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diff --git a/21284.txt b/21284.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0ff2478 --- /dev/null +++ b/21284.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6353 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Six Years in the Prisons of England, by +A Merchant - Anonymous + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Six Years in the Prisons of England + +Author: A Merchant - Anonymous + +Editor: Frank Henderson + +Release Date: May 4, 2007 [EBook #21284] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PRISONS *** + + + + +Produced by StevenGibbs and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.ne + + + + + + +SIX YEARS + +IN THE + +PRISONS OF ENGLAND. + + + +BY + +A MERCHANT. + + + +EDITED BY FRANK HENDERSON. + + + +REPRINTED FROM "THE TEMPLE BAR MAGAZINE." + + +LONDON: +RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET. +Publisher in Ordinary to Her Majesty. + +1869. + + + +TO A +KIND AND DEVOTED BROTHER, +WHO CHEERED ME WITH WORDS OF +CHRISTIAN SYMPATHY AND BROTHERLY LOVE +DURING THE +DARKEST AND MOST DESOLATE HOURS +OF MY +PAST UNHAPPY CAREER, +THE FOLLOWING PAGES ARE AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED BY +THE AUTHOR. + + + +Transcriber's Note: In this text the use of an underline (_) indicates +italics, an equal sign (=) indicates a word in bold type, and a caret +(^) indicates that the following letters are superscripted. Also, +British pounds are shown as _l._ rather than the fancy L. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +CHAPTER PAGE + + 1.--My Commercial Antecedents--How I got into Prison 1 + + 2.--My Feelings on First Entering a Prison--Treatment and + Employment before Trial--My Trial and Sentence 10 + + 3.--Three Months in a Scottish Prison--Begin my Study of the + Convict and his Surroundings--An Old Jail Bird--A Soldier--An + Innocent Convict--My First Cracksman Acquaintance--Conspiracy + to Murder an Officer, and Escape--My Removal to England 21 + + 4.--My Arrival at the Yorkshire Prison--In Simpliciter + Naturalibus--Get Animal Food--Medical Treatment--Statuesque + Christianity--Removed to the Hospital--Death of a Prisoner--My + Leg gets Much Worse--Removal to Surrey Prison 34 + + 5.--Surrey Prison--Daily Routine of Hospital Life--Set a Thief + to Catch a Thief--My Leg gets Worse--Amputation--Life Despaired + of--Prison Doctors--Want of Periodical Hospital Inspection 44 + + 6.--I Petition the Home Secretary--Doctor pronounces me + "Quite Well"--"Schemers," their Treatment and Fate--Death-Bed + Scenes 55 + + 7.--Thiefology--What the uninitiated Convict may Learn in Prison 65 + + 8.--Another Companion--A Career of Crime--His Opinions about + Religion and Church Rates--An Incurable: His Opinion about + Flogging 79 + + 9.--Another Prisoner--Happy as a King--Cure of a Doctor--The + Tobacco and Food Exchange--Another Jail Bird--Civil and + Lazy--Undeserved Remission--Prison Directors, and How they + Discharge their Duties--I Petition to Go Abroad on "Insufficient + Grounds" 93 + +10.--The Prison--Daily Routine--Readings in Prison--Quarrels among + the Prisoners--Protestants _versus_ Catholics--School--Sundays + in Prison--"Sacrament Blokes"--Turning Point in Prisoners' + Career 107 + +11.--Indiscriminate Association of Prisoners--Transportation, and + the Cause of its Failure--A Gunsmith 119 + +12.--How Rebels against Society are made--I am Removed to a + Small Room, amongst Murderers--The "Highflyer" again--How a + Young Gentleman was made a Warning to Others 131 + +13.--The Act of 1864--Classification of Prisoners--The Mark System: + Its Defects--The True Criminal Law of Restitution--The + only Method by which Confirmed Criminals may be + Reclaimed--Workhouses 144 + +14.--The New Arrangements as to Remissions--Artificial Legs--Another + Interview with the Visiting Director--Compose Verses--Hospital + once more--Fenians--Prisoners' Letters 158 + +15.--A very bad Case--A self-taught Artist--A Clergyman also a + Convict--The Clergyman is taught Tailoring--How we Punish + Violation of the Seventh Commandment and the Eighth 169 + +16.--Quackery--Food--A Chatham Prisoner eats Snails and + Frogs--Sir Joshua Jebb's System and its Defects 181 + +17.--A new Governor--Bread-and-Water Jack--Severe + Punishments--Directors again--A Herb Doctor--Extraordinary + Story 193 + +18.--In Prison again--I see the Prison Director for the last + time--Gentleman Prisoners--A Will Forger--A "Warning to + Others"--Fenians--Treatment of Political Prisoners--Another + Jail Bird 207 + +19.--Prisoners' Conversations--Larry and Tim get into Chokey--Big + Croppy--What Pat gets "in for"--Malicious Gambling--Pat's + Patent for getting a New Coat--Dick's Exploits--Ned's + Adventures and Escapes--A New Screw arrives--A Prisoner + empties the Wine Cup at the Altar--Ned, Dick, and Pat's + Opinions about Badges, Classification, Head Blokes, + Prisoners' Aid Society and the Irish System 220 + +20.--Capital Punishments--I receive my License--Strange + Bed-fellows--My Liberation 236 + + * * * * + +APPENDIX. + + +Letters received by the Author-- + + From the French Consul General in London iii + + From M. Rouher, Ministre de l'Agriculture, du Commerce + et des Travaux Public iv + + From the Committee of Privy Council for Trade v + +Orders of License to a Convict vi + + + + +SIX YEARS IN THE PRISONS OF ENGLAND. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +MY COMMERCIAL ANTECEDENTS--HOW I GOT INTO PRISON. + + +In the beginning of the year 1856 I commenced business on my own +account, as a merchant in a Northern City. Previous to that time I had +been engaged in an unsuccessful partnership, but I paid my creditors in +full with the small capital advanced to me by my friends for the +purpose of my new adventure. When I began operations, therefore, I was +literally without a shilling in the world, but I had a spotless +character, enjoyed good credit, and possessed a thorough knowledge of +my business; advantages which I easily persuaded myself would enable me +to succeed without the actual possession of capital.--My business +connections were scattered over various parts of the world, and +generally ranked among the very best class of foreign merchants. I +usually received orders by letter, sometimes I gave open credits to +houses whose orders I could not otherwise secure, but frequently I had +remittances long before the merchandise could arrive at its +destination. The trade was one of confidence, requiring both character +and position for its development, and had I been prudent enough to +confine myself strictly to this branch of the business, I would now, +without doubt, have been a wealthy and successful merchant. At the end +of my first year's operations my ledger showed a satisfactory balance +to my credit. The year 1857 opened auspiciously, and I continued to +prosper almost to the end of it, when a storm swept over the commercial +world, which involved hundreds of firms in bankruptcy and ruin. + +From the nature of my business it was scarcely possible I could escape, +and although I succeeded in avoiding bad debts, I incurred indirect +losses to a very considerable amount. In May, 1858, I paid a visit to +the Continent, in order to ascertain on the spot how my connections +there had weathered the recent storm. This visit resulted in a large +increase of legitimate business, and up to this point I had taken no +false step. Shortly afterwards, however, I was induced to embark in two +different and distinct branches of trade, which led to my ruin. The +first was the manufacture of novelties, which, after a large +expenditure, I was obliged to relinquish, in consequence of my not +having sufficient capital to make it profitable. The second was a +mercantile business, managed by an agent resident on the Continent. +This agent was without means, and, as I afterwards found, without the +abilities necessary for the position. He had not long commenced +operations when a war broke out in Lombardy, which furnished his +customers with an excuse for rejecting the goods they had ordered +before prices began to recede. The consequence was that I had thousands +of pounds' worth of goods thrown upon my hands abroad, which resulted +in large direct and still larger indirect losses. It was at this +juncture that I ought to have stopped payment, but, being of a sanguine +disposition, and my regular business continuing to prosper, I hoped the +successes in the one branch would balance the losses in the other, and +I resolved to struggle on. I paid a second visit to the Continent about +this time, which resulted in the formation of a partnership with my +agent, the business to be carried on in his name. The new firm was +debited with all the stock on hand at cost prices, and in all future +business the profits were to be divided. I thought, by giving my friend +an interest in this branch of my business, that I would lessen my +losses on rejected stock and facilitate my escape from impending +bankruptcy. I arranged to draw bills on the firm at three months' date, +payable abroad, for such amounts as my partner could see his way to +meet at maturity. I also had a private arrangement with my partner for +obtaining what I called accommodation bills. These were in the form of +promissory notes, issued in my favour, and payable in London by myself; +they were not to enter into the books of the firm, and I was to be +entirely responsible for them. I may here also explain that the +partnership between me and my agent was not known, except to the +customers of the firm abroad and to my own clerks at home. Thus, under +the pressure of large obligations I was not at the moment in a position +to meet, joined to an extreme horror of the very idea of bankruptcy, +involving as it did the loss of a lucrative and steadily-increasing +branch of my regular business; I resorted to an expedient to preserve +my character and position which I afterwards found the laws of my +country declared to be a serious crime, to be expiated only by the +complete and utter ruin of both. + +During all this time my private and social relations were without +reproach; neither was I without opportunity, gladly embraced, of doing +good service to the trade with which I was connected, and also to my +country. In the year 1860 I was chosen a director of the Chamber of +Commerce in the city where my business was chiefly transacted. In +connection with the international treaty between Great Britain and +France, I was selected by my co-directors to classify and place average +permanent values on the manufactures of the district, in order to +regulate their admission under that treaty with France. I performed the +task to the entire satisfaction of the Chamber, and was afterwards sent +to Paris as one of a deputation appointed for the purpose of giving Mr. +Cobden the most efficient aid towards the completion of his glorious, +and happily successful, project. Owing to the very strong protectionist +feeling on the part of the French manufacturers, great difficulties +were encountered; but, after the deputation had made two visits to +Paris, they were finally overcome. It was universally acknowledged that +if it had not been for the presence of practical men in Paris on that +occasion, the treaty would have been completely inoperative, so far as +concerned the important manufactures which I as one of the deputation +represented. For my share in these transactions I received the thanks +of the Lords of the Committee of Privy Council for Trade, also the +commemorative medal from the French Government, with accompanying +letter,[1] acknowledging my services, from M. Rouher, then Minister of +Commerce and Agriculture at Paris. + + [1] See Appendix. + +During my second visit to Paris, in 1860, on public duty, I formed the +resolution of breaking off my connection with the partner previously +referred to, and of starting a business in Paris. I entered into +negotiations with a gentleman highly recommended to me with a view to +partnership, and received from my father the promise of cash to assist +me in my new undertaking. Once fairly clear of the losing branch of my +business I hoped very speedily to make up my previous losses, and the +spring of 1861 was fixed upon for the opening of my Paris +establishment. But my hopes were not destined to be realised. On +looking into my affairs at the close of the year, I found, +notwithstanding the satisfactory character and position of the +legitimate branch of my business, and notwithstanding that my private +expenditure did not amount to a tenth part of the profits on that +branch, I had otherwise become almost hopelessly involved, and I +accordingly resolved to stop payment. With this view, I disclosed to my +principal creditor my position and intentions. Taking the manager of +the firm into my confidence, I informed him of the assistance I +expected to receive from my father, and the hopes I entertained of the +results of my Paris business when once in operation. The consequence_ +was that the firm offered to forego 1000_l._ of their claim against +me, and to give me occasional assistance in cash to meet any other +engagements if I would continue to carry on my business. At this time I +owed them about 10,000_l._, covered to a considerable extent by the +accommodation bills I have already referred to; I must, however, +explain that the character of these bills was known to the manager of +the firm, and any banker or discounter could have readily satisfied +himself as to their value by simply writing to the house in London +where they were domiciled. + +There were many considerations urging me to accept the offer now made +to me. The present of 1000_l._, the probable success of my Paris +business, the approach of my money making season, joined to my horror +of bankruptcy, all combined to induce me to alter my resolution to stop +payment, and to inspire me with the hope that I would yet be able to +retrieve my position and retain my good name. In a fatal hour I yielded +to the temptation and closed with the proposals made to me, with the +additional obligation that I was to pay off the 10,000_l._ due to the +firm I have mentioned during the approaching season, and to give them +good bills in exchange for the accommodation paper held by them. No +sooner was this arrangement completed than I set about preparations for +opening my Paris house. I refused to send any more goods to my old +partner, and ordered him to wind up the business by the following May. +I moreover resolved to having nothing more to do with accommodation +bills, tore out all the leaves in my private letter book referring to +these documents--a very fatal error, as I afterwards found--and exerted +myself to pay off the claims of those of my creditors who knew my +position. So well did I succeed, that by the end of April I had reduced +the 10,000_l._ claim to rather less than 5000_l._, or rather to +4000_l._, taking into account the 1000_l._ conceded by the firm +previously mentioned. But before this I had began to suspect that my +friends did not mean to adhere to the arrangement I had entered into +with them, one part of which was, that they were to retire and return +me the accommodation bills, on getting good paper in their place. I had +at this time placed good bills in their hands to the extent of +3500_l._, but they refused to give up those they were intended to +replace until they arrived at maturity. + +I began to fear that they would now compel me to stop payment just when +they supposed I should be in possession of fresh funds for my Paris +partnership, and at a time when (with the bills in their possession, +which ought, according to agreement, to have been in mine) they could +rank on my estate for about 7000_l._, when with less than 4000_l._ I +could have settled the account. This, by the way, is what they +ultimately did, and had my estate yielded the respectable dividend they +expected, instead of losing even the 1000_l._ they promised to concede +to me, they would have been gainers to that amount by the operation. + +My transactions with this firm were in the position I have described +when I started for the Continent with the view of opening my Paris +business, and of winding up my previous unlucky partnership. This was +the most successful journey I ever made. I visited Bremen, Hamburg, the +interior of Germany, crossed through Switzerland to Lyons, where I +appointed to meet my French traveller; visited with him all the large +towns in France, and with my pocket-book full of valuable orders I +found myself in London in less than four weeks from the time I left +home. I arrived in London on a Wednesday, and telegraphed to the firm +to which I have referred that I would call on them personally on the +following Friday morning, to settle their claim and receive the bills +they ought to have returned before. * * * On the Thursday evening, as I +was preparing to leave the hotel for the railway station, I was +suddenly and most unexpectedly arrested, and have not yet reached the +spot I once loved to call my Home. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +MY FEELINGS ON FIRST ENTERING PRISON--TREATMENT AND EMPLOYMENT +BEFORE TRIAL--MY TRIAL AND SENTENCE. + + +It is impossible to give the faintest idea of my state of mind on +finding myself a prisoner. The circumstances of my arrest, while in the +midst of my arrangements for a long night journey to Scotland, flushed +with success beyond my most sanguine anticipations, and impatient to +accomplish my freedom from a burden which had long oppressed me, and +which had latterly threatened to utterly bear me down, gave an +overwhelming force and severity to the shock. Indeed, the sudden and +undreamt of change in my destination, the sharp and complete extinction +of all my hopes and plans, stunned me for the time, and I felt it must +be a hideous dream. I refused to credit the evidence of my senses: the +detective's touch, which still burnt upon my arm; the words of arrest, +which still rang in my ears; his actual presence by my side--were but +"false creations of the mind." I continued to think, as I walked along +in that strange company, that I must still be on my way to the railway +station; that I saw the glare of the lights, and mingled in the bustle +of the platform, when the dark outline of a London lock-up met my +bewildered eyes. We entered its grim and silent gates, the cell door +was closed behind me, the lock was turned, and I and the reality were +left alone. About that dark cheerless cell, its cold bare walls, its +grated windows, its massive door, there was to me an awful certainty. + +In an access of astonishment and grief I threw myself on the solitary +bench, for they had not sought to mock my misery with the presence of a +bed, and as thoughts of my wife and friends came upon me, I covered my +face with my hands and wept. How long that flood of hot and bitter +tears continued I know not, but they partially relieved my almost +bursting head. I arose, and in the darkness paced my prison floor. Even +in these terrible hours hope did not utterly forsake me. The swift +revolution of Fortune's wheel had indeed left me crushed and mangled in +its track, but I was not actually ground to powder. As I became more +familiar with the reality of my situation, I began to take a calmer and +more hopeful view of the future. As morning dawned, I had almost +persuaded myself that I had only to see the manager of the firm who +held the bills, for uttering which I had been arrested, and make +certain explanations and proposals, to regain my liberty. With +impatience, therefore, I awaited the hour, which I knew must come, when +I would be removed from London to Scotland; and when, at last, the +detective who was to accompany me opened my cell door, I almost +welcomed him as a friend. We booked at Euston Square Station for the +place which I intended to have gone to, under such widely different +circumstances, the previous evening. My guardian performed his duty +during this long and painful journey with kindness and consideration, +and did not propose to put handcuffs upon me. + +Arrived at our destination, I was marched through the police and +sheriffs office to the common prison, and, to my utter astonishment and +dismay, was prohibited for nine or ten days to have any communication +with my friends. The single ray of hope which had sustained me on my +weary journey, and illumined my darkest hour, was thus pitilessly +excluded, and for the first time since my arrest I began to realise my +true position. When I learnt that my arrest and incarceration in jail +was noticed in all the newspapers, I felt that I was utterly and +hopelessly ruined. No language could describe the anguish I endured as +I thought of my wife and my friends, of the disgrace and humiliation +which I had brought upon them, and of the separation, worse than death +itself, which was in store for us. Yet, strange as it may appear, amid +all the mental torture I then and afterwards endured, I also +experienced a certain sense of relief in my mind from considerations +which would scarcely be expected to operate on one in my situation. +Those only who have been in difficulties in business, who have borne +the ceaseless strain on body and mind which the burden of obligations, +each day rushing forward with ever increasing velocity for liquidation, +entails upon those who are honestly striving to stem the ebbing tide of +fortune, can fully understand how relieved I felt at the thought that I +had no longer any bills to pay. Then a strong sense of indignation +towards my prosecutors mingled with the wild and bitter current of my +thoughts, and prevented me from being overpowered and destroyed. It was +now but too clear to me that I was the victim of a premeditated and +heartless scheme, the successful issue of which was to protect my +creditors from loss indeed, but to involve me in utter ruin. + +I saw, with feelings I cannot and dare not utter, and which I now +confess it was sinful in me to cherish, that they had lured me on to +the centre of a great sea of ice; that they had, when their opportunity +came, broken it around me, and left me alone and helpless to struggle +against inevitable doom. Three of the six long weary months during +which I waited for trial were thus passed in a state of agony bordering +on the madness of despair. The hours seemed magnified into days, and +the weeks into years; and, as they dragged their slow length along, my +mental anguish received a new and terrible ally. Although I was as yet +in the eye of the law an innocent man, the miserable allowance of +oatmeal which constituted my chief food, and which was in all respects +inferior to the penal diet of the worst-behaved convict I ever met with +in the English prisons, became loathsome to me, and the pangs of hunger +were added to the mental torture I had till then alone endured. My cup +of misery was surely filled to the brim! + +With the recollection of what I suffered then, burnt, as it were, with +a hot iron on my memory, I thank Almighty God that no fiend was ever +permitted, even in my worst and weakest hour, to whisper suicide to my +ear; but I now can understand how some have listened to the fell +deceiver, and welcomed him, as friend and deliverer, to their arms. +Fortunately for me, my early training and subsequent mode of life +preserved me from any thought of this fatal solution to the problem of +my life. I read my bible almost constantly, although my reading seemed +only to add to the bitterness of my regrets and self-reproaches. These +questions would constantly suggest themselves to me: "Could I ever have +been a Christian?" and "What will the enemies of Christianity think and +say about my fall?" Until one day about noon, as I was gazing through +the window of my lonely cell, I saw, or fancied I saw, a solitary star, +and my thoughts were gradually lifted from the cross of suffering to +the throne of Mercy, and (let philosophers and theologians explain it +as they may) instantaneous peace of mind followed the sight, or fancied +sight, of that noon-tide star! The load was removed which threatened to +crush my brain into lunacy, the "salt surf waves of bitterness" were +stilled, and within me there was peace. + +The preparations for my approaching trial now occupied the principal +share of my attention. I had already consulted a solicitor, and without +telling him the whole of my case, I learned from him that I could not +be tried at all if the Continental witnesses refused to come to +Scotland. So advised, I began to flatter myself with the belief that my +case would ultimately be abandoned for lack of evidence. I certainly +wished that my late partner would come over and testify to my +partnership with him, which would have cleared my name from dishonour +so far as related to the bills with which we were jointly concerned; +but, knowing there were other bills of a similar character of which he +knew nothing, I thought it would be useless to attempt to clear myself +on one set of bills when I was unable to do so on them all, and I +consented to my friend being instructed by my solicitor to remain at +home. As, of course, it was of the last importance to me that the +witnesses in connection with the other set of bills should also be +absent, my solicitor wrote to them to the same effect. I will here +explain the reasons which induced me at this crisis to adopt a course +which many of my readers, no doubt, will regard as an attempt to defeat +the ends of justice. I did not for a moment desire to justify myself +with regard to the bills in question. To utter bills of exchange for +which no real value has been given is not justifiable, however common +it may be, and to tender such bills in exchange for merchandise, and +dishonour them at maturity, is flagrant dishonesty. Whatever may have +been the amount of my guilt, of the intention to defraud any man I was +as innocent as an unborn child. If I had had any such intention, the +Bankruptcy Court would have been the safe and easy way to gratify it. +Neither in these transactions did I ever suppose that I was offending +the statute law of the country, since by the exercise of the same +caution which enabled, and still enables, other men to tread very +closely upon, but never to overstep, the limits of legality, I too +might have kept myself secure from criminal prosecution. I considered +myself justified, therefore, in availing myself of such means as were +in my power to evade the operation of laws I had never consciously +violated. But in all this I may have been, and probably was, in error; +I have no wish to extenuate or explain away any fault or crime of which +I may have been guilty; I choose, rather, the language of penitence and +confession; and although I may never perhaps be forgiven by society, I +shall cherish the hope of being more mercifully dealt with by Him who +said, with reference to a greater sin than mine, "Go, and sin no more." + +Thus the days and weeks passed away, while I still hoped and believed +that no one would appear to witness against me. The prison diet now, +however, began to tell seriously upon me. + +In England and America I believe a prisoner is allowed to maintain +himself, under certain restrictions, whilst he is waiting for trial; +but in Scotland he is compelled to subsist on a diet which is +considered the main ingredient in the punishment of the very lowest +class of offenders whose sentences do not exceed a few months' +imprisonment. The sense of punishment involved in this treatment--which +would kill me now--was to some extent forgotten in the greater mental +suffering I then endured, but the pangs of hunger and painful dreams +about food frequently compelled me to think of my health. On making a +complaint to the medical officer of the prison, he told me that as I +was in good health he could only give me the choice of coffee and a +slice of bread in lieu of the oatmeal breakfast; but on seeing the +small quantity of bread I was to be allowed, compared with the bulk of +the oatmeal porridge, I decided on not changing for the worse. I did +not wish to be treated differently from other prisoners, and therefore +did not appeal to any higher authority. Indeed, I then imagined that as +I was stronger and heartier than the majority of my miserable +companions, I could subsist upon a meagre diet as well, if not better, +than they. I now know from experience that I was wrong in this opinion, +and that the man of strong digestion, accustomed to a generous diet, is +likely to sustain more injury to his health by a sudden change to a +very low scale of dietary, than those of weak digestion who have not +been accustomed to any other. The only concession made to me was a +slight addition to the time for exercise in the open-air cribs provided +for that purpose. My legs, accustomed to much exertion, began to get +stiff, and after I had been incarcerated for four or five months, one +of my ankles occasionally pained me. The day fixed for my trial at last +drew nigh, and so confident had I become that I should be liberated +without a trial, that I had my clothes packed and ready to take abroad +with me. I intended to leave the country for ever, and seek a new home +in a distant land, where the prejudices of friends and society would +not debar me from all the channels of honour and usefulness. I was +removed a few days previous to the date fixed for my trial to the +prison in the city where it was appointed to take place, and I then had +my first experience of handcuffs. + +At length the eventful morning arrived that I was led to believe would +set me free. I entered the court with a beating heart, and was placed +in the dock between two policemen. I felt ashamed to lift my head or to +look around me, but I had seen as I entered that the space open to the +public was crowded with the better class of citizens. The judges, of +whom there were three, soon appeared and took their seats upon the +bench, and began conversing with each other upon my indictment. One of +them was overheard saying, "It would be a very difficult case to +prove." Meanwhile some consultation was taking place amongst the legal +gentlemen in front of me, when my agent and counsel came and, for the +first time, informed me that my trial might take place without the +continental witnesses, and that supposing I was acquitted I could be +tried again on two of the bills; that already there was a warrant out +against me, and I should be arrested a second time on leaving the dock! +The crown was willing, however, they said, to accept a limited plea of +guilt; that I would be sentenced to only a few months' imprisonment, +not longer perhaps than I would have to endure in suspense, waiting a +second and perhaps a third trial, and that it would be better for me to +tender the plea of guilt the crown was willing to accept! + +This advice, so unexpected and so different from what I had formerly +received, given at the very last moment, had the effect of entirely +unhinging my mind, and for the moment I seemed paralysed. + +Of this I was conscious, however, that the continuance of suspense, +that most painful of all suffering, combined with the compulsory +oatmeal treatment of remanded Scottish prisoners, would kill me; still +I could not bring myself to utter the words placed in my hands for that +purpose; I waited, and hesitated, and wondered where the jury were, and +why they were giving me so long to consider before going on with the +business of the court. Time seemed to have been given me on purpose to +confuse my mind, for the longer I pondered the more bewildered I +became. At last, like a child who does almost mechanically as his +parents bid it, I read from a paper these words: "I plead guilty to +uttering two bills of exchange, knowing them to be fictitious." The +judge in the centre asked the counsel for the crown if he accepted the +plea, and on getting an answer in the affirmative, he whispered a +second or two with his brother judge, whose son I believe prepared the +case against me, and then pronounced sentence of penal servitude for a +term of years that then seemed eternity to me. I was removed from the +court to the prison, stripped of my clothes, clad in the garb of the +convict, and turned into a cell, there to writhe in tearless agony, and +to indulge in bitter and unavailing regrets. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THREE MONTHS IN A SCOTTISH PRISON--BEGIN MY STUDY OF THE CONVICT AND +HIS SURROUNDINGS--AN OLD JAIL BIRD--A SOLDIER--AN INNOCENT CONVICT--MY +FIRST CRACKSMAN ACQUAINTANCE--CONSPIRACY TO MURDER AN OFFICER AND +ESCAPE--MY REMOVAL TO ENGLAND. + + +The paroxysm of grief and indignation which followed my return to +prison gradually subsided, and after a few days I became in some +measure resigned to my fate, and determined as far as possible to make +the best of it. Indeed, in some respects the change in my circumstances +was for the better. The oatmeal treatment, it is true, was still +continued, but with this difference that I now got more of it, and a +still further and most welcome addition of a pennyworth of good milk +and a pennyworth of eatable bread per diem. I remained on this diet +during the three months and a-half which elapsed before I was removed +to England.