The Express.
London, England, 1858-03-31 00:00:00

LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, MARCH 81, 1858.

wend pictures will excite great 'Amirante. Of there we
eruct sufficiently extol the tine feeling and antique air of
Harriet Ludlow Clarke's " Design for a stained glare window
—to the memory of the late H. Berens, Esq., and put up in Bt.
John's Church, &dam " (384). "The Shunamite's Sae"
(380), a series of designs by Mies Fraser, are also quite
Raphaelseque in purity of design and sweetness of senti-
ment. The pen and ink sketches, likewise, of Mrs. John
nownewell (388) and Mrs. Hugh Blackburn are clever, and
the series representing "Scenes from the Life of a Female
Artist" (379), by F. A. Claxton, are fall of the most ad-
mirable humour; and " The Eight Beatitude" (383), by Min
Mortar, are good specimens of missal pointing. The portrait
(403), also on this maven, by Miss M. Gilboa does justice to
that lady's established reputation.
But, besides their intrinsic merit, the intert.it of some el
the contributions is much increased by adventitious threw
stances. Thus we understand that " Pen and Ink Sketobse"
(383), said in the catalogue to be simply by "A Lady," ere
the productions of the accomplished wife of the President of
the Royal Academy. The curiously coloured view " From •
Window' (144) is by Anna Mary Hearin. No. 387 is a
"Portrait of Frederica Bremer, done at Stockholm by •
Lady," and No. 402 is a " Mirdature of • Swedish Lady"
pdatad by Frederica Bremer herself. There are several One
works in sculpture, particularly those by Mrs. Thorneycroft,
Hies Durant, Miss Hoene R. Smith, Louisa Gann, and
•
of
eighties
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A VOYAGE IN A CONVICT SHIP.

The following is another of the instructive letters
of the excellent Bishop of Western Australia :

CONVICT SNIP NIL!, JAN. 1, 1858,
Approaching the Coast of Wrotern Australia.

My dear Friend,—l wrote to you the beginning of
November from Bahia, Brazil, giving you an account of our
voyage up to that time, end of the anxieties we had under-
gone in consequence of the misconduct of some of the coa-
♦icts. I have now every reason to express the meet heartfelt
gratitude to Almighty God for the favour which has been
shown to us in this latter part of our voyage. We have been
favoured in every way since we left Bahia. We have had
fair winds and a quick postage, and the prisoners have not
bean to as an occasion of anxiety cc alarm.
We reached latitude 44 deg. south cm the Lt of December;
being at the name day in the meridian of Greenwich, in the
parallel of latitude just mentioned, viz., 44 deg. south, our
captain determined to make the greater part of his running
to the eastward. The period at which we were in that
latitude was, an you are aware, just the height of summer in
this hemisphere, and yet we experienced some very cold, end
indeed quite wintry weather. This great change of
temperature took place about the 27th of November, and the
cold weather continued for a month, via., to a day or two
alter Chrietaswor We he ocesough plead Deem-
ber 23, hi longitude 90 wet, and Ince that time have be=
gradually creeping to the north. The thwinometer, during
the greatupart of the timeabove mentioned,while in latitude
44, was geworally abut 66 deg. in the ruddy ; several times
it stood at 62 deg., and twice it was observed u low as
46 deg. and 47 deg. The usual temperature on deck during
the middle of the day was about 45 deg. or 46 dog. When
you consider that this was during the height of summer, and
that the corresponding parallel of the northern hemisphere
runs through the mild climate of the Smith of France, &a., the
lowness of this temperature will appear remarkable. Our cap-
tain, who has bean thirty years at sea, and ban rounded the
Cape of Good Hope every year during this period, is of
opinion , that the season must have been quite an unusual
one, arising perhaps from some very extensive break up of
ice, and the drifting of large quantities to a distance from the
South Polar regions.
We were constantly fancying that we might get a eight of
= iceberg, but nothing of the kind appeared tens. Ws
had fine strong winds nearly the whole time above-
mentioned from ,the S.W. and W. We had four or five
gales sufficiently strong to reduce no to close reefed topsails ;
once we had to lay to.

