength, it was at once changed by the medical
officer. The monotony of solitude was broken every
day by a religious service in which the prisoner took
a considerable part an immense support to the
mind and weekly, more than once> by collective
instruction in school.

Then the construction of the prison, in almost
every point a model a noble building -the very
reverse of gloomy (a matter of no small importance
to the spirits), was such as to show at once to a man,
on admission, that he was entering " a prison of
instruction and of probation rather than a gaol of
oppressive punishment."

The whole, moreover, was under the constant
superintendence of a Board of Commissioners, of
whom every one might be considered an authority
in questions of prison discipline as regards mind or
morals, men of rank, character, and benevolence, one
of whom every month visited* and conversed with
each prisoner in his cell.

Thus Pentonville had a combination of singular
advantages towards a most successful issue. Yet

* The value of such visits was very great : the prisoner was
protected, and every officer learned how to treat the men under
him. I may mention one Commissioner as particularly assi-
duous in this duty, the Duke of Richmond, to whose constant
visits, on the Lord's-day especially, to the cells of this prison,
as well as to the chapel service, his long practical experience,
strict habits of discipline, and great kindness, gave more than
ordinary weight, as an example to all officers in their treatment
of prisoners.

122 THE PUNISHMENT OF CRIME

the term of eighteen months' imprisonment proved
to be too long, and the rigour of even our modified
solitude too severe. (See, in Appendix, " Report of
Chaplain of Pentonville Prison.")

The following comparison between the silent
associated system of Auburn in America, and: the
Pennsylvanian solitary system, of which Pentonville
is a modification, will interest the reader, as coming
from the pen of no less a person than Oscar, the
present King of Sweden, in his work on punishment,
and gives a glance at the rival systems of penal dis-
cipline which have made so much noise on the other
side of the Atlantic.

" The possibility of the prisoners' improvement,"
observes the royal author, " is an object of as great
consideration for the philanthropist, as it is im-
portant in a political point of view. It is a noble
endeavour, and worthy a state, to try to improve
those among its members that have fallen into the
paths of perdition, frequently enough in conse-
quence of faulty legislation or prevailing prejudices.
It is of importance to try, by preventing relapses,
to decrease the constantly augmenting expenses to
the state, for the conveyance and care of prisoners,
and the no trifling loss of so many days' work,
either thrown away or employed to little purpose.

" Both the American systems have in view the
prisoner's improvement, although they proceed on
different grounds, and employ different means.

"The Auburn acts properly through the outer
discipline, and has its support in an instantaneous

BY IMPRISONMENT. 123

punishment for the least fault against that disci-
pline. The Philadelphian, on the other hand, leaves
to the conscience both the punishment and the
improvement.

" The Auhurn system surrounds the prisoner with
a variety of objects, which turn his attention to the
outer world, and give constant nourishment to his
evil inclinations. He is induced to deceive the
strictness of his keepers, to impart his thoughts to
his fellow-prisoners by whispers or by signs, and
when he succeeds, his cunning insolence is encou-
raged by their approving glance. The Philadel-
phian, on the other hand, removes from the prisoner
all dissipation, all support from injurious example,
and leaves him helpless to his inward consciousness.

" Both the systems endeavour to accustom the
prisoner to work and industry. But in the Auburn,
labour presents itself in a repulsive form, as a
punishment, an unavoidable constraint; in the
solitary cell, on the contrary, it forms the unhappy
being's consolation and only diversion. A natural
consequence of this will be, that it is embraced by
the prisoner willingly and with interest.

" Prom this comparison it seems that the follow-
ing conclusions may be drawn ; viz.

" That the Auburn system accustoms the criminal
to an instantaneous obedience, a punctual perform-
ance of the work appointed, and to the observance
of the prescribed discipline; but that his seeming
improvement rests only on the fear of punishment,
wherefore there is a danger of his relapsing into his

124 THE PUNISHMENT OF CIIIME

former guilty way of life so soon as he feels himself
free from the keeper's lash.

" That the Philadelphia!! solitude acts more imme-
diately on the mind, or on the origin itself of good
or evil, and that the liberated prisoner takes with
him the fruit of a useful self-examination, and of
that inward warning voice to whose correcting
severity he has been left." *

I began this chapter with some scenes of prison
life in England, I would conclude with one from
the interior of a continental prison, taken from the
Memoir of Sir Thomas Powell Buxton, in a letter to
Samuel Hoare, Esq., in 1840, as follows :

" Rome, March 3.

" I have had occasion to remember the excursion to the prison
at St. Albans, which you and I took long ago, when, on Monday
morning, Richards and I were trotting along in a diligence to
Civita Vecchia. The gaol there, which was the object of our
journey, is an old and strong fortress close by the sea, and con-
tains 1364 desperate-looking criminals, all for the most aggra-
vated offences. I am sure you never saw such a gang of male-
factors, or such a horrid dungeon. We went, first, into a vaulted
room, with a low ceiling, as I measured it, thirty-one yards long,
twenty-one broad. There was light, but obscure. A good deal
of the room was taken up by the buttresses which supported the
arches. The noise on our entrance was such as may be ima-
gined at the entrance of hell itself. All were chained most
heavily, and fastened down. The murderers and desperate
bandits are fixed to that spot for the rest of their lives ; they are
chained to a ring, fastened to the end of the platform, on which

* Those who wish to see the whole subject of prison disci-
pline fully and ably handled, must consult " Field on Prison
Discipline " (Longmans, London).

BY IMPRISONMENT. 125

they lie side by side, but they can move the length of their chain
on a narrow gangway. Of this class, there were upwards of 700
in the prison ; some of them famed for a multitude of murders ;
many, we are told, had committed six or seven ; and, indeed,
they were a ghastly crew, haggard, ferocious, reckless assassins,
I do not think that the attendant gaoler very much liked our
being there. A sergeant in uniform'was ordered to keep close
by me ; and I observed that he kept his hand upon his sword,
as we walked up the alley between the adjacent platforms.

" There was a fourth room at some distance, and our guide
employed many expedients to divert us from going there. * * *
This was worse than any of the others : the room lower, damper,
darker, and the prisoners with, if possible, a more murderous
look. * * * The Mayor afterwards told us, that he in his official
capacity knew that there was a murder every month among
the prisoners. I spoke to a good many of them, and, with one
exception, each said that he was condemned for murder or stab-
bing. I will tell you one short conversation : ' What are you
here for?' said I to a heavy -looking fellow, lying on his back at
the end of the room. He made no answer ; but a prisoner near
him, with the sharp features and dark complexion of an Italian,
promptly said, ' He is here for stabbing ' (giving a thrust with
his hand to show how it was done). ' And why is he in this part
of the prison ?' 'Because he is incorrigible.' 'And what were
you condemned for?' Tor murder.' 'And why placed here?'
' Sono incorrif/ibile.' * * * In short, this prison combines to-
gether, in excess, all the evils of which prisons are capable. It
is, as the Mayor said, a sink of all the iniquity of the state. The
Capuchins certainly preach them a sermon on the Sunday, and
afford them an opportunity of confession ; of which, if the pri-
soners avail themselves, the priests must have enough to do.
The sight of it has kindled in my mind a very strong desire that
the old Prison Discipline Society should make a great effort,
and visit all the prisons of the world. I had hoped that sound
principles of prison discipline had spread themselves more
widely ; but I now fear that there are places, and many of them,
in the world, in which it is horrible that human beings should
live, and still more horrible that they should die."

" March 4.

" In the citadel of Civita Vecchia, Gasparoni and his gang are

126 THE PUNISHMENT OF CRIME

confined, and have been so for the last fourteen years. There
are many renowned robbers in this country, but none so cele-
brated as this Gasparoni ; and I had the honour of an interview
of two hours with him and his band, He is a very fine-looking
fellow, about five feet eleven high, with as strong and brick-wall
an arm as ever I felt, except, perhaps, General Turner's ; he
wore an old velvet coat, which had seen service with him, and a
large peaked hat. There was nothing ferocious in the expression
of his countenance. I am going to have his picture taken, a
compliment which his appearance well deserves ; for he is the
beau-ideal of a Robin Hood or Bob Roy. By his side there was
a fiendish-looking wretch, who plagued us with his interruptions.
This fellow is said to have joined the band chiefly from his love
of human blood, and his post was that of executioner.

" Gasparoni was very communicative ; only that, either from
the modesty which belongs to great men, or some latent hope of
pardon, he greatly underrates his own exploits. For example,
to my question, ' How many people have you murdered ? ' he
replied, ' I cannot exactly recollect, somewhere about sixty ! '
whereas it is notorious that he has slaughtered at least double
the number. Indeed, the Mayor of Civita Vecchia assured me,
that he had received authentic information of 200 ; but he be-
lieved that even that number was still below the mark. This
man, according to his own account, when he was but a young
lad, killed a person in a quarrel and fled to the mountains,
where he was joined by a few young men of similar character.
Before he was twenty years old he had committed ten murders,
and was at the head of a band of fifteen or twenty robbers, which
afterwards amounted to about thirty of his own body-guard ;
but there were two or three other bands under separate com-
mandei'S, one of whom was his brother ; he, however, was lord
paramount.

" It is incontestable that he kept a district of country of at
least one hundred miles in circumference, between Rome and
Naples, in the utmost terror and subjection. Those proprietors
who were not slain by him fled the country, and were obliged to
receive such a modicum of rent as the tenants who compounded
with Gasparoni chose to pay ; but the black mail which he levied
was not extravagant. The Government at first offered 200
crowns for his head. This mounted up at last to 3000 crowns,

BY IMPRISONMENT. 127

and that was the fixed price for many years, and a thousand
soldiers were regularly employed in hunting him. 'But how
then,' said I, 'did you escape?' 'That you will never under-
stand,' he replied, ' till you see the rocks and precipices that are
there. I and my men knew every turn ; we have often been
close to the soldiers, and let them pass us, when they had no
notion they had such near neighbours.' Gasparoni had many
conflicts with the military, in which he was uniformly successful ;
but in one affair he received a ball in the lower part of his neck,
the scar of which he showed us. He described one conflict, in
which, with ten or twelve of his men, he beat off, as he said,
thirty soldiers ; but the ill-looking scoundrel by his side said
there were full sixty.

" Gasparoni 's head-quarters were at Sonnino, where his wife
and children resided, and where the whole population were de-
voted to him. This town had obtained so evil a reputation that
on his surrender the Pope made a great effort to get it rased to
the ground, but could not get the assent of the proprietor. I
was interested by learning from him that the haunts he chiefly
occupied for the purpose of observing the road were the three
little towns perched on the rock, and shining like silver, Cora,
Norma, and Sermoneta, which had so much attracted my admi-
ration when I was at Appii Forum. He told me that he had
spent a large proportion of ,his plunder upon spies at Eome, by
whom he was made acquainted with the plans designed for his
capture, and who also told him what persons coming along the
road were worth catching ; if emissaries were sent for the pur-
pose of entrapping him, he was forewarned, and the vengeance
he took on them was terrible. He crucified one of these men,
and wrote underneath, ' Thus Gasparoni treats all spies.' He
cut out the heart and liver of another, and sent them back to the
man's widow.

"If any persons in the towns were active against him he al-
ways found means to punish them. If their offence was not
very deep, they received a letter ordering them to pay on a cer-
tain day, at a certain place, 1000 or 2000 scudi; and such was
the terror of his name that these demands were generally
obeyed. Some of the magistrates in the strong tOAvn of Ter-
racina, thinking themselves secure within their walls, ventured
to incur his displeasure. Soon after the boys of the chief school,

128 THE PUNISHMENT OF CEIME, ETC.

while taking a walk near the gates, were surprised by him and
his men, and carried away to the mountains ; and a message
was sent to the parents of almost all, fixing the amount of ran-
som, upon the payment of which they were restored. But the
children of those who had exasperated him were not allowed to
escape, their heads were sent back in a sack. Of the truth of
this dreadful story there can be no doubt. A friend of mine
asked Gasparoni about it; he admitted that he had seized the
children, but said nothing about the murders. The gentleman
said to him, ' I have heard more than this ; I have been told you
cut off the heads of three of them.' ' It is false,' said Gasparoni,
' it was but two. '

" It is odd enough that Gasparoni is very religious now ; he
fasts not only on Friday, but adds a supererogatory Saturday.
He told me that he repented of his former life ; but what it was
he regretted I could not well make out, for he expressly justified
the occasions in which he had proceeded to extremities with
spies or travellers who resisted him. But curious as his theology
now is, it is still more strange that, according to his own ac-
count, he was always a very religious man. I asked him whether
he had fasted when he was a bandit ? He said, ' Yes.' Why
did you fast ? ' said I. ' Perche sono della religione della Madonna,'
'Which did you think was worst, eating meat on a Friday or
killing a man ? ' He answered without hesitation, ' In my case
it was a crime not to fast ; it was no crime to kill those who
came to betray me.' With all his present religion, however, he
told the Mayor of the town the other day, that if he got loose,
the first thing he would do would be to cut the throats of all the
priests ; and the Mayor said in this he perfectly believed him,
and if he were now to break out he would be ten times worse
than ever. One fact, however, shows some degree of scrupu-
losity. The people of the country bear testimony that he never
committed murder on a Friday ! "

Over one of the gaols of Rome, Howard found the
motto :

" Parum est improbos coercere poena, nisi probos efficias
disciplina."

The foregoing is Rome's practical commentary
upon this admirable sentiment.

CHAPTER, IV.

CONVICT SYSTEMS, PAST AND PRESENT.

' ; The very end for which human government is established,
requires that its regulations be adapted to the suppression of
crimes." PALEY.

IN 1596, the first mention is made in an act of
Parliament of banishment from the kingdom, as a
punishment for rogues and vagabonds. No place of
exile is named. Probably the newly-founded colony
of Virginia was in the minds of those who proposed
that measure. In 1619, under James I., the practice
actually began of transporting criminals to America ;
and, during the next century and a half, great num-
bers were sent to work as servants for the colonists.
Under James II., at the close of the Duke of
Monmouth's Rebellion, Judge Jefferies consigned a
multitude of unhappy beings to the unwholesome
labours of the Southern plantations. And, after the
battle of Culloden, in the time of George II., great
numbers of the captured rebels were exiled to
America, and were actually put up to auction by~
those entrusted with the care of transporting them,

130 CONVICT SYSTEMS,

and sold to the settlers, at an average price of 20
a head.

The loss of the American colonies in 1783 put an
end to this system of transportation. The prisons of
England became crowded to excess. Howard, and
others of kindred character, called attention loudly
to the state of gaol-discipline, and to the dangers to
be apprehended from the continuance of the defective
arrangements which existed. It was suggested by
some to ship the convicts of England off to the
Western coast of Africa, there to be turned loose
among the negroes. Others were for building huge
penitentiaries, sufficient to hold the large body of
criminals under sentence of transportation. Both
these proposals were set aside by the grave objections
to which they were manifestly open.

At this juncture, the discoveries of Captain Cook
brought to light the capabilities of the vast island-
continent of Australia. The interest of his narrative
was attracting the attention of his fellow-country-
men of all classes, and, not the least, that of the
Government, who saw, in these new possessions of
the Crown, the means of removing their difficulty
respecting the disposal of convicts. They were so
far distant from England as to leave no chance, in
the existing state of navigation, that prisoners con-
veyed to those parts would ever find their way back
to their native land again. They were almost de-
void of population, and yet well suited for sustaining
life, and affording every ground for hoping, that,
after some years of safe custody and punishment,

PAST AND PRESENT. 131

the discharged criminals might become settlers, and
begin a new life of hope in another hemisphere.

One spot in particular, upon the Eastern shore, on
which Sir Joseph Bankes (the great naturalist of
Cook's Expedition) had landed, furnished to his
scientific researches many new plants, and gave
signs, it was thought, of extreme fertility. On this
account it had been named Botany Bay. To this
spot it was determined that a body of convicts
should be sent : and on May 13th, 1787, the first
expedition for this purpose left the shores of Eng-
land, under the command of Capt. Arthur Phillip,
B. N., who was also to be the Governor of the new
colony. The fleet consisted of the Sirius (frigate),
the Supply (armed tender), three store-ships, and six
transports, having on board 565 male and 192
female convicts, and a body of above 200 soldiers
in all more than 1,000 souls. This was the founda-
tion of our great Australian Empire.

It is a sad and humiliating fact, to the Church as
well as to the Government of England at the time,
which is related by the Rev. S. Marsden, who was a
chaplain in the colony for more than 40 years, and is
well known as the first who carried the Gospel to the
cannibals of New Zealand. When the fleet was on
the point of sailing with the first convicts for New
South Wales in 1787, no clergyman had been
thought of to accompany it. But a friend of his
own, a pious man of some influence, anxious for
their spiritual welfare, made a strong appeal to
those in authority upon the subject, and, through

132 CONVICT SYSTEMS,

the intercession of the Bishop of London, the Rev.
RICHARD JOHNSON was appointed as chaplain.

Botany Say.

It was soon found that the bay selected for the
new settlement was not at all adapted for the wants
of a colony, being deficient in fresh water, and too
confined for their numbers. The Governor resolved
to proceed along the coast, and examine Broken
Bay, some distance to the North. He stopped,
however, on his way thither, to look in at a small
inlet of the sea, marked in Captain Cook's charts
as merely a boat-harbour, and called, from the name
of the sailor who first discovered it, Port Jackson.
On passing the lofty headlands, which form the en-
trance to this "boat-harbour," he was astonished to
find himself in a haven, large enough to hold the
navy of England navigable for ships of war 15
miles from its mouth, indented with numerous coves,
and sheltered from every wind. Here then, on Jan.
26th, 1788, the colony was established on the banks
of Sydney Cove, then covered with thick woods,
whose still tranquillity was now to be broken by the
rude sound of the labourer's axe. The quiet of cen-
turies was henceforth to give way to the noise of
camps and towns, and the busy hum of men.

"We are told of the ceremonies which attended
this memorable occasion how the flag of England
was hoisted, and salutes were fired, " between which
the healths of his Majesty, King George III., and

PAST AND PRESENT. 133

the B-oyal Family, with success to the new colony,
were cordially drunk." No act of public wor-
ship, however, offered to the God of their fathers,
consecrated the spot. In the words of Judge Bur-
ton : " How different might have heen the effect
upon the minds of many of these poor convicts, if
the day of their first landing in a new world had
been solemnly marked, as the beginning of a new
life under God, by an act of confession and prayer ! "
One minister of religion, however, as we have
seen, did accompany the expedition as chaplain;
and the early Sabbaths of the new community were
not suffered to pass away without some due ob-
servance of the ordinances of public worship. All
that was possible under the circumstances was done
by the faithful pastor. He went continually from
settlement to settlement, from hut to hut, visiting
alike the sick and well, the freemen and the con-
victs sparing no pains, and losing no opportunity,
for teaching them the way of God in truth. But
his labours were but little appreciated by those in
authority ; and it causes, even now, a pang of regret
and shame, to read and to record the painful dis-
couragements he met with in the exercise of his
ministry. Thus, while buildings of various kinds
were erected by convict-labour for man's use bar-
racks for the soldiers and convicts, prisons for new
pffenders, houses for the Governor and his officers,
an observatory for the purposes of science no
building whatever, even of the commonest kind, was
reared for the worship of Almighty God. For six

134 CONVICT SYSTEMS,

long years, and although the colony had greatly in-
creased in numbers, Mr. Johnson was left to minis-
ter in the open air, " wherever he could find a shady
spot," subject to all the inconveniences and inter-
ruptions of the climate. After the landing had
been effected, farms were laid out at Paramatta
and other places, and a few convicts were set free,
and received grants of land as settlers. A small
colony also was sent to Norfolk Island, to examine its
character, especially with a view to the growing of
flax. The evil tendencies and idle habits of the con-
victs, repressed only during the confinement of the
voyage, but not really corrected by religious in-
fluences, had become daily more apparent. Their
ill behaviour towards the natives had produced shy-
ness at first, which soon changed into open enmity,
and many cruelties on both sides were committed.

The soil around Sydney was found to be unpro-
ductive. The cattle were neglected, and so were
either lost or stolen. The convicts committed petty
thefts, and then deserted into the woods for fear of
the consequences. At one time forty persons started
off upon their travels, and, as they supposed, upon
their road to China. These travellers were mostly
Irish convicts, who had a notion that China lay
somewhere to the North, and were always making
up parties for the purpose of decamping thither.
Most of these wanderers perished by hunger.

The Governor considered it necessary to use very
great severity in repressing disorders. There were
many executions for small offences, or such as would

PAST AND PRESENT. % 135

be considered small under other circumstances. Six
soldiers, for instance, some of whom had hitherto
home irreproachable characters, were hung at one
time, upon the information of an accomplice, for
having obtained a false key to a store, and pilfered
it. "Thefts innumerable were committed; and,
although severe punishment was sure to follow
detection, either it had lost its terrors, or the habits
of depravity were become so much a part of their
nature, as to subdue every other sensation." Much
flogging also was administered. And it is curious
to read (in our days) that one convict was heavily
punished for an attempt to "impose" upon the
people by the pretended discovery of a gold-mine.
Sydney Cove was " thrown into a state of great ex-
citement." He showed a piece of gold, which he
said he had found : but, being twice sent with a
police-party to point out the place, he failed in doing
so, and was "rewarded" accordingly. At last he
confessed that his story was a falsehood, and the
piece of gold a fabrication out of a guinea and a
brass buckle. But, says Col. Collins, the historian
of the first fourteen years of the colony, " Among the
people of his own description, there were many who
believed, notwithstanding his confession and punish-
ment, that he had actually made the discovery, and
that he was induced to say it was a fabrication,
merely to secure it to himself, that he might make
use of it at a future opportunity." The discontent of
the colony was increased also by another circum-
stance. Several of the convicts, after a certain time,

136 CONVICT SYSTEMS,

claimed their liberty, alleging that the term of years
had elapsed for which they had been transported.
Unfortunately, it was found that the papers, which
would have shown whether their statements were
true or not, had been all left behind in England. To
have allowed the claim of one under these circum-
stances would have been to have opened the door
wide for all manner of imposition. Painful as it
was, the only course that could be taken by the
Governor was, to announce that all must continue
to work as convicts, until he could send word to
England, and receive a message back involving an
additional servitude of at least 18 months ; and that
then, any, who had a right meanwhile to be free
men, should be paid as free labourers for the extra
time they had wrought.

Difficulties thus increasing in Sydney, it was
deemed advisable to divide the colony, by sending
a large body of 200 convicts and two companies
of soldiers to join the little settlement on Norfolk
Island. Of course they went without a clergyman :
but, two years after, we are told that " the Rev. Mr.
Johnson voluntarily visited Norfolk Island, for the
purpose of performing those duties of his office,
which had hitherto been altogether omitted through
the want of a minister to perform them."

In 1793, the sixth year after their landing,
Mr. Johnson, "finding that, from the pressure of
other works, it was not easy to foresee when a
church would be erected," resolved to build a little
chapel at his own expense. It cost him only 40 ;

PAST AND PRESENT. 137

was begun in July and opened in August : so that,
neither as regards time nor expense, was there any
excuse for the long delay which had occurred. The
building was 73 feet long and 15 feet broad, and at
right angles with the centre projected another
building, 40 feet by 15 the whole rudely con-
structed of wattles and plaster, and thatched. One
of the first sermons which Mr. Johnson preached in
it was upon the sudden death of two convicts, who
were struck by lightning ; from the text, " There is
but a step between me and death." Three years
more were suffered to pass away before a similar
temporary building was erected at Paramatta. This
was in September : in the JaMuary previous we read
of the convicts being allowed to fit up and open a
playhouse in Sydney.

On Oct. 1st, 1798, the first of these little chapels
was destroyed by fire. " This was a great loss ; for,
during week days, the building was used as a school,
in which from 150 to 200 children were educated,
under the inspection of Mr. Johnson. There was
not a doubt that the atrocious act was the effect of
design, and had been perpetrated in consequence
of an order enforcing attendance on Divine Service,
and with a view af rendering the Sunday a day of as
little decency and sobriety as any other day in the
week. The workers of mischief were, however,
disappointed. For the Governor (Hunter), being
highly irritated at such a shameful act, suffered not
a single Sunday to be lost, having ordered a new
store-house, just finished, to be fitted up as a

138 CONVICT SYSTEMS,

church.'' The same Governor, two years afterwards,
in 1800, built a stone church at Paramatta, and laid
the foundations of St. Philip's church at Sydney.

But Mr. Johnson was no longer alone. In 1794,
the REV. S. MARSDEN was sent as a second chap-
lain. Por six years they laboured together. And
then, upon Mr. Johnson's leaving for England in
1800, after twelve years of painful service, Mr.
Marsden was left for seven years more in sole charge
of the colony, with its increasing thousands of scat-
tered population, and its two " decent places of
worship," the store-house at Sydney, and the " hand-
some stone church " at Paramatta. In 1803, a
costly communion-service reached the colony for
St. Philip's church, the gift of the good King
George III. It was not till Christmas-day, 1810,
that this second stone church in N.S. Wales was
completed, and the store-house ceased to be the
place of public worship for the people of Sydney.

We have said that Mr. Marsden had the sole
spiritual charge of the convicts for seven years.
But this statement requires correction. Prom the
very first, all Irish convicts had been transported to
N. S. Wales, and very many of these were Roman
Catholics. Por the religious instruction of these,
in the year 1803, the Rev. James Dixon, a R. C.
Priest under sentence of transportation, was set
free, (in the words of the official notice,) in order to
" enable him to exercise his clerical functions."

The settlement of Norfolk Island, which had now
been a penal settlement since the year 1826, and

PAST AXD PRESENT. 139

contained at this very time 200 convicts, of the very
worst class -men doubly steeped in crime besides
soldiers and civil officers and their families, was
without any minister of religion whatever, and had
been so from the very first occupation of the island,
forty years before, except for the single visit of
Mr. Johnson in 1791. This state of things remained
unchanged in Norfolk Island till the year 1836, at
which time it contained 1,000 convicts.

"In 1836," (we quote from the report of the
House of Commons on Transportation in 1838,)
" Sydney contained about 20,000 inhabitants, of
whom 3,500 were convicts, mostly assigned servants,
and about 7,000 had been prisoners of the Crown.
These, together with their associates among the
free population, were persons of violent and un-
controllable passions, incorrigibly bad characters,
preferring a life of idleness and debauchery, by
means of plunder, to one of honest industry. More
immorality prevailed in Sydney than in any other
town of the same size in the British dominions.
There the vice of drunkenness had attained its
highest pitch. The quantity of spirits consumed in
Sydney was enormous. Even throughout the whole
of N. S. Wales the annual average, for every human
being in the colony, had reached four gallons a-head."

In the very year (1838) in which the above report
was made, Judge Burton had the painful duty of
passing sentence of death upon seven persons, part
of a gang, who had butchered in cold blood a num-
ber of inoffensive natives "twenty-eight at least,

140 CONVICT SYSTEMS,

or many more men, women, and children, old
men, and babes hanging at their mothers' breasts
poor, defenceless, human beings." (We quote
from the Judge's words on this dreadful occasion.)
" A party of blacks were seated around their fires,
which they had just made up for the night. They
were resting secure under the protection of one of
you they were totally unsuspecting when they
were suddenly surrounded by a band of armed men,
of whom you, the prisoners at the bar, were half,
and all of whom were equally guilty. The blacks
fled to the hut of one of you for safety ; but that
hut proved the mesh of their destruction. In that
hut, in which they had taken refuge, depending for
security in that hut, amidst the tears, the sobs,
and the groans of the unhappy victims, you bound
them, one by one, with cords the father, the
mother, and the child. You led them away a small
distance from the hut, where, one and all, with the
exception of one woman, they met with one common
destruction. You took extraordinary pains to keep
this affair from coming to light. You burned the
bodies for the purpose of concealment. But it
pleased God to send a witness to the spot, before
they were entirely consumed. Afterwards some one
removed even the remains that were left. The place
was swept and garnished, so that no vestige of this
deed might remain. But the crime had been wit-
nessed in Heaven, and could not be concealed. The
hundreds of birds of prey, that were floating about,
were evidence enough to the whole neighbourhood

PAST AND PRESENT. 141

that something dead was lying there, which would
attract even the least interested to the place, to see
if it were not his own ox or his ass. But, notwith-
standing all the efforts that were made, the rib and
jawbone of a child and some teeth were found on the
spot. And it pleased God, in His Providence, the
day before the crime was committed, to send rain
upon .the earth, through which your tracks were
easily traced. From the hut to the scene of murder
there were the marks of horsemen on each side, and
the naked feet of the blacks in the middle; while
from the spot there were no traces of the blacks
returning. This offence, too, was not committed
without premeditation ; for it was proved that the
party was collecting down the river some days be-
fore the murder. You were met preparing powder-
pouches, and putting straps to swords, doubtless for
this purpose. On Saturday you were asking for the
blacks, of course intending to do something with
them. On Sunday evening, after spending the day
in looking for them, you took them away from the
station, thus closing that hallowed day by a scene of
murder. You might have nattered yourselves that
you would have been protected and screened. Many
did seek to conceal it none endeavoured to bring it
to light : but, unhappy men, what you did was seen
by GOD !

" I cannot but look at you with commiseration.
You were all transported to this colony, although
some of you have since become free. You were taken
out of a Christian country, and placed in a dangerous

142 CONVICT SYSTEMS,

and tempting situation. You were entirely removed
from the benefit of the ordinances of religion. I
cannot but deplore that you should have been
placed in such a situation that such circumstances
should have existed -and, above all, that you should
have committed such a crime. But this commisera-
tion must not interfere with the stern duty, which,
as a judge, the law enforces on me which is to
order that you, and each of you, be removed to the
place whence you came, and thence to a place of
execution," &c.

It is plain that, up to this time, there was more
faith placed in mere brute force and a system of
severity and terror in the strength of police machi-
nery, the support of soldiery, the punishments of the
chain-gang, the lash, and the gallows than in the
power of that merciful Word, at which the stubborn
knee has been known ere now to bow, and the
hardened heart to melt.

Let us now look, for a moment, at the actual
interior of one of these chain-gangs, as described by
an eye-witness before the Transportation Committee :

"I visited a chain-gang near Paramatta on a
Sunday, for the purpose of administering religious
consolation. When I came to the place, I found
there a series of boxes, and, when the men were
turned out, I was astonished to see the number that
came out from each of these boxes. I could not
have supposed it possible that they could have held
such a number. I found that they were locked up
there usually during the whole of Sunday likewise

PAST AND PRESENT. 143

during the whole of the tww from sunset to sunrise.
On looking into one of these boxes, I saw that there
was a ledge on each side, and that the men were
piled upon the ledges, while others lay below upon
the floor."

Mr. M, Martin writes much to the same effect, as
follows : " I saw and conversed with ten criminals
in their condemned cells, on the eve of their exe-
cution. They had never heard the word of God
preached since their childhood some not even then.
They had never entered a church or chapel in the
colony, or attended a Sabbath service : and they had
fled to the bush because their backs had been bared
to the bone by repeated scourgings."

Norfolk Island,

In 1834, the Judge already referred to visited
Norfolk Island. " The beauty of its hills and glens,"
says Judge Burton, " is remarkable, and the eye is
charmed by scenery such as might well betoken an
earthly Paradise. Nature has been profuse in her
bounty ; and thus the contrast is more painful, be-
tween the loveliness of the spot and the uses to
which it is applied between these beautiful works
of the Creator which praise Him, and of men who
praise Him not. No softening influence is here
exerted, by the delicious beauty of the place, upon
the seared and hardened hearts of its wretched in-
habitants. Alone, in the dismal horror of the soli-
tary cell or mixed in the guarded ward with others

144 CONVICT SYSTEMS,

of a kindred nature, 'Evil men with men more evil,'
rotting and festering together, a seething mass of
moral corruption they have helped each other to
make a hell of that which else might be a heaven,"
and we as a nation have sat by and suffered it.
" Little, indeed, has been done by the English
Government, and, until lately, nothing," writes
Judge Burton in 1840, " to render their captivity
productive of that improvement in them, which
should restore the Creator's image to their souls."

The island was first made a penal settlement of
New South Wales in 1826. Prom the very found-
ation of the colony, as we have seen, it had
been occupied by free settlers and their convict
servants. These settlers, or their descendants, were
not a little loth to be obliged to surrender their
beautiful island, at the demand of the Government,
which had sanctioned their first occupation of it, in
order to make way for its new tenants. The inn of
the settlement was turned into a gaol, its rooms and
outhouses into dungeons so insecure, however, that,
besides the walls and barred windows, a chain cable
had to be led through the rooms, to which the
wretched inmates were ironed. In this gaol the
most desperate prisoners were confined those who
had received sentence of death, which had been
respited, and those whose fresh crimes, since coming
even to Norfolk Island, were of a graver kind than
the magistrates of the island could deal with, and
required a higher judge to try them, with powers of
life and death.

PAST AND PRESENT. 145

We are told by Judge Burton that " it was not
till after the lapse of more than ten years, from the
time of the island being made a penal settlement,
that its wretched inmates received any of the re-
proofs, comforts, or instructions, of religion. They
were, in the strongest sense of the term, souls cut off
from the congregation of the Lord, and delivered
over to Satan. What wonder, then, if they became,
in temper, disposition, and habits, like to those,
whom he leads captive at his will, and their place
of torment like his ! "

When the judge visited this island there were
130 prisoners in confinement, on a charge of con-
spiring to disarm and, if necessary, murder their
guard of 120 soldiers, and then to effect their
escape. The plot, well planned, and kept secret for
more than three months, was attempted, and well
nigh succeeded. For their share in this offence,
fifty-five prisoners were tried as ringleaders. " In
the course of these trials, eighty-seven different
witnesses were examined many of them five or six
times over during which they underwent a cross-
examination by the prisoners, such as no advocate
in the world could have conducted, and disclosed to
the Court a picture of depravity, which, it may be
safely asserted, no human judge ever had presented
to him before. But, beyond all these, the unhappy
prisoners themselves, when brought up for judg-
ment, (and, of the number tried, thirty were convicted
capitally and sentenced to death,) completed the
abominable revelation, by communicating to the

146 CONVICT SYSTEMS,

judge, in earnest, deep, but calm, expostulation, the
crimes committed there, upon which to be now par-
ticular would not be meet."

" One of them, a man, who displayed singular
ability, and uncommon calmness and self-possession
under circumstances so appalling to ordinary minds,
represented it to be a ' hell upon earth.' And such
assuredly it was, so far as the torment of that
region is made up of the company of evil spirits,
glorying in evil deeds. 'Let a man's heart,' he
said, ' be what it will, when he comes here his
man's heart is taken from him, and there is given to
him the heart of a beast.'

" He represented, and others followed him in the
same course, that the crimes which had brought
them there, were not of a kind which should con-
demn them to such a state that many of them had
been decent men, possessed of means of support,
and had wives and families in the world ; and these
were sentenced to the same place of helplessness
and despair with others, whose crimes were of the
deepest die. One of them said, ' Sentence has
been passed upon us before, and we thought
we should have been executed, and prepared to
die, and wish we had been executed then. It
was no mercy to send us to this place. I do not
ask life I do not want to be spared, on condition
of remaining here. Life is not worth having on
such terms.' Another said, ' I pleaded guilty to the
charge against me, because I knew I was guilty,
and as the only expiation that I could make for my

PAST AND PRESENT. 147

offence, which, however, I committed only to get
clear of this accursed place.' Another made a
powerful appeal to the judge, founded upon some
discrepancy in the evidence, asserting his own inno-
cence, and that his person was mistaken. And,
finding that appeal ineffectual, and that he was
sentenced to die, he broke out into the most moving
and passionate exclamations and entreaties, that he
might not die without the benefit of confession.
1 Oh, your honour,' he said, ' as you hope to be
saved yourself, do not let me die without seeing my
priest. I have been a very wicked man indeed ; I
have committed many other crimes for which I
ought to die : but do not send me out of the world
without seeing my priest.' Poor soul ! he was a
Roman Catholic : and, when, after this, he was
taken away to his cell in miserable agony, he
employed his time in embracing and beating himself
upon a rude wooden figure of the cross, which a
fellow-prisoner had made for him, wildly and in-
cessantly pronouncing those brief cries for mercy,
which such an instructor could teach him."

Another said, and his statement was perfectly
true, " What is done, your honour, to make us
better ? Once a week we are drawn up in the
square, opposite the Military Barracks, and the
soldiers are drawn up in front of us, with loaded
muskets and fixed bayonets ; and a young officer
then comes to the fence, and reads part of the
service, and that takes, may be, about a quarter of
an hour, and that is all the religion we see."

148 CONVICT SYSTEMS,

The wretched men were returned to their cells,
and the judge withdrew to his sad meditation, the
result of which was that he asserted for himself a
power, which the law of the colony had not given
him. He reprieved the whole of the prisoners, until
he could lay their case before the colonial govern-
ment, and, at least, obtain for those who were to
suffer the last sentence of the law that spiritual
help, which they so much needed in their hour of
bitter distress. Eleven of the whole number finally
suffered death a Protestant and Roman Catholic
clergyman having been sent down from Sydney to
Norfolk Island, together with the warrants for their
execution. " This was the first visitation they had
ever had of the kind in their places of confinement.
It was thankfully received, and the opportunities
thus given of hearing religious advice and exhort-
ation were embraced, not only by the unhappy
persons under sentence of death, but by many
others upon the island."

These clergymen were sent only for the occasion,
and were again withdrawn from the island, as soon *
as the pressing necessity which brought them to it
had passed away. No provision was made for the
miserable state of those condemned to live.

Judge Burton, however, on leaving Sydney
for the island in 1834, was " empowered and
directed by the Government to make any alteration
in the system of management and arrangement of
the prisoners, which might appear to him necessary
for their spiritual and temporal welfare." He

PAST AND PRESENT. 149

availed himself of this authority, so far, as was
possible under the circumstances. His first efforts
were directed to the due observance of the Sabbath.
And, as no ministers were provided, though he found
750 prisoners on the island, besides soldiers and
civil officers, he selected as catechists two convicts,
one a Protestant, transported for forgery, who had
once been chaplain of a man-of-war the other a
Homan Catholic, who had been educated for a
priest. By these persons a separate and full service
was performed twice' every Sunday ; and similar
services were performed, at other places, for the
troops and free people, by two laymen, selected for
the purpose. Adult Sunday-schools were also
formed, and met for an hour, morning and evening,
being attended by from 200 to 250 prisoners of both
persuasions. This led to the public assembling of
many in their wards in barracks, for evening and
morning prayers. They were at first, indeed, scoffed
at by some of their companions, but were suffered at
last to continue their practice without molestation.

This excellent judge lost no opportunity of pressing
and reiterating his claims, on behalf of his unhappy
fellow- creatures. And " at last his public remarks
upon the subject, although they gave offence, were
followed by the appointment of a Protestant
chaplain in 1837, and a Roman Catholic chaplain in
1838." " But still," he writes in 1840, " there is no
church, or other building, adapted for public
worship, at the chief settlement, there being only a
small and inconvenient room appropriated for that

150 CONVICT SYSTEMS,

purpose, and at the agricultural establishment at
Longridge, about a mile and a half distant, a barn,
which is sufficiently large, and much more commo-
dious." Yet in July 1838, there were 1411 prisoners
on the island, and the military force consisted of 6
officers and 170 men. The number of Protestant
prisoners at the close of 1837 was 743, of whom 120
attended at the Sunday-school.

Van Diemerfs Land.

This island received its first body of settlers in
1803, when a party of convicts was landed, and
Hobart Town was established on the banks of the
Derwent. In 1804 a new colony was sent from N.
S. Wales, who founded George Town on the banks
of the Tamar. These early settlers, like those at
Sydney, experienced many hardships at first. But
the soil was fertile, the live-stock rapidly multiplied,
and, in a few years things wore a very promising
appearance. About the year 1814, however, the prac-
tice of busliranging began. These bushrangers were
mostly runaway convicts, together with other des-
perate characters, too easily to be found in a coun-
try, where the same neglect prevailed as in N. S.
Wales, in regard to the provision of religious in-
struction for the wants of its increasing population.
These ruffians, hardened in wickedness by the de-
moralizing process of the chain-gang and gaol,
unchecked, as we have seen, by any influences of
religion, were either let loose, or else escaped, from

PAST AND PRESENT. 151

their chains, to retaliate upon the peaceable inhabit-
ants of the island in deeds of atrocious violence.
Herding together in the bush, they burst, every now
and then, from their secret lurking-places often
caves and dens of the earth, or the depths of the
primeval forest and changed, in a moment, the
happy and flourishing homestead of the industrious
settler into a scene of rapine and bloody massacre,
accompanied oftentimes with deeds of wanton
cruelty, or, if women were seized, of indescribable
brutality. One of them, by name Michael Howe,
was for years the terror of the whole island, ranging
it in all directions, at the head of fourteen wretches
like himself, and taking a diabolical delight in mur-
dering all who came within his grasp. Between
these bushrangers and the military many life-and-
cleath struggles took place. Some were slain on the
field others died of their wounds and numbers
perished on the scaffold. In five years, 1822-7,
more than 120 prisoners absconded from the penal
settlement of Port Macquarie. "With very few ex-
ceptions, the whole perished, being either hanged,
or shot in the woods, or starved to death, or killed
and eaten by their comrades.

In the year 1822, two convicts, named Pierce
and Greenhill, made off with six others. After
about ten days travelling in the woods, being in
want of food, these two agreed to murder one of their
comrades (Dalton), and eat him. Greenhill slew
the victim with an axe, and the body was consumed
by the whole party. A few days after this, the

152 CONVICT SYSTEMS,

same monster, Greenhill, with the concurrence of
the others, butchered another comrade (Bodenham),
and he too was devoured. The next sufferer, John
Mather, seeing that he was doomed, begged and
obtained life for half-an-hour, and kneeled down to
p ra y after which he also underwent the fate of the
others.

The party was now reduced to three, by the death
of these and the defection of two others, who, after
seeing the murder of poor Mather, returned at once
to Port Macquarie, surrendered themselves to the
authorities, and died of exhaustion and misery
within a few days. Tr avers, the weakest of these
three, was soon sacrificed to satisfy the greedy crav-
ings of his companions. Part of his body was
eaten, and the rest dried and divided between the
two wretches. They had reached by this time a
beautiful country, abounding with the kangaroo and
emu ; but these it was beyond their skill to catch.
The pair of cannibals walked on, eyeing each
other with a glare of mutual distrust and ferocity,
each expecting that the other was watching for his
opportunity to complete the frightful massacre.
Pierce afterwards declared that he was haunted by
the words of one of his dead comrades, who said
that " Greenhill would kill his father, rather than
fast one day." Afraid, as he says, to sleep before
him, or to walk one step in advance, he kept on by
his side, placing the axe, which he had in his pos-
session, under his head at night, and carrying it on
his shoulder in the day-time. Such, at least, is the

PAST AND PRESENT. 153

statement made by himself in his confession. At
last Greenhill fell, either by accident or fatigue.
Pierce instantly sprung upon him, slew him, and
travelled on, bearing with him the thigh and arm of
his late associate.

This monster lived to perpetrate other enormities :
at length, he was captured, tried, confessed his
crimes, and was executed.

To pass now from penal settlements to penal
systems.

The Assignment System.

Up to the year 1838 the system of assignment was
in force in the penal colonies. All male and female
convicts, on their arrival in the colony, were either
assigned at once as servants to individuals, or, if
there was no demand for them, were kept in bar-
racks, at the cost of the Crown, and employed in
public works, until masters applied for them. The
assigned were required to live under the roof of
their employers received no wages were not al-
lowed to work for themselves, be out at night, or go
anywhere without a pass and might be flogged, or
imprisoned, on complaint of their masters, who were
bound to provide them with clothes and food. The
convicts unassigned were divided into six classes,
according to their character and conduct. The first
might work for themselves on Saturdays, and might
also sleep out of barracks the second had the
Saturday at their own disposal, but were not per-

154 CONVICT SYSTEMS,

mitted to sleep out the third had the afternoon of
Saturday the fourth were worked in irons the
fifth, besides being worked in irons, were kept en-
tirely separate from the other prisoners the sixth
were sent to the penal settlements, and employed in
works of the severest description. A prisoner might
ascend or descend through all these six classes ; but
good behaviour would procure him, after a certain
number of years, a ticket-of -leave, that is, a license
to work for himself as a free man, on condition of
appearing at an annual muster, and not leaving the
colony until the term of his sentence had expired.
Purther, a free pardon was granted, after continued
good behaviour, to one transported for fourteen
years, after that two-thirds of his time had elapsed,
and, to one for life, at the end of twelve years.

Such was the old system, which had been in ope-
ration for half a century, and, upon the whole, had
not worked amiss in its effect upon the convicts
of whom many had been reclaimed, enabled to com-
mence a new course, and ultimately to become good
citizens, and the founders of some most respectable
families in the colony. But herein lay one very
grave objection to it, especially in later years, when
the comforts of life had been so abundantly multi-
plied around them, and the terrors of the long and
dangerous voyage to Botany Bay had been almost
exploded. There was an actual encouragement to
crime in the ease with which the convict went
through (if he pleased) his term of punishment, and
took his place among the settlers in his adopted

PAST AND PRESENT. 155

country often among the richest and most influ-
ential of them.

Besides this, there was a grievous inequality in
this mode of punishment. For, though the way to
the ultimate recovery of liberty, and even to afflu-
ence, was open to all, yet the pains of servitude, and
the chances of continuing in it, were greater or less,
according to the character of the master. Some
masters were mild and merciful in their treatment
of their servants, and did their best to help them in
endeavouring to return to the position in society
which their crimes had forfeited. In other cases,
where the family of the convict was respectable,
some member of it would follow the criminal to the
colony, and obtain him as an assigned servant. In
one notorious instance of this kind, where a man
had been transported for a bank-robbery, and the
proceeds of the robbery were not recovered, Ms wife
soon joined him, with the whole of the plunder,
applied for him as a servant, and " their fortunes
were made." But it too frequently happened, that
the master was a merciless tyrant, and, instead of
correcting their natural faults by his example and
influence, only communicated his own vices, or else
provoked them to acts of disobedience, by which
they forfeited all hope of shortening their convict
career, and became hardened in guilt.

These serious objections being found to lie against
the old system of assignment, certain changes were
introduced by Lord Glenelg in 1838, of which the
principal were the following, (i) that no convicts

156 CONVICT SYSTEMS,

should in future be assigned as domestic servants, or
be employed for mere purposes of luxury, (ii) that
all should be first coerced in labour-gangs.

Thus was the first step taken by the British
Government in applying a remedy to the recognised
defects of the existing convict system. Something,
however, was yet wanting : and there is a passage
in a despatch in 1839, of the then JLieut.-Governor,
which shows strikingly the improved state of opinion
of those in office in the colony, upon the point of
most importance in reference to the whole matter.
"I am convinced," he writes, "that, were 2000
per annum expended by her Majesty's Government,
in supporting ten pious and zealous ministers, to be
employed in the interior of this colony, in preaching
daily, not in churches, but to the convicts in the
houses of the settlers, the benefit to be derived from
such a measure would be very great."

Lord Stanley's Probation System.

In 1842, the second step was taken, in the im-
provement of the convict system, by Lord Stanley,
who, as Secretary of State for the Colonies, commu-
nicated to the Governor (the lamented Franklin)
the system approved by Sir Robert Peel's Govern-
ment, and which is commonly called the probation
system. Convicts, under this mode of treatment,
were made to pass through five distinct stages (the
first, however, only in very aggravated cases) ; viz.,
(i) Detention at Norfolk Island, (ii) Probation-

PAST AND PRESENT. 157

gang, (iii) Probation-pass, (iv) Ticket-of-leave, (v)
Pardon.

The pass-holders might hire themselves out in
private service. But these were divided into three
classes, according to their previous conduct. The low-
est had to pay in all their wages, and the second class
a third of their earnings, to an agent of Government :
the third class were allowed to retain their wages.
The money thus paid in might be forfeited by any
misconduct, which should throw the depositor back
into the probation-gang. Otherwise, it would be
refunded to him, when he obtained his ticket-of-
leave, which he might do, by good behaviour, at the
end of half his time, the term for life being
reckoned as 24 years. Having attained all this,
however, he was still liable, upon misconduct, to be
returned to the stage of a pass-holder or probationer.
Each probation-gang was to have a clergyman or
schoolmaster attached. The convicts were to be
taught to read and write, and religious instruction
was to be carefully given.

The eifect aimed at in this system was the im-
position of a very formidable punishment at first,
which should be gradually relaxed with the lapse of
time. The probation-gangs were the pivot of the
system, inasmuch as all, while passing through them,
would be, it was supposed, under close superintend-
ence, and within the reach of moral and religious in-
fluences. To this stage the refractory might be sent
back at any time a punishment most formidable,
which was expected to prove most effective.

158 CONVICT SYSTEMS,

The result, however, of the trial given to this
system was, complete disappointment. The proba-
tion-gangs were found to be the nurseries of vice,
instead of the correctors of it. Men, who had been
passed into them, fresh from gaols in England,
and the crowded confinement of the convict ship,
were little likely to benefit each other by the close
contact of daily labour. But the following passage,
from a convict's letter, will best illustrate the evils
of the probation-system :

" A new scene in life has just begun with me. For two years
and upwards I have been serving under probation, and a trying
time I found it : but, thank God, I can now breathe a purer air,
and can lift up my head (as far as a convict can) once more,
being just escaped from the dreadful society of the probation-
gang.

"On Jan. 14, 1843, we arrived here, and in a few days were
separated, and most of us sent into the interior to our appointed
stations. Previously to our dispersion, we had an opportunity
of assembling for reading the Scriptures and prayer, as we had
been wont to do on board the ship. We all lodged in one poor
sorry outhouse next the barracks, the first night we spent on
shore in Van Diemen's Land. My dear companions were asked
if they would unite in prayer once more together, most likely for
the last time a proposal to which they all agreed, without one
dissentient voice ; and earnest were the prayers, and deep the
feeling, on behalf of our kind friend and patron (Dr. Browning)
we were about to part with, and fervently, too, we sought Divine
wisdom and grace, to guide and bless us in all our future steps.

" The time soon came for us to be marched off. Myself, and
five more shipmates, with twenty old hands, were yoked to carts,
loaded with picks and other heavy goods. An overseer took the
command, and, at the well-known sound ' Go on !' off we started,
not knowing whither : all we knew was that we were going to
form a new station fifty miles up the country. We had not pro-
ceeded many miles before I began to feel exhausted ; for, just

PAST AND PRESENT. 159

stepping on shore after a long voyage, you may suppose I was
unfit for hard travelling; added to this, my health was but deli-
cate. But journey on we must, up rugged hills, beneath a scorch-
ing sun, and amidst the hellish oaths and imprecations of our new
companions. My ears were unaccustomed to such wicked words
as proceeded from their lips. One particular oath, the first time
I heard it uttered, made me shudder, and that was from a poor
grey-headed man, when oppressed with dragging those heavy
carts. It is too awful and too grossly blasphemous to admit of
being written. Its purport was a wish that he might die that
moment, if he moved another step ; but the Lord had mercy on
him, and did not grant his request, for he still moved on. Surely,
I thought, I shall never hear such language again. But in this
I was greatly mistaken ; for it is common, awfully common, to
hear prisoners, and officers too, swear the same oath.

" We arrived at , and were put within the prison : and a

sad night I spent, as to outward circumstances. My friend and
shipmate, who was with me on board the hulk, desirous of doing
good, proposed to read a chapter from ' God's Word :' but oh ! I
shall never forget the dreadful cry they set up. ' You old hypo-
crite ! there 's no God in Van Diemen's Land, nor ever shall be!'
were the blasphemous words vociferated. Not till then did I
find banishment such a heavy chastisement. To be obliged to
hear and see what has passed before me, the last two years, is a
severe and heart-rending affliction.

" Morning came, and we pursued our journey. We had to
traverse the bush, with scarcely a track to guide us. Here and
there we saw a tent, or met a settler. The country became more
rugged; but we were compelled to drag and labour on, through
a very hot day, until we were nearly exhausted. Night came on ;
and truly thankful I was to lie down upon the ground, and obtain
a little repose. We encamped in the bush, with no other shelter
but God's own beautiful sky, bespangled with stars. Here we
found water a great blessing to us, for we were parched with
thirst, from the want of water during the day. Next day, on we
went, and, early in the evening, we arrived at the spot to which
we were ordered. I have been particular in describing this jour-
ney, for the circumstances connected with it made a powerful
impression on my mind. Never did I see beings sunk so low.
Here I beheld the fearful effects of the fall. The blasphemous

160 CONVICT SYSTEMS,

expi-essions, respecting the Holy Comforter, produced horror
in my mind for the moment ; but I hope they also led me more
earnestly to implore His most gracious presence and power in
my own soul.

" At , we commenced our work. Then began the course

of government and discipline to which I have been subjected.

Gangs marched to the station as it enlarged, from , and

and other Second-Sentence stations. These men were supposed
to have been reformed : but, alas ! their conduct soon evinced
that the treatment they had received was calculated to harden,
rather than to soften, their moral feeling. They soon broke out.
Officers commenced their work, bringing many of them to trial
for various offences. The ' triangle ' was erected ; the horrid
' cat' I saw, with grief and pain, flourished about the station by
a fellow-prisoner, appointed flagellator. It was soon laid upon
the backs of the unhappy convicts. Then my sorows began.
I was disappointed that a milder system was not in operation.
From what I conceived probation to be, I expected that men
would have been instructed and drawn, not driven encouraged, not
at once coerced.

" I should have told you that for three or four months we were
tolerably comfortable, owing to the influence of a pious visiting
magistrate, who was over us during that brief period, and paid
great attention to our spiritual interests, and instructed us, and
led our worship on most Sabbaths : but his stay was short. There
was no flogging during his time : but he would come and talk
with us, as a tender father to his children, and encourage us, in
every possible way, in the pursuit of useful knowledge. After he
had left us the scene changed."

The above extracts show that the wishes and in-
tentions of the Home Government were by no means
carried out in the distant colony, and at the same
time sufficiently indicate the chief causes of the
failure of Lord Stanley's plan. These were the fol-
lowing : the inadequate and unsuitable accommoda-
tion for the prisoners at night, the employment of
them in masses in the bush in the primary stage,

PAST AND PRESENT. Ifil

the improper character of the overseers of the gangs,
for want of better men, and * the absence of every
thing like moral training and preparation for trans-
portation. The convict passed in general from the
debaucheries of a profligate life into the common
gaol, from thence into the convict-ship, and finally,
into the probation gang, growing worse and worse
at every stage. Besides all which, the very distance
at which the probation was carried on, so com-
pletely removed from the eye of the Home Govern-
ment and from the salutary influence of public
opinion, was sure to leave the way open to many
abuses, to which no remedy could be applied, except
after wearisome delays and difficulties, and then too
late to counteract the evil.

Lord Grey's Probation System.

In the general principles of this and the preced-
ing plan, there was no difference. A succession of
probationary stages, bearing proportion to the dura-
tion of the original sentences, and gradually advanc-
ing the well-conducted through the stages of ticket-
of-leave and conditional pardon to absolute freedom,
is the leading feature of both. In the mode of work-
ing them out were some points of difference. In-
stead of congregating the convicts in masses in the
first stage, without any other distinction of character
than that which the law defines, separate confine-
ment was substituted ; and both stages instead of
bring passed in Van Piemen's Land, were to take

162 CONVICT SYSTEMS,

place at home, under the immediate inspection of
Government.

The duration of the first stage of discipline in
separate confinement was fixed at from about nine
to eighteen months, according to length of sentence
and other circumstances. A badly-conducted pri-
soner might have it protracted. He might also be
returned to it, to begin his course of probation
again. To carry out this stage of discipline there
were sufficiently ample facilities in Millbank, Wake-
field, Pentonville, Reading, and other prisons in
England, built after the model of Pentonville, avail-
able to Government, upon defraying the expenses of
the convicts' maintenance, &c.*

The second stage of discipline was penal labour
upon public works.

Many entertained, what appeared to me, the un-
reasonable fear that men really reformed in separation
would turn bad again in association. For my own
part I felt persuaded, if the same means were used to
keep them from falling which were first honoured of
God in reclaiming them, the faithful and affectionate
ministration of his Holy Word, fair and considerate
treatment by their officers, and a "fair amount of the
stimulus of hope, the good character of the convict
would not be deteriorated. I thought it would be
neither just nor wise, however, to test the religious
profession of men, under such circumstances, by the

* For the names of the prisons so used and the number of
convicts in England, see paper in Appendix.

PAST AND PRESENT. 163

highest standard, and to condemn a man for a word,
an ebullition of temper, or the infringement of a
rule, at once as a hypocrite. This is constantly
done, and chiefly by persons who are themselves
irreligious altogether. Such is not the teaching of
our divine religion. " Brethren" said St. Paul,
"if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are
spiritual restore such an one in the spirit of meek-
ness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted."

There are prison offences, indeed, which show
plainly enough that the reported reformation of a
man is nothing better than gross self-deception, if
not hypocrisy. What then ? Surely, it is better
that this discovery should be made in time, and the
delusive expectation dispelled, than to let him free
upon the world again before the necessity, a really
bad man ; better, for the convict himself better un-.
questionably for society. A reformation which will
not stand the test of association, where it has more
safeguards and fewer temptations than in the icorld
at large, is manifestly not of the least value.

But the associated labour of convicts had been
already tried, it was said, with the most disastrous
results. This was undoubtedly true ; but there were
causes enough, as we have seen, for that failure,
besides the association itself.

" I regret to state my impression," says Mr.
Latrobe, acting Governor of Van Diemen's Land in
1846-7 " that, after all the stress laid upon the
necessity of providing adequately for the religious
and moral instruction of the convicts under the

it 2

164 CONVICT SYSTEMS,

new system, in no particular has the difficulty of
attaining the object been" more glaringly apparent,
both in number and in general character and quali-
fications; the class of men whose services were at
command were not of the stamp that must be
employed, if a reasonable hope of success were to
be indulged."

"It further appeared to me," he writes, "that
the probation system, whether sound in principle or
not, had not a fair trial, and could never have a fair
trial in this distant colony."

It does not require colonial experience to be
assured of this. In a complicated system such as
that was, supposing it carried out ever so discreetly
and zealously, difficulties, never provided for, would
continually be starting up ; little in themselves,
perhaps, if promptly met, but fraught with dis-
astrous consequences to discipline and to morals,
if neglected or postponed for any considerable time,
which yet was generally inevitable. Norfolk Island
was nearly 1000 miles from the seat of colonial
government ; the communication from the bush to
Ilobart Town even was, necessarily, very slow ; and
when the reports did reach head-quarters in the
colony, the person invested with strictly-defined
authority would naturally shrink from undertaking
new responsibilities, and the more especially in a
country where everything assumed a party com-
plexion, and was 'sure to be misrepresented at home
by some one. The matter, therefore, would be sent
home for the decision of the supreme Government ;

PAST AND PRESENT. 165

and if the executive had not in the mean time
changed hands, or if no more important business
was being pressed upon it, the ultimatum would
come back in the course of perhaps eighteen
months ; a doubtful remedy, at any period, but
when it arrived, wholly unsuitable, or calculated to
aggravate the disease.

Nor was there the check upon the growth of ir-
regularities and demoralization which the presence of
an enlightened and Christian public interposes.
Here and there only, at the penal stations, occurred
any exception, and Norfolk Island was open only to
the officials of Government. Yet, of all things, the
treatment of those who have lost their liberty should
be most accessible to such observation and influence.
Man is naturally a tyrant over his species, and the
lower in feeling, if not in education and birth, the
officer is, in general, the greater. The exercise of
petty power by persons of this kind, brutalizes
further their own minds, irritates the feelings of the
prisoner, and renders almost every effort to com-
municate favourable impressions to the heart of the
oppressed abortive. If any doubt the value of such
impartial inspection, let them read the life of
Howard, when, moved by the generous and self-
devoted spirit of a pure religion, he visited the
prisons of Europe, and exposed to public view their
horrible condition ; let them consider what Newgate
and every convict-ship was, before Elizabeth Pry
and others, moved by the same spirit, and animated
by the example of that great man, undertook to

166 CONVICT SYSTEMS,

carry the offers of mercy, in the accents of Christian
sympathy, to their unhappy inmates. The probation
scheme of Earl Grey secured all those helps. The
hest officers, from the highest to the lowest, could
be selected, or, if found unfit, immediately removed.
The eye of Government could personally survey the
whole, and apply to discovered evils a prompt and
efficient remedy; Members of Parliament, and
persons high in the estimation of their country, had
every opportunity to observe the working of the
plan, and to make public the result of their obser-
vation. Measures were taken to secure absolute
separation, moreover, during the night, for every
man worked in association.

To assist in carrying out this part of the plan, a
penal establishment was formed in the Isle of
Portland, near Weymouth. 1200 convicts, who
have passed through separate confinement, are here
now employed in the construction of a harbour of
refuge on that part of the coast ; a work long called
for as confessedly of great public utility, but which,
it is obvious, would not have been undertaken if free
labour were exclusively to be engaged. Another has
since been opened in Dartmoor for invalid and less
able-bodied convicts, for about the same number.

Also, a prison, with separate cells, for the con-
victs employed at Portsmouth, and preparations for
another in Woolwich, are in progress. The same it
is hoped, ere long, will be the case in Bermuda and
Gibraltar. In fact, it has long been felt by Govern-
ment to be a matter of great importance to carry

PAST AND PRESENT. 167

out these improvements as thoroughly and as expe-
ditiously as possible. The "hulks" originated in
the time of the war, from the difficulty of carrying
out the sentence of transportation, and the greater
value then of convict labour at home. In the best
hands they have proved to be indifferent prisons. In
the old days of neglect they became distinguished
amongst the worst.

A few years back a thorough reform of these
establishments was however instituted by Secretary
Sir George Grey, and committed to the management
of a gentleman of high character and experience,
Herbert P. Voules, Esq., now one of Her Majesty's
Inspectors of Prisons. At the same time, a clergy-
man of devoted Christian character, to take charge
of the convicts, was selected with special care by
the Secretary of State himself ; schoolmasters were
added, books for the moral and religious improve-
ment of the prisoners supplied, officers of unfit cha-
racter displaced, each class or " bay " properly
lighted, every hammock fully exposed to view, a
vigilant inspection kept up during the night ; and in
a space where 600 Or 700 men used to be berthed,
not more than 450 were allowed.

Looking at the hulks as they were, and the
obstacles which lay in the way of their improve-
ment, and especially the detention of so many con-
victs of the old stamp, men grown inveterate in
vicious habits, who could not be disposed of other-
wise, consistently with good faith, or the demands
of justice, I am astonished to observe how much

168 CONVICT SYSTEMS,

good was, and since has been, effected by those
means.

Thus it was not long before it was reported by
the chaplain at Woolwich :

"There have been three services each Lord's Day
one in each ship j all the men attend, with the
exception of those of a religious persuasion differing
from the Church of England, and their attention
and devout behaviour have been most gratifying
to myself, as well as the subject of remark to others
who have casually witnessed it.

" The holy sacrament has been solemnized quar-
terly ; the number of communicants has been
gradually increasing up to 103 ; and I may add that
the conduct of these communicants has been most
consistent ; and among these are four who have
been baptized within the last year, at their own
express desire. The Wednesday and Thursday
evening services have been continued as usual.

" At the hospital there have been a daily service
and lecture. The sick who are able, gather round
the upper and lower decks, joining in the services
with earnestness, and often by the sounds of praise
soothing the sick, who, confined to their beds, can
follow the words they are singing from their books.
So much have they begun to value religious in-
struction, that they have applied to the mate cf the
hospital for leave to have a Bible and hymn class
in the evenings among those who can leave their
beds."

The number of communicants, about 100 in 1000

PAST A!SD PRESENT. 169

prisoners, shows a wonderfully altered state of
things, where ten under the old regime would be
considered a large number. And it will be observed
that this change is accompanied by accounts of
general improved good conduct and industry.

Similar reports were made to the Directors from
the hulks at Portsmouth.

Portsmouth Convict Prison.

This prison was opened in the spring of 1852, and
given in charge to Captain Knight, formerly Go-
vernor of Portland prison ; an officer of well-tried
qualifications for the most difficult posts. At the
close of the year the Directors were able to say,

"We cannot conclude this Report without ex-
pressing great satisfaction at the successful result of
the first distinct experiment of removing convicts in
a body from the hulks into a prison, which allowed
of their being separated from each other at night and
at meals, and in which the authorities were provided
with the necessary means of enforcing a higher
degree of discipline. The progressive improvement
visible in the conduct of these men under the
superior means of discipline afforded by the prison
was very remarkable, and the degree of order, regu-
larity, and respectful submission to discipline, that
now prevail both inside the prison, and also on the
public works, is a satisfactory proof, if any could
have been wanting, of the disadvantage of using
hulks as places of confinement for convicts, when

170 CONVICT SYSTEMS,

the object is, not only to enforce the sentence of the
law, but to maintain strict discipline, promote
habits of industry, and encourage every effort at
moral improvement among the prisoners.

The following results are noticed by Captain
Knight in his Report :

" Out of 1376 prisoners who have been confined
in this prison, 955 have not committed the slightest
breach of rules, and 66 more have committed only
one slight offence ; so, in fact, 1021 have not been
guilty of any actual misconduct, and thus every-
thing like misconduct has been confined to the
remaining 355. It may be further observed, that a
very considerable proportion of offences are attribut-
able to the repeated misconduct of a few almost
incorrigible individuals ; thus, for instance, 134
offences have been committed by 13 prisoners.
(Corporal punishment was inflicted on four men.)

About 152 offences (viz. "having possession of
money, tobacco, and other prohibited articles," have
been caused solely by the convicts being brought in
close contact daily with labourers, sailors, &c., and
many more are indirectly traceable to the same
cause; even persons of apparently higher position
occasionally assist the convicts to commit breaches
of discipline. I will give an instance of this kind.
A person passing a party of convicts at work on
Southsea Common threw one of them some money,
which he picked up unobserved by his officer, but
immediately and voluntarily gave it up.

Taking into consideration the trials and tempta-

PAST AND PRESENT. 171

tions to which the convicts in this prison are con-
stantly exposed, their general regularity and exem-
plary conduct hare far exceeded my expectations,
and convince me that their labour might be made
still more generally useful and profitable, and be
extended to situations and under circumstances
heretofore never thought of.

Various instances might be given in proof of the
comparatively favourable moral condition of the
convicts. The following may not be considered
altogether out of place :

Register 692 found a sovereign when at work in
the dockyard, picked it up unobserved by the officer
in charge of his party or by the other convicts.

Register 476 found, buried in the mud of one of
the moats, when employed with other convicts in
cleaning the same, a glazier's diamond, value about
1.

These articles were all voluntarily given up, and
have been restored to the lawful owners.

Dartmoor Prison.