[2] Unfortunately, during this time my stomach, though +craving for animal food, would not accept the oatmeal, or chief portion +of my diet, and accordingly I was in the practice of dividing it +amongst my fellow prisoners. + + [2] Perth, where the diet is more liberal, was not then opened + for convicts. + +I mentioned my case to the medical officer, but had to rest content +with a little quinine and the assurance that I would be sent to England +in a day or two, where I would get a few ounces of animal food daily. +To add to my troubles, one of my ankles began to swell, but after some +time, and by the application of flannel bandages, the swelling +decreased and the limb seemed quite sound again. + +These were not encouraging circumstances, however, under which to +commence a long period of imprisonment, the less so, as from what I had +observed, I feared that in the event of illness I should have to submit +to a very limited amount of medical attendance. Probably, in +consequence of being frequently imposed upon by the prisoners, and +having private practice to attend to, doubtless of a more remunerative +character, the medical officer was exceedingly rapid in his progress +through the prison, and not more so in that than in his diagnosis and +prescriptions. With the pangs of hunger constantly gnawing within me, +and the dread of bad health and a ruined constitution haunting me day +and night, I endeavoured by constant occupation to obtain some +mitigation of my sufferings. I read all the books I could get hold of, +wrote farewell letters to friends, hoping and believing that I would be +sent to Western Australia, as it was then the practice to do with all +healthy convicts of my own age who had received similar sentences. I +also seized every available opportunity of conversing with the old +"lags," or convicts, about prison life, and it was here I received my +first lessons in slang and thiefology, and began my study of the +convict and his surroundings. + +But I could not yet think of myself as a convict; I had the usual +prejudice, or rather horror of the species, entertained by the middle +class, and declined to accept the offer, made in kindness, of having a +neighbour in the same cell with me. I was compelled, however, to take +exercise for some minutes every day, together with another prisoner, +and I was usually best pleased when I happened to be put into the same +crib with one who had been a convict before. It was during these daily +rounds that I witnessed with sadness the evil effects of sending boys +or lads to prison for a few days or weeks for some petty theft, and +placing them in constant contact and association with the habitual and +reputed scoundrel and ruffian. These men are always willing to make a +convert, and they generally succeed, for the battle is half won ere +they bring their forces on the field. It is here that the juvenile +offender is nursed in villainy, here he learns the inducements to +crime, and from the lips of the hardened and experienced ruffian he +hears of exploits and deeds of darkness, which inflame while they +pollute his imagination, and he longs to be free that he might add some +daring feat of wickedness to the catalogue he has heard. There can be +no doubt that the indiscriminate association of all grades of criminals +is one of the most prolific sources from whence our convict prisons +receive their constant and foul supply. It was in one of these open-air +cribs that I was initiated into the mysteries of prison politics and +prison slang, for the convict has his "policy" as well as the +government, and also his official, or rather professional nomenclature, +in which he enshrouds its meaning. To be an adept in prison politics +is, first of all to know and understand all the prison rules and +regulations, not for purposes of obedience, but evasion; to discern the +disposition and habits of the prison officers, with the view of +conciliating or coercing them into trifling privileges or concessions; +to know the various methods of treatment, diet, and discipline at the +different prisons, and the character and disposition of their +governors; to contrive to be sent to the prison which is supposed to be +the most comfortable; and to know when and where good conduct and bad +conduct will be productive of the best results in the way of removal or +remission of sentence. In my solitude, and with the prospect before me +of a long experience of such company, these conversations with my +fellow-prisoners, possessed a certain kind of interest for me. I was +also always eager to learn as much as I could of their previous +history, and the cause of their imprisonment. One day, as I was taking +my daily outdoor exercise, I observed an old man in the convict dress +cleaning the prison windows a short distance from me, and I asked my +neighbour in the crib who he was. "O! that's a beauty," said he. "He +was walking down the street lately, along with another chum like +himself, when a gentleman noticed them and asked them into a +photographer's to get their portraits taken, and gave them a shilling +each as being the two ugliest specimens of the human race he had ever +seen!" + +"How long has he been in prison?" I enquired. + +"Goodness knows!" he exclaimed; "I think about eight or nine-and-twenty +years, and the longest sentence he ever had, except the first, was +sixty days!" + +"What are his offences usually?" + +"Oh, nothing but kicking up rows in the streets, or smashing a window. +Last time it was for a fight with a poor man with a large family. He +got up the fight on purpose, and as both were about to be apprehended, +he says to the man he was fighting with, 'Jack, give me half-a-crown +and I'll swear all the blame on myself;' poor Jack was glad to accept +the offer, so when they were taken before the magistrate the old beauty +said--'Please sir, it was me that assaulted that man, and as I am +entirely in the fault I hope you will give me all the punishment.' So +Jack got out rejoicing, and the beauty got in, chuckling over his +half-a-crown, and speculating on the feast he would get with it when +his sixty days expired!" + +"How long does he generally remain out of prison?" I then enquired. + +"Why," said my friend, "two days is a long time for him; if he is +beyond that time he will come to the prison and beg a meal!" + +"Why does he not go to the poorhouse?" I asked. + +"Because he is more accustomed to the jail, and likes it better. He is +generally employed in cleaning windows and other parts of the prison, +and he likes a 'lark' with the prisoners, most of whom he knows!" + +Finding my companion so communicative I continued my enquiries, and +asked him, "What young fellows are these in the next cell?" "They have +both been in the army," he replied. "One of them committed a small +forgery, I think he forged the captain's order for some boots. He +expected to get 'legged,'[3] and get out of the army, but he has been +sucked in. They only gave him a few months' imprisonment, and he will +have to go back to his regiment again when his time's up. His brother's +now at Chatham, doing a four years 'legging,' but he hasn't to go back +again to the army. This fellow swears he'll commit another crime as +soon as he gets out!" + + [3] Penal servitude. + +Whether this threat of committing another crime was carried out or not +I cannot tell, but in the earlier years of my imprisonment I came in +contact with several prisoners who had committed offences for the +purpose of getting out of the army. Of late years I have not met with +any having been perpetrated with that motive. + +Noticing a delicate, melancholy-looking young man opposite to us, I +enquired who he was. "O! I pity that man very much," said my friend. +"He has got a sentence of twenty-one years' penal servitude, and is as +innocent of the crime as the child unborn." + +"How do you know he is innocent?" I asked, in amazement. + +"The guilty man has turned up, now that they cannot punish him, and +confessed." + +Shortly after this conversation took place, I had an opportunity of +learning, from the lips of one of the principal offenders in the case +for which this young man was unjustly punished, the following +particulars in reference to it, which I give in my informant's own +words:--"I and other two miners like myself went to a horse-race a few +weeks ago. Towards evening we got a little on the spree, and I asked my +two chums to come along and see a woman of my acquaintance. This woman +was kept by a gentleman in the neighbourhood, but this was only known +to a few. She was about forty years of age, and although she was +supposed by some to be 'fast,' I knew long before that she was 'loose.' +Well; as we were all enjoying ourselves in this woman's house, who +should come in but her brother! and so, to clear her character with +him, she swore a rape against us. But the worst of it was, that that +poor married man there got convicted instead of one of us. When we ran +from the house, the other fellow split out from us, and after we got +away a bit, we met the married man. As we were chatting together we +were all three arrested. The woman, it seems, had an ill-will either to +that man or his wife, and she swore against him on that account. And we +have all three got twenty-one years a-piece." + +I was glad to hear afterwards that this man got his liberty after +suffering six months' imprisonment. But had it not been for great +exertions on the part of his friends, he would have had to pay the full +penalty. I have known, in the course of my prison experience, about a +dozen well authenticated cases of innocent convictions, but only two of +them succeeded in getting a pardon. The one after enduring about +eighteen months' imprisonment, the other a shorter period, but strange +to say his pardon arrived on the very day of his death in prison. + +I have generally observed in cases of rape, and crimes of that kind, +when the female was advanced in life, that the crimes were not so black +in reality as they were represented in the newspapers, and that the +offenders, if not made actually worse in prison, would be much more +easily cured than the thief genus, who require special, and as I think, +very different treatment to that which they now receive. + +In this prison I also made the acquaintance of a professional +"cracksman," or burglar. He was a man of fair education, good +appearance, and considerable natural ability; much above the average of +his professional brethren. He had been living luxuriously in London, on +the fruits of his professional industry and skill. Till now he had +escaped all punishment, with the exception of a few months' +imprisonment, for a "mistake" committed at the outset of his +professional career. In answer to my enquiries as to his case, he +volunteered the following information:-- + +"A few weeks ago, one of my 'pals' (companions) showed me the +advertisement of a Scottish jeweller, wherein he boasted of his safe +having successfully resisted the recent efforts of a gang of burglars. +I said to my pal, 'Get Bob, and let us go down to-morrow by the mail +train to Scotland, and we will see what this man's safe is like.' We +all three came down here a few weeks ago, inspected the jeweller's +premises, and decided on doing the job through an ironmonger's shop at +the back. We had got the contents of the ironmonger's till, and were +just through the intervening back wall, when the 'copper'[4] heard us, +and signalled for another 'bobby'[4] to come and help him. Out I +sprang, and had a fight with the policeman, and got knocked down +insensible. My pal bolted and got off; Bob and I got 'copt,'[6] and as +we had first-class tools on us, new to the authorities here, they have +given it us rather hot." + + [4] Policeman. + + [5] Caught. + +"Do you think you could have opened the safe? I understand those patent +locks are very difficult to pick," I remarked. + +"Oh!" said he, "I would not waste time trying to pick the lock. Drill a +hole and get in the 'jack,' and I can bring power to bear on it +sufficient to open any safe. The great thing is to be able to get the +_time_, the work I can easily do; then Bob, my pal, is one of the +best blacksmiths in England, and as true as steel. I always take him +with me in a job of that sort." + +It so happened that I had a very good opportunity of proving that the +burglar's high opinion of his "pal's" ability was not without +foundation. On our removal to England, the "cracksman," was leg-ironed +to me as an additional security against his making his escape. There +were five couples besides ours, and after we arrived at our +destination, and whilst the prison blacksmith was engaged hammering and +punching off my irons, Bob, with a smile of contempt at his efforts, +took up some tools that lay beside him and liberated the other five +couples before the blacksmith had freed me and my clever companion. + +The chief incident which occurred during my imprisonment in Scotland, +was a conspiracy among the convicts to murder the night officer and +make their escape in a body. I was not considered "safe" for the job, +and knew nothing of it until it had miscarried. The chief conspirator +was my friend the "cracksman," who made tools out of portions of his +bedstead, that opened not only the lock of our own cell, but that of +every other cell in the prison, if required. The prisoners were +generally in couples in each cell at that time, and the plan agreed +upon was as follows: One of the convicts was an old man subject to +fits, and it was arranged that he was to feign a fit for the occasion; +the assistance of the night officer was to be called, who was to have +his "light put out" by the fellow prisoner of the one in fits, who was +a strong muscular fellow. Meanwhile the "cracksman," whose cell was +opposite, was to unlock the cell doors of all the prisoners in the +plot. This dark and desperate scheme was frustrated, however, by a +little lad, who had heard two of the convicts conversing about it. His +term of imprisonment expired on the day preceding the night fixed for +the accomplishment; and he gave information to the governor, who placed +officers with fire-arms in the ward all night. Next morning the +suspected prisoners were searched, and the lock-picking instruments +were found on the "cracksman," and there the affair ended. The only +result which followed the discovery of the plot, so far as I could +discover, was that we were removed from this prison to England rather +earlier than we otherwise should have been. + +Previous to our removal, the governor, who was a very sensible man +compared with those under whom I was afterwards placed, told me that I +was about to be sent to England along with some of the worst characters +he had ever known; that they were all leaving the prison with the +character of conspirators, except myself; that he had given me the best +character he could give to any prisoner, and that he hoped and believed +I would reap the benefits attaching to good conduct, and be liberated +long before my companions. But I was not born under a fortunate star. +Almost all my companions had longer sentences than I had. Bob and the +cracksman had two years longer; but as they managed to secure the +convict's prize, they were sent out to Australia, and were liberated, I +believe, two years before me. Some prisoners with sentences twice as +long as mine were also liberated earlier than I was; and I remember +alluding to this circumstance in a letter to my friends, written when I +had been about four years and a-half in prison; and for doing so my +letter was suppressed. + +The night of my departure for England at last arrived, and I found +myself for the first time placed in heavy leg-irons, along with eleven +others. We were put into the prison-van for the railway station; and as +soon as we were seated in the carriage there commenced a scene which +baffles all description. Some of my fellow-prisoners commenced +shouting, some screamed and laughed, others mocked and jeered, whilst +above all curses loud and deep hurtled through the stifling air, and +made night hideous with the sound. Their yells and oaths still ring in +my ears, and that which was to my companions a scene of the utmost +jollity and mirth was to me the nearest approach to hell my imagination +had ever conceived. It was a cold spring night that witnessed my +degrading departure; when I arrived at my destination in Yorkshire one +of my legs was considerably swollen. It is a cold spring night now; +that swollen limb has for years been in the tomb, and the dismembered +trunk, on its "Ticket of Leave," has not yet returned to its long-lost +home. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +MY ARRIVAL AT THE YORKSHIRE PRISON--IN SIMPLICITER NATURALIBUS--GET +ANIMAL FOOD--MEDICAL TREATMENT--STATUESQUE CHRISTIANITY--REMOVED +TO THE HOSPITAL--DEATH OF A PRISONER--MY LEG GETS MUCH WORSE--REMOVAL +TO SURREY PRISON. + + +On my arrival at the Yorkshire prison I and my companions were +subjected to a new, and to me most painful operation. I am quite well +aware that it would be next to useless, if not quite hypocritical, in +one in my position to lay claim to any considerable delicacy of +feeling, or to appear to be over scrupulous in matters of common +decency. But there will occasionally, however, be found even amongst +convicts those who will bear a pretty long period of imprisonment, +during which they are subjected to a variety of contaminating +influences, and yet not have their moral sensibilities completely +destroyed. Of these I was one, and I felt that the treatment which I +had now to undergo was conceived in a barbarous spirit, and was +well-fitted to destroy utterly any feelings of self-respect which my +previous experiences had still left me. Every part of my body was +minutely inspected immediately on my arrival, in order that I might not +take any money or tobacco into the prison. + +Doubtless it is very desirable, and even necessary, that every +precaution should be taken to prevent such articles finding their way +into prisons--at least on the persons of prisoners--but the fact +remains that, notwithstanding these inspections, both money and tobacco +do find their way into prison, and are every day in common use amongst +the prisoners. Prisoners will have tobacco, and tobacco cannot be got +without money, so that both must be obtained; and the result has been +that the more rigorous the inspection, the greater the ingenuity +required to evade it. The trials of skill and invention which goes on +between the convict and the inspector, like those between artillery and +iron plates, have as yet only proved that, given the power of +resistance, the power of overcoming it will be found. One of my +fellow-prisoners verified the truth of this conclusion by taking five +sovereigns into prison with him, notwithstanding all the care and +experience exercised by the inspector. + +I now got the first taste of animal food I had had for about ten +months. So keen was my appetite that I could have relished any cooked +carrion even, if it had come in my way. I also got potatoes, the very +skins of which I devoured with great gusto. It was very curious that at +this time I preferred salt to sugar, or anything that was sweet, and I +used to suck little lumps of salt for the first few days I had the +opportunity of doing so with as much relish as children do their sugar +plums. The bread at this prison was excellent, and the food generally +of good quality. + +The day after my arrival I was ordered to strip a second time for the +medical inspection, and as a considerable time elapsed before my turn +came, I had to remain standing in that state with my swollen leg rather +longer than was good for me. When the inspection was concluded my leg +was ordered to be bandaged, and some medicine was given to me daily. I +now had my hair cut in the approved prison fashion, and was put into a +cell to sew mats, in a standing posture. In this employment, relieved +by a short period of daily out-of-door exercise, I passed one of the +three and a-half months I was in this prison. The two chaplains before +whom I was taken shortly after my arrival, were extremely kind to me +during the whole time I remained. One of them had done much good among +the prisoners, and had been of great service to many of them by getting +them employment after they were liberated; thus removing the greatest +obstacle in the way of a permanent reformation of the prisoner. + +I recollect the first Sunday I spent in this prison. I was very nearly +getting reported to the governor for a very unintentional violation of +the prison rules. In accordance with these rules, convicts were not +allowed to turn their heads in any direction in chapel, and if they did +so they were taken by the attendant officer before the governor, who +punished them for disobedience. I cannot but suppose that those who +framed these rules had some good end in view, in being so stringent in +the matter of posture in the religious services. The difficulty with me +was to discover whether the spiritual welfare of the prisoners, or the +preservation of a more than military discipline amongst them, even in +matters of religion, had appeared to them to be of the greater +importance. + +It is probable, however, that neither of these considerations decided +the question, but that the principal object of these regulations was to +preserve in the convict mind, even in the act of worship, the idea of +punishment in a perfectly lively and healthy condition. Be that as it +may, on my first Sunday in chapel, with my English prayer-book before +me, which was then quite new to me, I found myself quite unable to +follow the chaplain in the services in which he was engaged, and to +which I was also a perfect stranger. Turning over the leaves of the +prayer-book, in the vain attempt to find out the proper place, and +happening to cast my eyes over the shoulder of the prisoner in front of +me in order to find it, the movement caught the eye of the officer, who +sat watching every face, and I saw from his stare, and the frown which +gathered under it, that I had committed a grave offence. Immediately I +resumed my proper attitude and sat out the service as rigid as my +neighbours, and so escaped the threatened punishment. Only on one other +occasion did I transgress the prison rules: while at work I felt the +pain in my leg become almost insupportable, and in order to relieve it +I took rest, although still continuing to sew. For doing so I received +a short reprimand. The state of my leg now became a cause of great +anxiety to me, and rendered my out-door exercise a source of pain, +instead of a means of relief from the monotony of my prison occupation. +This exercise was taken in a circle, keeping a certain number of yards +distant from another prisoner, and we were forbidden to speak or even +to look round. Once or twice during the period of exercise we had to +run instead of walk. The running I found very painful and injurious to +my leg, and I petitioned the doctor to be excused from it, but was +refused. There was nothing for it but to hop along, every step giving +me great pain. Until one day I made a false step, the consequences of +which compelled me to give up walking altogether. My knee became +inflamed, and I was ordered to lie in my hammock in my cell. Some pills +were prescribed for me, which I soon found, from the state of my gums, +contained mercury. As I knew that the cause of my complaint was the +want of proper nourishment, I fancied the doctor had mistaken my case +when he prescribed for me, and I ventured to speak to him about it. He +did not appear pleased at my making any allusion to medicine. The pills +were discontinued, but I was put on a change of diet for a month, which +consisted in taking away my meat, soup, and potatoes, and giving me +instead a dish of what was by courtesy termed "arrow-root," but which +the prisoners more accurately designated "cobbler's paste." Under this +regimen it will readily be believed my condition every day became +worse, and at last, after being nearly two months confined to my cell, +I got the order of removal to the hospital. + +I remember--oh! how well! with what pain I crawled to it on all fours, +and slid down stairs on my back without any assistance. In this way I +managed to reach the sick-room, and the first object that attracted my +attention on entering, was a convict at the point of death. A stream of +blood was rushing from his mouth, which choked him just as I was placed +in the next bed. Another convict, a Scotch shepherd, had died only a +few days previously, from the effects of the treatment he received in +the Scotch prisons previous to his trial. I may here mention that I met +with several instances of deaths occurring in English prisons in +consequence of the treatment the prisoners had received before trial in +Scotland. In the majority of these cases the period of detention before +trial was six or seven months. I also heard of one case, which did not +come within my own observation, however, where the prisoner who died +was innocent of the crime with which he was charged, and that his widow +intended to prosecute the authorities for damages. Whether she did so +or not I never learned. + +For about a month I lay in this hospital, but no improvement could be +reported in the state of my health. In addition to the physical pain I +endured, I was a prey to the most acute mental agony. I could feel that +my originally strong constitution was being gradually undermined, and +that the poison of disease which would never be eradicated from my +system was, through ignorance or negligence, slowly and surely +increasing within me. And then the possibility of losing my limb +altogether was a thought which now and again forced itself upon me and +made the warm blood curdle in my veins. All this time I knew, and the +knowledge gave additional poignancy to my sufferings, that with care +and proper surgical treatment I could easily have been cured; but I +dared not open my mouth in the way of suggestion or complaint, I had +already been taught, by bitter experience, the folly of that. Through +all the hours of my imprisonment I had learnt to look forward through +the darkness of my nearer future to the day of my liberation as to a +bright unsetting star. Its clear white ray pierced the clouds which +hung dark and heavy over me, and shed light and hope within me, for it +told me that behind these clouds there was a light, and a day which +would yet dawn upon me, wherein I could work and redeem the past! But +now the strong bright spirit of hope appeared to have forsaken me. As I +lay upon my bed and gazed out of the window, watching the birds dart +hither and thither in a clear blue sky, thoughts of the time when I +should be free as they arose in my mind, but failed to cheer my +desponding heart. Through the silent hours of night I have watched, +from my bed of pain, the myriad stars shining in the midnight sky, +glancing glory from far-off worlds, but I sought in vain among that +radiant silent throng for mine. And I would think of the day when +diseased and a cripple I should be cast out into the world alone, with +the brand of the convict, like the mark of Cain, upon my brow, without +friends, without sympathy, without hope, useless, purposeless, to eat +the bread of charity, and die a beggar in the streets, with only these +cold bright eyes above to witness at the last. Can it be wondered at, +if under the influence of these feelings I began to repine against that +Providence which had so roughly shaped my life, and to think with +bitterness of the imperfection of all merely human justice? I had met +with men whose whole life had been spent in constant warfare against +society, and who had no other intention on regaining their liberty than +to continue the struggle to the bitter end--the murderer; cheerful and +complacent over the verdict of manslaughter; the professional garotter, +in whose estimation human life is of no value, troubled only at being +so foolish as to be caught; the polished thief and the skilled +housebreaker, every one of them sound in wind and limb, intent only on +their schemes and "dodges" to extract the sting from their punishment, +or in planning new and more heinous crimes, and all longing for the +time when they and society could cry "quits," and they be at liberty to +pursue their career of villainy. With these, the vilest of the vile, +and also with the hoary criminal who knew no home save the prison, who +preferred it to the poorhouse, and to whom its comforts were luxuries +and its privations but trifles of no account, I was condemned to +mingle. Repentant for what I had done in the past, capable and resolved +to make amends in the future, having already suffered for my crime loss +of friends, character, everything almost that is dear to man, I was +also condemned to lose my health, my limb, to be deprived of my only +means of future subsistence, and to endure more years of degradation +and suffering in prison than many of my wretched companions, who had +committed heinous crimes and to whom penal servitude was no punishment! + +Such were some of the bitter reflections upon our criminal laws and +prison regulations in which, under the pressure of severe mental and +bodily suffering, I then indulged. Writing now, in a calmer and less +indignant mood, I still commend them, and my subsequent experiences to +the consideration of thoughtful men, and I leave it with them to decide +whether the system maintained in our "model prisons," of putting all +prisoners, whatever their character and antecedents, who have similar +sentences, on a footing of perfect equality, and in constant +association with each other, is fitted to serve the purposes of even +human justice; and whether it is not more likely to promote than to +prevent the growth of crime. + +I had now been about a month in the hospital when the order came for my +removal to a regular Government Convict Establishment, in Surrey. I was +in a very unfit state for such a journey; I could not walk a single +yard, even with assistance. My knee was so swollen that no trouser +would go over it, but yet the journey had to be made, and on my arrival +in Surrey I had to be carried by two prisoners to the hospital. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +SURREY PRISON--DAILY ROUTINE OF HOSPITAL LIFE--SET A THIEF TO CATCH +A THIEF--MY LEG GETS WORSE--AMPUTATION--LIFE DESPAIRED OF--PRISON +DOCTORS--WANT OF PERIODICAL HOSPITAL INSPECTION. + + +The Surrey prison in which I was doomed to spend nearly five years of +my life is a somewhat spacious looking building, situated in a healthy +locality, and fitted up for the accommodation of about 660 prisoners. +It is built in the shape of the letter =E=. The centre abutments are +occupied as a chapel and work-room; the end wings are divided into +cells, with an underground flat fitted up as a school and a Roman +Catholic chapel. The upper story of the main portion of the building is +divided into cells, which are the best specimens of the human cage yet +constructed. The under flat is divided into eighteen rooms of various +dimensions, some containing seven, others eight and twelve, and the +largest twenty-four beds. The middle flat is in constant use as an +hospital, and is divided into four wards, containing accommodation for +150 patients. Very frequently, however, while I was here that number +was exceeded, and other portions of the prison were often appropriated +to hospital use. + +As I was for upwards of two years after my arrival an inmate of one of +these hospital wards, I may here give an outline of the routine of our +daily life there. + +At half-past five every morning the great bell rang, and the nurses and +convalescent patients started out of bed, washed and dressed, made +their beds, rubbed their metal chamber-service as bright as silver--a +remarkable contrast in that respect to the metal dinner dishes--dusted +and cleaned the ward, which was usually kept remarkably tidy and clean. + About half-past six breakfast was on the table. This meal consisted of +very weak tea and dry bread for the majority, with an egg, or +half-an-ounce of butter for the few who were supposed to be dangerously +ill or dying. In the interval between the breakfast time and nine +o'clock the patients' wounds were dressed by the nurses, and medicines +served out by the officers of the ward; those patients not immediately +under treatment having liberty to read or chat with each other. Before +I left, however, the attempt was being made to prohibit this reading +and talking, and to combine more punishment with the cure of disease. + +The two medical officers generally began their rounds of examination +about nine o'clock. As they entered the room "Attention!" was called, +when all the prisoners out of bed stood up, and as the doctors passed, +noting down on a ticket the date and remarks on each man's complaint, +they were saluted by the patients in the military fashion. The doctors' +visit over, the patients were assembled for prayers; after which, and +until the dinner-hour--a quarter to twelve--the time was spent in +out-door exercise. From twelve till two the patients sat on their +stools reading or gossiping. At two they went out again to exercise. At +half-past three they were again assembled for prayers. About five they +got tea and dry bread, as at breakfast; and at eight o'clock they were +all in bed. + +The dinner of the patients varied according to the nature of their +disease. The majority were served with the regular hospital dinner, +which consisted of soup, potatoes, and what the dietary boards called +"Ten ounces of mutton." With respect to the latter item, however, I +fancy there must have been some mistake, although I have heard the +prisoners characterize it in different and much stronger terms. Whether +there be any mistake or not, _five_ ounces, or it might occasionally +be six ounces with the bone, is all the prisoners receive, and if +complaint was made the invariable answer was, that it "Lost four ounces +in the cooking." I am not sufficiently skilled in the culinary art to +be able to say whether or not ten ounces of mutton loses four ounces in +cooking, but the great majority of prisoners did not believe it; and +the evil effects of placing ten ounces on a board for the public to +see, and five or six ounces in the dish for the prisoner to eat, are +very great. + +The old maxim, "Set a thief to catch a thief," was based on a shrewd +acquaintance with human nature, and convicts are usually very quick in +discovering discrepancies of the kind to which I have alluded; and it +is not to be wondered at if they put the very worst construction upon +them. In any case, if it forms any part of our prison discipline to +inculcate moral principles, or to instil into the convict mind a regard +for truth and honesty, it is surely of the utmost importance, indeed +absolutely necessary, that the prison authorities, their only +instructors, should be beyond suspicion. As entertaining books and +newspapers are not allowed him, the convict has nothing else to talk +about but the conduct of his jailers, and foolish prison gossip; and +any subject of the kind I have mentioned is eagerly discussed with very +injurious results to all concerned. + +To return to my own case: after being carried upstairs to the hospital, +I was inspected by the medical officer, and ordered into one of the +largest wards, containing thirty-six beds, on one of which I was +destined to pass many long and painful months. On the following morning +my knee was examined by both the prison surgeons. Unfortunately they +seemed to differ in opinion as to the treatment it should receive. The +senior officer, who took charge of my case, wished to make a stiff +joint, whilst his junior thought it should be lanced and poulticed, to +take out the matter, which by this time was creating an abscess in the +joint. Had I been allowed to express my opinion on the subject I would +have supported the latter mode of treatment; but a convict dare not +utter a word with respect to medical treatment. I was accordingly +obliged to lie in one position for three months with my leg strapped to +a long slab, and to use a lotion which proved very injurious to it. +During these three months I suffered the most intense pain. I not only +could not get out of bed, but I could not change my position in it; +and, to add to the wretchedness of my situation, I could not read; and +finally I could not even sleep. My food, however, was better and more +abundant than it had been hitherto. At first I was allowed a little +porter and some very inferior beef-tea, in addition to the ordinary +second-class hospital diet. + +Some time after, when my knee was being frequently leeched, I said to +the doctor that, if he thought it necessary to take more blood from me +I would feel very grateful for a mutton chop in lieu of the beef-tea. +This he at the time very snappishly refused, but next morning he +appeared to have seen the reasonableness of my request, and allowed me +the chop. Being always truly grateful when I obtained any concession of +this kind, and always civil and polite to those with whom I was brought +into contact, whether officers or prisoners, I received more favourable +consideration than the generality of my neighbours; and I had nothing +to complain of, so far as regarded diet, during my subsequent stay in +the hospital. + +After a few weeks of great suffering to me, it became quite evident +that my leg was not to get better under the treatment prescribed for +it, but was rapidly getting worse. The knee was now so sensitive that +the tread of any person's foot passing near the bed caused me excessive +pain. I was afraid to sneeze for the same reason, and at last so +excruciating did the pain become that I begged and prayed to have my +leg cut off. The idea of losing it, so horrible to me a few months +previous, was altogether overpowered by the frightful torture, which +night and day it now entailed upon me. I was again inspected about this +time by a stranger doctor, and immediately after he left, my leg was +lanced and poulticed. But the remedy came too late, for the time had +come when I must either sacrifice my life, or give life a chance by the +sacrifice of my leg. My readers can imagine for themselves what it must +be to have the flesh cut, and the bone sawn through at the thickest +part of the thigh. I fear I cannot give a more lucid description of the +surgical operation. I was put under the influence of chloroform, which +had to be administered a second time before the surgeons had completed +their work, and with the exception of a momentary pang in the interval +between the doses, I felt no pain whatever. The operation was skilfully +performed, and occupied altogether about half-an-hour. + +I was removed from the large ward, and placed in a small room by +myself, with a prisoner to wait upon me, and for three or four days +after the operation my life was despaired of by the medical officers. +Strangely enough I did not feel so hopeless about my case. I felt a +whispering within that seemed to tell me I should not die then. With +the exception of the pain caused by the first few dressings of the +wound, and a sharp violent twinge that seized the stump on my going to +sleep, causing it to start some inches from the pillow on which it +rested, I did not now experience anything to compare with my previous, +sufferings. The head surgeon also relaxed from his customary silent, +stingy, and cold hearted manner, and became generous, and even kind to +me. I had been in the habit of writing to my friends that I felt +comfortable enough under the circumstances, in order to keep up their +spirits about me, but now I could and did express genuine feelings of +gratitude, and until I wrote a letter to the late Mr. Cobden, more than +a year afterwards, I believe I remained a favourite with the chiefs of +the establishment. I had now become a cripple for life, and as I +reflected upon all that these words involved in relation to my future +history, and the circumstances which had entailed upon me a loss so +irretrievable, I thought, amongst other things how easily, and still +how fatally a little carelessness, negligence, or ill-temper on the +part of our convict surgeons, may influence the future life and conduct +of their convict patients. They are, without doubt, subjected to many +vexations, and much annoyance, and their temper receives daily +provocations. They have to deal professionally with a class of men who, +as a rule, cannot be believed or trusted; who are as likely as not to +give a false description of their complaint, and in many instances to +do all in their power to frustrate the efforts made to relieve it. They +have to discover not only what the disease is in real patients, but +also frequently to detect well planned and well sustained imposture in +those who are not diseased at all. The latter is a much more difficult +task in many cases than the former, as I will subsequently show, and it +has a tendency to sour the temper and harden the heart, which the +former does not. I do not imagine that the medical men in our convict +establishments are naturally less warm-hearted, less nobly devoted to +their profession than their brethren outside, but it will not be +disputed that the peculiar nature of their practice has a tendency to +make them so. Were one hundred doctors each to have a patient for whom +they had daily, for weeks, and even for months, been doing all that +humanity and professional skill could suggest in order to relieve him, +let us suppose of great suffering, and one fine morning to see the +patient leap out of bed, laugh, and snap his fingers in their faces, +and tell them that there had been nothing the matter with him all the +while!