The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1862-12-23 00:00:00

be Ito signs o' its been Mnved. tf l'd bin a tender
at that plans o' Worship I shod a pray'd for Zir
Voyer long age°, atol so props Zir Voyer thinks
they 'ave,in that's the rasin he kips it ther. Praps,
'owever, bee's another tuition. Prang the key wall
aint forrod enottgli for he to put it back agin. The
last time I aid un, there was dree cionses o' tartan
put on, and the men was hacken away to make 'en
even. While I was looken on, a Zir Voyer as had
bin a workin at Portlun Brakewater, told I as how
be thort the best thing Zir Voyer could do was to
set too a cree-o-sooten a lot o' pike to driv rite down
+dose to his wall after he had but It; afore ha Welk
up the dant, to prevent tile wall tuinblin down,
silt look% onconnuon like to he as how the founds-
shun 'mid gee way a bit if he didn't. Somehly else
as stood by perpos'd as how Zir Voyer should have
a divert dress to goo down an see how the founda-
tion was a gitten on, an another wicked imp
suggested that when he was under water the air
tube shud be ntade long enuf to allow 'oh to go out
an catch the sea helephante. Everybody prais'd up
the pump ati steam engine as costs between 3 and 4
an twenty shilen a day, an one as was there, more
kno'en than the rest suggested that when the key
wall was done, Zir Voyer should be engaged by
Guv'ment to pump the West Ray dry to pervent
futer shipwrecks ther. The treasure that wit te
fund ther, he zed, 'tool goo a long way towards
payen the expense. I finds, 'owever, as I most
conclood thick yer letter, else, may's/1p if I say too
much in favour o'un he'll think as how I be in love
we'uu, an I shouldn't wish he to get a divorce a
thioken to marry I; so no more at preasant,
Mauater HeAdhitter, from Mrs. Oftuntre.
PORTLAND. VOtoritsite ArglittaltY SUNS
AND Serottsit. —The following War Office circular,
addressed to geoeral officers aud officers command-
ing Royal artillery and commanding officers of artil-
lery volunteers, has just been issued : " Sir—l am
am directed by Secretary Sir G. U. bewilt to infortti
you that he has approved nf the following regula-
tions relpeting the giin ammunition and artillery
etoree supplied by Govenunent for the instruction
of artillery volunteers: Ist. All guns, gun ammuni-
tion, and artillery stores issued for the use Of the
artillery volunteers, will, as heretofore, be included
in the store account rendered to the If ield-marshal,
Commandinwin-Chief, Mid the Secretary of State
for War, by the officers commanding the Royal
Artillery in the several military districts of Great
Britain; but these articles will henceforward be
committed to the charge of the officers commanding
corps of artillery volunteers, under whose orders
the non-commissioned officers of the Royal Artil-
lery, attached to corps as instructors, will Mit in the
capacity of custodians. Ilud. Offinettlloththalldiug
corps of Artillery 417bIlititeets are to communicate on
all Italbjeetts Connected with the supply and disposal
of guns, gun ammunition, and artillery stores, with
the officer commanding the Royal Artillery in the
district in which their reepectiVe heUd-cluarteri al
situated, and must be Prepared 05 afford &tell
information -MAY require from time to
time, to eliahle V& to account properly for the
IdUree inclUded in his returns. 3rd. In the case of
corps belonging to an Administrative Brigade,. the
correspondence ito s pearl- throne; '. the otticei•
manding the brigade. —1 have t MOut to be,
youre, c. DI tint 4 Inb }UPON."
i'dttkArn4. —We are happy to state that H. G.
Bturt, Esq., M. P., with his mscustomed liberality,
has sent the Secretary of Court Perseverance, 353'2,
Ancient Order of Foresters, Portland, a donation
of .85, to be forwarded to the distressed foresters of
the cotton districts.