This prison was partially opened in 1850, a re-
construction of the old war prison, so long happily
untenanted for its original purpose. Here were
more, at one time, than 9000 prisoners of war. The

172 CONVICT SYSTEMS,

impression on one's mind is a very sad one, when lie
feels the chill blasts of that elevated spot, and
thinks of the warm regions from which so many of
those poor foreigners came. The mortality is said
to have heen very great amongst them. This is
stated to have been the result not only of the
climate, but of the want of proper supplies from
their own government, and a total recklessness of
living; for, being allowed wages for work, and
having it in their power to purchase spirits, they
consumed it largely, instead of procuring suitable
clothing and nourishment.

Over the ancient gate, built of large primeval
granite blocks, is the inscription

" PARCERE SUBJECTIS,"

a good motto, but expressive of the intentions of the
British Government rather than of the results.
Those prisoners of war built the church in Princes'
Town, the barracks for the soldiery, the officers'
quarters, and one-fourth or more of the prison
itself. The climate suits well the constitution of
Englishmen in general. Nowhere can be seen more
health and vigour in adults or children. I spent
more than a week in a very indifferent inn, desig-
nated the Dutchy Hotel, in Princes' Town, to the
great benefit of my health, although the weather
was bad enough to remind one of the lines,

" The people all within this clime
Are frozen in the winter time,

PAST AND PRESENT. 173

Or drowned with snow or rain ;

And when the summer is begun.

They lie like silkworms in the sun.

And come to life again." Rowe's " Dartmoor."

I never saw any ordinary set of labourers work
more heartily than the convicts sent to refit this
prison. This may be accounted for in part, perhaps,
because they were employed at their own trades,
smiths, carpenters, farm labourers, &c. ; partly, be-
cause they had not the corrupting influence of the
old style of convicts before them, as at the hulks ;
but chiefly, as I believe, because they had passed
through prisons on the separate plan, where they
had been religiously instructed, and not kept over
long. An excellent crop of flax was gathered
on the farm of the prison, the first autumn. In the
course of a few years, it may safely be anticipated,
the benefits of this establishment will be felt for
many miles beyond the prison bounds, in the
stimulus given to industry thereby in the neigh-
bourhood, and the example of what may be effected
in reclaiming that now desolate-looking and barren
region.

Captain Gambier, the Governor, in his Report
for 1852, furnishes the following interesting in-
formation :

" Tradesmen and artisans have been employed as
much as practicable at their respective trades, in the
repairing of buildings, and in completing the con-
version of the old war prisons, erecting and fitting
up farm-buildings, tool-sheds, c., and in the con-

174 CONVICT SYSTEMS,

struction of a large range of prisoners' baths ;
others in repairing roads ; a large number in agri-
cultural operations ; several gangs in cutting peat ;
during the proper season, a part of them, mixed
with invalids and light-labour men, in drying,
turning, and stacking it. This is then used as fuel
for the service of the prison, and likewise for
making gas, thus effecting a very considerable
saving in the articles of fuel and light. The in-
valids, of whom there is a large body here, are em-
ployed at light labour, also as tailors and shoe-
makers.

"I have likewise, under your sanction, selected
men of exemplary character, with short sentences,
who have performed a large portion of their terms
of punishment, and whose crimes were not heinous
ones, to be employed on * special service.' This
consists in looking after the cows, horses, pigs, &c. ;
driving carts, and carrying tools to the prison for
repair, from their respective gangs, &c. ; whilst
others have been employed at their trades.

" These men are not under the charge of any par-
ticular officer. Their dress is a distinctive one,
consisting of a blue jacket, waistcoat, and trowsers,
instead of the usual brown or drab clothing worn
by the other convicts. Those who are allowed the
privilege of this special employment outside the
walls of the prison, have a red cloth collar attached
to their jackets, and are allowed to pass out through
the gates to their respective occupations (during
working hours) without being in charge of an

PAST AND PRESENT. 175

officer. Those not having the red collar are only
allowed the privileges attached to the distinctive
dress inside the prison walls, and are therefore never
allowed to pass the gates, except in charge of an
officer. The distinctiveness of this clothing acts as
a guidance to the officers and military sentries, who
would otherwise immediately stop any convict who
was not in charge of an officer.

" I have found, Sir, this plan of yours, in em-
ploying these men as above detailed, to answer most
admirably, and I rejoice to state that I have had
no case of misconduct on their part. They highly
value the privilege, and eagerly seek for it, and are
very proud of the confidence placed in them. The
number thus employed now amounts to 53; viz., 18
outside and 35 inside the prison walls.

" There have been but two instances of corporal
punishment during the last twelve months. The
minor punishments have been bread and water, not
exceeding seven days (and this number of days very
rare), except when ordered by a director, for serious
offences, the usual punishments being from one to
three days bread and water, or the loss of a meal,
removal to a lower class, &c. These punishments
have been confined to 445 convicts out of 1695 :
and the reports to 600, the rest not having a report
against them."

Portland Breakwater and Prison.
The circumstances connected with laying the

176 CONVICT SYSTEMS, *

foundation stone of the great Breakwater, near
Weymouth, for which the convicts now quarry
stones from the rocky peninsula called Portland
Isle, on the 25th of July, 1849, will long he remem-
bered in that locality.

All the local papers describing the events of that
day were bought up with extraordinary avidity.
New and enlarged editions were required to meet
the demand.

The national advantages of the projected Break-
water are : it will afford ample protection, and be
accessible at all times, and in all weathers, to vessels
of any size, and in immense numbers, as there will
be made a secure harbour, with deep water, for a
space of four square miles in extent. From mid
channel in fine clear weather, a vessel can command
a sight of Cape la Hogue and Alderney, on the
Erench side, and of Portland and the Isle of Wight,
on the English. A fleet here stationed would have
an uncontrolled sweep of the English Channel.

A great local advantage will be the shelter
afforded to Weymouth, to which there is annually
much damage done by south and south-east gales.
In 1825, the sea was driven with such fury into the
bay, that it destroyed the Pier at the entrance of
Weymouth Harbour and the greater part of the
Esplanade- wall, incurring an expenditure of several
thousand pounds to replace it. The Breakwater
would have prevented this loss, and also that of
several vessels and lives at the same time.

A greater advantage is the facility it will offer for

PAST AND PRESENT. 177

carrying on the Portland stone trade, which, during
the prevalence of easterly winds, is now seriously
impeded, and frequently totally suspended. The
shelter that will be afforded by the Breakwater will
enable vessels to load alongside a quay, and render
it unnecessary to employ lighters. The average
quantity of stone now annually shipped is between
30,000 and 40,000 tons. This will doubtless be
considerably increased, when there are greater
facilities for its shipment.

Though commonly called an island, Portland is in
fact a peninsula, being united to the main land by a
high bank of shingle, nearly ten miles in length,
known as the " Chesil Bank," composed of pebbles
which graduate off from the Portland end, where
they are of considerable size, growing smaller by
degrees, until near Abbotsbury they are less than
sparrows' eggs, and at Bridport they become a
coarse sand. So gradually does the size decrease,
that smugglers could, in the darkest night, tell
whereabouts they were by the size of the peb-
bles.

The island is one immense rock of stone, the best
quality of which, a good freestone, is greatly prized
for building purposes, St. Paul's Cathedral, Black-
friars and Westminster Bridges, the new Royal Ex-
change, and many other public buildings, being
erected with it. The stone was first brought into
repute in the time of James I., by whose architects
it was employed in the erection of the Banqueting
House at Whitehall. It is got out of the quar-

178 CONVICT SYSTEMS,

ries of different sizes, from five or six tons'
weight.*

To inaugurate this great work, Prince Albert
attended in person. His Royal Highness was followed
in his whole course through Dorsetshire by the most
enthusiastic manifestations of loyalty to the Queen,
and attachment to his own person ; and having re-
ceived addresses from various public bodies in Dor-
chester, "Weymouth, and Portland, and replied to
them in his wonted felicitous manner, the ceremony
of laying the foundation stone was proceeded with ;
the Rev. D. Hogarth, Rector of Portland, having
offered the following prayer to the Most High :

" O Lord our Saviour, Thou art our keeper ;
Thou art the keeper of England; Thou hast kept
us in time past, we beseech Thee to keep us in time
coming. Thou hast heretofore kept us in peace,
and preserved us from foreign invasion. It is Thou
who hast kept us. Thou hast made this a great
nation ; but it is Thy power which kept us, not our
own wisdom. We disown all trust in an arm of
flesh; our trust is in Thee alone. God of our
fathers, keep us, their children, we entreat Thee.

"Bless this great work; make it a means of
protecting our navy, and a protection to our com-
merce.

" Bless our gracious Sovereign Queen VICTORIA ;
keep her, we beseech Thee, from all evil. Give her

* In the process of excavation, occasionally Roman antiqui-
ties are met with, as well as geological specimens.

PAST AND PRESENT. 179

peace from outward foes; give her inward peace,
through the blood of her Redeemer.

" Bless Her Royal Consort, Prince ALBERT ; keep
him in all his outgoings and incomings. Let him
abide in peace, resting only on the merits of a cruci-
fied Redeemer. Bless the members of the Royal
Family and their children ; make them all thine by
adoption and grace. Amen."

The Lord's Prayer and Benediction followed.

After this beautiful prayer, uttered from the
heart, by one of the Lord's most faithful ministers,
the ceremony was proceeded with.

The Prince then made a few remarks, which we
regret we were unable to hear, and all being clear,
the stone was ordered by the Prince to be dropped,
and it fell to its resting place with a tremendous
splash, amidst the roar of artillery, and three cheers
for the Queen. The band immediately struck up
Rule Britannia, and some loads of loose stone were
deposited around the foundation stone.

The Royal party then minutely inspected the
prison and all its accompaniments, His Royal High-
ness frequently making particular inquiries respect-
ing the various matters falling under his notice,
Colonel Jebb, and Captain Whitty, then Governor,
affording him every information.

On that occasion the Prince was pleased to
present a Bible and Prayer-Book, for the use
of the chapel, in which he wrote the following sen-
tence :

N 2

180 CONVICT SYSTEMS,

" PRESENTED TO THE CHAPEL OF THE CONVICTS
AT PORTLAND, AS A TOKEN OF INTEREST, AND IN
HOPE OF THEIR AMENDMENT. ALBERT."

I had on this occasion the honour of presenting
an address to His Royal Highness (in place of the
chaplain, who was unwell), which was graciously
received.

So far this great undertaking has progressed most
favourably, and the fears of those who anticipated
disastrous consequences to the moral and religious
improvement of the convict have proved to be
groundless.

The testimony of Capt. Whitty (to whose ability,
zeal, and efficient support of the department of
religion, much of the success is attributed), and the
Rev. Mr. Moran, then the chaplain, is the same.

" The subdued, improved, and disciplined state in
which the convicts generally arrive at Portland,"
reports the Governor to Colonel Jebb, "from the
stage of separate confinement, appears to be an
admirable preparative for their transfer to the
greater degree of freedom unavoidable on public
works. Those convicts who have been for a con-
siderable time at Portland, have not usually indicated
any falling-off in morals or conduct, but, on the con-
trary, several instances have occurred in which men,
on whose conduct the comparative degree of liberty
here alluded to appeared to have at first an un-
favourable effect, have afterwards become orderly
and industrious, and content to work their way

PAST AND PRESENT. 181

cheerfully to the prospective advantages held out to
convicts of that character.

" In most cases I believe that the convicts have
lost the feeling, too prevalent amongst criminals
(and while it lasts constituting a great bar to their
reformation), that all officials or authorities who
enforce the laws must naturally be their enemies.

" Under the present system also they have hope,
without which element in their treatment I am
satisfied that no one else can have hope for them.
They are remarkably alive and submissive to treat-
ment guided by good faith and impartiality ; and,
with good officers to administer the system with
firmness and humanity, I see no reason whatever to
doubt of its successful result."

" I have now had every opportunity," says the
chaplain, " of observing the working of that system
with close attention, and further experience has con-
firmed the favourable opinion I had been led to
entertain of it. The effects of the discipline have
been such as may well encourage the Government to
persevere in the course they have entered on.

" It appears to me to be clearly established, that,
under certain conditions, convicts may be employed
on public works with great advantage. In order,
however, to secure these results, I consider it
ESSENTIAL that the two following particulars should
still continue to be regarded as part of the sys-
tem :

"1st. It is of the greatest importance that all
those men who are sent into association on public

182 CONVICT SYSTEMS,

works, should have previously undergone a certain
period of probation in separate confinement.

" 2nd. That in both periods of probation, strict
discipline be combined with the inculcation of sound
religious and moral principles. I know you are
fully sensible of this ; nor is it too much to affirm,
that the great success which has already attended
the efforts made on behalf of * England's outcasts/
is to be ascribed, under God, to the prominence
which has been given by the Government to the
moral and religious training of the prisoners. The
Gospel of Christ is the great remedy which has
been revealed from heaven for the recovery of guilty
and polluted man to the favour and to the image of
God ; and just in proportion as that Gospel is set
forth without addition and without reserve, in the
same proportion may we expect a blessing to attend
our labours.

" It may be safely affirmed that the moral and
religious condition of the prisoners has, on the
whole, been very satisfactory. Those prisoners who
came here with good characters have, with few ex-
ceptions, maintained their standing ; and a very
considerable number may be said to have greatly
improved.

" Let it, however, be borne in mind, that orderly
conduct and obedience to prison rules here is a much
higher test than it is in separate confinement,
because the temptations are much greater, and the
restraints necessarily fewer. The association of the
prisoners who are engaged early and late in the

PAST AND PRESENT. 183

labour of the prison or in the quarries, although
under inspection and control, is assimilated to that
of ordinary life ; and I feel no doubt that it would
prove a valuable training for their future conduct
in the colonies. The Lord's Supper has been ad-
ministered several times during the past year. We
have had about 150 communicants each time. The
candidates are carefully instructed each time before
the Lord's Supper is administered."

Those documents fully bear out the anticipations
which I ventured to make in a paper presented to
the " Commissioners of Pentonville Prison," in
1847, when such an opinion was by no means an
acceptable one to most of the acting members of the
Board. The following judgment, however, from one
of high authority on penal questions, who thought
differently at the beginning, must be considered of
far more value, and certainly reflects credit on the
candour of the writer.

" The convict, having passed the appointed term
in separate confinement," says Mr. Field, in his
Life of Howard, " is removed to the establishment
in Portland Island (or, it may be, when suitable
arrangements are made, to one of our dockyards),
to labour in the formation of the Harbour of Re-
fuge, or on some public work. There, although he
is still under religious instruction and very judicious
superintendence, his principles and the reality of his
reformation are subjected to a severe test. He is
associated with other convicts, and, as it cannot be
supposed that all have been reclaimed, he meets

184 CONVICT SYSTEMS,

with many temptations. The opinions expressed on
this plan before the Select Committee of the House
of Lords, previously to its operation, by many of the
learned judges of the land, and by most persons
acquainted with penal discipline, were very decidedly
adverse to its adoption. The writer himself, when
questioned upon the subject, deprecated the proposal
in strong terms. He is glad of an opportunity to
retract them. Neither had others, nor himself, then
learned the efficacy of separate imprisonment to the
extent it has now been proved. The fear that most
of our convicts would relapse for a time, although
many good effects of former discipline would be
permanent, was, he is thankful to say, unfounded.
The author has received from time to time the most
satisfactory testimony to this effect, from the highly
intelligent and Christian men who superintend the
Portland establishment. Many letters received from
convicts have been of the most pleasing character ;
and by a recent visit, and personal converse with a
large number of them, he became thoroughly con-
vinced, and very thankful, that his former appre-
hensions were not realized." The punishments in
this prison have been very light, and the faults few.
Out of 1320 prisoners there were only 494 offences,
and but 3 cases of corporal punishment. Under
Captain Clay, the present Governor, the same strict
discipline prevails, combined with great kindness,
which characterized his predecessor.

PAST AND PRESENT. 185

Parkhurst P)ison.

Parkkurst Prison, for juvenile convicts, embraces
the two stages of discipline, separate confinement
and penal labour, the first being considerably abbre-
viated. It is an admirable institution, and, under
the present Board of Directors, presents a most
encouraging prospect of improvement. In the
Governor, Mr. Hall, these criminal boys have truly
a Christian father ; and in their chaplains, earnest
and faithful ministers of Christ. Less time here is
now devoted to intellectual advancement more to
the formation of industrious habits by manual
labour, in the management of the land, brick and
tile-making, &c. The work done, and the distri-
bution of the boys' labour on the farm, reflect great
credit 011 the skill and judgment of the steward,
Mr. Strickland, to whom this province is assigned.
He is what every one engaged in arduous work
ought to be, to insure success, almost an enthusiast
in his line.

After a prescribed number of years' probation, in
one or other of those establishments, the convict
who had acquitted himself well, was transported
with a ticket-of-leave. Such, summarily, was the
plan of Lord John Russell's Government for carry-
ing out the sentence of transportation; and the
utmost care was taken to insure its success by the
selection of able and experienced officers to super-
intend the discipline and labour of the convicts, and

186 CONVICT SYSTEMS,

of zealous and devoted Christian men, as ministers
and schoolmasters. Under this arrangement, trans-
portation assumed the severest, yet the most
humane and Christian, form yet tried. The sentence
struck terror into the stoutest heart, divested as it
was of well-known chances of escape, and involving
a course of previous discipline, penal and reform-
atory, distasteful beyond measure to criminals. It
came home to every class of mind. There is a great
diversity of feeling amongst prisoners respecting the
comparative degree of severity belonging to the
several sorts of punishment. Therefore, that which
is most uniform will be the most unequal in its
pressure. The adventurous young criminal, and all
who have no friends or home, make very light of
being sent out of the country. To many, indeed, of
this class, transportation has been an object of desire,
as giving them a chance of bettering their condition,
or of ambition, as the completion of their education
in crime ; but the thought of being shut up by him-
self for twelve or eighteen months first, with only
respectable and religious persons to speak to, the
persons he has been fleeing from all his life, fills
him with dismay. The educated and well-brought-
up, desiring concealment and having mental re-
sources, can bear the thought of seclusion for a
while, and of an exile to follow, in a country where
he is not known ; but his heart sinks within him
when he hears, that, after the ordeal of separate
confinement, he is to be worked at penal labour in
a convict dress, and in some measure exposed to

PAST AND PRESENT. 187

public view. Others again, and perhaps the greater
part, accustomed to labour, and contemplating the
advantages to be derived from education whilst in
prison, could bear both these stages of discipline with
little mental or bodily suffering, to whom removal
from home and country is perfectly appalling. The
diversity, therefore, in the character of punishment
in the several parts of this scheme of probation,
was not its least valuable part.

Millbank Prison.

This is the great central dep6t for convicts, and of
late years also a place of separate confinement. I
perceive with great satisfaction that the offences
last year were few, and humanely dealt with. Out
of 2909 convicts only 6 received corporal correction.
The reports of Dr. Baly, the experienced physician
of this vast prison, are of great value.

New System of Convict Discipline.

The discovery of gold in such large quantities in
Australia, rendered necessary the reconsideration of
the whole subject of transportation.

The value of convict labour to the colonist,
indeed, became thereby greatly enhanced, all free
labourers having left for the diggings, or only con-
senting to remain with their employers at a ruin-
ously high rate of wages. Hence the colonists,
members of the Anti-transportation League, as well

188 CONVICT SYSTEMS,

as others, were to be seen looking out for the
arrival of each convict ship, with ticket-of-leave
men, and boarding her with a most ludicrous eager-
ness, that if possible they might forestall the market
and possess themselves of a large share in the
valuable cargo. The same circumstances, however,
which thus freed the Government at home from the
difficulty of actual disposal of the convicts created
a greater. It was obvious that the ultimate desti-
nation of the convict should not be a region of gold,
the very name of which, so alluring to the ordinary
population of the country, would prove to thieves,
whose life is one of exchange of certain good for the
chance of greater gain, a direct incentive to serious
crime. The terror of long and severe stages of
convict discipline to be passed through before the
possibility could occur of reaching the country
would have little effect upon ill-regulated minds,
occupied with the one idea of making a fortune by
a sudden effort.

Happily for Government and the ends of justice,
the difficulty did not occur a few years back, when
no adequate means existed at home to employ and
discipline transported persons.

As it is, the arrangements carried out by Colonel
Jebb, as described in this chapter, made the solution
of the question comparatively easy. Hence at the
close of 1852, seeing the necessity for a change, I
wrote as follows, and submitted my remarks to the
proper authorities :

PAST AND PRESENT. 189

" Crimes punished hitherto by transportation may
be summarily classed under the following heads :

" 1. Offences against the person, murder, attempts
to murder, unnatural crimes, &c., the sentence for
which has been commuted by the Crown to trans-
portation for life.

" 2. Offences against property with violence, &c.,
malicious destruction of property, forgery, coining,
and robberies aggravated by frequent repetition.

"3. Offences which must be met with more than
ordinary severity, for example sake, as those com-
mitted in the army and navy, &c.

" 4. Simple offences against property, which form
the largest division of crimes punished hitherto by
transportation, and which have been so punished
with disproportionate severity.

"With respect to the first three classes, there
exist ample means for carrying out to the fullest
extent the sentence of transportation in the military
stations of Bermuda and Gibraltar alone, and, if
necessary, other like penal establishments may be
formed beyond the seas.

" The sentence of the judge, except in very
special cases, should be, in such stations, as fully
carried out as the necessity, for supplying some
glimmer of hope to cheer the convict's doom, will
permit. Life sentences, especially when substituted
for capital punishment, should be fully enforced.

" By such means transportation would retain, in
my opinion, its deterrent value as the highest of our

190 CONVICT SYSTEMS,

secondary punishments, and at the same time be
divested of some of its inconsistencies.

" With respect to the remaining class to which
the sentence has been so long awarded rather than
applied (under the old regime seven years' trans-
portation meant always three-and-a-half years at
the hulks, &c.), I am persuaded that cellular im-
prisonment followed by hard labour on the public
works (and then it might be a repetition of cellular
confinement) under Government, for two to seven or
ten years, would prove a more efficacious and a less
costly punishment. Works like those of Portland
for the protection of our shipping, and others for
strengthening the defences of our coast, would turn
the labour of such convicts to good account.

" The rapidly increasing stream of emigration of
the peasantry of England and Ireland, removes the
objection of employing convict labour at home as
prejudicing the interests of those deserving classes,
and seems to point out the necessity of retaining at
home the services of such persons.

" Those suggestions are made subject to two con-
ditions, which appear to me absolutely indispensable.
The one is, that convicts now under discipline be
treated according to the regulations already made
known to them by authority, or have some satis-
factory equivalent. The other is, that the foreign
and new penal stations, be placed on a par with
those at home (with Portland for instance), as
regards the separation of the convict by night,
religious and educational superintendence, and dis-
cipline in general. To insure such uniformity of

PAST AND PRESENT. 191

humane and Christian treatment, I think that every
station should be visited periodically by some com-
petent person, deputed by the Government for the
purpose."

The plan decided on by Government is as follows.

Transportation and Penal Servitude.

According to the new Act relating to transport-
ation, no person is to be sentenced to transportation,
except for life, or fourteen years, or upwards. Any
person who might have been sentenced to transport-
ation for a term less than fourteen years, is to be
liable, at the discretion of the court, to be kept in
penal servitude. The following terms of penal
servitude are to be awarded, instead of the present
terms of transportation : Instead of transportation
for seven years, or for a term not exceeding seven
years, the penal servitude is to be a term of four
years. Instead of any term of transportation ex-
ceeding seven years, and not exceeding ten years,
the penal servitude is to be not less than four, and
not exceeding six years. Instead of transportation
exceeding ten, and not exceeding fifteen years, the
penal servitude is to be for not less than six, and
not exceeding eight years ; where it exceeds fifteen
years, the penal servitude is to be not less than six,
and not exceeding ten years ; and instead of trans-
portation for life, the penal servitude is to be for the
term of life ; and in every case where, at the dis-
cretion of the court, one of any two or more of the
terms of transportation might have been awarded,

192 CONVICT SYSTEMS,

the court shall have the like discretion to award one
of the two or more terms of penal servitude in re-
lation to such term of transportation. There are
three clauses in the Act with regard to tickets-of-
leave in the United Kingdom, and the system is now
to be tried for the first time in this country. It is
declared to be lawful for her Majesty, by an order
in writing, under the hand and seal of one of the
principal secretaries of state, to grant to any con-
vict now under sentence of transportation, or who
may hereafter be sentenced to transportation, or to
any punishment substituted for transportation by
this Act, a license to be at large in the United
Kingdom and the Channel Islands, or in such parts
thereof respectively as in such license shall be ex-
pressed, during such portion of his or her term of
transportation or imprisonment, and upon such
conditions in all respects as to her Majesty shall
seem fit, and it shall be lawful for her Majesty to
revoke or alter such license by a like order at her
Majesty's pleasure. So long as such license shall
continue in force and unrevoked, such convict shall
not be liable to be imprisoned or transported by
reason of his or her sentence, but shall be allowed
to go and remain at large according to the terms of
such license. On a license being revoked the con-
vict may be apprehended, by justices' warrant, and
committed to the same prison, to undergo the
residue of his or her sentence there. The penal
servitude will be passed in the prisons described in
this chapter.

PAST AND PRESENT. ' 193

The point of difficulty in this scheme is that
which I have marked by italics.

The ticket-of-leave system in the widely dispersed
population of the Australian plains where labour
was scarce, and the colonists, looking to their neces-
sities and the habits of their adopted country, were
the less fastidious and the same system at home, are
two very different things.

Western Australia, still anxious to receive con-
vict-labour, by which the colony has been revived,
if not saved from utter ruin, will absorb but a fourth,
or at most a third, of the annual convict-population
of Great Britain and Ireland. The remainder, some
2 or 3000, after a while will annually be allowed to
mix in society, and to compete with the free labourer,
under the greatest disadvantages ; which some, as
wise as they are humane, would turn into the
absolute certainty of failure, by " imprinting on the
person of the unhappy convict some indelible brand."

Not a few of these men, indeed, will disappear
from the calendar of crime, being received by friends,
or otherwise helped ; some will take to the sea or
emigrate, and the able-bodied will get employment
without difficulty, where previous character is not
looked into ; but the mass, including all of the worst
class, will be thrown on society in a pitiable and
most hazardous condition.

Will employers in England knowingly give work
to ticket-of-leave holders ; or, discovering their real
position, retain their services ?

Will free labourers be content to be amalgamated

194 CONVICT SYSTEMS,

with men of this class ? will those unhappy persons
be tolerated as neighbours, and treated with kind
consideration, or provoked to violence, and driven, as
a class, into confederacy and their old habits ? Will
our police and detectives not expose and worry
them?

That many of the number (say 50 in 1000) will
again perpetrate serious crimes, there can be no
reasonable question ; will the public not take alarm
at their evil deeds, and the press not aggravate it ?

These are questions to be answered only by ex-
perience.

Happily, if the scheme fail in this point, the main
parts will yet remain, thanks to the admirable
arrangements of Colonel Jebb ; and England's con-
victs may again be usefully employed in some of her
distant dependencies as pioneers of the free colonist,
or otherwise, as circumstances may point out, with
perhaps a severer punishment to the thoroughly
bad, and a larger measure of hope to those of a
better sort.

Reviewing the difficulties of the experiment from
other points of view than those to which I have
referred, the Times of Oct. 20th, 1853, concludes
its article by the following excellent remarks :

" Thus much, however, is certain, that by remov-
ing the punishment of our crime from distant and
unknown countries, and placing it in the very centre
of our social system, we shall bring home to the
minds of the people of this country that which they
have never had before a thorough sense of the re-

PAST AND PRESENT. 195

sponsibility of the community for the crime it brings
up, and for the necessity of dealing, not only with
the disease itself when fully developed, but with
what have been well called its premonitory symp-
toms. The more difficult, the more distressing, the
more humiliating we find it to punish the full-grown
criminal, the more sensible we are of the contamina-
tion which he carries with him, and the sacrifice at
which any attempt at his reformation must be car-
ried out, the more anxious shall we be to diminish
the numbers of this formidable and unmanageable
class, by counteracting the first incentives to vice,
and breaking up those seminaries and nurseries
where it is inculcated and instilled. The effect of
bringing secondary punishments nearer home will
be, to make that attention to the subject earnest and
incessant, which now is languid and intermitting. It
is the intention of Providence that every community
should bear the weight of the crime that it produces,
and, if we have hitherto contrived to evade, that in-
tention, we have paid the penalty of it in another
shape, by the encouragement of a spirit of remiss-
ness which has made us the prey of successive gene-
rations of criminals, whom we have brought up to
plunder us, that we in our turn may, at a vast ex-
pense and with much trouble, send them to perpe-
trate the same outrages on our remote dependencies.
We are now to bear our own burthen, and the result
will be, if we mistake not, a very serious determina-
tion on the part of the community to make that
burden as light as possible." I would add in

o 2

196 CONVICT SYSTEMS,

dependence upon the blessing of that same Provi-
dence.

One necessary result from the new arrangements
will be, in my opinion, the establishment of one or
more doubly-penal institutions at home, for the
imprisonment of such convicts as shall be guilty of
grave offences in the ordinary Government prisons,
or otherwise seem to be incorrigible by ordinary
methods.

It is melancholy to contemplate such a necessity ;
but under the best management of our convict-
prisons it must, I think, be looked for.

Whether those doubly-penal establishments should
be attached to the existing convict-prisons, at the
public works, but distinguished by circumstances
likely to impress the whole body of the prisoners
with dread of the consequences of transgression, in
the construction of the building itself as well as in
its internal economy ; or, whether they should be
distinct prisons altogether on some dreary island
off the coasts of Ireland or Scotland, or elsewhere,
I am not prepared positively to affirm. I incline,
however, to the first plan as being likely to effect the
most good with the least amount of evil, and, no
doubt, the least cost.

"Wherever such a desperate felons' prison be lo-
cated, I fully anticipate that it will answer the ends
of justice and discipline better than Norfolk Island
ever did. To do so, however, the following con-
ditions appear to me absolutely necessary :

Hope must not be extinguished the earnest

PAST AND PRESENT. 197

ministrations of religion must not be diminished
the claims of a reasonable humanity, in any par-
ticular, must not be set aside.

A sentence pronounced at the public works by
competent authority of three, six, nine, or twelve
months, to the prison for the refractory, where it
was known that diet of the coarsest description
(though ample), the hardest bedding (though still
dry and clean), and the most intense solitude, con-
stituted the main elements of discipline, would
strike more terror into the minds of the mass of
convicts, than banishment to any region of the
earth where the association of persons of like cha-
racter was permitted, and the usual amount of
bodily comforts provided.

Brixton Female Convict Prison.

This is the Old Brixton House of Correction, lately
purchased by Government from the county of
Surrey, upon completion of its prison palace on
Wandsworth Common, and reconstructed under the
new convict arrangements for female convicts hence-
forth to be retained at home.

Separation at night is being secured for all the
women in this prison, and the establishment has
been placed under Mrs. Martin (relict of Rev. Mr.
Martin, the late highly-esteemed chaplain of Wool-
wich convict-establishment), with the authority of
governor and matron ; and Mr. Moran as resident
minister, whose unwearied labours as chaplain at

198 CONVICT SYSTEMS,

Portland and elsewhere hare already, in these pages,
been alluded to. No selection of superior officers
could have been more promising ; and they begin
their most arduous work with the best wishes and
the most fervent prayers of their numerous Christian
friends.

Roman Catholic Convicts.

On the vote for Government prisons and convict
establishments at home, as reported in the Times of
August 10th, 1853, it will be remembered that this
subject was brought before the house by Mr. Lucas,
the member for Meath, and the recognized editor of
the Tablet.

In a speech well suited to the temper of the
House, Mr. Lucas pressed upon Government, that,
under the new regulations, Roman Catholic chap-
lains should be regularly attached and salaried in the
convict prisons of England, as has long been done in
Ireland, and in the penal colonies since Lord Derby's
administration of the Colonial Government.

Upon the general question involved in such a
measure I do not consider myself called upon to
enter. It will be discussed, doubtless, in its legitimate
place agreeably with its importance, as another sig-
nificant move towards the establishment of the
Roman Catholic Church in this country. Let it be
borne in mind that it is not a question of toleration,
but endowment. The Roman Catholic priest may
now visit and instruct all of his communion in our

PAST AND PRESENT. 199

prisons whenever he wills and they request it, con-
sistently with ordinary prison arrangements.

Neither is it a mere prison question, for if the
principle of an established religion in England be
violated in this respect, it will infallibly open a way
for inroads upon the constitution in other depart-
ments. In our prisons, also, such a measure must
introduce interminable contests, and confusion in
matters of discipline and instruction. There must
be, for instance, Homan Catholic schoolmasters as
well as priests, or you must forego school educa-
tion, and a selection of Roman Catholic books,
secular as well as religious, or no library. Then,
the law must be changed, or every minister of the
Established Church will continue to exercise his
right, as chaplain, of instructing all the prisoners in
the gaol, except those who formally place them-
selves under instructors of their own nominal
persuasion.

As Mr. Lucas, however, referred in his speech to
the manner in which he conceives that I have
thought it my duty to act with respect to Roman
Catholic convicts in this prison, I think it due to
myself, and my brother chaplains in the same service,
whose practice has been precisely my own, to state
what I have done in the matter to which the
honourable member refers.

The following is that part of Mr. Lucas's speech in
which the reference occurs :

" In the English prisons, nothing was known in law, but a
Protestant chaplain. If a prisoner chose to ask for the services

200 CONVICT SYSTEMS,

of a Catholic chaplain, he could do so, and might receive those
services ; but the person whom he must try to please, if he
wished a character for good con-duct, was the Protestant
chaplain ; and the system worked so, that it was, in point of
fact, the interest of Catholic prisoners to attend the services of
the Protestant chaplain, though he did not mean to say the
system was intentionally worked so. He had that fact from the
very best authority namely, the evidence of the Kev. Mr.
Kingsmill, who for many years had been Chaplain of Penton-
ville Prison, and who was examined before a Parliamentary
Committee on the 22nd of March, 1847. [The hon. gentleman
read an extract from the evidence, stating that there was no
difficulty in a Catholic prisoner seeing his friends ; that there
were seldom in Pentonville Prison more than twenty out of 500
who professed, at entrance, to be Catholics ; hut that many
Catholics entered their names as Protestants, lest some feeling
should militate against them if it were known that they were
Catholics.] It must be obvious that those numbers could not be
true as respected the Catholics who entered Pentonville. The Right
Eev. Dr. Wilson, whose name was well known as connected with
the colony of Van Diemen's Land, and for the great services he
had performed with reference to convicts in that settlement,
stated the result of his experience to be, that he had always
found, with respect to the numbers who attended Catholic
services, that every ship from England carried from 15 to 20
per cent, of Catholics, and every ship from Ireland not more
than 10 per cent of Protestants. He had read an extract from
evidence given in 1847 by the Rev. Mr. Kingsmill, of whom he
did not wish to speak except in terms of respect. But it was
obvious that Mr. Kingsmill had got a very wrong notion of the
duties which attached to his functions. He had published a
book, in which he took notice of having made that invaluable
discovery that the Catholic Church was Antichrist, and the Pope
the Man of Sin. He had published that book in the character
of chaplain (there was not the least objection to his publishing
it in his personal character), and he expressed his rejoicing on ac-
count of persons being brought over to the service of the English
Church who had lived so long in Ireland that they knew better
than others how to deal with the Man of Sin and Antichrist. It
was not meant to say that he put it in an offensive way ; but he

PAST AND PRESENT. 201

had a wrong notion of his functions, and he acted on that
wrong view as a man who was anxious to fulfil his duty. He
evidently believed that his duty in the prison was to make
proselytes, to convert the benighted Papists into the profession
of the Protestant faith, and that nothing could be done for the
moral improvement of Catholic prisoners till he had done the
work of a controversialist. It was only recently that this fact
happened at Pentonville prison. Last Easter twelvemonth the
Catholic priest who was accustomed to attend that prison made
inquiry as to the number of Catholic prisoners, with the view of
attending them for their Easter duties. He got a list of eighty.
Some weeks before last Easter he was informed that such a list
would not be furnished to him in future. He was to have a list
only, it should seem, of those who were bold enough, in the face
of temporal interest, to make a demand for the services of the
priest. Last Easter he got a list of fifteen. With reference to
returns which had been ordered on his motion, he should
remark that the honest, straightforward manner of stating the
number of Catholics in prison was that which gave the
eighty."

In all this I have nothing personally to complain
of, and but little to explain. Mr. Lucas, I suppose,
r;ot his information in the matter to which he refers
from the Father Confessor of our Roman Catholic
prisoners, the Rev. Mr. Oakeley ; and I am not sur-
prised if that gentleman should feel chagrined at
finding so few of his nominal profession amongst the
prisoners consenting to receive the visits which he
had so zealously volunteered. The part which I
took in the matter will be fully seen from the
following letter to the Visiting Director on the
subject :

Pentonville Prison, April 29, 1852.
SIR,

A prisoner (Regr. No. 4218. BI, 42) having complained to
me, last evening, that he had been visited by a minister of his

202 CONVICT SYSTEMS,

nominal persuasion, without any request on his part, and that
the visit had been repeated, and that, notwithstanding his
respectful remonstrance, the gentleman expressed his intention
of coming again, and desired him to be ready to confess on the
next visit, I referred him to the Governor for protection, not
knowing, nor interrogating him on, the grounds of his refusal.

This morning, the Governor, on my acquainting him with the
occurrence, showed me a copy of the minutes of the Board of
the 22nd ult., negativing a proposition, for the collective in-
struction of Eoman Catholic prisoners by a minister of their own
persuasion, but expressing their desire to carry into the fullest
effect the provisions contained in the Act 4. Geo. IV., cap. 64,
s. 31.

At the same time, the Governor informed me, that the
minister referred to, had been supplied, upon request, with a list
of prisoners of his persuasion, for the purpose of religious visi-
tation.

It is concerning this list I take the liberty most respectfully to
address you, and through you the Board of Directors.

That the fullest effect should be given to the provisions of the
Act referred to, I most cordially assent to. I hold the principle
of religious liberty to be a sacred thing; and have always clearly
enunciated to prisoners of a different persuasion from that of
the Established Church, their privileges, or rather rights in this
respect. The Governor, to my knowledge, does the same, and
by a late wise regulation the whole body of prisoners are
regularly, every month, informed in order of the regulations of
the prison in this and all respects by the schoolmaster.

To supply any minister, however, with such a list, is, in my
opinion, to go so very far beyond what the law contemplates,
that I take the very earliest opportunity of placing the matter
before you.

The words of the Act are :

"I/ any prisoner shall be of a religious persuasion differing from
that of the Established Church, a minister of such persuasion AT

THE SPECIAL BEQUEST OF SUCH PRISONER, shall be allowed to Visit

him," &c.

In most of the cases on the list referred to, it is my con-
viction, there has not been any request to see the person who
holds the list, and in those cases I hold it. that the provisions of

PAST AND PRESENT. 203

the Act are disregarded alike in the letter, and spirit of the law,
and the prisoner is coerced hy such a list put into the hands of
a spiritual person, unless possessed of uncommon moral
courage, into a system or religious persuasion, to which he may
most conscientiously object; simply because he has had the
misfortune to be born or brought up in it, or from ignorance, or
haste, or mere mistake happened to be set down in the books
under a certain denomination.

I would respectfully ask : Are the accredited ministers of all
persuasions, differing from that of the Established Church, to
be furnished with lists of persons nominally belonging to them ?
Or, is the Board prepared to affirm the application of a Mr.
Oakeley, and ignore a similar one from a Dr. Gumming? Why
should the special license be granted to the Roman Catholic
minister ? I most respectively submit that of all persuasions,
the ministers of that church are the very last to be so favoured ;
for they alone are bound to secresy as to what may transpire be-
tween them and prisoners, whether it affect discipline, morals,
the course of human justice, or even life.

I further beg leave to say what must also follow from ar
arrangement of this nature. Under the provisions of the same
Act (30th section) I shall consider myself, as chaplain of this
prison, to have free access for all spiritual purposes to all
prisoners, " except such as shall be of a religions persuasion
different from that of the Established Church, who SHALL HAVE

MADE A REQUEST THAT A MINISTER OF SUCH PERSUASION SHALL BE

ALLOWED TO VISIT THEM." Hence, inevitably, new and increased
difficulties, of a very delicate nature, must arise, in the govern-
ment of the prison, embarrassing, it may be, to Government
itself. If I have put a wrong interpretation on the law, of
course my case falls to the ground, but I have this presumption
in favour of my views, that supplying Eoman Catholic ministers
with lists of prisoners is quite a new proceeding.

I have confined myself to my own case, because I feel that I
am not justified in going further, but I venture to hope that the
Board will take occasion to consider the question in all its
bearings, and in reference to the whole convict-establish-
ments.

In consequence of my vindication of the civil and

204 CONVICT SYSTEMS,

religious liberty secured to these poor men by the
law, the Board of Directors examined them indi-
vidually, and those who said they were Roman
Catholics and wished to be visited by the priest,
were alone left on his list. Hence the reduction
that Mr. Lucas speaks of, as being produced by an
improper or senseless sort of influence on my part.

What could the civil Government do ? coerce the
reluctants to confession, or recognize their legal
rights, and protect the men in their assertion of
them ? With respect to my mode of proceeding in
general towards Roman Catholic convicts, (the same
is pursued by all my brethren in like circumstances,
with whom I am acquainted,) it has always been as
follows :

Whenever a Roman Catholic prisoner requests to
see his priest, I cease to minister to him in spiritual
things, but acquaint him that he may have my
friendly counsel and help in all things as before. I
give direction to the schoolmaster to avoid, in circu-
lating the library, placing in the man's cell any
books which must necessarily oifend him ; and in
every other way possible I continue to seek to pro-
mote his comfort and well-doing.

The result has been, uniformly, that the prisoner
feels that difference in character and conduct only
can affect his condition and prospects.

If, however, the convict, under the instruction of
his priest, (as sometimes has happened, though,
very rarely,) feels so anxious about his salvation,
that he cannot refrain from seeking my advice re-

PAST AND PRESENT. 205

specting it, I have certainly never failed to set before
the poor sinner, yet without controversy, Christ as
the way, the truth, and the life ; the only and the
all-sufficient Saviour. And this, by God's help, I
shall never cease to do. Nor can any Protestant
minister ever act otherwise ; unless prevented by
some new and strange law from entering into
conversation with the people of his nominal charge.

"To do the work of a controversialist," however,
which Mr. Lucas is pleased to represent as the first,
in my notions of duty, as a prison chaplain, has
been, neither first nor last, nor indeed any part of
them at all.

The Man of Sin, the Pope, Popery, or the Roman
Catholic Church, I have never once named, to the
best of my recollection, in my daily expositions of
Holy Scripture, or in rny Sunday sermons.

That I have been guilty of publishing " a book "
or books, in which neither the Pope nor his mission-
aries have been over-complimented, 1 cannot deny ;
but in nothing that I have written, have I ever
called "the Catholic Church, Antichrist." God
forbid ! The Catholic Church, in my belief, being the
" congregation of all believing people of every
country and age, in which the pure Word of
God is preached, and the sacraments duly minis-
tered according to Christ's ordinance."

Mr. Lucas has a right to his theology, and so
have I to mine ; and when I became the chaplain of
a prison, I did not forego that right. Unless,
therefore, the honourable member could have proved

206 CONVICT SYSTEMS, PAST AND PRESENT.

that I had improperly exercised my office in any
respect, he had no business, in his place in Parlia-
ment to insinuate it.*

* With respect to my statement before Lord Brougham's
Committee in 1847, my experience then led me to entertain that
opinion. I had reason to think that the proportion of crime
amongst the Eoman Catholic population was really higher than
our returns showed hence, that there must have been decep-
tion. (Some of the cases of cunning hypocrisy amongst these
men, Mr. Lucas has brought to my recollection ; they will be
found appended to the next chapter.) On looking to the prison
books I find there were in the first 1000, 56 Koman Catholic
convicts, but according to Mr. Oakeley's list there are now some
150 in the 1000. This latter proportion agrees with Dr.
Wilson's experience, to which Mr. Lucas refers, and with the
returns of Millbank Great Convict Depot, which last year gave a
list of religious denominations as follows :

Of the Church of England . . 1657

Eoman Catholics . . 359

Dissenters .... 276

Jews .... 9

No denomination . 51

I may add, that Mr. Lucas's and Dr. Wilson's figures fully
bear out the statements made in a previous chapter, respecting
the great excess of crime amongst the Roman Catholic popula-
tion of England.

CHAPTER V.

ILLUSTRATIONS FROM A PRISON.

" All are wanderers, gone astray,
Each in his own delusions ; they are lost
In chase of fancied happiness, still wooed
And never won." COWPER.

THE reader now may feel some wish to take a
view within the walls of the prison, and converse
with the unhappy inmates on the causes of their
downfall, their treatment, their feelings under cor-
rection, or their future prospects.

Let him in imagination, then, accompany, for
this purpose, the chaplain of this prison through the
round of his sad duties for a few days, and he will
have a clearer insight into these matters, than if he
inspected the building, but was precluded as all
ordinary visitors are from converse with its living,
thinking inhabitants. The writer will do his best,
in the simplest manner, by facts, and reflections,
such as may naturally arise from them, to gratify
the wish, and to meet such inquiries, as a mind in-
telligently and humanely interested in the subject
might make. There shall be no imagination, how-

208 ILLUSTRATIONS FROM A PRISON.

ever, on my part, nor any colouring or distortion of
the truth.

Notes of Ten Days' Routine of Duties.

Oct. 24. I conducted the evening daily service
with great confort. The prisoners were exceedingly
attentive to the exposition, and joined heartily in
the responses and singing.

The sick all visited prisoners in the refractory-
ward, and from cell to cell. Read the letters to and
from prisoners (each prisoner is allowed to send and
receive one every three months). Correspondence
relating to the prison, &c., attended to.

A missionary friend introduced to me a Hebrew
gentleman, physician to the next heir^of the Bey of
Tunis, for the purpose of visiting the establishment ;
obtained permission from the Governor,. and r.cconi-
panied them into the interior.

My friend wished the stranger to take back some
ideas favourable to the amelioration of the miserable
condition of prisoners and captives in Northern
Africa. The mission of the physician to England,
however, was to our hospitals. It is pleasant to see
symptoms of progress towards liberal views and hu-
manity in those dark Mahometan regions.

Oct. 25. The usual round of duties. Visited
three prisoners under punishment; of these, two
are for communicating, one for destroying prison
materials.

One of the former, a man of peculiar temper-

NOTES OF A PRISON CHAPLAIN'S DUTIES. 209

ament, told me lie did not want to see me in such a
place. If I came, he would not open his mouth to
me. "Well," said I, "I shall see you when you
return to your cell." " I shall be very glad," he
replied, " to see you there." He was in the re-
fractory ward before for three days, and, when going
down, said : "I shall not eat a morsel of bread
whilst I; am here;" neither did he (the allowance
to prisoners under punishment is bread and water).
May God turn his heart, and make this firmness
of purpose instrumental yet for good ! I visited the
sick. There are only two serious cases of illness,
and eight light ones. One of the sick is an old man.
He received sentence of transportation, for pur-
chasing a costly silk dress from- a woman in respect-
able life, not knowing it, as he alleges, to be stolen.
He was a licensed hawker, and had a good- service
pension from the 17th Lancers. He seems to have
been respectable in his line of life, up to this trans-
action, which, I believe, was the result of sheer
covetousness. He drank hard in India, but became
temperate of late years. He is now languishing in
prison, with a broken constitution has lost his
pension and can never enjoy liberty again, should
he live to regain it. Singularly enough, he came to
us from a gaol where the husband of his own sister
was governor. Both owned their unhappy brother,
and showed him the greatest kindness. By another
turn of events, the man who attends upon him as
nurse, in the infirmary (formerly in the 16th Dra-
goons), recognized him, after a few moments, as

210 ILLUSTRATIONS FROM A PRISON.

an old acquaintance in some town, where both
regiments were quartered, although so sadly altered.

Sunday, Oct. 26. Three full services in the
chapel. Visited a great many prisoners in their
cells. Sunday is the best time to visit prisoners for
the purposes of religion, but should not be the only
one, because of the many circumstances in their
condition, in which a chaplain should feel an inter-
est, or be called to give his counsel.

The assistant chaplain in the morning preached
a plain, practical, and forcible sermon on the fear
of God. I read prayers. The afternoon service
was conducted by the same. I conducted the
whole evening service. Lectured from the epistle
of the day (19th Sunday after Trinity), Ephes. iv.
17 to end ; remarking upon the condition of those
Ephesian Christians, when the grace of God found
them as described in this chapter the means by
which God brought them out of it the manifest
tendency to relapse in all who receive the truth
and the need, therefore, of such exhortations, as
here read ; see especially the 28th and 29th verses.

We have rather more singing than in ordinary
churches. I conceive it to be a relief to the mind ;
and, although little entitled to the name of music,
I look upon it as an element of civilization, and
some help to right feeling in the worship of Al-
mighty God. Well-selected Christian hymns, also,
are pleasing, and easily remembered sermons.

Monday, Oct. 27. The usual services, visiting,
&c. Observed in a prisoner's cell, long confined

211

with a bad leg, a bit of mignonette which I plucked
from the little garden of a dear child. I had it in
my bosom ; but seeing the poor sufferer look wist-
fully at it, I presented it to him. He seemed as much
pleased as a man who had come in for an estate, and
evinced much gratitude, heartily blessing the " little
maid that plucked it." No man is hopeless who has
such feelings.

In visiting to-day, I entered the cell of a prisoner
who, having assaulted an officer of the prison when
in confinement here two years back, was tried, and
punished in the House of Correction for Middlesex,
by that additional length of service, and now re-
turns to begin afresh his probation of convict dis-
cipline.

Saw also four more in the same condition, for
having attempted to escape from the hulks, Dart-
moor, &c. ; also a Parkhurst boy, now ripe in years
and in vice, concerned in the late firing of that
prison. All these, in like manner, have to begin
again with separate confinement, &c.

The Parkhurst convict is in a reckless state of
mind : "he had passed half his time, and they
would not send a seven years' man abroad ;" "he
did not care about punishment," &c.

Visited a poor African, who scarcely knows a
word of English. I wish my good friend, Mr. Crow-
ther, now in London, himself once a negro-slave
boy, but now an enlightened and able missionary of
the gospel to Africa, could come and converse with
him. I must try to bring him. He is beginning to

p 2

212 ILLUSTRATIONS FROM A PRISON.

learn to spell English, but it is amazingly hard to
teach a language without some common me-
dium.

Visited a prisoner who, in a fit of jealousy, killed
his wife. He is an old pensioner, and the father of
three sons now serving her Majesty, two being non-
commissioned officers. There is nothing repulsive
in his countenance. Nevertheless, one cannot look
at a man whose hands have been embrued in blood
without horror. (Since writing the above, the eldest
son the pride and comfort of his father has died,
in consequence, the wretched man says, of the sad
news.)

A prisoner wished to know how he could obtain
information about a sister transported some years
back. Informed him.

He says she was a virtuous young woman, but
was induced by one of his bad companions, who was
in the habit of coming to see him, to pawn a stolen
gold watch. This is certainly a common trick of
thieves, and the person who pawns the stolen goods
is sure to be transported as an accomplice.

Tuesday, October 28. Usual routine of visiting,
reading letters, correspondence, &c. Very unsatis-
factory visiting in the refractory ward. There are
five cells in this ward dark, double-doored to-day
they are all full, and all the men have been down
before for different breaches of discipline. The effect
is lost, and the habit of violating rule acquired. One
has been trying all manner of games, and counter-
feited the madman well. The authorities wrote to the

NOTES OF A PRISON CHAPLAIN'S DUTIES. 213

prison from which he came, in his native town, and
ascertained that he was a practised impostor and
confirmed thief in prison twelve or thirteen times.
Another has been in the dark cell eight times three
days and nights each. This latter, from his youth
and general character, may escape the incorrigible
class ; but the other is sure to leave us in that piti-
able condition, and will feel more bitterly than he
has yet done the consequences of his evil course.
Another of the five is very indignant at the Governor
sending him down " on the word of a prisoner ;" he
acknowledges that he was talking in chapel, " but
the officers ought to have found that out." Had
more comfort in other parts of my duty to-day.
Pound a poor prisoner distressed in mind, and in
great agony from sciatica, waiting, half undressed, to
put his knife and the implements of his trade out, as
the rule is, it being near double-locking time, 8 P.M.
I pulled out the basket for him, spoke some words of
consolation and hope, and left him free to get into
his hammock again. Visited a prisoner from Bir-
mingham, one of the best and quickest clerks I have
yet met with. Two years ago he was a respectable
and promising youth; but gaiety, dress, and the
theatre, led to embarrassment, and in an evil hour
he abstracted money from his employer, and now is
confined in a felon's cell. He has an uncommonly
prepossessing appearance, and is of a kind and
gentle disposition. Happily, in his troubles and de-
gradation, his heart has been opened, as I believe,
to receive the truth; and if liberated to-morrow,

214 ILLUSTRATIONS FROM A PRISON.

knowing all the particulars of his case, I would not
hesitate to give him employment.

Wednesday, October 29. The usual routine.
Seventy new prisoners admitted this morning. The
Governor read an address to them in the court-yard,
setting before them plainly the regulations of the
prison, and exhorted them, from regard to their own
interests here and in their subsequent career, to
submit to the discipline, &c.

The prisoners paid great attention. The Chaplain
followed, and, referring to what they had just heard,
encouraged them to hope that their condition in this
prison, allowing for the strictness of the discipline,
would be much better than they might naturally
fear. He assured them they would be treated like
men, and never spoken to in irritating language, or
with harshness of manner. He told them that few,
comparatively, were punished at all, and the greater
part of these for offences of mere folly. It was the
wish of the authorities that they should be humanely
treated, and they were in general remarkably so in
this prison.

He then turned to things more important, which
if they regarded as they ought, matters of discipline
would be very easy, and exhorted them to begin that
very day, in the strength of the Lord, a new course
of life, and to serve Him henceforth. He knew they
all had made resolutions at some time previous in
their lives to leave off the ways of sin, but they had
not done so. Why not ? Because they formed the
resolution in their own strength, and were for lop-

NOTES OF A PRISON CHAPLAIN'S DUTIES. 215

ping off merely some one troublesome vice, instead
of parting with all, and giving up the whole heart
to serve the Lord.

He told them that they should have every help
from his brother Chaplain and himself. They might
use them as friends in every matter whatever which
was a burden to their minds. He felt for them ; and,
so far as advice and consolation could go, they would
always find him ready to help. Commending them
" to God, and the word of his grace." he wished
them every success, and hoped that at the end of the
year both the Governor and he would have the great
pleasure of reporting favourably upon their conduct
to Government.

As usually is the case, the tear stood in many an
eye, true to nature, when the ear hears the accents
of sympathy or kindness.

I perceived, from their attitude, that some soldiers
were in the group. They were impressed, but suc-
ceeded in concealing, from most, their emotions.
The regular thief class pickpockets and swell-mob
robbers listened inquisitively, as if to form a judg-
ment of the speaker's sincerity, or his knowledge of
their habits and character. Persons of this descrip-
tion assuredly will attempt to impose, if they detect
our simplicity or our ignorance.

I observed farm and other labourers. Some were, no
doubt, married. Alas ! of how many sad families was
there here the representative and the cause in this
small section of prisoners ! I did not touch, however,
on domestic ties. Enough feeling had been excited.

216 ILLUSTRATIONS FROM A PRISON.

A formal interview by a chaplain, book in band,
with prisoners, is of no use in a moral point of
view. As a first visit it is injurious, in my
opinion.

Saw several of these convicts in my ordinary
visiting in the evening. Some were from places
where I have clerical friends, about whom I in-
quired, which gave me better access to their minds.
I was interrogated by several other prisoners this
evening on passages of Scripture, in the reading of
which most of the prisoners spend some time before
going to bed.

The apostle handing over "the guilty person to
Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit
might be saved ;" " Christ preaching to the spirits
in prison;" and "the fire which was to try every
man's work," were amongst the subjects of inquiry.
One man whom lately I found sorrowing, as I
believe, after a godly sort, declares that he has
found peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ.

I was also respectfully asked to explain Solomon's
wonderful description of old age. (Eccles. xii.) The
inquirer is one of our communicants, once by his
own account "the greatest of blackguards." His
full acknowledgment of sin is one of the hopeful
signs of conversion. It is singular, however, that
criminals professing repentance towards God are
less moved and less humbled than one often sees
amongst less guilty persons in society. This often
leads me to doubt the reality of the feeling. It

NOTES OF A PRISON CHAPLAIN'S DUTIES. 217

would be easy to put words in their mouths, by a
certain mode of conversing with them lecturing,
&c. but unless the feeling is spontaneous and from
God, this is of no use, and will come to nought. In
visiting this evening, I had some conversation with
one of the new men. He is a very remarkable
person, having energy and talent manifested clearly
in his countenance. He is only about twenty-two,
and is under sentence for life. He is rather small
of stature, and, I think, not very long in a course
of crime. Being principal in a desperate house
robbery, and acting, in fact, as captain of the gang,
he received that dreadful sentence. He said, " The
worst of it was, that he knew better, for he had
once been a member of a Christian church." He
said "he had repented, and found peace; he had
been greatly cast down." I recommended close
self-examination. He expressed himself obliged for
the address in the morning, and said " others felt
the same ; and whilst together, before entering their
separate cells, encouraged one another to a better
course of life."

A soldier about to go to Bermuda, begged to
know whether he might see his comrade, who,
having a shorter term of sentence, is to be removed
to a different convict station. Referred him to the
Director.

The first of those men, transported for life, for a
deadly assault on his sergeant, is, I fear, not peni-
tent. His comrade I believe to be renewed in the
spirit of his mind, and as such he was admitted to

218 ILLUSTRATIONS FROM A PRISON.

communion last Easter. Shortly afterwards, being
employed in association (between forty and fifty of
our prisoners are so employed, after a term of pro-
bation in separate confinement, in prison work
building, repairing, cleaning, &c.), he described
himself to me as falling away, and did not offer
himself on the next occasion. On the last, however,
he did, and was re-admitted, and is, I trust, in a far
more decided state of mind.

Erom the following letter to the minister of his
parish in Scotland (just now passing through my
hands), the reader may form some judgment for
himself in the case :

"It is with deep feelings of gratitude, and, I hope, a thorough
sense of my own unworthiness, I write to you : and although my
past life has been not such as deserved your countenance nor
regard, yet the continuance of your more than kind assistance
to me and my wife, makes me feel more disgusted at myself,
when I think of the bad return I have made you for all the
many kindnesses and lessons of instruction you have bestowed
on me. But I humbly trust, through the assistance of God,
that those seeds of religious instruction which you so faithfully
inculcated on my youthful mind, have now begun to take root;
and I can see, and do confidently believe, that the working of
the Almighty, by his Divine providence, has done this ; for al-
though my crime, as far as man's ideas, was met with too severe
punishment, yet, when I call to mind my manifold transgres-
sions against a just and merciful God, I am entitled to this and
more ; and I humbly thank his holy name that he has dealt so
mercifully with me, a stubborn and rebellious sinner. Had not
God by his providence brought round the circumstances which
led to my present situation, I believe, and with shame confess,
I should sooner or later have perished, a victim to the snares of
the enemy of souls ; and the more I meditate on my past and
sinful life, the more firmly am I convinced that it was an all-
wise and merciful God who saw fit to bring me into my present

NOTES OF A PRISON CHAPLAIN'S DUTIES. 219

distress. I feel truly sorry for the unhealthy state my poor
Mary is in. I pray God her present afflictions may prove the
means of strengthening her faith in our Lord Jesus Christ,
whose compassion for us poor helpless sinners exceeds the care
of brother or sister."

Oct. 30. There were ten letters from prisoners
this morning, ahout the average. I have received
this day permission from Colonel Jebh for Mr,
Crowther to visit the African in his cell. The usual
round of duties. Our sick list contains this morning
only six out of 561 prisoners. This is, however,
below the average. Would there have been so few
sick of the same parties in free life ? Probably not.
The loss of liberty generates some diseases, aggra-
vates others, and impairs muscular action, especially
in separate confinement ; but, on the whole, seems
less unfavourable to health, where the prisoner is
properly treated, than the improvident and irregular
habits of such persons when free. One man whom
I have just seen, although he has felt the punish-
ment very severely, tells me that he never enjoyed
greater freedom from ill-health and headache than
in the twelve months of his imprisonment, now
drawing to a close. I asked him what he attributed
this to. His reply was, that he now drank water
only. At home (Italy) he drank daily a bottle of
wine. This man's case deserves some remark. His
crime is forgery on the Austrian Government Bank.
He had never read a page of Holy Scripture until
he entered this prison, and was taught to read in
the English tongue. As his term of sentence is

ILLUSTRATIONS FROM A PRISON.

short, he may return to his wife and children, whom
he dearly loves, and by God's blessing prove a light
to them in that benighted land. He is now
anxiously looking for a letter, which I, too, shall be
rejoiced to see. He is a fine-looking man, and very
affectionate. He always smiles when I bid him
good evening, (as I have learned from him to do,)
in his own language.

A prisoner's letter to his wife lies on my table.
He was a railway porter a man of previous good
character, and a good husband and father. One
sentence may here be transcribed :

" I could not help shedding tears when I heard of my dear
little Maria asking, why I did not come home to see her ? Oh,
how happy I should be to do so ! "

In another letter before me, the convict writes :

"My dear Parents, I hope you will not grieve yourselves
about me more than you can help. I intend, if ever I regain my
liberty, to lead quite a different kind of life. Think not, my
dear parents, that this is merely the thought of one who will
forget this as soon as he regains his liberty. I earnestly pray to
God, who alone can help me, that he will give me his aid in
keeping my resolution for ever. My dear parents, I hope you
will warn sister Mary's children not to follow in my steps ; for, if
they do, their ruin is certain. Give my kind love to my dear
sisters ; I hope they will not fret about me. I do not deserve
that they should think about me,"

Assisted this morning in classifying 70 prisoners
for the public works. I consider our classification
as little more than negative ; and am heartily glad
that, where found incorrect, by the more certain
test of character in associated labour, it may be
rectified.

NOTES OF A PRISON CHAPLAIN'S DUTIES. 221

Received from the schoolmaster the school classi-
fication of the 70 prisoners admitted yesterday : 33
of the number can write their own letters unassisted,
and 14 more with help ; 60 have been in some sort
of school in childhood.

Visited in the wards in the evening as usual.
This is as peculiar a species of labour as can well be
conceived. When physically low, one feels unequal
to it. When ordinarily well, I find it a means of
elevating rather than depressing the spirits. The
effort to relieve others' griefs, no doubt lightens
one's own lesser cares.

I stopped a little longer this evening than usual
with a downcast prisoner who feels the confinement
terribly. He is an old whale-fisher, and interested
in the fate of poor Sir John Franklin. He drank
in with avidity the few scanty particulars I was
able to communicate respecting the search.

Pursuing my round of visits, I had another re-
quest made by a convict soldier, now invalided, to
be allowed to see his comrade, about to be removed
to the public works in Bermuda. Referred him to
the Director.

Conversed with a convict who proves to be a na-
tive of my own town, and familiar with all the scenes
of my boyhood. "Who hath made us to differ ?"
To thy grace, O Lord, I ascribe it all. O Lord,
show pity upon this prisoner !

In the draft of men under orders for Bermuda,
there are several soldiers. All ascribe their fall,
directly or indirectly, to drink. Several of them

222 ILLUSTRATIONS FROM A PRISON.

are from the army in Canada, having attempted to
escape into the States. Most of them have now
served nearly two years the greater part in soli-
tudeand they are now going to the public works
for years. Poor men ! I feel much for them.

A very deaf prisoner was allowed to-day a visit
from his friends in the same room. (In the ordinary
place for the purpose, they can only see and con-
verse with each other at a distance, being separated
by double bars, with an officer between, after the
manner of certain convents. It is the most repul-
sive part of the whole prison, but with criminals in
general, it is a necessity.) I permitted the visit to
take place in my office, and hearing the poor man
tell his friends of his great progress in reading, I
gave him a book to read for them. They were
quite surprised. It was extremely hard to teach
him; but he was very persevering, and now is
enjoying the comfort of it.

Had some conversation with one of the second
probation-class from the hulks a man who used
there to be in perpetual punishment for disobedience
or some other offence. He seems now to have some
religious impressions. He has greatly improved
himself in reading ; chiefly, he says, by following
us in our daily exposition. It was this man who
asked me to explain the passage about the fire to
try every man's work, in 1 Cor. iii., and to whom I
thought it well to give the tangible idea of sup-
posing it addressed here to prisoners, leaving sepa-
rate confinement for the ordeal of association. What

NOTES OF A PHISON CHAPLAIN'S DUTIES. 223

is really good and solid in a man's profession of
religion will stand ; what is worthless will soon be
discovered and come to nought. He will, on the
Governor's recommendation and my own, be re-
moved from the doubly penal class.

Talked with an old Indian soldier. His stomach,
he said, was gone. He acknowledged that he had
been a hard drinker : " used to take two half-pints
of arrack before breakfast. It had no effect upon
him. The allowance for each man was half-a-pint
daily. The doctor said it was good for a man, if he
did not take too much." He said and others have
told me the same that the Company, in his time,
used to allow even the elephants employed in carry-
ing the tents of the regiments, &c., arrack " a
gallon a day each, till they killed some of the black
fellows, when they reduced it one-half."

This superfluity of folly and waste seems incre-
dible; but after all, perhaps, not more irrational
than the allowance of ardent spirits, as a daily beve-
rage, to the man. The effects of the arrack, also,
seemed identical the drunken elephant kills his
guide ; the soldier his officer.

In the drinking habits of the army in India, it is
said there has been of late years much improve-
ment, and that the reform is beginning at the right
end the officers' mess-room. It must be vain to
expect a temperate soldiery when those in command
do not show the example, or when military doctors
sanction such a daily universal allowance.

Oct. 31. The usual round of duties. Visited

224 ILLUSTRATIONS FROM A PRISON.

the sick, prisoners under punishment, and in the
wards generally.

Conversed with a prisoner whose father wrote to
me about him some time back. He was religiously
brought up ; put to business in town ; entered the
army, and in Canada deserted with three others.
He is now in a hopeful state of mind. His be-
lieving father's prayers are, I do trust, being heard.

Saw another soldier, transported for striking a
corporal. He was drunk ; knew nothing of it in the
morning ; had no ill-will against the corporal ; he
had been for years, in fact, his comrade.

Conversed with a Scotch farmer, one of the most
intelligent men of his class I ever met with. In
complicated pecuniary difficulties, arising from in-
adequate capital, and great haste to get on, he com-
mitted forgery.

A clergyman of African descent to-day visited me,
whom I accompanied through the prison the Rev.
E. M. Stokes, from Liberia. Had an opportunity
of collecting some information about that most in-
teresting colony of Africans, liberated from slavery
in the United States.