--ninety-nine of them would probably look upon the next patient +with some suspicion, and if deception was at all frequent, the really +diseased would come in time to suffer even at the hands of the most +tender and humane amongst them. I blame these "schemers" and +"impostors" therefore for much of the apparent sourness, indifference +to, and sometimes cruel neglect, if not positive aggravation of +suffering, which I have noticed in the manner and treatment of most of +the convict surgeons I have met with. I have seen the imperative +necessity that exists for periodical inspection of our convict +hospitals by competent medical men, not otherwise connected with them, +in order to protect the "innocent patients," if I may use the term, +from the indifference, mismanagement, and even punishment they are +often compelled to undergo, because of the prejudices contracted by the +prison officials, the result of a long experience perhaps of imposture +and deception. Under the present system the resident medical +superintendent has the lives of his patients at his sole disposal, and +it is a very dangerous thing for a convict patient to offend the +medical officers in any way, and of course the more so if they happen +to be of a cruel or vindictive disposition. My own case was in some +respects an instance of this. The experience I gained in the Yorkshire +prison, after I had ventured to insinuate to the doctor there that he +had not quite understood the nature of my complaint, kept my mouth +hermetically closed during the ill-concealed disagreement between the +two doctors here as to the method of my cure. The chief medical officer +at this prison was very much disliked by the majority of the patients, +particularly by the young prisoners in the early stages of consumption. +The cause of this, was supposed to be the desire to keep the hospital +well filled with patients, and to have the greater proportion of them +of the class who were content to be idle without craving for "extras." +He could thus keep the cost per head lower than the medical officers at +other prisons, and obtain the greater credit at head-quarters. Young +consumptive patients he found to be too expensive, and they were +accordingly made uncomfortable. His junior, on the other hand, although +blunt in his manner and speech, was held in general esteem. He seemed +to have his heart in the profession, and endeavoured to cure complaints +deemed curable without reference to the expense of the diet, if it +contributed to the end he had in view. + +In another chapter I shall again allude to this subject, and give a +number of cases which came within the range of my own observation, to +prove the justice of some of the reflections I have made on the want of +periodical inspection of our prison hospitals. In the meantime my stump +continued to discharge matter. An abscess formed and retarded the +healing of the wounds and it was not till I discovered a cure myself +that it showed any symptoms of healing. The cure was to hold the stump +under a tap of cold water, using friction afterwards. This I continued +to do long after the wound had finally closed. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + +I PETITION THE HOME SECRETARY--DOCTOR PRONOUNCES ME "QUITE +WELL"--"SCHEMERS;" THEIR TREATMENT AND FATE--DEATH-BED SCENES. + + +About two months after the amputation of my leg, feeling and believing +that my health would never be restored in confinement I wrote a +petition to the Home Secretary, in the expectation that I would be as +mercifully considered as my predecessors in misfortune. While my +petition was under consideration I was encouraged in my expectations by +the fact that one of my companions who had nothing the matter with him +but a dislocated hip joint, was liberated on medical grounds three or +four years before his time was up. My hopes were somewhat damped, +however, by another circumstance which just then occurred. The prison +director arrived on his monthly visit, and on passing through the ward, +the medical officer who accompanied him stopped at the foot of my bed +and informed him that I was the man whose leg he had amputated, and +that I was "quite well now!" The director, seeing me in bed and looking +very poorly, and noticing the general stare with which the doctor's +remark was received, asked in a somewhat doubtful way, "Is he quite +well?" "Oh! yes quite well," the doctor replied; and off they went. + +I was sixteen months in hospital after the above remark was made, and I +was then unable to get up to have my bed made, nor did I leave my bed +during the whole winter and spring that succeeded! I received an answer +to my petition, shortly after the visit to which I have referred, in +the usual form of an official negative, "Not sufficient grounds." Being +now free from acute pain, I conversed freely with my companions, and +taught some of them to spell, read, and cypher. After I was able to get +out of bed I read aloud for an hour every evening, for the benefit of +all the patients. In time I became popular, and intimate with many of +them. I wrote letters and petitions for them, encouraged them with good +advice, and succeeded in obtaining considerable influence over them. + +In return for these trifling services, which also to some extent +relieved the monotony of the long period I spent in hospital, they told +me their history and experiences. I learnt their slang and thiefology, +and as a theorist became tolerably conversant with all the mysteries by +which the professional thief and scoundrel preys upon society. + +The first of my companions who attracted my attention was a young +Scotchman. He appeared to be a very strong hearty fellow, but when he +attempted to walk, he was the most pitiable looking cripple imaginable, +and excited the sympathy of all who saw him. His sentence was +twenty-one years, four of which he had undergone at this time. He had +been invalided home from the convict establishment at Bermuda, was +shipwrecked off the Isle of Wight on the return voyage, and had been +some months in the hospital previous to my arrival. He was in the habit +of being carried up and down stairs to exercise on the backs of the +nurses, and was getting full diet and porter. About four months after +my arrival, he one morning suddenly started out of bed, shouted +"Attention," at the top of his voice, in defiance of the prison rules, +and ran about the room like a lamplighter, to the utter amazement of +all present. This man was what the prisoners term a "schemer," and he +was certainly the very best actor of his class I ever met with. It will +be acknowledged that he played his part well, when even during the +shipwreck he had never made the slightest attempt to move, and kept up +the deception for many months in a prison hospital, where the majority +of the patients are put down as "schemers" unless they have an outward +sore, or some natural malady with palpable external symptoms. When the +doctor came his rounds, he could do nothing but stare at the fellow, +who started up and told him with a laughing countenance that he had had +a dream in the night, about being miraculously cured, and in the +morning he found he could walk as well as ever he did. The doctor never +opened his lips; the patient was discharged, and although the other +patients cried aloud that he ought to be punished, no further notice +was taken of the matter. + +This "schemer," I learned, had been a great sufferer from pleurisy at +Bermuda, and was very weak when he was put on board ship, where he +commenced his scheme; and had it not been for new regulations which +were then put in force, there is no doubt he would have accomplished +his object, which was "Liberation on medical grounds." He had +petitioned the Home Secretary shortly before he threw his crutches +aside, declaring that he had met with an accident at Bermuda from a +stone falling on his back, and so injuring the spine that both his legs +were paralysed. He had received a reply to the effect that his petition +would be answered so soon as the authorities heard from Bermuda the +particulars of the accident, and it was a few days after this that the +miraculous visitation took place. + +I asked him why he did not wait for the final answer to his petition +before exposing his scheme? "Oh," he replied, "I knew very well if they +wrote to Bermuda I should get no time off. I met with no accident, +although I said so in my petition." "You will be very fortunate," I +said, "if you get the customary remission after this affair, I fear +they will punish you?" "Look here," said he, "I have another scheme in +my head, and you will see I'll not fail this time. I'll get out to +Australia, and by the time I arrive I will be due for my liberty." +"Well, that will certainly be better for you than being kept eight or +nine years longer in prison here; but how are you to manage to get +abroad unless the authorities choose to send you?" "Oh! I will work +that. I'll now be as bad in my conduct as possible; and I'll half +murder some of the officers if they don't send me away; and that very +soon too." + +True to his threat, the fellow commenced a course of bad conduct, +knowing it would ensure his passage to Western Australia; and in a +comparatively short time he gained his object, and I have no doubt he +is now at liberty abroad. + +About the time the above conversation took place another "schemer" +arrived, and was located a few beds from me. He had been a clerk in a +government office, was respectably connected, and a very intelligent +young man. He pretended he could not use his legs. The doctor's eye +being now somewhat opened, he told him there was nothing the matter +with him, recommended him to get well again as fast as possible, and +threatened him with the electric battery, and even hot irons, if that +did not succeed. The prisoner did not take advice, however, and the +battery was tried upon him. After being stripped several times, and +made to cry out with pain, to the great amusement of his +fellow-prisoners, he ultimately took to crutches; first two, then one, +with a stick; then the stick only; then nothing at all. He was +afterwards removed to another prison. + +I saw several other cases, similar to the one I have just mentioned, of +pretended loss of the use of the legs, or partial inability to walk; +but as there was no marked difference in the cases, I need not notice +them. There was, however, an amusing incident connected with one of +them which I may mention. This prisoner was allowed a little porter +every day, which was served out about one o'clock. One day at that hour +he happened to be in an adjoining room with his crutches (he could walk +a little) when another prisoner cried out, "Porter, porter; quick, +quick!" On hearing this cry, and afraid of losing his liquor, he bolted +out, ran down the room, and had swallowed his porter before he had +discovered that he had left his crutches behind him. + +Such cases as these injure the really sick, particularly those whose +symptoms are not very apparent. Many prisoners adopt these schemes in +order to get into hospital, where they get better food, less work, and +have the chance of being with a favourite "pal." Others will make +themselves ill by swallowing tobacco, soap pills, or anything they know +will make them sick. There are others again who are afraid to enter the +hospital lest they should be poisoned with a sleeping draught, or some +other medicine carelessly administered; and when they hear of any +sudden death in hospital they are ready to swear "his light has been +put out by the doctor." On the other hand I have known it to happen +that a prisoner went and complained to the doctor, who roughly told him +he was a "schemer," and the following week the prisoner was dead. +Another time a healthy looking old man, with chest disease, complained +to the doctor of pain in that region. He was dosed repeatedly with +salts and senna--the medicine for schemers--and in less than a +fortnight he was buried. + +I could mention many cases similar to the above, and also others where +the prisoner was his own murderer--if I may use the expression--but I +will merely mention one of them. The patient in this case was afflicted +with dropsy, and some affection of the heart. He had been receiving two +ounces of gin for a short time, which he fancied was doing him good, +and being partial to that variety of medicine, he was annoyed when it +was ordered to be discontinued. Accordingly he resolved to make himself +ill again, in order to get the allowance of gin, and swallowed a large +piece of tobacco, which brought an increase to his heart complaint; and +notwithstanding that the greatest attention was paid to his case by the +doctor, before morning he was dead. + +This prisoner lay in the next bed to mine, and among the many death-bed +scenes I witnessed while in prison, I never saw one where the fear of +death was so apparent, or the state of mind so appalling to the +beholder. + +The man had been a bully, and an avowed infidel. The prospect of death +had now come upon him with awful suddenness. Fear and trembling took +hold upon him, and as he thought of his past life, and the possible +judgment seat, before which he might the next moment be summoned to +appear, remorse and doubt seemed to torture him more than physical +pain. At the closing scene he was evidently trying to believe, but +could not, for he kept repeating, "If there be a God, if there be a God +I hope He will forgive me; but I can't believe it, indeed I can't!" and +so saying he expired. + +Another death-bed scene impressed me much. The patient was paralysed in +his lower extremities and could scarcely walk, but his general health +appeared pretty good, and he was not confined to bed. He had a talent +for mechanics and arithmetic, but a very bad temper and a very bad +heart. His crime was sacrilege. In the next bed to his there lay a +patient who was dying, and being in great pain was making a noise, +which disturbed the studies and peace of mind of the other. A quarrel +arose between the two on the subject. High words ensued. Curses, deep, +black, loud, and long, soon followed, too soon for the officer to +prevent, and there would certainly have been a fight if the dying man +could have got out of bed, but the interference of the officer put an +end to the disturbance. It was their parting words taken in connection +with what followed, that made a deep impression upon me:--"If it wasn't +that you are dying I would blacken your eyes for you," cried the +mechanic. "How do you know I am dying? You look as like dying as +anybody, you miserable cripple," retorted the other. "Ah! I'm tough +stuff, you'll not see me die in a hurry." The cripple who uttered these +words went shortly afterwards to bed, was seized with a paralytic +affection, which took the power of speech from him. He never uttered +another syllable, but lay in bed for about a week, making frantic +motions with his lips. I forget which of these two men died first, but +they were buried together in the same grave. + +Another death at this time excited a good deal of conversation among +the prisoners. The patient had been tried under the Transportation Act, +one of the bye-laws of which enacted that for every prison "report," or +offence, the prisoner would lose one month of his remission. But +convicts being usually punished under the most recent law, without +reference to its being different from that under which they had +received sentence, the prisoner I now refer to was sentenced to lose +three months of his remission for one offence, that of having an inch +or two of tobacco on his person. He had undergone nearly the whole of +this additional punishment, when, only a few hours before his time came +to leave the prison to meet his motherless children, for whom he seemed +to have a very strong affection, he died suddenly of heart disease. + +Some prisoners expired on the very day for their liberation. Some died +screaming aloud that they were poisoned. Many died like the brutes, and +a very few departed in peace, with a prayer on their lips. The great +majority died as they had lived, and were forgotten by the spectators +almost before their bodies had been laid in the grave. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THIEFOLOGY--WHAT THE UNINITIATED CONVICT MAY LEARN IN PRISON. + + +As a means of beguiling the time while in the hospital, I used to enter +into long conversations with those of my fellow prisoners who were +willing to gratify my curiosity, with a view of ascertaining their mode +of life when out of prison. At first it was somewhat difficult for me +to follow them in their talk, in consequence of their excessive use of +"slang" terms; but in time I not only came to understand the +nomenclature of thiefology, but also to use it fluently, as I found it +more acceptable to my companions to do so, and rendered them more +favourably disposed towards me. + +One of my fellow prisoners was particularly communicative and obliging, +and gave me a great deal of well-meant advice, no doubt, as to how I +might live at the public expense _outside_ the prison walls, as +well as explanations in every department of crime. I remember the +following dialogue taking place between us, which also serves to show +how an ignoramus in the science, or a young country lad, perhaps for +the first time convicted of crime, might be instructed in vice, and +incited to continue a career he had perhaps very thoughtlessly, or +under strong temptation, began. + +"Harry," I asked, "what's that 'bloke'[6] here for, who occupies the +end bed?" + + [6] Man. + +"Twineing." + +"Twineing! What's that?" + +"Don't you know that yet? why you must be a greenhorn not to know that. +Well! I'll tell you. Suppose you start in the morning with a good +sovereign and a '_snyde_'[7] half-sovereign in your pocket; you go +into some place or other, and ask for change of the sovereign, or you +order some beer and give the sovereign in payment; it's likely you will +get half-a-sovereign and silver back in change. Then is the time to +'twine.' You change your mind, after you have 'rung'[8] your snyde half +'quid'[9] with the good one, and throwing down the 'snyde' half, say +you prefer silver; the landlord or landlady, or whoever it is, will +pick up the snyde half-quid, thinking of course it is the same one they +had given you!" + + [7] Counterfeit. + + [8] Substituted. + + [9] Sovereign. + +"Is that a good game, do you think?" + +"Well, that depends on the party. If he has got good 'togs' on, looks +pretty decent, and can work it well, he may make a good living at it." + +"How much do you suppose?" + +"If he can manage to begin every morning with yellow stuff, he may make +a couple of 'quid' a day; but if he can only muster white stuff, why of +course he can't make so much." + +"Two pounds a day would do if it could be got regularly, but I suspect +there are not many who make that?" + +"Oh! I have known them make much more than that, but of course it +varies, some days nothing may be done, but the great thing is to have +something to start with." + +"Do you never think of trying to make money at work?" + +"Work! no, by jingo! I'll never work; that's all they can make one do +in prison, and it will be time enough to work when we get there." + +"I have heard you speak of 'hoisting,' how do you go about that?" + +"Ah! that's a much better game, but it requires a fellow to be rigged +out like a 'toff,'[10] and they generally have a 'flash moll,'[11] with +them at that job. She can secrete articles about her dress when in a +shop looking at things, and that's one way of 'hoisting.' Jewellers' +shops are the best places for that game. I know a bloke who made +several hundreds at it; he took fine lodgings, and his moll looked +quite the lady, so he orders some jewellery to be sent on sight; he +prigs the best of it and bolts. Then you can get snyde jewellery made +to look the same as real stuff, and when you are in the shop with your +moll, she is trying on a ring perhaps, when you put the snyde one in +its place and she sticks to the right one." + + [10] Gentleman. + + [11] Prostitute of the gayest sort. + +"I am afraid that game would be above my abilities?" + +"Well, I'll tell you what I did once, and what you may do when you get +out, when winter sets in; you can have some other game in summer, +perhaps go hawking, and do a bit of thieving when you see the coast +clear. My brother and I and another bloke went out 'chance screwing,' +one winter, and we averaged three pounds a night each. My brother had a +spring cart and a fast trotting horse, so when it began to grow dark, +off we set to the outskirts of London. I did the screwing in this way. +Wherever I saw a lobby lighted with gas, I looked in at the key-hole. +If I saw anything worth lifting I 'screwed' the door--I'll teach you +how to do it--seized the things, into the cart with them, and off to +the next place. Now big Davey goes out about the same time as you, and +he knows a bloke with a cart, and so you may do very well all winter at +that game; but be sure to leave off by nine o'clock as you would get it +very hot if caught after that time!" + +"Well! I shall see big Davey, perhaps, but don't you think 'highflying' +would suit me better, although I know little about it?" + +"Oh! that's above your mark, a 'highflyer' is a bloke who dresses like +a clergyman, or some gentleman. He must be educated, for his game is to +know all the nobility and gentry, and visit them with got-up letters, +and that kind of thing, for the purpose of getting subscriptions to +some scheme. A church-building or missionary affair is the best game. +There is only one good 'highflyer' in the prison. I knew him get +150_l._ from a gentleman in Devonshire once, and he thinks nothing +of getting 30_l._ of a morning." + +Finding my friend so communicative and apparently so experienced in the +various branches of his profession, I took advantage of every +convenient opportunity to ascertain from him the meaning of the slang +terms which my comrades made use of when conversing together, but +through ignorance of which I was often unable to understand exactly +what they were talking about. On another occasion I accordingly asked +him the meaning of a number of these terms which I had thus heard +bandied about from time to time amongst them. On asking him about +'macing' he replied-- + +"Macing means taking an office, getting goods sent to it, and then +'bolting' with them; or getting goods sent to your lodgings and then +removing. I'll tell you a game that you might try now and again as you +have a chance, and that is 'fawney dropping,' you know 'fawney' means a +ring. Well, you must have a 'pal,' and give him a 'snyde' ring with a +ticket and the price marked on it. When you are walking along the +street and see a likely 'toff' to buy the ring, your 'pal' goes on +before and drops it, you come up behind him, and in front of the +gentleman you pick up the ring, which is ticketed, say five pounds. +Well, you turn to the 'toff' and say to him that you have found a ring +which is entirely useless to you, as you never wear these articles, and +ask him to purchase it. He will most likely look at the ticket, and see +it marked five pounds, and if you say you will let him have it for +three pounds, or two pounds, or even for one pound, if he hesitates, it +is also likely he will buy it, thinking he is getting a great bargain." + +"What do you mean by 'snow-dropping?'" I asked. + +"Oh!" said he, "that's a poor game. It means lifting clothes off the +bleaching line, or hedges. Needy mizzlers, mumpers, shallow-blokes, and +flats may carry it on, but it's too low and paltry for you." + +"Who do you mean by mumpers and shallow-blokes?" I enquired. + +"Why 'mumpers' are cadgers; beggars in fact. There's old Dick over in +that bed there; he used to go 'mumping,' and when he got boosey with +too much lush he stole some paltry thing or other, and being so often +convicted they have 'legged'[12] him at last. They can't make an honest +living, and can't make a living by thieving; but, you know, it's +different with you. You could make a fair thing by 'snotter-hauling,' +even if you cannot get on at 'fly-buzzing,' which would suit you well +enough; but it's better to stick to one good game, and get as expert at +that as you can, for then you don't run so much risk, and you can keep +a sharper look out after the 'coppers'.[13] Talking of mumping: old Dick +used to go to the farm-houses with a piece of dried cow-dung, and ask +for a bit of butter to put on it. Very often they took pity on him and +gave him lots of meat; for they thought he must be very hungry to eat +the cow-dung, which of course, you know, was only a dodge. In order to +get to Liverpool once from some place up the Mersey, whence the fare +down was a shilling, Dick went on board the steamer and asked the +captain what he charged for lambs. 'A penny a-head,' says the captain. +'Oh! that will do,' says Dick; and away he goes among the passengers. +When they were collecting the fares Dick holds out his penny, which was +all the 'tin' he had in the world. 'The fare's a shilling,' said the +captain. 'Yes, it may be,' said Dick, 'but I asked you the fare for +lambs. My name is Lamb; I'm an innocent creature, and the long and the +short of it is I've only a penny. If you can't take it, just give me a +sail back again.' That chap over there with the one arm is a regular +'mumper,' and he is a strong, robust fellow, able to work with any man +in the prison; but he can make ten times more by 'mumping,' and I do +not blame the like of him going on that 'racket.' Every man for himself +in this world. Do you see that little old man with a cough on him? +Well, his game is 'needy-mizzling.' He'll go out without a shirt, +perhaps, and beg one from house to house. I have known him to get +thirty 'mill-togs'[14] in one day, which, at a 'bob' apiece, would fetch +their thirty shillings. When he can't go on that 'racket,' he'll turn +'mumper' and wood merchant (which means a seller of lucifer matches); +and sometimes he will take to rag and bone collecting." + + [12] Sentenced. + + [13] Policemen. + + [14] Shirts. + +"What do you call a 'shallow-bloke?'" + +"He is a cove that acts the turnpike sailor; pretends he has been +shipwrecked, and so on, or he gets his arm bandaged, and put in a +sling. I once knew two blokes who went to an old captain's house on +that game, and as they were not able to reply to some of his nautical +questions, he and his son gave them a regular horsewhipping. When they +got home they boasted to a lot of their 'chums' how much they had +screwed out of the old captain. This induced some of them to go on the +same 'racket,' and of course they met with the same warm reception. +These 'shallow-blokes' turn 'duffers' sometimes. They get some +'duffing' silk handkerchiefs and cigars, and go about selling them for +smuggled goods; or perhaps they will take to singing in the streets. +But I spoke of 'snotter-hauling.' Although I think you are too old for +that 'racket'--and unless you were very hard up and in a crowd, I would +not bother about it. It would not pay for the risk run. It does best +for 'kids.'[15] A little boy can sneak behind a 'toff' and relieve him +of his 'wipe' as easily as possible. I know a little fellow who used to +make seven 'bob' a-day at it on the average; but there were more silk +'wipes' used then than there are now." + + [15] Boys. + +"What do you mean by 'lob-sneaking,' and 'Peter-screwing?" + +"Why, 'lob' means the till, and 'Peter' means a safe. Stealing the till +and opening the safe is what we call 'lob-sneaking and Peter-screwing.'" + +"And what is 'jumping' and 'jilting?'" + +"'Jumping' is getting into a house through the window; and 'jilting' is +getting in on the sly, or on false pretences at the door, and sneaking +what you can find. It's not a bad game to go into hotels, for instance, +as a traveller, and as soon as you see a chance to sneak anything, to +bolt with it. I know some fellows who make a fair living in this way." + +"Then there is 'twisting' and 'fencing?'" + +"When you go into any place where hats, coats, or umbrellas are left in +the lobby, you can take a new 'tog,' or a new hat, by mistake for your +own. That is 'twisting,' or ringing the changes. Then the +'fence-master' is the fellow who buys stolen property. I will give you +the names of some of these blokes in London before you go out. You must +know where to dispose of a 'super,'[16] or whatever you get, or it would +be of no use to you. You know what 'buzzing,' or pocket-picking is, of +course; and you have heard of working on the 'stop,' most likely. Which +means picking pockets when the party is standing still; but it is more +difficult on the 'fly.' You must remember that. I remember once going +along Oxford Street, and I prigged an old woman's 'poke,'[17] on the +'fly.' She missed it very quick, and was coming after me when I slipped +it into an old countryman's pocket as I was passing. She came up and +accused me with stealing her purse. I, of course, allowed her to search +me, and asked her to fetch a 'bobby,' if she was not satisfied. Well, I +followed the old countryman and accused him of stealing my purse. And, +my Crikey! if you had only seen how the old codger looked when he found +the purse in his pocket. I threatened to give him in charge of the +first 'copper' I saw; and he was so frightened that I actually got a +'quid' out of him to let him off." + + [16] Watch. + + [17] Purse. + +"Well now, tell me about 'snyde-pitching.'" + +"Snyde, you know, means counterfeit or bad, anything bad we call +snydey. Snyde-pitching is passing bad money; and is a capital racket, +especially if you can get rid of 'fins.'" + +"What are 'fins?'" + +"Five pound notes, or flash notes. I can give you the address of one or +two fellows who make bad coins, and you can pass one or two when you +see a fair chance." + +"What do they charge for sovereigns, for instance?" + +"The charge depends on the quality, you can get them at from six to +fifteen shillings. Those at fifteen shillings no one can discover. They +are the weight, the size, and all that is required. The low-priced ones +of course you must run more risk with. Making bad coins is one of the +best games out, and you can carry it on with less risk. For instance +you can have your place where you work so blocked up that before anyone +can enter, you will have time to destroy all your dies and tools; and +melt or 'plant' your metal, and without them they cannot convict you. I +know a bloke in Birmingham now, who was getting up Scotch one pound +notes when I was 'copt,' and he is a capital hand at the trade. He once +made a good deal by making snyde postage stamps." + +"But one would require to know something about the different metals +before they could be able to make 'snyde.'" + +"Yes, that is necessary, but I think I know who will tell you. He has +got twenty years, and is not likely to get a chance of doing more at +the trade. These fellows who follow that racket are rather close, and +don't want to tell anyone." + +"The other day I heard a bloke talking about a 'picking-up moll' he +used to live with. What did he mean by that?" + +"O! that's a very common racket. He meant a 'flash-tail,' or prostitute +who goes about the streets at nights trying to pick up 'toffs.' When +she manages to do this her accomplice the coshman (a man who carries a +'cosh' or life preserver) comes up, when she has signed to him that she +has got the 'toff's' watch and chain, and quarrels with him for +meddling with his wife. Whilst the quarrel is going on the moll walks +off with the booty. I know one coshman who pretends to be a missionary, +and wears a white choker. Instead of quarrelling, he talks seriously to +the 'toff' about the sin of fornication, and advises him to pursue a +more becoming life in future, and finishes off by giving him a +religious tract!" + +"Now I have nearly finished my questions, but whilst there is time tell +me about 'magging,' and 'mag-flying.'" + +"Magging is not so good a game as it used to be. It means more +particularly, swindling a greenhorn out of his cash by the mere gift of +the gab. You know if it were not for the flats, how could the sharps +live? You can 'mag' a man at any time you are playing cards or at +billiards, and in various other ways. As for 'mag-flying,' that is not +good for much. You have seen those blokes at fairs and races, throwing +up coppers, or playing at pitch and toss? Well these are 'mag-flyers.' +The way they do it is to have a penny with two heads or two tails on +it, which they call a 'grey,' and of course they can easily dupe flats +from the country." + +"How do they call it a 'grey,' I wonder?" + +"I suppose they have named it after Sir George Grey, because he is a +two-faced bloke." + +"Well then tell me about 'locusing,' and 'bellowsing.'" + +"Locusing is putting a chap to sleep with chloroform, and bellowsing is +putting his light out. In other words, drugging and murder." + +"Now then, shew me how to hang a fellow up, or put the 'flimp' on him, +as you call it." + +"D'ye see that bone in the wrist? Just get that on the windpipe--so," +(shewing me practically how to garotte). While at this interesting +experiment we heard a voice cry, "Cheese it, cheese it, Harry! there's +the 'Screw' looking at you!" which warned us that the prison warder was +also taking notes, and my lesson for that day came to a rather abrupt +conclusion. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +ANOTHER COMPANION--A CAREER OF CRIME--HIS OPINIONS ABOUT RELIGION +AND CHURCH RATES--AN INCURABLE: HIS OPINION ABOUT FLOGGING. + + +Another of my companions in hospital gave me the particulars of his +history in answer to my enquiries. I give them precisely in his own +words:-- + +"I was about fifteen years of age before I stole any money, or got into +any trouble; but I used to 'nick' little things, such as fruit, &c., +when I was a kid. My father kept a small shop, but I was bound an +apprentice to a very peculiar branch of the Sheffield trade; and before +I had finished my apprenticeship I committed my first crime. I was +playing at bagatelle one night, and lost all my cash, and as I was +anxious to win it back, I broke into my master's premises, and took all +the money that was in the cash-box. I got 'copt,' and was sent into the +county jail. When I came out I enlisted in the army. My father bought +me off after I had been in the regiment a short time. I then took to +hawking, but I did not make much money at that, so I enlisted +again,--deserted, and got flogged; and the flogging made me a +blackguard;--committed another crime, and got out of the army. +Afterwards I committed other crimes, and was at last copt and sentenced +to five years' penal servitude. I was sent to do most of it at +Gibraltar. After coming home I resolved I should make a fair trial to +gain an honest livelihood. I had about thirteen pounds of a gratuity +coming to me, and by the aid of the vicar I got all that at once, and +set up as a greengrocer. But as I was not very well acquainted with the +business I soon lost my little capital, and I resolved to try and get +work at my trade. I called on all the 'gaffers' in that business, but +none of them would employ me. Those who knew me would have nothing to +do with me; those who didn't wanted a character, which of course I +could not give. Well, I went two days without tasting a bit of food; +but on the third I ate some turnips. On the fourth day I became so +desperate with hunger that I determined on going on the 'cross.' I +commenced, and committed seventeen burglaries right off, in various +parts of the country. The first was in my own town, and the moment I +got the 'wedge'[18] 'planted'[19], I went to the police-office and asked +for a bed for the night, as I had no money. Next day, early, there was +a great hubbub about my job. One of the police came to the office and +swore it must have been done by me; but when the superintendent told +him that I had slept in the station-house all night, and that it could +not have been me, he never said any more about it. The next place I +robbed was a church; but all the rest were shops. I was tried for the +church and two of the other jobs; but I got off the former, as the +clergyman prosecuted me, when it ought to have been some other official +connected with it. I pleaded guilty to the second charge against me; +and it's that I'm now here for. When I was in prison, waiting for +trial, I called myself a Roman Catholic, and was visited by the priest. +One day I confessed to him that I had robbed a church, and that I was +very sorry for it--and so I was, upon my word. That's the only crime I +ever committed which gave me any trouble. Well, the priest was +thunderstruck, and looked daggers at me; but when I told him it was a +Protestant church, he gave me absolution, and said the crime was not so +bad as he at first thought." + + [18] Silver-plate. + + [19] Hidden. + +"What religion do you profess now?" I enquired. + +"Well, I'm down in the books now as a Protestant, or Church of England +man; but I do not believe all that churchmen believe. I think there's a +good deal of humbug about what is called Christianity altogether. I +have tried several creeds, and there's none of them squares exactly +with my ideas." + +"Which of them have you tried?" + +"I was eighteen months a Mormon. My uncle is an elder in their church; +but I got enough of them one night at a meeting. After the business was +concluded, one of the members proposed that the lights should be put +out during the remainder of the proceedings.