Coovica Litre. There are *tweed from 1,400
to 1,600 convicts at Portland, mostly waiting in
gangs by tlittorotelviia, but now and then in aloe.)
grout* of free labourers. You linear tit Mil
When You are eolith* pistol the girovind palely *orke
by the former'' ,on all Viti Meets headlands and high
ConiMamillag bluffs Whioh are being scarped into per-
pAplieulat Walls for the fort of this Channel Gibraltar
stalk the tall figures of the warders all around. There
is nothing of the listless rontine of sentry duty about
these men. They carry their 'rifles reed:, and seem
all eyes and ears as they scan the ground beneath them,
like eager sportsmen looking for a shot. The prisoners
require no pointing out, their dress, their closely shaven
aspect, their hard, firm, rtilldy, healttly lopk, like
pugilists In condition the attt, slld, above all, their
flow, laty style Cr Woltritia, ot father Moving. whioh
contrattehe ettingely with the bug), energy and speed
' of the free workmen near at hand, all allow them at a
glance to be "penal servitudes" at "hard labour." Here
are men of every grade of infamy and crime, men who
were once clerics, merchants, mid even commissioned
officers, down to poachers, burglars, murderers, and
that worst and most inveterate of all ruffians, who has
been inured to every form of punishment known to the
law short of hanging—the true London et-bottle],
Some few are employed itt prittepleylng, 601ile in black•
smith's mho" Seine mellobs or brickliyers' work
Mom the great fortifications of the Verne; but the
Wittin hulk are kept in the quairies. in these qintiesi
the men work quarrying mei dreaiing bloce of s One
in winter about eight and a half,houio A dilY, in summer
nine houra,.atid edmetithel • little over. The work,
indeed, Would be hard labour if fairly done, and there
Art Stine few, but very few' who really do work well
and as if labour was a relief to them. But the freilt
majority take matters very easily indeed, as ma be
judged when five conviets kept it their Work only
quarry about as much stone in a day as two free
labourers
,working for their hire. It is not suggestive
of hoed Work to see • fellow put down a heavy
hammer that he ought to be wielding lustily and stop
to swing his arms and clap his hands to keep himself
warm. When this is the " hard labour" we eau see
at once why convicts do not dread it, Perhaps while
the visitor isregarding this meeker), of work it may begin
to rain ;at once the mimic toil ceases and the convince are
mantled of in gangs to sherti trectset rot the titirpOke,
where they are careftte ghelke6,l Frain the Weather,
mid Can look Mlt emdmnplicencY mion the free
Monter, WhO, Wing himeelf and his family to keep,
Miss% stay and bear whatever weather Heaven sends,
Wet or dry, hot or cold. The contrast between the
condition of the two, however, by no Means endi here,
The comforts that are denied tot Misery, tlintlib
(erred to &MSc' hive heeili in old theme of invective
&Mir tine* the Maw convict "system" came into opera-
thin. At no part of England, however, is the superior
condiction of the convict, as compared with that of the
honest labourer, firm:night side by side into each startling
contrast as at Portland. When 12 o'clock comes, in the
works at the Verne, the free labourer, who has done
more quarrying than any two consists that day, may be
seen sitting down to , his meal Of 'Breed and Citetle,
sometimes, with a bitof dried Bah or a tin pot of
coftenl the latter generally unsweetened. The convict
leaves off work at half-past 11, and goes to his cell to
wash, comb his hair, in fact isake a little toilet, before
he sits down to ttiii very ample dinner. The risen is
wide and lofty in all the chambers And iVetinee, Well
lighted and well ventilated, let kept comfortably warm,
and, above all, idtcriipannaly clean that it is a comfort to
look at it While the "liard-labout" men are making
their toilets their dinners are carefully got ready,
weighed out, and served smoking hot in bright clean
tins, and at 12 o'clock each man comes forward with his
gang, and receives every one his separate) allowenee.