Although these emigrants are by no means of the
best sort the slave owners being slow to allow the
most useful to purchase their freedom the colony,
he states, is in a thriving state ; and the moral
influence of its Christian institutions is reaching far
into the interior like that of our own colony in
Sierra Leone to the damaging of the iniquitous
slave-trade, and the spread of the gospel. The

NOTES OF A PRISON CHAPLAIN'S DUTIES. 225

Government is republican on the model of the
United States. The President, Mr. Roberts, is a
Christian of the Wesleyan body. They have a
prison, which deserves the designation of a Model
Prison, better than ours. It has no inmates, and
is scarcely ever entered, except to " clear it of the
insects, and keep it clean." In Monrovia, the capi-
tal, there were only three places of public enter-
tainment ; and so high a tax upon spirits, that it
was but little used. I asked, if public-houses were
multiplied and the tax reduced, how would it be
with the prison? "It would soon be tenanted,"
was the reply. This simple people have not at-
tained to the wisdom of older and greater States !

The English language is the vernacular tongue,
and education is diligently prosecuted amongst the
population.

Mr. Stokes hopes to be useful to the colony, as an
agent of the Bible and Tract Society in Monrovia.

He has just come from Ireland. He says of the
natives of that country, " They are the lowest I have
yet seen in any part of the civilized world."

In Cork, he had to be protected from their vio-
lence, in consequence of the free expression of his
sentiments, as a Protestant Christian minister.

Subsequently, visiting in the prison, I asked a
convict whether he had seen me conversing in the
corridor with an African gentleman. He told me
he had. He was much interested in my account of
Liberia, as having traded formerly on that coast ;
also another prisoner, who, as -a boy, served under

226 ILLUSTRATIONS FROM A PRISON.

his uncle, the master of a slaver. This sailor-lad is
now, I trust, a true follower of Christ.

Nov. 1. The usual round of visits.

Read some interesting letters from prisoners,
under orders of removal, to their friends.

The sister of one called upon me, to know my
opinion as to his state of mind. I was thankful to
he able to give a good account of his religious state.
He has heen here a very great sufferer from an old
complaint, hut has always said, it was little in com-
parison with what he deserved. Prom his relations,
I understand he used to he very irritable under
attacks of the same. Received for him a Bible, the
parting gift of an aged mother, unable to come to
see him, and who will never see him more on earth.
The Lord grant that they may meet at his right
hand in the great day.

Nov. 2, Sunday. I preached this morning from
the text, "Draw nigh to God, and he will draw
nigh to you ; " pointing out the only way in which
sinners can approach a just and holy God, Eph.
ii. 13.

In the evening, as a sequel and illustration of the
morning discourse, took the wondrously beautiful
parable of the prodigal son ; first, simply paraphras-
ing it, and directing attention to some of its touch-
ing features; and then, looking at it doctrinally,
as showing, distinctly, the sinner in his natural state
the sinner penitent and believing the sinner
pardoned, and received into the family of God.

I was encouraged to hope that there was joy in

H VISITS FROM CELL TO CELL. 227

the presence of the angels of God over some poor
repenting sinner in the congregation. " His Word
shall not return to Him void."

Let the reader now look a little beyond the range
prescribed in the foregoing pages, and view a series
of cases, illustrative of character, crime, &c.

Twit from Cell to Cell.

Cell 1. A night cabman ; concerned in the rob-
bery of a drunken gentleman, in company with
abandoned women ; asserts his innocence, but knew
the character of the parties in whose hands the
victim was, and their design. He is extremely
wretched, and suffers great bodily pain from an
incurable complaint.

2. A vagrant tumbler, and low thief naturally
very shrewd, but from his habits of life, and some
bad falls on the head, very odd approaching to
derangement. He has made great progress in
books, and has imbibed religious knowledge almost
too rapidly, he is very excitable on this subject.

3. A sailor, of low drunken habits, transported
for stealing from a dwell ing-house. Having been
paid off from his ship, got into bad company, and
soon lost or spent all. Set out for another port,
to get a ship. In a lodging-house, made acquaint-
ance with a party who wanted to complete their
begging company of "shipwrecked sailors" by a
real seaman, who could stand the examination of
retired sea-faring persons. He joined them, and, by

228 ILLUSTRATIONS FROM A PRISON.

his means, they often got large sums from good-
hearted old sailors.

4. A very cunning pickpocket. He has been
frequently in gaol. When in the van, coming here,
described how he would impose upon the chaplains
by various schemes. He did not, however, attempt
to do so ; but proved to be a very troublesome
prisoner, and for his misconduct was put in the
lowest class on leaving.

6. A farm-labourer, from Somersetshire ; a spe-
cimen of the stolid ignorance of his class. He
could not tell whether the sun rose in the east or
west. Being asked in which quarter of the world
he was born Europe, Asia, Africa, or America?
answered, " In none of them in Somersetshire."

6. A native of London, quite as ignorant in
these subjects. He, too, was "born in none of
them places, but in "Whitechapel." Had no idea
what wheat was ; a spade he knew, " 'twas a
shovel;" & harrow he said he knew, "it was for
boys to shoot with."

7. A canal boatman, worn down at thirty, by
cold, wet, and hunger, to the lowest state of physi-
cal prostration. Never had a Sunday to himself
since he was a child. Deplorably ignorant of the
most common things, and, of course, of the things
of salvation. Had stolen some petty articles on
two or three occasions, and, for the last theft, got
transported.

8. A Suffolk farm-labourer. In order to test
this man's knowledge of what he must have heard

VISITS FROM CELL TO CELL. 229

at church, to which he was obliged to go once on a
Sunday, I inquired to which he belonged the Jews
or the Gentiles ? He answered, " To neither."
This implying some definite idea, I then asked, what
he understood by these names? He said, "The
Jews were teetotallers the Gentiles, gentlefolk.

There warn't many of them in ; but there

was plenty about Ipswich."

To a prisoner of this class, the following commu-
nication was made by letter, not long since :

" Dear brother, You sent home word by Rebecca, to call
your donkey 'Jack.' Dear brother, don't think your name is
forgot, for your pig is called 'Jack,' and it's judged in ten
score."

9. A prize-fighter. Under a false name, he was
convicted of highway robbery, innocent, he alleges,
of that crime ; however, " has done as bad, and
worse, many times." Was, at the time of his appre-
hension, in a bad house, with thieves and loose
characters, spending 5s. he had gotten from a cler-
gyman in Derby, by attending his lecture, and
making out a pitiful tale. He took it all now as a
judgment from God, for that and other sins. He
had escaped justice in a case of manslaughter,
having killed a man in a prize-fight, and fled.

The preaching of God's word seems to have come
home to this man's heart. He delights in reading
the Holy Scriptures, which he has been taught here
to do ; and has become gentle, docile, and obedient.
The expression of his countenance is changed, and
he puts one in mind of the man who was found,

230 ILLUSTRATIONS FROM A PRISON.

when delivered by Jesus from the power of Satan,
"clothed, and sitting and in his right mind."

10. An American liberated black ; convicted of
tittering a forged note. In his muscular and general
structure this man seemed perfect. On this account,
in the first instance, he attracted the notice of Sir
Benjamin Brodie, then a member of the Pentonville
Board of Commissioners. Sir Benjamin offered,
most kindly, to send out his wife and child after
him to Australia. I recommended delay, having
some reason for caution. As soon as he landed
with a conditional pardon, (according to the then
arrangement,) he was known as a distinguished
pugilist, and laid hold on by publicans, who put
him forward again in his horrid business I am
sure, against his inclination. He was a most peace-
able and orderly man ; but thus, all his life long,
has he been drawn into wickedness by parties who
made a gain of him, or sport for their inhuman
fancy.

Many aristocratic young men patronized this prize-
fighter's preliminary performances in a public-house
in the West-end, and betted heavily upon him, who
did not appear at the brutal fight, and made him

large presents. " Lord gave him, on one of

these occasions, a 5 note."

In a Sydney sporting paper, forwarded to me by
some unknown friend, this convict's performance (in
a fight) was lauded to the skies, and his penal posi-
tion referred to with a degree of consideration, which
one would rejoice to have seen extended to others of

VISITS FROM CELL TO CELL. 231

his class, pursuing a reputable and industrious call-
ing in the colony, but who met with different treat-
ment.

11. One of two brothers, transported for highway
robbery both here. On tramp from Birmingham,
for work, fell in with an old hand at robbery, and
were induced to join in his scheme. Stopped a gen-
tleman in a gig, and robbed him ; one of the brothers
holding the horse, the other a pistol, whilst the third
party rifled the traveller's pockets. This last man
was not taken. The brothers both assured me, that
whilst engaged in the affair, they trembled from
head to foot. Both truly repented of their great
wickedness, as I trust, whilst here. A cousin, filling
the situation only of clerk in a London house, sent
them, out of his savings, 15. They kept 5, and
sent, with the leave of the generous donor, 10 to
their poor mother. All this occurred to my certain
knowledge.

12. A soldier, transported for desertion. Came
with a very bad character from his regiment, having
been frequently punished for misconduct. After a
while here, appeared to be sinking into idiotcy ; was
under observation on that account ; suddenly, seemed
to shake it all off, and came out a different person
altogether ; and was, to the end, a most examplary
prisoner.

The idiotcy was counterfeited very ably. I had
the impression that it was put on. Saw the pri-
soner ; spoke to him, and after a while, having suc-
ceeded in eliciting some marks of attention, became

232 ILLUSTRATIONS FROM A PRISON.

certain, and told him so. Put before him the con-
sequence of both sorts of conduct ; appealed to him
as a man, and as one of whom I had hope, and
assured him, if he made the effort to do well, he
should have every help. I had told no one my mind
in this case, nor did I intend to do. He was over-
come, and afterwards, when speaking with me on the
subject of religion which he gave every evidence of
having truly received he told me, with tears, " that
talking was the turning-point of my life."

13. This man, transported for robbing from a
dwelling-house, assured me that, when in the old
prison of Stafford, he planned with another, confined
there for a few months, like himself, a robbery in
that county, and, if opposition were made, murder.
He told me, under convictions of conscience, that he
was so wicked a wretch, that one night, having
secreted himself in a barn, for the purpose of rob-
bing the house when the family had gone to sleep,
he fell asleep himself, and not awaking till day-
break, was so enraged, that he set fire to the barn,
and saw with pleasure, when a mile or so off, the
whole premises in a blaze, and the neighbours flock-
ing to put it out.

14. One of the men engaged in the Regent's
Park robbery transported for life ; now in a hope-
ful state of mind. These men have severally assured
me that that robbery was, as the phrase is, "a put-
up one." To explain : There are parties in London,
and all great towns, who never themselves rob, but
put up others to it, who are house-robbers, for some

VISITS FROM CELL TO CELL. 233

valuable consideration. The " putters up" are de-
scribed to be dismissed men-servants, bell-hangers,
plumbers, painters, &c. The rendezvous is some
public-house in the vicinity often to all appearance
the most respectable.

15. A farm-labourer, of good capacity, who, hav-
ing mastered here the alphabet and the art of read-
ing, had from the library an account of our Pro-
testant martyrs, and being much interested in the
subject, asked me several questions in relation to
them ; one was, whether I knew Master Ridley !

16. The subject of his questions brings to my
mind a peculiar case a man who entered this
prison professing not to know his letters, but, after
about nine months, he is found reading all books,
and asking subtle questions on points supposed by
Romanists to be the weakest in the Reformation.

The man had a good conformation of head cer-
tainly, and might have imbibed from oral instruc-
tion much controversial knowledge, for which there
was a great basis ; but it is probable that he was a
well-educated man, perhaps a Jesuit, in a wrong
place by some misadventure, and deceived us.

On all other subjects, but this of controversy, he
was silent and profoundly reserved. He made no
profession of any change of sentiment.

17. A hairdresser, transported for seven years for
killing his wife, under great provocation on her part ;
he struck the woman when she was drunk, and she
fell and received some injury from which she died.
He was a steady man, and an indulgent husband.

234 ILLUSTRATIONS FROM A PRISON.

The late good Duke of Cambridge, visiting in this
prison upon one occasion, happening to be told, when
in this prisoner's cell, what the prisoner's crime was,
hurried out of it with a characteristic exclamation
of great horror.

18. A licensed hawker a very clever impostor
in his line. He tells freely the tricks of his trade in
Sheffield-ware. "Used to sell good articles some-
times, when he succeeded in stealing them." Caught
in one of those thefts, and transported.

19. Another, in the same way of living, dealing
in soft goods. Carried on extensive business in pre-
tended contraband French cambric. " Sold once a
set of French cambric handkerchiefs, in Glasgow,
where goods are fabricated for this special purpose,
to the manufacturer's wife !"

20. A groom, dismissed from service. Stole once
a horse in the country, valued at a hundred guineas ;
rode him to town, and, having reason to fear appre-
hension if he attempted to dispose of it in an ordi-
nary way, cruelly maimed the animal, and sold it in
a knacker's yard, as if accidentally injured.

21. A poulterer. His uncle, he states, in that
line, has two sets of agents ; one class perambulate
a certain quarter of the metropolis, dressed as coun-
tryfolk, with " cheap poultry, and manufactured
articles, as large old French cocks, changed, by
blackening the feet, pressing up the breast, &c., into
young turkeys ;" the other, with his cart and name,
and good fowl. Prisoner has often heard from ser-
vants the story of how mistress and master had been

VISITS FROM CELL TO CELL. 235

taken in, and what orders were given to deal only
with the respectable man who came round with the
cart.

22. A waiter in a hotel, concerned in the robbery
of money from a gentleman's portmanteau, left care-
lessly open, and observed by the chambermaid, who
told her gallant, and he, from fear of acting alone,
his friend, another waiter. They took the whole
amount ; but in trying to pass the notes, were de-
tected, and all transported.

23. A convict, from the public line. His ac-
counts of women frequenting the shop are distress-
ing. " Some, wives and mothers, stand or sit all
day long in the shop for gossip, and the chance of a
glass."

He does not know what is done with the spirits ;
but constantly helped " to turn three barrels of beer
into four."

A betting-book was kept, contrary to law, and
gambling carried on amongst the gentlemen who
spent their evenings at the house. " These gentle-
men were chiefly shopmen, clerks, &c."

24. A notorious burglar. This man had broken
prison several times, and had committed robberies
to an amazing extent. " He never took anything
but cash. He has been through houses looking for
the cash-box, and not finding it, has taken nothing.
Would make purchases in shops suited to his pur-
pose, as where there were elderly people, or other
favourable circumstances ; would put down a note,
and, when the cash-box was brought down, seize it,

236 ILLUSTRATIONS FROM A PRISON.

rush out, turn the corner, throw away the box,
pocket the money, and travel on foot that night,
by cross roads, from twenty to thirty miles, and so
escape." The strength, agility, and quick percep-
tion necessary for such exploits were manifest. I
tested his statements, in several instances, in my
own neighbourhood, where he occasionally lodged,
to all appearance a respectable person.

One man, who kept the " Caledonian Arms," op-
posite to this prison, I warned, and perhaps saved
from being robbed, in consequence of what this pri-
soner told me of plans laid for that purpose, in which
he had taken part, and which he thought would be
carried out when the long evenings set in, then just
at hand.

I never saw any one more frightened than this
publican, when, having sent for him to my office, I
told him where his cash-box was, and recommended
him to remove it elsewhere forthwith. I believe
this prisoner to have been changed, by the grace of
God, with others, under the faithful and zealous
ministry of the Rev. James Ralph, then senior chap-
lain of this prison, but now for several years rector
of St. John's, Horselydown.

I was not without fear that, when on board ship,
being known by so many as a hero in his former
line of life, he would be drawn into a recital of his
exploits, and so do mischief to others, and, as I
warned him, certainly fall back himself; but nothing
of the kind occurred. His mind was happily other-
wise directed, and he was entirely engrossed with

VISITS FROM CELL TO CELL. 237

the salvation of his wife (who had been a partaker
in most of his evil deeds), the preservation of an
innocent child from infamy, and the having them
to him abroad, that he might perform to them a
husband and a father's part. With such feelings,
he composed prayers suitable for their use, wrote to
them most affectionate letters from this place, and
since then from Van Diemen's Land. He sent home
also two several remittances, amounting to 11, the
savings of honest industry. He assured a friend of
mine, in Van Diemen's Land, that the first shilling
he earned there, in an honest way, was sweeter to
him than hundreds of pounds gotten before by dis-
honest means.

25. A letter-carrier for a post-office felony. A
man of dissolute and drunken habits ; a professed
infidel ; never read the Bible until he was shut up
in this prison. Since his incarceration two of his
little children have died. He was very fond of them,
with all his faults ; and their death seemed to make
an impression. He studied Holy Scripture, and
professed, at least, belief in Revelation.

26. A policeman, for highway robbery. Had
been dismissed the service for drunkenness. The
revelations which this man makes of crime and vice
in the metropolis, are appalling.

27. Another dismissed policeman; transported
for a similar offence. No class is exposed to such
temptations as the police, directly and indirectly,
from first-class robbers, from keepers of infamous
houses, publicans, and the allurements of abandoned

238 ILLUSTRATIONS FROM A PRISON.

women. They are, moreover, overworked, under-
paid, and have but little access to the privileges of
Christianity.

It is more to be deplored, therefore, than wondered
at, that so many become, from being steady, well-
conducted men, first, tipplers ; then, from the love
of drink, not trustworthy, dishonest, criminal ; until
at last they occupy the place themselves of the pri-
soner, the felon, and the outcast.

28. A man convicted of picking pockets in a fair ;
asserts his innocence, and feels the greatest enmity
towards his prosecutor, and all who had a hand in
his conviction. His indignation apparently arises
from the fact of his being convicted of so low a piece
of dishonesty ; for he acknowledges that " he at-
tended the place, for a purpose quite as bad, and in
bad company" gambling, of which he was an adept.

29. I was attracted to this man's cell one even-
ing by a strange sort of rude music, and the move-
ment of the feet in dancing. I entered, and warned
him of the consequences if a discipline-officer should
hear his performance. No instrument appeared;
but a small piece of iron, with which, striking on the
different substances of brass, wood, and iron in his
cell, ingeniously arranged, he contrived to produce
an extraordinary variety of sounds, with a precision
of time, sufficient for his purpose of dancing. On
inquiring as to his past real employment, I learned
that he had been an inferior artist in the theatre.

30. A native of Scotland, transported for an
assault on a female, in a drunken fit. A strange

VISITS FBOM CELL TO CELL. 239

mixture of cunning and simplicity ; intensely long-
ing for liberty, and trying every means to avoid
being sent out of the country. In a very soft, whis-
pering tone of voice he once said to me, " It would
be as good as a ten-pound note to you, if you got
me off."

31. A keeper of a whisky-shop, in Glasgow,
transported, with his wife (whom I saw on board a
female convict-ship), for receiving stolen property.

This man made a statement to me about parties
in that town, in respectable life, to whom he was in
the habit of selling choice articles. I put it before
our Board ; but the chairman thought, and no doubt
correctly, that the Board could not interfere without
the risk of an action for a libel for defamation of
character.

The same covetousness which leads in low life to
theft, gives rise to transactions of this nature in per-
sons of better circumstances. .

Erom this man's account, and others', under some
remorse of conscience, I have long since come to the
conclusion, that a regular thief is one of the most
heartless of wretches. Thus, in a robbery, the pro-
duce of which passed through this man's hands, an
article, highly prized as a family relic, was taken.
Great noise was made about it in the town. It was
burnt to ashes by the thieves in his house, as the
safest course. In the same affair, they allowed a
servant-woman in the house to be transported as an
accomplice in the robbery, of which, he said, she had
not the slightest cognizance, being culpable only in

240 ILLTJSTRATOINS FROM A PRISON.

encouraging an acquaintance with one of the party,
whom she took for a respectable person.

32. A dismissed omnibus-servant, a man respect-
ably connected to my knowledge ; concerned in many
heavy robberies. Pew of this class, however, sink
into this condition. The end of their career, as an
overworked class, and exposed, by the arrangements
of their masters, to the perpetual temptations of the
public- house, is more usually premature decay and
death, the cab-stand, or absolute pauperism.

33. A draper's assistant, for embezzlement, the
eldest of three brothers, all transported for the same
crime : the two younger in another prison. He
declares that the young men in that establishment
(in the Borough) had no wages, but what they could
make over and above the price marked by the mas-
ters. "Fourteen or fifteen had been transported
from that house."

34. A person in the wine and spirit trade, trans-
ported for forgery ; was punished lately for obscene
writing in a library book, from which his character
may be plainly seen. This man received an excel-
lent education, and is well-connected. In early
married life he abandoned his wife, and took up with
another woman. He is extremely deaf ; and some
time back his wife, who, since his desertion of her,
has supported herself by honourable industry, brought
to the prison an expensive instrument, pur chased from
her savings, to assist his hearing. She had no wish,
however, to see him,

35. An artist ; once had paintings in the National

NOTES OF A PRISON CHAPLAIN'S DUTIES. 241

Gallery ; he informs his friends, by letter, that he is
employed here " in painting, in staring red colour,
the letters ' P. P.' on certain articles of convict cloth-
ing, for use in Pentonville Prison." This poor man,
now fifty years old, assured me, that since his con-
firmation, in boyhood, he had not been, to the best
of his recollection, once to a place of worship, as
such, till apprehended. He visited churches abroad,
in connexion with his art, assiduously. There is
good reason to hope that he has here found peace
with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ. He is
really an amiable person, and very grateful for or-
dinary attention.

36. A German, for some years resident in Eng-
land, acting as teacher of his native language to
respectable persons.

Virtuously attached to a person rather above his
position, and too eager to raise money to begin mar-
ried life respectably, he caught at some bubble rail-
way speculation, and in the course of a few months
became reduced to absolute penury ; and in this con-
dition obtained money under false pretences, delud-
ing himself with the idea of making all right in a
few days. A less depraved mind, or a better natural
disposition, I have never seen in any prisoner. The
grace of God, also, has brought to him salvation, I
believe, in his deep degradation and misery.

He once consulted me upon the propriety of writ-
ing to the person to whom he was engaged. I re-
commended him to do so, in order to liberate her
from difficulties which a delicate sense of honour

242 ILLUSTRATIONS FROM A PRISON.

might suggest. He did so, in a remarkably becom-
ing manner, and received an equally proper reply, in
which, however, hope was by no means extinguished.
On the contrary, as I interpreted to him the hidden
meaning, he was encouraged to think that, if he
proved himself a respectable person in Australia, she
should like to hear from him again. I am happy to
know that he is doing so.

A prince and princess from Germany, visiting this
establishment upon one occasion, I introduced their
highnesses to this prisoner's cell, that they might
learn from him, in the readiest and most unsuspi-
cious form, any particulars they might wish to know.

It was a touching and beautiful sight to see the
unrestrained tears flowing down the cheeks of the
fair princess, and to observe how the fine, expressive
countenance of the poor prisoner was brightened up
as he conversed, after so long silence, in the beloved
tongue of his fatherland, with the unknown per-
sonage.

37. A man of very ill-favoured countenance;
transported for life for attempting to extort money
from a gentleman, under a threat of accusing him
of a great crime, a system of villany growing a few
years back very rife in the metropolis, but, by a
seasonable and prompt severity, in this and some
other cases which passed through this prison, almost
at once put down. This man, by religious profession
a Roman Catholic, was really an infidel. He was
occasionally a subordinate actor on the stage ; and
certainly, whenever necessary to represent the malign

NOTES OF A PRISON CHAPLAIN'S DUTIES. 243

passions of the human breast in a silent living sub-
ject, no one could have been better chosen for the
part than this poor man. Yet he is by no means
past hope.

38. A medical student ; one of a class of which
we have had a very large proportion transported
for rebellion in the London Chartist affairs. He was
one of their leading orators, most vehement and
warlike in tone, but, as he candidly acknowledged
to me, prepared to run at the first appearance of
danger : " the very sight of a red coat made him
afraid."

An unhappy facility for speaking led him to at-
tempt a first flight of public oratory at a Chartist
meeting, and, being successful, a boy's ambitious
folly inflated him, and extinguished whatever he
had of common sense and right feeling. He was a
type of others who have suffered in this prison in
like circumstances ; and my impression certainly is,
that however it may be in countries where liberty is
oppressed, and real grievances exist, this whole class
of disturbers of the peace in this country will always
be found as contemptible in deeds as they are ter-
rible in words.

In almost every one of these Chartist cases, there
was a heroine. In the case of this young man, there
were two. Of one he was the enamoured suitor ;
but she prudently hesitated to join her fortunes with
a convict exile. The other volunteered, as soon as
she heard of this hesitancy in her rival, and I believe
was accepted. Mr. and Mrs. Cobden showed much

R 2

244 ILLUSTRATIONS FROM A PRISON.

kindness to this youth and his really respectable
family, who have, through their means chiefly,
been enabled, I understand, to go out to their son
in Australia, who will again, I trust, be their com-
fort and their joy.

39. A prisoner remarkable for High-Church
principles. He came to Pentonville from Leeds.
Being a very reserved and downhearted man, I
wished to draw him out on some subject of interest,
and only succeeded, at the first, upon this one.
Being assured by my manner, he expressed himself
dissatisfied with our shortening the daily prayers,
and substituting hymns and scriptural exposition
for the appointed lessons. I urged necessity, and
an Act of Parliament allowing this latitude in
prisons. Being encouraged to proceed, he objected,
with many respectful apologies for his boldness, to
a practice which he had observed in myself, of using
the sacred vestment for the purpose of cleaning my
spectacles. The prisoner was relieved from all ap-
prehension of having proceeded too far in his strict-
ures, by the hearty laugh which involuntarily
escaped from the ecclesiastical delinquent. The
same man subsequently made use of a remark de-
serving better to be recorded in these pages. When
rehearsing the sad history of his embezzlements,
and comparing the guilt of the various transactions,
he said, " The first shilling was worse than the last
pound."

40. A prisoner of elegant manners and address,
now a second time sentenced to transportation for

NOTES OF A PRISON CHAPLAIN'S DUTIES. 245

forgery ; educated at Eton, and highly accomplished.
In his first crime, he obtained a commutation of
sentence, on the ground of innocence as to actual
criminal intention, or some such plea. He com-
mitted soon again a similar offence. He was not
reformed when he left this prison.

41. Another specimen of the same class; con-
victed of obtaining money under false pretences.
His father, an officer in the army, assisted by his
petted boy, had wasted a fine fortune, sold his com-
mission, and used to write from a garret in an
obscure street in the West-end, to his son, a felon
in this prison. To break the monotony of solitude,
and to help to win the young man to better things,
he was allowed drawing materials, having consider-
able talent in that way. Amongst other things, he
conceived the idea of a series of sketches of a
convict's progress, after the manner of Hogarth's
famous illustrations of a kindred subject. As I
questioned the usefulness of this, he dropped it.
His first was a representation of himself, driving
a female companion in a fashionable cabriolet to the
Opera.

41. A prisoner, an officer himself in the army,
when committed ; highly connected, and educated
too at Eton. He fell into the same habits, and
committed a like crime. In his confinement, nothing
could stimulate him to exertion. He was dejected
and miserable; and in this condition left for the
second stage of convict discipline in Portland, and
there died.

246 ILLUSTRATIONS FROM A PRISON.

Both these cases bring to my mind many others,
in which the highest order of secular education, and
the strongest inducements to an honourable course,
from station, connections, and worldly interest,
were not sufficient to preserve the unhappy votary
of sinful pleasure and excitement from the com-
mission of acts, by which all these were forfeited for
ever.

"With respect to these young men, it may be
remarked, that their early entrance into life was
marked by amiable, pliant, and inconsiderate folly,
quite as much as by any excessive vicious pro-
pensity.

42. The last cell in this ward of selected prisoners
we shall look into (although here out of my order,
as to degree of education, position in life, &c.) is
that of a very desperate and well-known thief. He
was sentenced to transportation for fifteen years, for
house-robbery, and a most brutal assault upon a
policeman, who effected, however, his capture, on
Blackfriars Bridge, as he was proceeding in the
bottom of a cart to Epsom Races. This is the man
(Hackett) who succeeded in making his escape from
this prison, and about whom the public have shown
such a marvellous interest. I am far from wishing
to revive that interest. I want to draw a moral
from it which may find response in quarters where
it may do good. The eclat given by the press and
the public generally to this case, I hold to be exten-
sively mischievous. When divested of the romance,
it is painfully instructive. Here was a young, man

247

of more than common ability and aptness for almost
any honourable line of industry, who, with ordinary
character, must have risen to considerable usefulness
and respectability. He turns his parts to the igno-
minious trade of thieving ; is amazingly successful ;
and although sentenced at length to transportation,
escapes out of prison. He is talked of by the public,
and looked up to by the thieves of London, as
another Jack Sheppard. Well, what is his con-
dition, when thus placed at the head of his class ?
A fugitive from justice, and an exile from home.
He escapes to America, not to begin an honest life
in that country, but to rob and thieve there as he
did here ! And with what result ? To be recap-
tured, and to have, as I understand from an
American gentleman connected with the police in
New York, ten years of terrible solitude in the
prison of Philadelphia, and, if ever retaken in this
country, to be banished to a penal station for life.
His brother, too, following his example, has lately
been transported ; and his mother, who is said to
have boasted, on his conviction, that no prison in
London would hold him, has now to weep over two
sons lost to her for ever, as well as to society who,
if brought up in the fear of the Lord, might have
been her support, her comfort, her crown of re-
joicing. Truly, the way of transgressors is hard !

This same man (Hackett) had received once be-
fore the sentence of transportation, but, in conse-
quence of his assiduous attention to the sick and
dying in Millbank, during the fearful ravages of the
cholera, was pardoned.

248 ILLUSTRATIONS FROM A FUISOX.

Refractory Ward Cases.

Under any system of prison discipline, and under
the best governors and officers, there will be cases of
offence in prisons, and punishment, often very dis-
tressing to witness. Humanity, and the force of
public opinion, have well nigh disposed of flogging
as a punishment for adults, and I think rightly ;
but stern necessity has instituted another really
more formidable, viz., solitary confinement in a
dark cell, on bread and water. This punishment a
governor of a prison may inflict for three days, but
the Governing Board for twenty-eight. Having
stated in a former chapter my views on this point, I
will not here enlarge. Ill-conducted prisoners, in
my opinion, have gained nothing by the change
from the corporeal infliction, to one which tells upon
the mind and the constitution. Prisoners would do
well to think of this. To some readers, however, it
may appear a very small thing. Let a man make
it his own only for one day. Let him imagine him-
self travelling in one continuous tunnel, say, for 24
hours, with no other companions, than a bottle of
water and a pound loaf of bread, lying or sitting on
a hard wooden seat, and he will have a better idea
of the punishment. I have tried the experiment of
the dark cell for a little while during one day, and
I came out with an increased sense of the terrible
nature of the punishment, when prolonged, and
with the conviction increased, that, if one clav did

REFRACTORY WARD. 2-19

not answer the reformatory end of the punishment,
three would not; if one week, certainly not four.
It is singular to observe, that, comparing the pun-
ishments in all the Government Prisons, they are
lightest in those governed by military men.

In our own, governed by a civilian, although the
law has in no case been exceeded, it has been ever
carried out to its utmost limit.

It must be confessed, however, that some bear an
extreme length of this punishment without much
apparent suffering, of which the first in my list of
cases is an instance. (The cases are not contempo-
raneous) :

1. This was a young man, sentenced by the
Board of Commissioners to seven days in the dark
cell, &c., for an outrageous violation of discipline.
He maintained a haughty, obstinate -spirit to the
end. I felt for him (as a prisoner once beautifully
expressed it, speaking of a very bad character, whose
doings here he was cognizant of, and whose sore
punishment, he knew, would follow) : " he was some-
body's son."

This applied particularly to the case before us.
He was one of a class of prisoners who furnish no
clue whatever as to who or whence they are leav-
ing the imagination to fill, up the sad outline of a
dark picture, with the still sadder details of doubt
and gloom, which must have been long distress-
ing the hearts of parents, or brothers and sisters,
as to the real fate of one whom they may have most
tenderly loved. The prisoner in this case was a

250 ILLUSTRATIONS FROM A PRISON.

well-educated youth ; nothing moved him but a
reference to his family, and the hope expressed by
me that, after all, he might prove the comfort and
joy of their hearts.

2 and 3. These prisoners were punished for three
days, for communicating with one another. They
had come from Scotland together, and were much
attached. The elder had been an infidel, the other a
believer in Revelation, and very anxious about his
friend, when he became really concerned respecting
his own soul. They had talked the matter over when
in gaol, in Edinburgh, and when the elder was jeered
at by his fellow prisoners for being down-hearted,
the young man took his part, and now, being brought
close together in our prison, they violated the rules,
and had to bear the consequences. Apart from this
suffering, it certainly was as pleasant a sight as it
was novel, to observe each offering to bear the pun-
ishment of the other with his own, the elder urging
that he was first in the transgression, the other, that
he was young, and could bear it all.

4. A gentleman's butler ; sent to the refractory
ward for feigning insanity : a very clever Irishman,
and up to every scheme in service (of which there
is a fearful amount). His case was for some time a
dubious one. He had shaved his head, abstained
from food to an incredible length, and was for hours,
without moving, on his knees. It turned out a de-
cided instance of deception. I have seen the man
frequently since, at the hulks, and elsewhere.

Nevertheless, it has not always been the case, that

REFRACTORY WARD. 251

prisoners punished for this crime were really respon-
sible for their actions. For cases at all dubious,
nothing is worse, in my opinion, than the dark cell.

One of those dubious cases, which occurred in the
early years of the prison, I may here mention,
though not punished. Providentially, I entered
once the cell of a man who, in ungovernable rage, or,
as I think, unaffected madness, struck the warder in
my presence, with a heavy piece of wood, so terrible
a blow on the head that he was disabled, and in a
critical state for weeks, in bed. Before he could re-
peat the blow, or use his knife, I am thankful to say,
I was able to secure him, until help came.

5. A prisoner punished, for communication, in
the refractory ward for three days, whose case may
serve as an illustration of others.

This man wept like a child the whole first day,
and could not eat. I told our excellent chief
warder, then in entire charge of the prison (during
the Governor's absence), that the man had suffered
as much in one day as others in a week ; and he
promptly released him, with a decidedly good moral
effect.

6. A gentleman's son, whom I do not describe
more particularly, lest it may give pain to his
friends, into whose hands these pages may fall;
punished for obscene writing, and other communi-
cations of a like character. He is depraved, beyond
almost any prisoner in the place. Still, the grace of
God can change him.

7. This prisoner was sentenced to three weeks in

252 ILLUSTRATIONS FROM A PRISON.

the dark cell, for taking a draught of French polish
for the sake of the spirit it contained, having access,
accidentally, to the place where it was. The conse-
quence was, that he became drunk, and in all re-
spects like a maniac for several hours ; disturbing,
with his bellowings, the whole prison. It was well
that the surgeon was in the prison, or he might have
lost his life. His case is an illustration of the bane-
ful habit of drinking.

The last letter this convict wrote to his parents
was one deploring the sin, to which he had been
addicted, promising better things. In his copy-book
I found the same sentiments, with the account of
several awful deaths and accidents, through drunk-
enness, of which he has been witness, as a railway
labourer ; yet the first temptation to the same sin,
which met him even in so repulsive a form, overcame
his resolutions. After this, he did no good, and was
constantly being punished, intending, evidently, to
weary the authorities, that he might be sent out of
this prison ; until, on one occasion, receiving from
the Governor, on my intercession, an unexpected
mitigation of punishment, and being subdued by the
unexpected kindness to tears, he changed his course,
and conducted himself well the remainder of his year.

8. This man received the sentence of four weeks
in the refractory ward, for a desperate attempt to
escape. The period, however, was divided by the
interval of a month, and he suffered only the first
half.

When I went down to see him, he said, " I was

REFRACTORY WARD. 253

more afraid of your coming than any one." I as-
sured him not to think I came to reproach him, or
to add to his punishment. He had committed him-
self, and must take the consequence. I visited him
to do him good, and give him counsel, if he desired
it. He told me what induced him to make the
attempt, and, in fact, opened his mind freely.

His history was a sad one. Erom a child, he loved
the stable ; and was -indulged became a first-rate
rider, and almost mad after horses ; rode at steeple-
chases, betted heavily, drank to excess, ruined him-
self, and brought unmerited disgrace upon a most
respectable family.

His conduct during the first fortnight having been
most proper, and his strength sensibly diminished, I
mentioned his case to the Duke of Richmond, who
presided at the next board, and the other half was
happily remitted. I acquainted the man with the
result, and told him that I was sponsor for his future
good conduct. He said I should never be disap-
pointed. And neither was I; only I could wish
that he had, poor man, received the grace of God in
his heart, which I fear was not the case. One re-
mark which he made to me, I often think of, as an
illustration of an important truth, respecting first
steps in evil : "I would have given the world to
have that first brick back in its place."

9. The case just mentioned brings to mind that
of another still wilder son of nature, visited some
twenty or thirty days, at different times, in the re-
fractory ward, a youth of only twenty-one years of

254 ILLUSTRATIONS FROM A PRISON.

age, and of the peasant class. When a boy this pri-
soner took to poaching, and the passion for pursuit
of all sorts of game grew with his growth, and he
became notorious in that species of crime. Thieves
have been called the Arabs of the city." This
young poacher was an " Arab of the country." He
assured me, and other poachers the same, that he
had been more than once employed by game-keepers
on ill-stocked property, to bring them game from
another, and well paid for it ; and that he brought
in a cart away, one night, as many as twenty quick
(live) hares from a distant preserve for this purpose.
(Did the keeper pay " ten shillings a piece" for these
hares out of his own pocket ? If not, who was the
chief culprit ?)

10. This man was one of a party of thoroughly
bad men, sent back to separate confinement from the
public works, in consequence of mutinous conduct.
I have seen him more than once storming and rag-
ing in his cell, threatening, with awful oaths, to
murder some one in this place. I have stopped with
him until he became calm, and then, in gentle voice,
expostulated with him, apparently with some effect.
But he would break out again, after a while, as bad
as ever, and get punished. " He was somebody's
son ;" and hereby hangs a tale, which, told to me
in the dark cell, when I was trying to move his
heart, brought tears, I confess, to my own eyes.
He had been transported once before, when a youth,
and having served his term in Bermuda, returned to
Dover, his native place, dressed and looking like a

REFRACTORY WARD. 255

weather-beaten sailor. He first went to a public
house which his father used to frequent, and there,
as he expected, he found him, and fell into conver-
sation about foreign parts, the old man inquiring
about Bermuda, and the condition of convicts there,
where he had an unfortunate son, &c. The prisoner
then left the public house, and went and bought
some articles in a little shop which his mother kept,
without being recognised by her. Instead, however,
of walking out, he went into the parlour, and sat
down by the fire ; but even then she did not know
him, but tartly accosted him : " Really, my man,
you are making yourself very comfortable !" "Whilst
this talking was going on, his sister, listening from
up-stairs, recognised the voice, and ran down, crying
out, " It surely is our own Bill !" And so it was.
The lost one was found. But, alas ! not for long :
that very night he went out to see some ol^. friends.
Nothing would stop him. His mother said, " Then
the next I shall see of you will be in gaol." His
friends that night were preparing for a robbery.
He joined in had to fly was apprehended
brought back to Dover convicted and transported
for life ; and a broken-hearted father, mother, and
loving sister bid him farewell in Dover Gaol, never
to see him more.

It may here be added, that I saw the two last-
mentioned men on board the convict-ship Eliza,
with about forty others of like character, destined for
Norfolk Island, as incorrigible men. Not a few of
those men were, as may have been already gathered,

256 ILLUSTRATIONS FROM A PRISON.

very desperate and murderously inclined. There
was more than usual precaution, therefore, in berth-
ing them on hoard ship, and securing them against
the power of combination and mutiny. They were
divided into three compartments, strongly fortified,
and a sentry was posted continually outside. It be-
ing desirable to allow them daily some exercise and
air on deck, it was decided to be necessary that they
should be placed in irons. Before the irons were
put on, I wished to converse with, and bid farewell
to, the men, and visited for the purpose one division ;
and having spoken some solemn words of parting
admonition to them, I proposed prayer, and they
all knelt as well as they could, in the confined
place around me. In the other divisions I did the
like, with the same result. Surely God has given to
his servants power over even the wicked for good.
I confess that I was afraid when going down to the
ship and when first shut in with the men, not of per-
sonal violence, but of contemptuous rejection of my
message : I came away abashed, by the result, at the
weakness of my faith.

The Visiting Room.

Every convict is allowed to see his friends once in
six months, for twenty minutes, unless deprived of
the privilege by misconduct. The ordinary place for
the interview has been described. When about to
be removed to a foreign station only, the visit is per-
mitted to take place in the same room, as a parting

THE VISITING ROOM. 25?

one. At the visiting hour there may be, at times,
seen assembled at the prison gates, waiting for ad-
mission in turn, a crowd of the friends and relatives
of prisoners. Under the -old regulations, this used
to be very great when an embarkation was suddenly
ordered. In that crowd may be easily observed
doubtful female relatives, designated (without any
power of disproof on our part) sisters, cousins, wives ;
friends, too, who have been used to such visits else-
where ; but mixed up with these, alas ! many of re-
spectable character.

There stands a family group, such as has often
brought tears to my own eyes, the hoary-headed
father leaning on his staff; the disconsolate mother,
and the weeping sisters and brothers of a convict.
They are of the peasant class ; and have come a long
and (to them) expensive journey. They have denied
themselves many necessaries to accomplish this
journey ; and one of the girls, in service, has from
her savings largely contributed. No one in the
family had such good prospects, at one time, as the
convict. All are overwhelmed with the sight : for
minutes, nothing is heard but sobbing and crying.

Next stands the worse than widowed wife, with
her group of children so young, that they are sad
only because mother is sad ; or, are even playful,
presenting the strangest contrast to the place and
company around. But near to them are children
who remember well their father ; who saw him
taken roughly out of the house by the police ; who
heard his sentence pronounced by the judge, and

258 ILLUSTRATIONS FROM A PRISON.

knew its terrible meaning by their mother's scream.
They are admitted ; they can, however, only see and
talk with the prisoner; there can be no fond em-
braceno kiss. "What a pity one thinks, that they
have come I

The wife and mother of a convict, having taken
farewell of the prisoner, request to see the chaplain.
In the county gaol from which he came, the wife
being admitted to an interview of this kind, supplied
the prisoner with means to attempt his escape. It
was discovered ; she suffered imprisonment for the
offence herself. He was placed in irons for several
months, night and day, in a cold winter, and dreary
prison. A finer-looking couple could not be seen
than this unhappy pair. The mother had long wept
over the folly and sin of them both, to no purpose ;
they were given to pleasure. Under the impression
that here her son was brought to Christ, she comes
to offer to me a very costly Bible, as a token of grati-
tude. I am compelled to refuse the kindness. I
hold it to be extremely culpable in any superior
officer of a prison to receive presents from prisoners'
friends, of any value, under any plea whatever. The
doing so, on the part of the subordinate, would lead,
and very properly, in my judgment, to his instant
dismissal. Prisoners' friends, and others, should
know this. Coming to inquire concerning him,
subsequent to his location in the colonies, they
brought a diamond ring, with the same purpose,
and pressed my acceptance ; but I was compelled
to pain their feelings by refusal.

THE VISITING ROOM. 259

By way of digression ; in the ancient Republic of
Home the finger-ring of gold was a sign of the ordo
equestris, a rank corresponding with that of mem-
bers of our House of Commons, officers in Her Ma-
jesty's service, and the like. It is not certain what
civil rank the priests had, or whether it would have
been conceived presumptuous or unseemly in them
to wear such appendages ; but it is very clear, that
a young Roman, holding no office in the state, nor
command in the army, nor affianced to nobility, who
would strut along the Via Sacra (the Regent- street
of Rome in those days), displaying his hand orna-
mented in this way, would have been considered a
presumptuous upstart or effeminate simpleton. In
our age of enlightenment and Christianity, however,
it is not uncommon to see shopmen, clerks, and ap-
prentices so embellished ! In this prison, we have
seen, after a course of profligate folly, many a hand,
once ornamented in this style, scouring the prison
floor, mending turnkeys' clothes, darning their own
stockings, or rubbing in the wash-tub their fellow-
prisoners' shirts and flannels. Young men should
know that instead of raising themselves in respect-
ability by affecting the fashions of a class above their
own, they are taking one of the readiest ways to lose
that which really belongs to them, and which is
awarded by all sensible people to those who know
their proper position, and discharge its duties.

To return to my sketches. The next who ascends
the steps of the prison, to see the object of her affec-
tions, now degraded to the condition of a felon, is

260 ILLUSTRATIONS FROM A PRISON.

the widowed lady of an officer who fought at Water-
loo. She lived in a garrison town ; and her only
son was, unhappily, introduced to a regiment, the
junior officers of which were addicted to gambling
and every fashionable vice. His course was short,
but it embraced the miseries of an ordinary long
life ; and was followed by the convict's doom. Ask
this young man what is now his greatest privation.
I asked him the question once ; he said, " The
absence of my toilet ! " True or false, how pitiable
such a moral prostration ! Perhaps it is true : he
is full of vanity and self-conceit even now ; and
morally and physically depraved by wine, women,
and dissipation of every kind. He has a ring on his
finger, woven from material with which he is obliged
to work in his cell !

There is another request to see the chaplain. A
lady, from New York, has crossed the Atlantic, now
the second time, to see her sister's son, a convict,
with some expectation of getting him off. She has
strange stories about the youth, and the chaplain
has had much confidential correspondence about his
parentage. The tale is a romance, but shall never
be divulged. Her journey is in vain : " she is in-
formed, " the convict must pass through the ordi-
nary course." O Sin ! what misery thou hast created
in this one case. She takes the grandmother, by
whom the boy was nursed, to America with her ;
and if the young man lives to the expiration of his
sentence, she will have him too, she says, in her
house. AVould that it were a pious home ! but,

THE VISITING ROOM. 261

with all this generosity, there is not the least indi-
cation of religion.

After all, this person did not exhibit so much self-
denial as others to my knowledge. She was wealthy,
had no dread of the sea, and found even pleasure in
visiting our metropolis.

I remember an instance of more single-minded
affection. We had here once, a prisoner from York-
shire, a married man, who, I have no doubt, with all
his faults, loved tenderly his wife. No man could
have done otherwise. She was the model of a wife, in
her station in dress, manner, and general appearance.
Three times "this faithful creature came from beyond
Hull to see her husband for a scanty twenty or thirty
minutes, having worked at factory labour almost
night and day in order to accomplish it. I told this
man, in his cell : " You will deserve a worse punish-
ment than your present one, if you don't make that
woman happy yet, when you shall have it in your
power." " Yes," said he, " I shall richly deserve it.
If I had been ruled by her advice, and kept at home,
instead of going to the cursed public-house, I should
not now be a convict in Pentonville."

Sometimes respectable persons masters, employ-
ers, Sunday-school teachers visit prisoners. Peers
of the realm have not disdained thus to show kind-
ness to the fallen. The Earl of Carlisle, when Lord
Morpeth, frequently visited one of our prisoners.
The first time he came, after some correspondence
with the chaplain, he happened not to be provided
witli an order to see the prisoner in his cell ; and

262 ILLUSTRATIONS FROM A PRISON.

when I mentioned the matter to the Governor, that
gentleman judged that he had no discretion in the
matter. I suggested that, if his lordship had no
objection, he might have an interview with the pri-
soner in the ordinary way, as one of the prisoner's
friends: he immediately assented, and in this humble
manner visited the convict that time. I do hope all
the kindness shown to the man (I have told but a
part) was not thrown away.

In this honourable connexion, I would mention
the pious zeal of a true Christian of the Wesleyan
body, who used to come to town to see a young man,
one of our convicts, formerly in his Sunday school.
He did more ; he followed the wayward, erring youth
with constant, believing prayer, until, as I have every
reason to think, the sinner was brought earnestly to
seek the Lord ; and, since his discharge, received
him as a father, having got a situation for him, &c.

It lias been intimated that doubtful characters
come to see prisoners. They are sometimes worse
than ambiguous. I recollect a convict, a man truly
reformed, as I believe, being greatly distressed by
the visit of an old accomplice a man of very re-
spectable appearance in dress. The prisoner felt it
kind in his friend, at some personal risk, to come,
and therefore did not request to be withdrawn ; but
he felt greatly distressed during the interview, and
begged it might not be repeated.

I remember being sent for by a prisoner (already
mentioned No. 24), as I had wished him to do
when in any trouble or excitement. He had just

THE VISITING ROOM. . 263

had a visit from his wife and daughter, who were,
he said, in deep distress. I gave him my sympathy
and counsel, and stopped with him some consider-
able time. His temptation, first, when he returned
to his cell, was to self-destruction, but the awfulness
of the crime appalled him. He then thought of
attempting his escape, and plans before successfully
tried crossed his mind. He hesitated, and happily
sent for me, told all that was in his heart, and found
relief.

About two years back I saw on board a convict-
ship a prisoner, who having been sent, some years
ago, from this prison to Australia, with a ticket-of-
leave, and rising there to the conditional-pardon
class, came back before the expiration of his sen-
tence, and was detected, tried, convicted, and re-
transported. That young man's poor mother often
visited him here, and corresponded with me about
him. It is painful to think, that she was sister of
no less a person than the successful defender of
Acre against Bonaparte, Sir Sidney Smith ; and
that this reckless young man, by his misdeeds, had
forfeited all the advantages of such a connexion in
following the profession of his uncle.

About three years back, a poor woman, in deep
distress, requested to see me. Her tale w r as a long
one, but such as no heart could shut out. Her hus-
band, an invalided soldier of the Life-guards, had
been transported from South Wales for horse-
stealing. She declared that he had never an idea of
stealing the horse, but in a drunken frolic took it

264 ILLUSTRATIONS FROM A PRISON.

from the roadside, and rode it a good many miles to
the place where she and their baby were lodged, in-
tending to return on the same to his " job of work"
at a railway. He was pursued and taken. The
convict told me the same tale, and he certainly
doted on this young woman. Both were Irish.
The prisoner was never of strong mind ; and perpe-,
tual fretting about his w r ife and child at last un-
hinged it altogether, so that when she reached her
destination, travelling, child in arms, on foot, her
husband was a maniac. To my lot it fell to break
the sad news to the poor wife, and to find shelter
and employment for her, that she might be saved
from beggary, or a much worse fate, in London ; for
she had a good personal appearance.

We have had lately, also, a very sad interview.
The aged father, sister, and wife of a young man from
Exeter, well known in that city. Dissipated, extra-
vagant, and covetous, he committed the grave crime
of firing his premises, to defraud an Insurance Com-
pany, and received the terrible sentence of transport-
ation for life. His relatives came to bid him a
long and last farewell, as he was about to be sent
to the public works in Gibraltar. The scene quite
overcame me. I had for a while to leave.

Yet the recollection of that parting does not
oppress my mind with such sadness as another to
which I now refer. In that case there was hope that
the profligate, in his degradation and misery, had
sought and found peace with God. In this there
was no such relief. The condemned one, a gentle-

LETTERS TO THE CHAPLAIN. 265

man by birth and station, is brought into my room
by the officer, and, to spare feeling, the chaplain
volunteers to act as the officer at the interview.
The father hastened towards his son, and literally
" fell on his neck and kissed him."

"Here," thought I, "is a picture from life of
the father in the parable ; but where are the tears
of contrition, the acknowledgment of sin, the cry
for mercy, from the prodigal?" Unmoved, shed-
ding no tear, expressing no remorse, the young man
stands erect, and, anxious only about his liberty,
inquires what interest is being used to get him off.
He became worse, after that interview, more proud,
more troublesome. A father's forgiveness, without
the son's contrition, had seemingly a bad effect.

LETTERS.

1. From a Sunday School Teacher to the Chaplain.

" REV. SIR. A short time since I visited a prisoner in Penton-
ville Prison, and had a very interesting interview with him. I
have known him for several years, and being a teacher in the
Sabbath-school with which he was connected, and also a member
of the same church as his parents are, I have felt individually
interested in him long before his committal to prison. My
object in writing to you is to make you more intimately ac-
quainted with the state of his mind, as, having known his pre-
vious habits, and being on more familiar terms with him from
long acquaintanceship, he has made known to me, most probably,
more fully than he would to you, the state of his soul.

" The parents of this^youth are deeply anxious about his spi-
ritual welfare, and feel very thankful for the kind interest you
manifest toward the prisoners. Their son has spoken, in his
letters to them, most affectionately and thankfully of the interest

266 ILLUSTRATIONS FROM A PRISON.

you manifest for his spiritual welfare. Would you, dear and
rev. sir, direct your especial attention to him in your next visit,
if convenient, and question him very closely to ascertain the
real state of his mind, as he may need especial counsel and
encouragement, if seeking earnestly for pardon and reconcilia-
tion with God ? "

2. From a Gentleman concerning his Brother.
" MY DEAR STB, I thank you very truly for your kind and
Christian letter to me about my brother. I have, of course, been
very unhappy on his account, and I'm afraid any interference on
my part would only unsettle him, and bring him no relief. I
think the longer he is kept from drink, the greater is the proba-
bility that he will turn well hereafter. I hope he is not incapable
or undesirous of receiving religious impressions, in which case
his term of imprisonment may turn out to be the best thing
that ever happened to him. He will have time to think, to get
the better of his passion for drink. Nothing could cure him but
forcible detention from it. His was the severest sentence I
recollect ever to have read. Poor fellow ! he has been sinned
against as well as sinning. By the time he will leave the
country, I hope something will be done for him to make his con-
dition more tolerable. I am very anxious to know the state of
his mind ; and if I may venture to make the request, I shall be
thankful if you will tell him to write fully to me, and let me
know his wishes and plans."

3. From a Clergyman, about two Youths.

" KEVEREND SIR, When I mention that I have a poor parish-
ioner who, in addition to a painful and incurable disease, is
suffering great mental anxiety in consequence of two of his
sons being under sentence of transportation, but now confined
in Pentonville Prison, and very desirous of ascertaining what
progress they are making towards repentance and amendment
of life, I trust you will pardon my intruding upon your time,
and kindly inform me if there is any hope of their ultimate
reformation."

4. From a Gentleman in Devonport.

" The prisoner's father is an old inhabitant of the town, and
for a great number of years was a faithful servant in the employ-

LETTERS TO THE CHAPLAIN. 267

luent of one master. At the time of the prisoner's apprehension
he had also a mother and a sister. The latter had for some
time been afflicted with a disease of the heart ; and the excitement
consequent upon the prisoner's apprehension caused her death almost
immediately. The mother also died very shortly after, her death being
accelerated, as it was supposed, by the prisoner's disgrace. The
whole family universally bore a good character.

" The prisoner became known to me for the first time upon
being introduced to me by his father, to serve whom I was
instrumental in getting the prisoner appointed at the Post-office.
1 have understood, since his commitment, that the prisoner was
just about to be married ; and I fear was tempted to commit the
crime in the eager desire to acquire money to settle himself."

Subsequently I had the painful duty of announc-
ing to this prisoner the death of his father.

The following may serve to show how the bless-
ings of the Gospel may be extended, by its reception
in the heart of even an outcast member of a family :

5. " I hope," writes the clergyman of the parish, " you have had
satisfactory evidence of the reality of the conversion of this
prisoner; if so, I. shall rejoice. Of one thing I am certain : his
letters to his parents have, under the blessing of God, produced
a very favourable change in his family, which was a terror to the
village. Several of the younger branches of the family attend
my day and Sunday-schools, and behave with great propriety,
both at school and at church. His parents are frequently to be
seen in the house of prayer."

6. From the Surgeon of a Convict Ship.

"You will find in the paper a brief allusion to H. E. from
Pentonville, and W. M. from Wakefield, who, while in the grasp
apparently the deadly grasp of cholera, were able to rejoice
in Christ Jesus as their refuge and their strength, in whom they
were persuaded they had believed, to whom they had both dedi-
cated themselves while in prison, to whom death appeared to
have lost all his terrors, and who were, in the midst of agonies
endured during the terrific progress of the disease, filled with
the joys of salvation, arid cheered by the blessed hope of seeing

268 ILLUSTRATIONS FROM A PRISON.

Jesus as he is, and of soon being like him. Their spirit and
carriage, ever since they were brought out of the furnace,
has been in accordance with the blessed hope that maketh not
ashamed."

7. From a Prisoner in Associated Labour.

" KEVEBEND SIB, I had been thinking during the week of par-
taking of the Lord's Supper ; but Satan knew my thoughts, and
suggested to me what scorn and ridicule I should have to con-
tend with from my unconverted fellow-prisoners. Some would
say I was an hypocrite, especially those who had known me
formerly. I then felt and said that I should be ashamed, forget-
ting our blessed Saviour's words, ' For whosoever shall be
ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man
be ashamed when he shall come in his own glory and in his
Father's, and of the holy angels.' I then gave up all thoughts
of it ; but I could not rest. I thought, I cannot love my Saviour,
or T should not hesitate for a moment. I then spoke to one of
my fellow-prisoners who had received the Lord's Supper, and to
another one who could not receive the Lord's Supper, because
he had not been christened ; and we talked of the danger of
neglecting so great salvation. I entered into conversation with
one of them on the Saturday in question ; and I do believe that
God did make that poor man the instrument, in His hands, of
bringing it home to my soul, and telling me that I must either
give up all my sins and all my wicked companions, or lose my
Saviour. I fully resolved from that moment to devote myself to
God's service. When I came to myself, I prayed to God, and
for the first time I believed my prayer was heard. God grant
that I may be enabled for the future to live a godly life."

8. From a Prisoner on the Public Works in Portland.

" I am pleased to say, that my stay here has done much
towarus recruiting my health, and fitting me to undergo the
long voyage now before me. Though all my hopes and expecta-
tions for obtaining a pardon, and returning to my native land,
have proved vain, it has pleased God to give me strength to bear
my disappointment. It is needless for me to speak here in

LETTERS FROM CONVICTS IN AUSTRALIA. 269

terms of praise of our most excellent chaplain, Mr. Moran, and
to tell you how much he has done towards mitigating my trials,
and keeping alive in me the good resolutions taken when
surrounded by less temptations than we are here. I have, too,
met with two or three fellow-prisoners, with whom I have been
able to make hard work not only pleasant to myself, but to most
of the gang. Altogether, I am happy to say that the general
character and demeanour of the prisoners is different from what
I feared it to be. It is but seldom one hears a curse or vulgar
word ; very often religion is made the subject of conversation, in
spite of the ridicule of the few. I cannot speak in too high
terms of commendation of that liberal and humanizing system
by which the poor prisoner, when secluded from the world, is
enabled to pass his hours of solitude by reading. You would be
pleased, sir, to hear men here, of whom you might least expect
it, saying how happy they were by reading this or that particular
book when in solitary confinement. It is here where the benefit
of that system becomes most evident."

9. Letters from Convicts in Australia.

" REVEREND SIR, I beg to be excused for taking the liberty of
addressing myself to you ; but I feel it my bounden duty to
return you my sincere and humble thanks for all the instruction
and many good advices I have received from you, which I hope
have not been altogether in vain. Since my arrival in this
colony I have had an opportunity of observing the general
conduct of many of the first P. P. exiles, and I am happy to say
that many seem to have profited by their late afflictions, and to
live an upright and honest life. But, on the other hand, I am
sorry to say, that some appear to be almost past recovery, and to
have forgotten all the good resolutions and the many solemn
promises made whilst in their solitary cell. The same is to be
observed in the case of my own shipmates. Some keep the
narrow path which they entered first, perhaps under your
instruction and guidance, and others have thrown off all regard
for religion, and fear neither God nor man. Be not discouraged
in your good work, but persevere, putting your trust in the
Lord ; for your labour shall not be in vain in the Lord."

10. " DEAR MOTHER AND RELATIONS, I write these few lines,
hoping they will find you all well, as they leave me. I have now

270 ILLUSTRATIONS FROM A PRISON.

been in this colony six months, and I have seen a little of the Bush.
My next-door neighbour is three miles off, where we are obliged
to go two or three times a day often, upon any little errand ;
but three miles are thought no more here than 300 yards in
England. I very seldom see any fresh faces. In Britain, the
merry church-bells are to be heard on Sundays in all directions,
but here there are no churches, only in the towns, and they are
few and far between. I am at present upwards of sixty miles
from a church, and thirty miles from the nearest place of worship,
which is a Mission Station. The natural result of the absence of
places of worship is, that there is very little difference between
Sunday and another day. It is a common saying, that Sunday
don't cross the Breakwater (which is a bridge near Corio] ; but
public-houses are to be met with in all directions, and they are the
ruin of hundreds in this colony, wine and spirits being very
cheap. The man and woman living at the next station to mine
are almost as father and mother to me ; she is from Ambwlch,
in Wales. Our stillness is often interrupted by the appearance
of the native blacks, and a strange sight it is to us some with
blankets, some naked men and women together with their
spears and other weapons in their hand and some with a little
child on their back, one with a dog, another a cat, surrounding
the hut, begging for a bit of bread, flour, or anything ; and if
anything be in the way, they '11 take it. They are very active,
and can throw their spears upwards of 300 yards as straight as a
line. My kind respects to all my friends and relations, hoping
to see them yet all well. I intend, if spared, to write once in
four months, and I beg you to do the same. I remain your
loving and affectionate Son."

11. "DEAR , John and I have travelled many thousand

miles since we last saw you at Woolwich, but we are still togr.
and under the same master. Our mode of life is very different
here to what we have ever been used to. The heat is excessive,
as it is summer with us now. Our bedding is a few sheep's
skins and wool bags to lay on, with a blanket to cover us, but we
sleep as soundly as if we were reclining on the softest pillow.
The blacks around us are very ignorant and degraded ; they do
not appear to have any idea of a God. I heard one of the
'lubras,' that is, women, sing 'Hallelujah, praise the Lord.'

LETTERS FROM CONVICTS IN AUSTRALIA. 271

She had no idea of the meaning of it ; she had heard ' white
fellow corrobara like it that,' or sing it in that manner. She
asked iis if it was ' merry gig,' very good.

" We are under a pretty good master. We often talk of home,
and of those who are dear to us; and we long for that time,
which we hope will soon arrive, when we shall be able to return
to our native land, and to our dear friends.

" I am sorry to say this is a land of great depravity, so that a
young man has great need to keep a strict watch over himself,
and continually to seek for grace to help in time of need.
I hope and trust we shall be kept from going astray again. We
have one great disadvantage, that is, we have to go out with the
sheep on Sunday as well as on other days ; but we can take our
Bibles with, us, that is a blessing."

12. REVEREND SIR, Had I remained in England I could not
have ventured to address you lest I should be suspected of having
other motives than the one I have in view, which is to convey to
you the sincere thanks of a grateful heart for the interest you
took, and in your prayers, I have no doubt, will continue to take,
in our eternal welfare and happiness ; and I feel confident it will
not be among the least of consolations on your dying bed, that
the Almighty graciously vouchsafed to incline your heart to
sacrifice your social comforts, and, in some degree, your happi-
ness, to mix among the poor prisoners, and to bring home the
glad tidings of peace and deliverance to the unhappy, to sympa-
thize with the wicked and unhappy, and to point us to a gracious
Saviour, and assure us God is a very present help in trouble
to proclaim liberty to the captive, and to open the prison-doors
of our minds, and point us to the redeeming blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ.

"I feel confident your pious efforts have not been in vain;
but that many a heart has been melted and moved under your
discourses that had neither the power nor the opportunity to
express their feelings. Continue, dear sir, to go forward in
your work. Trust the Almighty, who can and will, in his own
good time, bring forth a hundredfold. It may probably occur to
your mind to ask how the writer came to take the liberty to
address you. I will tell you, sir. I am aware that the very
best men are apt to become discouraged at the seeming hope-

272 ILLUSTRATIONS FROM A PRISON.

lessness of the cause in which they may have embarked their
most anxious hopes. It is this consideration, coupled with the
sincere desire that my fellow-prisoners should not lose the
benefit of any future exertions you may employ in your work of
mercy in their behalf, either in your prayers, or in books of
instruction, that has induced me to do so. I feel confident you
will pardon the manner for the sake of the matter. It may not
be. uninteresting to you to hear a few words that more imme-
diately concern the unhappy person that addresses you, as we
shall, most probably, never see each other any more in this
world.

" I had the very great privilege to be born of very pious
parents, whose anxious endeavour it was to train me up in the
paths of piety and virtue ; but, notwithstanding all their prayers
and all their care, I lived the greatest part of my life in open
rebellion against my God, and though scarcely a day passed
without my receiving some special mercy at the hands of my in-
dulgent Maker, still all this was without effect, and at last I was
given up to my wicked heart, and finally to the commission of
crime, which has brought punishment and infamy on myself,
and misery and disgrace on all my friends. Yet, even in this
dire place, at the thought of which, in happier days, my heart
would recoil with horror, I have been enabled to view the bitter
anguish and folly of my mis-spent life. In conclusion, allow
me, dear sir, to express a hope that the Almighty may be
graciously pleased to prolong your life, and bless you with
health and increase of success in the cause of humanity ; and
late, very late in life, may He receive you to Himself, finally to
mix with that happy number unto whom it should be said, on
the last day of account, ' Come, ye blessed children of my
Father, receive the kingdom prepared from the foundation of the
world.'

" Dear sir, I have written several letters to my friends, and
have received no answer from them as yet ; if you would forward
a line to them, stating that I am alive, I would feel greatly
obliged."

13. Letter from this Convict's Parents,

" DEAR HONOURED SIR, We take it very kind and condescend-
ing of you to write to such poor, insignificant people as we are,

LETTERS TO PRISONERS. 273

but it was a great comfort to us to hear that our poor misguided
son had received spiritual and temporal comforts from you, and
that he had profited from them, and likewise that he did grate-
fully acknowledge it. We also beg of thee to accept our un-
feigned thanks for the same, and am happy to inform you that
we have received two letters from him, and we have answered
them both. One was posted on the 4th of April, and the other
on the 28th of May, 1847, following ; who knows but he may
have got one by this ? His uncle assures us that he has freely
forgiven him, and believes that what he did was done at the
moment without thought or consideration, and assures him that
the proceedings went on without his knowledge or consent, as he
was not at home. We only pray that every privation, disappoint-
ment, and painful feeling, may be sanctified for good to the soul."

14. Letter to a Prisoner from a Brother.

" I can assure you, my dear brother, that I have felt very
much pleased and happy in my mind, from the remark you made
in one part of your letter, respecting what I said to you when I
saw you, about going abroad ; and in case that you are sent away,
I certainly will sell my business and go with you, for I can assure
you, the day that you were unfortunately convicted, I made up my
mind that I would go with you whenever you went, and I have never
altered my thoughts since.