--My Crikey! that night was +enough for me.... I was in earnest at first though; and when I was +baptised and anointed, I intended to have gone out to the settlement in +America." + +"What do you object to in the Church of England?" + +"Oh! I don't pay much attention to these matters. I like a good man, no +matter what church he belongs to. For instance, the Presbyterian +minister at 'Gib.' was a first-rate man; and so is that chaplain at +Pentonville, the Rev. Mr. Sherman. But I am of the barber's opinion +about church-rates." + +"What was his opinion?" + +"Well, a certain barber opened a shop down our way, and shortly +afterwards was called on to pay the church-rates. 'Church-rates,' says +he, 'what have I to do with church-rates? I never go near the church. I +belong to the dissenters.' 'Well, but you know the church is always +open to receive you, and every Sunday the doors are open for you to +come and worship; and you ought to consider it a privilege to be +permitted to attend on the ministration of God's Holy Word,' was the +reply. 'I do not consider it a privilege to go to a church I don't +believe in,' said the barber. 'I go to a different church, which I am +pleased with, and therefore I won't pay you any rates.' 'But you know +the law will compel you to pay them.' 'Oh, then, there they are; if the +law says so, it must be done.' 'Well, as you have paid me so promptly I +shall be a regular customer of yours, and will now have a 'shave' and +my hair cut,' said the collector. He only continued for a short time, +however, to patronize the barber, having found a shop nearer home and +more convenient. But at the end of the year the barber made out his +account all the same as if he had continued his custom as he had +promised to do. When the collector got the account, he said, 'How's +this? I don't owe you a quarter of this sum; you must have made a +mistake. I have only been so many times at your shop altogether, and +yet you charge me as if I had gone all the year round.' 'My dear sir,' +replied the barber, 'you know that my shop, as by law established, is +always open to receive you, excepting Sunday, when your shop is open, +so that you may avail yourself of my skill, and you ought to consider +it a very great privilege to be permitted to do so.' 'I don't consider +it any privilege to get that from you which I can get from others that +I happen to prefer, on the same terms, and therefore I refuse to pay +your account.' 'Then, it appears, I am obliged to pay your account +whatever it may be, whether I get value for it or not, but yet you are +not obliged to pay me mine unless you do get value for it, even when +you promise to take value. Good morning.' 'Good morning,' said the +collector; and the barber retired. + +"You will see from this colloquy what the barber's notions were about +church rates. Now, I have an idea that it is most unjust for one set of +religious men to force their neighbours who differ from them, to help +to pay for the support of their church, particularly when they are able +themselves to do all that is required in that way, if they were +willing. This mainstay and foundation being rotten, the fabric cannot +be secure. The churchman acts unjustly in this, and to act unjustly is +anti-christian: therefore the churchman is no Christian any more than I +am a Dutchman." + +"Well, we'll leave the church question at present. Have you anything +more to tell me about yourself? Have you never thought seriously about +changing your mode of life when you get out of prison again? An +intelligent fellow like you would do well in America, and I would +strongly recommend you to leave the country as soon as you get your +liberty." + +"As to altering my conduct, I tell you that when I was in the separate +cells, I did resolve on it, and began to pray and read good books, but +after I got among the other prisoners I gave it all up again; I should +like to go abroad well enough, but I shall not have funds for it, so I +must stop at home." + +"Then do you intend to go thieving and robbing again?" + +"Well, I shall never go another day without food, that's certain. If I +can get it honestly, good and well; if not I'll steal: why should a man +starve in a Christian country?" + +"You have the workhouse to go to." + +"The workhouse! it's a second jail: I would nearly as soon be in +prison, and when you have a chance of getting off without being caught, +it's better to run the risk and chance it, for all the difference there +is or ever can be between the workhouse and the prison. They can't make +a man work unless they feed and clothe him, any more than they can make +a steam engine go without fuel. Well, give me food and I'll work; work +is no punishment to me, if I can get meat to support it, and if I don't +I can't, that's all about it. But what's the good of making me work for +years, at work that will not be of any use to me when I get out? I have +only learnt one trade, there are only a very few men in that trade, +they won't employ me; then what am I to do? Starve in a Christian +country? It isn't likely; and as for the workhouse, I shall never go to +it as long as I can be fed in prison, with the chance always of keeping +out of both?" + +"Suppose they should flog you next time?" + +"In the first place, I have a disease on me now that would prevent me +from being flogged, so that I have no fear of flogging. But, even if I +was able to stand flogging, all the difference it would make to me, +would be to make me keep a sharper eye after the 'coppers.' Small game +would not then tempt me so much. I should look after larger stakes, go +in at heavier jobs, and calculate well my chances of escape before +going to work. Once I had made up my mind to commit a crime, and saw +the coast clear, the chance of all the floggings in the world would not +deter me. I'll find you fellows in the prison to-day who will take a +good round flogging for a pound of tobacco! now do you think that the +mere chance of the lash would hinder these men from attempting to get +hold of a few hundred pounds' worth of jewellery? It's not likely. +Thieves weren't frightened into honesty by the gallows, nor would they +be now, if they were to be cut into mince-meat. Thousands might be led +into honest ways if suitable work was found for them, but it would +require to be very different work from that of the 'navvy,' and then +many of them have to be _learned_ to work before they could make a +living at all." + +"Then you don't think flogging did you any good at all?" + +"Certainly it did not; and what's more, you will never find a man doing +much good after being flogged. It either makes him an invalid, or a +desperado. It may make him quiet under authority, but it ensures the +very opposite when he is free." + +This prisoner was a more than usually clever and intelligent type of a +numerous class of convicts--not the most difficult class to cure, but +the next to it, perhaps. Unlike the city-bred professional thief, he +had been taught to work, and such work as he could perform was no +punishment to him. Unlike the professional, he goes out of the prison +hesitating, wavering, as to his future course: willing to take work if +suitable; determined to avoid the workhouse; easily tempted to steal, +resolved to do so rather than starve; but, on the whole, anxious to +make a comfortable livelihood. He had one son, and I remember well how +glad he was when some benevolent person wrote to him to say that he had +been bound an apprentice to a respectable trade. He is now dead. +Another of my companions was of a somewhat different class, and a much +more difficult subject to deal with. He told me that he was fifty-seven +years of age. I asked him how long he had been a prisoner, not adding +his sentences together, but how long he had actually been in prison. + +"Thirty-seven years," he replied. + +"How old were you when you got into trouble first?" + +"Fourteen." + +"What was your first sentence?" + +"Seven years' transportation." + +"How did you like Australia?" + +"Well, the place is well enough, and a man can get a living easier +abroad than he can at home. But I have been rather a queer customer in +my time. I don't believe there's a man in this prison, or in any +prison, who has gone through more hardships and punishments than I have +done." + +"Were you ever flogged?" + +"Flogged! I should think I have. Just wait until night, when I am going +to bed, and I'll let you see my back all in ridges with the cat." + +"What effect had the flogging on your conduct?" + +"Flogging takes out one devil and puts in seven. That's the effect it +had on me. But there's not one in a hundred could stand the floggings +and punishments I have endured. I had ten years once in Australia, and +I was in the penal class most of the time, and, by jingo! they know how +to punish there." + +"Suppose I were to offer you 20_l._ to be flogged, would you accept the +money and take the flogging?" + +"I should think I would, and that very quick, too. I would as soon take +a bashing as bread and water for seven days." + +"Then a bashing, as you call it, would not frighten you from committing +a crime?" + +"If I thought I was going to be caught even, I should not commit a +crime. A 'flat' or a 'mumper' may do a job to get into prison, but I +never do anything unless I believe I am to escape. It's the getting +caught, that's the crime, the punishment you have got to chance. A +fellow needn't begin thieving if he is to be frightened at punishment; +he would never make a living at it. It requires a fellow with a good +heart to be a thief, I can tell you; and if his heart is not in the +right place, he'd better keep on the square." + +"Now, tell me; do you never think seriously about your evil ways? You +are getting up in years, and although you appear to be very robust in +your general health at present, you cannot expect to live very much +longer in this world." + +"Well, to tell you the truth, I do sometimes think of leading an honest +life. But I am so hardened now to all punishment that I don't care very +much what I do. It's not easy for a man at my age to change all of a +sudden to be a Christian, and then it's so difficult to get work +suitable for one's abilities, that I am almost driven to go on the +cross. I have a very good brother, who has been very kind to me, and +I've been thinking several times of going home and getting work from +him. He is the only man who ever did me a kindness since I was fourteen +years of age, and I love and respect him very much." + +This man had been longer in prison than any other I met with. He had +been five times a convict. I considered him the very worst of a certain +class of prisoners that I ever knew, and feel quite convinced that he +will not be many weeks out of prison. He was constantly trafficking +with his fellow-prisoners, and when he could get a chance to steal, his +hands _would_ be at work. I remember his being in the cook-house for a +time, and almost every day he stole several pounds of mutton or beef. +He would steal anything for an inch of tobacco. He was turned out of +the cook-house on suspicion, but they never could punish him for theft +except on one occasion, which happened in the following manner. + +The prisoners were in the habit of getting a pint of oatmeal gruel for +supper. This pint of gruel was supposed to contain two ounces of meal; +but in order to make it part better it was made thinner, so that every +night there was a surplus. This surplus the prisoners thought belonged +to them, and some of the officers permitted the orderlies for the day, +who served it out, to divide whatever remained amongst the prisoners in +their own wards. The authorities, however, did not allow the prisoners +more than a pint:--no matter whether it was thick or thin, no matter +whether there was only one ounce of meal in it, back to the cook-house +and the swill-tub the surplus must go. Some officers adhered to the +rule, others did not. The officer in charge of the prisoner referred to +was one of those who did, and when my friend helped himself to a pint +out of the surplus gruel he was "reported" the same evening (which +happened to be a Saturday). On Sunday the governor, departing from his +usual custom, came to his cell, and passed sentence on him there. When +the prisoner came out of 'Chokey,' as the punishment cells are called +by the prisoners, he came to me about the Sunday sentence of a hungry +man for taking a pint of gruel, which in some proportion belonged to +himself. He fancied it was not legal to pass sentence on a Sunday, and +thought he might get back the time he had forfeited, by appealing to +the director. I told him I did not approve of the conduct of the +governor, but at the same time expressed the opinion that the director +would not interfere in his case. (Whether he did so or not I am unable +to say, as I was removed before the director's visit was due.) This +prisoner was a big stout man, above thirteen stone weight, and there +was nothing the matter with him except a diseased leg. This leg was +rather a convenience to him than otherwise. If he disliked any work he +was put to, he could always get rid of it by making his leg sore, and +this could not be prevented, nor brought directly home to him. When he +was at Dartmoor prison he was always in hospital; but now, as his work +pleased him better he seldom troubled the doctor. On the contrary, when +about due to go home, that is when he arrived at his last stage, and +became entitled to beer and other privileges, he wanted to get out of +the invalid prison, where these privileges are not allowed unless the +state of the invalid requires them, and to be sent to the public works +where they would be granted. + +Many convicts are so afflicted that they can almost compel the doctor +to admit them into the hospital. So whenever they are put into some +billet they like they are well, and whenever they are put into one they +dislike they send in a sick report, and the medical officer in general +must admit them. This was the case with the prisoner I have referred +to. Moreover, I question if he was ever a single day in the prison +without doing something that was considered wrong, and yet he was very +seldom detected or punished. Every day he was trafficking, frequently +he was stealing, and he told lies as a rule. Speaking the truth was +quite an exceptional matter with him. Thieves generally consider it to +be a virtue rather than a sin to tell a lie to save a 'pal' from +punishment, but in cases where their own interests are not specially at +stake, they can speak the truth as well as other men. But this prisoner +seemed utterly incapable of speaking the truth, even when falsehood +brought no advantage to him. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +ANOTHER PRISONER--"HAPPY AS A KING"--CURE OF A DOCTOR--THE TOBACCO +AND FOOD EXCHANGE--ANOTHER JAIL-BIRD--CIVIL AND LAZY--UNDESERVED +REMISSION--PRISON DIRECTORS, AND HOW THEY DISCHARGE THEIR +DUTIES--I PETITION TO GO ABROAD ON "INSUFFICIENT GROUNDS." + + +Another prisoner I knew had been about thirty-two years in prison--he +was paralyzed, and if he had been allowed a little tobacco daily, would +have been as happy as a king, and never sought to leave the prison. He +generally sold most of his food to other prisoners for tobacco; +occasionally he was detected and punished, and I always observed that +he came out of 'Chokey' fatter than when he went in. Neither was his an +exceptional case in this respect. The penal diet, which mainly consists +of farinaceous food, will keep up the flesh, though not the strength, +as well as the regular diet. In Scotland I have seen prisoners get +stout in appearance on the oatmeal! but on the other hand they +generally broke out in boils, after being six or nine months without +other varieties of food; and I have also known very stout men lose two +or three stone in weight in as many months. I am inclined to believe +that tobacco is beneficial in cases of insufficient food. I do not use +it myself, nor do I think it beneficial to those who have plenty of +food, but the reverse. I have known prisoners, however, who had good +health in the Scotch prisons, when they used tobacco--and fortunately +for them, the weed and many other luxuries are easily obtained there, +if you only know the way and have money. If I had known at the +commencement of my prison career what I now know, I might have had +mutton chops daily, if I had been inclined to adopt some of the +'dodges' I afterwards learnt. I knew one prisoner who obtained his end +in a somewhat questionable way. He had made some complaint to the +doctor, who, as usual, paid very little attention to it. On seeing that +he was not to receive any medical aid by fair means, he resorted to +foul, and took up a certain utensil, full to the brim, and emptied its +contents in the face and over the shirt-front of the hapless +pill-compounder. The remedy was doubtless severe, but the disease was +chronic and the improvement marked and rapid. The prisoner got good +diet and was soon after in good health. + +The price of tobacco at the "Thieves' Palace or Invalid Criminal +Hotel," for so the Surrey Prison was sometimes designated by the +inmates, was about one shilling per ounce, when I left. It seldom went +below 10_d._ At first when I arrived, there were yards of it in +one place or another, but the crime of having a bit of it found on the +person, being now severely punished, the convicts keep it out of sight +more carefully and are more on their guard, seldom having more on their +person than they can swallow. All 'fly' men who use tobacco can procure +it in any convict prison; but the 'flats,' have to deny themselves the +prisoners' greatest luxury, but even they sometimes get a taste of it +by selling their food. An inch of tobacco will fetch four ounces of +cheese, or mutton, it will also procure one and a-half pounds of bread. +Sometimes it is worth more, according to the business abilities of the +trader. The exchange of food is a daily custom. One prisoner with a +good appetite requiring double the allowance of food, will give four +ounces of cheese for twenty-three ounces of bread, or five ounces of +mutton for the same quantity. In this way the man with the capacious +stomach gets it filled, and the man with a dainty appetite gets better +food. All this sort of traffic is quite contrary to the prison rules, +and in the case of tobacco it is severely punished, but prisoners will +have it, and many of them do have it regularly. The prisoner referred +to at the commencement of this chapter was remarkable for his love of +the weed, and it was not often he missed a day without getting a taste +of it, at the sacrifice, however, of nearly all his food. He was only +fit for the jail or the workhouse, and would commit a theft rather than +deny himself a single meal." + +"I will mention only another of my companions in hospital, whose case +will illustrate with what wisdom and discrimination the prison +directors and governors use the powers delegated to them, encouraging +the well-behaved and reforming the penitent convict!" + +This prisoner had been a long time a convict. I asked him when he was +first convicted. + +"In 1838," he replied. + +"What sentence did you then receive?" + +"I got two sentences, one seven years and the other eight years, making +fifteen together, and I did about seven years and eight months out of +the fifteen years. + +"You got a free pardon, I suppose?" + +"Yes." + +"Did they not send you abroad, then?" + +"My health was not very strong and I did my time at the ships." + +"How did you like them?" + +"Oh, very well, there was not so much of this stupid +humbugging-us-about system as there is now, but we were not kept so +clean. The Scots-greys were frequently on the march on the clothes of +the convicts." + +"What was your next sentence?" + +"Life." + +"How many years did you have to do?" + +"I got off on 'medical grounds' when I had done about two years and +a-half. I got 'copt' again, however, and was sent back to do 'life' a +second time; then I was liberated after I had done seven and a-half +years more, making ten years altogether out of two 'life's.'" + +"What have you got this time?" + +"Ten years." + +"What do you intend to do when you get out this time?" + +"Why, it's no use trying to get work; I am not able for anything very +hard now, and I think I shall make snyde half-crowns." + +"You'll get caught again if you commence that game." + +"No I won't. I did that when I was out last, and several times before, +and I have never been caught yet for that job. I can go and buy silver +spoons, and get tools that I can destroy in a few minutes." + +"But why not go to the workhouse?" + +"The workhouse! why, the workhouse in our country is as bad, if not +worse than this, and this is bad enough. No; I will never enter a +workhouse as long as I can get anything to steal. Some workhouses are +better than this; but then when you steal you are not always caught, +and you have yourself to blame if you're 'copt.' I will steal the very +first chance I get, as soon as I get out at the gates. They won't give +me work I can make a living at, and I'll not starve nor want a single +meal. I'll have better mutton the day I get out than we have here, +perhaps, and it will cost me nothing." + +This prisoner was a thorough jail-bird, quiet and civil to his +officers, growling at his food, slow at work, but always doing a +little--a very good example of the type "civil and lazy." He received +his ten years' sentence about four years ago, when it was customary for +those who had revoked a licence to be refused a remission of sentence a +second time. But, in September, 1864, he was credited with +two-and-a-half years' remission, and in the summer of 1865 he was +credited with another three months, unasked, unexpected, and in the +latter case, quite inexplicable consistently with justice to others. +Indeed, the only explanation which can be given of this undeserved and +unexpected leniency is to suppose that the prison officials, like +shopkeepers, treat their "regular" customers best, and that they do not +see any reason why their business should not be encouraged, and the +prisons kept as full and quiet as possible by the same methods as other +men adopt who have to make an honest living by their trade. We have +seen the effects of cotton famine, and I am sure matters would have +come to a sad pass if we were to witness a _convict famine_, and to be +compelled to open our workhouse gates to the starving families of our +convict guardians. + +It is very natural, and in a sense, laudable, that these latter should +seek by such means as are available to them to prevent the occurrence +of any such calamity. Hence, civil quiet ruffians, like the prisoner I +have referred to, are encouraged. They are an article with which they +have little trouble, and out of which they can make both profit and +capital. + +My own case was somewhat different. Once out of prison I was not likely +to return; neither was I of the "sort" prison officials are accustomed +to manage. Moreover, my eyes were open, and my future was not quite so +certainly in their hands as to warrant them in feeling secure that what +I saw might not hereafter be described for the information of others. +The difficulties I experienced in gaining even the slightest concession +were great, and contrast strangely with the case I have mentioned. A +few months previous to my discharge from hospital, I gave in my name in +the usual manner as being desirous to speak with the visiting director. +I may here explain that there are four directors of convict prisons in +England. One of them had the manners and the reputation of a gentleman; +two of them may indeed have been men of ability, but their deportment +to the convicts was certainly not calculated to give them any more +exalted ideas than they already possessed of the civility and good +manners obtaining amongst those above them; the fourth was the beau +ideal of a bully, and his influence on the convict the statistics of +the prison will show to have been baneful in the extreme. + +The powers of these directors are much more extensive than that of the +magistrates in our county prisons. In the latter, the visiting +magistrate will ask the prisoners if they have any complaint to make; +but this is not the case with the convict director, whom none can +approach without giving formal notice, and who generally leaves the +prison followed by the curses and maledictions of the majority of the +prisoners. In reality, the prison director holds absolute sway over +some thousands of his fellow men; there is no appeal from his +decisions; his court is held, and prisoners are sentenced and punished, +but there are no reporters for the press. The wholesome influence of +public opinion does not penetrate that secret and irresponsible +tribunal. Such being the case, it is to be lamented that we cannot or +do not find men to fill the office who are capable of discharging its +duties with fairness and civility. Before I sought an interview with +the director, I had written a letter to the late Mr. Cobden, in which, +after narrating the particulars of my case, I expressed the hope that +he might feel it consistent with his public duty to endeavour to +procure for me the same treatment with reference to liberation as had +been extended to other prisoners who had suffered the loss of a similar +limb at the same prison before me. This was considered improper +language, and the letter was suppressed. When called before the +authorities on this occasion, I asked them to point out all the +objectionable passages, in order that I might know what to omit in +writing it another time. But this they would not do, and all the +satisfaction I could get was that my letter might not only be shown to +the Home Secretary, but also be noticed in the House of Commons, and +that they might be blamed for passing it. The idea of my letter being +noticed in the House of Commons was new and not very agreeable to me, +but I also thought it very improbable that such would be the case, and +remarked in reply that there was nothing in the letter that a prisoner +could be justly blamed for writing, and that its publication could not +have an injurious effect on the public interest. This was not denied, +but the letter was suppressed nevertheless, and I presume, still lies +among many similar documents which have from time to time met with the +same fate. + +On the morning following my application for an interview with the +director, I was informed that I could not see him on that occasion, as +he was expected that very day. This refusal appeared strange to me, +inasmuch as I knew of other prisoners who were permitted to speak to +the director who had not given in their names earlier than I did. There +was nothing for it, however, but to wait patiently for another month, +and to give in my name a second time, when I was permitted my first +interview with a prison director. I remember it well. + +The director was seated at a desk in the governor's room, with the +governor likewise seated at his side. A large book lay on the desk, in +which the director wrote, or was supposed to write, what the prisoners +requested or complained of, what punishments he awarded, with all the +particulars regarding the offences, what answers he gave to complaints, +requests, &c. Not a very trustworthy book that, I should say. In front +of the desk stood two warders with staves in their hands, and between +these two men I was placed. I asked the director, very politely, if he +would be kind enough to look into my case, and recommend me to the Home +Secretary for the same leniency as had been extended to other three +prisoners, who had each lost a leg in prison from disease, shortly +before me. + +"No prisoners have lost their legs from disease; there was some +accident connected with it." + +This was the reply made to me, in a gruff, bullying tone of voice. I +then begged his pardon, and commenced to give the names of the +prisoners whose cases I had mentioned. But when the director saw that I +was familiar with the cases he would not permit me to proceed, and +refused peremptorily to look into my case. I then asked him to be kind +enough to allow me to petition the Home Secretary on the merits of my +case, as I petitioned the first time solely on the ground of having +lost my leg, and being in bad health. + +"No, no, no! that will do. Call the next man." + +And I was bundled out of the room, with the prayer on my lips that I +might never more be compelled to speak to such a man. Convicts, I may +add, are freely permitted to petition the Home Secretary every twelve +months; at this time nearly eighteen months had elapsed since I +petitioned first. To show that I had some grounds for my request, I +will mention the cases of the prisoners who had lost limbs at the same +prison shortly before me. + + A.--Sentence nearly double mine. Crime, rape on his own daughter. + He had only been a short time in prison when his leg required to be + amputated, in consequence of disease in the knee-joint. He was told + by the doctor, before the operation, that he would be liberated on + recovery. Patient died. + + B.--A regular thief, with many previous convictions. Lost a + diseased limb. Was offered his liberty by the authorities, and his + license was issued, but his father would not receive him. He + ultimately died in prison. + + C.--A French housebreaker who had been in English prisons before. + Sentence, seven years. Lost his leg in consequence of disease in + the knee-joint, and recovered speedily. He was sent home a few + months after the operation, and before he had been so long in + prison as I had been at the time of my request. + +I now felt rather unhappy under the severity with which I was treated, +and wrote a letter to my brother, in which I mentioned having seen the +visiting director; but this letter was also suppressed, and I was +warned not to mention the director's name in any letter, or inform my +friends of the suppressed letter to Mr. Cobden. I felt hurt at its +suppression, for its spirit was most unobjectionable; and the governor +seemed to think so too, for he allowed me a sheet of paper to write to +the director. My object in this letter was to obtain permission to +petition the Home Secretary for liberty to go abroad. At this time all +healthy and sound prisoners of my age, who had received the same +sentence, were about due for their "ticket," in Western Australia; and +as I did not see why the loss of a leg should cause me to be kept in +prison for years after they were liberated, I resolved to petition to +go abroad. I accordingly wrote my letter to the director, carefully +excluding any reference to my treatment in the government prison, so as +not to give any offence. An answer came back, in suspicious haste, that +I was to petition the Home Secretary in the very same language as I had +used in the letter. I was not exactly pleased with this, as I wished to +say something about the merits of my case; but there was no help for +it, and I must petition as I was told, or not petition at all. I +petitioned accordingly, in precisely the same language, merely using +the third instead of the first person singular. But it was of no use. +Indeed I do not believe the petition was ever sent to the Secretary of +State at all. All these documents go in the first instance to the +directors, and they are understood to deal with them as they think +proper. + +Sometimes their machinery gets out of order, and the method by which +these things are done gets to be exposed. Two cases where answers were +received to petitions _which were never sent_, are very familiar to the +majority of convicts. In the one case the prisoner had drawn his paper, +but delayed writing the petition. The reply came notwithstanding, "Not +sufficient grounds." In the other case the petition was discovered +mislaid in the office, or some other part of the prison, after the +prisoner had received his answer. The official replies to petitions +appear to be stereotyped, and the names of the petitioners are merely +written on the margin. One reply does for any number of petitions, and +all the officials have to do is to write the name of the prisoner who +draws petition paper on the margin of the answer, about a month after +the paper has been issued. On the day I wrote the last petition I was +discharged from the hospital, and transferred down-stairs to a room +containing twenty-four prisoners. