The Sun.
London, England, 1862-12-16 00:00:00

punishment should, after their spell of liberty in the slums
of great cities, show such an unaccountable desire to return
to it again. To compare this high feeding with the mise-
rable dole which keeps life in our paupers would be absurd,
and equally so would be a comparison with the poor diet for
which the honest labourer toils so hard. Their case, as a
comparative one, is quite out of the question, but will the
rations given out to our soldiers and sailors show as varied
or as nutritive a diet as is here given to our convicts at
Portland and elsewhere ? It is of no use asking questions
of the directors of prisons as to this high feeding. All
inquiries are answered by its being part of the system.
This meets the objector everywhere, and is considered a
complete answer to everything. It is part of the system to
believe that the men really work hard, another part being
to feed them high lest they should lose muscle. Perhaps,
as the muscle among the convicts is pretty well concealed
by flesh, it may require looking after. But we have not
done with the routine of life at Portland. After dinner the
men who have put down their names to see the Governor
see him in turn. They mostly come to ask permission to
write special letters, a convict being supposed 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. Some come to
ask to be changed to the gardeners' class, some to the rig-
gers and platelayers', some to have their cells changed for
better, and others to be allowed to work in gangs where
their "cousins" are at work. All here and in other pri-
sons seem to think they arc entitled to make any request
which will tend to their greater convenience; in which
they are right, for in 19 cases out of 20 their little whims
are granted, it being another and most important part of
" the system" to keep the men as comfortable as possible.
The men then parade in the courtyard at 1, while the Go-
vernor hears complaints against the mild discipline of the
prison, such 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 which pass on the works as " labour," are confined
on " 11b. of bread and a sufficiency of water" a day. These
inveterate idlers are seldom sentenced mere than three or
four days of " separation," which they bear very well,
lying on their backs 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 can claim
tickets of leave. The Governor has also the power of sen-
tencing to half diet for 10 days, or even the dark cell for a
short time if necessary, but it is not often done. At one
o'clock the men are again paraded and roughly examined to
see that they have not concealed their food to barter it for
tobacco, &c., with the free labourers, which in spite of all
search it is impossible to prevent their doing daily, and this
over they again march out to the quarries.
Here, in sight of the free labourers who have dined on
bread and cheese, and have perhaps done what would for
a convict be half a day's work while the latter were at
dinner or washing, the prisoners begin quarrying again,
neither ashamed nor encouraged by what they have seen
the others do and doing. It is almost a farce to call their
labour " hard labour." It seems little more than an excuse
for keeping the men out of doors for a certain time and
giving them just enough exercise to keep them in good
health, without which, with their good living, they would
be extemely liable to sicken. Almost the best proof of its
being no toil is that the men themselves like the "outing."
They work in gangs, talk, laugh, and jest, and arrange
among themselves their little "plants" for getting tobacco
and other little luxuries forbidden by the prison rule from
the free labourers, which, as we shall see, they are generally
successful. In this manner they while away the time
easily and lightly enough—in winter till four o'clock, in
summer till half-past five, when they aro again marched
back to prison, and, having attended evening prayers in
chapel, go to supper in the cells. For supper one pint of
gruel and 9 oz. of bread to the recent comers, but those in the
third and fourth stage have the privilege of changing their
gruel for the same quantity of tea, "if preferred." These
latter have also the further indulgence of being allowed to
sit up and read in their cells till 9, the others going to bed
and having their lights out by eight o'clock. All the men
rise at five in summer, and half-past five in winter, and,
after washing and sweeping out their cells, get their break-
fasts served to them like their dinner. Their breakfast on
Sunday and three days a week is a pint of tea and 12 ounces
of bread ; on the other three days, a pint of cocoa and the
same quantity of bread ; and in this meal only is there no
difference made, men in all stages of their captivity
faring alike. After breakfast there is chapel, and at 7 in
atcnincr and hi:di-pas c in-rater there is the usual muster
and walk to the quarries, when there is the usual hard
labour we have described till half-past ii, when they return
to wait for dinner as before. When we add that every pri •
sonar has half a day's schooling every week, and that on
this half day he takes a bath and has his hair cut; that on
Saturday afternoon all work ends at 4.30 ; that on Sundays
after service the prisoners may walk about the yard, or sit