" I have thought of you continually, and have prayed for you
many a night and morning to the Lord, to give you health and
strength to bear up under your affliction, so that you might once
more have a brother that ever will assist you, and give you good
advice, as I trust you will now feel that I always endeavoured to
do so when we were in London together. And I deeply lament,
my dear erred brother, that the society you fell into, and the
persons you came in close contact with, when unhappily I was
not by to direct you, were of such a contaminating nature, that
your youth and inexperience fell a prey to their wiles and
devices, for your corruption, in which, alas ! they so far suc-
ceeded by Divine permission, perhaps to teach not only you, but
all of us, how frail a foundation we stand upon, when our walk
is not close to Him.

" I hope, my dear brother, this will find you still in good
health, and of as much happiness as your present lot of priva-
tions will admit.

274 ILLUSTRATIONS FROM A PRISON.

" One thing 1 feel assured will be a great comfort to you, and
that is, the undiminished affection not only of myself, but of
that of all the rest of your family. Be assured you are ever in
our thoughts, and our prayers ever directed to the throne of grace
in your behalf: and we do most fully trust that the Lord, having
been so far gracious unto you as to let you see the error of your
ways, will still go on to perfect his good work in you, and will,
in his own good time, once more restore you to the bosom of
your family."

15. From a Captain in the Army to a Convict Soldier.

" MY DEAR , I was very much gratified by the receipt of

your letter. If we have had any differences of opinion as to the
light on which all the events of your conduct should be viewed,
this letter has set them all at rest in my mind. I rejoice indeed
to think that it has pleased the Holy Spirit to give you a right
understanding and a penitent heart.

" I still hope you will be able to succeed in remaining at
home ; what delight it woiild give to your aged parents, to return
to them regenerated, and anxious to support them !

" Should it please God to let me arrive in England, you may
rest assured that I will not allow many days to pass before I
present myself at Pentonville, to see you again. I say, should
it please God, for at present I am under deep sorrow and afflic-
tion for the loss of my only brother, who was cut down in the
prime of life in a far country, without a human being near him
to whom he could speak and with his heart full of joy, on his
way home from a service of six years in India.

" He was a brother, too, whom in all things I preferred before
myself, even giving to him, or rather forcing on him, the landed
inheritance of my father, as being more worthy to occupy it than
myself. I tried to build up for him a house here below, but
God, in his mercy, I trust, promoted him to an inheritance
in the heavens. No wonder, then, that at this moment I am
ever thinking of the uncertainty of human life. I have heard
a sermon indeed, which, I trust, has made an impression that I
must habitually bear about me, the remembrance that it may
be my turn next.

" He was young and strong ; you are young and strong ; but
it may be your turn next. The messages in your letter have

LETTERS TO PRISONERS. 275

all been delivered. And I could not refrain from placing the

letter itself in the hands of some of the men. Sergeant M ,

now the senior sergeant here, told me that it was the general
wish of the men to have their remembrance sent to you.

" The men have been behaving well, and we have had but
few court-martials for a long time past. Oh ! may the Lord
keep and preserve you from backsliding ! And now, truly
hoping that I may see you again, and also doing myself the
pleasure of hearing from the lips of your chaplain an account of
your exemplary conduct in prison, ."

16. Letter to a Convict from his Brother, a Clergyman.

" I would not contrast our situations for any other purpose
than to show you the truth of the promises of God, and to beg
you to think of them. We were once in the same condition
precisely ; at another time you were far better off, and I was
deep in misery and sin ; but it pleased God to give me a sense
of my danger, and the religious principle, which was not quite
extinct within me, and which I (and I hope I may say we] derive
from our beloved mother, was awakened and revived within me.
From that time to the present, God's hand has been upon me
for good, and why has it not been upon you ? Because you
have profaned his name and his word ; and his face is against
them that do evil. If ever there was a proof of the truth of
God's Word, it is in our respective conditions at this moment.

" Keligion is real it is no fiction no mere idea, but a fact
a thing to be marked, noted, and experienced like other facts,
and this you may one day be brought to feel. You may find,
too, how true it is that God desires not the death of a sinner,
and may you also feel that he has abundantly pardoned you.
Keep your mind calm ; pray to Him : there was a time when
you did so. Many a sinner, in former days, stricken with the
sense of his wickedness, has confined himself in the deepest
solitude, perhaps in a desert, perhaps in some such a cell as
you now inhabit, and has there, in penitence and prayer, hum-
bled himself before his God, and been forgiven. Suppose your-
self to be such a man make use of the opportunity which
mercy has forced upon you, and you will come abroad again into
the world with new feelings and a new heart, for you will be a
new creature, and then we will worship God together. . . .

T 2

276 ILLUSTRATIONS FROM A PRISON.

" May it please God to bless and keep you, and enable you so
to employ your now solitary hours, that when you again mix in
the traffic and activity of life, you may be so thoroughly fortified
by his grace, that you may recover lost time. Look back upon
the past with sorrow, but to the future with hope, and live to the
glory of God and your own salvation."

17. To a Convict from his Daughter.

" Many a secret prayer has risen to God while here on your
behalf. Dear father, think not you are forgotten ; words cannot
express what my heart feels. Dear father, I would willingly re-
linquish my many comforts to be companion in your solitude,
sharer of your sorrow, and bearer of your burden, but at present
such is not the will of our heavenly Father.

" Dear father, you said right, that you had left a happy home,
ours was worthy the name of home ; and truly you have a
loving family. How could it be otherwise ? The training we got
was to love one another with a pure heart, and God supremely."

[The prisoner to whom this is addressed is in course, I trust,
of proving his innocence. My own impression is, that he is not
guilty.]

18. To a Convict from his Sister, a Servant.

" DEAE BROTHER, It is with sorrowful heart that I take up my
pen to write a few lines in answer to your letter. It grieves me
very much to think of your unhappy state, and often do I shed
tears when I think of you, and, moreover, that you are still un-
converted. The soul is of more value than the body ; therefore,
dear brother, let me beg of you not to neglect your soul. What
are the sufferings of the present world when compared with the
torments of hell? Although your sufferings may be severe, yet
it is a consolation to know they will not last for ever ; but the
soul must live for ever in endless happiness or endless woe. Let
me entreat of you to live every day as 'twere your last. Oh ! how
would a sinner plead for mercy, if he knew that he had but one
day longer to live ! Therefore, live in continual preparation for
death, as we know not what a day may bring forth. If we have
found peace with God, and are found ready when it shall please
him to call us, oh ! how welcome will the message be when it
comes to set our captive soul at liberty from these prisons of

LETTERS TO PRISONERS. 277

clay ! and angels will convey us to our Father's house, where our
souls shall ever be at rest; where we shall see our Saviour as he
is, and praise him as we ought.

" Perhaps you are ready to say that your sins are too great to
l>e forgiven. No, my brother ! for the blood of Jesus cleanseth
from all sin. ' Come now, and let us reason together, saith the
Lord : though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as
snow ; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.'
(Isaiah i. 18). And again, ' Come unto me, all ye that labour and
are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.' (Matt. xi. 28). And
again, ' Whosoever cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast them
out."

" Dear brother, come, then, and embrace the promise, while it
is offered to you. Come to-day ; to-morrow may be too late
now is the accepted time, this is the day of salvation. Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. All things
are possible to him that believeth. Take it then. I believe
that Jesus diod for me. Yes, brother, he died for you, that you
might live. Put your trust in him ; call upon him ; he will hear
and answer your prayer, and out of every temptation he will
make a way for your escape. Don't listen to the enemy of your
soul, nor to the advice of bad men ; but do your duty to God
and man, and I doubt not but all things will work together for
your good. I shall still remember you at the throne of grace ;
and if we do not meet on earth, I hope and pray we shall meet
in heaven, to part no more. I now commit you to the care of
my heavenly Father ; may he keep you, and guide you through
life, and at last receive you into his heavenly kingdom.

Letters from Convicts in this Prison.

19. " MY DEAR SISTER, My dear Margaret, I wish you would
return to your Sunday-school ; have you done any good since
you left it ? I don't think you have.

" You may for a short time have false enjoyment in idle plea-
sure on the Sabbath, but it will not last. I ought to be a warn-
ing to you in that particular. I was, and all of us were doing
well until we clisregai'ded the Sabbath. What has been the con-
sequence ? I have become a felon and an outcast ; I have brought
you to shame and misery. Do you gain anything by stopping
away ? No ; but you spend that, if valued, would keep good and

278 ILLUSTRATIONS FROM A PRISON.

warm clothing on you. I have been reckoning what we have
spent in folly these five years the sum would astonish you ; I
hope you will return to the Sunday-school again.

" I hope Daniel is a good boy, and sincerely hope he does not
go to the theatre as he used to do. I consider that was my ruin
here in London. There he will get acquainted with bad com-
pany, and will get on by degrees until he gets where I am. I
hope he will take warning by my folly, and think of me when I
am in a distant land, perhaps never to see any of you any more
in this world."

20. " MY DEAR FRIEND, If the worst happens, and I am sent
abroad, I must submit; but had I a choice, I would prefer in-
stant death.

" I request Mr. G. will deliver to you immediately on receipt
of this, my diamond ring, diamond pin, watch, gold chain, &c"

21. "My PEAR FATHER, I have just come from ehapel, and
have heard promising and joyful hopes for poor sinners like my-
self, from the text, 1 Peter v. 6, 7.

" Oh that I should ever have caused tears to flow down your
cheek, and brought you to see me in prison, a guilty criminal !"

22. " DEAR FRIENDS, Do not, I entreat you, distress yourself
on my account. Although my confinement and solitude since my
committal (now twenty months) have been a severe punishment,
deprived as I have been of intercourse with every person except
the authorities and officers set over me (for here one prisoner
cannot even see another to distinguish his features, much less to
speak), I can without hesitation declare, that I would not ex-
change this state of trial for that in which some of my years have
been passed in affluence and voluptuousness.

" I feel now the importance of being a Christian indeed, I can
now say, it is good for me that I have been afflicted. Having no
hope of seeing you again in this world, and not thinking I shall
be able to write, I must take leave of you, commending you from
this time forward to God, and the word of his grace. May the Lord
bless and keep you ! May he give you that peace and joy which
the world cannot take away ! "

OS. "DEAR FRIEND, You cannot but have learned (to my
eternal disgrace be it said) that I also forged upon my father,

LETTERS FROM PRISONERS. 279

and defrauded him likewise of some other moneys. Such being
the case, how can such a wretch as I am approach him who has
been so kind and indulgent a father, and ask a single farthing ?
Although I have obtained his and my employer's forgiveness,
yet my heart sickens at the recollection."

24. " DEAR PARENTS, I rejoice to send you these few heart-full
lines, hoping you are all in good health, as it leaves me at pre-
sent, thank God for it. Your letter I received with thankfulness,
but I could not read it without sighing deeply, to think that such
a kind father as you have been to me should have been so ill-
used by me. Dear father, when I read your letter, all my bad
conduct at once rushes on my mind ; my heart is then and re-
peatedly filled with your affections to me, and my poor mother's
words, ' Oh ! my lad, thou will break my heart ! ' I cannot
think about you once without crying deeply ; nothing in the
world can stop my tears at that moment. Your parting words,
dear mother, let me tell you, have brought me on my knees, to
feel my need of a Saviour, and I trust my sins are pardoned."

25. "DEAR COMRADE, I have given you a picture of my situa-
tion, and I have pointed out the advantages attending it. But,
alas ! is it not an unenviable situation, contrasted with the one
I held two years ago ? Instead of being a comfort, and of some
assistance to my parents in their declining years, and a credit to
my profession, what am I ? the degraded inmate of a prison ! Is
it not heart-rending, that the damning influence of drink should
rob one of health, and render him an object of contempt in this
world, to say nothing of the punishment which awaits him in
that to come ? I entreat you to give this your serious consider-
ation ; shun the temptations that surround you ; avoid dram-
drinking, for it ends in drunkenness, and drunkenness, where
does it end? or to what end will it lead its wretched victim?
Pause, then, ere it is too late. Intemperance has ruined its thou-
sands and tens of thousands, and is the curse of the British army.
How many painful sights would its officers be spared were this
pernicious habit banished from its ranks ! "

26. " MY DEAR NEPHEW, The good gentlemen of this prison
have allowed me to write to you concerning my papers from
H.M.S. I hope you will get on better than me, by God's help.
Consider the affliction that I am in. I have been kept in solitude

280 ILLUSTRATIONS FROM A PRISON.

for eighteen months so long that it lias made me miserable, and
I am good for nothing. Give my kind love to my good old pa-
rents ; I hope that the Lord will keep them from all trouble.
Tell them not to think about my condition, as I know that such
thoughts would soon bring them down to the grave. Don't let
my dear ivife and children know the miserable condition that has be-
fallen me ; as I know that I shall never see them again in this
icorld, the trouble is more than I can bear. My mind is so full
that I cannot say much : I hope the Lord will give you grace,
and keep you out of such sorrow.

" My dear nephew, as you are the only relative that I have
which follows the sea, I hope you will use all my sea clothes.

I hope that Captain II settled all my accounts with ,you ;

and I hope that you will, by God's help, look after home the
same as if I were there. I have suffered deeply for my folly and
extravagance ; but I have been led to hope that this imprison-
ment, though so degrading, will eventually prove the best thing
which ever happened to me, as it has already led me to reflect,
and has given me to see where I went wrong in my first starting
on life's journey. It is heartbreaking, however, to look back at
the time when I set out, with fairer prospects than almost any
one of my acquaintances, and then to look at rny present degra-
dation, and to be tormented by the thought that I have slighted
the advice of those who wished me well. I have, however, my-
self to blame. I pray to God for grace to act up to my present
resolutions."

27. " DEAR BROTHER, I have information that I am about to
leave for Bermuda. I thank you for your very kind letter. I
hope, by the grace of God, that this awful visitation may prove
a blessing. I am willing to give Christ all ; to submit to his
teachings, in the full assurance that He who died for me will so
rule my heart as to bring all its affections under his sway ; nor
will he ever leave me if I serve him in sincerity and truth. Oh :
my dear brother, I little thought that matters would have brought
this condition down upon me. I am sorry to hear of the de-
parture out of this life of your dear wife. I believe that she had
her lamp trimmed. Your trials are great in this respect. Mine
are on account of past transgressions; but I hope to hear of
your commencing to seek the Lord while he mav be found. I

LETTERS FROM PRISONERS. 281

hope that our dear Mrs. is still living. Tell her not to

sorrow for me ; but rather to rejoice in hope that these my
afflictions may work together for my salvation. I am afraid that
it would be too much for my poor mother to come to see me.
If not, I should look upon it as one of the greatest blessings
that could be conferred upon me in this life. The Lord will
strengthen her. St. John, I read, rode when he was a hundred
years old after one whom he counted dear to him as a son, that
had fallen into sin, and became a robber ; and he recovered the
lost one, for the Lord was with him. I should like to have a
last welcome from my poor mother, as a token of her forgiveness.
When I next write, I will tell you what the Lord has done for
one so great a sinner." ^

28. " DEAR FATHER, Oh ! how often do I wish that I had never
been bom, to have brought such disgrace upon such a kind
father ! but I hope you freely forgive me. Oh ! that I could com-
fort you in your old age, instead of being a burden ! I know,
my dear father, that you have shed many tears, and uttered
many sighs, on my account. How many hours do I keep
awake, and fancy that I hear your voice speaking, and telling
me to keep from bad company, or it would be the ruin of me.
If I had done this, it would have been different with me at the
present, but it is too late now. I hope it is not too late to be
forgiven for all my wickedness. I pray to God morning, noon,
and night, to give me a new heart, instead of this wicked one
that I have got."

29. " AFTER spending eighteen months' wages in two weeks, I
shipped again on board the barque Sarah, of Boston, bound to
Boston, with a cargo of whalebone. We left the Sandwich
Islands, and pursued our course towards Cape Horn, calling at
Juan Fernandez to take in water. We laid off and on two days,
and having shot a hatf-dozen goats, caught a few score of
lobsters, and loaded the boat three times with peaches, we left
the solitary shore of Selkirk, upon which there was then living
two Spaniards and their families. Before we got round the
Horn, we experienced one of the heaviest gales that I had ever
been in, our decks were clean swept of all they contained, our
two boats taken off them, and the bulwarks stove from head to
stern, scudding before it under bare poles. I had just been

282 ILLUSTRATIONS FROM A PRISON.

relieved from the helm at twelve o'clock one night, and having
got about abreast of the mainmast, we shipped a sea in which
I was swimming for two or three minutes, without knowing
whether the vessel or the unfathomable deep was beneath me.
Oh ! had I been then consigned to the deep, I should have
awoke in the middle of hell ; the thought has only very lately
occurred to my mind. When we weathered the Horn, we pur-
sued our way to Rio Janeiro, where all was refitted, and after
five weeks' stay amongst the swarthy Portuguese, we steered to
the north, and after embracing another heavy gale off Cape
Attrass, we soon run into Boston Bay ; but the wind blew so
hard that we were driven out again, and remained out a fort-
night before we got back. We then took the pilot on board,
and he soon brought us into the harbour, where a tug-boat took
us in tow, and brought us alongside of the wharf. So having
by the providence of God escaped the perils of the sea, I safely
landed on shore, where I intended to make my home, but
what has been the home of sin too often to me, and to many
more who follow the same occupation. My heart often sickens
when I sit for hours contemplating the state of the poor sailor.
Immediately he arrives at the place he expected rest, he falls a
prey to the first that greet him. Well may they be called land-
sharks. Far different from friends that would lead the poor
storm-beaten sailor to a place of virtue, quiet and order. But
far different is their object; it is for the sake of gain, to intro-
duce ail-to the haunts of immorality and vice, where the hardly-
earned wages that is needed by an aged parent or a sickly sister
are quickly dissipated in riot and excess, to our own injury in
body and soul, and the extension of that demoralizing vice
which renders our streets, and those of every large town, abroad
as well as at home especially seaports offensive to all and
contagious to many that pass through them. I know not how
to account that I have been so blind as not to see my folly
before. I cannot understand why I failed to perceive that I
was rushing into destruction. But it has pleased Him whom I
have denied and despised to make me an object of his mercy.
He has opened my eyes to see my guilt of past years. He has
led me to seek his face, and to cry for pardon through the
blessed Saviour."

LETTERS FROM PRISONERS. 283

30. " REVEREND SIR, I was one of a number of soldiers that
saved the principal magazine and repository from being blowed
up. I should say that I was one of the instruments in the
Almighty's hands, in saving them.

" The small but beautiful island named St. Helen's lies in the
river St. Lawrence, about a musket-shot from the city of Mon-
treal. It is a mile and a half in circumference, and half a mile
wide. Respecting its fortifications, it has a formidable appear-
ance on the north side, and is the repository for that part of
Canada East, for their munition and implements of war. I was,
unfortunately, the same night a prisoner in one of the cells of
the provost, for a breach of military discipline. I had lain down
and fallen asleep, when I was awakened by a loud cry of * Fire ! '
from the sentry. I heard the bell ringing, but did not think the
fire would be of as much consequence as it was. I lay quietly
in bed, as I thought it would be soon extinguished. To my
astonishment, it appeared to increase. I perceived sudden
blazes and sparks corning up into my cell through the pipes ;
and the cell was filling with smoke. I immediately leaped out
of bed and dressed myself, thinking that the cell door would be
opened to let me out, as the fire was making rapid progress.
I and some more fellow-soldiers were locked in, and no possi-
bility of getting out. What was to be done ? The smoke was
suffocating me. I wanted air, and I tried to open the window,
but I could not, it was icebound. I took off my shoe, and
broke several panes of glass ; but, greatly to my distress, instead
of air came thick volumes of smoke. I now begau to draw my
breath with greater difficulty, and I found I was getting weak
through the want of air. The perspiration was running down
my face. I gave myself up as lost, as the staircase on one side
was on fire, that led to the corridor I was in, so I had no hopes
of being saved in that direction. The prisoners now began to
cry for assistance ; but their cries seemed to no purpose, as
none dare venture up that were down in the yard. I gave my
last prayer (as I then thought it was) to that Almighty Being who
is able to save. Shortly afterwards a key was put in the door,
and it opened in a moment. It was the Captain of the Military
Prison that endangered his life to save ours.* I exerted my re-

* Captain Knight, now Governor of Portsmouth Convict
Prison.

284 ILLUSTRATIONS FROM A PRISON.

maining strength in getting as quickly as possible out of the
cell I thought I was going to suffer such an awful death in, and
I succeeded in reaching the open air. But what a night it was !
The recollection of it I 11 never forget. The snow was falling
heavily, and there was upwards of three feet of it on the ground
already. Such a cold night seldom is felt in England ; the
thermometer was below the freezing point, and we had to stand
up to our waist in the snow, handing the fire-buckets from one to
the other. A new cause of alarm began now to appear. The
fire was rapidly advancing towards the Magazine, and there was
hardly a possibility of stopping its progress, except that the
wind, which blew pretty hai'd, changed. As misfortunes never
come alone, the fire-engine was rendered useless, by being ice-
bound and out of repair. What was to be done we did scarcely
know. To allow the fire to advance was instant death ; and to
make our escape off the island was nearly an impossibility, as
the island was ice-bound at that time of the year (December),
and large fields of ice were continually coming down the river,
so that if a boat put out at that time of night it would be
smashed in pieces. Notwithstanding all this, there would be a
better chance of our lives by floating down the river on a field of
ice, than by stopping on the island to be blown up. We worked
in a state almost of desperation, until break of day. When we
had made a large gap, so as we thought the fire could not get
past it, by that means we stopped the advance of the fire on
the Magazine. It was said that there were upwards of 50,000
barrels of powder in the Magazine; there might be more, and
there might be less, I only take it from hearsay. If that had
taken fire, what would have been the consequence? It would
have sent one hundred and twenty souls into eternity instantly,
and in all probability have rooted the island up altogether, and
never be seen more. There was one fine young soldier lost his
life in his too eager endeavours to help to quench the fire ; he
fell from the top of the building, and in coming to the ground
he came in contact with a ladder, which caused his death ; for
I think, if he fell on the snow that was thick on the ground, he
would very probably not have been severely hurt. But it was
otherwise ordered ; he died in a few hours afterwards. Through
the effects of that night standing from half-past ten P.M., till
seven o'clock in the morning, in the snow and heavy bitter frost,

CAUSES OF CONVICTS' CRIME. 2S5

we could not walk, from our feet and legs being swelled, nor
sleep, from the pain we suffered from them. Some poor fellows
had to be sent home to England, invalided and unfit for further
service, through the effects of that night."

It may now be well to let the prisoner, in his
own words, state specifically the causes which led to
his downfall.

The following are written answers to the question ,
"What was the first cause of all your troubles ?"
proposed by me to men under orders for a foreign
station, with the assurance that they should not be
read until after their departure. They are selected
from a larger number only for their greater brevity
and clearness. Prom the circumstance of being
written, and by men after a long course of disci-
pline, they are entitled to more than ordinary
attention.

The Causes of their own Crime stated by one Hundred Convicts.

1. " The cause of all my troubles was, my mother died when
I was about eight years of age, and my father married his second
wife, and she was always railing at me ; and I was at last turned
out of doors, and went to the ale-house from that to poaching,
and from that to prison."

2. " The first cause of my troubles was bad company and the
love of money, and because I would not hearken unto my
parents' good advice, but followed the inclinations of my own
wicked heart."

8. " The first cause of my troubles was drinking, and seeking
for the pleasures of this world. I have been a lover of the plea-
sures of this world more than of God ; have indulged my body,
but neglected and starved my soul."

4. " False witnesses and a bad character : disobedience to
parents ; and forsaking the house of God."

5. " Bad company, drink, and idleness."

286 ILLUSTRATIONS FROM A PRISON*.

6. " By being thrown out of employment, I became acquainted
with a most dissolute set of people, which proved my ruin."

7. " Disobedience to parents, and from that to Sabbath-
breaking and gambling."

8. " The first cause of my troubles was drink, which got me
out of work. I then got into bad company, and then here."

9. " Staying out late at night, and bad company ; not taking
good advice, and disobedient to parents : gaming, and such-like
practices."

10. " Disobedience towards both my heavenly and earthly
father."

11. "When my mother died, my brother put me into the
workhouse, and there I fell into bad company."

12. " A passionate desire for gambling, intemperance, and a
desire for gay society."

13. " Bad company, card-playing, the ale-house, drunkenness,
and night-work, brought on a house-breaking job."

14. "Profligate companionship, depraved excitements, con-
tempt of the Sabbath, disobedience, extravagance, obduracy of
heart, despising all warning and caution from pious friends and
ministers ; beginning with small sums, intending to replace
them, these are the principal causes ; but there are others
which I cannot mention."

15. "Through keeping late hours at night, and getting into
bad company, which caused me to neglect my work."

16. " A bad wife was the first cause of all my trouble ; for I
would not have married when I did, if I had not been imposed
upon ; and the same person who commenced my trouble made
bad worse afterwards."

17. " Jealousy began, and made things worse."

18. "Had a dispute with my master, and left him ; got into
bad company on the railroad."

18. "Keeping bad company, regardless of the remonsti-ances
of my father, who at last turned me out of doors ; so, having no
home, I fell to dishonest means. The pleasures of sin were
sweet ; and one crime brought on another, until God, in his
providence, put a stop to my career."

20. " Disobedience to my parents, and profaning the Lord's-
day : then commencing with little things, such as a few plums
from a garden, &c."

21. "I was a fool, and said in my heart, There is no God."

CAUSES OF CONVICTS' CRIME. 287

22. "When I was eleven years of age, I went to serve a
farmer, who gave me beer to drink every day, so that I soon got
very fond of it."

23. " Leaving my master's house at night without his know-
ledge, for the purpose of gratifying my sinful propensities, which
at last caused me to be dismissed from my place without a
character. I then" fell to drinking and gambling, until I was
almost starved, having neither food nor clothing. So drink has
brought me here, and here I hope to leave it."

24. "The first cause of my trouble I can trace back to a dis-
regard of the Sabbath-day, by following the counsel of bad
youths, who enticed me every Sunday to come with them to the
very spot where this prison is now built, instead of attending my
chapel, as my poor mother thought I did."

25. "I may very justly attribute it to my disobedience to my
parents (parent, for my father died when I was an infant). My
mother was too kind to me, and so well I am repaying her. I
have brought down her gray hairs with sorrow to the grave."

26. " I trace the source of all my misery, first, to disobeying a
pious parent ; and next, to the profanation of the Lord's-day ;
and from thence to the perpetration of worse crimes (if such
there be), which soon hurried me on to the consummation of
my fate."

27. " Twelve months before my father's death I stopped at my
aunt's, where a sailor was boarding, and in the house opposite
there was a boy who kept pigeons. He told me that I should
have half of them if I would get as much money as would buy
some to put with his ; and this sailor having received his pay,
I took 1 out of his pockets, and bought a basketful of them."

28. "Frequenting wicked places of amusement, and not
taking kind friends' advice."

29. " Not paying due respect to the Sabbath-day. The first of
my breaking the Sabbath was my running away from Sunday-
school. I believe that I got into sins at the first of my staying
away from school ; but you know that it is very easy to go from
one stage of sin to another ; and so it was with me. I got into
bad company on the Sabbath-days. The devil always presents
some enticements for those who become his servants ; and so it
was with me. I was enticed to garden-robbery ; and, overcoming
the remonstrances of conscience, I soon yielded to other allure-
ments of a deceitful world."

288 ILLUSTRATIONS FROM A PRISON.

30. " Breaking the Sabbath-day, and keeping company with
thieves, and telling my father and mother I did not care for
them, and not being corrected by them for it."

31. " Leaving home to go and travel about the country, from
town to town, and from fair to fair, seeing all kinds of wicked-
ness ; following the occupation of a hawker of hardware, some-
times with a waggon, but often on foot."

32. " It was disobeying my parents, taking to poaching,
getting into bad company, going to fairs, and all that was bad.
Instead of going to a place of worship on the Sabbath-day, I
went to the ale-house, and there made jests of those who
did go."

33. " At the age of seventeen I was taken away from a good
and pious mother, and likewise a good master, and sent to a
rich and ungodly family, where the fear of God was not before
their eyes. This was the cause and the beginning of all my
troubles."

34. " Disobedience to parents, sir, I am ashamed to confess.
This led to Sabbath-breaking, and bad company. The conse-
quences, sir theft, hatred, lying, and every other vice fol-
lowed ; and now I am undergoing a punishment I richly
deserve."

35. " Living with the Jews ; for I can assure you, that I lived
eighteen months between two churches, and only could get
leave three times to go to one of them ; and then, I am sorry to
say, after church I had to wait upon a card and dancing party on
the Sabbath-day ; and now God is visiting me for so great a
crime."

36. " The first chief cause was truant from the Sunday-school,
after I went to work. Neither I nor my elder brother thought
it right to be sent to school after we had been to work all the
week ; so, we agreed not to tell of each other. We succeeded so
well for a time, that we thought it was all right, and began to be
more barefaced, by staying about home ; but mother seeing us,
and being satisfied that we were found out, we altogether aban-
doned school "

37. " I became acquainted with some young fellows who had
less regard for Sunday than I had been accustomed to. By de-
grees, I went once, instead of twice, to chapel ; then I got fond
of theatres, going, perhaps, once or twice a week ; then came
public-houses, a distaste for religion, novel-reading, Sunday

CAUSES OF CONVICTS' CRIME. 289

newspapers, and an ardent desire to see what is termed 'London
life,' that is, scenes of profligacy and vice."

08. " Disobedience to parents, and then masters ; Sabbath-
breaking, and the love of vain company, theatres, concerts,
balls, dances, night-walking, card-playing, and pleasure of all
kind."

39. "Being so fond of going to the play and the singing-
rooms, and the bad company I got acquainted with there. One
female so persuaded me to adopt her life, that, in order to
gratify her wishes, and have an opportunity of seeing the plays,
I was led to steal."

40. " Breaking of the Sabbath-day, and being so fond of
pleasuring about on the water, in a boat, on that day, led me
into all kinds of company that I ought to have avoided, and not
minding what my father said to me."

41. "Low company, a harsh schoolmaster, attending minor
theatres, reading novels, romances, &c."

42. "Forsaking my wife, who is a pious, good woman ; and I
hope the blessed Lord will forgive me for it."

43. " My being of a covetous disposition, and given to spiritous
liquors ; and seeing a deal of money in the shop the day previous
to my going at niglit to break into it."

44. " A stubborn and unbending temper, that would never
listen to good advice."

45. "Bad company, particularly females'."

1<. " The love of pleasure, covetousness, and an ignorant
mind."

47. " Associating with bad company, and frequenting theatres."

48. "Because I did not attend to the instructions given to me
at the Sunday-school, and seeking worldly pleasure after church
service."

49. " Associating with bad company, and then taking to
poaching."

50. " The cause of all my trouble has been through drinking
and gambling, and being out all night eard-playing, which caused
me to spend a great deal of money, much more than I could
earn by my own honest industry. So that, to supply my wants,
I became dishonest, which got me into trouble, and was the
means of my being sent for one month to the Warwick House of
Correction. In this prison I was used well ; knew some of the

290 ILLUSTRATIONS FROM A PRISON.

prisoners ; but, instead of being made better by the punishment,
my mind became more abandoned."

51. "While still very young, I began to ramble about the
streets ; and my parents being at work, they could not avoid it,
although they put me to school. But I used to play truant. I
got such a habit of playing in the streets, and thereby getting
among others that were alike inclined with myself, that, young
as I was, I found pleasure in deeds of mischief. land my com-
panions were in the habit of encouraging each other, and others,
in vice. I went on fi-om bad to worse, until my parents could
not stop me."

52. " By keeping bad company and gambling, staying away
from church on the Lord's-day, and playing at cricket. I used
to win a good deal sometimes ; and, being a good hand, I was
much sought after by my companions and others. But we are
told not to go in the way of evil men ; to avoid it, and pass
by it."

53. " Covetousness, and associating with bad shopmates."

54. " I attribute the whole of my present misfortunes to the
persecutions and machinations of my late master, who was jealous
at my prosperity in trade. But may God forgive him for his in-
justice and wickedness."

55. " Sir, I can blame all my troubles in having given heed to
my shipmates, when requested by them to go to the public-
houses, and there drink all my money."

56. " In the first instance, disobedience to my parents, and
the manner in which I was treated by my father. This made
me abscond from under his control, and I went to my uncle,
where I remained until I was apprenticed. During the three
years and a half that I remained with my master, I occasionally
obtained permission to ride for my uncle at several races. Con-
sequently I became a lover of gay company."

57. " It was disobedience to my friends, and running away
from them, getting into bad company, and then from bad to worse,
till at length I was transported."

58. " Being left destitute at an early age, without father or
mother."

59. " I think the first cause of all my troubles was through the
neglect of my parents in not teaching me the things that were
good and profitable ; and another cause, the love of money, which

CAUSES OF CONVICTS' CRIME. 291

led me to pilfer from my parents. I always had a propensity for
amusement, occasioned by having money given me for going of
errands, and seeing it lay about unnoticed. I do not know that I
am right in attributing my troubles, or rather my gross sins, to
my poor parents. Would to God they had some one to point
out to them their folly and danger ! I should have written some
portions of Scripture to them if I had known their address."

60. " Casting off the fear of God, putting him and his com-
mandments out of my thoughts, stifling the convictions of con-
science, self-dependence, forsaking home, throwing myself in the
way of committing sin, by being employed in an unjust system
of transacting business, for the sake of lucre. These formed the
source of my present fall."

61. " This was no theft of my own that I am here for; but for
allowing a person to leave some property at my house, which (it
appeared afterwards) he had stolen from his employers. I refused
to inform those who searched my house how I came in possess-
ion of the property, and was consequently not only brought in
as an interested party, but was also punished as the same. But
if innocent of this sin, I was guilty of thousands quite as bad.
Therefore I most justly deserved the severest chastisement that
God could put upon me."

6v!. " Leaving my home, and mixing with bad company. But
I think what chiefly helped to make things worse was, that, when
I was overtaken in doing wrong, I was not corrected in a proper
and gentle manner, but with hard blows and bitter words, which
tended to harden my heart. I now refer to the time when Hived
with my parents, my crimes beginning while I was with them.
And I can only account for their conduct from the use of the
cursed intoxicating drinks. I believe my mother took to drink
through father's bad conduct. Oh ! what sin and misery abounds
in this country through the infernal poisonous drinks, which
are allowed to be sold to increase the revenue of Government !
Why do they not do away with such an evil ?"

63. " Frequenting public-houses and liquor-shops, which lead
a man to almost every other crime. The conversation he hears
there corrupts his morals, banishes the love of virtue from his
heart, and prepares and opens the door to adultery and for-
nication."

64. " My negligence of the things that belong to my ever

u 2

292 ILLUSTRATIONS FROM A PRISON.

lasting peace, going a-pleasuring on the Lord's-day, neglecting
the Bible and a place of worship."

65. "My idol, alas! was money; because it enabled me to
support a spirit of independence, in which I prided myself ; and
in supportiug this pride, as well as gambling, I spent all I got,
although at the time I was getting, including presents, upon an
average, from 4 to <5 per week ; indeed I have received nearly
30 for one race."

66. " Idleness, and keeping bad company with people that
were more depraved than myself."

67. " I trace my first inclination to immorality from the time
I left my Sunday-school, which I had been in the habit of attend-
ing from my earliest childhood, and for a considerable period
before my leaving was employed as a teacher ; and I may safely
affirm, it was the happiest period of my life. No sooner did I
leave my school, than I began to absent myself from church, and
ofttimes made the Sabbath a day of pleasure ; and this, I be-
lieve, was all through getting acquainted with ungodly com-
panions."

68. " In answer to this, I could not possibly give a more cor-
rect account or idea of the cause of my trouble, than by referring
you to the parable of the prodigal son, in the 15th chapter of St.
Luke ; for most truly it was through leaving my father's house,
in order to avoid the restriction it was needful for him to put upon
me, as well as the tender and pious and affectionate admonitions
and entreaties of a dear, tender mother."

69. " A total mistrust in the providence of God, when I could
not by honourable means obtain a long-desired object, the speedy
attainment of which would have completely sealed my happiness
for life; was despairingly induced to commit an unlawful act,
which, instead of realizing my once anxious hopes, has completely
proved my lasting disgrace, and I sometimes think my inevitable
ruin separated me from my friends, and transported me for ever
from the endearing object of my bosom."

70. " Was wont to accompany my father from childhood to
public-houses, plays, race- courses, and such places ; and I always
after looked for such company, in spite of all my poor mother
could do to prevent it. But the father shall not suffer for the
sins of the son, nor the son for the sins of the father; so my
father will not bear the punishment due for my sins, but I must

CAUSES OF CONVICTS' CRIME. 293

bear my own, as well as he his. I knew to do good, and did it
not ; therefore to me it is sin."

71. " Having too quiet pai'ents, who let me have my own ways
too much, in not chastising me while I was young ; but no, they
were too kind ever to hurt me in that way ; and by being let
have my own way so much, I took to go to a public-house, where
I got into bad company, which gave my parents so much trouble,
that I believe I was the cause of my kind mother's death years
before she would have died if I had been a good son ; and after
losing her, I was cared but very little about ; so I went on my
own way, till I finally brought on my transportation."

72. " I was fond of going to the theatre ; that was the cause
of my troubles."

7o. " Leaving my work ; and then I began going with bad
company what did nothing for a living, but what they got by
stealing."

74. " Dissipation and company were some of the causes."

75. "It was leaving Sunday-school. When I was about eight
years old, I went to work in the factory ; and so soon as I began
to earn wages, in my ignorance I thought it was not right to be
going to school and factory ; but the reason was, I had got on
with a bad companion, that did not go ; so that made me to

think I should not go, His name was G H ; I

kept company with him for a great while. I got many a
beating for not going to sehool. The man that I worked
for always gave me two-pence a week to myself, and my mother
gave me one, and that led me to begin a-gambling, and I con-
tinued gambling every week for a long time."

70. " I can safely say this, that I never lived at a situation
that did not try and get as much for an article as they possibly
could ; and they would practise deceit and deception where
they could ; and they would never lose the opportunity of taking
the advantage of another man's ignorance ; and they never went
to church, though they kept large shops and warehouses, most
of them ; so that by me having such bad masters, I did not
think I should be doing wrong by following those examples ;
and the first temptation that presented itself, I yielded to it, and
now am clearly suffering for it. A poor woman went into a
draper's shop, and asked the prices of some shawls. Being
shown one marked 7s. <W.. t-hc said she should like one the

291 ILLUSTRATIONS FROM A PRISON.

same pattern as the 7s. &d. one, but higher in price, as she
wanted it for the winter. The 7s. Qd. shawl was taken, and put
into a parcel of shawls, prices 14s. 6d. The first shawl that met
her eye in this fresh bundle was the 7s. Qd. shawl. Ah ! ' says
the poor woman, ' I will have this one, sir. What is the price
of it?' Shopman: '14s. 6d.' So she paid 14s. 6d. for the
shawl that she was once told she might have for 7s. fid. It was
no mistake of the shopman ; for he knew her heart was set on
that pattern, and so took her in, and was praised by the masters
for his cleverness, and got a reward. I might mention several
others, but this will show you, sir, the nature of my temptations,
and how young-men drapers ai'e led into sin."

77. " Being always with men who tried to entice the mind
with all sorts of amusements, and kept the mind from re-
flection."

78. " Through falling out of situation and quarrelling with
my friends, leaving my home, and falling into bad company,
turning a deaf ear to good advice that my friends tried to give
me ; but I had already tasted some of the pleasures of sin, not
thinking of the bitterness that I should taste through it after-
ward, even in this world. My feet had already slipped, and my
friends' advice to me was all in vain."

79. " Through taking up with horse-dealers. When I think
of the warnings I received from my mother ! She used to tell
me that our sins were like arrows piercing the Saviour's heart
afresh. I could not see it then, but now I see it plain enough."

80. " A desire to have money became my ruin, and when I
could not get it in a right way, which led me to try to get it in a
dishonest way."

81. "It was from being indulged, and then comes the play-
house and fair; then 'way goes I with some more of my play-
fellows, thinking it a very fine thing to go to the fair; then comes
playing about on the Sabbath. And I need not add any more."

82. " My father's second marriage, haughtiness and disrespect
to my step-mother, and consequently not being able to implore
Divine assistance for to help me through my difficulties."

83. " I absconded with a sum of money from my father, now
four years since, from which time I have never been happy. I
was always very fond of visiting theatres, which called for more
money than I could find by honest means, yet it was as much

CAUSES OF CONVICTS' CRIME. 295

per week as some men earn. After being so wicked to so good
a father, and being forgiven by him, I was so bad as to commit
the same act again, since which I have never been home but for
a few hours, when he came and received me from the' City
Compter. I then thought I could do better for myself, and al-
ways endeavoured to shun my parents when I met them, nor
did I speak to them again until I saw them here. My dear sir,
pray for me, that God may forgive so wicked a son. I cannot
blame my home nor my parents. I had a wicked heart, and
I gloried in my wickedness. I was very fortunate as it was
called. By my crimes I got a deal of money, and so my heart
and mind were puffed up. Having found some companions as
bad as myself, I thought I was quite safe ; yet I think had I
been sent to prison where talking is not allowed, instead of the
City Compter, I should have been now a happy young man. I
came from that ' school of vice ' worse than when I entered it."

84. " Seen by parties in bad company led to my appre-
hension, of which I had not the least idea at the time that the
malt that I received was stolen property."

85. " The chief cause is keeping bad company ; and having
traced frequently back as far as possible, to see how I fell first
into it, I have almost always come to the same conclusion ; viz.,
that when sent to church by my mother, instead of going I went
bathing, or seeking for birds'-nests ; and so I proceeded from
one degree of depravity to another, until I cared as little for the
Sabbath as any other day. And it is from this time I began to
keep company with the persons who have at last brought me to
my present bodily circumstances ; and if I remember right, it
was on a Sabbath, while squandering away my time in walking
in the country that I first met with her."

86. " The first cause of my troubles, for which I have no per-
son to blame but myself. I was left without a father when at the
age of five years old. I had a tender mother ; never lived one so
fond of a child as my mother was of me. I was allowed any-
thing she could get for me ; I was allowed pocket-money to do
as I liked with ; I went to school when I thought proper, and
stayed away when I liked. I often went to play-houses ; when
quite young I was put apprentice to a master who had a great
many men, and I often went to beer-houses with them on Satur-
day nights, and there I learnt to drink, play at cards, and go

29G ILLUSTRATIONS FItOM A PRISON.

home any time to my master's house. I was let in, and nothing
said to me. I am sorry to say, it was keeping of late hours of
night, going to play-houses and other amusements, and drink,
and so on, till one sort of vice followed another, and when I
gave way to it, it came on stronger and stronger, and now I have
found it out. Those people that I have spent my money with,
now if I wanted a meal of bread they would not give me one ;
but I hope, please God, that I have learnt better ; if a man gives
his mind to drink, and to get drunk, that man is no good to
any master nor himself; that is the cause of my troubles, no-
thing else."

87. " By not obeying a kind and good father, nor taking the
advice of them that wished me well : but would and did at the
age of eighteen years marry into a family that were not even
acquainted with the things that belong to morality : after a
few months my eyes were opened ; then my troubles began."

88. " Being fixed in business too soon, getting married too
young, and against my parents' consent, I have had nothing else
but troubles since I have been able to do for myself, and through
110 misconduct that I am aware of. I have always been a steady,
sober, and industrious man, but nothing which I have under-
taken has prospered. I have had a very drunken father. (The
sins of the parent shall be on the children.) If my misfortunes
and sufferings will bring him to a knowledge of his sins I shall
be a happy man."

89. " We had now come to the greatest height of poverty ; we
thought ourselves well off if we got one meal in two or three
diiys ; we had sold and pledged everything we had ; we only had
a Bible and a few other books left, which we sold, and two days
after we set out for another journey, not knowing what to do or
where to go, as we were penniless and were almost starved to
death ; it rained very hard all that day, and in the evening we
committed the crime of sheep stealing."

90. " After I had worked hard all the week, and then took my
wages, as much as one pound or five-and-twenty shillings, I was
led by bad companions to spend half of it away from my wife
and family ; if it had not have been for bad company, I should
never have been brought here to be a poor prisoner."

91. "Leaving off going to Sunday-school as soon as I was
put to basinet,*, seeking pleasure on the Lord's-day in roaming

CAUSES OF CONVICT'S CRIME. 297

about to gardens and going out in boats, and breaking the Sab-
bath in everything that was wrong. I do not mention it for any
reproach, but my parents were too kind to me, letting me have
my own way in everything, which led me to honour my father
and mother less. I truly think, that giving up going to Sunday-
school was the commencing of all my trouble. Not having a
love for home, though there could not be a kinder, I think the
greatest happiness I ever enjoyed was when, by sickness or other
cause, I was kept at home in the evening, and reading aloud to
my father and mother ; but I was easily led away by the first
temptation. What I think the greatest cause of all my trouble
was frequenting theatres with gay companions, and from that
which I humbly beg you will excuse me mentioning, for I am
quite ashamed to look back to it, but it has been the chief cause
of bringing me to my present condition, to houses of ill-fame.
Liquors, and dancing, and swearing, I always did detest, and I
humbly trust that them, and all my other vices, I always shall.
Mine has truly been a miserable beginning of life, for I am only
nineteen years of age ; may God grant that it may have a happy
ending. O Lord ! pardon what I have been, amend what I am,
and let thy goodness direct what I shall be."

U-.2. " Neglect of my duty in not obeying the instructions of
my parents, because I was not closely watched ; habits of gamb-
ling I cherished from a child, which first commenced in the
childish game of cherry-stones, then marbles, then buttons, then
halfpence, and then draughts and bagatelle, the latter of which
caused my downfall."

93. " Running away from my master, and Sabbath-breaking,
associating with bad company, and giving myself up to lewd-
ness."

94. " My tirst misfortune was to be placed among wicked,
drunken men, when serving my time in Edinburgh to the
plumber trade. I remember well the night I paid my entry, as
it was the custom then to do. When the glass of ardent spirits
was handed to me for to drink, I cared nothing about it, or in
other words, I had no love for it, so I only took a little of it,
when some one of the men said to me, 'You'll never make a
plumber if you cannot drink a glass of whisky.' But little did I
think that night, whisky was to be my downfall. Plumbers in
general arc very much exposed, because they are going about

298 ILLUSTRATIONS FROM A PRISON.

from one house to another repairing baths, washhand basins,
&c., and there is hardly one gentleman's house but gives them
ardent spirits to drink."

95. "You are aware when children are young they are pleased
when they can get some one to tell them stories ; and, sir, I
dare say you know that old sailors and soldiers are just the boys
for that; for they will tell children any stuff to please them : so
it was with me, sir : if I could get with some old sailors or
soldiers I was as happy as the day was long ; for there were
several in the village where I come from, and I did believe all
they told me ; and it so filled my young mind with the hopes of
seeing some of these strange things they told me, that I got
quite discontented with my own happy home, and I was deter-
mined to go either for a soldier or sailor ; so I ran away from
home several times ; at last I got away, and I was ashamed to
go back, so I got into company, and crime soon after followed."

96. " When I was eighteen years old I took to going to the
play-house and concert-rooms, and staying out of nights, neg-
lecting my work ; my money soon went ; I took to a bad girl,
and after a little time my master told my father how I behaved
to him ; my father used to talk to me, but all in vain I took no
heed of him whatever. After I left my master I still went with
that bad girl, and I almost broke my poor mother's heart with
my conduct."

97. " Leaving home and having a wish to get money and to
see life, as some persons call it, but it is the only way to shorten
life ; I then fell into bad company, keeping gay company, and
fond of merry-making and gratification."

98. " I disobeyed my Sunday-school teacher's advice, and
then I broke the Sabbath-day ; that was the first cause of all my
troubles."

99. " Breaking the Sabbath, which is a breach to the rest."

100. " There can be, I think, but one answer, however large
a number may be asked this question : The absence of the fear
and love of God."

A remarkable Address from a Prisoner under sentence of Trans-
portation, to his Fellow-Prisoners.

" MY FRIENDS AND BROTHERS IN ADVERSITY, Now that we are
reaping the first fruits of that bitter harvest that we have taken

A REMARKABLE ADDRESS. 299

so much pains and wasted so much precious time in sowing, I
have no doubt that many of you, like myself, in the solitude of
your lonely cells, with no companion but your own thought, and
no eye but that of the Almighty upon you, occasionally call to
remembrance portions of that holy volume, the neglect of which
in our former career has brought us to our present condition.
I remember it is there written, ' Be ye sure your sins will find
you out ;' ' Though hand join in hand, yet shall not the evil doer
go unpunished ;' ' The way of transgressors is hard.' On these
points your experience must agree with mine. Are we not
realizing in our own case the literal truth of all this to the letter?
Our sins have found us out ; and God and man have combined
to punish us ; and truly, the way in which we must walk for a long
time to come is a hard, a rough, and a painful one, quite enough
so to make the heart that is not entirely dead to all human
emotion tremble at the prospect, even if the words above quoted
had no reference to the more awful but quite as certain punish-
ment that awaits us in a future state, unless God in his infinite
mercy so soften our hearts by his grace as to bring them with
feelings of contrition and true penitence to the cross of that
blessed Saviour, who died to save us from the eternal and terrible
consequence of our rebellion against a good and a gracious God.
The more I reflect upon this subject and upon my past life, my
resolutions of amendment, broken almost as soon as formed, and
my many feeble attempts to resist the stream of iniquity and sin
in which I found myself floating, the more deeply am I convinced
that nothing but the sovereign and almighty grace of our Father
who is in heaven can enable any of us to effectually withstand
the temptations and allurements to sin that meet us at every
step, and find in every one of our hearts an inclination and
strong bias towards compliance with their solicitations ; but as
this view of the subject on which I wish to address a few words
to my fellow- sufferers can be more consistently and ably de-
lineated by others, I will not further dwell upon it, but I will
simply ask each one of you, my poor fellow-sufferers, to join
with me in looking at the more obvious points of our position
as it is at present, as it has been in our past experience,
and as it is likely to be for the future, in a temporal sense,
leaving altogether out of the question the dreadful realities of
eternity, and a future judgment. I am like yourself a con-

300 ILLUSTRATIONS FROM A PRISON.

vict, suffering a severe punishment for an act of dishonesty.
We are separated from our friends, and from all society that we
ought to desire to be admitted into. Several of the best years
of our lives are as absolutely struck out of the account as far
as respects all temporal enjoyments, benefits, or advantages as
if we remained in the grave for that period. We are doomed to
live without enjoyment, and to labour hard without deriving
the reward that usually I may say invariably accompanies a
life of honourable exertion. The hearts of our friends, who
still continue to love us, though the rest of the world regard us
with abhorrence, are bleeding with anguish ; and the blush
of shame is upon their cheeks when they hear us named as
convicts, our respectability and character gone, if ever we had
them ; and, if we had not, the fault rests only with ourselves. All
these sufferings we have inflicted upon ourselves, all these sacri-
fices we have made. And for what? Where is the equivalent the
gain the value received for this frightful outlay '? I can say, for
myself, that I have none absolutely nothing ; in fact, I am, in a
temporal sense, poorer, worse off, in every respect, than if I had
never incurred it ; and I am quite sure this is the case with each
of us. If it is so with us now, let us have the courage to look back
upon the career that brought us to this. Let us, like rational crea-
tures, and sensible men, calmly take a survey of the pleasures,
the enjoyments, the delights that accompanied us in our evil
practice, such of us as made dishonesty and thieving the pro-
fession by which we expected to live. What incited us to enter
that profession ? What encouraged us to continue it ? What
was the prospect of reward held out ? Did we not enter it with
the hope of leading an easy and idle life, with plenty of money
at command, without work, and without exertion ? Did we find
this the case ? Did we not find it entailed upon us constant
anxiety and disappointment, watching and following our victims
for hours, or it may be days, before the opportunity offered, and
then, frequent disappointment; where we expected treasure,
behold emptiness, copper for gold, pebble-stones instead of
jewels literally, stones instead of bread ? I know this has
been the case often with many of us. Then, there was the con-
stant dread of detection, and, not unfrequently, the actual
occurrence of it ; then followed punishment, labour, the scorn
and execration of the community. Did we feel pleasure or

A REMARKABLE ADDRESS. 301

satisfaction under all this '.' Answer yourselves, as I do, truly
None. Would not a life of labour, or honourable exertion,
have been better, in every sense of the word ? ay, and more
profitable more money might have been made by it. I know
that many have been compelled to turn out in the morning, like
the wild beast in the forest, to hunt down the prey before they
could break their fast. I repeat the question, Where was the
profit, where the gain, even if it had not brought you to what
you now are ? And strange infatuation ! you knew this would
be the result ; you knew it would all end, and that before long,
in transportation. You know that all thieves, after a time,
become known to the police ; that they are marked men, and
that they all at last get transported ; that it is impossible to
escape. You know those of your companions, who have hitherto
escaped, will follow you before your time is out. You know
how many of your companions fall before you, like grass before
the mower ; and, whether you or they fell in the first or last
swathe, their and your fate was equally sure from the time you
entered the profession. Let us deal with ourselves honestly, what-
ever we have done with others, if these are facts and I know,
and you know, they are. What fools we have been ! what a bad
trade we have followed ! What prevented us from finding this
out befoi-e we were brought to this point? And this leads me
to speak of what incited us to continue the profession : it may
be, in here and there a rare instance, a prize affording the
means of sensual and beastly gratification for a few days' excess,
seldom more ; oftener, the reward was barely the wages of a
clever, active, industrious working man for although we might
get property to the value of many pounds, how little did it
yield us about 3s. for 1 value ! Was it the pleasure we
derived from the society of those who were following the same
life as ourselves their conversation, the information we derived
from them ? Let us look back calmly now, and weigh this point
in our minds. Was not their conversation generally such as we
ought to blush for? Could we venture to use the language, or
express the ideas, we were constantly hearing from them, in the
presence of any one of either sex of any degree of respecta-
bility? And does not our own natural sense tell us, that what wo
hesitate or fear to utter before the good and virtuous members
of society, must be in itself very wicked? Then, again, were

302 ILLUSTRATIONS FROM A PRISON.

these parties of such character and fidelity that we could rely
upon their honour and faithfulness ? Was not the case exactly
the reverse ? Would they not over-reach, defraud, cheat, and
betray their most intimate and, apparently, bosom friends ?
Were we not in constant dread of one or another amongst them
saving themselves at our expense ? Did we not, in short, live
a life of constant toil, anxiety, suspicion, and fear, with a positive
conviction that, in the end, our present fate would reach us ?
I repeat, then, have we not been fools and madmen, to give up a
fair chance, nay, almost a certainty, of becoming, by honesty
and industry, respectable and useful members of society, as
husbands, fathers, citizens, and subjects, for vicious indulgence,
often degrading want, contempt, abhorrence, misery, and, finally,
banishment? May God, in his infinite mercy, grant that this
may be the sum total of our self- inflicted punishment ; that to it
may not be added the bitter pangs of eternal death ! And now,
my friends and brothers in suffering, it only remains just
rationally and calmly to look the future in the face. I mean, as
regards this life. We have been playing a losing game, in the
run, by constantly doubling the stakes, we must lose all. Our
life is not all expended : we are many of us young, and have a
prospect of years, either of increased misery, or, in some degree,
rescued respectability and credit, before us. The law has struck
us this once heavily, but we may recover the effects of this blow
by resolutely doing right.

" I cannot use a more expressive term, Let us be honest and
just in all our dealings for the future. Dishonesty will not, cannot
answer in any case ; and now in our case least of all. If we do
wrong after this, the law will surely strike again, and then it will
utterly destroy us. Every good gift comes from God. I know
that he has given me both mental and physical powers sufficient,
by their proper exercise in useful, lawful, and honourable pur-
suits, to live honestly, creditably, and comfortably ; and I know
the same is the case with you. I know that the same fixedness
of purpose, the same energy and perseverance, the same ingenuity
and industry, that you have exercised in unlawful and unworthy
pursuits, would, if as constantly exerted in a right direction,
have caused you to be now prosperous, happy, and respected
members of society, instead of what we now are. I know it is
the fashion amongst those who have not tasted the terrors of the

ADDITIONAL CASES. 303

law, but who are in training for it, to jeer and laugh at its penal-
ties ; but to us who are fairly involved in its meshes, and have
the prospect of years of banishment from the joys of society, of
love, of friendship, its reality is dreadful. Let us, then, as we
value the peace and happiness of our future days, so endeavour
to direct our thoughts, hopes, and actions, that we may, after our
term is expired, enter the world with higher motives and purer
aims ; so that our latter days may be better than our beginning,
and our end may be peace."

Additional Cases.

Mr. Lucas's remarks concerning Roman Catholic
prisoners in Pentonville, as noticed in the last
chapter, have brought to my recollection the follow-
ing cases, which will serve to illustrate the honour-
able member's observations, as well as the subject
before us.

In 1845, as well as I can remember, a convict
came to us from Millbank who was entered there as
a Protestant, and of course as such on our books.
The man was examined, and classed by the school-
master amongst the non-readers. In the course of
nine or ten months, however, he was found not only a
proficient in reading, but well made up, mid able in
controversy, urging against Protestantism all the
usual arguments, in the way, however, of respectful
inquiry. Such a prisoner naturally attracted much
of my attention. Was he an educational prodigy, or
a member of some mysterious order, in a strange
predicament, wishing to do a good turn to the
Church (perhaps to convert the chaplain) ? He was,
I think, of respectable parentage, but under a false
name. He gave us no reference for character, and

304 ILLUSTRATIONS FROM A PRISON.

was reserved upon all matters referring to his
former life. I inclined to the opinion that he had
put on the guise of ignorance, and was really an
educated man.

It would now almost seem that I was right in
this conjecture, and that this able ultramontanist has
returned from exile, his sentence having expired, and
communicated with Mr. Lucas, for I recollect not
another single case in which I have entered upon
the popish controversy with a prisoner.

Another Roman Catholic convict is entitled to
notice in this connexion, as a specimen of another
species of hypocrisy. This man had been a butler
in high families, and was up to every scheme.
Irish-born, he had contrived to anglicanize his
name, and, in some measure, his tongue. At first
sight, however, I caught in his visage the linea-
ments of the true Celt, and calling him by his right
name, the mask fell off. After a while, however, he
essayed to play another part. He now fasted to an
incredible degree, and on bended knees for hours,
with uplifted eyes and fixed gaze, his hands crossed
on his breast in the crypto-catholic style, he seemed
lost in contemplation and devotion. No one dis-
turbed him. He was closely observed, however ;
was he an ecstatic, a monomaniac, or a malingerer ?
He made no inquiries for his priest. This was sus-
picious. We wished, and indeed intimated our wish
to him, to that effect. His spiritual director might
have explained the phenomenon. The prisoner now
advanced another step. He shaved his head of his

ADDITIONAL CASES. 305

bushy reel hair, as if with a razor, one morning, and
again assumed the motionless attitude of prayer.
On my next visit, when I saw the man in this
strange condition, I confess that I laughed outright,
convinced that he was playing a part, but was stag-
gered in my belief by seeing that even this did not
discompose him in the least. There he knelt, mo-
tionless as before, like a statue. I addressed him,
but his contemplations were too absorbing to permit
him to answer, or, seemingly, to hear.

The man was removed at length to another prison
and associated, and discovering, I suppose, there that
an honest course was, after all, the best policy, he
allowed his hair to grow, and behaved like other
men. He was, on the expiration of his time, libe-
rated, and paid me a visit in my office, dressed once
more in the gentleman-butler fashion. The London
manufacturers of character no doubt had set him
right again!

There was an Irishman, a Roman Catholic, I
believed, who stated to me that he had been once
employed by the Irish Scripture-Heading Society.
This man was on our books a Protestant, and after
a while expressed a desire to come to the commu-
nion of the Lord's Supper. Not being satisfied,
however, with the state of his mind, I did not admit
him, but recommended delay. His real character
upon this became disclosed. He flew into a great
passion, and his look said as much as " If I had you
in Tipperary I know how I would serve you."

Against this class of pure Roman Catholic Irish,

306 ILLUSTRATIONS FROM A PRISON.

or Celtic St. Giles' people, every chaplain of a gaol
must especially be on his guard. They are wholly
given to lying, and are as clever as they are deceit-
ful. If I might be so bold, I would warn their own
priests not to trust them too far, but even in their
most solemn intercourse with their catechumens, to
take care of their pockets, and to consider nothing,
however sacred, safe which is within their reach,
and which can be turned into money or tobacco.

To limit myself to things profane. It is not long
since a spiritual director (not in this prison, and I
will not say where), having absolved two penitent
convicts, left them with his blessing, and retired.
The gentleman was addicted to much snuff, and
carried three handkerchiefs for distinct stages of use,
one in his breast, the others in his hinder pockets.
The first he was fortunate enough to retain, but the
absolved contrived to begin life again by abstracting
the other two. One of their messmates, however, a
Roman Catholic also, having a higher sense of what
was right, or, as it is probable, only deeper hypocrisy,
informed the Governor of the theft, who thus reco-
vered the property, had the handkerchiefs washed,
and restored them to their owner upon his next
visit to the prison.

CHAPTER VI.

A CHAPTER FOR OFFICERS IN CHARGE OF PRISONERS.

" The great object of reclaiming the criminal should always be
kept in view by every officer.' ROLES IN CONVICT PRISONS.

THE following Rules respecting Officers who have
the charge of Prisoners are laid down by authority
in Government prisons.

' First, Concerning their oicn Personal Character and Conduct.

" All officers placed in authority over prisoners, and all per-
sons employed in the prison, must be men of moral principle
and unblemished character. Any disreputable conduct will
render an officer liable to dismissal.

" Intoxication will be visited with dismissal ; and it will not
be taken into consideration at what place the act of intemper-
ance was committed, nor whether the officer was or was not
thereby considered incapable of performing his duty; it being
absolutely necessary that all persons connected with the prison
should be perfectly sober at all times. Swearing and improper
language; knowingly incurring debts which they are unable to
pay ; the habit of frequenting public-houses ; keeping bad com-
pany : gambling or card-playing, will severally be considered a
sufficient reason for the dismissal of an officer.

" If there be any reasonable ground to believe that any officer
or servant betrays the confidence placed in him, by making
any unauthorized communications concerning the prison to the
friends of prisoners, or any other person not belonging to the
establishment, he will be deemed not trustworthy, and he will
be dismissed."

308 A CHAPTER FOR OFFICERS

Next, Respecting their Treatment of Prisoners.

"In maintaining order and discipline among prisoners,
punishment must sometimes be resorted to by the Governor,
upon their report ; but good temper and good example on the
part of subordinate officers, will have great influence in preventing
the frequent recurrence of offences and the necessity for punish
ment.

" It is the duty of all officers to treat the prisoners with kind-
ness and humanity, and to listen patiently to, and report their
grievances or complaints, being at the same time firm in main-
taining order and discipline, and enforcing a strict observance
of the rules of the establishment. The great object of reclaiming
the criminal should always be kept in view by every officer in the
prison, and they should strive to acquire a moral influence over
the prisoners, by performing their duties conscientiously, pa-
tiently, and without harshness. They should especially try to
raise the prisoners' minds to a proper sense of moral obligation,
by the example of their own uniform regard to truth and integrity,
even in the smallest matters. Such conduct will, in most cases,
insure the respect and confidence of prisoners, and will render
the duties of officers more satisfactory to themselves."

There must, however, be no familiarity between officers and
prisoners. " No officer or servant of the prison shall converse
with a prisoner except in the discharge of his duties, or on sub-
jects connected therewith.

" The Warders and Trade Instructors are to enforce their
orders with firmness, but also with humanity, towards all the pri-
soners under their care. On the other hand, they are not to
converse with them unnecessarily, but shall treat them as persons
under their authority, and not as companions or associates."

Eulesfor the Chief Warder.

" He shall consider it a main part of his duty to exercise a
sound moral influence over both the officers and prisoners placed
under his supervision. He shall frequently visit the prisoners
in their cells, for the purpose of promoting, by his advice and

IX CHARGE OF PRISONERS. 309

conversation, the object of their reformation. He shall restrain
by his authority every tendency to oppression or harshness on the
part of officers ; and likewise every tendency to levity, rudeness,
or insubordination on the part of prisoners ; and shall discou-
rage by his own example, and by the maintenance of a high moral
standard, every disposition to deceit, falsehood, immorality, and
idleness ; constantly aiming to raise the minds of the prisoners
to a sense of their responsibility, and of the comfort and advan-
tage of a conscientious discharge of their duties, and a cheerful
submission to the rules."

The Governor to be an Example to all his Officers, Sen-ants,
and Prisoners.

" The Governor shall exercise his authority with firmness,
temper, and humanity ; abstain from all irritating language, and
shall never strike a prisoner except in self-defence, should such
necessity occur. He shall bear in mind that the object of his
duties, and of those of all officers and servants under his direc-
tion, is not only to give full effect to the penal sentence awarded
to the convicts, but also to instil into their minds sound, moral,
and religious principles, and induce habits of industry, regularity,
and good conduct. With this view, while enforcing strict
observance of the rules regarding labour and discipline, the
Governor will be careful to encourage every effort at amendment
on the part of the prisoners, and will require all officers and
servants of the prison, in their several capacities, to do the
same."

These admirable regulations are the result of
an enlightened view of the claims of justice and
humanity , derived from experience in the treatment
of prisoners.

They reflect honour on those who framed them,
and the Government which gives them their force

310 A CHAPTER FOR OFFICERS

and authority. The great difficulty is to carry them
out, both as regards the selection of officers, and
their subsequent conduct. The oversight of pri-
soners is not likely to attract many to desire it, but
from necessity ; and it often happens that those
who have most of the moral qualifications, have
least of those which, it must be confessed, are in-
dispensable, when the safe custody of prisoners is
to be taken into account, and a strict discipline en-
forced. Military men, therefore, are in general
considered by the authorities the most likely can-
didates for such employment; and, if they are
capable of acting up to the spirit of the above rules,
they probably are the best for the purpose. A good
selection of subordinate officers is a matter of first
importance in a prison. Upon them rests the car-
rying out the details of daily discipline. They come
into closest contact with the prisoner. Their cha-
racter is studied and known by the prisoner. .

The officer may altogether misjudge the character
of the prisoner; but the latter, with little to distract
thought, forms an accurate estimate of the charac-
ter of his superior, and even of his habits outside
the prison walls.

A high-principled officer of the lowest rank is a
constant daily lesson, therefore, to the prisoner,
an example of what may be attained in humble life.
He becomes a valuable auxiliary to the direct means
used for the instruction and reformation of the pri-
soner. The superiority of his moral character, his
fidelity to the trust reposed in him, his zeal, and

IN CHARGE OF PRISONERS. 311

strict attention to his superiors' commands, insure
respect from the prisoner, and prompt obedience to
his own orders, whilst the gentleness of his voice
and manner will often win his regard. Prisoners
know well the necessity of strict discipline. If well
disposed, they feel the comfort of it. To such it is
protection. But necessary strictness is one thing ;
harshness of manner is another. The first is what
the law requires; the second is the arbitrary tyranny
of an officer ill instructed in his duty. Protected
by the former, and freed from the irritation of the
latter, the prisoner ceases to regard his punishment
as a thing against which he must struggle and
revolt, and, if opportunity occurs, escape from. It
becomes in a measure reformatory, and facilitates
the access of the teaching of religion to the heart.