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +THE PRISON--DAILY ROUTINE--READINGS IN PRISON--QUARRELS AMONG THE +PRISONERS--PROTESTANTS VERSUS CATHOLICS--SCHOOL--SUNDAYS IN +PRISON--"SACRAMENT BLOKES"--TURNING POINT IN PRISONERS' CAREER. + + +My readers must now descend with me from the hospital, to what the +convicts termed the twenty-four bedded room in the prison. In the cells +and in the hospital, quietness reigned, but in the twenty-four bedded +room it was different. Here the prisoners talked and conducted +themselves very much as they felt inclined, and in the evenings the +noise and tumult was sometimes beyond description. The inmates were +constantly changing, some going upstairs to hospital, some coming from +it, and every now and again there were fresh arrivals from other +prisons. The daily routine observed here and in the similar wards was +as follows:-- + +We started out of bed at half-past five a.m., summer and winter; +washed, dressed, and made our beds, and two or three times every week +assisted in scrubbing the floor. At six o'clock the officer opened the +room door and counted us. At half-past six we had breakfast. About +twenty minutes past seven we were ranked up in the corridor, and +counted a second time. At half-past seven we were in chapel. At eight +o'clock we were on parade and counted a third time. Those who worked +outside and were receiving full diet went to their work. Those who +worked inside walked on the parade until half-past eight. They were +then ranked up and counted for the fourth time; and at nine o'clock all +were at work. At 11.45 we were counted for the fifth time, and at +twelve o'clock we were at dinner. At 12.50 we were again ranked in the +corridor and counted for the sixth time. At one o'clock we were on +parade and counted for the seventh time, before exercise commenced. At +ten minutes after two we were counted for the eighth time, and at two +we were all again at work. When we left off work in the evening we were +counted for the ninth time, amongst the party with whom we worked, and +for the tenth time when we returned to the ward. At half-past five we +got supper, and at half-past seven we were ordered to bed. At eight +o'clock we were commanded to cease talking, and at nine o'clock the +night officer counted us for the eleventh time and left us to repose. I +used to rejoice when bed-time came, for I then could be alone and at +home. Then there were no prison walls for me, for I had ceased brooding +over the past, and endeavoured to peer into and prepare for the +uncertain future. In winter and spring, when the weather was cold, it +used to be rather trying for me to stand so long on parade being +counted. About an hour or an hour-and-a-half was spent in this way each +day. Then the clothing of those of us who worked indoors was the same +on the coldest day in winter as on the hottest day in summer. This was +an excellent arrangement for keeping the hospital supplied with +patients. I knew many who suffered from this cause, and some who +attributed their death to the want of proper under-clothing. I felt the +cold more perhaps than the others, as my hands were exposed holding my +crutches, and my speed in walking could never get beyond that of a +goods train, whilst my companions could run at express speed when it +suited them. + +My employment was knitting and reading aloud to the prisoners. At that +time, and up to a very recent date, it was the custom where fifty or a +hundred prisoners were at work, for one of the prisoners to read aloud +an hour every forenoon and afternoon. When I commenced this reading, my +audience were very careless about listening, unless when I read some +amusing work of fiction. Indeed, other prisoners did not attempt to +read any book of a more solid description. But during the years I was +engaged in this way I had the most abundant and satisfactory testimony +that I had obtained an influence over the minds of the prisoners, and +had succeeded in attracting their attention to general literature in a +more effectual manner than any of my predecessors. + +My readers will have been accustomed, perhaps, to regard convicts as +very ignorant men, but it must be borne in mind that they belong to all +classes of society, and if I were to speak of them in the mass, I +should say that they were much more intelligent and as well educated as +the ordinary peasantry of England. When I commenced reading in prison +there were a good many works in the library, which were afterwards +withdrawn as being too amusing for the place. These were such works as +"The Last Days of Pompeii," "Now and Then," "Adam Bede," "Poor Jack," +"Margaret Catchpole," "Irving's Sketch-book," "Dickens's Christmas +Tales," &c. There still remained periodicals with tales in them, and +these with a mixture of historical, biographical and other-works, +constituted the general reading in the work-rooms. The periodicals I +note in the order of their popularity, "Chambers's Journal," "Leisure +Hour," "Good Words," "The Quiver," "Sunday Magazine," and "Sunday at +Home." The reading of an article in the "Leisure Hour," entitled the +"Thief in the Confessional," was the chief cause of the readings being +discontinued both in the work-rooms and the hospital. As this happened +recently and the particulars are still fresh in my memory I will +narrate them here. There were readings aloud in four hospital and three +work-rooms in the prison. In the hospital the Roman Catholics were kept +by themselves, and had a Roman Catholic reader. In the prison they were +scattered among the Protestants, and in the three work-rooms referred +to, perhaps about one-fifth of the prisoners were Roman Catholics. In +these rooms a Protestant reader was appointed, and there was no +disturbance about this arrangement until the arrival of a few Fenians, +and a zealous or rather an officious priest. + +Shortly after their arrival the other Roman Catholic prisoners became +for the most part Fenians, and religious animosities soon sprang up +among the prisoners. Macaulay's History of England was being read by +one of my fellow prisoners, in one of the work-rooms, or sheds, as they +were called, when one of the ignorant and bigoted members of the Roman +Catholic creed got up and objected to its being read, and complained to +the governor on the subject. The governor, anxious perhaps to please +the new visiting director, who was reported to be a Roman Catholic, +took the complainant's part. The reading of the book was discontinued, +to the great exultation of the Roman Catholics: however, I got the same +book, and it was read from beginning to end in the work-room where I +was employed! the chaplain and the more intelligent Roman Catholics +considering it a very suitable book for the purpose. About this time I +wished to be exempted from reading on account of my health, and when I +could get a substitute I did give it up for some time; but the +substitutes available were not popular with the prisoners, and it was +very difficult to find suitable readers amongst them. Two of the Roman +Catholics wanted to read, one was a Fenian and a literary man, the +other was an ignorant conceited professional thief and an avowed +infidel, but they were not allowed: meanwhile the article I have +referred to as appearing in the "Leisure Hour," was read in one of the +sheds, and it so offended some of the Roman Catholics and the +professional thief and infidel who was not allowed to read, that he +took the matter before the director, who ordered all reading aloud to +be discontinued throughout the prison! + +This decision illustrates the usual method adopted by convict +authorities in dealing with questions connected with the treatment of +prisoners. If a privilege is granted to the convicts and one out of 600 +abuses that privilege the 599 will be deprived of it. It was no matter +whether the privilege had a good or bad effect upon the majority of the +prisoners, if it gave the governor and the directors any trouble they +soon put an end to it. If it was a good thing for the prisoners and +tended in any way towards the diminution of crime, to have these +readings, the directors could have separated the Roman Catholics from +the Protestants without any difficulty. If it was a bad thing why was +it continued so long? The Roman Catholics had one legitimate ground of +complaint, however, in the chaplain having frequently ordered articles +to be cut out of "Chambers's Journal," "Good Words," &c. The prisoners +naturally asked "Why cut out anything? why not let us judge for +ourselves? If the books are good let us have them whole; if bad, reject +them altogether; or if there is to be cutting out, why not cut out 'The +Thief out of the Confessional,' which is so offensive to the true +Catholic?" I happened to read several of the articles which were so cut +out, and in several cases one number of a periodical got bound up and +in circulation with the condemned article in it. I here note a few +articles which were placed in the chaplain's _Index Expurgatoriam_, +1st--"Evasions of the Law," an article which appeared in "Good Words," +and I may remark that convicts could scarcely be made worse by reading +it, for they knew all it contained and probably more than the writer of +it did. 2nd--A review of a work by a female warder, in "Chambers's +Journal." 3rd--The last half of "The Franklins," a story in the +"Leisure Hour." 4th--An article on the "Prisoners' Aid Society" which +appeared in the "Quiver," some years ago. + +In addition to my employments of knitting and reading, I had to go to +school one half-day every week for about twelve months, or until a +certain class were exempted from attending. On entering the school the +prisoner sat until the roll was called, and after half-an-hour was thus +spent, he read a couple of verses from the Old Testament, and then +listened to an explanation of the passage read. This done, he wrote a +short time in his copy book, if he felt inclined, and the proceedings +were wound up by a short lecture on some scientific subject. I fear +there is not much good done in our convict schools. Teaching, or trying +to teach, men ranging from thirty to eighty years of age, who are +determined not to learn, or at least so careless about the matter that +they never can learn, seems to me a waste of public money. Young men +sometimes learn a good deal of French, arithmetic, &c., in prison, but +it is not at the school, but from their fellow prisoners that they +receive such instruction. + +My Sunday routine differed from that of the other days of the week, +chiefly in having chapel-going substituted for work, and being allowed +to be in bed an hour longer in the morning. + +Shortly after taking up my abode in the twenty-four-bedded room, the +diet was changed, and this was the cause of much noise among the +convicts. The day fixed for the alteration was a Sunday. The former +Sunday's dinner consisted of soup, mutton, and potatoes. The new Sunday +dinner was dry bread and four ounces of bad cheese. On being served +with this, the prisoners began cursing and swearing, and calling the +head officials all the bad names they could think of: "This is what +they call Christianity, is it, the ---- hypocrites? Starving a man on +Sundays above all days, and then taking us up to that chapel to tell us +about mercy and forgiveness and loving our neighbours! This is the way +to reform us and make us better, is it?--By jingo! I will make somebody +pay for all this yet. I'll not get my next bit for nothing," &c., &c. +Such was the burden of the conversation on this and succeeding Sunday +afternoons. To force men to go to hear the Word of God preached when +their hearts are full of evil thoughts and their mouths full of curses +is far from being a likely mode of leading men to Christ. The +chaplain's position in the pulpit used to strike me as being something +like that of a farmer sowing good seed broad-cast over a field so +overgrown with tares, that the seed could never reach the soil. If he +attempts to clear the soil of the weeds, to win the hearts of the +prisoners, he finds the whole system of prison discipline arrayed +against him. That discipline breeds and encourages the growth of every +evil passion in the heart of man, and he, the chaplain, is part of that +system: he lives by it, and he is not allowed to interfere with it, at +all events he never did so. When prisoners complained to him of some +injustice or some cruelty, they got for reply: "I am here to preach the +Gospel, and I can do nothing in the matter." + +Chaplains paid by the State, and forming part of the penal +establishment, can never do much good to the prisoners, except in so +far as they operate as a check upon the cruelty or neglect of the +governor and other officers. Missionaries having no connection with +Government, might do some good amongst them. At the time I commenced to +attend the prison chapel, I learned that a score or so of convicts took +the sacrament. Some of them were truly pious, as far as one could judge +in such matters, others were unfit or unworthy partakers, the whole of +them were called by the other prisoners "Parson's men," or "Sacrament +blokes," and it used to pain me to hear them scoffed and mocked at. It +was a great victory if they could be got to swear on the evening of the +communion day: I never could make up my mind to become a "Parson's +man," for reasons perhaps not very satisfactory, even to myself. In the +first place I belonged to another branch of the church; then I had only +one leg and could not kneel at the altar, and would have felt while +standing something like a beggar in dirty rags in a fine pew among +silks and satins; then again I would have lost my influence over many +of my fellow-prisoners. I may have been wrong in all this, but as I +once said to my fellow-prisoners when appealed to on the subject of +religion, "There are only three cardinal points in my religious belief, +and these are simple and easily remembered--believe in Christ, love +God, and love my neighbour; what I do inconsistent with the last I know +to be wrong. It is inconsistent, I think, with the latter, for +Protestants to revile and speak evil of Roman Catholics, and _vice +versa_, therefore I disapprove of discussions and arguments on +religious belief among prisoners, as they usually lead to feelings +incompatible with true neighbourly love." Such was my reply to a +question addressed to me by a convict during a hot debate between the +Protestants and Roman Catholics, and it allayed the storm instantly. As +a rule I avoided and discountenanced all discussion on theological +subjects. + +After I had been four weeks in the prison I began to get a little +downhearted at finding myself so far removed from sympathy. In the +hospital I had an occasional chat with a Scripture-reader, but here +there was no one with whom I could have any intellectual conversation, +and no visitors were allowed. I felt very sad and dispirited for a +time, and wrote to my friends that I should like to have a visit from a +clergyman of my own persuasion who resided in London. I got for a reply +a visit from some of my own friends, who mentioned that the gentleman +whose visit I desired was too much occupied with his own flock to look +after a lost sheep like me. I notice this chiefly in order to remark +that this was a kind of turning point in my prison career: the point at +which the generality of prisoners turn from bad to worse, and when long +imprisonment ceases to be an instrument for good; when human sympathy +is sought, and by the great majority of prisoners sought in vain, and +when in consequence they seek to obtain the sympathy of their evil +companions, and begin in earnest that downward career which knows no +shame, and finds its goal in the convict's grave. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +INDISCRIMINATE ASSOCIATION OF PRISONERS--TRANSPORTATION, AND THE +CAUSE OF ITS FAILURE--A GUNSMITH. + + +As I have already said in a previous chapter, one of the most glaring +defects in our present system of penal servitude, viewed as a means of +reformation as well as of punishment, is the indiscriminate association +of all classes of criminals, or rather all criminals with a certain +sentence, irrespective of the nature of the crime they have committed, +the previous character of the criminal or the probability of his +re-admission into society as an honest and useful member of it. I have +met in the same ward prisoners of widely different characters and +antecedents, whose crimes afforded conclusive proofs that in habits, +disposition, and general conduct, they would never, in the natural +order of things, become associates, compelled by law to mate with each +other as equals, and to learn of each other how to injure, not how to +benefit society and themselves. There are, for instance, certain crimes +which a man may commit under the influence of strong passions, aroused +in moments of great temptation, such as rape; or of great provocation, +such as manslaughter; or committed under the pressure of misfortune, or +to avoid, impending ruin, such as forgery or embezzlement, which do not +necessarily prove the criminal to be of habitually depraved habits, or +generally of a violent and vicious disposition. I found as a rule +prisoners guilty of these crimes undergoing their first sentences. +Prison life and prison associations were new to them as to me. They had +no inclination to repeat the offence, or to pursue a career of crime, +but rather disposed to redeem their character, and live an honest and +industrious life. Yet this class of prisoners are condemned, in +addition to the loss of liberty and character, to live in constant +contact, for years it may be, with the professional thief and +house-breaker, the burglar, and the garotter, who has been frequently +convicted, and whose whole life is spent between the prison and the +"cross." The natural and inevitable result of this is contamination. +Even in the case of men possessing high principle and of great moral +fortitude the effect would be deteriorating and pernicious. With men of +weak resolution, strong passions, and a comparatively low standard of +morality, the consequences cannot be doubtful in the majority of cases. +They gradually lose self-respect, cease to think of reformation or +amendment, in time they come to envy the hardened stoicism and +"gameness" of the practised ruffian, learn his language, imbibe his +notions of life, and finally resolve, since character, self-respect, +and all else that bind them to morality and virtue are lost, that they +will compel society to make amends for the ruin it has brought upon +them. It is from this class I am persuaded that the ranks of our born +and bred convicts are so largely and so constantly supplemented. Yet +how easily and how speedily might this source of supply be diminished, +if not altogether closed. + +The old Transportation Act, although it may not have provided for any +such separation as that I have just indicated, and although it was +based on what I consider pernicious principles, was undoubtedly the +most effectual plan for getting rid of our criminal population, and in +its operation the most merciful to the prisoner of any of our recent +parliamentary enactments. Had its provisions been efficiently and +judiciously administered, we might still have been sending convicts to +our colonies. But the business of exporting our "dirty linen" was +grossly mismanaged. The merchant who hopes to succeed as an exporter +must study carefully the class of goods suitable for the market he +proposes to supply, and send only those he is confident will be +approved of and meet a ready sale. But our prison authorities, by some +fatality, so organized the system of selection of convicts for +transportation that those who were, of all men, the very last a young +and virtuous community would seek, were forced upon them, whilst those +for whom there was a constant demand, and who would have regarded +transportation and liberation abroad as the opportunity for escaping +from social prejudice, of retrieving their lost character, and of +commencing anew a life of honesty and industry, were condemned to pine +in the prisons at home, and in too many cases, to adopt a career of +crime when their sentences expired. The first and great commandment the +prison authorities regarded in their selection was, that the prisoner +should be physically healthy, sound in wind and limb; and the second +was, that he should have been a certain time in prison at home after +receiving his last sentence and conducted himself well whilst there. No +enquiry was made into the prisoner's previous history, employment, +education, or general disposition and habits, which, one would +naturally have thought necessary before any intelligent opinion could +be formed as to the probabilities of his future career abroad. Now, +although the qualifications of health and good conduct might seem to be +good and sufficient grounds on which to make such a selection as was +required for transportation, those acquainted with prisoners and prison +life will at once perceive that they were very far from being so. In +the first place, a great many of the prisoners who would have adopted +an honest life and been a benefit to the colonies if they had been sent +there, but who were rejected on account of ill-health, had become +diseased in prison and in consequence of their imprisonment, and would +in all probability have recovered their usual good health before they +had reached their destination abroad. These were generally men of +education, and accustomed to generous diet, but the prison discipline +and scale of dietary soon told upon their health, and disqualified them +in the eyes of the prison officials for the boon of transportation. +Even if their health was not restored by the sea voyage and liberation +abroad, it was only exchanging the hospital abroad for the hospital at +home. If the experiment succeeded, who may estimate its value to him +who was the subject of it? Again, "good conduct," as indicated by the +standard of our prison authorities, is anything but a trustworthy +criterion of the convict's true character and disposition. It does not +mean that the prisoner has shown himself honest, industrious, or well +disposed, or in any active sense what the phrase is ordinarily supposed +to mean; indeed the system of penal servitude does not permit the +prisoner any opportunity of showing that he is so. All that "good +conduct," in prison official language means is, that the prisoner has +not broken any of the prison rules, and is therefore a purely negative +quality; scrupulous obedience to prison discipline and regulations, +with severe penalties attached to transgression, is a very sorry basis +on which to found a character of good conduct in a convict. The +consequence was, if one of the greatest ruffians that ever entered the +prison gates were to make up his mind, as I have known many of them do, +to go abroad, he knew that he had only to study the rules of the prison +and obey them for a certain length of time, and he would obtain his +object, and be let loose among the innocent colonists, to rob and +murder as he found opportunity. Thousands of such men, who had +purposely behaved themselves well in the prison at home, with the grim +determination of making amends for their restraint by a career of +increased violence and ruffianism abroad, were thus let loose upon +colonial society, and there is no wonder that the colonies rose up in +indignation and shut their ports against them. As a rule, it was the +hardened criminal whose reformation under existing laws was, I may +safely say, entirely out of the question, who, on the score of health +and good conduct, most perfectly fulfilled the conditions required by +the prison authorities, and most frequently had the boon of +transportation extended to him. Accustomed by long and frequent +experience to prison diet and discipline, and to all the "dodges" for +augmenting the one and evading or modifying the other, he could keep +himself in perfect health under circumstances which would send a less +experienced and more sensitive man to the hospital in a month; whilst +his familiarity with all the petty rules and regulations of the prison, +which the novice is in constant danger of breaking (quite +unintentionally), enabled him to steer clear of any offence that could +be reported if he thought it for his interest to strive for the +convict's prize. In fact, "good conduct," as exemplified by a convict +according to the prison standard, affords no more reliable evidence of +his moral qualities and industrious habits, than proficiency in drill +affords of the moral character of the private soldier. + +It is quite clear that selection on these terms could only by a rare +accident find the suitable men for sending abroad. And yet it is my +firm conviction that I, or any other man possessing ordinary +intelligence and insight into human character and experience of convict +life, could, with the utmost ease, have selected from the inmates of +our prisons a very large number for exportation, whom our colonists +would have been glad to receive, and who would have been rescued from a +life of ignominy or crime at home. The question may very naturally be +asked--Why could not our prison officials have done the same? The only +answer I can give is that our prison officials (excepting the very +highest) are directly interested in _maintaining_ and _increasing_, +and not in _reducing_, the number of our convicts, and they are +therefore inclined to favour the liberation of those whom they are +pretty sure will soon return. + +As a fair and forcible example of the advantage which might have been +taken of the "Transportation Act," in dealing with a certain class of +prisoners, and also as an illustration--not nearly so forcible as +others I have alluded to, and will yet notice--of the fault of the +authorities in the matter of selection, I will mention one case. Three +young men received sentence of twenty years' penal servitude for rape. +One of them, quite a youth, was more a spectator of than a principal in +the crime, the other two being the really guilty parties. The three +were in due course sent to Portsmouth. The guilty pair were sent +abroad, and liberated before the end of five years from the date of +their conviction. One of them is now married and settled comfortably +abroad, and the other lodges with him. The other prisoner, being young +and not very muscular, received some injury while at work and was sent +to the Invalid Criminal Hospital in Surrey, and has to remain in +prison, in a state useless to himself and to society, for eight or nine +years longer than his more guilty companions. + +But the day has gone by for successful re-establishment of a penal +colony. I do not think there are many who would commit crimes for the +express purpose of getting abroad, unless the colony was very +attractive; but no country where officers can be got to reside will +ever be looked upon with dread by the majority of criminals. A penal +colony, I am convinced, would have no deterring influence on the minds +of those convicts who are most difficult to deal with. It would have +such an effect upon certain classes of prisoners, but their numbers are +small, and less expensive remedies might be found even more effectual +in their cases. + +When convicts leave prison they could be divided into three classes. +First, those men who are not only determined to live honestly, but who +in all human probability will never again enter a prison; their number +may amount to about ten per cent. of the whole. Another class leave +prison with the deliberate intention of committing crime, and their +number may be about forty per cent. The third class, comprising about +fifty per cent. of the whole, belong to the hesitating, unsteady, +wavering class. Many of this class do manage to keep out of prison, but +at least one half of them return, and, along with the forty per cent. +of professionals, bring up the number of the re-convicted to seventy +per cent. Now, it must be quite clear that if we would reduce this +number, it is to the fifty per cent of waverers that our efforts must +be principally directed. The other classes either do not require or +will not benefit by our endeavours. Our present law is altogether +unable to cure the professional thief. I never heard, and I never met +with a convict who ever heard, of any of this class being converted +into honest men by the operation of our present system, nor do I +believe it possible to point to a single case. The professional thief +lacks three virtues--economy, industry, honesty. Now, under the present +system it is positively forbidden to give him any practical lesson +either in economy or honesty; industry, indeed, might be taught him, +but he rarely if ever receives an intelligent lesson, for it must be +remembered that enforced labour does not teach the labourer industry, +but is more likely to inspire him with an aversion to it. All that can +be done with the professional thief, under existing laws, beyond the +punishment of confinement and vigorous prison discipline, possibly, is +to give him such work to do as he can do, or be readily taught to do, +and that work not to be of the kind usually done in prison, but such as +will compensate to some extent for his maintenance in prison, and +enable him to live honestly out of it should he so elect. + +On my right hand, in the twenty-four-bedded room, lay a city-bred +professional thief, acquainted with all the brothels and sinks of +iniquity in London, and his disgusting conversation chiefly related to +such places. Like many of his class, his constitution was delicate, and +his appetite somewhat dainty. The prison fare and hard work were +undoubtedly severe punishment to him; but no punishment could frighten +him into honesty. He knew no honest trade by which he could support +himself, but if he had been taught one in prison such as suited his +strength and talents, and had been taught only the _policy_ of +honesty, and been then sent to a country far removed from his old +haunts, where his newly-organized trade would be more profitable than +thieving, the possibility is he would have become a useful man in the +world. On the expiration of his sentence, which was three years, he +went home and wrote back to one of his "pals" in prison, under an +assumed name, that he had been to the Prisoners' Aid Society, and had +obtained as much of his gratuity as he could, to buy a barrow and some +fruit, as he meant to turn costermonger. He added, however, that he did +not like fruit-selling, and returned to his old trade of "gunsmith," +gunning being the slang term for thieving, or going on the cross. The +real fact was, that he never intended anything else than being a +"gunsmith," but only used the deception in order to obtain a little +more money from the Aid Society than he otherwise could. As soon as he +got his barrow and stock he sold all off, and in a very few months I +had him for a companion again, with a seven years' sentence. I remember +asking whether he preferred a sentence of seven years' penal servitude, +or three years in Coldbath Fields? + +"Three years in Coldbath Fields! why that would kill me. I would as +soon have fifteen years here." + +The only good trait discoverable in his character was his ardent +affection for his mother. When he has completed about five years and +three months he will be liberated again, if he is alive, and again he +will return to crime; and it is almost impossible that such a man can +do otherwise; and as long as our prison authorities regard convicts as +mere living automatons, all modelled after the same fashion in +iniquity, our convict and county prisons, viewed as reformatories, will +remain quite inoperative for good, but very potent for evil. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +HOW REBELS AGAINST SOCIETY ARE MADE--I AM REMOVED TO A SMALL ROOM +AMONGST MURDERERS--THE "HIGHFLYER" AGAIN--HOW A YOUNG GENTLEMAN WAS +MADE A WARNING TO OTHERS. + + +A certain class of criminals--it would be very wrong to say all--may be +looked upon as rebels against society, and assuming that they are so, +it would be difficult to conceive a more effective method of promoting +and disseminating the spirit of rebellion than that which is adopted in +our convict establishments. We collect all these rebels from the +various counties into a few localities, 600 here, 1000 there, and 1500 +somewhere else, and along with them we place a certain proportion of +comparatively untainted men. We subject them to a course of rigorous +discipline in matters of diet and exercise, the sole effect of which is +to stimulate them still more against society. We allow them a certain +amount of intercourse with each other; liberty to the old to +contaminate the young; to the veteran ruffian to enlist and drill the +new recruit; to all to plan their new campaigns, and hatch new +conspiracies, and then disperse them throughout the country to sow the +seeds of sedition, and raise the standard of rebellion wherever they +may go. This is really what is being done in our convict prisons. Take +an extreme case, and keep out of sight altogether the characters and +dispositions of our criminals, and imagine a hundred of England's most +steady, honest, and industrious working men placed in our convict +establishments for a few years, and what would be the result? It would +most probably be this: if they were young, and had only received an +imperfect education, fifty of them would join some branch of the thief +profession if kept by force in convict society for three years; seventy +of them would do so if kept for six years; and if kept ten years, they +would almost all be corrupted, and become when liberated a source of +corruption themselves. + +But if the hardened and incorrigible criminals were really punished in +any proportion to the others the system would have a kind of consistent +iniquity about it which it does not possess. My left-hand companion was +an old agricultural labourer, one of a large class to whom a convict +prison is no punishment. He had been brought up to work, and although +an old man, he could work far more than a city thief, and yet not work +hard. He had brought up a family who were all scattered abroad. He had +now no real home when out of prison, and his third penal sentence of +fourteen years was very much lighter punishment to him than fourteen +days, with loss of character, would be to anyone in the upper or middle +classes of society. I met many such men in prison, and I used to ask +them how much money they would take to do my sentence in addition to +their own? One would say 100_l._, another, 50_l._, another 40_l._, and +some would even take considerably less. + +Imprisonment with hard labour will never have the slightest effect in +deterring such men from committing crime. Labour that would soon kill +many other men would not punish them, but they would prefer it even to +sitting in school. Rough fare they can do with, as long as it fills the +belly. They have no other ambition to gratify. With the stomach +distended and a quid of tobacco in their mouths, they are as happy as +kings, and very careless about liberty. Many of them when they leave +the prison, leave home. To such men, and to all the class of vagrant +and pauper criminals, a convict prison means a comfortable home, where +they are fed and clothed, and bathed and physicked, and have all their +wants supplied, without trouble or care, in exchange for their liberty +and such labour as they can easily and cheaply perform. To the +professional thieves a convict prison is a Court of Bankruptcy, to be +avoided if possible, and to be made the most of when unavoidable. A +place of punishment no doubt, but punishment nearly useless and +entirely misdirected. To the man who has wrought for his living at some +honest trade, up to the commission of his first known offence, who has +been accounted respectable by his neighbours, and who belongs to a +class of society with whom loss of character is utter ruin--a convict +prison is a Hell. If he happen also to be a man of thought and +education, it will in addition appear to be an institution for robbing +honest tax-payers, and a nursery of vice and crime, which all good men +should endeavour to reform or destroy. + +In the small room to which I was now removed, the lodgers were quiet, +inoffensive men, and in a few cases apparently religious. + +During my residence in the prison I was frequently removed from one +room to another, to suit the convenience of the prison authorities. +Fortunately I had no rent to pay, no economy to study, no opportunity +to practice honesty, and my effects were easily carried about. +Obedience--the soldiers' virtue--and civility, were all I had to study, +and these were not difficult to practice in my own case. One class of +prisoners in these rooms were elderly men, who had committed murder, or +manslaughter, and who, from their age and infirmities had missed being +sent to Western Australia. I knew upwards of twenty of them, and +generally speaking, they were quiet, inoffensive men, with no +inclination to steal or to do wrong. Several of them had very hot +tempers, all of them, indeed, who committed their crimes under the +influence of anger; others I sympathized with a good deal, inasmuch as +they had been sorely tempted, and seemed penitent and honest. + +One of them had brought up a family of honest working men. After the +death of their mother, he married and lived with another woman, who was +addicted to intemperance, and he was so annoyed at her conduct and by +her tongue, that his passion obtained the mastery over him, and in a +moment of frenzy he killed her. This prisoner had had his arm broken at +Portland, which prevented his being sent abroad, whence he would have +been liberated by this time. + +Another case was that of a comparatively young man, who shot his +sweetheart because she had chosen another man just as the prisoner was +looking forward to his marriage with her. He tried to shoot himself at +the same time, but the shot passed through the jaw and cheek bones, +leaving him in a sadly disfigured condition to meet his doom of penal +servitude for life. + +I met several cases where murder was committed through jealousy. One +man murdered his wife for flirting or cohabiting with another man. A +second murdered the paramour and spared his wife, and so on. In the +majority of these cases, the prisoners were very unlikely to commit a +second offence. + +There was one very peculiar case which I will here mention. The +prisoner was the worst cripple perhaps in the prison, and the quietest +man in it. He rarely spoke to anyone unless he was first spoken to, and +his answers were very brief. This man committed a deliberate murder; +although he had only one arm and but one good leg. He lay in wait for +his victim, and his motive for perpetrating the deed was not money but +revenge. The person he killed had injured or defrauded his father +before he died, and being unable to obtain justice he took revenge, and +is now paying the full penalty. He sits in the workroom along with the +others, but being paralyzed he is not compelled to work at anything. + +Another peculiar case was that of a man who had starved his mother to +death, in order to obtain possession of her money. He was a miser, and +was often taunted for his crime by the thief fraternity. He was the +filthiest neighbour I ever had. Most of the prisoners are cleanly in +their habits, but this one was the reverse. He would have his food +stored away beside him, rather than give it to a fellow prisoner. He +was not a great eater, and at one time there was more food about than +the prisoners could consume; but whatever he got he kept until it was +taken from him. After being confined for about thirteen years, he was +allowed to go to North America, on a conditional pardon, to a son who +lived there. Among the many petitions I drew out for prisoners to copy, +his was the only one that ever succeeded. I have written petitions for +dying men to the Home Secretary, for permission to go out and die at +home, and many without any just grounds at all, but none succeeded, +save the one I have mentioned above. + +I have repeatedly asked prisoners under sentences of penal servitude +for life whether they would prefer that sentence to being hanged. The +general reply was "I would rather be 'topt' at once, and be out of my +misery, than remain in prison all my days." "It's bad enough when I +have the prospect of liberty in twelve years." "If they are going to +keep men in prison all their days, and torture them besides, they'll +commit suicide or murder in prison. Look at Townley, who threw himself +over the stair-railings at Pentonville and killed himself." + +Such would be the answers I would receive to my questions on this +subject. With reference to Townley's case I was told by an intelligent +prisoner, who knew him and saw him commit suicide, that it was +committed mainly in consequence of the cruel, absurd and childish +system of suppressing a prisoner's letters to his friends, on grounds +usually hostile to the interests of society, viz., the concealment of +truth. + +Another