in their cells and road, we have told all the terrors of penal
servitude and hard labour on the public works. When this
is the system what right have the public to be surprised at
its natural results in the indifference of ticket of leave men
to recommitment? It is said here, and on good authority,
though we cannot ourselves vouch for its truth, that men
let out on tickets of leave have been known, after a short
period of absence, to return to the prison and ask for re-
admission on their old comfortable footing. This, as we
have said, may or may not be true, but it is beyond all
question, and admitted on all sides, that the light work,
good feeding, and careful treatment of convicts under the
system of penal servitude, make short sentences almost the
reverse of a terror to criminals, and that the treatment of
these gentlemen workmen, as the free labourers call them,
has a most mischievous and demoralising effect on the po-
pulation in the neighbourhood of these prisons. It isim-
possible for the free labourer, working
very hard for very
little, not to draw bitter contrasts between his own condi-
tion and the convict's, when he finds the latter can come
to him and barter meat for tobacco. As we have
said, the convicts somehow or other man age to
get money from their friends, and this in spite
of every check which the really admirable vigilance of the
Portland officials can devise to stop it. The money
comes,
either in coins or notes or stamps, in covers of bibles, in the
backs of photographic miniatures, under the wax of appa-
rently clumsily sealed letters, and with shilling postage
stamps, under the common penny ones, which are carefully
fastened over them, so that the latter, which are of course
worth money, remain unobliterated. By these and ten
thousand other stratagems, which no acuteness can detect,
the convicts manage to receive money, and when once they
have got it all the vigilance in the world cannot prevent
their getting what they want in return for it. They arrange
with the free labourer with whom they have covertly made
friends to leave money, a note, or stamps under such a stone,
which ho takes in duo time, keeping half the money or
what money the stamps may fetch for himself and returning
the rest in tobacco or writing materials. Once a means of
getting letters to and from the prison is arranged, there is
always a means of getting money, and when money comes
into the field the hard-worked warders have been found
neither more nor less immaculate than other men similarly
needy and similarly tempted. Their failures of duty have,
however, been few, and it is said, no doubt with truth, that
the free labourers, as risking nothing by detection, are
the main go-betweens of the convicts. It is difficult, how-
ever, for mere outsiders to understani the keen zest which
these contraband ventures give to prison life. What with
"plants" of letters and "plants" of tobacco, prison news of
who's in " separate" or who's suspected of " rounding"
on such a gang, there is no ennui or want of interesting
subjects to talk about while at " hard labour." When
Mr. Baron Bramwell was the other day sentencing the
garotters at the Central Criminal Court he said, " You may
find captivity irksome, and you will certainly be deprived of
tobacco and stimulants." Some who heard it were almost
inclined to smile at such a curious remark in a sentence of
penal servitude ; but there was a hidden bitterness in the
words which showed that the learned Baron knew well the
truth of what he was saying, and that his sentence meant
little more than compulsory residence in ono place and ab-
stinence from spirits and tobacco. Can any one who sees
what the life of the convicts is at Portland honestly say
that if it does not mean more than this, the system is really
a determent to evil doers ? Of all the officials engaged in
administering our convict discipline, not one, if proper in-
quiry is made, will be found to say it does--except, perhaps,
Sir Joshua Jebb. What its effects are upon the poor people
in the neighbourhood of the prisons we have already said.
They may dislike the crime, but they are candid enough in
envying the lot of the criminals; and when they simply
state what their own hard work and poor fare is, who can
blame them ?—limes.

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FEARRFUL OCCURRENCE AT A SUGAR REFINERY.
falling into a cistern of
—Yesterday morning, a shocking and fatal accident oc-
curred to a man named Robt. Woodey, aged 54 years, a
in making g
someha, on
wh
repairs
olostlt
' n h eahisr
s ltifee refinery that
the deceased was engaged
ml of Messrs. Martineau
and Co., of Christian-terrace, St. George's-in-the-East, and
while walking along a plank, he slipped and fell into the
boiling liquid. The screams of the poor fellow were fearful,
and a man named Slates, a fellow-workman, on hearing
his cries, ran to his assistance, and dragged him out of the
cistern, when it was ascertained that he was extensively
scalded over tho whole of the body and limbs. A surgeon
was immediately called, but the injuries were of such a
frightful character that it was deemed necessary to remove
the sufferer to the accident ward of the London Hospital,
where he expired shortly after his admission. The deceased,
who hasi left a wife and family, resided at Lambeth,