The combination of great strictness in discipline,
with humanity, of firmness with gentleness, is cer-
tainly rare ; but it is found in some, and may be
attained to by all officers. "Why should not every
one, intrusted with the charge of prisoners, labour
to attain to it ?

It is a secondary consideration to suggest, that
such a course, steadily pursued, in general com-
mends a man to his superiors, and leads to promo-
tion. Officers of such character are continually
wanted for more responsible duties. This is not
to be overlooked. Men, as they advance in years,
generally need an advance in income, and become
fitter for duties which require experience and high
moral character, rather than activity and strength.

312 A CHAPTER FOR OFFICERS

In my opinion, a man should, by such a course of
conduct, look forward to promotion, and, by dili-
gently cultivating his mind and extending his know-
ledge in the peculiar sphere of his duty, prepare
himself for it. An officer who is not thoroughly in
his work, will never discharge it satisfactorily, and
'Is rarely good for anything. But there are higher
motives. Is it not worth aspiring to, to feel that
one has discharged his duty towards his superiors
to the best of his ability, "with good will doing
service as unto God, and not unto men ? " Is it
nothing to have soothed the sorrows of a heart
which was ready to break, to have supported a
mind from sinking under its load, or to have
calmed an irritation of temper which might have
burst forth into desperation? Crimes of a desperate
character, by desperate men in prison, are often
prevented by the steady, consistent, feeling conduct
of officers.

But who is that wretched man in yonder felon's
cell? or that twice-fallen woman in her prison dress?
Once they were children, blithe and merry, their
father's pride and their mother's joy. They grew
up, and for a while were virtuous, and they were
happy and free. Oh ! how sadly altered now ! Who
are they ? That man is thy brother ; that woman,
thy sister. Oh ! act as a brother towards them.
"Which of you," said our blessed Lord, "shall have
an ass or an ox fallen into a pit, and will not straight-
way pull it out?" Wilt thou let thine own flesh
and blood lie in a more pitiable condition, and not

IN CHARGE OF PRISONERS. 313

hasten to deliver ? Remember that rule : " Tlie
great object of reclaiming the criminal should always
be kept in mind by every officer." But where is
this high tone of feeling to come from ? Erom the
benign and blessed religion of the Gospel. Yes, the
individual who has been, by Divine grace, brought
to know what sin really is, so as to have sought his
own pardon as one guilty in the sight of God, will
feel for his fellow-creature, condemned by human
laws indeed, and an outcast from society, but in the
sin which is the cause and the worst part of crime,
obnoxious to the Divine justice like himself.

The real Christian is himself a pardoned convict.
He has obtained liberty only through the interces-
sion and good deeds of that adorable One, who in
infinite love submitted to servitude, and suffering,
and death for his redemption. By the death of the
sinless Jesus, he, a guilty and condemned sinner,
has obtained life. By His resurrection, free and
full justification, with a title to an inheritance in
the kingdom of glory, and by the sanctifying grace
of his Holy Spirit, a meetness for that glorious
possession. As he grows in grace and the know-
ledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, and knows more of
the vileness of his own heart, and the utter worth-
lessness of his own doings; he feels more for his
fellow- sinner, hates more all wickedness in others,
and strives the more zealously and lovingly to re-
claim the wanderer, to reform the criminal, to save
the sinner. " Brethren," says St. Paul, "if a man
be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual,

314 A CHAPTER FOR OFFICERS

restore such an one in the spirit of meekness ; con-
sidering thyself, lest thou also be tempted." Gal.
vi. 1.

But an officer may say, Can a man in my situa-
tion be thus a real disciple and follower of Christ ?
it seems impossible. If it be impossible, then, in
the name of God, without delay, give it up ; it is
better for a man to lose his place than his soul !
" What shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole
world, and lose his own soul, or what shall a man
give in exchange for his soul ? " But it is not im-
possible. On the contrary, the best way to discharge
a man's duty is to be a decided and consistent Chris-
tian. Alas ! this is the almost universal excuse of
men, when pressed by conscience, by God's Word,
and by God's ministers, to give themselves to his
service, I cannot now ; by-and-by I will. I shall
be more favourably situated for religion after a
while, have less to do, and more time for thought.
" Go thy way for this time, and at a more conve-
nient season I will send for thee."

I tell thee, O man, solemnly and affectionately,
this is an awful delusion of the soul which, unless
removed, will end in thy everlasting shame and con-
fusion of face. " Now is the accepted time, this is
the day of salvation." It is in the time of God's
choosing, and not man's, that repentance unto life
is given, and salvation secured. That which keeps
thee back from Christ, is the evil heart of unbelief,
and not thy office or thy business. " Ye will not
come to me, that ye may have life," was the com-

IN CHARGE OF PRISONERS. 315

plaint of the Saviour over the Jews : it is his com-
plaint now over thee.

From the want of faith in God's promises and
threatenings, officers are more concerned about what
their fellow-sinners think of them than about God's
judgment. Next to the want of will in the natural
man, this feeling, " I must do as others do," is the
grand hinderance everywhere to a man's yielding
himself to the service of God. To be decided for
Christ and religion, is to take up a peculiarity of
position in a man's class. It is to go against the
stream of opinion around, and to condemn, silently
at least, the practices of others. It is to experience
in a man's self the truth of the apostle's words, "All
that will live godly in Christ Jesus, shall suffer per-
secution." Hence, in order to stand well with a
man's comrades, or to escape from the sneers and
banterings of the ungodly, reason is renounced, the
convictions of conscience are belied, God is dis-
honoured, and the hopes of a blessed immortality
beyond the grave, gradually, but in most cases, cer-
tainly and for ever extinguished. Yes, you have
either no will to serve the Lord Jesus Christ, and
therefore never pray for the power, or, having some
feeble and faint desire of the kind, you do not cry
to God for strength to go forward to take up the
cross and follow Christ. Remember the words of
the Lord : " He that is ashamed of me and of my
word, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when
he cometh in the glory of the Father." To be
ashamed of being the servant of God, the follower

316 A CHAPTER FOR OFFICERS

of the blessed Redeemer ! what ingratitude what
perversion of reason what indescribable madness !

'Ashamed of Jesus ! can it be ?
A mortal man ashamed of thee !
Scorned be the thought, by rich and poor,
O may I scorn it more and more.

Ashamed of Jesus ! of that friend
On whom my hopes of heaven depend !
No ! when I blush, be this my shame
That I no more revere his name.

Ashamed of Jesus ! yes, I may,
When I Ve no sins to wash away ;
No tears to wipe, no joys to crave,
And no immortal soul to save.

Till then nor is the boasting vain
Till then, I 11 boast a Saviour slain ;
And O, may this my portion be
That Saviour not ashamed of me."

Indeed, for a man to say, My place, my family,
or my business, prevents my being religious, is no
less than to throw upon God the blame, by ivhose
providence he is so circumstanced. It is also alto-
gether to misunderstand the nature of true religion.
Godliness is designed to fit a man for the duties of
this life, as well as prepare him for a better ; and
is so really blessed a thing for calming the perturba-
tion of temper, in the hurry and anxieties of secular

IN CHARGE OF PRISONERS. 31 7

duties for strengthening our weakness in tempta-
tion for balancing the mind in prosperity, and
cheering or supporting it when things are adverse
that the more arduous and embarrassing the office,
the more earnestly should the possession of it be
sought. True religion is God's own medicine for
the ills, and troubles, and cares of life. " Godliness
hath the promise of the life that now is, and of
that which is to come." The excuse of official duty
for not being religious is therefore a delusion, and
those who give way to it are placed by their own
repeated acts more and more under its soul-destroy-
ing influence ; and repentance is put off, farther and
farther, till the heart is " hardened through the de-
ceitf illness of sin."

There is a day coming when vain excuses of this
kind will not stand. They will not satisfy conscience
on a death-bed ; or if, by perpetual resistance, the
conscience become " seared as with a hot iron," the
delusion will be dissipated when the Lord shall
appear, the Judge of all, by whose providence those
very cares and anxieties, pleaded during life as ex-
cuses for not accepting his grace, were thrown
around the man as the cords of his love, to draw him
to Christ and salvation.

Let us take the case of an individual in the most
difficult situation which can be conceived, and see,
from the result, whether the service of God is in-
compatible with the right discharge of any lawful
secular duties. The person I allude to is an officer
in the army, brought up from childhood without the

318 A CHAPTER FOR OFFICERS

true knowledge of God, or acquaintance with his
holy Word, and surrounded to mature years with the
most untoward circumstances as regards morals and
religion, without one God-fearing friend, or a single
guide to truth. He is a soldier in a heathen army,
an officer over men, the fiercest, as well as the bravest
in the world, in his age. In the course of his duty
he is stationed in a land where alone the knowledge
of the true God existed, the land of Judaea. He is
brought to reflection, he casts aside the prejudice
and contempt with which every Roman was wont
to view the Jews, embraces their religion, and
becomes a bright example to God's own favoured
people. This is no imaginary case. The Saviour of
the world pronounced this wonderful encomium on
the man : "I have not found so great faith, no not
in Israel." Luke vii. 9.

It occurred a second time, as if to prevent for ever
such vain excuses, in the case of Cornelius, Acts x.
This centurion also was most remarkably favoured.
Upon the preaching of an apostle, brought by express
Divine direction to teach him, the Holy Ghost
in a miraculous manner descended upon him,
" his kinsmen, and near friends," and they became
the first-fruits of the Gentile world gathered to
Christ. Remember these cases of military men.
Most discipline officers seem to think, when we are
expounding God's Word in their hearing, that it is
for prisoners only. They are too often, alas ! like the
elder brother in the parable, or the Pharisee in the
temple, proud and self-righteous. "They that be

IN CHARGE OF PRISONERS. 319

whole need not a physician, but they that are sick."
They are not conscious of any spiritual malady, they
are not sick, they feel no need of Christ.

Prison chaplains have little encouragement in
their ministry amongst prison officers. What, if we
are ourselves in some measure the cause ? Do we
think of all, pray over all, and preach to all our
hearers without distinction, bond or free, as those
who are responsible for all, for the souls of the
keeper as well as of his prisoner ? I know the diffi-
culty : officers must not be lowered before prisoners.
Still, I believe it feasible. " If any man lack wis-
dom, let him ask of God."

What I have aimed at in my own ministry is,
to identify myself with the officer in every address
made particularly to his class, and from time to
time selecting such passages of Scripture as those
just referred to, to show the claims of religion upon
all, and its compatibility with every lawful employ-
ment. Much, however, might be accomplished in
private, with God's blessing ; and to fulfil in some
measure this duty towards the officers around my-
self, and to strengthen the hands of others in like
circumstances, is the chief end I have in view in
putting forth these remarks.

Whilst, however, mourning over the spiritual
apathy of a respectable class, I thankfully recognize
this encouragement at least, that in every prison
where there is the faithful preaching of the Gospel,
the daily reading and exposition of God's Word,
and the consistent example of an affectionate and

320 A CHAPTER FOR OFFICERS.

earnest minister, the tone of feeling towards Us un-
happy inmates, and the mode of treating them, is
decidedly better than where these things do not
exist. This is a great matter, although far short
of what we wish to see. Another remark I am
bound to make on this point. The officers whom I
have been exhorting, may be upright in their con-
duct, and zealous and able in their duties, although
so deficient as regards religion, having no communion
with God, having no experience of the forgiveness of
their own sins in Christ Jesus, or of the renewal
of their hearts by the Holy Ghost. They are not to
be confounded with the class of officers to whom the
rules so pointedly refer.

It is a grievous thing to read in these rules con-
templating as they do, so high a moral standard for
officers, and such active co-operation from them in
the reformation of prisoners of penalties to be in-
flicted upon officers for "swearing and improper
language, incurring debts which they are unable to
pay, frequenting public-houses, keeping bad com-
pany, gambling, or card-playing," &c.

That men intrusted with the moral discipline of
prisoners should themselves be guilty of these
practices is preposterous, and discreditable in the
highest degree. What ! are not these some of the
prominent causes of crime in those unhappy persons
now committed to your charge ? Surely, you would
be alike forgetful of your duty, and the many sad
examples before your eyes, if you would pursue a
course which militates so directly against the law,

IN CHARGE OF PRISONERS. 321

under which you are called to act; which would
frustrate the efforts of humanity and religion in
behalf of these poor men, which would degrade
you in the eyes of those who are under your charge,
and which, if persisted in, will most prohably he
followed by disastrous personal consequences. These
prohibitory regulations, I grieve to say, are no dead
letter. They are too much needed. Select a body
of men ever so carefully, you will find improper
persons, when tested by experience, amongst them.
The history of every prison with which I am ac-
quainted, illustrates this truth too plainly. I throw
out a hint on this point. Let every officer in a
prison make out for himself a list of officers who
have been dismissed within a few years, and put
opposite to their names the cause; then let him
ask, What has become of those men, who took such
pains, by the solicitation of friends, by personal
interviews, and by testimonials, to secure the ap-
pointment of which their misconduct subsequently
deprived them ? In general, as degraded men, they
have been compelled to take very inferior employ-
ment, or are in miserable poverty. Wlio can help
a man to an office of trust who has violated trust ?
Who can recommend, for a duty which requires
perfect sobriety at all times, a frequenter of the
public-house ? It has been perfectly astonishing to
observe, apart from all considerations of morals and
religion, the reckless conduct of some officers of this
character. Their appointment was everything to
them and their families. They eagerly tried for it ;

322 A CHAPTER FOR OFFICERS

but, when they gained the situation, acted as if it
were worth nothing, or as if they were entitled to
hold it' without any honest effort to perform its duties.
The natural consequence was, they lost it, and
with it their character and chance of other employ-
ment. The same men, who, when they had their pay,
could not dispense with the luxury of the cigar, the
daily allowance of a very questionable beverage, the
evening lounge in the tavern or public-house, or
some other supposed necessary which the usages of
a man's class create for him, had, for their folly, to
go wearily and sadly along the rest of their dishon-
oured lives, without sufficient meat often, or clothing
for themselves, their wives, or their children, whom
it may be, after all, they love most tenderly. Com-
mon sense, ordinary good conduct, and a little self-
denying frugality, would have secured for them a
continuance, or an increase of comforts ; but with-
out strength of character enough to say, " No, I do
not approve, or, I cannot afford it ; " or sense enough
to sit down and do a simple sum in moral arith-
metic, and see what an amount of necessaries and
comforts, for sickness or old age, may be secured by
giving up unnecessaries and imaginary luxuries, and
what a state of mental satisfaction and manly inde-
pendence may be attained by a right course, instead
of the miserable labour and anxiety which they have
to submit to who borrow money from lending so-
cieties, &c., they have unhappily reaped the fruits
of their own sowing, and gathered the discomforts
in abundance of that irreligion which has so fre-

IN CHARGE OF PRISONERS. 323

quently the curse of the life that now is, and so
certainly of that which is to come. The real neces-
saries of life may be cheapened ; it makes no differ-
ence with persons of this improvident class. They
enlarge their desires, increase their expenses, and
adopt a higher style of living. They are often the
poorer for advantages of this kind. I never could
tell why men should not be content with the same
amount of comforts which their fathers, or those of
the last generation in like circumstances, were satis-
fied with, and to be in their station respected and
respectable as they were. Many are not content
with anything of the kind, and so they sink below
the real respectability of their fathers. They must
dress better, furnish their houses better, live more
delicately, see more sights, and be more like the
class above them. Thus they incur debts which
they are not able to pay; go to loan societies to
help them to clear off these, and contract new ones
with heavy interest, and then have a serious addition
put on everything they purchase, because they are
not punctual in their payments.

It requires but a few years of folly of this kind,
to make a salary of 60 or 70 a year of no more
real value than 40 or 50 on the frugal, paying-
as-you-get plan, and so to entangle and hamper a
man that he has neither proper spirits for his work
nor any comfort at home. His health, his character,
or both, in consequence give way.

Perhaps the subordinate officer will say, It is easy
for a gentleman to talk in this way ; he can know

Y 2

324 A CHAPTER FOR OFFICERS

little of such difficulties as mine. This is a mis-
take. There are thousands of persons in the situa-
tion of the writer, in the Established Church and
out of it, whose available incomes from all sources are
not a whit better than those of warders, clerks, and
schoolmasters in prisons. There are thousands of
gentlemen in the army, and in the learned profes-
sions, &c., who have to struggle on for years before
they obtain a situation, or pay equal, all things
considered, to that of some subordinate officers in
our prisons. I am far from thinking the pay of
subordinate officers excessive. It is not as good as
I should wish to see it. I thoroughly concur in the
view taken by a late Chancellor of the Exchequer,
when, in answer to an Honourable Member's motion
for a revision of official salaries, he concluded by
saying, " that there were not above 50,000 persons
engaged in the civil service of the country ; that
there was no nation served by so few people, pro-
portionately to the work they had to do, and served
so well ; and that the way to insure heart-service,
and not lip-service, was, in every department, to
pay poor servants well, treat them with consideration
and kindness, and not to discourage them by seeming
willing to sacrifice their feelings and interests" My
argument is, that whatever a man's salary is, he
ought to live within it, and encounter rather the
difficulties of self-denial and frugality for a time^
than the discredit and lasting misery which follow
an opposite course. Let not the times we live in
be blamed. If they have their peculiar difficulties

IN CHARGE OF PRISONERS. 325

and temptations, they have their helps too, in more
than proportionate abundance. To refer only to one
the better means of mental occupation and im-
provement than existed in the last generation. I
do not mean by reading trashy books or Sunday
newspapers, which are intellectual as well as moral
poison, but by pursuing some one or more subjects
of wholesome study, for which there is some taste.
True intellectual cultivation ceases when moral or
religious declension begins. Let a man take to the
proper cultivation of his mind in his leisure hours,
and he will bear to be alone, or, if he has a family,
he will be happiest at home, and soon rise above
the folly and the extravagance of inhaling and puff-
ing out smoke, and the graver criminalities of the
bottle. The habit of smoking has grown, of late
years, into a vice, as well as a nuisance. In the
army it called forth the following order from its
late illustrious chief:

" General Order,

Horse Guards, 2Qth November, 1845.

" The Commander-in-chief has been informed that the prac-
tice of smoking, by the use of pipes, cigars, or cheroots, has
become prevalent among the officers of the army, which is not
only in itself a species of intoxication, occasioned by the fumes
of tobacco, but undoubtedly occasions drinking and tippling by those
who acquire the habit. He entreats officers commanding regiments
to prevent smoking in the mess-rooms of their several regiments,
and in the adjoining apartments, and to discourage the practice
among the officers of junior rank in their regiments.

John Macdonald,

Adjutant-General."

32(5 A CHAPTER FOR OFFICERS

I have seen cases of folly and ruin, such as I have
referred to, in this prison. I have forewarned the
individuals, in private, of the coming calamity, but
in vain, When men get into a certain habit, or run
a certain length in an evil course, nothing short of
a miracle of grace can save them nothing but down-
right poverty and distress can arouse them to a pro-
per sense of their condition. My heart sickens at
the remembrance of these unhappy persons ; and I
think, when I see or hear of them, how happy,
useful, and respected they might have been how
degraded and wretched they are. Persons in this
situation unhappily imagine that the more they ape
the higher classes, the more they will be thought of.
It is a miserable mistake. Such conduct is calcu-
lated to make them ridiculous. I never knew an
instance to the contrary. A steady, consistent
course in that state of life in which it has pleased
God to place a man, is the best means of obtaining
the good opinion of our equals, if they are men of
sense, and most decidedly of our superiors. To dress
one's self or one's family beyond one's proper posi-
tion, or otherwise to exceed propriety and prudence
in expenditure, under the notion of attaining to
greater respectability, is to misunderstand alto-
gether the meaning of the word. I am far from
wishing to confine my remarks here to subordinates.
The folly has less to excuse it in those of my own
rank and profession.

The officers of Pentonville and Portland Prisons
will remember the case of - , a prisoner under

IX CHARGE OF PEISONERS. 327

their charge, but a short time previously, himself
an officer in charge of prisoners. Up to his pro-
motion to a situation fully corresponding with
that of Governor of an ordinary prison, he seems to
have been really a respectable person, and to have
brought up his children well. At least, he was no
hinderer, by immorality or otherwise, as far as I
can learn, to his more worthy partner's efforts in
this respect, upon whose Christian management the
children's conduct reflect, and will continue, I trust,
to reflect, the greatest credit.

Through the kindness of influential persons who
had opportunities of observing the family, he got
an appointment, rather, perhaps, too much above
his natural position (always in itself an evil, unless
there be more than ordinary good sense in the indi-
vidual, or real godliness). Prosperity and pride, I
suppose, bred irreligion and sensuality. He gradu-
ally neglected religion, and at last gave it up
violated his convictions formed an improper inti-
macy (first observed by prisoners) embezzled
money fled spent all gave himself up to jus-
tice (he said through remorse) was convicted,
and, as a felon, was immured in this prison, which
a twelvemonth before, or less, he had entered
as a visitor, to receive instruction in the discharge
of the duties over prisoners, then devolving upon
him.

A ruin in character, and, I fear, in health a
miserable and degraded outcast from his family
and country that individual stands forth a ter-

328 A CHAPTER FOR OFFICERS

rible warning to officers having the oversight of
prisoners.

Every congregation of prisoners brought under
the officer's eye in our own chapel, has many
instances of the like descent from station and
respectability, in consequence of the habits repro-
bated in the rules which form the foundation of
these remarks.

There are yet two points on which I would
briefly touch, referred to in the rules.

The first is, the high duty of always speaking
the truth. The officer is bound to report to the
Governor all breaches of discipline : let him be
careful to do so without .exaggeration or any degree
of colouring. If he entertain a doubt as to the
individual, let him state it. If he has anything to
offer in extenuation, let him not be so ungenerous,
or rather so unjust and cruel, as to keep it back.
Let him remember, that the prisoner in general can
have no witness on his side, and that his officer's
word will be taken, if there be contradiction, by
the authority which awards punishment, and that
the punishment may be lasting as it is severe
affecting his condition for life. If the officer's own
temper has given occasion to the offence of the pri-
soner, let him be manly enough to own it. Let the
awarder of punishment, moreover, bear constantly
in mind the possibility of provocation on the part of
the officer, his liability to err, and the disposition to
exaggerate, so natural to man. Let him weigh all
extenuating circumstances, and consider well the

IN CHARGE OF PRISONERS. 329

peculiarities of disposition in prisoners, and the fact
that the punishment which is a terror to one is
mere play to another. Let him also remember, that,
as judge himself, he may greatly err, and in doubt-
ful cases, therefore, let him incline to mercy. A
slight wrong done to a prisoner may be the cause
of irreparable mischief. A considerate allowance of
circumstances, or a doubt in his favour, with a faith-
ful and affectionate admonition at the time, may be
the turning-point of his life for good.

The other matter is : familiarity of officers with
prisoners. The same rules which require the pri-
soner to be treated with the utmost humanity,
strictly prohibit all intercourse of officers and pri-
soners, beyond what is absolutely necessary. This
is a wise precaution. Constant intercourse with
criminal or fallen characters, unless there be a good
object in view, or at least a conscientious sense of
duty, leads to the lowering of the moral tone of
feeling in the superior, without benefit to the
inferior.

In conclusion, as I said to the officers, whom I
addressed more particularly in the first part, I
would say now to you, If you would discharge
your duties to man aright, you must begin by
remembering your obligations to God. If you
would learn to hate sin and pity the sinner, you
must go to the cross of Calvary yourself, and see
what Christ, the spotless and the blessed one, suf-
fered for your sin, from love to your soul. Ah !
where should you or I, or the best of men, be, after

330 A CHAPTER FOR OFFICERS

this our mortal existence, if He had not thus died,
" the just for the unjust, to bring us to God ? "

If you desire to rise to the dignity and blessed-
ness of the true Christian, living for the glory of
God and the good of your fellow creatures, fulfilling
aright the duties of that station of life into which it
has pleased God to call you, " Seek first the king-
dom of God and his righteousness, and all ^these
things shall be added unto you." The world says,
last. The deceitful heart of man says, last. The
enemy of souls says, last. The Redeemer of the
soul, and the Judge of all men, says, first. Seek
then the Lord, first now "while he may be
found, call upon him while he is near."

Happily, there are instances of officers advancing
in personal character, instead of retrograding. My
prayer is, that their hands may be strengthened by
these remarks that their number may be greatly
increased, until the true profession of Christ's holy
religion may become as general amongst those who
have the oversight of prisoners, as it is now, not-
withstanding much improvement, unhappily rare.

The keeper of the prison in Macedonia (Acts xvi.),
in his unconverted state, was so harsh as "to thrust
Paul and Silas into the innermost prison, and to make
their feet fast in the stocks" and so proud and im-
petuous in spirit, that when he thought his prisoners
had escaped he drew his sword to take away his life.
Of the same man, under the Divine Spirit's power
through belief in the truth which Paul preached,
we read, " In the same hour of the night, he took

IN CHARGE OF PRISONERS. 331

them and washed their stripes ; and when he had
brought them into his house, he set meat before
them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his
house."

SPEAK GENTLY!

SPEAK gently : it is better far

To rule by love than fear ;
Speak gently, let not harsh words mar

The good we might do here.

Speak gently to the young, for they

Will have enough to bear ;
Pass through this life as best they may,

Tis full of anxious care.

Speak gently to the aged one,

Grieve not the care-worn heart ;
The sands of life are nearly run,

Let such in peace depart.

Speak gently, kindly to the poor,

Let no harsh tones be heard ;
They have enough they must endure,

"Without an unkind word.

Speak gently to the erring, know

That thou thyself art man ;
Perchance unkindness made them so,

Oh win them lack again.

The foregoing address, in its original form, was
placed in the hands of every subordinate officer in
the convict service, by order of Sir George Grey, the
Secretary of State for the Home Department.

I would venture now to add a few remarks, for
the consideration of superior officers in prisons, and

332 A CHAPTER FOR OFFICERS

those who have the selection and supervision of them
in their responsible duties. I do so, I am well aware,
at the risk of being considered very presumptuous ;
but as, in the first instance, I took up my pen to
benefit (if it might be), rather than to please men,
so now I feel this to be more plainly my duty, be-
cause of the unexpected degree of influence which
has since, by the public, been attached to these pages.
To begin with officers of my own class. The im-
provement in the penal institutions of England has
in nothing been more apparent than in the depart-
ment of the chaplain.

The gaol chaplain of the old school, (like another
functionary, not to be named,) was an official kept
for state occasions, then so terribly frequent, and
not for the every-day exercise of his ministry
amongst the unhappy and guilty persons committed
nominally to his spiritual care. He was taken of
necessity from the roughest mould, as one who had
to encounter continually the recurrence of appalling
spectacles (a single one of which would fill many a
man's mind with horror for a lifetime), not as a
distant spectator, but standing on the very brink of
the fearful precipice down which he witnessed his
hapless fellow-men successively hurled. His busi-
ness was not to seek to reform the living, and to
benefit society in their improvement, but adhering to
the traditional usages of his office from Papal times,
to administer to those appointed to die "the conso-
lations of religion," as the phrase still is, and, in
general, " the holy sacrament." The penitent and

IN CHARGE OF PEISONERS. 333

impenitent alike received comfort at his hands.
Remorse and anguish of soul too readily passed
for contrition.

The duty which was thus assigned to the chaplain
helped further to unfit him for the real work of a
minister of the Gospel. It is not long since an in-
valided chaplain of a certain gaol died, and in a
cabinet of curiosities which he left, there were noted
as articles of vertu of the rarest kind, various relics
taken from the persons of notorious highwaymen and
murderers whom he had attended to the scaffold,
which he was wont in his life to exhibit and dilate
on to the curious. Another has just gone to his ac-
count, of like character. The judge of assize, a man
of humanity and religion, had delayed sentencing a
prisoner convicted of a capital offence to the follow-
ing morning. In the interval, he found occasion to
converse with the chaplain, and asked him his opinion
as to what might be a reasonable time within which
contrition in a criminal might be looked for. " You
mean," says the chaplain, " sufficient to prepare him
to die ! I would undertake, my lord, to prepare
any man for death in three weeks." " Indeed ! "
replied the judge, with an air of incredulity and re-
proof. His sense of religion was shocked, and next
morning he sentenced the criminal to transportation
for life, remarking to the sheriff that he dared not
incur the responsibility of leaving the wretched man
to die under such an instructor.

In our tune, probably no part of the church is
served by more excellent, faithful, and painstaking

334 A CHAPTER FOR OFFICERS

clergymen than the prisons of England. Their own
higher characters and the duties now assigned to
them, however, expose them to peculiar difficulties.
So long as the chaplain had to confine himself to a
mere round of professional acts, and looked indul-
gently upon others' derelictions of duty, there was
no likelihood of any misunderstanding with the lay
officials around him. They lived generally on the
best terms with one another ; the governor, in
many gaols, frequently reading prayers for the chap-
lain when he failed to come. The evil to be ap-
prehended now, is the invasion of the governor's
province by the chaplain, from over-earnestness in
his profession, or a wrong estimate of his position
and duties. Discretion is not always the companion
of zeal, nor good common sense of undoubted talent
or genuine piety. Some chaplains, conscious of their
moral superiority, aim at what does not belong to
them in a prison official pre-eminence ; or, mistak-
ing their vocation, intermeddle with matters of mere
discipline ; or, as if they had not responsibility
enough in the exercise of their own most onerous
duties, seem anxious to take upon them that of
governor, and others even in higher authority.
These are very great mistakes, and they are too
common, producing, in many gaols, disputings and
bickerings, which turn off attention from weighty
matters, and end in mutual distrust and ill-will. By
such means a minister of religion assuredly loses his
proper influence. As an order of men, it must be
confessed, we are dogmatical and intolerant of others'

IN CHARGE OF PRISONERS. 335

opinions, above most classes, whether from our oc-
cupying the chair of the lecturer and instructor so
continually, or from the deference so freely paid to
us as clergymen, or from both these causes.

The highest far of all our duties is, beyond ques-
tion, the full and faithful exercise of " the ministry
of reconciliation as ambassadors of Christ" to the
poor people committed to our charge, in the pulpit
and the cell. If this be not interfered with, we have
the greatest power for good placed in our hands, and
may well bear with many hinderances and disagree-
ables in other things. If this our ministry be
thoroughly entered into, a thousand offices of sym-
pathy and kindness towards our flock will follow,
and react again, with God's blessing, upon their
spiritual condition.

To discipline and improve the intellectual capaci-
ties of the prisoner, by education, books, and every
available means, is a high duty of a chaplain, and
a most interesting one.

A more difficult task than either to the faithful
chaplain yet one that cannot be dispensed with
is formally to report upon all matters coming legiti-
mately before him, to those under whom he is placed,
and who have the supreme direction of affairs. In
this delicate work, he should keep himself aloof from
all party feeling, or prejudice in favour of this or that
system, and be above every species of exaggeration.
Where other officers are concerned, he should deal
frankly with them, as circumstances occur and give
opportunity of explanation, and by no means treasure

336 A CHAPTER FOR OFFICERS

up grievances for some favourable occasion. If im-
portant, they should have been noticed at once.
He should conceal nothing in his reports in con-
nexion with religion, or morals, or education, in the
prison, or with the treatment of the prisoner, which
the authorities ought to know, and cannot know
otherwise. In 110 part of his duty will he find more
need of prudence and caution, combined with fear-
lessness of personal consequences. Having faithfully
reported, he transfers the burden to other shoulders,
and may return, with satisfaction, to his blessed and
honourable work. An assistant-chaplain has not the
responsibility of reporting, unless to his principal, or
when in complete charge of the prisoners, or when
called upon by the governing body.

I must pass on now to speak of governors and
their duties, not indeed in my capacity of chaplain,
but as an individual writing for the public. The
tendency of power is to absolutism and tyranny.
The governor of a gaol, within certain limits defined
by the law, is possessed of great power. Invested
with the keys of office, he reigns over subordinates
and prisoners, in the best visited prisons, almost
every hour of the day. His commands must be
obeyed. In general, he can inflict fines upon offi-
cers, and by law can punish prisoners with solitude,
darkness, and bread and water for three days. He
can report and recommend both for higher penalties.
He has the ear of the visiting magistrates, and if
possessed at all of their confidence, or even of good
personal address, he can influence their minds to a

IN CHARGE OF PRISONERS. 337

serious extent. He has control over all witnesses
within his dominion, and can make his favour or
displeasure sensibly felt. He may worry his officers
with impunity, stop their promotion, and refuse
satisfactory testimonials to them upon leaving. In
nine cases out of ten, the exercise of this petty sove-
reignty, when not effectually controlled by superior
authority, or public opinion, proves prejudicial to
the individual himself, as well as to the establish-
ment over which he has been placed. In cases not
a few, now within our own knowledge, the tempta-
tions of the office in these and other respects were
too strong for the possessors, and they have ended
their career in utter disgrace and abject poverty, as
fugitives from justice, or like the wretched person
referred to in a previous part of this chapter.

There are ungodly governors, who treat all religion
as a delusion, or, at best, a merely subordinate agency,
and they infuse too readily their own spirit into their
officers, from . whom it passes, by easy transition,
upon the unhappy prisoner. Some attend the church
service only by deputy, or so seldom, and then so
listlessly, that every one can see they come for mere
show, or detection, or from constraint, not from
any interest in that which after all must be admitted,
except by infidels, to be the prune agency for reform-
ing the characters of the fallen, and restoring them
to society as useful members. Many have not an
idea in their system of government of any moral in-
fluence. The fine for the officer, the dark cell for
the prisoner, and a suspecting surveillance over all,

338 A CHAPTER FOR OFFICERS

is to do everything. The result is, an instant but
heartless obedience; mutual distrust amongst officers,
with an unanimous dislike to their chief; and a con-
fusion of mind in prisoners between acts of folly and
of guilt, when they see that one penalty awaits all
offences alike.

There are, happily, governors the reverse of all
this (several have already in these pages been referred
to), who take the liveliest interest in the moral ele-
vation of the prisoner, and encourage everything
tending in that direction ; who sustain a high influ-
ence over officers and prisoners, by a just and strict
discipline, a courteous and kind treatment of subor-
dinates ; but most of all, by the example of their own
personal character, and diligence in the performance
of duty.

In conclusion, I would add a thought or two for
the consideration of magistrates having the over-
sight of our gaols.

This is a prison-palace-building age. Unquestion-
ably, good construction is a great point, and public
edifices should never be unsightly nor unmeaning
objects. It is immensely more important, however,
in the question of prison improvement, to consider
how the prison shall be officered, than how the ma-
terials of brick and mortar shall be disposed. Expe-
rience has already too painfully shown how, with all
the external and internal architectural improvements
of prison building, you may have yet, in the living
machinery by which mind and character are to be
disciplined, a system of folly or cruelty carried out

IN CHARGE OF PRISONERS. 339

which would have disgraced even Newgate in
Howard's days. The magistrates of Birmingham
seem to have thought their work completed when
they paid the last hill for the elegant prison struc-
ture which adorns their suburbs, whereas it was only
then fairly begun. Beyond the selection of a good
chaplain, and a few worthy minor officials, they ap-
pear to have taken but little pains in getting good
officers or they were the most unfortunate of men
and then everything was left to find its own level,
and the hackneyed " all right" of their functionaries
was sufficient attestation of the discharge of their
own most important duty as visitors. But not to
be tedious in my homily to visiting justices (the
greater part of whom, however, I do not address, for
they are far above my praise or censure), I would
sum up my remarks in a few short sentences.

1. Do not select for your superior officers men
who have prison crotchets, nor yet untried men who
have mere paper qualifications. Eor governors,
choose men of well-known ability, discretion, and
humanity men of fixed principles in religion, and,
c&teris paribus, educated gentlemen. Let your-
medical men not only have their professional diplo-
mas and proper skill, but also good moral charac-
ters, and good repute for kindness to the poor. In
your chaplains, look for the same qualifications, com-
bined with an " aptness to teach," and the well-
earned reputation of the painstaking pastor, especially
amongst the lower classes and the poor. There are
many such in your manufacturing towns and else-

340 A CHAPTER FOE OFFICERS

where. Beware of formalists and ceremonialists.
There is acting enough among criminals.

Pension off old servants. Do not imagine that
you can make them effective agents of an improved
style of discipline by giving them an uniform, with
bright buttons, instead of their private clothes ; or
the euphonious designation of warders, instead of
turnkeys.

2. Having chosen your officers, and found them
efficient, treat them liberally, raise their pay and
promote their comfort, and that of their families, in
every way, that they may have a beneficial interest
in the concern. Dismiss at once the improper. One
or two hands less, and the rest above par, will do
more real work. It is most preposterous to be neg-
ligent or stingy in these things, and profuse to ex-
travagance in things of show. Some of my brethren,
it is to be feared, domiciled in the spacious and costly
edifices which ornament the grand entrances of new
prisons (as in Wandsworth new House of Correc-
tion), or disfigure it (as in the new City Prison at
Holloway), are in danger of getting into the debtors'
side of their own prison, from the disproportionate
style of their stipends. In itself this is a great mis-
take. A large house is a large drawback upon salary,
where private means do not exist, and pupils are
properly prohibited. "Warders are miserably stinted,
and every expense connected with educational and
moral improvement grudged in some prisons, built
at enormous cost, ostensibly for improved prison dis-
cipline. Raise the moral tone of your officers, and

IN CHARGE OF PRISONERS. 341

you may hope beneficially to influence your crim-
inals.

3. Gentlemen, visit your prisons ; visit visit
visit. Not the governor's or chaplain's office, or
the board-room merely ; but the prison cells the
prison schools the prison church the prison-offi-
cers' quarters the prisoners. See with your own
eyes ; hear with your own ears. Converse with
officers of every grade, concerning their duties.
Instruct them how to treat their prisoners. The
dignified, unaffected manner, and the gentle voice,
which mark the highly born in their intercourse with
their inferiors, will in themselves be a lesson to
officers, and leave a salutary impression upon the
whole establishment. Your presence during divine
service (not with friends to gaze, and, least of all,
ladies) will show to all its importance in your
esteem, and render it unnecessary to enforce attend-
ance upon governors. Your perfect supervision will
prevent difficulties disorders outbreaks ; it may
be, suicides cruelties. Howard's first enterprise of
prison benevolence was as a magistrate in his own
prison (and no charity is worth much which does not
begin at home) . If you must have a day's hunting or
shooting in the week, let a previous hard day's work
in the prison add a healthful zest to your pastime.

CHAPTER VII.

EFFECTS OF CHRISTIAN TREATMENT UPON
PRISONERS.

" And Moses cried unto the Lord ; and the Lord shewed him
a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were
made sweet." EXODUS xv. 25.

THE worse a man is, the more need he has of
Christian treatment, and there is no hope from any
other. Ordinary motives to virtue may have weight
with persons before the loss of character and self-
respect. After this, they become comparatively
powerless, and there is absolute need of the sublime
and gracious doctrines of the Gospel to elevate the
mind and character. Wherever Christianity has
been brought to bear upon criminals, in its real
power and blessedness, good has been accomplished,
although under the most untoward circumstances :
sinners have been brought to Christ and salvation ;
and the mass, if not converted unto God, have been
marvellously civilized.

The reader of the foregoing pages will not have
failed in collecting and observing many illustra-
tions of those principles already. The contrast in
the treatment, of convicts under the old system,

EFFECTS OF CURISTIAN TREATMENT, ETC. 343

and the present, has convinced, I hope, the most
sceptical that the application of the Gospel is the
best remedy for the worst diseases of man's depraved
nature ; and the law of love, the most effectual for
restoring to order the wild turbulence of human pas-
sions. It may be well, however, to add a few more
instances, and to notice some illustrious persons who
made full experiment of these truths.

* " In December, 1798, Dr. Vanderkemp, accom-
panied by three brother missionaries, Messrs. Kit-
cherer, Edwards, and Edmonds, sailed for the Cape
of Good Hope. The vessel in which they sailed
was the Hillsborough, a Government transport-ship,
bound for New South Wales with convicts. Among
these miserable creatures the missionary brethren
determined to commence a course of instruction.
They were told, indeed, that if they ventured into
the hold among the convicts, they would certainly
throw a blanket over them, and rob them of what-
ever they had in their pockets ; but, notwithstand-
ing this representation, the missionaries determined
to make the attempt, and happily they were received
with every mark of respect, and listened to with the
greatest attention. By the kindness and affability
of their manners, they in a few days so conciliated
the regard of the prisoners, that they found them-
selves completely at their ease among them, ventured
into the midst of them without the smallest dread,
and conversed as freely with them as if they had
been their most intimate friends and acquaintances.
* Missions in Caffraria. (Nisbet.)

344 EFFECTS OF CHRISTIAN TREATMENT

This was the more remarkable, considering the man-
ner in which others were handled by them. One
day, before they sailed from Portsmouth, several
naval officers came on board in search of some de-
serters, who, it was supposed, had concealed them-
selves among the convicts ; but no sooner had one of
the officers, with his men, attempted to pass the en-
trance of the orlop deck, than the prisoners seized
him, beat him most unmercifully, and wounded him
in the head with his own dagger. Two days after, a
cutter, with some officers, and a detachment of ma-
rines, came to renew the search ; but the convicts
threatening to murder them if they entered the hold,
they wisely desisted from the attempt. About the
same time, the prisoners engaged in a plot to murder
the officers of the Hillsborough, seize the vessel, and
carry her over to France ; and, though the conspi-
racy was providentially discovered and defeated, yet
this did not hinder them, about ten days after, from
entertaining the horrid design of sinking the vessel,
and escaping in the boats ; and, with this view, many
of them had even found means to cut off their chains
and handcuffs.

" Such was the description of men among whom
the missionaries sought to labour at the hazard of
their lives. About two hundred and forty of these
miserable creatures were chained in pairs, hand to
hand or leg to leg, in the orlop deck, to which no
light could find admission except at the hatchways.
At first, the darkness of the place, the rattling of the
chains, and the dreadful imprecations of the prison-

UPON PRISONERS. 345

ers, suggested ideas of the most horrid nature, and
combined to form a lively picture of the infernal
regions. Besides, in a short time, a putrid fever
broke out among the convicts, and carried off no
fewer than thirty-four of them during the voyage to
the Cape of Good Hope. The state of the prison was
now loathsome beyond description, yet, in this as
well as in the hospital, surrounded with infection,
disease, and death, did the missionaries daily labour
to pluck these brands from everlasting burnings.
Nor did they seem to labour in vain. In a short
time, a number of these unhappy outcasts appeared
to be impressed with anxious concern about their
souls. Some of them even agreed to have a prayer-
meeting among themselves 'three times a week*
Many who once could scarcely speak but to blas-
pheme, had learned the songs of Zion, and their
horrid imprecations were changed into the language
of humble praise. There even seemed reason to hope,
that some of those who died, departed in the faith
of Christ, and were admitted into ' the general as-
sembly and church of the first-born,' to unite with
them in the sacred services of the temple of God on
high."

The following is an account, given in " The Con-
vict Ship," by Dr. Browning, of the results of
Christian treatment upon criminals, many of whom
were doubly and trebly convicted felons :

346 EFFECTS OF CHRISTIAN TREATMENT

" Impression Bay, Tasman's Peninsula,
ff Van Piemen's Land, April 8.

" Arrived tliis morning. Debarkation has taken
place. Voyage completed in one uniformly interest-
ing style. Not one punishment on board. The be-
haviour of the prisoners surprised everybody, and
themselves more than any. I can scarcely say I re-
ceived a complaint from the petty officers during the
passage. Just before they debarked, the prisoners
unanimously voted an address to me, which is full of
interesting statements, and is signed on behalf of all
by the petty officers and heads of messes. They
speak of the triumph of Christian instruction and
faithful kindness over mere brute force.

" The men were given to me in double irons ; I
debarked them without an iron clanking among them.
I am told that this is the first and only instance of
convicts removed from Norfolk Island having their
irons struck off during the voyage, and being landed
totally unfettered. They are almost uniformly cross-
ironed, and often chained down to the deck, every-
body afraid of them. I was among them at all
hours, and the prison-doors were never once shut
during the day.

" To God be all the glory 1 The Gospel of his
well-beloved Son, and gracious answers to believing
prayer, have been all the means. All is of Christ
Jesus!"

Similar results followed a second deportation in
1847, by Dr. Browning, of convicts :

TPON PRISONERS. 347

" We had no punishments ; improper speech had
almost entirely vanished ; and the general behaviour
of the men excited amazement and admiration : con-
sidering I had so few petty officers, it was equal, if
not superior, to that of our first body of Norfolk
Island men. J. K. W., whom I made my clerk and
right-hand man, I found to be a Christian, brought
to the saving knowledge of Christ through the deep
and bitter waters of affliction. One after another
was added to the number of the declared and ap-
parently real followers of Christ, until it reached
twenty-four, of whom about half seem to have been
turned to the Lord since they came on board.

" One man, who had harboured a spirit of revenge
towards a fellow-prisoner ever since he was detected
in a plot to ruin him on their passage from. England,
embarked in this vessel with the fullest intention of
taking the life of his enemy ; but since he came on
board, light had gradually shone into his mind, giv-
ing him to see himself in his true character ; and
last Sabbath, while at church in the prison, he was
brought to cast himself at the feet of Jesus, confess
his sins, forgive his enemy, and cherish towards him
a spirit of peace and love.

" The power of Christianity on the minds and man-
ners of the men, both in this trip and the former one,
has exceeded anything of the kind I ever witnessed
either at sea or on shore."

Such is Christian instruction and discipline in the
hands of one whose motives and character are con-
sistent enough to stand the watchful and experienced

318 EFFECTS OF CHRISTIAN TREATMENT

scrutiny of bad men. Such an officer is looked up
to almost as a being of a superior kind, and the infe-
rior pays homage to the superior nature, and dreads
his rebuke more than the lash or fetters of iron.

The next illustration is taken from a most inter-
esting book, published by Hamilton and Adams
("The Seed of the Righteous ") :

" It would be wrong to pass unnoticed the bless-
ings which attended Mr. Rogers's labours " (Rev.
Thomas Rogers, who about the beginning of this
century entered on those labours), writes his bio-
grapher, " as Chaplain to the House of Correction at
"Wakefield, which he found in a deplorable state of
moral disorganisation ; its inmates under no moral
or religious restraint, and kept under only by force.
On the first Sunday morning, he beheld nearly three
hundred prisoners, forty or fifty of wliom were in
irons; and such was their conduct, their restless-
ness, fierceness, and contempt, that, as he wished the
Governor good morning, Mr. Rogers said, 'You will
never see me here again ; I had never before such an
idea of the infernal regions.' The Governor assured
him they had never behaved so well before. By
faithful perseverance, however, and the adoption of
a judicious line of conduct towards the prisoners,
the chapel soon presented a congregation as orderly
and well-behaved as any other place of Christian
worship.

" In his weekly visits to the wards he soon won
upon their attention, and a desire to read was mani-
fested; and, through the influence of some over

UPON PRISONERS. 349

others, the wards ceased to be the scenes of daily
uproar and confusion.

" The sick-room engaged much of his attention,
and there is good evidence that some left it healed
in soul as well as in body, and that others went from
the sick bed of a prison to join the church of the
First-born in the bright and holy regions of heaven.
So effectual were Mr. Rogers's labours, that irons
ice re no longer necessary to restrain the convicts, nor
severity exercised ; and many testimonies, given by
visitors and strangers, served to prove that no estab-
lishment of the kind in the kingdom could exhibit
more of order, comfort, and everything proper, than
this one did. Such was the result of Christian
patience, forbearance, and decision ; and the exhibi-
tion of true religion, not in precept only, but in,
what is far more persuasive, example."

Some most interesting instances of the like kind
are given in "The Prisoners of Australia." (Hat-
chard.)

11 Providentially, this man," says the writer, " had
been assigned to the service of the Agricultural Com-
pany, and under the Christian teaching of Sir Ed-
ward Parry, both he and his wife had, humanly
speaking, been led to see the folly of worldly wicked-
ness, and the deep importance of those better things
which now formed their highest privilege and con-
solation. Her husband, she said, had long since
become a reformed character, and was now all that
she could wish as a Christian husband and father.
This account was afterwards affirmed to me by

S50 EFFECTS OF CHRISTIAN TREATMENT

others, who spoke of him as an honest, industrious,
and most deserving man ; and I also found that he
gave many sweet evidences of his sincerity as a pro-
fessing Christian. He never entered upon his daily
labours, nor lay down to rest at night, without read-
ing a portion from the Bihle, and gathering his little
family around him for prayer and thanksgiving.
He devoted all his leisure hours to the instruction
of his children in reading, writing, and arithmetic ;
and many there are who might add their testimony
to mine, that these children, who never failed in
their attendance on the church services, behaved with
a quietness and reverential attention during the time
of such services, that might prove them examples to
many of our own more civilized families at home,
who are educated with far higher advantages. These
blessings were among the many fruits of the mission-
ary exertions of Sir Edward Parry and his now sainted
lady, who both lived in the grateful affections of many
a chastened heart long after they had ceased to take
a personal share in the interests of that far- distant
colony. And if this be a case rather of exception
than of general result, it is by no means a singular
instance of excellent conduct, good order, and, at
least, of moral reformation among the convict families
of Port Stephen and other settlements connected
with it, under the admirable government both of Sir
Edward Parry and his talented successor. I would
also instance the establishments of St. Helier's and
St. Aubyn's, the joining possessions of that successor
and his excellent brother, situated on the border of

UPON PRISONEKS. 351

the Hunter's River, about one hundred and eighty
miles north-west of Sydney. The former has been
already noticed by Dr. Lang, in his publication on
Australia, as the best-organised farm in the colony.
And why ? Because the blessing of God was made
the paramount interest, and Christian instruction
the basis of its moral discipline ; while every encou-
ragement has been given to the efforts of industry
and good conduct, and vice been visited with firm
and judicious coercion. Ear removed from the
superintending care of any clergy, the beloved pro-
prietor of this extensive property had not neglected
to provide for the spiritual welfare of his exiled de-
pendants. Divine service and a sermon were regu-
larly read to them ; together with rest, and every
means of instruction afforded them on the Sabbath-
day which circumstances permitted. Rewards were
also occasionally distributed to the industrious and
well-conducted, both among the men and women.
Regular hours were preserved, and good order main-
tained as far as possible, where the master was him-
self necessarily removed from the personal charge of
his estate ; but never, I believe, were the returning
visits of an absent master hailed with more grateful
and cordial welcome than those of him who was be-
loved, respected, and honoured by all, even by those
who also feared him. The establishment of St.
Aubyn's was favoured with yet higher advantages ;
for although neither so extensive nor so advanced in
its exterior operations, it had the privilege of a mas-
ter's immediate superintendence, who was himself

352 EFFECTS OF CHRISTIAN TREATMENT

peculiarly fitted for the duties of an arduous and
most difficult stewardship. Here, too, the whole
structure was raised upon the solid groundwork of
religious principles. Yes, and under such circum-
stances of discouragement as few can imagine who
know nothing of Australia, who have never ex-
perienced the persevering opposition which, perhaps,
in every country, more or less, follows upon the
tread of a Christian's influence ; but above all, where
such influence is isolated, unsupported, ridiculed,
and often slandered ! Nevertheless, amidst all this
the respected proprietor of St. Aubyn's steadily pur-
sued a course of government which has been singu-
larly blessed to many ; and' by united firmness in
discipline, and uniform kindness and consideration
towards his convict labourers, few masters in the
colony have been so influential as himself in pro-
moting the reformation and well-being of his de-
pendants.

Morning and evening his family assembled for
religious worship, at which all his household domes-
tics were required to attend. Every Sunday morn-
ing he met the convicts of his farm establishment
in a large barn, arranged for divine service as
well as the nature of the building would admit, his
own family being also present; while the Roman
Catholics, whose attendance was not compelled,
were, nevertheless, required to appear neatly dressed
and ranged with the others, as prepared for prayers,
that none might absent himself from the camp on
that hallowed day, unnoticed by the master's eye :

UPON PRISONERS. 353

but such as declined uniting in the Protestant
prayer were expected to return quietly to their
respective huts during the hours of divine service,
that they might at least have time and opportunity
for private devotion, if they chose to avail themselves
of it, according to the dictates of their conscience.
The remainder of the day was equally marked as a
Sabbath-day, no work being permitted but that of
actual necessity ; even the family dinner was dressed
on the preceding day, that the example of the mas-
ter might prove to the servants how sacredly impor-
tant he considered those duties to be which were
enforced upon themselves ; and to all this were added
affectionate exhortation and counsel whenever cir-
cumstances called forth interference, reproof, or
advice. Another admirable feature of judicious
management was the permission granted to the
prisoners of St. Aubyn's, of working after their
appointed hours of service for pecuniary remunera-
tion, according to the rate of free labour. Such
devoted and disinterested care could not fail of pro-
ducing vital benefits; nor do I hesitate to assert
that many who came to their destined captivity
ignorant, depraved, and profane, have become faith-
ful servants both of God and man ; manifesting
their genuine repentance, and sincere desire to de-
part from all iniquity, by a change of heart and
life, which soon springs up in fruits of grace and
reformation. Some such have expressed to me with
much feeling, that to the pious influence of their
invaluable master and mistress, under God's bless-

A A

354 EFFECTS OF CHRISTIAN TREATMENT

ing, they trace that change and happier state of
mind, and have deplored that their earlier career
had not heen blessed with such guidance and guar-
dianship.

The " Memoir of Elizabeth Pry" is full of illustra-
tions of the amazing power of the Gospel over the
minds of the fallen, in the hands of devoted Chris-
tians. The following extracts will not be considered
here out of place. The first is a description of the
female wards in Newgate, given by a gentleman
who visited the gaol one fortnight after the adop-
tion, by the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of the City,
of the new rules proposed by Mrs. Pry's Committee
for the better regulation, discipline, and instruction
of female prisoners :

" I went and requested permission to see Mrs.
Pry, which was shortly obtained, and I was con-
ducted by a turnkey to the entrance of the women's
wards. On my approach, no loud or dissonant
sounds or angry voices indicated that I was about
to enter a place which, I was creditably assured,
had long had for one of its titles that of ' Hell above
ground.' The court-yard into which I was admit-
ted, insteadfiof being peopled with beings scarcely
human, blaspheming, fighting, tearing each other's
hair, or gaming with a filthy pack of cards for the
very clothes they wore, which often did not suffice
even for decency, presented a scene where stillness
and propriety reigned. I was conducted by a de-
cently-dressed person, the newly-appointed yard's-
woman, to the door of a ward, where, at the head of

UPON PEISONERS. 355

a long table, sat a lady belonging to the Society of
Friends. She was reading aloud to about sixteen
women prisoners, who were engaged in needlework
around it. Each wore a clean-looking blue apron
and bib, with a ticket having a number on it sus-
pended from her neck by a red tape. They all rose
on my entrance, curtsied respectfully, and then, at
a signal given, resumed their seats and employments.
Instead of a scowl, leer, or ill-suppressed laugh, I
observed upon their countenances an air of self-
respect and gravity, a sort of consciousness of their
improved character, and the altered position in which
they were placed. I afterwards visited the other
wards, which were the counterparts of the first."

It need scarcely be added, that the book read to
those poor people was the Word of God.

The following account of one of this singularly
eminent woman's visits to a convict-ship, taken from
the same volume, is exquisitely touching :

" The last time that Mrs. Fry was on board the
Maria, whilst she lay at Deptford, was one of those
solemn and interesting occasions that leave a lasting
impression on the minds of those who witness them.
There was great uncertainty whether the poor con-
victs would see their benefactress again. She stood
at the door of the cabin, attended by her friends and
the captain; the women on the quarter-deck faei
them. The sailors, anxious to see what was gom,
on, clambered into the rigging, on to the capstan, or
mingled in the outskirts of the group. The silence
was profound, when Mrs. Fry opened her Bible, and,

A A 2

356 EFFECTS OF CHRISTIAN TREATMENT

in a clear, audible voice, read a portion from it.
The crews of the other vessels in the tier, attracted
by the novelty of the scene, leant over the ships on
either side, and listened apparently with great atten-
tion ; she closed the Bible, and after a short pause
knelt down on the deck, and implored a blessing on
this work of Christian charity from that God who,
though one may sow and another water, can alone
give the increase. Many of the women wept bit-
terly, all seemed touched ; when she left the ship
they followed her with their eyes and their blessings,
until, her boat having passed within another tier of
vessels, they could see her no more."

But it may be said, Elizabeth Ery was a person of
no common-place mind and education, and those
natural and acquired advantages would have given
her a powerful influence, independent of religion,
over the fallen of her own sex ; and so they doubt-
less would have done, combined as these were in her
with a kind and sympathizing heart. But she never
could have reached the conscience by such means,
nor have kindled hope within their breasts, were she
not able as a believer, who had obtained mercy her-
self, to point them to Him who spurned not from
his feet the woman that was a sinner, but pronounced
so full and gracious a pardon upon the penitent ; and
it is beyond question, that were it not for the love of
Christ constraining her, the thought of such a work
would never Jiave entered her mind ; or, if enter-
tained for awhile, her natural timidity, exquisite
sensitiveness, and the very purity of her character,

UPON PRISONERS. 357

would have made her shrink from its accomplish-
ment. What woman but a Christian ever devoted
herself to a work so arduous, self-denying, and re-
pulsive as this, without fainting or wearying, to the
end of life ?

I pass now from. Elizabeth Pry devoting the prime
of her life, the gifts of her mind, and the graces of
her person, to her Divine Master's service, in seek-
ing to reclaim the fallen of her own sex, to a woman
of like benevolence in humble life, who having been
first brought herself " out of darkness into light,",
from scepticism and obduracy of heart, in fact,
to be a meek and lowly follower of Jesus, felt a
longing to impart, to prisoners and the poor, the
blessings which she had received, and was enabled,
in the providence of God, to do so in a very high
degree, not only to the fallen of her own SQX, but to
male criminals also, in the gaol of Yarmouth Sarah
Martin.

Speaking of the moral and religious instruction
communicated in that prison, Captain Williams,
Government Inspector, reports :

" With regard to this branch of my inquiry, the
particulars are of so singular a nature, that it may
be better to transcribe the notes made at the time.

"Sunday, November 29th, 1835. Attended Di-
vine service in the morning at the prison. The male
prisoners only were assembled ; a female, resident in
the town, officiated ; her voice was exceedingly melo-
dious, her delivery emphatic, and her enunciation
exceedingly distinct. The service was the Liturgy

358 EFFECTS OF CHRISTIAN TREATMENT

of the Church of England ; two psalms were sung
by the whole of the prisoners, and extremely well,
much better than I have frequently heard in our
best-appointed churches. A written discourse, of
her own composition, was read by her ; it was of a
purely moral tendency, involving no doctrinal points,
and admirably suited to the hearers.

" During the performance of the service the pri-
soners paid the profoundest attention and most
narked respect, and, as far as it is possible to
j udge, appeared to take a devout interest. Evening
service was read by her afterwards to the female
prisoners. This most estimable person has, for the
long period of seventeen years, almost exclusively
given up her time to bettering the wretched condi-
tion of the prisoners who are confined in the gaol.
She is generally there four or five times every week,
and since her first commencing these charitable
labours she has never omitted being present a single
Sabbath-day. On the week-days she pursues, with
equal zeal, a regular course of instruction with the
male and female prisoners. Many of the prisoners
have been taught to read and write, of which very
satisfactory examples were produced ; and the men
are instructed and employed in binding books, and
cutting out of bone, stilettoes, salt-spoons, wafer-
stamps, and similar articles, which are disposed of
for their benefit. The females are supplied with
work according to their several abilities, and their
earnings are paid to them on their discharge; in
several instances they have earned sufficient to put

UPON 1'UISONERS. 359

themselves in decent apparel, and be fit for service.
After their discharge they are, by the same means,
frequently provided with work, until enabled to pro-
cure it for themselves. Only a single instance is re-
corded of any insult being offered her, which was by
a prisoner of notoriously bad character ; upon this
she gave up her attendance upon the ward to which
he belonged : after his discharge, the other prisoners
came forward and entreated most earnestly that she
would be pleased to resume her visits.

" There are several cases where her attentions
have been successful, and have apparently reclaimed
the parties, if the continued good conduct of the dis-
charged be admitted as satisfactory proof. That of
four smugglers is singular, from the fact that, upon
their discharge after a long imprisonment, they ad-
dressed the felons, and entreated them to listen to
her advice and treat her with respect."

Six years subsequently to this period, the same
gentleman, in his official report, makes the following
remarks :

" There being no chaplain regularly appointed by
the town-council to perform the duties and take the
responsibility of the office as required by law, I am
of opinion that no time should be lost in making
the appointment ; the more so, as that extraneous
assistance which has for so many years been so
kindly and effectually rendered by the exemplary
Miss Martin is now withdrawn for ever.

" This admirable person, of humble condition, but
exalted mind, for a period of twenty-three years, and

360 EFFECTS OF CHRISTIAN TREATMENT

until broken down in health for a short time before
her death, devoted all her energies to the moral and
religious instruction and reclamation of the other-
wise utterly neglected prisoners in this gaol. Her
influence over those who came within the pale of
her attention was great, although her means were
small, and her manner simple and unpretending in
the extreme. She was no titular Sister of Charity,
but was silently felt and acknowledged to be one, by
the many outcast and destitute persons who re-
ceived encouragement from her lips, and relief from
her hands, and by the few who were witnesses of her
good works."

As the description of the sermon, which Captain
Williams heard, may leave a wrong impression, and,
perhaps, different from what that gentleman meant
to convey, when he said that it " involved no doc-
trinal points," i.e., no abstract or abstruse disquisi-
tion in theology, it appears due to her memory to
give here a short extract from one of her sermons :

" c The Lord will have mercy : he will abundantly
pardon.' Mark the riches of the blessing. Mercy
in Christ, pardon for his sake. This is just what
we need. Oh ! for a heart to embrace it ! Mercy
is an attribute of God, not opposed to his holiness,
nor at war with justice ; but it meets the eye of
man in the incarnate Jehovah, the Saviour ; for he
displayed the Divine holiness in enduring the curse
that sin deserved, for our salvation. He magnified
justice by rendering perfect obedience to the Divine
law, and making an atonement for sin ; and now

UPON PRISONERS. 361

the mercy which shines in his blessed work is set
before us to engage our love, our gratitude, and our
obedience. And can you resist it ? Are you not
subdued by the loving-kindness of Jesus, of your
God ? Reflect on what is herein proposed to you.
To make your guilt-stained soul as pure as an un-
fallen angel ; to make you whiter than snow by the
precious blood of Christ ; to create a new heart, and
renew a right spirit within you ; to remove the filthy
rags of self-righteousness from your soul, and clothe
you with the righteousness of Christ."

In this sermon may be seen the constraining
motive of Sarah Martin's life, and the secret of her
strength.

Since writing the above, the following has fallen
into my hands. It is an account given, by a convict
to me, of the effects produced upon his fellow-pri-
soners at Woolwich, in consequence of the changes
introduced in the hulks by Sir George Grey, who,
having determined upon the thorough reform of
these establishments in all things possible, concluded
that the first thing to be done was to place them
under the best Christian influence.

" At this time," writes the convict, " there was
service once on a Sunday on board the Justitia ; in
the week, no religious instruction, no school, no
library, no care exhibited as to the moral improve-
ment of the prisoners, from week's end to week's
end. This was a lamentable state of things ; but in
the hospital ship, the almost total want of all these
advantages was still more striking. When a prisoner

362 EFFECTS OF CHRISTIAN TREATMENT

died, he was laid in a coffin no shroud, nor any-
thing but a little sawdust under the body ; and, in
a day or two, two men carried the coffin to the
burial-ground, and placed it in the earth. Notice
was then sent to the chaplain that a body was ready
for having the funeral service read over it ; and in a
day or two more, he came down, went to the grave,
attended by some one, and read the ritual, or part of
it. When he did not come during the day to read
prayers, they were read by one of the officers, or one
of the prisoners. In the latter part of the period
preceding his (the chaplain's) death, the writer read
them every night, in presence of an officer.

" After his death, the appointment of a new chap-
lain was looked for by the prisoners with consider-
able curiosity, I may say, anxiety. The complaints
and observations as to the conduct of the former
were loud and severe, his treatment of the sick espe-
cially, and also his mode of neglecting the corpse.
He never spoke to a prisoner unless from necessity ;
but seemed, from the time he came on board, uneasy
to get ashore again as soon as possible.

" The newly-appointed chaplain arrived (the Rev.
Mr. Moran). Now indeed was a change. I re-
member well his first arrival, attended by two gen-
tlemen. He went round to every bed that was
occupied in the hospital, announced himself, talked
(and prayed where desirable) to all of them in a
kind manner, and took an early opportunity of ad-
dressing the convalescents. The following morning
he read prayers. All those able to be up, went down

UPON PRISONERS. 363

to the lower deck, under an opening, from whence
all he said might be distinctly heard on the upper
one ; he read the prayers, and afterwards expounded
a portion of Scripture ; and if at any time thence-
forth a prisoner wished any particular passage com-
mented upon, he had only to write it out, and place
it between the leaves of the chaplain's book, when
his object was attained.

" Bibles, prayer-books, and hymn-books were dis-
tributed to each bed; and when it could be done
without annoying any particular patient, a hymn
was sung at the commencement of the service each
day. A desk was made for the chaplain, and one
attached to it for the prisoner who acted as clerk.
On Sunday, service was regularly performed at a set
hour, followed by a sermon we never had sermons
in hospital before and everything conducted in a
most regular manner. A library was got for the
use of the prisoners ; and the two gentlemen who
came with the chaplain proved to be religious in-
structors, who daily attended to the sick, and read
to them : the chaplain himself also visiting those in
bed daily, and praying with them where he judged
it necessary. All this gave the prisoners very great
pleasure. They felt that they had now a friend they
could confide their sorrows to, and one who to a
most pleasing manner added a very benevolent cha-
racter. Soon one of the patients died ; and now a
great degree of excitement was evinced as to his
mode of burial, whether, as the men said, he
would be buried, as before, 'like a dog.' 'But,'

364 EFFECTS OF CHRISTIAN TREATMENT

said they, ' Mr. Moran is a good man ; he won't do
that.' Suddenly, in a day or two, some one an-
nounced the moving of the funeral procession.
Every one who could, ran on deck to see it ; and
even those in bed crawled to the port-holes to look
at it. Mr. Moran, in his surplice, led. The body
was borne next, covered with a pall, carried by four
men, and followed by all the prisoners belonging to
his (the dead man's) ward. The feeling evinced
was not at the moment loud, but it was deep.
Many an eye that had been a stranger to tears, now
glittered with them ; and when all was past, then
the praises of the ' new parson ' were indeed loud,
numerous, and heartfelt. * He does care for us,'
said one ; ' God bless him ! ' said another ; ' Let us
hope he will himself go to heaven,' said another,
again ; ' for he would get us there if he could. See
how he visits us, and prays by us ! ' The contrast
was complete. The conduct of the prior chaplain
was the constant theme of blasphemous abuse ; and
it need not be said that this was not unfrequently a
medium of scurrility against religion altogether ;
for prisoners are very severe in their observations on
the conduct of their religious teachers. Nothing
escapes them; and the negligence of the minister is
sure to do injury to the cause of religion itself. But
there was no more of this after Mr. Moran came,
he went through his duties in such a devout and
careful manner."