Their dinner three days a week in as follows t—One
tint of temp properly seasoned, thickened with barley,
rise, carrots, and onions, and eyed in nutrinieqt tot/
ever placed on a gentleman's table; 54 intnelia of nook
nteat, free of hone ;,Iltt. of Potatoes, amid 10 rimless of
ebb smtet padding. On thee* days a week the pudding
is replated with 6 Minces of bread, and on Sundays the
Meat is increased to 6 ounces. With this little
dinner in his tin every man retires to his comfort-
able veil, where lie is allowed an hour to consume it
at his leisure,—not that the time is always so spent;
many have, or affect to have, suspicion as to the w.iights
or quantitios they have got, and these fellows,
I some of whom make • point of doing it for time s Arm of
giving trouble, have to be aecompanied to the kitchen
by the warders, • where, actording to the WWI Of the
prison, they are elstitled td hive wierything re. weighed
and measured bufore Welt eyes. All, however, iii not
dine in their oells—aomemie portioned out in larger
!morns in cosy tittle messes of eight or ten. These are
mostly men in the'r third and fourth stage—that is, men
who have completed twosthirds or threelourtloi of the
time—not of the sentehoe--nohody completes that —but
the time at which they are entitled to claim their ticket-
of-leave. They have extra comforts sod privileges
.beyond dining in messes. In adlitiOn to the dinner we
have mentioned the men in the third stage receive on
Sundays two ounces of cheese., with three minces of bread
and halff-a-pint of bee: after it; while the men in the
fourth stage reeeive the same as to bread and cheese
and beer RA the third, with the addition of a treacle
padding after dinner on Thursdays, baked mutton, in
lieu of beef, on Thursdays and Pt`MayN and baited beef
instead of boiled on Sundays and Mondays! here,
then, we begin by giving onr convicts a daily dinner
such as for nntriinent, (polity, and quantity few
loboaring men can afford on Sundays, and we gradnally
raise the male of luxuries till they dine at last on soup,
baked beef, bread and cheese and beer, and pudding.
Yet the public, who don't know these things, wonder
why penal servitude is not dreaded, and why, above all
others, ticket-of-leave nien who have undergone this
" punishment" should, after their spell of liberty in the
slums of great oities, show such an accountable desire
to return to it again. To compare this high feeding
with the miserable dole which keeps life in our pauper*
would he absurd, and equally so would be • comparison
with the pow diet for which the honest labourer toils so
hard. After dinner the men who have put down their
names to see the Governor see him in turn. They
mostly come to ask permiseion to write special letters,
a convict being supposed only to write and receive
letters once in three months; but the rule is purely
nominal and not enforced, though they have to ask
permission for extra correspondence. The men then
parade in the courtyard at 1, while the Governor hears
complaints against the mild discipline of the prison,
ouch as fighting or not working. He then visits the
"separate cells," where the hardened or disorderly,
who have refused to come up to the lowest of low
standards of motion wOich pass on the works as
"labour." are confined on "jib, of bread and a burn-
ciency of water" a day. These inveterate idlers are
seldom sentenoed to more than three or four days
"separation," which they bear very well, lying on their
hacks all day, though they dislike the diet to an extent
that makes even them not sorry when their time for
work is due. All confinement in separate cells takes
off from 14 to 28 days of the time at which they caa.
claim tickets of leave. The Governor has also the
power of sentencing to half diet:4ol4o, -dele,ormlfen.
the dark cell for a short thn i
e if necessary, but t is sot
often done. At 1 o'clock the men are again paraded
and roughly examined to see that they have not
concealed their food to barter it for tobacco, leo.,
'with the free labourers, which in spite af all
(search it is impossible to prevent their doing delly„.
and this over, they again marsh out to the quarries
Here, in sight of the free lahourers who have dined
atyni',so,
rwp
80,
intenn:ri:ge while
b.ltr,blii
by
on bread and cheese, and have perhaps done what
alf a
et,
einnis,vnin:neteristobehhree neither
whatiot"t'ur r Yllatter
rryr e have •others do and doing. It is
walmmosstliattlearcenmeto callthan
thnaenire.l.,
joumbsno'; hi,seerdpilnagbotu "
hr..melnt
Ota of doom furs aerial' tint and giving ilmat bit

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