class of prisoners were "coiners." These were generally +"fly-men." They knew every point of the law on the subject, and as a +rule returned to their profession as soon as they got their "ticket." +Prison is no doubt a great punishment to such men, because they can +make a good living at their business; but I question if ever there was +a reformed coiner. They are usually well-conducted prisoners, that is, +they are civil and do what they are told, but their influence over +others is very pernicious. A very considerable number of the convicts +left the prison with the intention of "hawking" from place to place, +and doing a little bit on the "cross" when they saw the coast clear, +which meant either stealing or "snyde-pitching." These hawkers found +friends in the coiners, who would tell them where they could get the +bad money, so that if they could not work themselves they could do a +friend a turn in the way of business. I knew several instances of +prisoners with a first conviction getting a second in consequence of +being told where to get bad money; and I knew many more who will, in +all human probability, meet with the same fate from the same cause. + +Another of my fellow prisoners was a singular specimen. I have already +referred to him as being almost the only "highflyer" in the prison, as +being the man who once obtained 150_l._ from a gentleman in Devonshire +under false pretences. This man was not ranked among the "_aristoes_" +in prison society, although he was in many respects their equal or +superior in certain branches of education. And here I may remark that +on parade, where all the prisoners exercised together, they associated +in classes as they would do outside--the "roughs," the "prigs," the +"needy-mizzlers," and the "aristoes," keeping, not always, but pretty +much among themselves. There were only a few of the class termed +"aristoes," and they comprised men who had been clergymen, merchants, +bankers, editors, surgeons, &c. These were usually my associates during +the exercise time. Now the "highflyer" I have referred to did not +belong to this class, but except in his principles and habits and +tastes, his education was quite equal to theirs. He spoke German and +French fluently, knew Latin and Greek, a smattering of Italian, and the +higher branches of mathematics. What first surprised me about him was +his pretended intimacy with some German merchants of the highest +standing I knew in London, and with whom I had done business. To know +such men I afterwards found was part of his profession. He could tell +me not only the names and titles of the nobility and gentry, but the +names of their families, where many of them were educated, to whom they +were married, and many other particulars of their private history. His +sentence was three years, and I believe he got it something in this +way. He had been in the country following his profession, and had +obtained some money, I think thirty pounds, from a gentleman of "his +acquaintance." In the country he was the Reverend Dr. So and So, with a +white neck-tie and all the surroundings of a clergyman. In London he +was a "swell," with a cigar in his mouth. + +It so happened that the benevolent gentleman from whom he had obtained +the money came to town and recognized the "Doctor," when cutting the +swell, and had him apprehended and punished. He had been several times +in county prisons, but, as he always changed his name and his +localities, this fact was not known officially. He was an avowed +infidel, and seemed to delight in spreading his opinions among the +prisoners, who were generally too willing to listen to him. If he keeps +out of prison, it will be his cleverness in escaping detection and not +his principles that will save him. His prison influence was most +pernicious, and afforded another striking and painful illustration of +the evils of indiscriminate association of prisoners. I maintain that +it formed no part of any prisoner's sentence that, in addition to all +the other horrors of penal servitude, he should be placed within the +sphere of this man's influence and such as he; and the system which not +only permits but demands that his moral and religious interests should +be thus imperilled, if not altogether corrupted and destroyed, +undertakes a fearful responsibility. + +The next case I will notice will illustrate the truth of what I have +advanced on this point. It was that of a young man, P----, who had been +respectably educated, and whose crime was simply the foolish frolic of +a giddy youth. He had engaged a dog-cart to drive to London, a distance +somewhere about fifty miles from where he resided. He had another youth +for his companion, and they both got on the "spree" in London. Some +shark picked them up, and bought the horse and dog-cart from them at a +merely nominal price. When they got sober they returned home, and this +youth went and told the proprietor of the dog-cart what he had done, +and (according to his own statement) offered, through his friends, to +pay for it. The proprietor was so enraged, however, that nothing but +the prosecution of the prisoner would satisfy him, and he was sentenced +to ten years' penal servitude. He had the character of a "fast" youth, +and met with a severe judge. This prisoner might have been easily led +into the path of honour and usefulness, if the attempt had been +honestly made. Whoever his judge was, if he were an Englishman and +father of a family, he would never again pass sentence of penal +servitude on such a youth for any offence against property, if he knew +as well as I do what the sentence involves. Shut up any such man for +seven years in a place where the only men of his own age are city-bred +thieves, and what can be expected of him? This young man elected the +smartest and cleverest of the London pickpockets for his companions. +They made a tool of him in prison, and unless his friends have managed +to get him sent abroad, he is very likely acting as a "stall" for some +of his old companions now. He never learnt anything in prison except +_knitting_. He was also one of the "readers," but most of his time +was spent in hospital. He could spit blood when he chose, and the +doctor being more liberal to him than many others, for several very +natural reasons, the prisoner used this liberality to benefit some of +his "pals" who could not manage to get the good things they wanted from +the doctor otherwise. In return for this kindness he would get an inch +or two of tobacco, or "snout," as it was usually termed. When other +means failed to procure this luxury, he would write to his friends for +a toothbrush and sell it for the weed, which caused the toothbrushes to +be withdrawn from all the prisoners. Then he would write for a pair of +spectacles, pretending that his eyes were getting weak. These he sold, +and the last were discovered passing into one of the cooks' hands in +fair exchange for mutton chops. They were taken into the governor's +room, and after being examined by that potentate they were laid on his +desk, and next morning they were nowhere to be found; they were stolen, +but _not_ by a prisoner. Of course, P---- knew nothing about his +spectacles, when examined on the subject, except that some one must +have taken them from his shelf. The result was that all spectacles +belonging to the prisoners were called in, and prison "glasses" issued +in their stead. The spectacles were intended ultimately to reach the +hands of an officer for tobacco, and if they had not been removed from +the desk, the officer might have got his discharge and the prisoner a +severe punishment. This was one of the thousand-and-one schemes which +prisoners resort to in order to get "snout," and without the aid of an +officer they can get none. + +This youth was intended by his parents for the church, but was trained +in prison to be a thief, as "a warning to others"--and his was far from +being a solitary case. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +THE ACT OF 1864--CLASSIFICATION OF PRISONERS--THE MARK SYSTEM: ITS +DEFECTS--THE TRUE CRIMINAL LAW OF RESTITUTION--THE ONLY METHOD BY +WHICH CONFIRMED CRIMINALS MAY BE RECLAIMED--WORKHOUSES. + + +The year 1864 was a marked epoch in convict life. A new Act was then +passed and fresh prison regulations were brought into force. This Act +contained one good clause, viz., the abolition of three and four years' +sentences. In one year as many as 1800 men were sentenced to three and +four years' penal servitude, being a large proportion of the total +number. Such men are now for the most part sentenced to eighteen months +and two years' imprisonment, which will account for a decrease in the +number of convicts and an increase in the number of county prisoners. +This is a short step in the right direction. The convict directors take +credit to themselves for this reduction in the number of convicts, and +boast that they have at last found the true panacea for criminal +diseases. A report to that effect, cut out of a newspaper, was +circulated amongst the prisoners, and their indignation was great at +the way in which the public were "gulled" about themselves and prison +treatment. No doubt a few more thieves and burglars are driven to +pursue their callings in France and America by the operation of the new +police regulations, and I freely admit that a few more may annually be +sent into another world by the same means, but no one can yet point to +a reformed professional "Cracksman," "Coiner," "Hoister," or +"Screwsman," as proof of the beneficial results of the change. The most +unpopular clause in the Act was that relating to police surveillance. +The majority of the prisoners were very much annoyed at this +regulation, some of them, indeed, would much rather have remained in +prison than encounter it. For my own part, I approve of the principle +of surveillance. I see in it the germ of a system whereby a large class +of criminals may ultimately be punished entirely outside the prison +walls. I object, however, to the police being entrusted with the duty. +Their proper business is to catch the thief and preserve order. The +surveillance of liberated prisoners ought to be entrusted to those who +are directly interested in empty jails, and who would endeavour to +assist the liberated men either in getting employment or to emigrate. + +With reference to the _classification_ of prisoners which commenced +under the Act of 1864, I have no hesitation in saying that it is a +gross fraud upon the public, a delusion and a snare. The error which I +pointed out in a former chapter, as being committed in the selection of +convicts for transportation, is here repeated and in a more aggravated +form, if that were possible. By the new Act the prisoners were divided +into four great classes. Into the fourth, or "probation class," all +prisoners were required to enter on being admitted into prison. After a +certain time, if the prisoner was so fortunate as to escape being +"reported" for any offence against the prison rules, he would be placed +in the third class, and again, after being a certain time in the third +class he was passed, subject to the same condition, into the second, +and so on. Should he have made any mistake and allowed himself to get +"reported," he either missed his chance of getting into the higher, or +was degraded into a lower class. The object of this classification no +doubt was to get all the well-behaved men together, but the blunder +committed was in making obedience to the prison rules the only test of +qualification for the higher classes. This, as I have already +explained, was really worse than no test at all, because the frequently +convicted criminal, who was thoroughly posted up in all points of +prison discipline and regulations, was more likely than the novice to +escape being "reported" for violation of them. The consequence is, that +in respect of character, disposition and moral quality, there is really +no difference to be found amongst the men in any of the classes. The +scheme operates in this way--suppose that a clergyman by some mischance +gets sentenced to penal servitude, and enters the prison in company +with one of the very worst villains that could be selected out of our +criminal population; both these men, the one with a first sentence, the +other with a long string of convictions against him, enter the +"probation class" at Millbank, on precisely the same terms. The "jail +bird," knowing all about the ways of the prison, would probably pass +with ease into the third class. The clergyman, being new to the +discipline, might make a mistake and get "reported," and in that way +would not be so likely to reach the third class so soon as the other; +but granting that he did so they would still be together, the man +inured to guilt and crime would still be beside the new and casual +lodger, the man who had never been in prison before would still have +the opportunity of learning the evil ways of the confirmed rogue. +Again, should the clergyman be fortunate enough in passing into the +higher classes at the usual time, the jail bird would certainly not be +behind. + +If a thousand prisoners, from all parts of the country, of all ages, +habits, and antecedents, were brought to one of our convict +establishments, they would go through their time in the same way, good, +bad, and indifferent, all together. The clergyman, even if he were to +get into prison innocently, and were the best Christian in the world, +would never get rid of the jail-bird; and in the highest class his +companions would be no better than those in the lowest. + +I grant that our directors could not classify convicts according to +their real merits, any more than a quack doctor could classify patients +suffering from disease; but although they cannot have the knowledge +necessary to do it properly, they might do a little in the right +direction. The quack, even, would know cholic from consumption, +diarrhaea from dropsy; so any man of sense would be able to distinguish +between a case of chronic moral disease and a case of partial or +temporary paralysis of the moral faculty! + +The system of "marks," as it is called in prison, is the most prominent +feature in the new regulations, and is based upon the same absurd +principle as the classification clause. The rule relating to marks +specifies "That the time which every convict under sentence of penal +servitude must henceforth pass in prison will be regulated by a certain +number of marks, which he must earn by actual labour performed before +he can be discharged." + +The method adopted is to debit the prisoner with a certain number of +marks, according to the length of his sentence, and if he performs the +whole of the work required of him he is credited with as many marks as +would represent a fourth part of his sentence. + +If this law were carried out in its integrity it would be most cruel +and unjust. Fortunately for the prisoners it is not very strictly +adhered to--at least not at the prison where I was confined--the +officers making allowance for the prisoners' infirmities. To show how +it would operate, let us take the case of the clergyman and the +jail-bird once more. Assuming that the former was a stout and healthy +man, and able to work, but not having been accustomed to it, really not +able to do much of it, and that the latter had been at the work for +years--which would win in the race for liberty, if the law was strictly +enforced? The probability is that the clergyman would not earn a single +day's remission, whilst the jail-bird would get one-fourth of his time +remitted; and assuming that both had the same sentence originally, +would go a considerable way into a "fresh bit" before the poor +clergyman had finished his first sentence. + +The "mark" system admits of great cruelty being practised, but on the +whole, as it is carried out, it is a more innocent piece of deception +than the classification. At the public works, however, there is much +injustice done by it, no allowance being made for a sick man, unless he +has met with some accident. If the "marks" were money, _bona fide_ +sovereigns, and if the prisoner were permitted to exercise the +abilities God has given him in order to earn that money, there might be +some sense and justice discernable in the system. As it is there is +neither. + +I may here venture to say that we might materially diminish crime and +expense connected with the prosecution and punishment of criminals by +doing away with our convict establishments altogether, except for the +confinement of political prisoners, and those having sentences for +life. In lieu of these I would suggest the introduction of the system +of remissions into our county jails, granting first offenders a +liberal, and third and fourth, an extremely small allowance. Teaching +the prisoners such trades as they are fitted for, qualifying them for +colonists, and selecting the most suitable for emigration. I would also +place the jails and workhouses under one management. Commissioners for +the prevention of crime and pauperism in each county, and subject them +to a rigid government inspection by a board responsible to Parliament +and the nation. + +But even this would only be a partial reform. I would have our criminal +laws based upon the old Mosaic principle of "enforced restitution," and +carried out on the Christian principle of making the offender "pay the +uttermost farthing." Then we could fairly and justly retain the idle +and the useless in the net of justice, and allow the willing and +industrious to achieve their own freedom by satisfying the claims of +the law. + +Now, when time has been strangled, and virtue repressed, we allow the +worst villains to escape, and all that has been required of them in +prison was civility to officers, obedience to a stupid discipline, and +a few years' work which neither enables them to support an honest +livelihood outside the prison, or contributes in any appreciable degree +to their maintenance inside. + +Under the system I propose, every man who stole a sheep would have to +pay the same penalty before he could exercise the rights of +citizenship--no matter whether his character was good, bad, or +indifferent; no matter whether he was rich or poor, a peer or a +peasant, the voice of impartial justice would say, "You have incurred +the same debt to the State, and the same penalty must be paid." + +At present every man who steals a sheep has to pay a different penalty. +This man is sentenced to six months, that other to twelve months, and +then another to fifteen years of penal servitude, according to the +discretion of the judge; and instead of being made to pay the price of +the sheep and the costs of his prosecution, he becomes a grievous +burden to the honest tax-payer, who has to supply him with chaplains, +schoolmasters, surgeons, cooks, bakers, tailors, and a whole host of +servants in livery to minister to his wants, and so unfit him for the +practice of economy, frugality, and other kindred virtues when his +fetters are cut. Under a law based on the principle of restitution, the +man of good character and industrious habits might be able to find +sureties to enable him to discharge his debt to the State under the +surveillance of the authorities, without being surrounded by prison +walls. The man of middling character might only have a limited amount +of liberty, such as the responsible authorities might grant him. Whilst +the man of bad character would have to discharge his debt inside prison +walls, where he might still continue a villain in habits and heart, and +increase his debt by fresh acts of dishonesty; but this would be his +own fault, and the safety-valve of the machinery. + +But to return to the Act 1864. If the labour performed under the "mark" +system was either remunerative, or such as a convict might obtain an +honest living at when liberated, the system could not be condemned as +utterly bad. But if we except the tailoring and the shoemaking done for +the use of the establishment, there are really no other employments +suitable for the general class of men who find their way into prison. +The professional thief--and I am now speaking of the _reformation_ +as well as the punishment of criminals--requires to be taught some +trade for which he has a natural aptitude before it is possible for him +to gain a livelihood, and he must be taught it well, for unless he is a +skilled workman he would not be worth the wages necessary to keep him +out of temptation. To go on punishing such men in the hope that we will +make them honest, is absurd; and to persevere in "reforming," them +without teaching them practically that which is indispensable to their +remaining honest, is equally ridiculous. We may train a boy to be a +labourer of almost any sort, and can impart moral and religious +instruction to an unformed mind with success, but if we attempt to do +either of them with a confirmed thief who has not been taught to work, +we must be disappointed in the result. The _first_ step to reformation, +is to interest him in some employment suitable to his abilities, and +any other step taken before this only hinders or prevents the work of +reformation. We have never yet taken this first step, consequently we +have never yet succeeded in reforming any of them. It is also essential +that such work should be also well paid, and that the money made at +such employment should be his passport to liberty. Under the present +system we only make him kill time at labour which disgusts him with all +kinds of regular industry. The county prison sentences are, moreover, +too short to enable the thief to earn such a passport to freedom, but +they are of just the requisite length and fitness for turning the +casual into the confirmed criminal. In fact, _time_ sentences are +not suitable for confirmed thieves. Their sentences ought to be so much +money to be earned in a penal workshop, where honesty and economy could +be practised as well as industry. There are two grave objections urged +against teaching thieves lucrative trades. Firstly,--it would tempt +others to commit crime; and secondly, it would interfere with free +labour. With regard to the first objection, I admit there would be some +force in it if the sentences were such as they are now, because time +runs on, whether the prisoner is industrious or not. But if the +sentence imposed a fine in addition to all the expenses incurred by the +prisoner during his incarceration, there would then be no inducement to +the commission of crime. With reference to the second objection, I +would merely state that all labour done in prison of a useful character +interferes with free labour to some extent, but I contend that if each +prisoner was employed at that kind of work for which he is best +qualified, it would interfere less with the proper and necessary +division of free labour than the present plan of keeping a large number +of men employed at work for which they have no special aptitude. + +The error we have made in employing prisoners hitherto is not merely +that we have employed them at trades or other employments not suitable +to their natural abilities, but that we have entered into competition +with those trades where too much competition already exists. We should +never have allowed smart young pickpockets to compete with poor +sempstresses, whose ranks are already overcrowded. There will always be +plenty of honest people descending in the social scale to do underpaid +work, and there are thousands of petty thieves who are not fit for any +other. So that there is a greater need for elevating the clever +professional thief to the position of a skilled artisan. + +The city bred thief class are far from being dunces or "flats," and it +is not possible to make them common labourers. Many of them may very +fitly be compared to the idle and dissipated "swells" of the middle and +higher classes. If we took a "fast" young nobleman, for instance, and +put him to some office agreeable to himself, so that he conceived a +decided liking to harness, it would do him a deal more good in the way +of reforming him than a course of lectures on the seventh commandment! +And assuming that by so doing he enticed other "swells" to buckle on +official armour, it might interfere with the prospects of some who had +never been "fast," but on the whole, society would benefit by the +change. I maintain that that would be the correct method to adopt with +some of those thieves who are totally irreclaimable by our present +system of prison discipline. With regard to the casual and petty +thieves, their case is somewhat different. Many of them could not be +raised above the lowest class of common labourers, but by adopting a +system of individualization, that is studying each man's natural +abilities, we could always arrive at the best results. It might be +advanced as a third objection, that it would be impossible to make +thieves pay their expenses in prison, and a fine in addition. Under our +present system I admit it would be very difficult, but in the penal +workshops, into which I would turn all our prisoners, this objection +would not hold good. The prisoner would then be stimulated to labour at +paying work agreeable to his tastes and suitable to his abilities, and +the cost of his maintenance would be less than it is at present. Those +who really could not earn a living in the penal workhouses, and those +who would not earn their living, I would transfer to the prison for +criminal incurables. I would not have any first offenders against +property in prison, I would punish them as ticket-of-leave men. In the +penal workshops I would only have persistent thieves. In the convict +prisons only great offenders against the person and traitors. All the +persistent criminals of the petty class, I would consign to the +workhouses; but the character of our workhouses would require to be +altered. There are three distinct classes of paupers. (1) Those who +have become paupers through no fault of their own. (2) Those who have +become paupers through vice; and (3) The vagrant class. I would refuse +admission to the workhouse to the first class, just as I would refuse +admission to the prison in the penal workshops to first offenders +against property. I would treat them, on the family system of +out-of-door relief, as the deserving poor. The second class I would +admit into the workhouse, and the vagrant class as well, but on the +understanding that they did not get out again till they had paid their +bill. In short we ought to make our prisons and our workhouses paying +concerns, and with the former there need be no difficulty whatever; +above all we ought to keep the deserving poor from the other classes, +and the regular thieves from those who have only erred once. Every man +found guilty of crime who can prove that he has been working at an +honest calling up to the time he committed it, should be prevented from +mixing with confirmed criminals, or even from going into prison, unless +for some great crime against the person for which enforced restitution +would not be a sufficient atonement. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +THE NEW ARRANGEMENTS AS TO REMISSIONS--ARTIFICIAL LEGS--ANOTHER +INTERVIEW WITH THE VISITING DIRECTOR--COMPOSE VERSES--HOSPITAL +ONCE MORE--FENIANS--PRISONERS' LETTERS. + + +Asking pardon of my readers for the rather serious digressions I have +made in the preceding chapter, I now return to my narrative. + +Shortly after the new regulations were made known to the prisoners, I +wrote a letter to my brother, and in this solitary instance I confess +in a somewhat ironical strain, and as a matter of course the letter was +suppressed. I remember one passage in it was to the following effect: +"A new arrangement has lately taken place, which grants to all +frequently-convicted prisoners with the same sentence as myself, two +years of unexpected remission, so that if they should deal as leniently +with me, I shall soon be home." This was an allusion to the repeal of +an old regulation whereby convicts who had revoked a former licence +were thereby disqualified for receiving any remission from a subsequent +sentence. Prisoners, therefore, who had so disqualified themselves, and +had been re-convicted under the old regulation, were quite unprepared +for being placed on the same footing in all respects as those who had +been convicted for the first time, which was actually the case under +the new regulations. Prisoners conversant with the recommendation of +the Royal Commissioners, anticipated quite a different policy on the +part of the authorities. They expected that men who had succumbed to +strong temptation and who had never been in prison before would have +been more mercifully dealt with; and that increased severity would have +been visited upon those who had already had several opportunities of +redeeming their character, but had fully proved their determination to +continue in their evil ways; but the authorities decided otherwise. + +About this time there occurred a circumstance which I must +mention:--one of my fellow-prisoners with a deformed foot, asked the +medical officer to amputate his leg below the knee. The request was +complied with, and the patient, who was a very stout fellow, was +provided with a mechanical substitute, with springs in the heel. This +man's brother was a professional thief, and both are still in the same +prison under different names. The artificial leg was altogether +unsuitable for a man in his position in life, inasmuch as he would not +be able to pay the expense of repairing it. That, however, I had +nothing to do with. The leg was made by a prisoner, and being a nice +looking article, it was exhibited to strangers in the doctor's room for +a considerable time, to show them how kind they were to the prisoners, +and to keep up that system, so dear to officials, of washing the +outside of the platter for the public gaze, whilst all uncleanliness +remained within. Another prisoner, who met with an accident at the +public works, and lost his leg in endeavouring to save an officer's +life, arrived at the prison and was also provided with a mechanical +substitute. Feeling my health failing me, I thought that an artificial +leg, by enabling me to take exercise, or get into the fields to work, +might save me from again being sent to hospital; and seeing other +prisoners getting them, I resolved to petition the director for the +same favour. I was further encouraged in my resolution by the fact that +it was a new director who was then inspecting the prison. The visiting +day arrived, and as before, I was ushered into the presence of the new +official, and placed between two warders with staves in their hands. At +the desk sat the new director, by his side stood the governor, and in +front of the desk the chief warder. + +"Well! what do you want?" + +I told him that I had lost my leg in prison, that I was feeling my +health giving way, that I was anxious to be in a position to move about +a little better, and would feel very grateful if he would allow me to +have an artificial leg, the same as the other prisoners had. The +governor endeavoured to deny that any artificial legs had been +furnished to prisoners; but being prepared for something of that kind, +I gave the particulars I have already mentioned, which were confirmed +by the chief warder. The result was, that the director promised to see +the doctor on the subject. I was glad to see a disposition on the part +of the new director to listen to the prisoner without any attempt to +bully him, and became sanguine of the success of my petition. Next +visit, however, it was curtly refused on the ground of expense. As it +so happened, I was obliged to go to the hospital once more after the +lapse of a few weeks, and swallowed as much quinine there as cost far +more than an artificial leg, made by a prisoner whose labour at +knitting was not worth a penny a day, would have done! The prisoner who +lost the deformed leg began to use his artificial substitute, and two +or three times it got out of repair. One of these repairs was said to +have cost 30_s._ in London. In the long run it was broken, and an +ordinary wooden-peg leg substituted, which was the only one suitable to +his position. + +I now began to be exceedingly depressed in spirits, and this depression +operated prejudicially to my health. I began at this time to string +couplets together, as an exercise for my mind and my memory, and so +great was the relief which was thus afforded me that I ventured to +compose verses in earnest, and succeeded in this way in partially +forgetting my troubles. To keep them in my memory was the most +difficult task, as it was quite contrary to the prison rules to write +one's own compositions in a copy-book. If John Bunyan had been +unfortunate enough to get into one of our model prisons, the "Pilgrim's +Progress" would have been unwritten. From this time up to the close of +my imprisonment I exercised my mind in the manufacture of verses, my +stock ultimately amounting to many hundreds of lines, which my memory +faithfully retained. My chest having now become very painful and weak, +in consequence of so much reading aloud, as I was obliged to do on a +somewhat poor diet, I was compelled to enter the hospital a second +time, suffering from severe general debility accompanied by a cough, +after having been about thirteen months in the prison. On my admission +I received a change of diet and tonic medicines. For some weeks I was +confined to bed, and not till six months had elapsed was I discharged. + +An event took place during my second sojourn in the hospital which +caused much excitement among the prisoners. This was the stabbing of a +Scripture-reader by one of the patients. The case was afterwards +disposed of at the Assizes, and the culprit was sentenced to five +years' penal servitude. As his former sentence had as much to run, this +was considered as a triumph on the part of the prisoner. He committed +the crime not with intent to kill, but for the purpose of bringing his +case before the public, and of being removed to another prison. He had +committed a similar crime before, but the directors had disposed of it +privately, so that the particulars of it should not reach the +newspapers. In this case to which I refer, the prisoner alleged on his +trial that the doctor would not give him treatment for his complaint; +he found that it was of no use complaining to a higher authority, that +he could not get removed to another prison, nor procure the treatment +he had been accustomed to receive for his disease. He was much beyond +the ordinary convict in point of ability. He defended himself, +cross-examined the authorities, and made some of the chiefs cut very +sorry figures under the divining rod. He at last gained his point, for +he exposed the authorities and obtained his removal to another prison, +where he would have what he considered proper medical treatment--good +food being an essential item in the prescription. + +After this case occurred the governor was allowed to retire on a +pension; or, in the language of the convicts, "he got the 'sack' in a +genteel way," but in reality the doctor was the man on whom the +responsibility rested, and it was him the prisoner wished to stab and +not the Scripture-reader, but he never could get the opportunity. I +notice this case chiefly to show that our present law is inoperative in +the case of a class of prisoners of which this one was a fair type. He +was a sad cripple, walking with the assistance of two crutches, and +dragging his legs behind him; he was afflicted with spinal disease and +heart complaint; he had been a convict before, and had lived all the +time like a fighting cock; commanding medical treatment, and working +only as it suited himself; he had nothing to fear in the commission of +crime except being sent to hospital, and his diseases would compel the +majority of doctors to give him good diet, and good general treatment. +If they had refused or neglected to do so, the prisoner's life would +have been sacrificed. Whatever may have been the truth in his case, he +felt and believed that his days were being shortened, and he was one of +those who would rather have died on the scaffold than submit to a +lingering death in prison. A short time ago he was found dead in his +cell. It was asserted that he had taken some medicine internally which +was intended for external application, and that he had thus poisoned +himself; it was alleged that his object was to make himself ill in +order to obtain better treatment. This is somewhat doubtful, but as his +death took place at another prison I am unable to give more +particulars. The newspapers having commented rather severely on this +stabbing case, it was deemed necessary by the prison authorities to +have a counter current set in motion. For this purpose an inquest was +held on the body of a deceased convict; all the chief authorities were +called to this special inquest, and three prisoner-nurses were also +examined, and the result appeared in the newspapers, to the great +astonishment of the prisoners. It was reported that the coroner had +held an inquest on the body of a deceased convict, and found that the +deceased had received excellent diet and medical treatment. He further +expressed