We have run from the meridian of Greenwich to this
place (close upon 115 degrees of longitude) in 31 days ; and,
as our ship is by no means a fast sailer, this is sufficient to
show the character of the winds we have been favoured with.
The prisoners, as I have already stated, have caused but
little anxiety of late. In fact, there is no difficulty in pre-
serving order in convict ships when the ships are provided
with the requisite appliances, and the prisoners become indi-
vidually known to those who have the care of them. TLe
six men who were put in irons, and confined separately in the
forecastle before we reached Bahia, are still in the same
condition; and will be handed over to the authorities of Fre-
m►ntle with their irons on. They have been constantly
endeavouring to keep up a communication with the other
prisoners ; and have urged them to use violence to mama
them; but their movements have been watched with
untiring vigilance, and all their schemes defeated. About
the beginning of December there appeared to be a disposition
to mischief In some few men in the main prison, the
members of one mess. It was understood that
they intended to make an assault upon the sur-
geon superintendent and two of the warders ; and that
they were providing themselves with bottles to be used as
offensive weapons. The surgeon consequently required all
bottles to be delivered up, and frustrated their intention.
Upon another occasion, about the same time, he felt it ad-
visable to station a few soldiers at the main hatchway while
be went his rounds. Abont the I=4 period there was •
rumour aboard that a plan was being arranged for effecting
the Tacna of the sir prisoners in irons. Asa counterplot tp
this, the surgeon, without making any reworks or observations
upon the subject, caused the port forecastle to be prepared
and fitted up for the accommodation of close prisoners in a
manner similar to the starboard forecastle, where the six men
are oonfined. It I. presumed that the intending champions
did not like this demonstration, as no further steps were
taken in the matter of the ream, but these were merely
measures of precaution. I believe I am correct in saying
that not a single open act of insubordination has been com-
mitted since we left Bahia,

With respect to the previous part of the voyage, many
little things have transpired since I wrote my former
letter, all tending to show the care and method with
which the gang of desperadoes had prepared their mea-
sures for taking the ship, and the atrocious character
of their designs. Two prisoners have died during the
voyage; one from pulmonary disease, the other from a com-
plaint of the liver. It appears that in both instances the
disease had been serious, and was of old standing before
the men left England. The surgeon superintendent ham
been most assiduous and anxious in his attention to the
men during the whole voyage. He has had a most
difficult task to perform, and he has performed
it most ably and efficiently. The disturbances which
occurred during the first month are to be at-
tributed to the large number of desperate characters
amongst the prisoners, to the fact that the persons and cha-
racters of these men were wholly unknown to those who had
the oars of them, and to the imperfect arrangements of the
ship. The school occupations of the men have gone on much
more satisfactorily since the first month of the voyage. lam
informed by Mr. Wright, the chaplain, that several of the
men have made very great progress indeed. The general
demeanour during the performance of Divine service has
now been most orderly and satisfactory. The two
men who died gave earnest attention to Mr. Wright's
ministrations during the latter part of their sickness, and
appeared to deplore their former evil life. But alas I a
hurried repentance upon a death-bed is, at the best, but a
melancholy termination to a life of crime. Mr. Wright and
I share the Sunday services between us, one officiating in
the prison, and the other in the caddy. I have generally
taken the prison service on the Sunday morning. The pri-
soners have formed a very excellent choir, and sing remark-
ably well ; and the attention and orderly behaviour during
the whole time of service has been most striking. Being
myself ea femaler with the character of the Australian
country and the details of pastoral occupations, I have given
lectures to the prisoners on these subjects, also upon their
own future prospects and positions in the colony. The men
manifested the deepest iatecst in these lectures, and I trust
they have been of use to them.
January 7. It Is with feelings of heartfelt gratitude to
Almighty God that I now inform you that the Nile cast
anchor at Fremantle about 10 o'clock p.m. on the let inset
Ws were at the meridian of Greenwich Dec. 1, and therefore
we bad run the whole of our sag longitude (115 degrees) in
exactly one month. The refractory prisoners and two or
three invalids were landed the day after our snivel, the rest
remained on board until the sth.

I am happy to say that the majority of our men gin much
satisfaction to the superintendent of the prison (so far as he
is yet able to judge) by their general appearance and demea-
nour; of the conduct on board of this majority we have every
reason to speak well, and one cannot but lament for their
sakes, as well as on every other account, that the desperate
character' who caused all the disturbances were net into the
ship. Since our arrival I have been favoured with a sight
of the " caption" of one of the deeperadoea, and it is a per-
fect mystery to me how any person holding a responsible
position could ever reconcile it to his coosient 3to turn such
a man loose into • ship with 269 other convicts, knowing
there existed in that ship no sufficient appliances for the per-
manent safe custody of a dangerous p rson ; and knowing
also that no warder or officer in the ship had bean forewarned
or cautioned with respect to this man. I may safely say
that the mimes and outrages committed by this one man,
if divided amongst ten different convicts, instead of being
all accumulated upon one, would stamp sech of the to as a
desperado, utterly unfit for the purposes of colonisation.
This man is known to have peened under feigned
names or aliases to the number of at least 16 or 20, he has
been trend and identified in no leas than seventeen different
prisons in England. Hs has been guilty of violent conduct.
murderotui assaults upon warders, attempt' upon governor
of prisons, breaking out ajail, and outrageous behaviour of
every description so many times as to ditty all attempts to