Erom the perusal of the foregoing facts, I trust
the reader will have strengthened in his mind, the

UPON PRISONERS. 365

persuasion which experience has fixed upon my own,
that the pure and benign religion of the gospel is
the most powerful, and the most economical influ-
ence which can be brought to bear upon criminals,
for their reformation or the good of society ; and if
this be so, then, doubtless, upon the population of
which they are unfavourable specimens. Of no
other law or system can it be affirmed, that it "is
perfect, converting the soul." Assuredly, if we
desire success in our labours, whether devoted to
the reformation of the convicted and criminal out-
cast, or to the more worthy object of preventing
crime and infamy by the removal of their causes,
we must do so on the basis of a scriptural Chris-
tianity, which, implanting in the human breast the
fear of God, gives the highest sanction to human
laws, and the most enduring motives to obedience to
authority, and although infinitely pure in itself, as
well as in the source from which it springs, extends
to suffering and guilty man a very real sympathy,
which nothing else in this world does. It is " the
leaves of the tree of life," which are appointed for
"the healing of the people," and true religion
alone can make sweet the bitter waters of guilt and
sorrow.

One name, above all others, deserves to be men-
tioned in this connexion, that of the illustrious
John Howard, the friend of the friendless and the
benefactor of mankind, to whose virtues, when the
world was doing homage, it was attesting un-
consciously (partly from the unostentatiousness of

366 EFFECTS OF CHRISTIAN TREATMENT

his piety, but much more from the anti-evangelical,
if not Socinian leaven of his literary friends, upon
whom his own deficiency in letters made him
too dependent) the triumphs of a pure faith, and
of the believing prayers of an humble follower of
Christ.

Concerning this great man the following extract
from the Third Report of Inspectors will supply
some interesting information, and at the same time
serve to show how men, to be presumed sound in
their creed, whilst extolling his merits, resolve
them all into little more than Christian courage,
or a concern for the physical sufferings of pri-
soners :

" The earliest steps which were taken in the im-
provement of prison discipline undoubtedly origin-
ated in the public exposure made by Mr. Howard of
the deplorable condition of our gaols.

" He has himself ascribed the commencement of
that interest, which he so long and ardently felt in
the mitigation of the sufferings of prisoners, to an
incident which occurred in the early part of his life.
On his voyage to Lisbon, in 1755, which city he
designed to visit immediately after the earthquake
by which it had been destroyed, the packet in which
he sailed was taken by a French privateer. The
barbarous treatment which he, with the rest of the
passengers, experienced in the castle of Brest, in a
dungeon in which they were all confined for several
days, led him, in the first instance, to seek the
mitigation of the sufferings of such of his country-

UPON PRISONERS. 367

men as were imprisoned in the places where he
had himself been confined in Prance. This humane
feeling gained further strength and development
from what he observed in the prisons of his own
country, and particularly from what came under
his immediate notice, when some years after, 1773,
he was high sheriff of the county of Bedford. He
refers, in his account of the prisons of England and
Wales, to the circumstances with which his dis-
charge of the duties of that office made him ac-
quainted, as those which excited him to undertake
his humane journeys of inspection, in the course of
which he visited most of the prisons in England.
In 1774 he was examined on this subject by the
House of Commons, and had the honour of receiving
the thanks of that body.

"Together with the remonstrances of this dis-
tinguished benefactor of mankind, another circum-
stance powerfully co-operated to produce a general
desire for the improvement of our prisons. At the
termination of the American war, the loss of our
transatlantic dependencies had deprived us of those
remote colonies to which we had been accustomed
for a long time to transport many of our convicted
felons, and imposed on us the necessity of imme-
diately devising a substitute for the system of trans-
portation which had been hitherto pursued.

" The result of this combination of humane re-
monstrance and political necessity appears to have
been, a general desire that something should be
speedily done to improve our prison discipline. The

363 EFFECTS OF CHRISTIAN TREATMENT

first impulse to public feeling was given by the
labours of Howard ; and great is the obligation
which the cause of humanity owes to the unwearied
industry and ardent benevolence of this distin-
guished philanthropist. His labours were rewarded
by that deep and national feeling of commiseration
for the sufferings of prisoners, which followed that
faithful exposure of them, which his earnest wishes
for their mitigation and his truly Christian courage
prompted him to make. But the attention of this
excellent man seems to have been almost absorbed
by the physical sufferings which it was his lot to
witness. The very magnitude and intensity of those
sufferings seem to have prevented him from looking
beyond them to a consideration of the moral evils of
imprisonment, which are even still more deplorable
than the prisoner's privations and discomfort, and
without a proper remedy for which, even an improve-
ment of his physical condition is but too often a
greater incentive to his further advancement in crime
and vice. The impulse, however, was thus given to
the desire and demand for prison improvement ; it
was prompt and decisive, and to Howard the praise
is most justly due."

After his death, a statue, by Bacon, was erected to
his memory in St. Paul's,* from funds collected to do
him honour whilst living, against his most earnest
remonstrances. It was the first monument placed

* It is one of the four uniform statues of illustrious English-
men occupying the angles of the aisles and transepts.

UPON PRISONERS. 369

in that cathedral. On its pedestal is inscribed as
follows :

This extraordinary Man had the Fortune to be honoured whilst

living
In the manner which his Virtues deserved ;

He received the Thanks

Of both Houses of the British and Irish Parliaments,
For his eminent Services rendered to his Country and to Mankind.

Our national Prisons and Hospitals,

Improved upon the Suggestions of his Wisdom,

Bear Testimony to the Solidity of his Judgment,

And to the Estimation in which he was held.

In every Part of the Civilized World,

Which he traversed to reduce the Sum of Human Misery ;

From the Throne to the Dungeon his Name was mentioned

With Respect, Gratitude, and Admiration.

His Modesty alone
Defeated various efforts that were made during his Life

To erect this Statue,

Which the Publick has now consecrated to his Memoiy.
He was born at Hackney, in the County of Middlesex,

Sept. Hd. MDCCXXVI.

The early Part of his Life he spent in Retirement,
Residing principally upon his paternal Estate,

At Cardington, in Bedfordshire ;
For which County he served the office of Sheriff in the

Year MDCCLXXIII.
He expired at Cherson in Eussian Tartary, on the xx th of Jan.

MDCCXC,

A Victim to the perilous and benevolent Attempt
To ascertain the Cause of, and find an efficacious Remedy

For, the Plague.

He trod an open but unfrequented Path to Immortality
In the ardent and unintermitted Exercise of Christian Charity :

May this Tribute to his Fame
Excite an Emulation of his truly glorious Achievements.

This inscription was indited probably by Dr. Aiken,
his Socinian biographer. Who would think from it,

B B

370 EFFECTS OF CHRISTIAN TREATMENT

that Howard's greatness and success were the fruits
of a self-denying imitation of Christ, and of humble,
believing prayer ? That they really were so, will
appear from his diary, and the characteristic epitaph
which he left inscribed for himself: jealous of the
honour of his Saviour, and apprehending, as the
result proved there was just ground for fearing, that
a far different one would be written by his friends
and admirers.

" Turin, 1769, Nov. 30. My return without see-
ing the southern part of Italy was on much deliber-
ation. I feared a misimprovement of a talent spent
for mere curiosity at the loss of many Sabbaths,
and as many donations must be expended for my
pleasure, which would have been, as I hope, contrary
to the general conduct of my life, and which, on a
retrospective view on a deathbed, would cause pain
as unbecoming a disciple of Christ, whose mind
should be formed in my soul. These thoughts, with
distance from my dear boy, determine me to check
my curiosity, and be on the return. Oh, why should
vanity and folly, pictures and baubles, or even the
stupendous mountains, beautiful hills, or rich valleys,
which ere long will all be consumed, engross the
thoughts of a candidate for an eternal, everlasting
kingdom ; a worm ever to crawl on earth, whom
God has raised to the hope of glory, which ere long
will be revealed to them who are washed and sancti-
fied by faith in the blood of the Divine Redeemer ?
Look forward, oh, my soul ! how low, how mean,

UPON PRISONERS. 3?1

how little is everything but what has a view to that
glorious world of light, life, and love the prepara-
tion of the heart is of God. Prepare the heart, oh,
God ! of thy unworthy creature, and unto thee be
all the glory, through the boundless ages of eternity.
(Signed) J. H."

" This night my trembling soul almost longs to
take its flight to see and know the wonders of
redeeming love join the triumphant choir sin and
sorrow fled away God my Redeemer all in all.
Oh, happy spirits, that are safe in those mansions !"

The following is from his memorandum-book :

" ' Do thou, O Lord ! visit the prisoners and cap-
tives : manifest thy strength in my weakness ; help,
Almighty God ! for in thee I put my trust, for thou
art my rock.' ' I would rejoice in a sense of thy
favour.' ' And may not even I hope that God, who
' spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for
us all, but that he shall not with him freely give us
all things,' even me life everlasting.'

On the same page with these devout meditations
may be also transcribed, the following sentiments
(many like which pervade his private papers), as
illustrative of his views of the inemcacy of good
works, as a primary, or even a secondary, cause
of salvation. ' The doctrine of merit is diame-
trically opposed to the genius of the Gospel ; ' ' By
grace we are saved ; ' ' not of ourselves, it is the gift
of God.' In other parts are various detached excla-

BB 2

372 EFFECTS OF CHRISTIAN TREATMENT

inations and remarks, abundantly illustrative of the
evangelical character of his belief, and of his pos-
sessing that meekness and humility which are the
peculiar virtues of the Christian, in connexion with
every other grace that is the offspring and evidence
of faith. Such are the following : ' I am ashamed,
and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God/
' Oh, God ! soften my heart ; it is thy work, to thee
be all the praise, faith is thy gift.' ' All that I have
and am flows from his benignity and indulgence ; I
am in the hand and at the disposal of One who is
good, and to whom I am indebted for the blessings
by grace.' ' Behold, I am vile : what shall I answer
thee, oh, my God ! I have no claim on thy bounty
but what springs from the benignity of thy, nature.
God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of
Jesus Christ.' ' Oh, what goodness have I sinned
against, how have I abused this astonishing love,
and grieved the Spirit of God ! ' ' Lord God, for
Christ's sake, succeed my combat, and make me
conquer.' ' Awake thou that sleepest ! thou that
raised so many, do thou, O God, compassionate me.'
' I venerate that man who is possessed of riches, yet
fears God. It is less wonderful how a poor man
gets to heaven, than a prosperous or rich man. The
necessaries of life come within a very narrow com-
pass indeed.' ' A few of God's people that met
in an upper room, appear, in my eye, greater than
all the Roman empire. God kept them.' ' Turn
me from all sin, that my soul may not be gathered
unto sinners.' 'A poor feeble worm surely stands

UPON PllISONEllS. 373

in need of the protection of Providence. Deliver
me from the evil in my heart, the evil in the world.'
' Eaith is the gift of God ; Lord, give me saving
faith in his sacrifice and his righteousness.' Oh,
that I might know that Christ is mine ! ' ' Oh,
you who pride yourselves on your wisdom, your
knowledge, your goodness, but I hope I am among
the mourners for sin.' * I will cheerfully employ all
my faculties for God's glory.' 'Oh, how amiable
must be the society of saints in heaven ! ' ' Ex-
amples of tremendous wrath will be held up, and
what if I should be among those examples ? ' ' We
are high-minded : oh, incline my heart to walk in
the way to heaven ! ' ' Do I renounce all sense of
merit before God, and receive a free and full salva-
tion through Jesus Christ ?' ' Let me walk not as
fools, but as wise.' ' How may I adorn the doctrine
of Christ in all things?'"

Howard's appreciation of the value of Christian
instruction for prisoners, and of the sort of persons
in whose hands such a work should be intrusted,
appears from his own work, entitled " The State of
the Prisons in England and Wales," in which,

" He urges upon magistrates the great importance of selecting
for the office of chaplain to their gaols (and both chapel and
chaplain he would have in every place of confinement) a person
'who is in principle a Christian, who will not content himself
with officiating in public, but will converse with the prisoners,
admonish the profligate, exhort the thoughtless, comfort the
sick, and make known to the condemned that mercy which
is revealed in the Gospel.' Such a man would not think the

374 EFFECTS OF CHRISTIAN TREATMENT

duty hard which he required him to perform, a sermon and
prayers once, at least, on every Lord's Day, and prayers on two
other fixed days in the week. 'And if,' he adds, ' a chapter of
the New Testament were read daily in order by one of the
prisoners to the rest, or by the gaoler, before the distribution of
prison allowance, the time would not be mis-spent. The reader,
if a prisoner, might be allowed a small weekly pension.'"

The will of this eminently good and holy man
closes with this characteristic sentence :

" My immortal spirit I cast on the sovereign mercy of God,
through Jesus Christ, who is the Lord, my strength and my
song, and, I trust, is become my salvation ; and I desire that a
plain slab of marble may be placed under that of my late wife,
containing an inscription as follows :

" John Howard.
Died
Aged
MY HOPE is IN CHRIST."

This inemorial of the philanthropist, so suitable
for one to whom Christ was " all and in all," stands
in the village church of Cardington.

Never, perhaps, was there a man who might with
greater truth have said, " When the ear heard me,
then it blessed me ; and when the eye saw me,
it gave witness to me : because I delivered the poor
that cried, and the fatherless, and him that had
none to help him. The blessing of him that was
ready to perish came upon me : and I caused the
widow's heart to sing for joy." But he had learned
to say with the holy Apostle of the Gentiles, " Not
by works of righteousness which we have done, but

UPON PRISONERS. 375

according to His mercy He saved us." And as in
another place : "I count all things but loss, that I
may win Christ, and be found in Him, not having
mine own righteousness which is of the law, but
that which is through the faith of Christ, the
righteousness which is of God by faith." (Phil,
iii. 9.)

To the honour of the Nonconformist body, Howard
was a Dissenter, but of the large-hearted school, em-
bracing as brethren all who " loved the Lord Jesus
in sincerity."

Reader, when you think of his character and
labours, remember his motto :

SPKS Ml'lA IN ClUUbTUM.

CHAPTER VIII.

ON CAPITAL PUNISHMENTS FOR MURDER.

" The land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed there-
in, but by the blood of him that shed it." NUMBERS xxxv. 33.

THE right of the State to inflict capital punish-
ment has been of late much questioned. One may
be surprised that persons accepting the Scriptures as
of Divine authority should entertain doubts on this
subject. It has been said that the noted verse, " He
that sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood
be shed," is a prophecy, not a command. But if it
be a prophecy, it has failed in countless instances.
It is obviously a command, but a general one, which
leaves room for the consideration of circumstances.
It authorizes the penalty in cases of unjustifiable
homicide. This command respected the whole
family of man. The civil law given to the Israel-
ites enacted, likewise, that death should be inflicted
for various crimes, but afforded a mode of escape in
the case of involuntary homicide. But if capital
punishments were wrong in principle, how can we
account for their forming part of the code of laws
given by God himself to his chosen people r In the

ON CAPITAL PUNISHMENTS FOR MURDER. 377

New Testament, the power of the civil magistrate to
inflict capital punishment is referred to as conferred
by Providence for a wise end : "He beareth not
the sword in vain, for he is the minister of God, an
avenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil."

The same principle is allowed by St. Paul in his
own case, when he said before his judges : " If I
have been an offender, or have committed anything
worthy of death, I refuse not to die." But it may
be considered that Christianity does not impose any
law of general obligation in this respect. The reli-
gion of Christ enjoins justice, charity, and fidelity in
our social duties, and leaves us, for the most part,
to determine what is just and right, in particular
cases, by the reasonable application to them of
general principles.

There is no question, that a State may enact laws
to prevent crimes which would cause the dissolution
of society if widely perpetrated. This is the same
right of self-defence which justifies an individual in
using arms in defence of his life, and in slaying one
who attacks him with murderous intent. The inter-
vention of the law would be too late in such a case ;
and, therefore, a power of self-defence in extreme
cases, even though it issue in homicide, is tolerated.

A nation has a similar right to punish capitally
such offences against social order as cannot be re-
strained efficiently by lighter penalties. In fact, if
a State has not such a right, neither has it the right
of taking away the life of an enemy in war. A mur-
derer or a traitor is punished capitally, just as an

378 ON CAPITAL PUNISHMENTS FOR MURDER.

enemy may be shot while endeavouring to land on
our shores, and lay all waste with fire and sword.

The only ground on which the question can be
debated appears to be that of expediency. Is it
necessary for the good of the community that
capital punishments be inflicted for certain crimes ?
Human justice is supposed to inflict punishment
not by way of revenge, or returning evil for evil
but to prevent crime by the influence of fear. It is
quite a mistake, in my humble apprehension, to
suppose that the primary object of legal punish-
ment is to reform the criminal. Some have thought
it a great objection to capital punishment, that such
an end cannot be answered in the criminal subjected
to it. But the main design of human punishments
is to secure society by checking offences against life,
property, and social order. And if the defences of
these be not strong and well guarded, the wealth
and happiness of the nation, and its population, too,
will infallibly be diminished. If the State does not
secure wealth, it will be carried to other lands. And
if life be not sufficiently guarded by the State, mu-
tual revenge, and feuds, and homicide, will ensue,
as in all ill-regulated communities. If the State is
remiss in executing justice, the people will learn the
dangerous habit of becoming themselves the judges
and executioners of the law. Capital punishments
are necessary, as the greatest terror which can be
presented to the imagination of criminals, or those
who contemplate crime ; and, in fact, the only terror
which can be exhibited to some.

OX CA VITAL PUNISHMENTS FOR MURDER. 379

There are many degrees of felony. Will penal
servitude, transportation, or an imprisonment, which
differs only in duration, correspond to all those de-
grees, from petty robbery to arson, attempted assass*
ination, and murder? Murder itself has its de-
grees. There is a murder in revenge for real wrong,
and murder for the purpose of robbery murder
with circumstances of cruelty ; and suppose the
guilt of the parricide, are all these to be alike
deterred from by the threat of some secondary
punishment ? Can the idea be entertained, that
solitary confinement for life will be an adequate
punishment ? " Vincula vero, et ea sempiterna
certe ad singularem pcenam nefarii sceleris ? "
(Cic.) Solitary imprisonment for life of desperate
criminals, convicted of crimes of the deepest dye,
is, however, the best alternative. Is it practicable ?
I think not. To most criminals of that class, the
sentence would, if fully carried out, prove equiva-
lent to the deprivation of reason, or of life by sui-
cide, or pining disease. It would, therefore, be
relaxed, and the person stained with such enor-
mous guilt placed in association with criminals or
free persons. If such a prisoner commit another
murder in prison, how is this to be punished ?
And how will it be possible to secure the lives of
the officers of such prisons, if the worst criminals
whom they are obliged frequently to report to the
authorities know they can commit murder without
additional suffering ? In fact, remove the terror
of death from the minds of those who contemplate

380 ON CAPITAL PUNISHMENTS FOR MURDER.

great crimes, and, when the chances of escape are
weighed, no consideration remains sufficient to check
the perpetration of them. My own decided impres-
sion is, that if capital punishment be wholly abo-
lished, murder for the purpose of concealment or
escape will become as common a sequence to mid-
night robberies as it is at present, happily, a rare
one. As to the vile perpetrators of systematic rob-
bery having no dread of death by the executioner's
hands it is altogether contrary to my observation
of their real character. The worse the villain, the
greater the coward.

But it is said that public executions actually en-
courage the commission of deeds of blood. This is
contrary to common sense, and equally to experi-
ence. It is well known that the timely severity of
justice, in certain parts of Ireland, has suppressed
though certainly but for a time the constant occur-
rence of assassination.

It has often happened, too, that gangs of murder-
ous robbers have been totally broken up by the exe-
cution of some of the leaders. And when juries do
their duty, such crimes cannot be long perpetrated
with impunity ; and the evil trade will not be soon
taken up by others.

But if public executions, of the kind which take
place in England, shock the innocent, and tend to
demoralise the masses of the people, then let them
be conducted in a less public, although still in a
formal manner say in the gaol-yard, admission
being given to the representatives of the people,

ON CAPITAL PUNISHMENTS FOR MURDER. 381

jurymen, the press, and a limited portion of the
population, excluding females and all the ends of
public justice will be equally satisfied.

This seems to be due to the growing humanity of
the age. The objections made, then, to the right or
expediency of inflicting capital punishment accord-
ing to the laws of the State are altogether futile, and
rest upon a most dangerous principle. This prin-
ciple would strip the peaceable, the loyal, and the
virtuous, of all security against the most fearful in-
juries, and place them in a state of terror; and, if
carried to its legitimate consequences, it would strip
the whole nation of its defences against foreign ag-
gression, and actually invite murder and rapine.

Let me not be misunderstood. I think there is
great matter for congratulation in the improved
spirit of the country, shown in the amelioration of
its penal code with respect to offences against mere
property ; although I cannot delude myself into the
pleasing persuasion, that the relaxation of the law
has not had the tendency to increase, in some mea-
sure, the crimes from which the terrible penalty of
death has been removed. We must be content to
pay for our humanity. But when the question is,
whether the guilty murderer shall be put to death,
or the life of the innocent and good member of
society be constantly imperilled, neither reason nor
Christianity warrants the sacrifice ; and this is the
opinion of almost every one who has to do with
criminals.

" The valuable distinction made bv the law be-

382 ON CAPITAL PUNISHMENTS FOR MURDER.

tween 'robberies with violence,' and ' larceny from the
person, unattended with personal injury' (observes
my friend, the Chaplain of Durham Gaol, in his
valuable report for 1853), 'appears to check the per-
petration of the graver crimes ; and the character of
habitual burglars and highwaymen plainly indicates
that they are restrained from committing acts of
brutish violence by the fear of the severer punish-
ments. For this same reason it cannot be considered
(whatever be the opposite conclusion of many worthy
people), that it is desirable to effect the entire aboli-
tion of the punishment of death. The terror of that
punishment deters many wicked, and very many
semi-insane people, from the commission of violence
and of murder, with a view to conceal their other
offences ; and ' there is no reason,' as the Ordinary
of Newgate has expressed it, ' why the same feelings
of mercy should not be extended to persons about to
be murdered, as to persons about to be executed.' '

" Respecting the expediency of abolishing capital
punishments (reports Lord Brougham, in 1847), the
Committee found scarcely any difference of opinion.
Almost all witnesses and all authorities agree in
opinion that, for offences of the gravest kind, the
punishment of death ought to be retained."

It is generally taken for granted that Howard was
an advocate for the total abolition of capital punish-
ment ; it may be well, therefore, to set the reader
right on this matter, and at the same time supply
some information on the subject of this article. In
" Foreign Prisons," page 63, he thus writes :

ON CAPITAL PUNISHMENTS FOR MURDER. 383

" From a book containing the names and crimes
of all who have been executed at Amsterdam, from
January, 1G93, to the end of 1766, the number
amounts to 336 : but only 25 were executed in the
last 20 years of that term.

" Of late, in all the seven provinces, seldom more
executions in a year than from four to six. One
reason of this, I believe, is the awful solemnity of
executions, which are performed in the presence of
the magistrates, with great order and seriousness,
and great effect on the spectators."

In his work, " State of Prisons," page 11, he
writes :

" From my own observations, I was fully convinced
that many more were destroyed by the gaol-fever
than were put to death by all the public executions
in the kingdom. I have a Table printed from a large
copper-plate, in 1772, by Sir Stephen Theodore Jans-
sen, showing the number of malefactors executed in
London for the twenty-three preceding years, and
the crimes for which they suffered. In it will be
seen that the total number of executions in London,
for those twenty-three years, was 678 : the annual
average is between 29 and 30. I leave to others the
discussion of the questions, whether those executions
were too numerous whether all the crimes for which
they were inflicted were deserving of death"

384 ON CAPITAL PUNISHMENTS FOR MURDER.

Pardoned,

Sentenced
to Death.

Transported,
or Died in

Executed.

Gaol.

Shoplifting, Riot, and twelve -i

240

131

109

Defrauding Creditors ....

Returning from Transportation .

Highway Robbery

362

111

251

208

118

Total

1121

443

678

" Happily," writes Field (the last and best bio-
grapher of the philanthropist, page 170), " the
Christian principle which induced Howard to pro-
test against sanguinary laws, has impelled others to
labour with success for their repeal. The exertions
of Wilberforce, Buxton, and others, have not been
vain ; and the number of crimes declared capital is
now, perhaps, reduced to its proper limit. Life is
forfeited upon the conviction of a few heinous of-
fences ; but the penalty of death is seldom inflicted,
except for murder. God forbid that our laws, in
this respect, should ever cease to accord with his de-
crees ; and that anything short of the death of the
murderer should be regarded as the condign punish-

ON~CAPITAL PUNISHMENTS FOR MURDER. 385

ment for such guilt. In expressing these senti-
ments, it is satisfactory to observe, that they accord
with the wisdom and humanity which prompted
the following expressions of the subject of our bio-
graphy :

" ' I would wish that no persons might suffer capi-
tally, but for murder ; for setting houses on fire ;
for house-breaking , attended with cruelty. The
highwayman, the footpad, the habitual thief, and
people of this clan, should end their days in a peni-
tentiary house, rather than on a gallows.' "

There are not a few persons, in the present day,
who do not scruple to apply the epithets of bar-
barism and cruelty to the sentiments advanced in
this paper.

Those who do maintain these principles, however,
may be well content to bear the obloquy, attached
to them, in common with Howard, the friend of
mankind, but the assertor of the claims~of justice.

c c

CHAPTER IX.

THE PREVENTION OF CRIME.

" Principiis obsta, sero medicina paratur,
Cum morbi longa convaluere mora."

THE prevention of crime in one's country is an
object worthy of deepest thought to the moralist,
the legislator, and the Christian. Questions of prison
discipline derive from this their chief importance.
If these are radically vicious, they foster and multi-
ply crime. If indifferent, they discharge only part
of their functions they merely punish. If wise
and good, they repress crime, and lessen the expen-
diture of the State. Prevention of crime may he
viewed either in reference to the lapsed members of
society, the classes most in danger of falling into
crime, or to the community at large.

To begin with the lapsed :

About 30,000 individuals, that is, one-fourth of
the whole annual prison population of this country,
return to prison again. The aggregate of these
numbers is fearful, and shows the importance of the
subject. But the proportion is encouraging, and
demonstrates a fact, too little credited, the willing-

THE PREVENTION OF CRIME. 387

ness of the great majority of criminals to turn from
their evil course.

Ninety thousand criminals in a year, whether
deterred by punishment, and sheer dread of the law,
or reformed in character, or influenced by mixed
motives, do actually, by their own efforts, against
extraordinarily great disadvantages, return to a
better course of life after legal punishment.

Paley states it to be the principal difficulty in the
treatment of prisoners, " how to dispose of them
after their enlargement," and remarks : " By a rule
of life, which is, perhaps, too invariably and indis-
criminately adhered to, no one will receive a man or
woman out of a gaol into any service or employment
whatever. This is the common misfortune of public
punishments, that they preclude the offender from
all honest means of future support." He suggests
that "until this inconvenience be remedied, small
offences had better, perhaps, go unpunished. I do
not mean," he says, "that the law should exempt
them from punishment, but that private persons
should be tender in prosecuting them."

Facts, after all, show that the State has only to
consider how to prevent relapse into crime in 25 per
cent, of the discharged. How far present improve-
ments in our penal regulations may effect a further
diminution remains to be proved. Should they
reduce it only by one-third, i. e. 10,000 individuals,
it will yet be a glorious result, and worth more than
all the trouble and expense lavished, as some would
say, with this object. Should no such result be

c c 2

388 THE PREVENTION OF CRIME.

manifest, it must not be too hastily concluded that
those improvements have failed in their grand pur-
pose ; for the fact is, that by those means, as well as
by the general efforts of benevolence and Chris-
tianity, we are, in the present day, not only
meeting old difficulties, but a host of new ones
continually, from increase of population, and other
causes, springing into existence.

Is it Christian is it politic not to lend a helping
hand, in some way, to those who are willing to be
reformed? What, if some have been rescued from
crime, in the very act, by the voice of sympathy and
Christian feeling !

On one occasion, the late Rowland Hill preached
a funeral sermon on the death of his servant man.
In the course of that sermon he said : " Many
persons present were acquainted with the deceased,
and have had it in their power to observe his cha-
racter and conduct. They can bear witness, that for
a considerable number of years he proved himself a
perfectly honest, sober, industrious, and religious
man ; faithfully performing, as far as lay in his
power, the duties of his station in life, and serving
God with constancy and zeal. Yet this very man
was once a robber on the highway. More than thirty
years ago, he stopped me on the public road, and
demanded my money. Not at all intimidated, I
argued with him ; I asked him what could induce
him to pursue so iniquitous and dangerous a course
of life ? 'I have been a coachman,' said he ; ' I
am out of place, and I cannot get a character ; I am

THE PREVENTION OF CRIME. 389

unable to get any employment.' I desired him to
call on me. He promised lie would, and he kept
his word. I talked further with him, and offered to
take him into my own service. He consented ; and
ever since that period has served me faithfully, and
not me only, but has faithfully served his God.
Instead of finishing his life in a public and igno-
minious manner, with a depraved and hardened
heart, as he probably would have done, he died
in peace, and, we trust, prepared for the society
of { just men made perfect.' Till this day the extraor-
dinary circumstance I have related has been confined
to his breast and mine. I have never mentioned it
to my dearest friend."

" Respecting the reception of the liberated pri-
soner again into society," writes the King of
Sweden, "a feeling of morality, degenerated to
implacability, ought not to repulse 'his contrition,
or suppress his good intentions ; but his return to
evil must be prevented by his being enabled to
obtain honest employment. There is an extensive
field for communal and private exertion. After the
law has executed the punishment, and the State has
taken care of the inward improvement, it is the
business of the citizen to offer a helping hand to the
individual restored to freedom. Both charity and
prudence urge this ; for it is the noblest and safest
means of preventing new crimes."

Now, it is no longer a question that society can
really do a great deal in preventing relapse into
crime, and that it is plainly the interest, and the

390 THE PREVENTION OF CRIME.

duty, of the State to assist their efforts, but a
matter of actual observation, wherever the experi-
ment has been tried, either abroad or at home.

Reformatory agricultural schools, for juvenile
offenders, have now for years been tried in France
with great success ; and it is delightful to observe,
how much Christianity, in its general characteristics
of morality and benevolence, in the hands of earnest,
large-minded, and good men, has accomplished in
that country, for the amelioration and improvement
of that class, particularly at Mettray.

The directors of this famous establishment were
formerly two Monsieur Demetz, and the Vicomte
de Bretigneres ; to these gentlemen, a third, the
Vicomte de Villiers, nephew of Monsieur de Bretig-
neres, has been lately added. The first of those
gentlemen must be regarded as the founder. M.
Demetz began his good work by the formation of
the Societe Paternelle, under the presidency of
M. le Comte de Gasparin, Peer of Erance.

The first Article of the Constitution of this
Society, thus denotes its objects :

1. To exercise a benevolent guardianship over
children, acquitted on the ground that they had
acted without discernment, who may be confided
to its care by the magistrate, in administering the
judicial instruction, dated 3rd Dec. 1832 ; to procure
for such children (being in a state of conditional
liberty, and sent to an Agricultural Colony,) a
moral and religious education, as well as elementary
instruction ; to have them taught a trade, to accus-

THE PREVENTION OF CRIME. 391

torn them to agricultural labour, and place them out
afterwards in country situations with artificers and
agriculturists.

2. To watch over the conduct of these children,
and assist them by the guardianship of the Society
so long as they may require it.

Of this institution, the Rev. Mr. Turner of the
Philanthropic gave an interesting account a few
years back, and a most favourable report to the
British public.

"At present," he says, "nothing is merely
routine, merely mechanism; all is pervaded and
animated with the earnest, real character of the
resident director. The question naturally and con-
tinually suggests itself, How will this go on ? how
can the work be made to prosper when he is re-
moved from it ?

" To this question Monsieur Demetz would an-
swer, that all would depend upon the work being
taken up on the same principle, and carried on by
the same means that he has triumphed by the prin-
ciple) namely, of religious charity , and the means of
specially prepared and educated agents. Engaged
in as a work of religion, to be mainly promoted and
sustained by voluntary zeal, and to be wrought out
by young and earnest men, devoted and prepared to
enter on it as a mission which they have to live for,
it will succeed. Taken up as a piece of government
or corporate machinery, to be carried on by a mere
code of discipline, and by hired servants, who enter
it solely as a calling they may live by, it will, pro-

392 THE PREVENTION OF CRIME.

bably and, perhaps, justly fail. Let us address
ourselves to it ' with the Gospel in our hand,' (to use
Monsieur Demetz's words,) and we shall be sure of
the Divine blessing on our efforts."

The particulars of this interesting establishment
will be found in a pamphlet, by M. A. Cochin,
translated by my friend Mr. Hamilton, the chaplain
of Durham Gaol (Whittaker, London). Prom that
document it appears that :

" 856 children have left Mettray, of whom up-
wards of 633 have been placed in situations, or been
restored to their families.

" 223 are in military service ; 185 in the army
and 58 in the navy.

" Of those who have left the Institution, 708 are
irreproachable.

" 47 conduct themselves tolerably well.

" 16 have faeen lost sight of.

" 85 have relapsed."

M. Cochin also acquaints us that :

" One portion of these admirable results is attri-
butable to the watchful solicitude with which the
directors and the Societe Patemelle continue to
patronize the former inmates ; every effort is made
to place them with respectable persons, and this is
not difficult on account of the numerous applications
made to the directors, which gives them a consider-
able choice of situations ; the example of Mettray
has been followed by the establishment in France
alone of thirty-two similar institutions; and on a
recent occasion, July, 1852, the Governmental In-

THE PREVENTION OF CRIME. 393

spector-General of these agricultural colonies re-
ported most favourably of the Institution."

M. de Metz borrowed his ideas of the institution
at Mettray from the Ranhen Hans in Hamburgh, a
reformatory home for criminal boys, under the pre-
sidency of Dr. Wichern.

The success of this institution in its infant state
may be illustrated by the following anecdote :

During the last calamitous fire in Hamburgh
those once criminal boys having offered to their
excellent president their assistance towards rescuing
property, it was accepted, and so well did they dis-
charge their duty that they received the public
thanks of the city subsequently, for their meritorious
and valuable services. Xor was this all; for they
next requested permission to give up their beds and
bedding to as many houseless persons as could
thereby be accommodated, which was, also, wisely
and humanely granted. The self-denying and
honoured person who contrived that most bene-
volent scheme, devoting both time and property to
the work, that he might become a father to the
fatherless, and provide a home for the outcast,
ascribes all his success to the blessing of God, in
answer to believing prayer.

Those w r ho desire further information respecting
the Rauhen Hans and its results must consult the
evidence of George Bunsen, Esq., before the Com-
mittee of the Commons on Juvenile Criminals in the
session of 1853.

Since giving that evidence Mr. Bunsen has

394 THE PREVENTION OF CRIME.

obligingly communicated with me on the subject,
and confirms his previous statement from renewed
opportunities of observation. The number of refor-
matories, he informs me, is increasing, and is now
probably not far from 72 in Protestant Germany.
They are all independent of the Government,
although " some may receive assistance from the
State."

Let us now glance at some institutions, with a
like object, at home.

In 1849 His Royal Highness Prince Albert laid
the first stone of the farm-school for criminal and
vagrant boys at Bed-hill, Reigate, Surrey, under the
Philanthropic Society. The new institution consists
of eight houses, each calculated to accommodate
about sixty boys, arranged on either side of a
commodious and handsome chapel; thus carrying
out the system of domestic management and associa-
tion, which has been adopted with such success at
Mettray, as well as at Hamburgh. Each house is
so fitted and arranged as to allow of the "family"
of boys contained in it being instructed in cooking
and all common domestic occupations, as well as in
husbandry and gardening, and such mechanical arts
as are connected with farm-labour. The houses, and
everything relating to the accommodation and
treatment of the boys, are arranged on a studiously
economical and simple principle.

A very complete account of this Reformatory farm-
school will be found in the Minutes of Council on
Education, 1852-1853, in an elaborate report by

THE PREVENTION OF CRIME. 395

Mr. E. Carleton Tuffnell, one of Her Majesty's
Inspectors of Schools :

"The boys who compose the school, 178 in
number at the date of my visit, may be divided
into three classes. First, there is the voluntary
class, who come entirely of their own free will,
consisting of youths tired of a life of vice and crime,
and wishing to reform. Secondly, there is the com-
pulsory class, being boys who have been sentenced
to transportation, and have received a pardon condi-
tional on their submitting to the regulations of this
establishment. Thirdly, there is a class sent by
their parents or immediate relatives for reformation,
and who may be said to be compulsorily detained, so
far as the parental control may be considered com-
pulsory. Eor this latter class a payment, usually
5s. per week, is asked; but in the case of poor
parents much less is taken.

"The inmates are divided into four separate
households, which are in a great measure kept dis-
tinct, each under a superintendent, responsible only
to the resident chaplain, who is supreme director of
the institution, subject of course to the Committee,
who meet every fortnight. Two of these households
consist of 50 each ; one embraces 60 of the older
lads, and the fourth contains 20 lads employed in
the stable, cow-house, and farm-yard, who are
changed for others at the beginning of each month.
The class of 60 is considered too large, and it is
intended to diminish it and to add to the farmyard
class of 20.

396 THE PREVENTION OF CHIME.

" The number of youths that have been received
at E/edhill since the school was opened in 1849, is
461, up to 1st June, 1853. Of these 289 have been
discharged in the following ways : 157 have emi-
grated either to Australia or America ; 1 has been
sent to sea ; 70 have been apprenticed or assisted to
employment in England; and 60 have been dis-
charged at their own request, or as unimprovable, or
have deserted. Of this latter class, however, several
have been ascertained to have subsequently reformed,
the good seed sown in them while within the walls
of this institution having at a later period produced
its fruits. The success that attends the operations
of this society may be epitomized as follows : Of
the whole number of criminal boys received, 75 per
cent, are reformed, and become honest and indus-
trious members of the community ; 25 per cent, re-
lapse into their former' courses, at least for a time,
though several of these eventually shake off their
evil habits, and turn to the paths of honesty and
respectability.

" If I might be allowed to criticise the arrange-
ments of this establishment I should say that the
household plan was not sufficiently carried out, and
that 40 or 50 are too many to place under one
teacher. The two most noted institutions in Europe
for the reclamation of juvenile offenders are the
school at Mettray in Erance, and the Eauhen Haus
at Hamburgh. In the former one a teacher is allowed
to every 20 boys, and in the Eauhen Haus one to
every 12. I have inspected the Hamburgh school,

THE PREVENTION OF CRIME. 397

which has been very successful, not only in reforming
those sent to it but in training teachers for the busi-
ness, who are in great request for similar establish-
ments in other parts of the continent. The Mettray
reformatory school is of world- wide celebrity ; and in
both the principles that ought to govern such insti-
tutions have been so long studied and practised that
I should hesitate to doubt the correctness of the
conclusions to which they have arrived. Perhaps it
is owing to this variation of management that the
number of those who relapse into crime is two or
three times less at Mettray and Hamburgh than at
Bedhill."

This account by Mr. TuffneD, and especially the
comparison which he institutes, calls for one or two
remarks.

It might appear to some, comparing the general
results of imprisonment in England, and the results
of the Reigate farm-school, that this institution is
in reality accomplishing nothing ; for the proportion
of relapses in both is the same. But the fact is,
that of this particular class in the general prison
population the proportion of relapses is probably
full forty per cent., if not even more.

Then, Mr. Tuffnell does great injustice, (most un-
designedly, doubtless,) to the Philanthropic school,
in the comparison which he draws between that
establishment, and those on the continent ; and his
representations might leave, if unexplained, an
injurious impression on the public mind as to the
utility of the institution. There is unquestionably

398 THE PREVENTION OF CRIME.

much in what he says with respect to the manage-
ment. The fewer in the family, the better, for good
moral supervision. But he has not observed two
points of difference between the English and Erench
reformatories, which are really so essential as to
destroy all analogy in the cases.

1. The juvenile offender in Erance has not the
stigma of crime upon him, and consequently feels
differently from the individual of that class in
England.* And,

2. Society there, freely receives him, upon libe-
ration, as really not degraded by his detention. The
honourable services of the army and navy, as we
see in the return, are open to him, and on account
of his superior education, at Mettray, he has even
" a choice of situations." How different it is with
us, I need not point out.

A small but most useful institution, which will
bear comparison with any in its results, was formed
in connexion with the gaol of Durham, in 1848, by
the excellent Governor and Chaplain, assisted by
friends and magistrates in their private capacity,
which may serve to sho*w the exceeding great value,
economically and morally, of efforts in behalf of
released prisoners. The total expenditure for 1848,
1849, 1850, 1851 and 1852, was under 300. The

* If I had been able to attend the late Conference at Bir-
mingham to which I was honoured with an invitation, I would
have pressed upon that distinguished assembly the importance
of having our law in this respect assimilated to the penal code
of France, at least up to the age of 14.

THE PREVENTION OF CRIME. 399

number of discharged prisoners restored to their
relatives, or placed in situations where they 'could
earn an honest livelihood, was 804. Of these only
26 were re-committed to prison, and 31 were con-
sidered failures, but not re-committed.

The cost here is so trifling, when compared with
the results, that one naturally inquires by what
machinery the work is accomplished. Nothing is
more simple. The refuge for young women is a
room in the house of a married schoolmaster. The
domestic discipline of the family, and the instruction
and advice of the Christian ladies who visit the
prison, are the chief influences. Friends are com-
municated with, employers are obtained, by means
of those zealous and benevolent persons, &c. Some-
what similar arrangements are made for male
prisoners. The co-operation of the magistrates,
chiefly in carrying out a suggestion of the chaplain,
" to sentence each member of a gang to a different
term of sentence," is stated greatly to have con-
tributed to the success. It is to be hoped that this
admirable institution will be imitated in every
county in England.

In Great Smith-street, Westminster, may be seen
an institution, of a most interesting character,
having the same object, under the able management
of Mr. Nash, formerly of the City Mission, who has
given himself for years to the work of reclaiming
criminals. To show how such a refuge is needed
and appreciated, it is enough to state that during a
single year there have been upwards of 1500 volun-

400 THE PREVENTION OF CRIME.

tary applications, by perhaps the most accomplished
thieves and vagrants in the metropolis, all earnestly
soliciting, some even with tears, a share of that
bounty so providentially afforded to others. Some-
times they seem nearly broken down with grief when
they find they cannot be admitted. This is the case
with many who, by cleverness in their degrading
profession, could rob from the public enough to
supply all their wants, and to enable them to indulge
in their propensities of riot and excess.

The probation before admission to the benefits of
the institution is a fortnight's voluntary imprison-
ment on bread and water, in a comfortless room !

I rarely ever witnessed a more affecting scene
than upon a visit to this establishment; when,
having expressed a wish to address and pray with
the inmates, they were called together for the
purpose, and stood around me, first singing the
appropriate anthem, " I will arise and go to my
Father;" then listening to my exhortation; and
joining heartily in responses to the prayer. The
thought of what they had been, and what inevitably
they must have come to, only for this timely Chris-
tian help, came very forcibly to my mind.

During the absence of the Governor for a few
weeks, a few summers back rendered necessary for
his health these thieves were left wholly to them-
selves, one of their own number acting as temporary
superintendent. They did not disappoint the ex-
pectations entertained. They wrought most dili-
gently at their trades, of printing, carpentry, shoe-

THE PREVENTION OF CRIME. 401

making, and tailoring, and conducted themselves in
every respect in the most proper and orderly
manner. 100 young men now are sheltered in this
refuge, trained for useful life, and sent out annually
to benefit, instead of injuring, society.

Such houses of recovery, then, are facts, not ex-
periments ; and show to demonstration how much
may be done, at very little cost, for prevention of
crime in the lapsed, under wise and Christian influ-
ence. It is to be hoped that they will be multiplied,
rather than a few excessively enlarged, beyond the
personal control of one energetic Christian mind.
Ten men like the superintendent of this establish-
ment, with a family each of some seventy or eighty
criminal youths, in Lambeth, Whitechapel, Clerken-
well, and such localities, would sensibly tell upon
this dangerous class in the metropolis.

I rejoice to know that such are now springing up
in various parts of this great city. Sectarian
theology, that fruitful source of discord, has not, as
yet, marred these philanthropic enterprises. Never-
theless there is too much division, on other matters,
amongst as ardent persons engaged in carrying out
experimental institutions, which might be avoided
by a little mutual concession.

One institution, a home for forty or fifty of the
most wretched, criminal, juvenile outcasts of Lon-
don, deserves here especial notice. A noble-minded
woman, of private rank, is the sole supporter
of this home, for houseless little wanderers, at the
cost of about 800 per annum.

D D

402 THE PREVENTION OF CRIME.

To remember what these poor children were a few
months back, and now to see them so happy,
orderly, and industrious, must be, to the benevolent
heart of their patroness, a continual banquet. Miss
Portall, however, aspires to more their spiritual
regeneration and salvation. May her best desires
be accomplished, and may not a few of these chil-
dren, in the great day, rise up to call her blessed !

With equal success renewed efforts are being
made to rescue the fallen and abandoned of the
other sex.

In the year 1848 an able article was published in
the " Quarterly Review " on the subject of Female
Penitentiaries. The writer of that article, amongst
other humane suggestions, penned the following
sentence : "It may seem somewhat wild to speak
of going out to fetch wanderers home, when so
many of those who have already risen up like the
prodigal, and are at the very door of the home of
penitents, have none to lead them in; but we
cannot entirely put out of sight the duty of search-
ing for the lost sheep in the wilderness. It is not
enough to wait for the returning wanderers. There
is a sort of missionary machinery required, by
which especially the beginners in this vicious life
might be pleaded with."

The judicious recommendation thus made has
been for some time acted on by Lieutenant Black-
more, R.N., the Superintendent of the London
Female Dormitory, (27, Gloucester Place, Camden
Town) . In company with other Christian friends,

THE PREVENTION OF CRIME. 403

it is his practice, at stated intervals, to traverse
by night the streets of this vast metropolis, to dis-
tribute tracts to unhappy wanderers from the paths of
female virtue, and to plead with them to accept the
shelter from a life of infamy which the Institution
above named presents to them.

As the result of one evening's mission, about
TWENTY unhappy females, desirous of being re-
formed, called at the Dormitory, and were sheltered
in it, or placed in other institutions of a similar
kind. This fact will explain more forcibly than any
comment the usefulness of such labours, and there
needs but a generous co-operation on the part of the
public to enable the institution to add largely to the
numbers of those sheltered within its walls. Only
those who have seen the misery endured by these
unhappy objects, and who know their willingness,
nay, their eagerness to be rescued, can have any
adequate conception of the immense amount of
good which an agency of this kind can effect. To
restore, as this Institution has been the means of
doing, unhappy females to their sorrowing relatives,
to procure for others situations in which they can
win back lost usefulness and respectability ; and,
higher still, to bring them in penitence and faith to
the feet of the Saviour this surely is a work in
which all should rejoice to join. Let those who, by the
grace of God, have been kept in the path of safety,
help by their prayers and pecuniary aid to lift up
those that are fallen. In conclusion, to quote the
words of the same article in the " Quarterly Review,"

D D 2

40i THE PREVENTION OF CRIME.

" Many who have lived deeply to regret the stains
which discoloured their opening years, are now
among the best and foremost in all works of good,
and are living as altered men with their wives and
children happy about them. Not so with those
with whom they sinned. Some have perished in
their sins ; others with broken hearts are forced to
continue their pilgrimage of guilt and woe. For
these we claim not words alone, nor thoughts, but
deeds of pity. Restitution is a part of penitence ;
it is at least possible to give year by year penitential
contributions to those asylums (like the present)
devoted to the reformation of fallen women."*

In establishing new institutions of this kind, let
not the old be suffered to languish. There are
many of the most admirable character in our
metropolis, and elsewhere in the country, which
only need to be inspected by the benevolent, to
engage their best support. One visit less to the
Opera in a season, and one visit more to a benevolent
institution, with the price of the amusement, as a
donation, by a small part of the fashionable world,
would place them in a flourishing financial position,
and leave a more lasting pleasure, and a more
beneficial impression on the heart. One entertain-
ment less in the year in a rich man's house, would
enable him to place under Christian influence, tens,
or even hundreds of his hapless fellow-creatures,

* The details of that night's missionary tour are given in
a paper, entitled London by Moonlight, They are exquisitely
affecting and instructive.

THE PREVENTION OF CHIME. 405

who, if not taken by the hand at the critical
moment of remorse or penitence, must sink irre-
coverably into the depths of vice and misery, if not
into eternal perdition.

During the forty-six years that the Refuge for
the Destitute, now at Dalston, has been in opera-
tion, about four thousand young women have expe-
rienced its advantages.

Eor about the same period, supported altogether
by voluntary help, the London Female Penitentiary,
Pentonville, has sheltered 3175 ; nearly 2000 of
whom have been placed out to service, reconciled
and restored to their friends, or otherwise satisfac-
torily disposed of. The London Magdalen, estab-
lished in 1758, more than double that number.

Mr. Thomas Wright, of Manchester, has shown,
by his own example, how much may be accomplished
in preventing relapse into crime by the earnest and
benevolent zeal even of an individual in humble life.

This gentleman stated before Lord Brougham's
Committee, in 1847, that he had been in the habit
of visiting Salford Prison every Lord's-day for nine
years up to that time, for the purpose of imparting
religious instruction, and that he had been instru-
mental in procuring situations for upwards of 150
prisoners after their discharge becoming personally
responsible in certain cases for their rectitude, by
way of surety ; of these 150 he had heard of only one
solitary case of relapse.

Whilst, then, no opinion is more convenient for
persons who would excuse themselves from co-ope-

406 THE PREVENTION OF CRIME.

rating in works of charity of this description than
that, however benevolent these may be, they are
altogether hopeless, nothing is more contrary to the
fact. The greater part of the lapsed in every insti-
tution of Christian mercy are rescued from vice and
criminality, and some are savingly converted to God.

But, it may be said, this after all is a very partial
view of the subject. The great work of the philan-
thropist is not to recover the fallen and reclaim the
vagrant, but if possible to prevent the loss of charac-
ter and virtue altogether to check the disease in
its rise and premonitory symptoms. Very well. I
have nothing to object to this philosophy. Only let
those noble-minded persons who have given them-
selves to the more difficult and more hopeless task
be duly honoured, and not reckoned amongst pseudo-
philanthropists, or good-natured enthusiasts.

They are surely following their blessed Master,
who " went about doing good and healing all man-
ner of sicknesses among the people," just as if this
were the end of his mission.

Those deep-thinking people, who would direct you
to the better end to begin at, are not usually the per-
sons to set you the example. Indeed, your philoso-
pher rarely condescends to put his shoulder to the
wheel. He stands calmly looking on, and when the
catastrophe takes place, he pronounces his opinion
that it might have been averted by a little fore-
thought.

To come, then, to the second part of our subject.
The classes most exposed to the peril of falling into

THE PREVENTION OF CRIME. 407

criminality, are pre-eminently the poor and our
working people. Strenuous efforts should be made
to remove, or greatly diminish, the physical evils
which afflict the labouring classes.

If any are yet ignorant as to what those evils are,
they cannot do better than take up any of the Re-
ports of the Labourers' Friend Society, the Ragged
School Union, or the City Mission. The first-named
society supplies most valuable information on the
whole subject to those who have it in their power,
and feel the wish, to improve the condition of their
poorer brethren. In some country parts, the condi-
tion of the poor man's habitation is disgraceful ; in
our large towns, it is horrible beyond description.

The physical condition of the poor cannot be
viewed as separated from the moral. The want of
a proper dwelling-place for the working-man is one
of his greatest trials, and is as injurious to his spirit-
ual as to his bodily health. The crowding together
of a whole family in one room weakens domestic
virtue, destroys self-respect, modesty, and delicacy
of feeling, and utterly removes all opportunities for
self-improvement. A home which is miserable from
physical causes, is the half-way-house to the gin-
palace oi\beer-shop. The pestiferous, overpowering
atmosphere of the dwellings of the poor in London
and elsewhere, undoubtedly generates the thirst for
intoxicating drink, and thus leads to crime and
greater misery. The working classes, when placed
in proper lodging-houses, are as remarkable for
sober and domestic habits, as the inhabitants of

408 THE PREVENTION OF CRIME.

our courts and alleys are for drunkenness, immo-
rality, and crime. Sanitary reform is moral reform.

Every one can do something in this work, in his
parish and neighbourhood, and he is bound to do
his very utmost : the health, the lives, of the poor
are involved ; yea, their morals, and, in no small
measure, their eternal interests.

Attention, however, to the improvement of the
habitations of the labouring classes is only part of
the duty, even as regards their physical condition,
which rests upon those whom Providence has placed
in better circumstances. There is a growing system
of business in England which grinds the face of the
poor, and unquestionably demoralises them. The
system of doing work by public tender is one of
these, and slop-selling is another. The cupidity of
companies or individual employers, in the fearful
competition of the times, is putting forth, also, con-
stant efforts to deprive the working-man of his birth-
right in a Christian land, one day's rest from toil in
seven ; so necessary for the preservation of his health,
his home-feelings, and his very apprehension of the
existence of a God, who regards the poor and the rich
alike. The rest which the owner gives to his hard-
worked cattle he refuses to his fellow-man. The
brute is his property ; the moral debasement of his
servant is no money-loss in his account ; his sickness
and death certainly none, and therefore no concern
to his selfish heart ; covetousness is cold-hearted
and iron-handed. The railway director and pro-
prietor enjoy their day of rest as God ordained it

THE PREVENTION OF CRIME. 409

one day in seven and attend the place of worship.
To their servants they give a day of rest, one in four-
teen, or one in twenty-eight days, or not one at all !
On what ground do these parties lay aside the law
of God ? Of necessity, piety, or mercy ? Eew put
forth so hypocritical a pretence. Their sole object,
if they will suffer themselves to look the matter
honestly in the face, is to swell their dividends,
to make money ! Would they run their Sunday
pleasure-trains if they brought in no gain ? Let
them be consistent, and follow their other money-
making trades on the Lord's-day, till the whole
working population of their country become ener-
vated, homeless, demoralised, and lose the character
of Englishmen and Christians. This is the natural
result of such money-making, grasping cupidity,
and it is the duty of society to protect the labour-
ing classes from every encroachment, of this kind,
on their rights, their liberties, their property ; for
these are all bound up in Heaven's gift to them
the Sabbath. Christianity is the best protector and
friend of the poor.

It is most incumbent upon all who are raised
above the condition of actual labour themselves, in
every way which Providence enables them to do it,
" to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the
heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free." In
performing this high duty, they will at the same
time most surely be helping to lighten the evils of
their country by diminishing its crime.

There is one division of this class to which, it

410 THE PREVENTION OF CRIME.

seems to me, of no small importance to have public
attention directed.

There are some hundreds of thousands of young
men and women employed in the various towns in
the kingdom as drapers' and milliners' assistants,
&c. These young people are primarily amongst the
most respectable, and belong to the most virtuous,
walks of life. Yet it is, to my own mind, a matter
of certain persuasion, that an undue proportion of
their number sink into the lowest depths of crime
and infamy. If this be true, there must be a
cause ; and humanity, and a sense of public interest,
should ascertain what that cause is. Erorn conver-
sation with many degraded persons of this class, I
am led to consider their moral and religious con-
dition, in general, in the houses of their employers,
as most deplorable. They are, in almost all cases,
removed from home influences, and placed, at the
most critical period of life, in the midst of
temptations. The love of money is the reigning
principle of their new abode. Everything must be
sacrificed to this truth, integrity, honour, con-
science. Here, perhaps, the evil begins ; for, con-
science being ill at ease, the worship of God, the
reading and hearing of his word, are given up ; the
Lord's-day is devoted to pleasure, and the evenings
of the week to dancing-parties, theatres, and the
like, when the descent to crime, penury, an early
grave, or even worse, becomes frightfully rapid.

A book written by a competent person in this
class, corrected by the experience and observation of

THE PREVENTION OF CRIME.

others, having for its object the religious improve-
ment of the people employed, and at the same time
fully exposing the iniquities of trade, would, under
God, be productive of great good. The " early
closing " movement only touches one point of their
social condition. It is to be hoped, however, that
it will prove the precursor of a thorough investi-
gation of their moral and religious state. In some
establishments, it is expected that the young people
will leave after breakfast, on Sunday, and not return
till night. Where do they spend the day ? In trips
on the railway, the river, and in infamous gardens.

They are dismissed at a moment's notice. What
becomes of young women or young men who have
no money nor friends near, or are ashamed to apply
for help in proper quarters ? The condition of both
sexes at such a crisis is appalling enough. That of
young women is, of course, the worst. A home, in
Christian hands, in every considerable town, would
in itself be a haven of refuge to hundreds of this
class in a year, and at the same time furnish oppor-
tunities for deliberating upon and carrying out
further measures.

"May the Lord prosper you," said a prisoner
once to me who had been a shop-walker, with whom
I was speaking on the subject, " in your wishes in
behalf of these poor young women, I now say, who
have been their most terrible enemy, in sending
them off about their business at a minute's notice,
and abusing them also in a most shameful manner,
in my days of darkness."

412 THE PREVENTION OF CRIME.

There are honourable exceptions in the drapery
business. I had the exceeding great pleasure not
long ago of witnessing in the City a gathering of
the young people, in one large concern, around their
principal and friends, to tea. The sight was to me
most novel, and I hailed with delight the prospect
of such meetings being multiplied in the metropolis.
Prom a Report read by one of the young men, I
learned that, amongst themselves, during the year,
100 had been collected for Missionary purposes;
and from a most feeling and faithful exhortation
addressed by the principal of the firm, that thirteen
of his household in the same period had been con-
verted truly, as he hoped, to the Lord. In all our
great towns there are, happily, heads of houses of
business of like character, who do their utmost to
preserve a proper feeling of self-respect in this class,
and to show how, by commercial integrity and
perseverance, to seek ultimate advancement for
themselves. Such masters discharge a high duty ;
and whilst preserving the morals of the young
persons committed to their charge, are at the same
time advancing their own interest and that of
society.

I say their own interest, for the success of every
establishment depends in great measure upon the
characters of the agents employed. Subordinates
who have no interest in a concern, but mere sub-
sistence, until they can better themselves, are much
more likely to swamp it altogether, than the reverse.
Trustworthy agents, treated by their employers

THE PREVENTION OF CRIME. 413

with liberality and kindness, who " do service, not
as men-pleasers, but as in the sight of God," bring
an amount of zeal, and a power and freshness of
mind, to their work, which makes their service of
incalculable value.

This has been proved incontestably over and over
again, but never more strikingly than lately in the
manufactory of " Price's patent Candles," at Bel-
mont, Vauxhall.

The subjects of the experiment in this case were
boys. A few of the lads in one department had
set about improving themselves in writing, after
work. The foreman sympathized in the effort, and
encouraged it. More boys joined in. He applied
to Mr. Wilson, the managing director, and ob-
tained for them some rough moveable desks, from
that gentleman, who now warmly took oversight of
the matter, and distributed prizes of books, calcu-
lated to assist the boys in their plan of mutual im-
provement, and keep alive the desire : without any
effort or compulsion the school increased. Mr.
Wilson did not hesitate to provide a school-building
and a teacher, a cricket-ground and other helps, out
of his own pocket, until the number of scholars
rose to 800, and the annual expense to 130. The
expense of the cricket-ground and gardens alone, for
three years, amounted to 249, which Mr. Wilson
considered was money well laid out.

But I must let Mr. Wilson speak for himself, in a
report to the proprietor :

THE PREVENTION OF CRIME.

" When you remember that the hour and a-half of schooling
was always after a hard day's work, you will not wonder that the
boys did not all offer themselves. Compulsion being out of the
question, the course we took was to try to join on some harm-
less pleasure to the school, and also to make a marked dis-
tinction between those who did, and those who did not, belong
to it, not by putting disgrace upon these last, but by putting
honour on the others. With this view we repeatedly, in the
spring and summer of 1849, asked all the school to a tea-party
in the new room. The first tea was an interesting one. Very
many of the boys had not been at anything of the sort before,
and many of them had never, perhaps, put themselves into
decent clothes at all. Those who came untidily or dirtily dressed
to our first tea, feeling themselves out of keeping with the
whole thing, tried hard to avoid this at the next party. To
several our first tea was the ^occasion of their taking to neat
dressing for life. I will just mention here, that so far as our
experience goes, there is not with boys as there is with girls,
any danger whatever of leading them to think much of their
dress. Almost all our best boys now come to the chapel in
plain black, though not a word has ever been said to them
about their dress. One evening last summer a friend, who had
met a troop of them on the way to one of our cricket-matches,
asked me afterwards whether the boys he had met could be our
factory boys, as they were, he said, more neatly dressed than his
school-fellows used to be. By the help of these tea-parties, we
made the boys who did not belong to the school feel awkward
and uncomfortable about not doing so, and very many joined,
several, however, stipulating that they were not to be asked to
the next tea, lest that should be supposed to be their motive for
joining.

" It was on Easter Monday that our first tea-party was held,
partly in order to try our powers of attraction against those of
Camberwell and Greenwich fairs, both of which are within
reach of the factory. Ours wen the stronger, both then and on the
Whit Monday following.

" In following up our plan of combining as much pleasure as
possible witb the schools, the next step was to teach the boys
cricket, yet it was anything but a pleasant occasion which
decided the time of beginning this. In the summer of 1849

THE PREVENTION OF CRIME. 415

the cholera came, and it was fearfully severe in Battersea Fields
and the lower part of Lambeth, where numbers of our people
live. For a time the first thing every morning was to compare
notes, as to the relations whom the men and boys had left dead
or dying on coming to work, and in the latter part of the time
no doctors were to be had, as they were all knocked up. Before
it got very bad we got good medical advice, as to whether any
precautions against it were possible for our boys, and decided
that fresh air and exercise out of the factory were the best
preventives. We therefore closed the school entirely, and a
gentleman (Mr. Symes) having most kindly let us take pos-
session of a field, which was waiting to be occupied by a builder,
we set to work hard at learning cricket after working hours. I
say learning, for cricket is not a game of London boys of the
class of ours, as was proved, by the fact of hardly any of, even
the elder ones, knowing anything at all about it when we
began.

" The cholera seems an odd reason for taking to cricket, but
I daresay the cricket had a very happy effect on the general
health of our boys, and so may have strengthened them against
catching it. We lost one (an amiable and well-conducted boy
of seventeen), although many of our boys lost relations living in
the same houses with them. Always when the game was finished
they collected in a corner of the field, and took off their caps for a
very short prayer for the safety from cholera of themselves and
their friends ; and the tone in which they said their ' Amen ' to
this has always made me think, that although the school was
nominally given up for the time, they were really getting from
their game, so concluded, more moral benefit than any quantity
of ordinary schooling could have given them. They also met
every morning in the school-room at six o'clock, before
beginning work, just for a few minutes, to give thanks for
having been safely brought to the beginning of the day, and to
pray to be defended in it."

Nothing, surely, can be more cheering to a Christian phi-
lanthropist than such scenes as these, where the evils of the
accumulation of numbers in factories are not only overcome,
but actually made to bring forth good upon a large scale ; where
a religious spirit is seen pervading the whole mass; no doubt
producing individual instances of great utility, and sending out
a much more extended influence of moral good.

416 TdE PREVENTION OF CRIME.

Mr. Wilson then goes on to describe his summer excursions
to the country with the boys, and their exceeding great delight,
and the moral benefit.

It is important to have Mr. Wilson's account of the prosperity
of the establishment under this system :

" I was also, if possible, to state the amount of direct pe-
cuniary advantage to the company from all that has been done,
and is doing. This I find to be impossible. One can only say
generally that the whole spirit of a factory, such as I trust ours is
now in prospect of becoming, will be different from that of one in
which the giving and taking of wages is the only connexion
between the proprietors and their people. One feels intuitively
the moment the idea of two such different factories is presented
to one's mind, that the difference does, and must necessarily by
the very laws of human nature and of religion, ensure to the
one much greater prosperity than to the other, although it may
be impossible to trace out the details of this, and say, such and
such a hundred pounds, spent at such a time on the boys, has
brought back two hundred pounds before such a date afterwards.
If I were forced to come to some particular, proved instances of
benefit to the business, I should take first the one which you wit-
nessed the other night after coming down from the schools into the
factory, a number of boys working so steadily and well at what,
a few years back, we should not have thought of trusting to any
but men, it being work requiring much greater care and
attention than can be reckoned upon from ordinary untrained
factory boys. Yet even here the exact pecuniary benefit cannot
be stated, for the boys whom you saw at work are not substi-
tutes for men, but for machinery. It is the fact of our having
at command cheap boy-labour, which we dare trust, that enables
us now to make by hand the better sorts of candles, which we
used to make, like the other sorts, in the machines, and which,
on account of the hardness of the material, when so made were
never free from imperfection. The benefit will come to us, not
in saving of wages (for had the choice been only between the
men's dear labour and the machines, we should have stuck to
the machines), but in increased trade through the imperfections
of the candles alluded to being removed."

The next thing brought under our notice is the resolution
proposed and passed at a full meeting of the proprietors on the

THE PREVENTION OF CRIME. 417

24th March, 1852, for the support of their educational system,
not including the expenses of the chapel. Mr. Conybeare
moved the following resolution, adding some remarks to the
proprietors, from which we make an extract :

" ' That the shareholders, cordially coinciding in the views of
the company's duty with regard to education, which are ex-
pressed in the report, presented hy the educational committee to
the directors, authorize the directors to expend a sum not ex-
ceeding 900 per annum in maintaining the educational system
now in operation in connexion with the company's factories.'

" The sum I have named, though it includes the salaiy of the
chaplain, who is daily employed in teaching in our several
schools, and whose various duties you will find enumerated in
the second page of our report, does not include the expenses of
the chapel. Public worship not being so much a part of the
ordinary factory routine as our school training is, it seems better
that the directors should not officially move any resolution for
providing it, but, however strongly they may feel individually on
the subject, should leave it to shareholders to propose whatever
may seem to them right. Such proposal may, of course, be
made by any shareholder, either by way of amendment on my
motion, or as a substantive motion of his own." I cannot
avoid here giving some of the philosophic sentiments of this
Christian manufacturer. After having given due praise to the
manager, Mr. Wilson, for his originating and carrying on the
great work at a great expense to himself, he thus speaks :

" Which of us does not know too well the great evil and intense
temptations to which the uncared-for children of our English
factories are necessarily exposed when herded together in hot
contaminating crowds, and regarded, as the very term 'hands 'so
generally applied to them itself suggests, rather as so many mere
component parts of the machinery than as human beings ? Shall
not we, in our factories, obviate the evil, by increasing, so far as
we may, by education, the average moral strength of those by
whose toils we profit ? And shall we not, at the same time,
strive earnestly to purify the moral atmosphere in which they
work, by shutting out, or at least mitigating, the temptations
and occasions of evil which the average moral strength of
factory children is found incapable of resisting? It is said
you must all have frequently heard it that joint stock

E E

418 THE PREVENTION OF CRIME.

companies have no consciences. Let this company prove itself
an exception to any such rule by acting towards its factory
' hands ' as not forgetting that those ' hands ' have human
hearts and immortal souls."

* An extensive field for the elevation of one of the
lowest classes in the country has been, as yet, com-
paratively, but little cultivated, I mean, the masses
of the poor immured in workhouses.

The condition of criminals and that of paupers is
often compared in the present day. As regards the
greater abundance of the necessaries of life provided
for the prisoner, there is plainly an error in pre-
suming both in similar circumstances, and therefore
to be treated alike, in this respect. Society has
taken away the liberty of the one, and is directly
responsible that he suffers nothing beyond his legal
punishment. The other is free to leave, and has the
possibility (I am far from saying in all cases) of
bettering his condition, through relatives or other-
wise. With respect to the moral and spiritual
treatment of criminals and paupers, it forms, so far
as I have had opportunities for judging, a painful
contrast.

Gentlemen are willing to take charge of prisoners,
but they would think it degradation to be governors
of poor-houses. Why ? I believe the answer simply
to be, in one case they are enabled to keep their
natural place in society by adequate support ; in the
other, not. The same remark applies to chaplains
and schoolmasters. A false notion of economy de-
bars the poor in the workhouse from the inestimable

TFIE PREVENTION OF CRIME. 419

advantage of a high sort of religious and moral
influence wholly devoted to their spiritual and social
advancement, and entails a loss upon society.

Are these classes alone incapable of moral eleva-
tion ? Are they alone unworthy of the philanthro-
pist's regard ? Some Christians are willing to
explore this region of benevolence in the spirit of a
Sarah Martin, and gratuitously to bring a high
moral influence to bear upon its inhabitants. Why
are they not welcomed ?

" It is an observation," writes the British Ladies'
Society for visiting Prisons, " which has been made
by an experienced member of this Committee, that
the worst Prison cases come from Workhouses, and
it is greatly wished that the simple means of good,
which have been found efficacious in prisons, might
be extended to these establishments. From the
gratuitous visits of Christian ladies, whose main
object, under the blessing of God, is to bring the
Scriptures in their practical and experimental power
to bear upon those visited, we may surely hope that
much benefit might arise, particularly to the young,
who have fallen probably through the ignorance,
neglect, and misrule of their parents; and to the
aged, who, from this, their last resting-place on
earth, must shortly pass into a boundless eternity."

It is no small cause for thankfulness to observe,
lately, in the Minutes of the Council of Education,
" accounts of the establishment of normal and model
schools, with the object of training masters of
schools for pauper and for criminal children ;"

E E 2

420 THE PREVENTION OF CRIME.

and forming, in connexion with education, in coun-
try parts, " school field-gardens ; " and in towns,
workshops for trades; and in both, "wash-houses
and kitchens," " in which girls may be successfully
instructed in domestic economy."

The early example set by the guardians of the
Bridgnorth Union, in the employment of pauper
children, and the improvement of bad land in the
neighbourhood, deserves universal imitation.

They have a school-farm at Quatt, the children
being separated from the workhouse at Bridgnorth.
It is managed by a master, acting in the double
capacity of master of the house and schoolmaster,
and his wife is matron. Their united salary is 50,
with rations. The house is capable of accommo-
dating 49 children. The school is industrial, the
boys being employed in the cultivation of four and a
half acres of land, and in the management of cows,
pigs, and pony. Three, and occasionally four, cows
are kept, and from four to eight pigs. The girls are
employed in the house and dairy- work, in washing,
ironing, and baking, together with sewing, knitting,
and making their own clothes, &c., &c. The produce
is disposed of first, in supplying the inmates of the
school with milk and potatoes, charged at market
prices ; and the rest, such as butter, pigs, &c., is
sold at Bridgnorth. The children, like all others
in a workhouse, are clothed and fed by the union.
Their time is usually thus employed : they rise at
half-past 5 in the summer, and at a quarter before
7 in the winter ; they work till 8 ; school from 9

THE PREVENTION OF CRIME. 421

till 12 ; dine at 1 ; and at 2 P.M. they go to their
work the boys to their field and garden, and the
girls to their sewing, knitting, &c. They leave work
at 5, and sup at 6, after which they play an hour, or
more, if the weather permit ; and, as they sing in
church, they practise the psalms and chants for the
following Sunday, and the day is closed with prayers.
The profits of the farm are carried to the account of
the union ; they amount to from 60 to 70 per
annum on an average, after paying rent and taxes,
together with a per-centage on the buildings,
draining, &c.

Mr. Tuffhell, the Government Inspector, reports
most favourably of schools of this kind ; and in this
communication throws out a suggestion which, to
me, considering the wants of our Australian colonies,
and the excessive number and consequent demorali-
zation of poor friendless girls in this country, appears
very valuable :

''1 believe that there is no description of children dependent
on the poor rates who would not be materially benefited by a
transference to our southern colonies ; but the scheme is pecu-
liarly fitted to orphan children, as they are too often perfectly
friendless, and would have no ties to sever by emigration. In
order, however, to benefit to the utmost both England and her
colonists, it would be desirable to send them out at the earliest
possible age, and to keep them for a certain period in orphan
asylums to be erected in the colonies, where they might be
taught such trades and occupations as are most in demand.

These colonial asylums should be erected, maintained, and
managed entirely under the supervision of the colonists, while
the passage-money should in all cases be paid by the parishes
or friends of the emigrants. The cost to all parties of such

422 THE PREVENTION OF CRIME.

a scheme would, I am confident, be considerably less than
what is incurred at present.*

With respect to two schools, easily approached by
rail from London, on the Croydon and Epsoin line,
Mr. Tuffnell writes as follows :

" The Central London District School at Norwood proceeds
under the same successful system of management that has
characterized it for many years. Agricultural labour is now
about to be added to the other forms of industrial employment
provided for the boys, and a handsome chapel has been built,
capable of containing the 1,000 souls who constitute the popu-
lation of the school. But the results obtained in the North
Surrey District School, owing to its later foundation, afford by
far the most remarkable proof of the advantages that would
ensue from the general establishment of this description of
pauper schools. As this school has been little more than two
years in operation, it is possible to make an accurate comparison
between what the children were under the old workhouse sys-
tem, and what they are under the district school system. The
improvement in morals, manners, discipline, and instruction is
so great, that I think no one who sees it could doubt the supe-
rior efficacy of the system of education here pursued. Stealing,
lying, deception, writing improper words upon the wall, insub-
ordination, and mistrust, were a few of the evils with which the
managers had to contend on the opening of the school. At
present the above vices are hardly known. The getting rid of

* Emigration, as a remedy for some of our social anomalies,
is now gone by, except of this kind, or of poor families in which
females greatly predominate.

I may take occasion further here to add, by way of answer to
many inquiries respecting Mrs. Chisholm, that I believe that
lady to be thoroughly benevolent ; but, as a sincere Roman
Catholic, she must use her influence for the good of her church,
and much farther, perhaps, than she ever intended. If her
efforts had been amongst her co-religionists in Ireland, they
would have been less open to suspicion.

THE PREVENTION OF C1UMK. 423

the mistrust and suspicion which the boys mostly felt towards
their officers, and persuading them that those who were set over
them were really actuated by a desire to promote their welfare,
was the most difficult feat to perform. But I believe that this
most important point, which was quite essential to the moral
success of the school, has now been fully attained.

"I will mention a few facts which will place in contrast the
change that has been worked in the character of these children.
In the first week of the opening of the establishment, they broke
out into open riot, in which 100Z. worth of damage was done to
the building. At present, though the number of children has
been doubled, the risks of such a disorder occurring are hardly
within the bounds of possibility. But perhaps the ease with
which the truth is arrived at, when the master makes inquiry
respecting any offence that has been secretly committed, is the
most gratifying proof of the moral status of the children. Of
this I will mention an instance.

" Three of the boys, when the school was out walking, robbed
a poor woman of her apples from a tree in her garden. She
complained to a policeman, who brought the complaint to the
chief schoolmaster. Upon which he assembled the boys, told
them of the disgrace that had been brought upon the establish-
ment, and expressed his hope that those boys who had com-
mitted the crime would come forward and confess their guilt.
The three delinquents immediately came forward. The master
then said, that, in consequence of their ready confession, he
would not punish them ; but he appealed to the whole school
on behalf of the poor woman who had lost her property, and
hoped that those who had any halfpence would subscribe them
to recompense her. This appeal was immediately answered by
the collection of 6s. 6d. in halfpence ; which sum was committed
to the care of the three criminals, who took it to the poor
woman, asked her forgiveness, and so ended one of the worst
offences that for some time has appeared in the North Surrey
School. Such an instance could not occur in a school which
was not in a sound moral condition ; and it should also be re-
membered that it happened among children taken from the
lowest grade of London poverty."

The following two cases will illustrate the economy

42 L THE PREVENTION OF CRIME.

of the two systems. They are supplied to me by th<
excellent chaplain of the North Surrey School :

"In one of the unions comprised in our School District, there
is a pauper who became chargeable to his parish at a very early
age, and received his education in the workhouse school. He is
now 25 or 26 years old, and has never ceased to be chargeable
to his parish (except when in prison) for more than a week or
two at a time. He is, at the moment I am writing, in the
county gaol for the 15th time, and is undergoing a sentence of
2 years imprisonment, with hard labour, for threatening the life
of the Vice-Chairman of the Board, who had officially, one day,
to convey to him the refusal of the Guardians to allow him out-
door relief. This is probably an extreme case. But still I fear
many a case might be found in other workhouses, parallel in all
its essential features.

" Now contrast with this a case of a boy from the same union
who has recently left our school.

" This boy was admitted into the school very shortly after the
opening of the establishment. He was then nearly 14| years of
age. The account I received of his former career was not fa-
vourable. Still, his conduct with us was generally good ; though,
had I been asked to point out the most promising case, I cer-
tainly should not have selected him. Being a strong, active
lad, we sent him to work on alternate days at the farm. He
soon imbibed a great fondness for his employment, and, at the
expiration of his first year, he had learned to follow the plough,
reap, and tend the cattle, in a very creditable manner. At length
he was sent for by the Board, who had obtained a situation for
him at some marble works in town. The boy at first exhibited
great reluctance to accept the situation, on account of his pre-
ference for agricultural work. He was desired to withdraw from
the Board-room, while the Guardians consulted what was to be
done with him. Upon being readmitted, he at once said that
he had changed his mind, and would accept the situation. The
Guardians were naturally surprised at this sudden change of
resolution, and inquired the cause of it. ' Gentlemen,' he
replied, ' it is true I should much prefer being a farm labourer,
but I am afraid if I do not accept this offer, I shall have to
go back, not to the school, as I am now 16, but to the work-

THE PREVENTION OF CUTMK. -125

house; and I would do anything rather tftan that.' It is much
to the credit of the Board that they immediately sent him back
to the school to await a more eligible offer ; and, very shortly,
they obtained a situation for him in a neighbouring gentleman's
family, to look after his horse and garden. He has now been
there nearly a year. He frequently obtains leave to attend
our Chapel services on Sunday, and I hear that he gives his
master perfect satisfaction."

Bagged and industrial schools, in Christian
hands, are of double value in the prevention of
crime. They give education on a sound basis, and
to the class most in danger of falling from virtue.
They become, also, the centres of improvement in
depraved localities.

A public-house in the worst part of Westminster,
once the resort of Turpin and his gang, now con-
verted into a school, a reading and lecture-room, by
Home Missionary enterprise, is not only a fact, but
an illustration of the work itself, and the social
benefits it becomes the parent of, in such regions.
A short time back, a respectable person could not
be seen to walk in Duck-lane. A self-denying City
missionary opened a passage. The Earl of Shaftes-
bury planted his schools, and the character of the
very place was elevated. A few hours spent there in
company with the missionary are amongst the most
pleasing reminiscences of my life.

The great value of industrial schools, in a
financial as well as a moral point of view, is now
ascertained 'in almost all our great towns. The par-
ticulars of one in Aberdeen, as stated in a pamphlet

426 THE PREVENTION OF CRIME.

by my honoured friend Mr. Thompson, of Banchory-
house, must suffice :

" A few years since, there were 280 children in Aberdeen
who had no visible means of subsistence but by begging and
stealing. A begging child is now seldom to be seen in our
streets or in the county, and juvenile delinquency has considerably
diminished. The former result has been produced by the estab-
lishment of Schools of Industry ; and, in order still more to
diminish juvenile delinquency, an improved system of indus-
trial training is earnestly recommended.

"In April, 1846, the Rural Police Committee of the county of
Abei'deen, in referring to the great diminution of juvenile
vagrants in the county, thus allude to the effects of the Schools
of Industry :

" ' But the most gratifying part of the results of last year's
experience consists in the almost complete disappearance of
juvenile vagrants from the county. During the whole year only
fourteen cases of juvenile vagrancy have occurred. The follow-
ing are the numbers for each year :

1840-41 321

1841-42 297

1842-43 397

1843-44 345

1844-45 105

1845-46 14

" ' Your Committee desire to draw particular attention to this
subject, feeling it to be of the highest importance, because
juvenile vagrancy is, they are persuaded, the nursery whence a
large proportion of the crime and pauperism of after years is
furnished.' "

The sentiments of Mr. Thompson fully agree
with my own, as to the chief value of all
schools :

" No industrial school can prosper unless placed under the
management of persons of firm, immovable principles, whose
hearts are full of love to the souls as well as to the persons of
the pupils, and whose great desire is to bring them to the

THE PREVENTION OF CRIME. 427

knowledge of the only Saviour, while they neglect no other
needful care and instruction. One great object to be ever kept
in view is to make the school, as it were, ' a happy home ' to the
children."

The pamphlets of Mr. Thompson and the Rev.
Dr. Guthrie (published by Nisbet) should be perused
for further information on this important subject.
The first-named gentleman has since published a
valuable book on this and kindred subjects (" Social
Evils ; their Causes and Cure." Nisbet.)

The number of Ragged Schools in the metropolis
is now about 120, attended by some 20,000 chil-
dren, and nearly 2,000 teachers, on the Lord's day,
of whom about 200 are paid teachers, and assistants
in the week.

To give some of my readers, who have not had
the opportunity of observing, an idea of the mate-
rials of which these schools are formed, and the
effect which they produce upon the population
around them, it may be as well here to add an
account of one or two, in the metropolis, given by
eye-witnesses.

Charles Dickens has given a graphic description
of Field Lane School. A writer in the " Edinburgh
Journal," thus describes his visit to the same, in
1845 :

" The Smithfield ' Ragged School ' is situate at 65, West
Street, a locality where vice and fever hold fearful sway. To
open it in any other neighbourhood would be to defeat the
object of the projectors. The very habiliments of the boys, so
patched, that the character of the original texture could scarcely
be gleaned, would almost be sufficient to preclude their ingress

428 THE PREVENTION OF CRIME.

to a more respectable neighbourhood, and make them slink
back abashed into their loathsome dens. The house has
that battered, worn aspect, which speaks of dissolute idleness ;
the windows are dark and dingy, and the street too narrow to
admit a current of fresh air ; and it needed, on the rainy day in
March in which it was visited, but a slightly active imagination
to call up visions of the robberies and murders which have been
planned in it, and of which it has been the scene.

" The entrance to the school was dark, and there being no
windows to illuminate the rickety staircase, we stumbled into
the school-room on the first floor, before we were aware. On
entering, the eye was greeted by a spectacle to which, from its
mingled humour and pathos, the pencil of Hogarth could have
alone done justice. We found a group of from forty to fifty
girls in one room, and about sixty boys in another ; the girls,
although the offspring of thieves, quiet, winning, and maidenly ;
but the boys full of grimace and antics, and, by jest and cunning
glances, evincing that they thought the idea of attending school
fine fun. Foremost amongst them was a boy apparently aged
seventeen, but as self-collected as a man of forty, of enormous
head, and with a physiognomy in which cunning and wit were
equally blended, whose mastery over the other boys was
attested by their all addressing him as ' captain.' The boys had
their wan, vice-worn faces, as clean as could be expected, and
their rags seemed furbished up for the occasion ; whilst their
ready repartee, and striking original remarks, and the electric
light of the eye, when some peculiar practical joke was perpe-
trated, evinced that intellect was there, however uncultivated or
misused. Unless we are greatly self-deceived, we beheld in this
unpromising assemblage as good a show of heads as we have
ever seen in any other Sunday School, and the remark is
justified by what we learned with respect to the shrewdness
generally evinced by these children. The predominant tempe-
rament was the sanguine, a constitution which usually indicates
great love for animal exercise ; and during the time we were
present, they appeared as if they could not sit quiet one
moment hands, feet, head, nay, the very trunk itself, seemed
perpetually struggling to do something, and that something
generally being found in sheer mischief.

" Hymns were occasionally sung to lively measures, the girls

THE PREVENTION OF CRIME. 429

singing with a sweetness and pathos that sunk deep into the
heart; but the boys were continually grimacing and joking, yet
all the time attempting to look grave and sober, as if they were
paying the most respectful attention. When the superintendent
told the boys that he was about to pitch the tune, and that they
must follow him, the boy before mentioned as the captain cried

out in a stage-whisper, ' Mr. says we are to follow him I

wonder where he 's going to ? ' a jest hailed with a general
laugh by his confederates.

" Amongst these boys, however, were some to whom the word
of kindness was evidently a ' word in season,' and who drank in
the tender accents with which they were addressed perchance
for the first time as if it were music to their souls. Then,
again, was to be seen some poor puny lad, as gentle in mind as
in body, who was obviously dying from unfitness to cope with
the requirements of his circumstances poor tender saplings,
growing in an atmosphere which was too bleak for any but the
forest oak to brave. Untrained, except to crime, as most of the
children are, much good has already been effected."

The Lamb and Flag Ragged School is planted in
another bad region of the metropolis, and has pro-
duced the most pleasant fruits.

Clerkenwell was once a lovely country of hill
and dale, sparkling streams, and sheltering woods.
Fitzstephen,* writing in 1196, speaks of the "open,
pleasant meadow, the flowing rivulets, and the noise
of the water-wheels," in the suburbs on the north
side of the City wall. How altered now ! A writer
in the " Illustrated News," thus describes it :

" Many of our readers are, no doubt, familiar with the densely-
peopled, dirty, confused, huddled locality which stretches round
the Middlesex Sessions House. Many of them have, we doubt
not, been bewildered amid the dingy, swarming alleys, crowded

* Cromv.-ell's "History of Clerkenwdl."

430 THE PREVENTION OF CRIME.

with tattered, sodden-looking women, and hulking, unwashed
men, clustering around the doors of low-browed public-houses,
or seated by dingy, unwindowed shops, prosy with piles of dust,
rickety rubbish, or reeking with the odour of coarse food, lumps
of carrion-like looking meat simmering in greasy pans, and
brown, crusty morsels of fish, still gluey with the oil in which
they have been fried. In Clerkenwell there is grovelling,
starving poverty. In Clerkenwell broods the darkness of utter
ignorance. In its lanes and alleys the lowest debauch, the
coarsest enjoyment, the most infuriate passions, the most un-
restrained vice, roar and riot. It is the locality of dirt, and
ignorance, and vice, the recesses whereof are known but to the
disguised policeman, as he gropes his way up rickety staircases
towards the tracked house-breaker's den, or the poor shabby-
genteel City Missionary, as he kneels at midnight by the foul
straw of some convulsed and dying outcast."

In the centre of this " locality of dirt, ignorance,
and vice,"* and close to the "Clerke's "Well" of
old, Lamb Court is situated. At the time the above
sketch was written, a stranger sometimes paused at
its entrance, but never ventured through ; even the
police seldom went there alone. But now, though
the inhabitants are much the same, the habitations
quite as wretched, visitors no longer need to fear
insult or violence, but invariably meet with civility
and respect. By what has this change been
wrought ? The reformatory influence of a Bagged
School.

The Lamb and Elag Bagged School has been
established nearly seven years. Its origin is traced
to the active zeal of the City Missionary. The inte-
rest of Mr. Humphrey was awakened on behalf of

* Ragged School Magazine, Feb., 1853.

THE PREVENTION OF CRIME. 431

the hundreds of poor, naked, ignorant children with
which these courts abounded. He often saw them
taken, and tried by justice for the breach of laws of
which they were ignorant, and which no one had
ever taught them they were to respect ; and he
asked, Could nothing be done for those poor neg-
lected little ones ? Eaith whispered, Try. He took
a small ill-ventilated room in Lamb Court, and on
the Sabbath-day collected together as many as it
would contain, and there taught them the first prin-
ciples of that truth, which to know aright " is life
everlasting." His self-denying efforts having come
to the knowledge of the Rector of the parish, through
his District Visitors, a Committee was formed for
carrying on the work thus commenced. The lease
of a house in Lamb Court, locally known as " Jack
Ketclis Warren" from the fact of its having been
a training-place for young thieves, was obtained, and
altered, at a considerable cost, into a school-room.
Thus was the foundation of a good work laid, and, in
carrying it on, many difficulties were to be sur-
mounted. Amid much insult, and some personal
violence, did the teachers prosecute their labours,
endeavouring to remove the prejudices of the people,
and striving to disperse that gross darkness with
which ignorance had enveloped the inhabitants of
these courts. Nor did their patient labour lose its
reward.

An interest in their welfare, and the voice of
gentle kindness and compassion, were things almost
unknown to the dwellers in these courts, and it was

432 THE PREVENTION OF CHIME.

some little time before they could believe that the
profession of friendliness made to them was sincere
and disinterested. But, this discovered, from foes
they became friends from hinderers, helpers" of the
work. Soon realizing the advantage of the school
to their children, they solicited the Committee to
open a Day School. Mr. Vanderkiste, the then
Missionary of the district, warmly espoused the
cause. Funds were placed at the disposal of the
Committee,* which enabled them to open a Daily
School, under the care of a duly -trained Master and
Mistress. By much toil, and through much trouble,
a Free Day School was also established, and was
speedily filled. The attention of the Committee was
now turned towards improving the outward ap-
pearance of the poor ragged ones attending the
schools. A Clothing Fund was therefore estab-
lished, to which the parents of the children pay
according to their means, from one penny upwards ;
to every shilling so subscribed, the Committee add
a bonus of fourpence. Many a bare foot was soon
covered, many a half-naked body decently clad, and
protected from the cold and rain. An Adult Even-
ing School we find next established. Its teachers
were voluntary, and the scholars of the most disor-
derly characters. Strict discipline, firmness, and
kind treatment, in a great measure shortly changed
these rough features into those of a more pleasing
description. The Committee opened an Infant

* See "Notes and Narratives of a Six Years' Mission." Nisbet.

THE PREVENTION OF CRIME. 433

School, which has proved a most valuable auxiliary
to the other schools. The room fitted up for this
purpose was only capable of containing sixty child-
ren, and it was immediately filled, and it became
evident that this branch of the Committee's labour
was the most appreciated.

The school-rooms were opened in the Sabbath
evening for a Devotional Service, consisting of
prayer, reading and expounding the Scriptures, and
exhortation.

The schools were now all crowded, but the rooms
were small and ill- ventilated, and, consequently, the
health of the teachers failed. Children and infants
were every week refused admission for want of ac-
commodation. An enlargement of the premises was
decided upon. Two small tenements adjoining the
old school-house were taken and pulled down, and
upon this enlarged site the present schools were
erected, and re-opened in October, 1852.

The friends and teachers have abundant testimony
that they have not laboured in vain. We will, how-
ever, only state one fact illustrative of the silent
influence such institutions have upon the neighbour-
hood in which they are situated : Lamb Court is,
as has been stated, a locality of filth. Its inhabit-
ants, principally costermongers, Smithfield drovers,
etc., throw their refuse into the court, where it often
remains until swept away by the scavenger. On a
recent occasion, a public meeting of the subscribers
and friends was held at the school-rooms, which
becoming known to the inhabitants of the court,

434 THE PREVENTION OF CRIME.

just before the meeting assembled, unsolicited by
any, they appeared with broom and pail, and tho-
roughly washed the court from end to end, as though
they were anxious to redeem their character, and
that nothing unpleasant to the eye or nose should
annoy the visitors to their schools.

Upon visiting these schools, a stranger is struck
with the neat and orderly appearance of the child-
ren, especially on the Sunday, and naturally thinks
that many are fit for higher, or paid schools. But
a more careful scrutiny will remove this impression.
The operation of the Clothing Fund, and careful
training, have produced these results. The teachers
have strict instructions to admit no children but
such as belong to the class for whom they are in-
tended.

The class of children found in Ragged Schools
may fitly be described in the words of a lady who
has devoted her talents to the prevention of crime :

" A large proportion are decidedly of the perishing classes, in
their lowest condition of abject poverty and want, uncertain of
every meal, and careless, therefore, of everything but obtaining
the bread that perisheth ; a smaller proportion are of the dan-
gerous classes themselves, or those connected with them, being
known to be engaged in practices directly or indirectly injurious
to society; while a smaller proportion still are members of
families who should be in a different position, but who have
been sunk by circumstances which may or may not have been
under their own control, but from which they cannot free them-
selves without a helping hand."*

Many of the children present a sad spectacle

* Carpenter on Reformatory Schools.

THE PREVENTION OF CRIME. 435

pale and emaciated, their physical growth stunted
for want of proper food, while the intellect is pre-
cociously sharpened children of five years of age
with the wit and shrewdness of adults. It is not an
unfrequent thing for some of the children to enter
school eating a raw carrot or turnip, or some equally
unnutritive article of diet, and which forms their
only breakfast ; while others are known to come
without food at all, when the little ones gladly share
such as they have with their less fortunate com-
panions. The master informs us that in a recent
visit to the homes of the children in Turnmill Street,
and the courts and alleys adjacent, he found " want,
wretchedness, and misery, abounding on every side,
owing, in very many cases, to want of employment,
in others to idleness and drunkenness ; and yet, to
judge by the appearance of many of the children, no
one would have considered such to be the fact,"
there being a strong desire in many of the parents
to send their children clean and neat, though the
garments obtained through the Clothing Fund are
often paid for by the sacrifice of necessary daily
food.

John Pounds, a crippled cobbler of Portsmouth,
with a canary-bird on one shoulder, and a cat on
the other, first teaching, as he wrought in his little
wooden house, a crippled nephew ; then, to do more
in the same time, the child of a very poor neighbour ;
and, at length, a class of dirty ragged boys, who
crowded themselves around him on his working
days, and followed him to church on the Lord's-

F F 2

436 THE PREVENTION OF CRIME.

day, taught the true philosophy of Ragged
Schools.

This singular, but gifted and pious poor man, in
this way instructed hundreds of children, who grew
up to he useful members of society, many of whom
would have otherwise perished in the vortex of vice,
nowhere worse than in that most wicked town.

Pounds died in 1839, and many an honest trades-
man, and stout-hearted sailor and soldier, have wept
since over his grave, remembering the kind-hearted
and generous friend of their boyhood, who taught
them to read and to think, to pray, and to labour
honestly for their bread ; who played with them as
he taught, nursed them when they were sick, and
cheered their friendless, homeless poverty.

Thomas Cranfield, a pious operative of London,
did the same in the metropolis ; and entered into
the joy of his Lord about the same time.

How very small a thing is this world's greatness,
compared with the nobility of such followers of
Christ, and benefactors of mankind !

Now arose, in God's good providence, an institu-
tion, which has since brought, by its direct labour,
an untold amount of blessing to this million-peopled
city, and has become the pioneer and preparer of
the ground for many other enterprises, designed for
the physical and moral improvement of the poor,
the London City Mission.

I refer the reader here to this noble enterprise and
achievement of unsectarian Christian philanthropy,
merely in its subordinate and less noticed features,

THE PREVENTION OF CRIME. 437

as one of the most seasonable agencies raised up
in our times for the prevention of crime. I look
upon the 320 missionaries of this society, stationed
in the worst parts of London, as so many moral-
force constables, and worth to society more than
tenfold the number of the best organized police.

The magistracy, under existing statutes, and the
legislature, by new or amended laws, could prevent
much crime.

A thorough, sifting investigation by magistrates,
and the enforcement of law in the better regulation
of public-houses, pleasure-gardens, casinos, and
other places of resort, would repress much crime, by
the removal of some of its most prolific causes.

I have noticed with great satisfaction a wise move
on the part of the Total Abstinence Society, depu-
ting a properly qualified person to attend on
licensing day, and prove to the bench of magistrates
the absence of necessity for granting new licenses in
several towns, and neiv licenses, in most cases, were
not conceded. If this were done in every town for
three years, and those licenses withdrawn which were
proved to have been abused it would do more to
repress crime and the growth of immorality in the
country, than all our prisons or reformatories. As
to the people's amusements being interfered with,
this is a chimera, got up by interested parties, to
deter magistrates from doing their duty. The people
to be dealt with are thoughtless juveniles, miserable
drunkards, thieves, abandoned women, and the
like. Are not the parents of young persons, their

4*38 THE PREVENTION OF CRIME.

teachers, and their friends, who would save them
from rushing into ruin ; the many wives pauperized
by the drunkard's habits, and the whole moral and
religious public of the country, as much entitled, to
say the least, to be called the people ? One might
very well be content to abide by the suffrages of the
very drunkards and pleasure-takers in their sober
moments. None curse with bitterer imprecations
the public-house and the Sunday pleasure-ground,
which have proved the sources of such wretchedness,
if not ruin, to themselves.

When one compares, in their moral aspect, the
Middlesex House of Detention with the demoralizing
prison of Clerkenwell, which it displaced; or the
new prison of Wandsworth, and the London House
of Correction in Holloway, with the vile prison of
Brixton and Giltspur Street, he sees a step taken
towards stopping crime in the metropolis : but I
most respectfully submit it to the magistrates of
Middlesex and Surrey, and the City, whether the
same amount of energy and public spirit put forth
in stopping the supplies of crime., such as I have
referred to, would not accomplish infinitely more
good, and at very much less cost ?

Upon the magistracy undoubtedly rests an awful
responsibility, in respect to places licensed by their
authority for public entertainment. The facility
with which licenses are granted is most astonishing.
Places, notoriously of the most demoralizing de-
scription, where not only drunkenness, but vice in
.every shape, is practised, and the young of both

THE PREVENTION OF CRIME. 439

sexes are continually debauched, are year after year
permitted to renew their horrid trade, by those
whose office it is to protect the morals of the people.
The mere presumption that a house is orderly, seems
sufficient for it to pass muster. " It is the property
of a most respectable individual ;" yes, but that most
respectable proprietor only looks to his rent, and the
interest of the money which he has embarked in
the concern, and so the most hideous evils grow, and
gather strength; the moral public being deterred
from exposing them, by the difficulty of obtaining
direct proof, and the fear of an action for libel, or
the odium attached to the gratuitous informer.

How gentlemen invested with this office can
satisfy their conscience in this matter, without per-
sonal and repeated scrutiny, must be left to them-
selves to say.

Our garrisoned and sea-port towns are amongst the
saddest of all places in these respects, as borough
magistrates are the worst. In almost all, you have
a noble Christian company of persons, lay and cleri-
cal, labouring with all their might to save our brave
sailors and soldiers from the hands of enemies more
destructive than the engines of war, the fury of the
elements, or the malaria of climate ; * but you see

* I cannot help noticing here an act of wise and munificent
benevolence, in the sailor Duke of Northumberland, who has
lately signified his intention of erecting and presenting to the
port of North Shields, a handsome Sailor's Home, the cost of
which would be 4000 ; the land, which has also been contri-
buted by his grace, is worth 1000 more. All that the duke
has requested of the shipowners is, to raise 2000 for its en-
dowment. This sum has now been subscribed.

440 THE PREVENTION OF CRIME.

the treacherous foe housed, sheltered, and accredited
by the magisterial residents, and that in such
strength, that our sailors and soldiers must only
move forth in a body, if they would be safe from
the solicitations of barefaced open-day profligacy,
or the merciless fangs of thieves and crimps.

As for a soldier, after a hard field-day, or march
in summer, having it in his power to get an honest
pint of beer in the vicinity of his barrack-home, or
without having an abandoned companion forced
upon him, the thing seems next to impossible. I
have heard of one commanding officer prohibiting
his men from walking through a street, where every
third or fourth house was one of those licensed
places of entertainment, with what effect I am not
able to say ; but what a libel upon the magistracy !

Of all these hotbeds of profligacy and crime,
Portsmouth is perhaps the worst.

Some magistrates, by a benevolent exercise of the
discretionary power left in their hands, repress crime
in many cases without the cost and degradation of im-
prisonment. The learned Recorder of Birmingham,
for instance, has shown, by his own practice, how
much crime may be checked by one in his official
station, by calling in the aid of domestic discipline,
or of prudent and kind employers in the primary
stages of criminality, as appears by the subjoined
extract from his evidence before Lord Brougham's
Committee in 1847 :-

" What punishment do you generally give those
children ?

THE PREVENTION OF CRIME. 441

" I am rather fortunately situated in that respect,
because many of the children at Birmingham have
either friends, or relatives, or masters, who are
kindly disposed, and a considerable number of them
I am enabled to return to their masters or friends,
and I do that under this guarantee : the master
enters into an obligation to take care of the child ;
his name is inscribed in a register, and at certain
frequent but undetermined periods he is visited by
an officer of the police, without notice, for the pur-
pose of ascertaining what has been the conduct of
the boy, and hoic he has been treated.

" Generally speaking, has the result been favour-
able ?

" It has been favourable not so much so as your
lordships may perhaps expect ; but what I consider
favourable, under all the circumstances. The last
time I saw the account, there had been 113 persons
so disposed of. Of those, 44 maintained their posi-
tions without a single relapse ; and of the conduct
of 29 we were from one cause or other ignorant;
the remaining 40 had relapsed."

Our laws should be made better known to the
masses of the people.

I should like to see a reading lesson on the sub-
ject of crime, its causes, and its punishments, in
the hands of every child taught under Govern-
ment ?

An intelligible and thorough publication of good
laws must constitute a great part of their value.
In the books of the National Board of Education

442 THE PREVENTION OF CRIME.

in Ireland, you have copious lessons upon Money,
Exchange, Commerce, and the like subjects ; but
there is not a single page devoted to this purpose !
Yet, of all places in Her Majesty's dominions, the
people in that country require most to be taught the
nature and functions of government, and the value
of laws to the poor as well as to the rich. Can
there be a party in Ireland to whom it would really
give offence to teach, that property has rights as
well as duties, that the persons of jurors and
witnesses should be held sacred, that the law,
which is "a terror to evil-doers," is protective of
the rights of the well-disposed, that societies which
contemplate and carry out secret and bloodthirsty
vengeance on obnoxious individuals, are ruinous to
the best interests of the poor, deterring from
amongst them capital, enterprise, and employment,
which would feed and clothe them, that atrocious
criminals are not martyrs, that assassination is
murder, and all who are silently privy to it, before
or after, are implicated in its awful guilt ? It seems
that such doctrines would give offence. So the
functions of government are shared with the trans-
gressors of law, and justice is compromised or
defeated. Lord Derby's government, in 1852, was
a most honourable exception to this truckling
system, and the laws were beginning to be re-
spected.

" The certainty of punishment " says Paley, " is of
more consequence than the severity. Criminals do
not so much natter themselves with the lenity of the

THE PREVENTION OF CRIME. 443

sentence, as with the hope of escaping. They are
not so apt to compare what they gain by the crime
with what they may suffer from the punishment, as
to encourage themselves with the chance of conceal-
ment or flight. For which reason, a vigilant magis-
tracy, an accurate police, a proper distribution of
force and intelligence, together with due rewards
for the discovery and apprehension of malefactors,
and an undeviating impartiality in carrying the laws
into execution, contribute more to the restraint and
suppression of crimes than any violent exacerbations
of punishment. And, for the same reason, of all
contrivances directed to this end, those perhaps are
most effectual which facilitate the conviction of
criminals."

The want of certainty of punishment in Great
Britain cannot be much complained of juries can
act according to their conscience, and witnesses
show themselves in the streets. In Ireland the case
is reversed, the ride there rather is, certainty of
escape from justice, ESPECIALLY IN CRIMES OF
BLOOD.

Does the honourable profession of the law do
much towards increasing the certainty of conviction
and the condign punishment of the guilty ? Are its
doctrines sound ?

The practice of our advocates in general is, I fear,
too correctly expressed by one of the most eminent
of their number in our times, who thus lays down
the duty of an advocate :

" An advocate, bv the sacred duty which he owes

444 THE PREVENTION OF CEIME.

liis client, knows, in the discharge of that office, but
one person in the world his client, and none other.
To save that client by any expedient means to pro-
tect that client at all hazards and costs to all others,
and among others to himself, is the highest and
most unquestioned of his duties ; and he must not
regard the alarm, the suffering, the torment, the
destruction, which he may bring upon any other.
Nay, separating even the duties of a patriot from
those of an advocate, and casting them, if need be,
to the wind, he must go on, reckless of the conse-
quences, if his fate should unhappily be to involve
his country in confusion for his client's protection."

Very different were the sentiments of the illus-
trious Englishman, Sir Matthew Hale, who thus
speaks of his own practice :

" I never used the advantage of elocution or
rhetoric to deceive people, or to cozen them into
a thing. My heart always went along with my
tongue, and if I used intention of speech upon any
occasion, it was upon an intention of conviction in
myself of the truth, necessity, usefulness, and fitness
of what I was so persuaded ; if my judgment was
doubtful or uncertain, so was my speech. I never
used elocution or specious arguments to invite any
to that which, in my own judgment, I doubted, or
doubted whether it were fit or seasonable, all cir-
cumstances considered. I never used my elocution
to give credit to an ill cause ; to justify that which
deserved blame; to justify the wicked, or to con-
demn the righteous ; to make anything appear more

THE PREVENTION OF CRIME. 445

specious or enormous than it deserved. I never
thought my profession should either necessitate a
man to use his eloquence, by extenuations or aggra-
vations, to make anything worse or better than it
deserves, or could justify a man in it ; to prostitute
my elocution or rhetoric in such a way, I ever held
to be most basely mercenary, and that it was below
the worth of a man, much more of a Christian, to
do so. When the case was good, and fully so ap-
peared to me, I thought then was that season that
the use of that ability was my duty, and that it was
given me for such a time as that, and I spared not
the best of my ability in such a season ; and, indeed,
elocution, or rhetoric, is a dead and insipid piece,
unless it come from, and with a heart full of the
sense and conviction of what the tongue expresseth,
and then, and not till then, elocution hath its life
and its energy. I esteemed these cases best deserv-
ing my elocution, and in these I was warm and
earnest ; the setting forth of Thy glory ; the assert-
ing of thy truth; the detection and conviction of
errors ; the clearing of the innocent ; the aggra-
vating sins, oppressions, and deceits ; and though I
was careful that I did not exceed the bounds of truth
or of moderation, yet I ever thought that these were
the seasons for which that talent was given me, and
accordingly I employed it."

" Hoffman, a celebrated American advocate, and
author, in his ' Course of Legal Study addressed to
Students and the Profession generally,' among other
rules, has the following :

446 THE PREVENTION OF CRIME.

" When employed to defend those charged with
crimes of the deepest dye, and the evidence against
them, whether legal or moral, be such as to leave no
just doubt of their guilt, I shall not hold myself pri-
vileged, much less obliged, to use my endeavours to
arrest or to impede the course of justice by special
resorts to ingenuity to the artifices of eloquence
to appeals to the morbid and fleeting sympathies
of weak juries, &c. Persons of atrocious character,
who have violated the laws of God and man, are
entitled to no such special exertions from any mem-
ber of our pure and honourable profession; and,
indeed, to no intervention beyond securing to them
a fair and dispassionate investigation of the facts of
their cause, and the due application of the law ; all
that goes beyond this, either in manner or substance,
is unprofessional, and proceeds either from a mis-
taken view of the relation of client and counsel, or
from some unworthy and selfish motive, which sets
a higher value on professional display and success,
than on truth and justice, and the substantial inte-
rests of the community.' " *

In suppressing crime by legal measures, a great
point would be gained if the punishment of the
doubly guilty receiver of stolen property were made
more severe. As soon as such persons are appre-
hended, they fee the best lawyer, and transfer their
property the produce of a thousand robberies, per-

* See " The Lawyer : his Character and Rule of Holy Life.
By Edward O'Brien, Barrister-at-law." (Pickering.)

THE PREVENTION OF CRIME. 447

haps to some relative. This could be prevented.
All parties convicted of receiving stolen goods should
forfeit all their estate and effects which they pos-
sessed at the time of the purchase, or which were
held by any person in trust for them ; and all trans-
fers of property should be null and void if made
after such purchase.

If the legislature would zealously set about re-
pressing crime, let all laws which have been proved
directly to generate and increase immorality and
vice be repealed, as the laws for preservation of
game. The preservation of human life annually
sacrificed in their maintenance, and the preservation
of the morals of our peasantry, are surely of more
importance. Let the rich and the noble, however,
be protected in their private demesnes, just as much
as the poor man in his garden. If still retained,
let all trespassers after game or unlicensed persons
with guns be considered as volunteers for Her Ma-
jesty's service, and be at once drafted accordingly.
Such men would prove good soldiers, although bad
citizens and costly criminals. Some would say,
" Then why not repeal the laws for the preservation
of hen-roosts ?" The case is essentially different.
To pursue wild animals does not carry upon the face
of it immorality and crime. To invade a farmyard
and steal, does. Poaching is the parent of many
crimes and gross vice ; fowl-stealing is an evil per
se. The preservation of game has the frightful se-
quel every year of some twenty coroner's inquests.
About one-fourth of the cases of murder and man-

448 THE PREVENTION OP CRIME.

slaughter in Great Britain are the result of poaching.
No species of robbery results in such destruction of
human life as this. The best that can be said for
the Game Laws, is, that they keep alive a martial
spirit in the peasantry, and that poachers may be
converted, in a crisis, into good riflemen, game-
keepers into non-commissioned officers, and their
young masters into subalterns and captains. Be-
tween 3000 and 4000 individuals, under these laws,
are committed to prison annually. The half of these
might perhaps be at once enlisted, and would form
an admirable corps. (Offenders against the Excise
being able-bodied, I should like to see sent at once
to man our navy.)

Many of the aristocracy are humanely and wisely
relaxing their game-preserving regulations. Of the
late Duke of Wellington, the following is related :
" One of his keepers was killed in an affray with
poachers, who were arrested and convicted. He im-
mediately ordered his well- stocked preserves to be
thrown open, saying he would not allow his men to
be murdered, and other people to be transported,
for the sake of a parcel of birds and some paltry
game."

If these laws have been the cause of crime in
thousands, the Beer Law may reckon its victims
by tens of thousands.

This most unfortunate act of parliament, which is
now almost confessed by all to have increased in-
temperance and pauperism, multiplied houses of
resort for the gambler, the thief, and the disposer of

THE PREVENTION OF CRIME. 449

stolen property, and so demoralized to a fearful ex-
tent the labouring classes, is retained for the pur-
pose of money supply to the treasury of the state !
Can any one persuade himself, that the source of so
much costly evil, immorality, and crime, can be any
real profit to the state ?

Heavy, ruinous fines upon all proprietors of houses
of entertainment where thieves and such characters
are harboured, or crime perpetrated and planned,
would bring into the treasury a healthier revenue,
and save a vast public loss ; and publicans, from
being the abettors of crime, would be converted into
officers of justice and useful citizens. We have the
health of towns board, why not a commission for
the morals of towns ?

Laws protective of the working-classes in hours of
labour, for which there is a precedent in the Factory
Bill, are called for in this age of fearful competition,
monster companies, and exacting toil.

The late act for not opening public-houses, on Sun-
day till after morning service, sensibly lessened crimes
in towns; why should not the prohibition be ex-
tended to the remainder of the day, excepting, if it
must be, the hours of dinner and supper, for the
sale of beer, not to be used on the premises ?

With respect to pleasure-traffic on the Lord's-
day, there should be no hesitation about prohibiting
it. The vast majority of those who avail themselves
of it, are, young men and women employed at hard
work, or sedentary employment in the week, who
have the use of their legs, and to whom a brisk

IT G

450 THE PREVENTION OF CRIME.

walk with a friend, rational converse, a good book,
and their money saved, would be infinitely more
conducive to their every-day health and happiness,
than being whirled along in a railway from one ter-
minus to another, and the public-house or pleasure
garden, with worse than doubtful acquaintances.
Vast numbers in our great towns have relatives in
the country. By all means let such connexions be
kept up. An enactment prohibiting a reduction of
fares on the Sunday, and compelling companies to
carry passengers in the second-class carriages, with
lights, at a proper speed, after seven o'clock to eleven
in the evening of Saturday, and back early on Mon-
day morning, at single fares, would injure no com-
pany, would give to thousands of overworked railway
servants a day of rest in their families, and greatly
conduce to public morals.

In the appendix will be found a petition on the
subject of the Crystal Palace, which will explain my
views on that question, and that of nineteen twen-
tieths of the prison chaplains of the metropolis.

At a meeting of the Lord's-day Society, which I
had the honour of attending, the Archdeacon of
Salisbury exposed by astounding facts, the evils of
pleasure-trains in our provincial towns : " The
greatest evil and innovation in connexion with the
Sabbath with which he was acquainted was the
running of Sunday excursion trains. These trains
were not so visible in the metropolis as in the coun-
try towns through which they ran. He could state,
for example, in reference to the city of Salisbury,

THE PREVENTION OF CRIME. 451

that the days on which excursion trains arrived were
days on which the saddest scenes were witnessed,
days in which the public-houses were filled ; and he
was told by one who employed a large number of
working men, that, so far from those who took part
in such excursions being benefited by what was
termed relaxation, a great number of them were
utterly unfitted for pursuing their labours on the
following day. Almost every public conveyance
was hired to go to Stonehenge, or some other place
of interest in the neighbourhood ; and the driver of
a fly had declared to him that while the excursion
trains were running, he scarcely ever had a day of
rest. Such being one of the evils of Sabbath dese-
cration, and seeing how much that evil would be
multiplied if the Crystal Palace were opened on
Sunday, (for then there would be one constant ex-
cursion train running, without intermission every
Sunday,) he most readily entered into the present
feelings of those who were engaged in working the
Society."

Industrial, preventive, and reformatory schools,
should be encouraged and helped by annual parlia-
mentary grants, after careful inspection as to moral,
rather than to intellectual, progress. Society, in
enterprises of this nature, I am satisfied, should take
the initiative, and government stimulate by suitable
rewards such as are proved to be really useful.

An enlightened public press is a great power for
the suppression of immorality and crime. Upon
the whole, in Great Britain, public morals are in-

G G 2

|,V2 Till-: PREVENTION OF OBIME.

to the press. It is sad that there should be
exceptions, and that literary men should prostitute
their talents for doing good, to the purposes of gain,
or a transient popularity, and unsettle the founda-
tions of the morals of the people.

A public exposure in Household Words, or some
other popular paper, of the frauds of business (as
the Lancet lately put forth in matters of food),
would be of great service. The weekly periodical,
the Leisure Hour, for adults, and the Band of Hope
Review, for children, are illustrations how the
working-classes and young people may be interested
and benefited at little cost. The true way to keep
immoral reading out of the hands of people is to put
before them a cheaper and better literature. To a
great extent those publications have shown how
this may be done. A cheap weekly newspaper,
edited by an able Christian man, of catholic spirit,
open to the literary contributions of working people
only, might be made extensively attractive, com-
bining the elements of sound knowledge, and funda-
mental Scripture truths.

I proceed now, in the last place, to consider how
the community, in its most general sense, may be
influenced, so as to prevent much crime.

This is the most important division of our sub-
ject ; yet I must lightly touch upon it, as the pro-
vince I conceive to be assigned to me, is rather the
region of facts and experience, than of opinion.

If society in the main were sound in morals and
religion, the public sentiment itself would be a most

THE PREVENTION OF CHIME. 453

effective law; discountenancing vice, and making
crime in every form disreputable and odious. It
would also help further to promote virtue and
honour ; not only by direct instruction in the cul-
ture of youth, but far more forcibly by example, so
as to bequeath the richest legacy to posterity. A
generation rising in the scale of morals itself, will
be followed by a still better, and vice versd. In
such a condition of society, not only would the thief,
the burglar, the murderer, be condignly punished ;
but also all who contribute to the burdens of their
country, by propagating and perpetuating vice.
The neglect of children by drunken parents; the
direct teaching of dishonest arts in business, by em-
ployers ; the oppression of the employed poor ; and
all profligacy in every rank, would receive, at the
bar of public opinion, at least, a penalty which
forms the heaviest part of legal punishment, degra-
dation from a man's class, and universal contempt.
Such a healthy aspect of society would soon come to
.be reflected in the every-day press, which rather
follows than directs the public mind, and no less
distinctly by the legislature itself, which in a free
country partakes much of the like character. Hence
laws would be originated, not only for the repression
of crimes by suitable punishment, but for the pro-
tection and encouragement of the useful members of
the community, and government would fulfil the
twofold office assigned to rulers in Holy "Writ, bo-
coming " a terror to evil doers, andybr the praise of
tikem thai <lo

454 THE PREVENTION OF CRIME.

Hence, also, would spring up the most powerful
support which laws can receive, the public approval,
and an enlightened enforcement of them upon the
people, by powerful and practised writers. Nor is it
to be omitted, that the most effective agents in every
enterprise would then be at hand, both to carry out
measures for the reformation of the lapsed, and the
prevention of evil in those parts of the population
exposed especially to danger.

On the other hand, if the general tone of morals
be low, and the public sentiment irreligious, the
popular representatives, supposing them to be well
disposed, would lose, at least, one great incentive to,
what I would call, moral legislation, and laws, good
perchance, and exceptional, would prove compara-
tively powerless; not being backed by public
opinion. The press, also, would too readily pander
to the vitiated popular taste, and further corrupt it ;
and things would go from bad to worse, until the
efforts of virtue, patriotism, and humanity, in behalf
of the poor, the oppressed, and the fallen, were well-
nigh extinguished, or completely overwhelmed by a
mass of newly-created evils, and increasing aggrava-
tions of the old.

In which of these conditions is our country ?

Some would unhesitatingly answer in the latter.
These see gloom in its present aspect, and thicker
clouds gathering in the distance. The tendency of
everything is to greater corruption in morals and
religion. Reported improvements are specious,
superficial, exceptional !

THE PREVENTION OF CRIME. 455

Others are just as confident that the nation is in
the course of rapid and unbounded moral progress,
in fact, already entering upon a sort of social millen-
nium. This was the prevailing feeling, remarkably,
when the Industrial Exhibition was uppermost in the
public mind, and peace enjoyed its jubilee in the
land.

The truth seems to lie between the two extreme
opinions, or rather, to express more correctly my
own views, is partially involved in both. Virtue
and morality are advancing with the progress of the
truth itself, on the one hand ; specious vice, system-
atized crime, and infidelity, on the other! The
wheat and the tares in the same field, are both
ripening for the harvest. Were I to confine my
view to the peculiar subjects of my own spiritual
care, and the diversified scenes of guilt and misery
with which I am placed continually in contact, I
should be as full of gloom as the most desponding ;
but such a partial view, in my judgment, would
manifestly lead to very wrong conclusions. At all
events, I love to look beyond the bars of my prison-
house, and to contemplate man in the aggregate, as
well as in his exceptional condition.

Now, I think, anyone who will thus regard
society, must see unmistakable signs of advance-
ment in the moral character of the country, say
within the last half century.

In the aristocratic ranks of society, it cannot be
doubted that a great moral improvement has taken
place since the regency, and reign of the fourth

456 THE PREVENTION OF CRIME.

George, during which there had been sensibly a
decline. The virtuous courts of the lamented
Adelaide, and of our own illustrious Queen, have
more than restored the morals of this class. The
marks of this progress are visible in the more tem-
perate habits of the great, more enlightened notions
of personal honour (the barbarous and criminal
practice of duelling being now well-nigh exploded),
their greater concern for the wants of the classes
beneath them, and, consequently, a much more dis-
interested and beneficial legislation, on their part,
for the community at large. Everyone must have
observed, of late years, a remarkable drawing toge-
ther of the two extremes of society the rich, the
noble, and the prince, intermixing with the masses
of the people, in kindly sympathy and thorough
co-operation. It would be invidious to mention
instances in the upper ranks, of this sort of enlight-
ened patriotism and philanthropy. Happily, also,
they are becoming too numerous to be particularized.
These distinguished persons should be especially
regarded with honour by their peers, for they are
the best conservators of their order, in times when
the marked tendency of the world is to democracy,
and the levelling of classes.

In religion, it is thought the tendency of the
upper classes is to superstition and Romanism. This
is probably the fact in a larger proportion than in
any other. Nor is it difficult to divine, at least, the
chief causes of this tendency. A religion of senti-
ment, and pageantry, must have peculiar attractions

THE PREVENTION OF CRIME. 457

for them. Outward acts of devotion, such as build-
ing and embellishing churches, flatter the pride of
the rich, and too readily suggest the notion of com-
pensation or merit, which is the very essence of
popery. Moreover, the rich have always been, in
the estimation of the keen sportsmen of Rome, the
best game. They are most worth catching, and they
are perhaps the most easily caught. Too many of
the nobility and high gentry of England are, it is to
be feared, profoundly ignorant of Holy Scripture,
and the distinguishing doctrines of the Reformation
(no credit this to their dignified tutors in early life,
or their present parochial instructors). Unless, more-
over, history be all fable, and papal bulls, condem-
natory of the Jesuits, all lies, that mysterious, and
ever active order, has been, of late years, not
neglectful of its old arts, at such a crisis in the
Church of England, and by professors of language,
music, &c., in the modern rage for foreign accom-
plishments, has certainly corrupted the female mind,
extremely in the aristocratic circles.

The noble Eldon was a Pharisee to the day of his
death, and the more gifted Pitt, when induced by
Wilberforce to hear Scott, the commentator, preach,
confessed that he could not understand him. Still,
I believe, a favourable change has, with all this, been
going on, pari passu, amongst those classes, in the
direction of true and spiritual godliness, and the
very existence of conscientious earnestness in religion,
although so lamentably misdirected, is rather symp-
tomatic of this revived state of feeling than other-
wise.

458 THE PREVENTION OF CRIME.

To descend from the highest, to the very lowest
walks of life,

St. Bartholomew's Pair, for centuries the annual
plague of London, has of late years been forced to
migrate from the City (to remove perhaps some of
the moral reproach from Smithfield, to the suburban
fields, now rapidly disappearing), contiguous to
this prison. I have had, therefore, the most abun-
dant opportunities for observing at all' hours, from
noon till midnight, the habits of that part of the
population which occasionally emerges from the
countless lanes and courts, and rookeries of London.
The festival usually lasts for a week, exclusive,
happily, of the Sunday, (this exception being in itself
rather a modern improvement) . Innumerable crowds
throng the wide road, from King's Cross to the
Copenhagen Fields, opposite to our gates, the ter-
minus of the penny ride to the fair. From morning
till night, the tom-tom is continually going, and
a confused sound of music and shouting direct you
to the space where the orgies are being celebrated.
Looking over the terrace wall of our prison, I have
repeatedly watched the multitudes passing to and
fro. Now and then, I espied a policeman, moving
slowly along. There were few of these conservators
of the peace. I estimated the proportion as one con-
stable to a thousand of the people, and it appeared to
be quite sufficient. All were in their holiday trim,
such as it was, and no doubt on their best behaviour.
They took the jokes and jostlings of the passers-by
with the utmost good humour, avoided giving

THE PREVENTION OF CRIME. 459

offence, and displayed even politeness, after their own
fashion. I am free to confess, that, although repro-
bating in the strongest manner the perpetuation of
this nuisance, year after year (more than I do even the
transplantation of Smithfield itself to this field), the
predominant feeling in my mind, was astonishment at
the good conduct and sobriety of the rabble multitude,
and I thought, surely this people are more worthy
to be taken in hand by those whom Providence has
placed in better circumstances, educated, and helped
to innocent and rational amusement, than is usually
imagined ; and the government and legislature
which neglect their instruction, their elevation, their
comforts, neglect no less the interests of the nation.

During the Great Exhibition, we were favoured
with an extra week or more of the fair, as a means
of amusing the people who could not pay the
shilling. It would have been better, in my opinion,
to have permitted them for a trifle to view that
instructive spectacle, and I am satisfied, with the
exception of my peculiar friends, of the thief class,
they might have been most safely trusted.

A word about the honest workmen of England,
and labouring persons in general, the largest section
of the people, and the broad base of the social
pyramid.

In no part of the community probably has there
been so great and so beneficial a change, notwith-
standing all the demoralizing influences brought to
bear upon it.

A commission was appointed a few year back, to

460 THE PREVENTION OF CRIME.

report upon the physical and moral condition of the
mining districts of England. The Commissioner
thus speaks of Staffordshire :

" In estimating the present state of this im-
portant field of mining labour, it must not be
forgotten how much it has been altered for the
better within the living memory. The cruel and
brutalizing sports to ivhich the population were
then addicted, have greatly decreased; the extent
to which they used to be carried on appears in
strong contrast with the habits of the present day.
The present Incumbent of "VVednesbury, the Rev.
Isaac Clarkson, informed me, that only twenty- two
years ago he saw brought to the baiting-place of
that village-town, in one day, no less than seven
bulls, three bears, and a badger, besides dogs and
cocks for fighting. With the decline of these
exhibitions of cruelty, the manners and language
of the lower classes have improved, and scenes of
violence are less frequent."

Fearful and many are the malign influences at
work amongst our labouring people. " In a collec-
tion," says the same Commissioner, " of all the low-
priced periodicals circulating in the towns of Wed-
nesbury and Bilston, being fifteen in number, I
found seven contained portions of very inferior
novels and tales ; eight were written in a spirit of
hostility either to the institutions or the religion
of the country, or both. All these publications of
the latter class (anarchical, socialist, and infidel,)
have a considerable and increasing sale in these
districts."

THE PREVENTION OF CRIME. 461

The conduct of our working classes, on the excit-
ing subjects of labour, wages, and food, stands out in
the main as a happy contrast with that of the last
generation.

Physical force, stack-firing, destruction of machi-
nery, &c., are giving way to pacific and constitu-
tional agitation, although, it is greatly to be deplored,
our operatives are as yet too easily led, by clever,
but empty talkers, if not designing knaves, to the
adoption of measures, which, whatever be the imme-
diate result, must tend, ultimately, to their injury
as a class.

The behaviour of our working people, on the
various solemn or festive occasions of late years, our
national fasts, and thanksgiving days, has not been
surpassed by that of any portion of Her Majesty's
subjects.

Again, what could have been better than their
whole bearing during their visit to the Great Exhi-
bition, from all parts of the country ? What more
sublime than their homage, in common indeed with
all classes, to the memory of the Duke of Welling-
ton, on the 18th of November, 1852, that day of
England's universal sadness ?

Yet he was a man, of all others, who had never
for a moment courted the popular applause, nor
regarded its frown. They were paying respect,
therefore, to his principles rather than to the man ;
and in the act showed the soundness of their own.

Well might the Prime Minister, the Earl of
Derby, congratulate the House of Lords, and the

462 THE PREVENTION OF CRIME.

country, upon the conduct of the people on that
occasion, when, with feelings of deep emotion, and
chastened eloquence, he thus referred to it, in his
ever memorable speech of the day following, in the
House :

" My lords, when you consider how large a por-
tion of the population of the United Kingdom was
for that single day crowded in the streets of the
metropolis when you remember those at least to
whose lot it fell to take a part in that procession, and
to see it throughout its whole length when you
remember that throughout that long line, extending
to about three miles, from Grosvenor Place to St.
Paul's Cathedral, there was not one single unoc-
cupied foot of ground, and that you passed through
a living sea of faces, all turned to look upon that
great spectacle when you saw every house, every
window, every house-top, loaded with persons anxious
to pay their last tribute of respect to the memory of
England's greatest son when you saw those persons
(those at least in the streets) remaining with entire
and unflinching patience for many hours, in a position
in which movement was scarcely possible, and yet that
hardly a single accident occurred to the most feeble
woman or child among that vast assemblage when,
through the whole of that route, not only was a
perfect decorum preserved, and a perfect and ready
assistance given to the efforts of the police and mili-
tary, but that there was no unseemly eagerness to
witness the magnificent spectacle, no light or
thoughtless applause of its splendour; but the

THE PREVENTION OF CRIME. 463

people of England, in the awful silence of those
vast crowds, testified, in the most emphatic manner,
the sense in which every man among them felt the
public loss that England had sustained. My lords,
I know not how you looked upon this great mani-
festation of public feeling, and of public good sense
and order ; but I know this, that as I passed along
those lines, it was with pride and satisfaction I felt
that I was a fellow-countryman of those who knew
so well how to regulate and control themselves.
(Hear, hear.) And I could not help entertaining a
hope that those foreign visitors, who had done us
and themselves the honour of assisting at this great
ceremonial, might, on this occasion, as well as on
the occasion of the 1st of May, 1851, bear witness
back to their own countries how safely and to what
an extent a people may be relied upon, over whom
the strongest hold of their government was their
own reverence and respect for the free institutions
of their country, and the principles of popular self-
government, controlled and modified by a constitu-
tional monarchy."

Other indications of moral progress are not
wanting :

Of the 250,000 teachers ascertained by the late
census to be employed in the Sunday Schools of
England and Wales, the great majority are of the
operative classes. This fact shows religious, as well
as intellectual and moral progress. It indicates
also one of the chief sources of improvement in the
humbler walks of life, the Sunday School, which,

464 THE PREVENTION OF CRIME.

with all its defects, has proved itself to be more than
equal to the many malign influences, brought lat-
terly to bear upon the people. 150,000, at least, of
those most honoured and most useful teachers were
themselves, a few years back, scholars on the same
forms. I shall take leave to mention another sign
of progress; the 1000 essays on the Sabbath, by
working men, and on the same subject, the Pearl of
Days, by the Gardener's Daughter.*

Erom its style and tone of feeling, so much above
what seem to belong to any but those who have
enjoyed the advantages of a polite education, the
genuineness of the Pearl of Days has been called in
question. I may mention, however, that a Christian
friend of my own saw the gifted authoress washing
potatoes before the door of her cottage, for her
father's dinner. Conversing with her, subsequently,
in that humble but hospitable abode, he found her,
as her work so plainly denotes her to be, an intel-
lectual, sober-minded, and godly woman, herself,
through grace, a pearl, though somewhat rudely set.

Of the middle classes less need be said. They
are subject to less change than either of the extremes
in the social fabric. They cause, in general, but
little concern to the state, except as to how far they
may be taxed. They are naturally conservative of

* I know no individual enterprise in the field of Christian
charity more to he admired than the munificence of Mr. Hen-
derson, of Park, Glasgow, which originated those essays, and
which has since so largely put them into circulation in every
walk of life, from the palace to the convict-ship.

THE PREVENTION OF CRIME. 465

order, good government, and peace. By these trade
flourishes, commerce is increased, wealth realized,
the comforts and luxuries of life enjoyed.

Their very faults, as they must be esteemed when
measured by the standard of truth, tend to the
national security and welfare.

From morning till night, from early manhood to
hoary age, they toil on to amass wealth, that they
may enjoy the comforts of life, and bequeath them
to their children. Comforts, and even luxuries,
have now, through long prosperity, come to be
reckoned by them as necessaries. Prom an over-
estimate of the value of the things of this present
life, and inordinate pursuit after the means by
which these may be secured, they fall too generally
into that specious sin, the love of money, which an
inspired apostle designates as idolatry. Nor is that
upper portion of this class, which of all others should
" flee these things," the ministers of Christ, exempt
from their dangerous influences. Hence we are
warned by two apostles against this sin in particu-
lar, both denouncing it, as a most vile and debasing
passion, under the name of "filthy lucre.'''

The fact is, covetousness is the vice of respectable
people the sunken rock upon which most professors
of religion make shipwreck of faith.

That the morality of the middle classes suffered
very extensively during the railway mania of gain-
getting speculation must have been manifest to
every observer. In our younger branches chiefly,
it is now being endangered by the gold-digging rage.

H H

466 THE PREVENTION OF CRIME.

Hundreds of thousands, who by steady industry,
and desires moderated by Christian principles, might
have had a competent support, and wherewithal to
help forward the work of the Lord in the world,
have, in their haste to be rich, lost their footing
in religion, and been precipitated into difficulties,
penury, and vice.

Nevertheless, a revived spirit marks many portions
of the middle classes, and instances are growing less
rare of great self-denial and devotedness of life to
the noblest purposes of humanity and faith. Two
pleasant features of this progress are : the associa-
tion of so many thousands of our young men
throughout the country for mutual improvement,
and the promotion of Christian objects; and the
very active part which so many of their number are
taking in the very work itself, on the committees of
Ragged-schools, Refuges, &c., and in many other
ways.

After all, it will be questioned perhaps by many,
whether the good is not counterbalanced by the evil,
in our days. I do not stop to debate this question,
preferring the more practical one, viz., What can
give decided preponderance to the good the peo-
ple's advancement, in morality and virtue? My
answer is, A revived spirit of genuine religion in
the church. This would be followed by extensive
national reformation. The general tone of morals
would be improved, and crime become more and
more exceptional.

Christianity at the first triumphed over the cruel-

THE PREVENTION OF CRIME. 467

ties and abominable vices of the heathen world, as
well as over its vaunted philosophy, and gave civili-
zation to barbarous and savage life. Christianity,
revived in the 16th century, diffused again light and
liberty and virtue upon Europe. Shut out from
some kingdoms by suicidal folly and infuriate cru-
elty, she " shook off the dust of her feet, as a testi-
mony against them." They declined in the scale
of nations, and have gradually, as regards religion,
been sinking into infidelity or mediaeval darkness ;
and, as regards government, into a condition of per-
petual oscillation between despotism and revolution,
both alike injurious to national prosperity and
national morals. Welcomed and cherished by
others, as the rays of returning day, these have
advanced in all the useful arts of life, and the en-
joyment of intestine peace, settled government,
and rational liberty.

That which raised this country from a third or
fourth-rate kingdom in Europe in that age, to its
present height of commercial and moral greatness,
can most assuredly now restore any of its decaying
parts.

Religion thus revived would find her chief spheres
of action, in the school the family the pulpit.

The School. The theories of the mere education-
alist are not borne out by facts. Literary men are
not more moral than the unlearned. Men of genius
have generally been below par. The learned resi-
dents of our universities are probably little, if at all,
more virtuous than our farmers or tradesmen ; the

H n 2

468 THE PREVENTION OF CRIME.

students of our colleges, civilian and military, than
the peasant youth of the country. But if education
really does accomplish the moral renovation of the
man, an immeasurable difference would manifestly
mark those classes, surrounded as one is by a thou-
sand safeguards to morals, and motives to virtue,
which are wholly wanting to the other.

As regards criminals, education has been generally
looked upon as the direct antagonist of the vices
which cause their degradation. One hears continu-
ally the statistics of our gaols cited by the philan-
thropist, the social reformer, and the judge on the
bench, to demonstrate this view. The reader of
these pages thus far need not be informed of the
writer's experience in this abode of crime. Every
year's observation makes it only more evident to his
mind that the advantages, in this respect, of a culti-
vation of the mind have been greatly over-estimated,
and that men have lost sight of this, that educa-
tion gives increased power to the evil-disposed as
well as to the good. Education, I would repeat,
changes the character of the crime rather than of the
man. With those who espouse the opposite view,
I leave the difficulty of accounting for a higher de-
gree of education amongst criminals of the worst
description, as convicts are, than in the ordinary
run of prisoners in the gaols of the country.

The cleverest persons- in this prison will not be
found amongst the officers, but the prisoners. And
although the highest class of educated villains do
escape from the meshes of the law, beyond all pro-
portion, there has never been a year in the history

THE PREVENTION OF CRIME. 469

of this place, in which we could not avail ourselves
of professional advice, legal, medical, and otherwise,
in the dim retirement of a solitary cell.

Our ablest men, at this moment, are three prison-
ers a returned convict,* a German noble, (?) and a
doctor of laws. The first man left this prison some
years back, as an exile, with a special recommenda-
tion from our governor, and a gentlemanly outfit
from his wardrobe, as I understand. In Australia
he became resident tutor in the family of a man
of wealth. How long he remained there, or what
mischief he did, we know not. At the expira-
tion of his time he returned, began life under a new
name, paid his addresses to a widow lady, swindled
her of much property, took up with an elegantly-
dressed female, who of course passed for his wife,
robbed tradesmen in a variety of ways, committed
forgery, and was convicted and sent back to us.

The foreigner professes to be a Catholic. I believe
him to be an infidel Jew, and no Baron.

This man's victims were jewellers in our large
towns, the most wary of all shopkeepers. By his
successful business in this line he contrived to keep
up the show of rank for years. Even here, in one
of the closest of all prisons, he has succeeded in
effecting a clandestine correspondence with the ex-
ternal world, without the detection of his agency.
He is master of several modern languages, and
learned in Hebrew.

The LL.D. is a clergyman the saddest instance,

* Referred to as case 41, in page 245. The first; for, by
error of the press, the number is there repeated.

470 THE PREVENTION OF CRIME.

therefore, in these cases of perverted talent and ac-
quirements. Three times did this man, after com-
plete shipwreck of character and means, contrive to
start again in respectable life, as the teacher of
youth, by sheer talent and well-acted hypocrisy.

His victims were clergymen, young and old
high-church, low-church, and broad-church; prin-
cipals of schools wishing to retire, and having an
" interest to dispose of ;" and, of course, unfortu-
nate tradesmen. He is now devoid of shame and
feeling, energetically planning, as I think, a new
campaign, if not at home, at least, in America. He
has been trying, with partial success, to raise money
amongst the superior officers of this very prison, to
get his parchments out of pawn. He has applied to
myself for help, but I could be no party to his as-
suming again, with a ticket-of-leave in his pocket,
the clerical garb, though of the precisest Oxford cut.

His knowledge of the laws would fully entitle
him to his degree. In prison here, he has spent his
leisure hours in making a new translation of the
Book of Job, 'parts of which he has also turned into
tolerable Greek sapphics, and in reiterated able peti-
tioning on the ground of innocence.

Notwithstanding such cases, however, I entertain
no doubt about the great value of a thorough and
general education, provided it be conducted by com-
petent persons, whose highest aim is to discipline
their pupils for the great end of man's existence
the bringing glory to God, and the conferring good
upon their fellow-creatures.

THE PREVENTION OF CHIME. 471

I think it would be impossible to over-estimate
the blessings which would arise in the coming age,
if the teachers of youth in this were animated by this
high and holy ambition.

Oh ! that the Spirit of God were poured out upon
the schools of our country, both high and low, then
would every doubt concerning the benefit of educa-
tion be soon set at rest, and we should feel sure in-
deed that Providence had still a higher destiny for
England to fulfil in the world. But woe to the
church established in these realms, and woe to the
nation, if the fountain be polluted at its source, or
diverted into poisoned channels.

"We have in the schools of the Church of England
about a million and a half of the children of the
humbler classes, and not far short of 200,000 gra-
tuitous teachers on the Sunday. What a magnifi-
cent agency for good !

It is manifestly of the utmost importance that our
schoolmasters and mistresses should be thoroughly
trained for their arduous and honourable mission,
and still more so, that they should be sound in the
faith, exemplary in piety, and zealous promoters of
the happiness and moral improvement of the chil-
dren. To meet these wants of the church, the Home
and Colonial Infant School Society has long most
effectively laboured, and, of late years, the training
colleges for masters, at Cheltenham and Highbury.
I speak only of institutions with which I am par-
ticularly acquainted. I trust there are others in
various parts of the country equally entitled to com-

472 THE PREVENTION OF CRIME.

mendation and support. In proportion to the vast
importance of such institutions should they be
watched by all who feel interested in the preser-
vation of the Church in its Protestant integrity.
Here our Christian laity may be, and have been,
of the greatest use.

There has been lately an exceedingly wise move
in the formation of a Society designated the " Work-
ing Men's Educational Union," having for its object
the elevation of the working classes by the following
means :

1st. Encouraging the delivery of popular literary
and scientific LECTURES, imbued with a sound Chris-
tian spirit ; by preparing suitable diagrams and other
aids to lecturers.

2nd. By promoting the formation of popular
LENDING LIBRARIES and MUTUAL INSTRUCTION

CLASSES.

This society, within the first year of its opera-
tions, succeeded in producing illustrations for popu-
lar lecturing by clergymen and others, of the follow-
ing subjects :

NINEVEH and ASSYRIA, with 30 diagrams.

THE SOLAR SYSTEM, 23 diagrams.

EASTERN HABITATIONS (a commencement of a series

on the Manners and Customs of Scripture nations),

10 diagrams.

THE PREVENTION OF CRIME. 347

HUMAN PHYSIOLOGY, in relation to Health, 10 dia-
grams.

THE CATACOMBS AT EOME and Early Christianity,
21 diagrams.

PAGANISM, its Practices, 6 diagrams.

In all, 100 diagrams.

It has begun its second year with renewed vigour
in the propagation of illustrations of missionary
scenes, for the Church Missionary Society ; and
other works of interest.

The following extracts from a letter volunteered
by a well-known clergyman, labouring in a London
district, to Mr. Benjamin Scott, the indefatigable
honorary secretary, to whom chiefly the credit of
the enterprise belongs, will show the beneficial
working of the institution :

" MY DEAB SIR, I am most anxious to bear testimony to the
great service your Society is rendering to all who, like myself,
are striving in vain by the ordinary means to bring the masses
under a religious influence. g

" Since I have been in this neighbourhood, I have been con-
stantly extending the various forms of pastoral agency by which
we usually hope to elevate the condition of the working-man. The
weekly services have been nearly trebled, the schools quadrupled,
adult classes, male and female, formed, several Scripture readers
and lay agents constantly engaged, libraries, provident societies,
district-visiting, all being extended in the same proportion, and
yet no access, comparatively, seemed to be obtained to the work-
ing-men. To get thirty or forty of them to a religious service
seemed to be a large number.

" By the aid of your Nineveh diagrams (some of which I had
shown to the children at the school first), I have been able to
get this important class together in most extraordinary numbers.

474 THE PREVENTION OF CHIME.

I announced a lecture, to which admission was to be obtained for
working-men only by tickets, and several days before the lecture
we were obliged to stop the issue, tickets to the number of six
hundred and fifty having been asked for.

" And a most intensely interesting sight was that assemblage
of flannel and fustian, and never did auditory seem to be more
interested. When, at the end of an hour-and-a-half, I told them
I was sorry I must draw to a close, there was a cry, ' Plenty of
time, sir.' However, I wanted to give them some twenty minutes
upon my last head ' Nineveh, a great practical lesson to man-
kind,' and though passing at once to pulpit topics and a pulpit
style, the men listened with unabated attention, allowed me to
speak of the men of Nineveh rising ' in the judgment ' against
those who enjoyed such religious advantages as are offered in
this country, and of the certainty that, sooner or later, the stern-
est retributions of Heaven must be expected to fall on every ' re-
joicing city that dwelt carelessly.'

" In consequence of the numbers whom we were obliged to
send away, I have promised to repeat the lecture ; and 1 cannot
help thinking that your Society is opening a new door of pas-
toral influence, which all of us in charge of large working popu-
lations shall be most glad to enter.

" To B. Scott, Esq., Hon. Sec. W. M. E. U.,

" 24 and 25, King William-street, Trafalgar- square."

The Family. Religion revived in the church
would here find a soil and atmosphere most suited
for its extended reproduction and perpetuation in
the land.

Every professed Christian family would become
a nursery for the church. Parents receiving the
truth in their own hearts would hand it down to
their children. This is, assuredly, the divine order.
(Ps. Ixxviii.) In aiming at this, they would not
make their children the less cheerful and happy. A
wise infusion of religion into our homes would take

THE PREVENTION OF CRIME. 475

nothing from the real happiness of the young, but,
on the contrary, give a permanence and solidity to
their otherwise fleeting and evanescent joys. At the
same time, they would train them by precept, conver-
sation, and example, for works of charity and large-
hearted enterprise, in the world, as soldiers and ser-
vants of Christ not for a lukewarm profession of
his religion, with an active pursuit after this world's
wealth and distinctions. It is very deplorable, that
parents who have, through Divine grace, risen above
the things of the world for themselves, should fall
into a hankering after them for their children ; and
whilst formally teaching them sound doctrine should
be communicating, in the way of table-talk, in which
instruction is drunk in with the greatest avidity,
principles which are unsound or maxims which are
completely worldly.

I know it is very commonly said that the children
of religious people are the wildest and the worst
when let loose in the world, but I do not believe it.
That it is too generally true of the children of clergy-
men and others professedly religious, may be freely
admitted. Neither need it be denied that godly
parents perhaps from no fault of theirs, but more
frequently, it is to be feared, from their inconsist-
encies, their over-indulgence on the one hand, or over-
severity and want of sympathy on the other have
been most sadly disappointed in their fondest hope.
But that a godly parentage, and a wise bringing-up,
should be generally or extensively followed by a
reverse issue, is as great a libel upon common sense

476 THE PREVENTION OF CRIME.

as it is upon the revelation of God, which enjoins
the duty. For has not the experience of the world's
history, in every nation, attested the pre-eminent
power of parental influence in the formation of
mind and character, for good or evil ?

My own view of the facts of the case I find ex-
actly expressed by the Rev. Albert Barnes, the
American, on that most comfortable text of Isaiah
lix. 21, " My spirit that is upon thee, and my words
which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out
of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor
out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the Lord,
from henceforth and for ever."

" There is no promise of the Bible that is more full of conso-
lation to the pious, or that has been more strikingly fulfilled,
than this. And though it is true that not all the children of
holy parents become truly pious, though there are instances
where they are signally wicked and abandoned, yet it is also true
that rich spiritual blessings are imparted to the posterity of those
who serve God and keep his commandments. It is well known
to all who have ever made any observations on the subject, that
the great majority of those who become religious are the descend-
ants of those who were themselves the friends of God. Those
who now compose the Christian churches, the world over, are not
those generally who have been taken from the ways of open vice
and profligacy ; the church is composed mainly of the families
of those who trained their children to walk in the way of pure
religion."

He adds; " The secretary of the Massachusetts Sabbath School
Society made a limited investigation, in the year 1838, for the
purpose of ascertaining the facts as to the religious character of
the families of ministers and deacons, with reference to the
charge so often urged, that their sons and daughters were worse
than common children. The following is the result : In 268
families which he canvassed he found 1290 children over fifteen

THE PREVENTION OF CRIME. 477

years of age. Of these children 884 were hopefully pious ;
794 have united with the churches ; 61 entered the ministry ;
only 17 were dissipated ; and about half only of these became
so while with their parents. In 11 of these families there were
123 children, and all but 7 pious. In 56 of these families there
were 249 children over fifteen, and all hopefully pious. When
and where can any such result be found in the families of infi-
dels, of the vicious, or of irreligious men ? Indeed, it is the
great law by which religion and virtue are spread and perpetu-
ated in the world that God is faithful to this covenant, and that
he blesses the efforts of his friends, to train up generations for
his service. All pious parents should repose on this promise of
a faithful God. They may and should believe that it is his de-
sign to perpetuate religion in the families of those who truly
serve and obey him. They should be faithful in imparting re-
ligious truths ; faithful in prayer; faithful in meek, holy, bene-
volent example ; they should so live that their children may
safely tread in their footsteps ; they should look to God for his
blessing on their efforts, and their efforts will not be in vain.
They shall see their children walk in the ways of virtue, and
when they die they may leave the world with unwavering con-
fidence that God will not suffer his faithfulness to fail, that he
will not break his covenant, nor alter the thing that is gone out
of his lips.

" It is a fact, too," he continues, " that comparatively a large
proportion of the descendants of the pious become themselves
for many generations true Christians. Some of the most de-
votedly pious people of this land are the descendants of the
Huguenots who were expelled from France. A very lai'ge pro-
portion of all the piety in this country has been derived from
the 'Pilgrims' who landed on the rock of Plymouth; and God
has blessed their descendants in New England and elsewhere
with numerous revivals of religion.

" I am acquainted with the descendants of John Rogers, the first
martyr in Queen Mary's reign, of the tenth and eleventh generations.
With a single exception, the eldest son in the family has been a minis-
ter of the Gospel, some of them eminently distinguished for learning
and piety ; and there are few families now in this land, a greater
proportion of whom are pious, than of that family.''

478 THE PREVENTION OF CRIME.

The Pulpit. The aspect of religion, viewed in this
relation, is calculated to awaken painful reflections.

In the Established Church there are in England
and Wales more than 18,000 clergymen, that is,
one for about every 1000 of the people.

In the most solemn moment of their lives, did
those individuals, professing to be " moved by the
Holy Ghost to take upon them the office of the
ministry," promise "to instruct the people com-
mitted to their charge, with all faithful diligence
out of Holy Scripture to drive away all erro-
neous and strange doctrines contrary to God's
Word to be diligent in prayer and reading of
Holy Scripture, and such studies as help to the
knowledge of the same, laying aside the study of
the world and the flesh and so to fashion their
own selves and their families, according to the
doctrine of Christ, as to be wholesome examples and
patterns to the flock of Christ" How are those
ordained teachers of the people employed, and of
what sort is their work ?

Thousands, thank God, are doing the work
they have undertaken, indoctrinating their people,
out of Holy Scripture, visiting them in their
families, looking after their little ones, following
these, as they grow up, into life, with wise and
affectionate counsel, and watching over all as good
shepherds of the flock of Christ ! Alas ! many are
of a very different character. Some dance; some
hunt with horn and hounds ; not a few are licensed
to kill game ; and preserve all their energies for

THE PREVENTION OF CRIME. 479

this sport ; still more follow their high vocation as a
mere business, and practically reverse the saying,
"We seek not yours, but you;" many, from igno-
rance of the truth, through sheer neglect of Holy
Scripture, teach error in a thousand forms, and
turn the people aside from the way of salvation.
Some are immoral, a scandal to the name of Christ.

" I keep a dog to bark," said an old clergyman of
his curate ; "why should I bark myself?" Poor man!
he did not know how accurately the prophet of the
Lord had described him : " They are all ignorant,
they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark ; sleeping,
lying down, loving to slumber. Yea, they are greedy
dogs which can never have enough, and they are
shepherds that cannot understand : they all look to
their own way, every one for his gain, from his
quarter." Isaiah Ivi. 10, 11.

It is melancholy to think how much might be
done in many parts of the country by our clergy
towards repressing crime, and lessening human
misery ; not to speak of higher concerns, if their
minds were less set upon " lucre," worldly plea-
sures, or ecclesiastical frivolities, and their attain-
ments and zeal were devoted to the promotion of
godliness, in its most general acceptation.

Many a criminal has said to me of his pastor,
" He never taught us never visited us," &c. One
convict, describing his clergyman, and the eifect of
his life on the parish, said, he was once working with
others in a field when the fox-hounds passed, and
the observation fell from some one, "There goes

480 THE PREVENTION OF CRIME.

Parson ! I wonder, does he believe there is a

God?"

If the clergy fail in these particulars, the gentry
are little likely to he elevated to a sense of their
duty to the population around them. Hence, places
having every possible advantage towards producing
the highest scale of morals, fall often below par
from a combination of causes of this character.

My friend Mr. Clay, of Preston, published a few
years back some curious comparisons of this nature,
assisted by the Tables of Mr. Redgrove, of the Home
Office.

Mr. Clay congratulates the magistrates of North
Lancashire on comparison of that part of the country
with more externally favoured places ; showing that,
with all the drawbacks on the morals of people which
prevail in that great factory district, the proportion
was, in 1841, only one criminal in 631 of the popu-
lation (about the average of England), and this was
reduced, in 1847, to one in 999; whilst the proportion
of criminals to the population in Devon was. in 1841,
one in 776 ; in 1847, one in 587. It is curious to ob-
serve, that in Cornwall, the proportion, in 1841, was
only one in 1081. These last are humiliating figures
to Churchmen, for the influence of the Church in
Cornwall is, in comparison, small. What are those
circumstances that prevent Devonshire from taking a
high place in the scale of moral elevation ? Is it
that the gentry are given up so much to pleasure ?
In no part of England, I understand, are so many
packs of dogs for hunting foxes, hares, otters, &c.

THE PREVENTION OF CRIME. 481

Is it that the clergy are engaged in " doubtful dis-
putations," and things which edify not, and, pre-
suming that their people are all Christians, do not
teach them " according to the doctrine of Christ,"
that they must " turn from dead works to serve the
living God ? " I believe, the fault lies mainly with
ourselves ; our sacerdotal pride, worldly conformity,
and self-congratulations, leave the people who attend
our churches comfortably in their sins ; and by con-
sequence the morals of the people grow worse, and
crime more rampant.

In no town in England may vice be seen walking
forth in " the twilight " with greater effrontery than
in Exeter. Conversing with an intelligent inha-
bitant on the subject, he admitted the discreditable
fact, and attributed it to an imperfect police. This
may be the secondary cause ; if, however, the tone
of religious feeling were elevated, the police, as well
as the public morals, would be improved. Later
occurrences show that there has been no improve-
ment.

Can we meet all the wants of our increasing
parishes ? If not, let us rejoice in the help of
zealous Christians labouring in City and Town
Missions.

Now, that public morals are affected by the degree
of Scriptural Christianity communicated, is capable
of sufficient demonstration within the borders of
our own islands.

Thus, in Ulster, the northern province of Ire-
land, although it has the poorest soil, and densest

i i

482 THE PREVENTION OF CRIME.

population, but is about two-thirds Protestant, the
proportion of criminals to the population is one only
in 600 ; whereas, in Munster, the southern province,
although the most. fertile, but intensely Romanist,
the proportion is one in 273 !*

The same sort of proportion, so fatal to the
boasted morality of the religion of the confessional,
meets the eye in England.

The reader will not have forgotten the statement
made by Mr. Lucas, on the authority of Dr. Wilson,
Roman Catholic Bishop of Tasmania, (referred to
on pages 200 201) that " in the convicts who had
been transported to that island from Ireland," Dr.
Wilson had found " not more than ten in the 100
who were Protestant ; " but in those who came
from England, " from fifteen to twenty were Roman
Catholics."

According to this gentleman's account, then,
assuming that during the period of his residence in
Australia, the proportion of Protestants to Roman
Catholics in Ireland was only one-fourth ; (it is now
more than one-third,) the matter stands thus :

10 Protestants in 100 convicts. 25 in each 100 of the population.
90 Roman Catholics in 100 convicts. 75 in 100 of the population.

In words more significantly, treble the amount of
the gravest crimes of Ireland was perpetrated by
those who had the least portion of Scriptural light.
In deeds of blood it is perfectly notorious this pro-
portion is more than tenfold. As regards England,
* See further particulars in Appendix.

THE PREVENTION OF CRIME. 483

the case stands out still more distinctly, and with
less possibility of mistake on the one hand, or of
satisfactory explanation on the other.

I call the attention, to this point, particularly of
that party who has been, ever since the Reformation,
and at no period more than of late years, blackening
the character of the religion and morals of England ;
and trying (with praiseworthy zeal, if they really
believed their own statements,) to draw back the
people to the wholesome pastures of the Roman
communion. Let our own people consider it also
for a few moments, and they cannot fail to see the
true nature and practical character of the system
which they are so earnestly being pressed, inter-
mediately and cautiously, or per saltum, to adopt.
Here they will observe, that however it may be (and
as I believe is) with very many most honourable,
virtuous, and conscientious persons in that com-
munion, Romanism in itself is essentially rotten in
morals, and therefore unsound in the faith.

That Mr. Lucas's proportion of " from fifteen to
twenty Roman Catholics in the convicts of England,"
is not far from the truth, maybe gathered from Father
Oakeley's list of 80 in 560 in Pentonville Prison, and
from the Millbank returns on page 206.

Let the Bishop's lowest number be taken. 15 in
every 100 of the worst criminals in England, then,
are Roman Catholics. What is their proportion in
the population ? By the accredited returns of the
census, not Jive m the 100 ! Roman Catholics, in
England and Wales, are just three-quarters of a

484 THE PREVENTION OF CRIME.

million, or one-twenty-fourth of the population, at
the very outside.

A very ingenious gentleman, Mr. J. E. Wallis,
writing from the Temple to the Times, on the 16th
of January, has tried to work up the numbers of
Roman Catholics in this country to a proportion more
consistent with papal pretensions, and the Wiseman
theory that England's re-conversion was at hand ; *
and concludes it to be "not without confirmation
from an independent source," that they are " from
a million and a quarter to a million and a half."

Mr. Wallis's reasoning is after the most approved
Roman style. He casts suspicion upon the un-
doubted facts before him in the census returns, and
would have us build our faith in his views upon the
apocryphal manuscript of a deceased priest (quoted
by a foreign Protestant), and upon certain returns
in the hands of the clergy, of births and baptisms of
Catholic children, not made public !

The marriage returns of Roman Catholics, to
which Mr. "Wallis refers, give their highest admis-
sible numbers, remembering how that rite is re-
garded by them, as one of the sacraments of the
church, and these were, in 1851, 6570, which, in
proportion to the total marriages, would give three
quarters of a million as their number in the popu-
lation.

* The fact is now pretty manifest that the process of conver-
sion or absorption has been very much the other way, and that
every sort of emigration, like education, helps to free the slaves
of superstition and priestcraft.

THE PREVENTION OF CRIME. 485

If any still think they are more, be it so. Say
they are a million, then they are just one-eighteenth
of the population of England, or not six in the 100,
but they are fifteen in every 100 of the felonry of the
country.

To suppose them a million is most damaging to
their pretensions of sanctity. Upon this calcula-
tion there were attendances in Roman Catholic
places of worship, less than 35 in the 100, whilst
in the Protestant churches there were more than
60 ! (the total attendances on Census Sunday being
10,896,066, of which 383,630 were Roman Catho-
lics.)

Upon what I believe to be the true proportion,
their attendances were little more than 50 in the
100. Hence it is certain, that the largest portion
of our English infidelity is to be found under the
guise of the Church of Rome. On the Continent,
it is notorious that Romanism has three grand
divisions pietists, papists, sceptics ; the latter,
even beyond the Alps, the largest. We were not
prepared for the development of the same state of
things in England.

It is a very melancholy fact to Rome, that not-
withstanding all the attractions of her worship, and
the meritoriousness of attendance upon it, she falls
so short, in this grand particular, of " irreligious,
godless Protestants ! "

There is another feature in the census returns,
bearing upon this part of our subject, little flatter-
ing to our own pride as churchmen, but not less

486 THE PREVENTION OF CHIME.

instructive. Of the total number of attendances on
public worship on Census Sunday, viewed in relation
to Dissenters, the smaller part were in the churches
of the established religion. The total attendances
were 10,896,066, of whom the Church of England
had only 5,292,551.

Of the total number of sittings provided being
10,212,563, only 5,317,915 were in our churches,
chapels, and cathedrals.

I confess these results are astounding to my own
mind. What effect they have produced in my
brethren of a higher school, I cannot say. I did
think that, with all our drawbacks, we had the
people decidedly with us ; but these returns make
this more than doubtful : for although, beyond
question, a vast number of those who attended
other places of worship were not Dissenters, yet
the fact stares us in the face that, with innumer-
able advantages on our side, we were not able to
keep them within our own enclosures. Why not ?
There are two chief reasons, in my opinion. Our
method of teaching is bad unattractive, and, to the
mass, unintelligible. Written discourses, accord-
ing to the received models abounding in hard
words, theological terms, and un-English phrases,
without illustration and without point, delivered
formally and lifelessly are incomprehensible and
repulsive. The advance of education will remedy
part of this evil. People will understand better, but
the Church will lose even more unless the clergy
take proportionate pains to interest and engage

THE PREVENTION OF CRIME. 487

the mind. Of late years, the matter of the clergy's
teaching, with the mode adopted by so many of
celebrating divine worship, has repelled multitudes
from her worship. Requirements and observances
which, by tacit consent, had grown well-nigh obso-
lete, as foreign to the spirit of Protestant Christ-
ianity, have been revived and made the fundamentals
of the Church. Microscopical particles of the old
leaven have been laboriously collected and worked
up at Oxford, and retailed, for numberless parishes,
as the sole food of the people ; with occasional inti-
mations, by word and example, that if they desired
full nourishment for their souls, they must go back
to Rome. Now, in proportion as the Bible has been
circulated and read in the land, has this teaching
and worship been repudiated ; for there is nothing
more clear in Holy Scripture than that Christ-
ianity is not a ceremonial religion. This tractarian
system, like another Delilah, was too long dallied
with by our bishops. A little more encouragement
of its harlotry would have overturned the Church
mitres, cathedrals, and all.

Of the teaching in the pulpits not belonging to
the Church of England, of course I am not compe-
tent to speak. Under the more politic system of
Rome many of the fanatics which disgrace Protest-
antism would be turned to good account in her
minor orders sodalities, sepulchral cloisters, or dis-
tant missions, or be otherwise disposed of.

In a state of liberty, we must accept the evil issue
as well as the good : any condition is better than

488 THE PREVENTION OP CRIME.

the sleep of death, and the grave ; any diversity of
colour, than the uniformity of darkness.

The great sections of the Nonconformist Christians
in England essentially accept the articles of our own
faith, and their pulpits resound with the same calls
to " repentance and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ."
I wish I could say more. But although the fasci-
nations of the ball-room, or the inspiriting cry of
the hounds in hot pursuit, do not enthral their min-
isters, the world, it is to be feared, has just as strong
a hold upon them as upon ourselves. Error is de-
nounced, and establishments and formularies are
pointed at. The deformity of vice is depicted, but
it is vice in remote parts, or amongst the great, or
the low populace. Error and sins nearest home are
the most tenderly dealt with, especially that grand
error and great sin of our times the love of
money. Men of Wesley's stamp, or Whitfield's,
of Doddridge's, and the Henry's spirit, are as ex-
ceptional, I fear, as amongst ourselves. Of late
Dissenters seem to have come down just to our
own folly, of supposing that man can make a min-
ister. Hence their colleges and schools, in which
much literary poison, more injurious far, because
more congenial to the taste, than the classical abomi-
nations of our own schools, is copiously imbibed ; and
vice, though more specious, is as surely practised.

A revival of religion is devoutly to be prayed for
among Dissenters. Would to God it were less
needed, and that, by their greater faithfulness to
our common Lord, and deadness to the world, they

THE PREVENTION OF CRIME. 489

were able to provoke us to " faith and good
works ! "

I may be mistaken, but I think I see more signs
of a revival of vital godliness in the Church of Eng-
land than elsewhere. This once revived, reform-
ation from within would follow. Things non-es-
sential in our formularies, having a Popish aspect,
would be expunged. She would become less secu-
lar, more parochial, more remedial of our social
evils ; and her temples, instead of being half-de-
serted, would be thronged by devout worshippers,
and thereby national morals be elevated and im-
proved on the best basis. Unreformed by such
means, she may at no distant day again experience
the rude handling of external violence.

When we see the picture, drawn by our matchless
allegorist, exhibited in living characters, and greater
numbers, in the pulpits of the land, we shall have
before us the best sign and surest precursor of an
advancing, wide-spread reformation in morals, to
this and future generations :

" Then said the Interpreter, Come in : I will shew
thee that which will be profitable to thee. So he
commanded his man to light the candle, and bid
Christian follow him ; so he had him into a private
room, and bid his man open a door ; the which
when he had done, Christian saw the picture of a
very grave person hang up against the wall ; and
this was the fashion of it : it had eyes lifted up to
heaven, the best of books in its hand, the law of truth
was written upon its lips, the world was behind its

490 THE PREVENTION OF CRIME.

back ; it stood as if it pleaded with men, and a
crown of gold did hang over its head.

" Chr. Then said Christian, What meaneth this ?

" Inter. The man whose picture this is, is one of
a thousand. He can say in the words of the Apos-
tle, ' Though ye have ten thousand instructors in
Christ, yet have ye not many fathers ; for in Christ
Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospel.'
'My little children, of whom I travail in birth
again until Christ be formed in you/ 1 Cor.,
iv. 15. Gal., iv. 19. And whereas thou seest him
with his eyes lift up to heaven, the best of books
in his hand, and the law of truth written on his
lips ; it is to shew thee that his work is to know
and unfold dark things to sinners; even as thou
seest him stand as if he pleaded with men. And
whereas thou seest the world as cast behind him,
and that a crown hangs over his head : that is to
shew thee, that slighting and despising things that
are present, for the love that he hath to his Master's
service, he is sure in the world that comes next to
have glory for his reward. Now, said the Inter-
preter, I have shewed thee this picture first, because
the man whose picture this is, is the only man whom
the Lord of the place whither thou art going hath
authorized to be thy guide, in all difficult places
thou mayest meet with in the way ; wherefore take
heed to what I have shewed thee, and bear well in
thy mind what thou hast seen, lest in thy journey
thou meet with some that pretend to lead thee right,
but their way goes down to death."

APPENDIX.

COMPARATIVE STATISTICS OF CRIME, IN ENG-
LAND, SCOTLAND, AND IRELAND, 1852,

KXCLUSIVJE OF CASES OF SUMMARY JURISDICTION,
BY MR. CLARKE.

TABLE No. I.

Proportion of Offenders to Population of Convictions
Acquittals, &c.

J' *-

ho &

PH 2

Division.

-go

d-S

'" 31

o 3

O T3

OJ C"

2 "5

I in

ENGLAND & WALES

17,922,768

27510

651

77+

1-7

6 515 794

17678

3084

53A

191

2 870 784

4027

712

76 1-5

171

3-5

TOTAL

27,309,346

49216

554|

TABLE No. II.

Part of United
Kingdom.

ENBLAND (

IRELAND

SCOTLAND

TOTA

Offences L ca i n B? C pJo Offences against

afraiii>t the ST r , v tt ith Proi^rty with-

Person. j ^ioTeMe. I "W^**""*-

1503 376 21,309 16,811 33?i
948, 302 9,75r 6,735' 1867
MX) III 43; l,974| 1,563 89
~ '

535 1620

Property.

,.-,

650 M4 l*

977 164 4167 1

492

APPENDIX.

TABLE No. III.

Number charged with Offence from 1848 to 1852.

Division.

1848.

1849. 1850.

1851.

1852.

Average.

ENGLAND & WALES

30,349

27,816 26,813

27,960

27,510

28,089

38,522

41,980 ' 31,326

24,684

17,678

30,838

4,357 4,468

4,001

4,027

4,209

* No return.

The important facts which the foregoing tables, compiled from
pai'liamentary returns, disclose, are these :

1. England and Wales shows a decrease of the number com-
mitted for trial, or bailed for appearance at Assizes'and Quarter
Sessions in 1852, as compared with 1851, of 450 individuals.

2. Ireland of same, a decrease of 7,006.

3. Scotland of same, a small increase of 26.

4. England and Wales gives a proportion of such cases (ex-
clusive of those of summary jurisdiction), to her population
of 1 in 651

Ireland, of similar cases 1 in 368

Scotland, of same 1 in 712

Although the proportion of offenders in Ireland to her popula-
tion, when it is compared with that of England and Scotland,
is lamentably great, yet the decided progressive improvement
in her social state, as evinced by the decrease in thejiumber
charged with offence, must be most gratifying to those interested
in her welfare.

1850, compared with 1849, showed a decrease in the
number charged with offence before the tribunals of
Assizes and Quarter Sessions, of .... 10,663

1851, compared with 1850, a decrease of ... 6,642
And now, 1852, compared with 1851, shows a further

decrease of 7,006

Being a total decrease in the last three years of . 24 3 1 1

1852:

Ulster, proportion of offenders to population 1 in 600

APPENDIX. 493

Munster 1 in 27^

Leinster 1 in 313

Connaught 1 in 462

Average of Ireland 1 in 368

Ulster yet maintains her proud position in the social scale)
and this is further confirmed by the returns of outrages reported
in 1852 to the constabulary office, as given by the Inspectors-
General of Prisons, in their report to Parliament. Of those
reported offences

Ulster, with a population of 2,004,289 is charged with 1,518
Leinster .... 1,667,771 . . . 2,346
Munster .... 1,831,817 . . . 2,619
Connaught . . . 1,011,917 . . . 1,341

E. M. CLARKE,

Local Inspector and Chaplain of the Gaol,
County Donegal.

II.
REPORT OF CHAPLAIN OF PENTONVILLE PRISON,

EEFERRING TO CHANGES IN THE DISCIPLINE, ETC.

GENTLEMEN, Pentonville Prison, January, 1853.

I HAtfE the satisfaction to report favourably of the educational
and moral improvement of the prisoners during the past year.
Their progress in elementary knowledge has been fully equal to
that of any former year, if allowance be made for the shorter
period of detention under the present convict arrangements.

I have already explained to you, so fully, my views respecting
the education which should be given to convicts in this the first
stage of their discipline, that I will only here repeat, summarily,
that its benefits, in my opinion, should be secured, in the first
place, to those prisoners who cannot at all read, or who read
without any intelligence of the meaning of words which they
mechanically spell ; and then, when it is possible to go farther,
that the teacher should aim at laying a good foundation for the
convict's improvement by his own efforts, and the assistance of
the schoolmaster, in his next and longer stage. To confer the

494 APPENDIX.

advantages of a superior education on criminals, I hold to be
wrong in principle. A superficial one is worse than useless.
What such men need is principle ; not mere intellectual de-
velopment. That mere education does not produce moral
elevation is too apparent, from the fact that convicts have had
as large a share of its advantages as the non-criminal classes in
society. Nevertheless, as men without some rudimentary educa-
tion cannot read for themselves that book which alone teaches
infallibly the things pertaining to godliness, nor understand its
truths as generally taught by the ministers of religion, it is a
matter of primary importance that all should be made, as soon
as possible, acquainted with the language in which those truths
are conveyed to them.

The thorough carrying out even of this principle, I am aware,
will have many attendant drawbacks. A perverted nature will
lead multitudes to abuse the acquired power, and unprincipled
literary men will not be wanting to provide books in fearful
abundance, licentious, immoral, and such as directly generate
crime. On the whole, however, I am satisfied that the spread of
knowledge would tend to the increase of good morals in any
people where religion exists in a free and healthful state. But
great exertions are required on the part of the community, the
Government, and the Legislature, to meet the most pernicious
efforts continually being put forth by authors and publishers
who prostitute talent, education, and character to the detestable
purpose of mere money gain, neutralizing the benefits of educa-
tion to the lower classes, and poisoning the sources of their
temporal, no less than of their eternal happiness. Such persons,
if they cannot be reached by the arm of the law, should be
scouted from society, as wholesale traffickers in the production
of crimes which it costs the State so much to punish, and the
miseries which follow in the train of crime to so many thou-
sands, which no remedy can ever remove.

It may be well to show the enormous and increasing magni-
tude of this fertile source of crime, as detailed by Mr. Knight,
the publisher, and other competent witnesses.

" Since the year 1844, when Eugene Sue's ' Mysteries of Paris '
appeared in London, a great number of penny papers of a vitia-
ting character have been published in London, Manchester,
Liverpool, and other large towns. Many men of the lowest class

APPENDIX. 495

have started into notice, and become comparatively rich, by the
sale of these most immoral works. I am acquainted (says the
writer) with no less than six men who are in a position to keep
their town and country houses by these pernicious enterprises ;
men who were saddled with debts a very few years ago. The
mischief already done is considerable. The young people of
both sexes in the families of the mechanic and the shopkeeper
are now habituated to a course of reading in which felony,
murder, and violation, forgery, adultery, and all other crimes are
treated of as the common occurrences of life. The consequence
is, that the minds of thousands are depraved by that very exercise
which ought to improve them. There is no use in denying that
some of these felonious tales are written with ability ; but that
only aggravates the evil, for it serves as an excuse to the common
reader, and has the effect of attracting some readers of a better
class. There are four of these weekly Felonists (for that is the
nickname they have adopted) whose combined sale is calculated
to amount to 350,000, and whose readers must, I should say, ex-
tend to 1,000,000 a week. One of these Felonists, and the most
prosperous, has several gentlemen of ability among its con-
tributors, and will probably be won over to the cause of order
and good morals the moment the newspaper press begins to stir
upon the subject.

" At the beginning of April one thousand eight hundred and
fifty (says Mr. Knight) there were issued from the London press,
to be continued in weekly numbers at a penny and three-half-
pence each, one hundred separate publications. Of these, sixty
were wholly works of fiction and ribaldry. Of the professed
works of fiction a great number were of the ' Jack Sheppard '
school, such as 'The Freebooters,' 'Dick Turpin,' ' The Bold
Smuggler,' 'Paul Jones,' ' Gentleman Jack,' ' The Brigand,' &c.
The hash is varied by every variety of tales of murder. The
influences of such publications are counteracted by twenty-two
weekly journals for the most part innoxious.

" The circulation of pernicious publications is immense. In
1845 it was calculated from London alone there was a yearly
circulation of stamped and unstamped newspapers and serials of
a decidedly pernicious character, to the extent of 28,86i2,000 !
During the last five years, while cheap religious periodicals have
made limited progress either in numbers or interest, the corrupt

496 APPENDIX.

printing press has been unceasingly at work. The present circu-
lation in London of immoral unstamped publications of a half-
penny to three half-pence each must be upwards of 400, 000 weekly,
which would give the enormous issue of 20,800,000 yearly ! In
addition to these there is the weekly importation of French
prints and novels, of so indecent a character that once they could
only be obtained by stealth, but may now be purchased openly
from any vendors of the other periodicals. We lately observed
a shop called the ' Parisian depository for the sale of French
prints,' where the business was entirely confined to that class of
publications.

" In the beginning of 1851 above 100 new penny periodicals
were started, and again in January 1852 at least an equal num-
ber, the greater part of these being calculated to do harm rather
than good."

To the almost hopeless task of undoing the mischief inflicted
upon society by such means, we are called, who are appointed to
minister to the felon and outcast, and, under our direction, the
schoolmasters engaged to labour amongst prisoners. Our aim
should not be dissimilar. No schoolmaster is worth much
anywhere, and least of all in a prison, who confines his view to
the merely intellectual progress of his scholars, and does not
consider mental improvement as a means to the higher end, the
formation of character on Christian principles.

With respect to direct moral and religious improvement
effected amongst the prisoners during the past year, there con-
tinues to be less profession of a religious change than in former
years, but not less real amendment. Of some we have reason
to hope that they have indeed been renewed in the spirit of
their minds. Of the very great majority, we have no doubt but
that they will approve themselves in after-life to be reformed, in
the general acceptation of the word. The number of really con-
verted persons amongst prisoners has been, I am satisfied,
greatly over-rated by many sanguine minds, which have not
taken into sufficient consideration the peculiar circumstances
and characters of prisoners. The situation of prisoners is one
of affliction, and the absence of active temptation to their
besetting sins, especially in separate confinement. They are in
a subdued, softened state of mind. Religious instruction is
daily communicated to them, and they become enlightened.

APPENDIX. 497

They are conversed with by zealous and affectionate persons,
who impress them with their views. Their teachers come to
them, with the authority of superior officers, upon whose good
opinion much is known to depend, and from whose kind offices
much is expected by persons so circumstanced. Hence, without
supposing gross hypocrisy to any considerable extent, the de-
scription by our blessed Lord will constantly be found applicable
to a great many of the most hopeful, " when they heard the
word they received it immediately with all gladness, but they
have no root in themselves, and so endure but for a time ; after-
ward, when affliction or persecution ariseth for the word's sake,
immediately they are offended."

On the other hand, the number of prisoners who have become
better members of society in consequence of the affliction and
punishment which have followed their course, and the encourage-
ment and instruction how to do better which they have received
in prison, is placed in general much under the mark. In accord-
ance with those views, when classifying, with the Governor, the
convicts about to be removed to the second stage of their disci-
pline, I do not hesitate to give the advantage of the first class
to all who have not by some overt act, or the exhibition of a
confirmed habit, disclosed a really depraved character, or, by the
frequent repetition of some ordinary prison offence, an insub-
ordinate spirit. It appears to me a matter of great importance
to extend, as far as possible, to men in their circumstances, the
stimulus of encouragement and hope. To attempt a more re-
fined estimate of the convict's character in a state of separation
is only to deceive oneself with the delusive idea of possessing a
power 'which no man can have; and, if religious improvement
be made the test of classification, to generate extensively an in-
sincere profession. The opportunities for forming a judgment
upon the character, whilst a prisoner is on the public works, are
so many and various, and the time of detention so much longer
than with us, that the result of observation there must be con-
sidered the main element for fixing his ultimate destination.

I am happy to perceive, that few men on the public works
forfeit the class which they receive thus so liberally from us.
This confirms me in the persuasion, that the more credit you
give to fallen persons for real desire to reform their ways, the
more likely you are to secure this result. The reverse of this

K K

498 APPENDIX.

principle I believe is as generally verified. Degrade a prisoner
from his class for some trivial offence, by punishment, when an
admonition and a warning would suffice, and you will most pro-
bably have to do it again and again.

Many a convict has thus come at last to be reputed incorri-
gible, who originally, in his criminal character, was much less
vile than others who have attained to the first class, under a
happier course of treatment. Many more, in my opinion, would
certainly sink gradually into the incorrigible class, from the
indignation or recklessness produced by a heavy punishment for
some offence involving no moral turpitude, were it not that it is
the business of the minister of religion to visit them under
punishment, and, whilst maintaining to the prisoners the
necessity of discipline, and their duty, to infuse hope and
encouragement into their minds. In cases where excessive
punishment for the first offence has not been followed by rapid
deterioration and an insubordinate spirit, the existence of this
influence must continually be borne in mind.

The beneficial moral results of the discipline and instruction
of the prison have in no degree been lessened, in my opinion,
by the mode of exercise adopted during the year past, in lieu of
the separate yards. There has been actually less communication'
between the prisoners. The good effect of the change upon the
mental condition of the prisoners has been to my perception
most marked. From an early period in the history of this
prison, you are aware, I was led to advocate a mitigation of the
rigorous character of separate confinement originally instituted
in Pentonville ; and I have hailed with no small satisfaction, on
the ground of humanity, every approximation to such a course of
treatment, as should secure a better prospect of continuing what
is useful in this discipline without perpetuating the serious evils
which a growing experience led me to apprehend from its indis-
criminate application. I am now enabled, by very distinct
recollection of my early impressions, to compare the convicts of
the first years, in general appearance and manner, with those of
the last ; and I have no hesitation in affirming that the present
healthful mental aspect of the prisoners forms a complete con-
trast to the nervous, agitated condition of the first, allowance
being made for the many cases of debility and age now admis-
sible to the prison, which were so carefully excluded at the first,

APPENDIX. 499

It is really no small relief to my own mind, remembering the
past, to turn my eyes for a moment from this paper, as I write, and
view the manner now in which one hundred prisoners in the
spacious ground before my window are being exercised. Sepa-
rated by moral discipline and simple arrangement, they walk
erect, like men. Their whole frame is in motion, and they move
at so lively a pace as almost to provoke competition ; fast enough,
however, to render much thought, for the while, impossible. To
the young and active it is enjoyment. To the less vigorous and
the sluggish it gives a stimulus which cannot fail to be of use to
the mind as well as body. The picture is happily removed of
the convict, pensively, thoughtfully, at the best leisurely, tread-
ing his solitary little yard, the boundaries of which were high
walls, massive iron palings, and a door with inspection plate
through which an officer's eye was perpetually on all his actions.
When officially interrogated by you on the probable effects of a
change in such points of our discipline as seemed to press
heavily upon the mind of the prisoner, I anticipated those re-
sults with confidence.

The experience of the physician of the Penitentiary in New
Jersey, lately brought before the British public, has long been
my own. " The more rigidly the plan is carried out, the more
its effects are visible upon the health of the convicts. A little
more intercourse with each other, and a little more air in the
yard, have the effect upon the mind and body that warmth has
on the thermometer ; almost every degree of indulgence showing
a corresponding rise in the health of the individual. That an
opinion to the contrary should have been advocated at this time
seems like a determination to disregard science in support of a
mistaken but favourite policy."

The separation of the convicts in the chapel (the effect of
which I was desired to state) I did not, nor do I now, think
oppressive to the mind to any perceptible degree. The process
of instruction going on in the school, the considerable part
which the prisoners take by responding and singing in the
religious service, and the interest so generally felt in the con-
secutive reading and simple exposition of the Holy Scriptures,
make this continuation of separation wholly harmless. If no
interest were imparted to those exercises (as is the fact still as
regards some exceptional cases), the continued separation would

KK 2

500 APPENDIX.

certainly tell, in some measure, unfavourably upon the mind.
Viewed in its moral aspect, the separation of prisoners during
divine worship is only justifiable on the ground of necessity, the
existence of which is, however, now confidently denied, by not a
few excellent persons who have tried both plans. I am too
sensibly alive to the evils attached to either plan to advocate a
sudden departure from an established course.

The uses, and the danger of the convict's peaked cap (another
point upon which a question was raised) I think have been alike
exaggerated.

In advocating, in consequence of my first few years' experience
in this prison, a modification of separate confinement, and the
necessity of combining it with a system of well-regulated labour
on public works, under the direction of Government, I was
guided wholly by my own observation, and the conviction that
the ends of justice, and the reasonable demands of the colonies
of Australia, could only be met by such a course. I had my
misgivings, moreover, that the reformation effected under such
complete separation from the temptations of life, would not
prove to be of a permanent character. I feared that the long con-
tinuance under a system of such restraint, physical and moral,
would be followed by a reaction, where there was not a real change
of heart by the Holy Spirit. However this might be, I thought
I saw distinctly marked, such effects of separate confinement as to
put out of the question its exclusive application for a lengthened
period, as the sole or greater part of a convict's treatment.

Among the convicts of the first years, most carefully selected,
as they were, in the matter of general health, age, crime, and
sentence, there was an undue proportion, as you are aware, of
mental disturbance and excitement, from insanity downwards to
a sort of indescribable nervous or hysterical condition, which
was partly observable in the prison, but much more so on board
ship, where a large proportion were seized with convulsions.
This was the case in the Sir George Seymour. In the Stratheden,
which next sailed with our prisoners, twenty out of one hundred
were thus affected, but none of the convicts, on board, from the
other prisons, as I reported at the time to the board. It was
reasonable to infer, that where no such actual result followed,
there was yet an effect produced upon the system of an unfavour-
able character ; and this I thought observable in the appearance

APPENDIX. 501

of our convicts, viewed in comparison with the others around
them. Could it be imagined that longer detention in such a
state would not aggravate this mischief? It was so thought by
some, whose judgment might justly be considered much safer
to follow than mine. Tables were prepared to show that cases
of insanity and delusion occurred, in the first, rather than in the
last period of the eighteen months here experimented on. That
result, however, in my opinion, seemed consistent enough with
the supposition of a gradual and perhaps imperceptible decline of
the physical and mental energies of the mass of persons subjected to
the trial. Active disease might be developed in the first stage of
confinement, whilst general debility or prostration of spirits
would mark the latter part of a long confinement in separation ;
and when released the sufferers would not be competent to work
their way in the world like other men ; and having this dis-
advantage, with the loss of character, would be doomed in too
many cases to hopeless pauperism, vagrancy, or crime.

Further, gentlemen, I considered that religion could gain
nothing by such results. Depression of spirits is not contrition ;
remorse is not repentance ; resolutions and vows of amendment,
made whilst suffering the penalty of transgression, imply no
change of principle, no real reformation of character. The
weakening of man's physical and mental energies does not gene-
rate piety. Religion cannot be in a healthy state which originates
in disturbance of the mental powers. You are acquainted with
the results, as regards the religious and moral condition of our
convicts of the early years, about whom such sanguine expecta-
tions were entertained. Too many witnesses, having opportuni.
ties for observation and inquiry in the colonies, have affirmed a
deplorable falling away in them, to allow one to question the fact.
Indeed, on the whole, there appears reason to fear that the
operation of the discipline on the minds of the exiles, sent from
Pentonville, was not so friendly to religion as even its most
moderate advocates, like myself, ventured to anticipate.

It is increasingly, therefore, a matter of satisfaction, to nie at
least, that the experiment of subjecting convicts to one proba-
tionary period of a lengthened term of separate confinement was
not further persevered in, but that a system of convict discipline
has been put into operation, which secures whatever advantages
belong to separate confinement, consistently with mental safety ;

502 APPENDIX.

is combined with active bodily exertion and training in out-door
labour; incorporating all through the elements of a wholesome
severity with those of humanity and religion. Character formed
under such circumstances will be less specious, but more stable ;
and the convict, at the expiration of his probation, will be quali-
fied to return to the honest pursuits of hard labour, if such had
been his condition, or have recourse to them for a livelihood,
when crime has degraded him from a better condition.
I have the honour to be, Gentlemen,

Your obedient servant,
To the Directors of Convict Prisons. J. KINGSMILL.

III.
THE CRYSTAL PALACE.

OPINIONS OF 599 MEDICAL MEN IN THE METROPOLIS, ON THE SUBJECT;
ALSO OF SEVENTY PRISON CHAPLAINS.*

ON~the important subject of opening the Crystal Palace on the
Lord's Day, the Committee felt that it would be very important to
obtain the opinions of Chaplains of Prisons ; they therefore put
themselves'in communication with the Kev. J. Kingsmill, Chap-
lain of the Pentonville Model Prison, to whom a similar idea had
occurred. Mr. Kingsmill in consequence drew up an able peti-
tion to both Houses of Parliament, expressive of his own views
on the subject, to which he obtained the signatures of Chaplains
of Prisons in the Metropolis and its neighbourhood. The Com-
mittee forwarded a copy of this petition to the other Chaplains
of Prisons in England for signature. Seventy Chaplains signed
this petition.

The following is a copy of this important petition :

" The Petition of the undersigned Chaplains of her Majesty's

" Prisons
" HUMBLY SHOWETH,

" That your Petitioners, from the nature of their duties, are
especially interested in the promotion of public morals.

" That your Petitioners are well acquainted with the many ob-
structions to virtue, and direct incentives to a vicious course,
which have been allowed for a long time to gather round the

* Extracted from quarterly paper of the Lord's Day Society.

APPENDIX. 503

humbler classes in the metropolis and other parts of the coun-
try ; and in discharge of their painful duties, are continually
witnessing the most deplorable effects.

" That your Petitioners have therefore hailed, with more than
ordinary satisfaction, every movement of late years, originated
by Parliament or private enterprise, for the amelioration of the
social and moral condition of the labouring classes ; and espe-
cially such as tended to raise their tone of self-respect, and to
demonstrate to the upper classes how well deserving their poorer
brethren are of their most considerate regard.

" That, next to the bond of a common Scriptural faith, your
Petitioners know none more likely to consolidate society, and
prevent a decline in national morals, than the love of country
generated by a kindly sympathy pervading all classes of the
community.

" That accordingly your Petitioners regarded the late Indus-
trial Exhibition as a design most happily conceived and accom-
plished, emanating, as it did, from the high, the noble, and the
wealthy, for the gratification and instruction of all.

" That your Petitioners would view with like satisfaction the
rising Palace at Sydenham ; but that they understand an at-
tempt is likely to be made to induce Parliament to sanction a
departure from its great model of 1851, in that one distinguish-
ing feature the scrupulous observance of the Lord's Day
which secured at once the regard of all persons in Great Britain
who preferred the religion and the customs of their country to
continental habits, and made it a grand exposition to all the
world of the religious principles and character of England.

" That your Petitioners are convinced that a departure from
that example in this particular, would be followed by most dis-
astrous consequences to public morals and religion, for the fol-
lowing amongst other reasons :

All unnecessary labour on Sundays has the invariable ten-
dency to produce irreligion, immorality, and the disruption of
family ties. By the proposed arrangements it is certain that
Sunday labour would be greatly increased. All Sunday amuse-
ments accomplish the like result, only with greater certainty.
The workman, with his shopmates, or less select companions,
deserts his family for the excitement of the Sunday amusement ;
and the young of both sexes, breaking loose from the feeble and
inconsistent restraints of home and religion, take the first step

504 APPENDIX.

in evil, and sink with fearful rapidity into profligacy and crime.
The recreations to be offered in the new Palace of Sydenham,
being in themselves innocent and attractive, would introduce tit
once a multitude of persons to the practice and habit of Sunday
pleasure-taking ; parents and teachers, who have hitherto found
no difficulty in keeping young people from the infamous gardens
in and around the metropolis, open at present on Sundays by
an evasion of the law, would find it in too many cases impossible
to prevent their going to Sydenham Garden on that day, if, un-
happily, the full sanction of the Legislature of their country
could be pleaded on the side of passion and self-will ; and thus
it would happen, that although those vile places might suffer at
the first, they would ultimately the more flourish, from the
greater numbers which had contracted habits of Sunday pleasure-
taking, and the innate tendency of man to pass from the more
innocent and rational excitement to the more gross and sensual.
" That your Petitioners further would urge upon your honour-
able House, that the opening of the Exhibition at Sydenham on
Sundays would not prove any boon to the working classes. A
single visit, with a family of average number, would cost the
working man at the least a sum equal to the rent he pays for
the apartments which he occupies. Unless, thei'efore, he
launches into extravagant habits, or deserts his family for his
own selfish gratification, his visit with his family must be only
on such occasional holidays in the course of the year as his
means and opportunities will permit. Nor is there any neces-
sity. The operatives of London, and the country generally,
keep two or three holidays in Easter or Whitsuntide ; to these,
others might be added by a mutual good understanding be-
tween employers and their people, with advantage to both par-
ties, without encroaching on the sacredness of the Lord's Day.
" That your Petitioners, therefore, upon a calm and thought-
ful consideration of the subject confining their attention
to public morals, and the interests of the humbler classes,
and not going into the consideration of the obligation on
Christians of preserving inviolate the whole Sabbath (which
yet they firmly believe) do earnestly implore your honour-
able House not to let any Bill pass permitting the Palace
at Sydenham, or its grounds, to be opened on any part of
Sunday ; but to adhere in this, as well as all other things,

APPENDIX. 505

to those great principles of the Scriptural religion so hap-
pily and so long established in these realms, under which
England has risen to her present greatness and prosperity."

All the Metropolitan Prison Chaplains signed this petition,
one only excepted that^is, 19 out of 20.

Some* T medical gentlemen having learned that petitions in
favour of opening the Crystal Palace on the Lord's Day had
been introduced into some of the hospitals of the metropolis
for signature, conceived the design of originating a counter
petition. They accordingly prepared the following, which
was numerously and most respectably signed :

'' To the Honourable the Commons of Great Britain and Ireland in
Parliament assembled : the Petition of the undersigned Physi-
cians, Surgeons, and General Practitioners, resident in London,

" HUMBI,Y SHOWETH,

" That your Petitioners, from their acquaintance with the la-
bouring classes, and with the laws which regulate the human
economy, are convinced that a seventh day of rest, instituted by
God, and coeval with the existence of man, is essential to the
bodily health and mental vigour of men in every station of life.

" That the system which provides for the gain of some, and
the recreation, the amusement, and the vices of others, at the
expense of their fellows, who require and are entitled to a day of
rest as much as they, and thus consigns a large and yearly-grow-
ing proportion of the community to a life of unbroken toil, be-
sides being at variance with that law of charity which enjoins us
to do to others as we would they should do to us, has a direct
tendency to undermine the health, exhaust the strength, and
shorten the lives of those who are its victims.

" That the proposal to open for profit the Crystal Palace, now
in course of erection at Sydenham, and to create in connexion
with it an enormous amount of railway traffic during a portion
of the Lord's Day, lying manifestly open to these objections, and
confessedly implying a still further extension of this hurtful
system, appears to your Petitioners pregnant with disastrous
results to the labouring classes, because directly tending to de-
fraud them of that boon which the Sabbath-law of a beneficent
Creator provides for the whole family of man.

506 APPENDIX.

" That while they are more especially called to minister to the
physical sufferings of their fellow-creatures, your Petitioners
cannot overlook the close relationship subsisting between moral
and physical disease, or entertain the hope that any plans which
do not make full provision for their spiritual as well as for their
physical necessities, will effect any great or permanent improve-
ment in the health and the habits of the labouring population ;
and that, even if your Petitioners could altogether shut their
eyes to the moral aspects of the above-mentioned proposal, in
favour of which their opinion has been expressly invoked by its
promoters, it would, according to their experience of the wants
and slender resources of the labouring poor, be a mere mockery
to offer the much-needed blessings of health, fresh air, and re-
creation, at an expense far beyond the means of the vast ma-
jority, and sure to entail serious subsequent privation even on
the few who might venture to incur it at distant intervals.

" That your Petitioners, deeply sympathizing with the hard
and cheerless lot of multitudes of their fellow-countrymen, of
whose health they may be considered in some sense the guard-
ians, feel bound to protest against any encroachments, from
whatever quarter they may come, on that day of rest which is
the birthright of the poor, and to claim for them far greater op-
portunities of healthful and innocent recreation than they now
enjoy. Convinced that the present protracted hours of labour
are not only hurtful but needless, and anxious to lighten instead
of adding to the pressure of toil that now weighs so heavily on
the working classes, your Petitioners desire to express'their be-
lief that the requirements of the Divine law, and the interests
both of employers and artisans, may be harmonized by the con-
cession, as in Manchester, and (to some extent) in Glasgow, of a
portion of one of the working days as a weekly half-holiday ; and
the provision, free of cost, in all the large towns of the United
Kingdom, of parks and gardens, and of public museums of art
and science, fitted to elevate the habits and refine the tastes of
the labouring population.

" May it therefore please your honourable House to refuse
your assent to any measure calculated in any way to set aside
the law actually in force, and to legalize the opening of the Crystal
Palace and its grounds for gain on any portion of the Lord's Day.

" And your Petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray."

APPENDIX. 507

IV.
NAMES AND LOCALITIES OF CONVICT PRISONS.

THE accommodation at the disposal of the Government, and
the distribution of the convicts, are detailed hi the following
Return, taken from the Report of Lieut.-Colonel Jebb, C.B.,
Surveyor-General of Prisons, Chairman of the Directors, &c., in
1853.

ESTABLISHMENTS AT HOME FOB MALE CONVICTS.
Prisons for Separate Confinement.

Millbank 1,100

Pentonville 561

Wakefield 412^.

Preston 50

Leeds 50 Cells in county or

Leicester 112 I borough prisons

Northampton .... 60 [ rented by the

Bath 24 Government.

Reading 40

Bedford 70-

Perth 180 For Scotch prisoners.

2,659

Prisons and Hulks for Public Works.

Portland 1,070

Portsmouth 1,020

Dartmouth; able-bodied . . . 650

\ " Warrior " 450

3,720

Parkhurst (for Juveniles) . . . . 625
Invalid Depots.

Dartmoor

" Stirling Castle " Hulk, Portsmouth

Total in England and Scotland . . 8,030
Ireland, including Males and Females 5,246

ABROAD.

Gibraltar, say . . 690

Bermuda, say . . . 1,700
Western Australia . . 550

2,850

General Total . 16,126*

* Exclusive of Brixton Female Convict Prison, for 600.

508 APPENDIX.

V.
FORM OF A TICKET-OF-LEAVE

AS NOW GRANTED IN ENGLAND.

Order of License to a Convict, made under the Statute
16 rf 17 Viet., chap. 99, sect. 9.

WHITEHALL,

day of 185 HEK MAJESTY

is graciously pleased to grant to , who was

convicted of , at the , for the

of , on the day of ,

and was then and there sentenced to be transported beyond the
Seas for the term of years, her Koyal License to be at

large in the United Kingdom, from the day of his liberation
under this Order during the remaining portion of his said term
of Transportation, unless it shall please Her Majesty sooner to
revoke or alter such License. And Her Majesty hereby orders
that the said be set at liberty within

days from the date of this Order.

Given under my Hand and Seal

Signed,
TEUE COPY.

Chairman.

NOTICE.

1. The power of revoking or altering the License of a Convict will most
certainly be exercised in case of his misconduct.

2. If, therefore, he wishes to retain the privilege which, by his good
behaviour under penal discipline, he has obtained, he must prove by his
subsequent conduct that he is really worthy of Her Majesty's clemency.

3. To produce a forfeiture of the License, it is by no means necessary
that the Holder should be convicted of any new Offence. If he associates
with notoriously bad characters leads an idle and dissolute life or has no
visible means of obtaining an honest livelihood, &c. it will be assumed
that he is about to relapse into crime, and he will be at once apprehended,
and re- committed to prison under his original sentence.
DESCRIPTION.

Hair

Eyes

Eyebrows ....

Nose

Mouth

Complexion . . .

Visage

Make

Height ft. in.

Trade

Born at

Friends reside .

Reed and Pardon, Printers, Paternoster Row, London.

CHAPTERS

AND THE PKEVENTION OF CRIME.

IN FULL-SIZED OCTAVO, GELT LETTERED, PRICE 10s. 6d.

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came into our hands. Mr. Kingsmill disclaims, and, we have no doubt, with
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to tell him that it possesses literary merit of a very high order, a judicious divi-
sion of the matters treated an exact and complete analysis of details and an
easy, flowing, graceful, and unaffected style. From Gay and Fielding, to Dickens,
various writers of fiction have given us glimpses of the race of thieves; but the
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exhibits considerable artistic ability, whilst his writing is at once powerful and
eloquent in its sincerity." Pooh and Dorsetshire Herald.

" Ought to be in the hands of all who are called upon, either to control, to
regulate, or to support the prisons of the country." Woolmer's Plymouth and
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" We would strongly recommend the early perusal of this most interesting work
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" No mere system will answer the required end without the mainspring of all
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Gospel of the grace of God. The evidence which is afforded of the working of
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perusal of our brethren who are called to labour among the population of districts
which are the fertile seed-plots of vice, misery, and crime." Church of England
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" This book is on a subject deeply exciting. The author has not been tempted
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to speak for themselves, and never aspires to a style beyond the solemn dignity of
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and servants of every department, are under obligation to study it" Dumfries
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" Those who doubt that truth is stranger than fiction, would do well to peruse
this book, with all its startling incidents, simply told. It contains as much that is
amusing to the general reader, as to the person exclusively interested in prison
statistics." Church and State Gazette.

" A volume which we trust will give heart and hope to all who are interested
in the experiments now being made for the prevention of crime as well as the
reformation of prisoners. We thank Mr. Kingsmill for the great and able service
he has done in this elaborate work to the cause of genuine philanthropy." Christ-
ian Times.

" This is a most valuable digest of prison discipline. The author's views upon
the state of society, to which those who crowd our gaols belong, are lucid and
forcible, and his exposition of profligate character, and the best means to be
adopted for its amendment, is sound and judicious." Bell's Weekly Messenger.

By the same Author.

In Demy 8vo., stiff" covers, price One Shilling,
THIBD EDITION.

THE O FFIC E E:

OFFICERS IN CHAEGE OF PRISONERS.

" The great object of reclaiming the criminal should always be kept
in view by every officer." Rules in Convict Prisons.

LONDON : LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS.

By the same Author,

. Uniform with the Third Edition of " Chapters on Prisons and Prisoneri,"
PBICE 10s. 6d.

miau

HISTORICALLY VIEWED FROM THEIR COMMENCEMENT.

ftoiicM of

" An octavo volume of between 500 and 600 pages, devoted to a comprehensive
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to the present day, cannot fail to prove an acceptable contribution to ecclesiastical
history, when executed, as the volume before us is, with care, ability, and in a Christ-
ian spirit It may be read with advantage in Christian families."

Christian Observer.

"The present work is a compendium of missionary history. Its general value
arises from a wide and comprehensive view of Christian missions, beginning with
the first, with those inspired messengers who were most eminently the Lord's wit-
nesses, and proceeding through the ancient missions to our own country, and mediaeval
missions, down to the great evangelising institutions of our own time." Christian Times.

" It delights us to find a man rising above the distinctions of sects and churches;
and rejoicing in the progress of the truth and the conversion of the heathen, not as
bringing honour to this or that denomination, but simply because souls are being
saved, and glory thereby brought to the Redeemer. .... The concluding
chapter, on missions to the native Irish, is full of interest; but we cannot afford space
for more extracts." Free Church Magazine.

" An interesting book, embodying a quantity of valuable information, conveyed in
a clear, unamb ; tious style. Some of the great leading ideas of church history are
well brought out." Dumfries Standard.

" Ably written, and eminently attractive." Chwch and State Gazette.

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" Just such a work as the circumstances of the times demand, and will be acceptable
to all who feel interested in the extension of the Redeemer's kingdom." Watchman.

" This is a large volume, written on a great subject, full of interest to the Christian,
and fraught with the most precious blessings to the world. We have various works
on particular missions, and some on missions generally, but we confess that we have
a strong partiality to the general work before us, because of the extent of the field
over which the author conducts us, and the spirit with which he is animated."
Christian News.

" A singularly interesting and valuable work, by an able and catholic-spirited man.
His information in regard to Jesuit missions is peculiarly valuable to those who are
studying the Popish controversy." Bulwark.

" This volume of Mr. Kingsmill we especially commend to the notice of our
readers, as containing some striking illustrations of the violent and unscrupulous
character of Romish propagandism, as well as of the patience, devotedness, and
success of Protestant missions in all parts of the world." Evangelical Magazine.

LONDON: LONGMAN, BROWN, GBEEN, AND LONGMANS.

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