his surprise to find the prisoners received such luxuries in +prison as fish, fowl, and jellies, in addition to wines, &c! If they +had not mentioned the fish, fowls, and jellies, the prisoners might not +have taken much notice of it, but the facts being as follows, it must +be confessed that they had some grounds for making uncomplimentary +remarks. For thirty-two or thirty-three months previous to the inquest +there had been no fowls in the hospital, and there never had been +either fish or jellies served out to patients during the whole period +the prison had been in existence. Some time after the inquest there +were two or three soles cooked for dying prisoners, one of them being a +Fenian. + +After the arrival of the Fenians and a new priest, there was a +considerable alteration in the hospital treatment--fowls became quite +common, apple pies, meat pies, and sundry other luxuries being +introduced. Fish and jellies being still wanting, however, to bear out +the newspaper report. + +I do not wish it to be understood that the Fenians receive better +medical treatment than the other prisoners, nor is their position +generally much better. They sat at work in the same room with me; they +had the privilege of exercising by themselves, but judging from their +eagerness for my society and political conversation, they seemed to +consider the privilege in the light of a punishment. One concession was +made to them, however, which at first rather surprised me. They were +allowed to write to their friends as often, when they were in the third +class, as other prisoners were allowed who were in the first, and the +censorship over their letters was not very severe. One of the +head-centres, and one of the principal writers and agitators in the +would-be rebellious sister isle was a tall, bony, cadaverous-looking +man, afflicted with scrofula. He could have ate double his allowance of +food, and probably he required more than he was allowed; at all events +he thought he was not getting proper treatment, and wrote a very strong +letter on the subject to his friends. This letter was considered a +libel on the establishment, but the governor and director decreed that +the letter should pass, as it would show the Fenians outside that their +friends in prison were not on a bed of roses. This was acting in quite +a contrary direction to that which was usually followed with the +correspondence of other prisoners. Any letter that told of the comforts +of the prison, and gave the friends of the prisoner the idea that he +was in Paradise was sure to pass, and the writer of it would also get +into the good graces of the officials; but if there was any word of +complaint, especially if addressed to any person of influence, the +extinguisher was put upon it at once. + +I remember one of the patients writing to his friends that he was +unwell, but that he really did not know very well what to say about his +complaint, as one doctor told him to get out of bed and "knock about," +as there was nothing the matter with him, while another told him he was +dying, and on no account to leave his bed, and between the two he did +not know what to do. This was at the time when the two medical officers +seemed to pull against each other. The letter produced an improvement +in them, but it was never allowed to reach its destination. + +Another case was that of a Quaker's letter (the only one of the creed I +met with in prison). He was a quiet old man, and for upwards of three +years had been allowed certain trifling privileges on account of his +religious opinions,--one of them was his being allowed to sit when +grace was said before meals. One day, a young consequential officer +happened to be on duty in the ward where the Quaker was domiciled, and +when he called "Attention!" for grace, the Quaker, as usual, kept his +seat. The officer ordered him to stand up, and the Quaker having +attempted to explain he was "reported," and besides being sent to +"Chokey," forfeited some of his remission for the offence. He wrote to +an influential Quaker in the North of England, explaining the +particulars of the case; but his letter contained one clause sufficient +to condemn it in the eyes of the prison officials, and it was this, "Be +good enough to send this letter to John Bright, Esq., M.P." + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +A VERY BAD CASE--A SELF-TAUGHT ARTIST--A CLERGYMAN ALSO A CONVICT--THE +CLERGYMAN IS TAUGHT TAILORING--HOW WE PUNISH VIOLATION OF THE SEVENTH +COMMANDMENT AND THE EIGHTH. + + +On one occasion during my second sojourn in hospital, my attention was +accidentally directed to a pale, sickly-looking young man, who had just +arrived with a number of other prisoners from Millbank, and whose +appearance and manner so unmistakably betrayed the genus to which he +belonged that I decided to avail myself of the first opportunity which +presented itself of learning his history. It so happened that he was +located in the next bed to mine, and I had thus no difficulty in +finding an occasion to gratify my curiosity, and the following dialogue +took place on the first day of his arrival. + +"Well, what news have you brought from Millbank?" + +"Oh, nothing particular; the prison's full, and a good many back on +their ticket." + +"How long have you done?" + +"Nine months." + +"What's your sentence?" + +"Seven years." + +"Have you done your separates in the 'bank?" + +"No; in the country--down in Somerset." + +"What sort of treatment did you get?" + +"Wretched! They are making it very hot now, and I got 'bashed' as +well." + +"The flogging has made your health bad, I suppose?" + +"Yes, it made me spit up ever so much blood." + +"Were you ever flogged before?" + +"Yes, twice." + +"Twice! Why, how old are you?" + +"Twenty-three, and I have done two 'leggings,' and this is my third, +besides short bits in the county jails." + +"During your first 'legging' I suppose you had been among the boys at +the Isle of Wight?" + +"Yes." + +"I think most of the Isle of Wight boys get into prison again? I have +seen a great many now who did their first bit there." + +"Well, a good many of them went on the cross." + +"You belong to London, I suppose?" + +"Yes." + +"Did you get your sentence there?" + +"No, in Bristol." + +"How long were you out this last time?" + +"Six days, and I was half-drunk all the time." + +"How long was your last sentence?" + +"Three years, and I did it all." + +"How did you lose your remission?" + +"For striking a 'screw.'" + +"Why did you not remain in London when you went out last?" + +"Well, these 'flimping' fellows have alarmed the Londoners so much that +there is no chance of getting a living at thieving." + +"You mean that the garotters have spoiled your trade by making people +more guarded?" + +"Why, man, they are wearing steel collars and carrying fire-arms." + +"But they have passed a flogging bill in Parliament for all these +crimes with violence." + +"Flogging be d----d! D'ye think that would stop them? It's the people +being always on the watch, and the 'Bobbies' more expert, that makes +them afraid of being caught. But I wish they would never try that game, +for it gives the 'buzzer' no chance." + +"You say you have been flogged three times: how did you like it?" + +"The first time I was a kid, and cried like anything; the second time I +never uttered a word nor flinched in the least; and the last time, I +sang the bawdiest song I could lay my tongue on, and cried, 'Come on, +ye ----!'" + +"Well, I think you are a very foolish fellow; you have permanently +injured your health by your conduct." + +"I know all that, but my temper won't let me be quiet; and, by jingo! +if this butcher does not treat me properly, I'll make him pay for it; +I'll see now what the fish and the fowls and the jellies are like." + +"You appear to be consumptive?" + +"Yes, second stage." + +"Now, take my advice and be as quiet as you can, and you will do very +well here." + +"Well, if these fellows will let me alone, and the 'butcher' gives me +good treatment, I'll be all right; but I'll stand no nonsense--there's +no two ways with me. Is there any 'snout' knocking about? I have got +some money, and if you can tell me how I can get it I will be glad." + +"I do not use it myself, but I see others dealing away in it, and I +have no doubt that some of these fellows opposite will be able to put +you on the right scent." + +This was one of the men who bring odium on the whole class of +prisoners, and prejudice society against them. He was a thorough-bred +professional thief, and, in addition, he was one of the very worst +prison characters. His temper was very violent, and at times apparently +uncontrollable. The lash had been tried on him, and, as in every case I +met with, in vain. If he lives to complete the term of his imprisonment +he will, as a matter of course, return to his old practices,--the only +method he knows of making his living. The officials were afraid he +would stab or otherwise injure some of them; and he was petted and +indulged a good deal at first. His diet was changed every other day, +until they got tired of humouring him; and then he got into trouble. At +last, after he had been about eighteen months in the prison, and had +insulted and threatened to strike the governor, he was suddenly removed +to another prison, where he would no doubt repeat the same game. In all +probability he will be in the grave before he is due for liberation. +Yet with all this, he could have been _led_ like a child; but to +attempt to drive him was out of the question. I confess I was very glad +when he was removed from the bed next to mine to one further away. + +My neighbour on the other side was a very different character. He was a +self-taught artist, and was gifted with considerable natural genius. +His failing had been intemperance, and his crime a "got up" case of +rape. He was quite a philosopher in his way, always happy, always +contented; nothing came amiss to him. Imprisonment was of no account +with him; he was above it altogether. He had no inclination to break +the law, and was most unlikely to enter a prison a second time. Yet +this prisoner never could manage to get such good treatment as the +other, simply because he was easily pleased. He looked upon the prison +as a place of passage to be made the best of, not as a home. He could +be liberated to-morrow with perfect safety to the public, whilst the +other prisoner, who had precisely the same sentence, will go into the +society of thieves, and the pockets of other people, the moment he is +permitted the opportunity. The artist, although a cripple, could have +earned far more in prison than would have supported himself if he had +been allowed to do so. The thief could not have supported himself +honestly anywhere, and in prison he was never taught how to do so. + +Now suppose these two men had been sent to a penal workshop, each with +a fine of 50_l._ upon his head, instead of to a human cage with a +seven years' sentence; suppose that they were each debited, in addition +to the fine, with the cost of their food, lodging, &c., and credited +with their labour on the profits on their work, and liberated when the +account was balanced, what would be the result? In all probability it +would be this: that the artist, anxious for liberty, would economise, +do with as little food and drink as possible, exert his faculties to +the uttermost, and in a year or two perhaps he would have paid off the +amount of his fine, and the cost of his maintenance. He would then be +liberated in a condition to benefit society; impressed with the folly +of his conduct in having thrown away so much time and money, and +determined to keep the law for the future. + +The tax-payers, instead of being as now burdened to support him, would +not only be relieved of that particular grievance, but would have the +satisfaction of seeing the criminal contributing large sums to the +right side of the public ledger. Instead of paying a quarter of a +million of hard and honest-earned money to maintain convict prisons, +and ever so much more to the county jails, we might in time make them +self-sustaining, and the offenders of the law a source of revenue to +the country. + +If the casual offender regained his freedom in two years under such a +system as I have indicated, when would one of the worst members of the +most dangerous class regain his? And what would be his condition and +prospects? He would certainly get deeper into debt to begin with, and +if thoroughly determined to remain a dangerous and useless member of +society he would never regain his liberty. Perhaps he would commit an +offence against the person, and bring restraint and punishment upon +himself in every way unworthy of unrestrained freedom. But if he were +resolved to become an honest and industrious man, the opportunity and +the means for so doing would be before him; he would set to and learn a +trade, practice economy, confine his hands to his own pockets, prove +himself worthy of trust, and at the end of four or five years regain +his freedom. He could never keep pace with the other in the race for +liberty, nor would he be fitted for the proper use of his liberty until +he had practised industry under a natural and healthy stimulus up to +the paying point--the point when he becomes convinced in his own mind +that honesty is the best policy. His prospects on liberation would then +be very different from what they are under the present system. He would +then be suited for being a colonist. It would have been proved to his +own mind that he could make a living by honest industry, and in most +cases this is the all-important consideration. Removed from his old +associates, placed in circumstances where money can be made by +industry, and still keeping the cost of his transportation against him +to be paid out of the first of his own free earnings, society would +then have done its duty by him. I wish to impress this strongly on +those who take an interest in the subject of criminal reformation; and +therefore repeat, that if we can prove to the thief's own satisfaction +that he can earn an honest livelihood, at work agreeable to himself and +suited to his abilities, we shall do much towards making him an honest +man. But, let us starve him and lash him, and tyrannize over him, and +we shall send him to the grave or the gallows; and if we combine +statuesque and compulsory Christianity with such treatment, we make him +in addition a hardened unbeliever and atheist. And yet hitherto we have +sent such men prematurely into the other world, in such condition of +soul and body, with as great complacency as if the blame were all their +own. + +The next case I shall notice was a very different one indeed. The +prisoner had been a clergyman in the Church of England for upwards of +twenty years, and during that long period had discharged his duties to +the satisfaction of his flock and his superiors in the church. I +believe he had made an imprudent second marriage. His wife was beneath +him in social position and being inclined to habits of extravagance had +incurred debts which his small income could not meet. He used funds +entrusted to his care by some society for the purpose of liquidating +these debts, intending to replace them when his stipend became due. +These funds happened, however, to be wanted much sooner than had been +customary, he was not able to produce them, and the consequence was +penal servitude for a very long period. I could not help pitying the +prisoner. He had never rubbed shoulders with the world. An occasional +evening with the Squire's family or in the homes of the less exalted +among his parishioners, had been almost his only opportunity of gaining +a knowledge of life. He was apparently very penitent, and often I +noticed him shedding tears (a very unusual sight in a convict prison), +and he seemed to feel his degrading and cruel punishment very keenly +indeed. He was very kind to the prisoners and was a great favourite +with them, and in consequence not in the very best odour with the +authorities. He was, like myself, employed as a reader in the +work-rooms, but was soon removed to another prison, where he is now +employed tailoring! What will he--what can he do, when liberated? I +heard of three other clergymen who had been convicts, one of them went +abroad after he was liberated, and soon afterwards died. A second went +to a part of the country where he thought he would not be known, opened +a school which was not very successful, got into good society, and for +a time was very comfortable and happy. One day, however, a cabman who +came to drive him to a gentleman's house, recognized him as an old +prison companion, and the fact having become known he was obliged soon +after to leave the neighbourhood. The third met with a fate somewhat +similar. He happened to be at an evening party, in the house of a +friend; one of the guests would not remain in his company, and to save +the party from shipwreck he threw himself overboard into the great +ocean of life. Perhaps some friendly fish has swallowed him and cast +him on a Christian shore! I never heard of him again. The fate of these +men gives rise to many sorrowful reflections; surely there is cruel +injustice in the law which condemns a minister of the church of Christ, +who in a moment of sore temptation breaks the eighth commandment, to +years of slavery and a life of degradation and disgrace, compared with +which death itself would be mercy and kindness, and yet permits +constant and flagrant violations of the seventh, by rich and titled +transgressors, to be compromised with gold! Why do we in the one case +brand the offender with the mark of Cain, and in the other cover with a +golden veil both sin and sinner? If it is necessary, "as a warning to +others," that casual violations of the eighth commandment should be so +punished, why is it unnecessary to warn others against the frequent and +habitual violation of the seventh? Would the payment of money, together +with the loss of character, social position, &c., not be a sufficient +warning to all men in a position to commit such acts of dishonesty as +may be included under the general designation of breaches of trust? But +what does so-called justice now demand in such cases? Let ten clergymen +embezzle 100_l._ each, and hear how society indemnifies itself for +the crime and the loss! By the mouth of one judge, one of these +clergymen is sentenced to one year in prison; by the mouth of another +judge, another of these clergymen is sentenced to two years in prison; +by the mouth of a third, another is condemned to three years penal +servitude, to labour and associate with the dregs of society; by the +mouth of a fourth, four years of such humiliation; and so on. + +Are all these just judges;--or is only one of them just? and which is +he? + +These are questions I will leave my readers to answer for themselves. +Of one thing I am satisfied, that our present laws on the subject +require alteration. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +QUACKERY--FOOD--A CHATHAM PRISONER EATS SNAILS AND FROGS--SIR +JOSHUA JEBB'S SYSTEM AND ITS DEFECTS. + + +I have already said in a previous chapter that our prison authorities +regard the convicts as mere human machines, all made after the same +model, and that the machinery, by some abnormal defect in its original +construction constantly impels them in the wrong direction. In official +eyes they do not appear to be men having peculiarities of physical +construction and constitution, individuality of character, or to have +been so designed as to be like other men, moulded by circumstances, or +amenable to the influence of education or social position. They look at +him through the official spectacles, the lenses of which are carefully +adjusted so that the object shall present not only a perfectly uniform +appearance but also appear uniformly bad. If the convict is in good +health, the machinery working smoothly--but still by the defect in its +construction always in the wrong direction--there are the regulation +appliances, not for remedying the original defect in the machinery, it +must be remembered, and if possible getting it to work in the _right_ +direction, but appliances to check, thwart, and by force drive it +backward, which in most cases it cannot and will not do, and breakages, +ruin of machinery and other appliances also are the only result. They +number and ticket the convict according to his sentence, range them all +up, count them eleven times a day and say to them, "Convicts, now here +you are, all ticketed and counted, all of you are afflicted with some +moral disease, we are here to cure you, and we have _one_ pill which +will do it, and you must swallow it." + +This is the perfection of penal legislation at which, after many royal +commissions, and much parliamentary eloquence, we have arrived! One +would have imagined that a gigantic quackery and multitudes of quack +doctors could have been procured and set in motion with less trouble +and at less expense! Only on one point there is universal agreement, +let the machine be working either in the right direction or the +wrong--so long as it is working it must be oiled, that is a necessity +of machine-life, so to speak--the man or convict must be _fed_. But how +feed him? To you, my reader, and I, the natural answer would be that +the machine must be oiled, or the man fed, in greater or less +proportion to the power and capacity of the machine or man, and to the +amount of work we require from it or him. But we are both wrong. Our +prison authorities say, "Machine, big or little, you shall all have +exactly the same quantity of oil, neither more nor less. You little +machines there, with oil running all over you, how smoothly and +uncomplainingly you work! You big machines, you may creak as you +please, your journals may get hot, blaze up and produce universal +smash: but you can't get any more oil; we can't allow you to lick up +any of that which is running over your little neighbour there--that is +for the pigs, and for _us_." Is not this amazing folly? Or again, +suppose we were to take a race-horse, a dray-horse, a farmer's horse, a +broken-down hack, and a Shetland horse--for these more nearly resemble +the various classes of convicts--and say to them, "Horses, you have all +offended the laws of horsedom, and stand fully convicted of clover +stealing. For this most heinous crime you are each condemned to draw a +load, one ton weight, fifteen miles every day--Sundays excepted--for +five years, and your allowance of food will be two feeds of oats, and +one allowance of hay per diem;" and what would be the result, supposing +that the allowance of hay and oats was just barely sufficient for the +average--say the farmer's horse? + +First of all the race-horse, able to eat his oats and a portion of the +hay, could do with some additional dainty bits, perhaps, but on the +whole he has his stomach filled and can live. He is yoked to his load, +and being a spirited animal, he goes at it very hard, succeeds for a +time; at last he sticks in a rut, puts on a "spurt," and breaks down. +He can't do the work. He is put down at six marks a day, or no +remission. He is spoiled for ever, and as a racer his days are ended. + +The dray-horse comes next, the load is a mere toy to him, he gets his +eight marks a day, but by-and-bye he begins to feel the effects of an +empty stomach, to fill which he would require double the allowance of +food he receives; and in the long run he too breaks down and is passed +into the hands of the veterinary surgeon, and is ruined as a useful +animal. + +Next comes the farmer's horse, and the load and diet being suitable to +him, he can do the punishment and easily satisfy the law. + +The broken-down hack is never yoked at all, he passes into the hands of +the surgeon, and there remains. While the little Shetlander is in +clover; he never had so many oats before--has actually as much again as +he can consume--and the cart and harness being too large, and the load +altogether ridiculous for his strength, he is never put to it, and so +escapes the legal punishment. And so it is that one portion of the +inhabitants of horsedom, pointing to the Shetlander, cry out that "the +convicts have too much food, they are up to the eyes in luxuries;" +another portion, pointing to the dray horse, say "the convicts are +starved, and are dying of hunger;" whilst a third answers both by +pointing to the farm horse and saying that "he can do the work and +satisfy the law. Why should they not all be treated alike? a horse is a +horse all the world over." + +Our system of dieting and working convicts is exactly similar to the +above; only at the invalid prison where I was confined the law was not +adhered to. I knew prisoners who ate double the quantity of food +allowed them, and I knew others who did not eat above half. Sometimes +it happened that a voracious prisoner could not get his food exchanged +so as to increase its bulk, and in that case he would be compelled to +seek refuge in hospital. If the diet there was not sufficient, God help +him, for from man no further aid was to be expected. + +I recollect having a conversation with a prisoner who had just arrived +with eighteen others from the prison at Chatham. He had got his leg +broken accidentally while at work there, and the medical men had not +made a very good job of putting the bones together, so that he did not +expect ever to be able to use it. I asked him what sort of a place +Chatham was under the new system. + +"Oh, it's the worst station out," he replied, "they are starved and +worked to death. They are even eating the candles, and one man died +lately who had twenty or thirty wicks in his stomach when the _post +mortem_ took place. In the docks I have seen fellows pick up the +dirtiest muck you ever saw, and swallow it! There are lots of fellows +there who eat all the snails and frogs they can get hold of. I have +seen one man several times swallow a live frog as easily as you could +bolt an oyster. Frogs and snails are considered delicacies at Chatham." + +"How did you get on with the food yourself?" + +"Well, I was never much of an eater, and I could get on middling well +with it; but then the food was better there than it is here. This is +the worst station out for 'grub.' The cook and steward must be d---- +villains to rob a lot of prisoners of their food." + +"Do they all get eight marks a day at Chatham?" + +"No, not nearly all; many only get seven, and some not more than six. +The 'screws' there are ---- tyrants, and if they don't mind what they +are about some of them will get murdered. There are a few fellows there +would rather be 'topt' than be messed about in such a way, and have to +die in prison at last. What sort of 'screws' have you here?" + +"Well, the majority of them are very civil fellows; there are a few, +perhaps, inclined to exceed their duty, but on the whole they are not +bad, and you will have yourself to blame if you get into trouble. Bad +masters make bad servants, and I have no doubt the Chatham officers are +merely carrying out the directors' orders when they tyrannise over the +men." + +"What sort of a doctor is this you have got here? he gets a very bad +name." + +"Well, he is blamed for not giving prisoners treatment until they are +just dying, but I do not pretend to be a judge of such matters myself. +My advice to you is to be civil and grateful, and do not bother him +about food. Do not ask him for anything, just tell him exactly how you +feel, and you may do very well here." + +The prediction as to the murdering of some of the officers made above +by the prisoner was shortly after verified, and the culprit was hanged +at Maidstone quite recently. At the Yorkshire prison they had what +appeared to me a more sensible method of apportioning the diet. The +prisoners were weighed once a month, and if any of them lost weight +they were allowed an additional quantity of dry bread to make it up. In +the Surrey prison the practice of exchanging and trafficking in food +amongst the prisoners counteracted the evils that would otherwise have +resulted from the regulations being strictly adhered to; and in the +Scottish prisons the use of tobacco appeared to have the same effect. +While on the subject of diet, I may allude to a rule which had a very +bad effect on the minds of the prisoners who expected justice at the +hands of the officials. In the dietary scale brought out in 1864, it +was specified that when a prisoner had been two years in prison, he +would be permitted to have the option of tea and two ounces of bread in +lieu of the oatmeal gruel for supper, and when he had been three years +in prison he might have roasted or baked meat in lieu of boiled. The +convicts sentenced under the old Act were placed in the first or lowest +grade in the scale of the Act of 1864, but were denied the option of +those changes of diet which were permitted under it, and which were +considered necessary for the preservation of their health by the +medical authorities. The consequence was, and is, that there were +prisoners with life sentences who had been ten, twelve, and sixteen +years in prison on a diet inferior to those who had only been in prison +two years. No tea and bread at night for them, and no roasted meat. +This regulation was considered unjust by the prisoners, who said, very +naturally, "They took us off the good diet allowed by the old Act under +which we were sentenced, and placed us on the lowest scale of the new +dietary, and now, after being two years on the diet we ought not to +have been put on at all, we are not even allowed the changes open to +other prisoners. It is scandalous, after being ten or twelve years in +prison, to see other prisoners who have only just commenced their time +much better off than we are," &c. + +Another grievance the prisoners had, of which they loudly complained. +It was the custom at the Home Office to forward the prisoners' licenses +to the prison once a month, but as a rule these documents were ten +days--sometimes three weeks--later than they ought to have been. If a +prisoner had earned his marks, and was due for his license, say on the +1st of March, he expected the authorities would keep faith with him, +and that his license would arrive on the day it was due. Whatever the +convict may be himself, he expects a good example and honourable +fulfilment of the engagements on the part of the authorities. In this, +however, he was often disappointed, and many a million curses were +heaped upon them in consequence. And after all can we wonder at a +convict being exasperated if, as it often happened, he had written to a +wife, or a father, or brother or sister to meet him on a certain day at +the railway station, when he was due for his liberty, and then was +disappointed and had to wait a fortnight or three weeks before he could +see his friends? This neglect on the part of the authorities at the +Home Office, had the effect of making all those who were due for +liberation early in the month quite regardless of the prison +regulations, as one short sentence would not have made any difference +to them under the circumstances. + +In Sir Joshua Jebb's day anything of this kind seldom happened. The +prisoner's chief grievance then was the robbery of his food by the +officers, and as the discipline was lax a mutiny would be the result. +This had a good effect for a short time, and as long as the attention +of the press was directed to the question, but matters soon became as +bad as ever, and it was not until the subject came before the criminal +courts that there was any improvement. The name of Sir Joshua Jebb is +still held in great veneration by the convict, but as the duty of +carrying out his system was entrusted to men of a totally opposite +character, it was impossible for it to succeed. Independent, however, +of its moral administration, it had defects inherent in itself. No +penal bill will suit all moral complaints, and the sooner we depart +from quackery the better it will be for the prisoner and the nation as +well. Sir Joshua Jebb's system entered too largely into competition +with our workhouses and county jails. The prisoners were never taught +suitable trades, they were no doubt supplied with food in abundance, +and with some opportunities of learning to be industrious and for +improving their minds, but they were completely surrounded by far more +powerful counter-influences. Even the higher officials carried on a +system of wholesale robbery, and winked at the very large retail +business done in the same line by the prisoners and under officials. At +Bermuda and Dartmoor convict establishments I believe there were more +crimes committed by officers and prisoners together than the prisoners +could or would have committed if they had been at liberty. Prisoners +could do very much as they liked in those days, and the consequence was +that the "roughs," or the worst characters, gave the "ton" to the whole +prison. A country bumpkin who had stolen a bag of potatoes, perhaps, +soon learned the theory of picking pockets and the art of garotting in +these places, and being unequal to the former he would adopt the latter +as a means of earning a livelihood. Another cause of the increase in +the number of garotting cases, was the conduct of the directors who +visited the prisoners and punished the prisoners. Their injustice and +incivility to prisoners bore a striking contrast to the mild and +dignified civility of Sir Joshua their chief. I have known prisoners +return from the presence of a director, foaming with inward rage at +being bullied out of the room and punished without being permitted to +utter a word in their own defence. In many of these cases I have known +the prisoners to be innocent. Such men would go out of prison vowing +vengeance on some one, and ready for any deed of darkness that might +tempt them. I do not wonder that they took to garotting when I reflect +upon their character and the treatment they received in prison. +Prisoners seldom, if ever, vow vengeance against a judge or a +magistrate; the objects of their wrath are some policeman who has sworn +falsely, or some other witness who has committed perjury or betrayed +them; and we may naturally seek to inquire why the prison judge is not +as favourably regarded as his learned brother who holds open court? I +believe the reason is this, that a prison director can starve and flog +and retain prisoners in confinement for years, according to the length +of their respective remissions, and none but those directly interested +in full and quiet prisons know anything about it. If the governor and +directors of prisons had to dispense justice in presence of a reporter +for the press, how great would be the reformation immediately effected. +To the prisoner it would also be welcome, for if it ensured him of +nothing else but civility it would be a boon. A civil word goes a long +way with a convict, and it is so seldom he gets one from the chiefs of +prisons that he is apt to place a value upon it beyond its real worth. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +A NEW GOVERNOR--BREAD-AND-WATER JACK--SEVERE PUNISHMENTS--DIRECTORS +AGAIN--A HERB DOCTOR--EXTRAORDINARY STORY. + + +During my second stay in hospital the governor from another prison came +to rule over our establishment. He was known to most of the prisoners +as "Bread and Water Jack," some called him "Captain Spooney," some "the +Lurcher," and others "Mr. Martinet." The patients had just completed +their out-of-door exercise, and were standing in file two deep when he +first made his appearance. Some of the prisoners whispered, "That's the +new governor," and the sound having reached his official ear, the order +was issued "Now you men, you must understand there is to be no talking +in the ranks when I pass you." Almost every week some fresh order +issued from the new governor, and the following may be taken as a fair +example of the weighty matters which troubled the official head, and +afford a very good idea of its qualifications for disposing of them. + +"Prisoners must roll their neckerchiefs twice round their necks and tie +them in a particular way," and the way is then described. + +"Prisoners must walk three abreast round the parade, and not pass each +other in walking." + +"Prisoners must be sure to keep their hands out of their pockets in the +coldest days." + +"Prisoners must not neglect to salute the governor when he passes +them." + +"Prisoners must walk only two abreast instead of three abreast, as +formerly ordered." + +"The spoons and platters must be placed in this particular way." And +next week the order came to have the spoons and platters placed in +exactly the opposite way! + +"Prisoners' hair must be cropped shorter; they must not go to bed so +soon as they have done: they must cease talking at work," and so on. + +These were the principal orders issued, and attempted to be carried +out. I say attempted, for some of them were regularly evaded or broken +by the prisoners, and winked at by the officers. These were the orders +that were expected to be instrumental in converting thieves into honest +men! Whatever opinion might be formed of their probable efficacy out of +doors, or of the sanity of the man who sat in his office and scrawled +them out, the thieves themselves mocked and ridiculed them, and called +the small-minded military man set over them a "Barmey"[20] humbug. "What +does it matter," they would say to each other, "how we walk? What does +it matter whether our neck-ties be once or twice round? Why don't they +teach us to get an honest living and show us a good example? What good +will all this humbugging do us? We don't want to come into such places +if they will only let us live when we are out. Why don't they find us +work and try to keep us out of prison?" "Ah! that would spoil their own +trade," someone would reply. Such criticisms passed between the +prisoners on these new orders, with an accompaniment of oaths which I +cannot repeat. + + [20] Insane. + +The punishment for prison offences now became more severe under the new +governor, and the following may be taken as fair examples of the manner +in which this class of offenders were dealt with. A convict just about +due for his liberation had half-an-inch of tobacco given him by another +prisoner. The officer happened to notice the gift, went to the +prisoner, found the contraband article upon him, and took him before +the governor. That gentleman sentenced him to ten days in the +refractory cells, and recommended him to the prison director for the +loss of his gratuity and three months' remission. The unfortunate +prisoner was by-and-bye called up and informed that in addition to the +governor's sentence he was condemned to lose all his gratuity money, +which amounted to about 3_l._, and three months of his remission. +Two sentences for one offence were getting very common, but this +prisoner happened to be one of those who cared very little about +liberty, and received the information very coolly. As soon as he was +out of the cells he had his "snout" again as usual, but he was +"chaffed" a good deal by his "pals" for neglecting to swallow the quid +when he saw the officer coming to him. One of the hospital nurses (a +convict) got punished, though not quite so severely, for appropriating +to his own use a mutton chop that he was ordered to carry to the pigs. +At that time the authorities kept swine, who got all the food the +patients could not eat, but now it is sold. The prisoner thought, I +presume, that the chop would do a hungry man more good than it would an +over-fed pig. Another prisoner was sentenced twice for having an onion +on his person. One of his fellow-prisoners who was working among these +luxuries gave him one, and as the officer in charge had a grudge +against him, he was taken before the governor, who gave him ten days' +punishment, to which the director afterwards considerately added three +months! Such offences as these were of daily occurrence, but the +punishments for them when detected were very unequal. + +It is not often a convict is flogged, but it does happen occasionally. +I remember a young rollicking Irishman being flogged for attempting to +strike an officer, who, as often happens, was far more to blame than +the prisoner, who in this case was goaded and tempted to strike. The +majority of the officers--who are civil and sensible men, considering +their position in society--would have acted very differently. + +Another case, where the prisoner not only attempted but did actually +strike his warder rather severely, met with a more lenient punishment. +In this case the prisoner was decidedly to blame, and his punishment, +in technical language, was "six months in chokey with the black dress +and slangs." + +These cases were usually disposed of by the director at his monthly +sitting. That gentleman--who was fond of having nothing to +do--generally spent about twenty-four hours in prison per annum, spread +over eleven visits of an average duration of two hours each. Latterly +it was rather difficult for a prisoner to get to see him, and quite +impossible if he had a complaint to make against any of the officials, +which they thought he could establish. I have often thought that this +gentleman's duties could be performed more satisfactorily for a less +salary than one thousand pounds per annum! + +Before leaving the hospital, I will now relate a few of the +conversations I had with some of the patients. + +"How long have you been unwell?" + +"About fifteen months." + +"What is the matter with you?" + +"Oh! my health has been ruined by the treatment I received in the +Scotch prison before trial." + +"How long were you detained waiting trial?" + +"Six months." + +"Have you been to the public works?" + +"Yes, I was at Chatham; but my strength and constitution gave way, and +for a working man I am now ruined for life." + +"Did you enjoy your health before you got into prison?" + +"I was never a day unwell, and was as stout and as fit for work as any +man in the country." + +"What will you do when you get out of prison?" + +"God knows! I suppose I shall have to go to the workhouse. I am very +willing to work, but if I don't mend I shall never be able to handle a +tool again." + +Another case-- + +"How long have you been ailing?" + +"Ten months." + +"What is the matter with you?" + +"Oh! I am dying fast. I was seven months in a Scotch jail before trial, +and that is what is killing me." + +This prisoner died a few days after he uttered these words. His last +hours were spent in humming over a Scotch ballad he had learnt when a +child. + +Another case-- + +"Well, what's your sentence?" + +"Five years." + +"How old are you?" + +"Twenty-five." + +"What did you do outside?" + +"I was born in a workhouse, and lived in it for thirteen years, and I +have now been nine years in prison; so that I have not had much liberty +to do anything at all." + +"What do you intend doing when you get out this time?" + +"I think I shall go hawking bits of things through the country." + +"I am afraid you will find it difficult to make a living at hawking?" + +"Well I have the prison to come to, where I'll always get my grub." + +This prisoner had a delicate constitution, and in his case "hard +labour" was a meaningless sentence, and imprisonment was no punishment +to him whatever. To have made it more severe would have been all the +same to him, as the hospital would then have been his perpetual abode. +Some prisoners were in hospital nearly the whole of their sentence. One +prisoner lay in bed with paralysis upwards of four years, and had to be +lifted out to have his bed arranged several times a day: if he had been +paid to commit a crime he could not have done it. + +Another prisoner was in hospital all the years I was in prison, and had +been so for several years previous to my arrival. I only remember his +being in bed a few days on one occasion. I was much interested in +another patient, who ultimately died in prison, and whose history was +rather a singular one. I shall narrate it as he gave it to me:-- + +"I am what is called a herbalist, or herb doctor. I was brought up in a +workhouse, my parents having died when I was quite a child. I had a +great many brothers and sisters, all of whom died young. I had a very +delicate constitution, and was thought at one time to be dying of the +same disease as carried off my mother and sisters. The doctors gave me +up as being beyond their skill. Well, I had begun to study medical +botany by this time, and I at last discovered herbs that cured me. I +now thought of curing others, and began first with some children +belonging to poor people. I succeeded in almost every case, and as I +charged nothing at all for the medicines, I was called out by all the +poor people in the neighbourhood. + +"At last my practice began to interfere with my employment as a weaver, +and my master told me that he was willing to keep me and advance my +wages, but I was on no account to have anything more to do in curing +the sick. Well, I went round my circle of friends to ask their advice, +and they unanimously agreed to support me among them rather than be +deprived of my assistance. I accordingly gave up my place and opened a +herb shop. I studied the properties of herbs constantly. I had no taste +for any other employment. I tried the effects of all of them on myself +first of all, and sometimes on my wife, before I decided on using them, +and I daresay I may have done too much in this way in order to be able +to assure my patients that I had first taken a dose myself. I have read +all the books on the subject, in addition to my own practical +experience; and I will not yield the palm to anyone for having a +knowledge of herbs--I mean as to their medical properties. Well, I +continued in my first shop for about nine years, got married, and had a +comfortable home. About this time a clergyman of my acquaintance +happened to be removing to another county, a considerable distance from +the town where I lived, and as I had cured his wife after all the +regular doctors had given the case up as hopeless, he offered me +52_l._ per annum if I would go to the same place as he was removing to +and open a shop there, and I agreed. I was unfortunate the first year +in not getting many patients, and began to regret that I had left my +old abode. But by-and-bye the news of my cures spread abroad in the +neighbourhood, and I soon had as many patients as I could attend to. I +never advertised a line, and yet I had patients as far away as +Scotland. Ultimately my patients extended to the middle classes, and +that was what brought me here. So long as I confined my labours to the +poor, the regular doctors did not interfere with me, but when I began +to take away their paying patients by the half-dozen, they tried all +they could to damage my character, and get me out of the district." + +"What is your sentence?" + +"Seven years, and I'll tell you how I got it. I sold a mixture composed +of four different herbs, which is the most effectual medicine for +certain diseases peculiar to females; in fact, it is invaluable to +young unmarried women subject to the complaint I refer to, but, +unfortunately for me, it has also the effect of procuring abortion. +Well, one day a young woman came to me and wished to purchase some of +this medicine. I had cured an unmarried female of her acquaintance, but +before giving her the medicine I cautioned her not to take it if she +was _enciente_, as it would procure abortion. The female who now +applied to me wished it for that very purpose; her husband was a +sailor, she had been faithless in his absence, and she now wished to +keep him in ignorance of her sin. All this, however, I learned only +when too late. I refused to sell the woman the medicine, as I could +see she was married. On being refused, she went to an old woman whose +daughter had taken the medicine, and offered her 3_l._ if she would get +her some of it. Of course, I was not aware of this when the old woman +came to me and asked me for some more of the medicine for her daughter, +as she said. I sold her the medicine, which she gave to the sailor's +wife. It had the desired effect, and she was well and going about in a +couple of days. Her husband now returned, and the old woman demanded +the 3_l._, which the sailor's wife refused to pay. Determined not +to be beaten, she went to the husband and told him all about it. He +called in doctors to report on the case, which they did, adding that +instruments had been used, which was altogether false. The medicine was +easily traced to me. Where I was wrong was, in not having a written +statement from everyone to whom I sold the herbs, in order to have +protected myself against any such charge as was now brought against me. +The doctors, no doubt, believed that instruments had been used, because +they do not know the particular herbs at all, and no one in England +knows them but myself and I do not intend to let many know either--it's +dangerous knowledge; but, as God is my judge, I never used it wilfully +except for the relief of a disease that carries thousands of our +countrywomen to the grave in the very prime of youth. I have been +called to cases over and over again, after all the doctors had given +them up, and I have often restored the pale hectic young woman, in an +advanced stage of consumption, to health and vigour, by the simple use +of herbs--the best of God's gifts to man!" + +"What diseases were you most successful with?" + +"There is one disease I could never cure, and that's ossification of +the heart, but in the great majority of other diseases I succeeded +wonderfully. Sometimes, of course, I would be called to a consumptive +patient within a few days or hours of his death, when life was so low +as to render it impossible for the medicine to be taken." + +"What do you think of the cold-water system and homoeopathy?" + +"The cold water may do for some diseases and for some patients only, +but it is nonsense to think to cure all diseases in one way. I am not a +quack. In America there are colleges for teaching my system of curing +disease, regular teachers of medical botany. As for homoeopathy, I +think very little of it. I have known it succeed in cholera cases +sometimes, however, as well as the allopathy. When patients have very +little the matter with them, homoeopathy, or any other 'pathy' they +have confidence in, does all very well, and it fills the purses of the +practitioners, but when real rooted disease has to be encountered, the +herbs that God has given for the use of man are the only trustworthy +means by which to effect a cure. To give you an idea how many are +'gulled,' I may say robbed, by regular doctors, I will give you the +particulars of two cases which happened within my own personal +knowledge. Two men were seized with the same fever, and to all +appearance the patients were about equal in health, strength, and age. +I was called to one, and a regular doctor to the other. The doctor +allowed the fever to come to its height, as it is called. He made +frequent visits, ran up as large a bill as he thought would be duly +paid, and in three or four weeks the patient was at his employment. My +patient was at his work in three days, and all it cost him was a few +shillings!" + +"How did you manage to cure him so speedily?" + +"I never allow fevers to come to the height; I strike at the root of +the disease. If you were going to build up a house that was out of +repair and encumbered with rubbish, you would naturally clear away the +rubbish first and then begin your repairs. Well, that is just how I go +to work with disease. Every pore of the skin must be cleansed, opened, +and stimulated to action. The stomach must be thoroughly emptied and +cleansed by a particular herb, and the bowels must be effectually +treated in the same way. The house cleansed, I begin my repairs, which +consist in aiding Nature with the most powerful assistance given us by +Nature's God for that purpose, and the work is soon completed. I would +undertake to cure 100 out of the 150 patients here in a fortnight." + +"Do you think you could cure yourself?" + +"If I had two herbs here I could prolong my days for a long time, I +most thoroughly believe, but they can never touch my disease the way +they go on here--I am dying by inches." + +This prisoner (now dead) was quite an enthusiast about herbs, and +succeeded in imparting confidence in his abilities to the officers as +well as the majority of the prisoners. He was to all appearance a man +of good principles, and a Christian. How far his own statements +regarding his crime can be relied on, I cannot say, but that he +succeeded in raising himself from being a poor weaver to be a +money-making and successful herb doctor, I know to be correct. I have +noticed his case chiefly in order to remark that he turned a good many +of the prisoners into pill sellers and incipient quacks, but he never +would tell them about the abortion medicine although he gave them +prescriptions for almost all diseases. I saw them all, and know the +herbs had at least the merit of being innocent. Had he been less +honest, and had the herbs which he prescribed been poisonous, I fancy +that a good many of Her Majesty's faithful, loyal, and gullible +subjects would, long ere now, have returned to the dust from whence +they sprang. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +IN PRISON AGAIN--I SEE THE PRISON DIRECTOR FOR THE LAST +TIME--GENTLEMEN-PRISONERS--A WILL FORGER--A "WARNING TO +OTHERS"--FENIANS--TREATMENT OF POLITICAL PRISONERS--ANOTHER +JAILBIRD. + + +Having recruited my strength in hospital, I was again discharged to +resume my work in prison. Shortly after my return to my old quarters, I +thought I would inform my friends that some of the companions I met +with at the commencement of my prison career, who had longer sentences +than I had, had been fortunate enough to obtain their liberty, and, in +addition, a free passage to Western Australia--which was worth about +20_l._--and that I wished them to try and do something to aid me +in my race for liberty. But my letter was again suppressed, and not +being able by this means to inform my friends of my wishes, I entered +my name once more as being desirous to see the director. I anticipated +meeting the regular visiting director, who very rarely refused a +prisoner the privilege of writing a petition to the Home Secretary, if +he had allowed the usual time (twelve months) to elapse since he had +obtained the privilege before. But I was even in this doomed to +disappointment, and instead of the director I expected to see, I found +myself confronted by the old sinister-looking friend I had been +introduced to on a former occasion. I told him on making my humble +request that I had not petitioned the Home Secretary for several years, +that, in fact, I had not petitioned on the merits of my case at all, +and that I would feel grateful if he would extend to me the privilege, +usually granted to all well-conducted prisoners, of petitioning the +Home Secretary. + +Conscience did not seem to be utterly powerless within him, for his +eyes would not meet mine, they remained fixed on the desk before him; +but his head shook, and his lips muttered, "No." I pleaded for a moment +in beseeching tones which might have softened a heart of stone, but +Bassanio's appeal to Shylock was not more futile than mine to him. The +words and gesture with which my suppliant attitude was spurned, roused +all the manhood in me, and for an instant I felt as if I were a free +man and addressing my equal, and in language at once dignified and +firm, I requested a sheet of paper that I might appeal to the Board of +Directors. My altered mien and tone of voice, so unexpected, so unusual +in that secret court, arrested him; his hand trembled, he looked as +Felix might have done when he first heard of "righteousness, temperance +and judgment to come." My request was granted, and my last interview +with a prison director had come and gone. Two days afterwards I wrote a +letter to the board of directors, in suitable language, and addressed +to the chairman of the board, preferring my request. Month after month +passed away, but I waited for a reply in vain. At one time I would have +felt both surprised and annoyed that no notice had been taken of my +letter, but now I knew that I had only experienced the usual treatment +which prisoners receive who have justice on their side. I had now made +three, and only three requests to the officials during my prison +career, and all these had been denied, and I resolved to prefer no +more. I gave my mind healthy exercise in the composition of verses, +when I was not otherwise employed, and to a great extent forgot my +troubles in my puny flight to obtain a sight of the poets' mountain. + +The last year of my imprisonment was marked by the arrival of a number +of Fenians, and the departure for freedom of one or two of the very few +prisoners whose society had been a pleasure to me. One of these had +been the editor and proprietor of an influential country newspaper, and +his crime was very similar to my own. He was a man of deep thought, and +far, very far, from being a criminal at heart. He was the best educated +man I met with in prison, and eminently qualified for writing a +treatise on the prevention of crime. The other had been in business in +London, and had brought up a large and respectable family. Having been +accustomed to mix in the society of some of the most eminent of the +city merchants and bankers, his company in such a place as a prison was +a great acquisition. After the departure of these two prisoners I had +only one intimate and intelligent companion left. His case excited my +sympathy, inasmuch as he was a very humble and penitent man, with a +sentence of penal servitude for life. A sentence, I believe, inflicted +not so much for the crime, but on account of the position the prisoner +formerly occupied in society, and "as a warning to others." This is a +formula which, in many cases, is made to sanction monstrous injustice, +and in all cases, I may say, is practically inoperative. The only +parties warned by the fall and punishment of such an one as the +prisoner I here refer to, are those in the same respectable position in +life, because they are the only parties who have it in their power to +commit the same crime. The punishment cannot warn those who are not in +and cannot attain to the position which makes the crime possible, and +who could not find the opportunity to commit it, even if they were paid +to seek it; then why punish such men as this prisoner the more +severely, because he was in that position? + +I know it is urged in opposition to that view, that such men ought to +know better, that they have no excuse, and so on, but we must bear in +mind that all who do wrong know it, the poor and the ignorant as well +as the rich and educated, unless they are of unsound mind. Then again, +do those in a good position in society require more warning than those +who have no character or position to lose? It would be difficult, I +think, for anyone to maintain that position! The fact is, that +conviction merely, without any subsequent punishment at all, would be a +much more effective warning to the former class than the gallows even +would be to the latter! The thief plies his trade while the scaffold +frowns overhead, it does not deter him, but the lynx eye of a policeman +would, even although the penalty was a months' imprisonment instead of +the rope. As I have already more than once asserted, it is the fear of +_being caught_ that deters the thief, and this fear increases and +intensifies as we ascend the social ladder; in the case of all first +offenders of the law, the punishment is an after-thought, and on that +account, as well as on higher grounds, we ought to temper justice with +mercy in dealing with all first offenders, more especially with those +who offend against property only. + +In the case of the prisoner referred to, his crime would not have +enriched him more than about twenty pounds, had he succeeded in +escaping detection. He committed will-forgery, and of course although +the amount was small, still it was a great crime, but I think there +might be other methods found for punishing such crimes than dooming the +man who commits them to perpetual slavery. I take no notice of the fact +that the prisoner in this case maintained his innocence, I assume that +he was guilty, and I consider his sentence to be unjust and +inexpedient. It is true that this man once sat on the bench and +dispensed justice himself; it is also true that he once entertained the +Queen of Great Britain in his own house, and these facts to some extent +determined the severity of his sentence; I find in them additional +reasons for leniency, inasmuch as only a very feeble warning is +necessary to prevent men in the position he occupied, and exposed to +the same temptation, from following in his steps. + +I may now refer to the Fenians, of whom there were six who came to the +prison during the last year of my incarceration. They formed a class of +prisoners quite distinct from all the others, and their crime being +also essentially different, the observation I have made with reference +to the proper treatment of ordinary criminals do not apply to them. In +the phraseology of the convicts, they were a "rum lot." + +They took rank between the "Aristoes," and the "Democrats," and formed +an "Irish Brigade." One of them died soon after his arrival: two of +then were head-centres, and enthusiastic in the rebel cause, another +was a literary man, Irish to the backbone, but ready to write for money +on any side of politics. The remaining two were soldiers: one an +American infidel, who cursed Catholics and Fenians alike for getting +him into trouble. He called the Pope, the King-of-the-beggars; +quarrelled with the literary Fenian on the subject of religion, and +true to his profession, enforced his arguments by giving his opponent +what the convicts called a punch in the ear-hole, and extracting the +claret from the most prominent feature in his "counting-house." +According to the literary man, Ireland had one great grievance, and if +that were remedied the Emerald Isle would grow greener than ever. "It +is a splendid country," he said "for growing tobacco, and if the Irish +were allowed to grow that fashionable weed they would be the most +prosperous of peoples." A vulgar Scotchman suggested that Ireland would +be all right if the Irish were "Scotched," and the Fenians all roasted +on a gridiron. The irascible Irishman replied that a Scotchman was the +incarnation of impudence--and hereupon a war of words ensued, until the +officers' attention was attracted and brought it to an abrupt +conclusion. The two head-centres appeared to be intelligent men, but +very unlikely to raise the standard, or maintain the dignity of an +Irish Republic. + +One of them was said to be their ablest writer, but the other appeared +the most loyal and enthusiastic Fenian of them all. + +With respect to the punishment of political offenders, the system of +restitution which I have advocated would not be suitable, nor would +imprisonment in the county prisons answer well. I should not object to +government acting as jailers over such men, but they ought to be +confined in a prison where they could exercise all their faculties for +their own support, and their sentences should be the "Queen's +pleasure". Some of those in prison might be liberated at once, others +not until the rebellion had been completely extinguished; and the +government, not the judge, should regulate the period of their +confinement. It may be said that the government have power to liberate +such men now, when they choose, which is true enough, but suppose that +the rebellion lasts, or breaks out afresh in four or five years, and +one of the most dangerous members of the fraternity becomes due for his +liberation, they have no power to retain him. This power they ought to +possess in all cases where the sacrifice of human life has been +perpetrated, attempted, or contemplated. I would not allow this +exceptional treatment of political prisoners to interfere, however, +with the fundamental principle I have laid down of making all our +prisons self-supporting. + +I return to my numerous companions, the "regular" convicts, and the +following specimens of some of them whom I met during my last months in +prison may not be uninteresting. One day I opened the conversation with +a regular jail-bird, who had promised me some particulars of his +history some time before. + +"Well, you promised to give me a little bit of your history this +morning, are you ready to begin?" + +"Oh! I don't know where to begin, and I have seen so many ups and +downs, or rather so many downs and downs again, that I could not tell +you a quarter of my history." + +"When did you begin to steal first?" + +"When I was a kid; I was sent errands by my mother, she gave me money +to buy things for her, and I cheated her often, and a fellow that +cheats his mother, you know, is rather a hopeful youth. But to tell you +the truth I was partly spoiled by my mother, for she allowed me to do +as I liked, and when I grew up I became acquainted with others like +myself, and from prigging apples out of gardens I got to prigging +pockets, and from that I got to be a 'screwsman' and a 'cracksman.' My +first long sentence was seven years' transportation, and I never did a +day's punishment hardly. In those days the 'legs' went on board ship at +once, and were liberated or handed over to a master almost as soon as +they arrived. Well, I completed my time, was two years a whaler, and +went and settled in New Zealand, and that was the time I had most luck. +I was a brick-maker, and made money as fast as I had a mind almost. I +remained in New Zealand about fourteen years, and since I came home I +have never had a day's luck; I went on the 'cross,' and got four years; +after I had finished that bit, I went and lived with a 'moll' I knew, +and spent all my money. When it was done I went out to look for work, +and met with a young fellow who knew what sort of a 'bloke' I was, so +he says 'You are just the fellow I want, Bill; my master goes to the +bank to-morrow morning, and draws the wages money, after he draws it he +puts it in a drawer in his desk, and then goes out for about an hour, +and leaves the office without anyone in it. I have got two keys for the +door and the desk, but as I would be found out if I attempted to take +the cash, I will give you the keys, and we will divide the spoil. As +soon as the way is clear I will hang out a handkerchief and then you +will know that all is right.' Well I took the keys, and went to the +factory at the hour named, I waited some little time, and at last I saw +the signal agreed upon. Up I goes to the door, as if I had a right to +the place, marched boldly into the office, and before you could say +'Jack Robinson' I had the bag full of cash. Well, off I bolts to my +lodging, changed my clothes, and counts nearly one hundred pounds. I +got the half, as arranged, and never wrought a day's work till all was +spent--I spent about one pound per day. After that I took to hawking, +and I might have made a living at it but I got drunk, did a place over, +and got caught in the act, and here I am." + +"How many robberies may you have committed?" + +"Goodness knows! with the exception of the time I was in New Zealand +I've been always on the 'cross.'" + +"What was the largest you ever got?" + +"Five hundred pounds." + +"I understand, most of these large robberies are 'put up' jobs, like +the one you have mentioned?" + +"Yes, most of them are; the risk would be too great if that was not the +case." + +"Have you ever been flogged?" + +"Yes, severely." + +"How did you like it?" + +"Like it! why not at all, of course; who would like a flogging?" + +"Would the chance of getting another flogging not deter you from +committing another crime?" + +"I would as soon be 'topt' as be flogged now, because a good bashing +would kill me; but no fear of punishment would deter me, if I saw my +way clear to get off. I never do a job until I feel certain I'll +escape. If I'm caught that's my fault, and I must chance the +punishment, whatever it may be. Another 'legging' would kill me, but if +I cannot get a living at hawking I will be forced to go on the 'cross,' +and 'God help the man that tries to catch me.' These places are getting +so hot that a fellow had better commit murder and be 'topt' at once." + +"If you had a safe where would you place it to be most secure?" + +"In the street, and then your servants couldn't put you away." + +"How would you carry your gold watch if you had one?" + +"Well, I would have one with a patent bow, and I would take care not to +flash my chain. If you keep your chain out of sight you are pretty safe +as long as you are sober, and every man who gets drunk ought to lose +his watch; the thief should get a reward for doing that job. It's safer +of course to carry the watch in the fob than in the waistcoat pocket, +particularly if the chain is exposed, but it can easily be taken from +any part, if the chain is seen, unless you have a catch in your pocket +to hold it. You know the way we do is to twist the bow of the watch and +it breaks in a second." + +"What do you get for a watch, usually?" + +"From three to six pounds, according to the value of the watch." + +"That seems a very low price to get for a good gold watch?" + +"Yes, but five pounds, I assure you, is considered a good price by the +man who stands 'fence,' and if a fellow can get eight or ten in a day +he may do very well at that, but I have not done any 'buzzing' for a +long time, I am too old for that game, and I can't afford to run a risk +for five pounds. This hot work in prison will make thieves look after +larger stakes." + +"I would recommend you very strongly to go on the square when you get +out, and not on the cross; you might easily make a better living by +hawking than at this weary work, at all events." + +"I mean to go on the square as long as I can do without working, I am +not able for hard work and I do not intend to do any more, neither in +nor out of prison; but if I can't make a living honestly you may be +sure I shall not starve." + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +PRISONERS' CONVERSATIONS--LARRY AND TIM GET INTO CHOKEY--BIG +CROPPY--WHAT PAT GETS "IN FOR"--MALICIOUS GAMBLING--PAT'S PATENT +FOR GETTING A NEW COAT--DICK'S EXPLOITS--NED'S ADVENTURES AND +ESCAPES--A NEW SCREW ARRIVES--A PRISONER EMPTIES THE WINE CUP +AT THE ALTAR--NED, DICK, AND PAT'S OPINION ABOUT BADGES, +CLASSIFICATION, HEAD BLOKES, PRISONERS' AID SOCIETY, AND THE +IRISH SYSTEM. + + +The following are specimens of the conversations which take place among +the prisoners as they meet in the ordinary course of their prison +employment. They were quite unaware that there was anyone near +listening to them, or taking more than an ordinary interest in their +remarks to each other, and my report may be taken as a perfectly +accurate representation of ordinary convict conversation and +phraseology. + +"Well, Dick, how are you?" + +"Oh! pretty well, Ned, how's yourself?" + +"Well, I'm among the middlings only. That beastly bad cheese they gave +us yesterday hasn't agreed with me, and I think I shall hook it up to +the 'farm'[21] for a week or two, and get a change of diet before going +home. I am only waiting to get a bit of 'snout,' and then I shall send +in a sick report. Have you heard what Larry and Tim have got this +morning? Larry's got three days' bread and water, seven days' +penal-class diet, and 'blued' fourteen days' remission; and Tim's got +three days." + + [21] Hospital. + +"Well, Larry partly deserves it. He was a fool to let the 'screw' see +he had the 'snout;' but what was Tim's offence?" + +"Speaking to a fellow in the ranks, and merely saying 'It was a fine +morning;' he'll get turned out of the cook-house, too. It's a ---- +shame, when other fellows talk away in the ranks every day. I say, what +day do you go home?" + +"I ought to go on the 2nd, but these ---- licenses will be late again, +no doubt, and very likely I shall not go before the 10th or 20th of the +month. Have you any message for me to carry out?" + +"Do you remember 'Big Croppy?'" + +"Yes." + +"Well, he's been to my wife since he went out, and told her all manner +of lies. He's told her that I accuse her of going with another man, and +she has been to my mother and told her that she is not going to write +to me any more, nor to live with me again. I have been to ask for a +special sheet of paper to write and tell them that it is all lies +Croppy has told them; but the ---- governor won't grant me paper. So, +as I am not due to write for nearly three months, I wish you would call +on my mother and my wife, and tell them how things stand." + +"I will, you may depend upon that, and I'll get some 'bloke' to give +Croppy a pair of black eyes for his pains, the ---- swine." + +"Here comes Pat.--Well, Pat, have you heard that Larry and Tim have +gone to chokey?" + +"Yes," replied Pat; "but what screw reported Tim?" + +"That leather-skinned cranky old terrier over there reported Tim, and +the 'bloke' with the peg-top whiskers reported Larry." + +"Bad 'cess to the 'terrier!' I have a good mind to punch him in the +ear-hole." + +"That would fetch a bashing, Pat." + +"Troth, and I've had a bashing once afore, and what I've had once I can +do with agin." + +"Did you holloa when you were bashed?" + +"Holloa! by the piper, I sang out-- + + 'The seeds of repentance, how can they take root, + When I'm ruled by a tyrant and flogged like a brute; + The plant of revenge is more likely to sprout + When such monsters of jailers go strutting about.' + +"And I called them all the horrid names I could think on, and they were +wild when they saw I was game." + +"Where were you bashed?" + +"At Bermuda; and by the piper, they once flogged men before the altar +there, and then called the prisoners into chapel and preached to them +about forgiving one another, and showing mercy to one another, the ---- +hypocrites." + +"What are you here for this time?" + +"Oh, nothing at all. I am like the bloke in the song-- + + 'One day as I passed I looked into the kitchen, + Where I saw a pot boiling, but not for poor Pat; + For love and for thieving I'd always an itchin', + So I took out the mutton and put in the cat.'" + +"I understand there was a great many unnatural crimes committed at +Bermuda?" + +"Oh! shocking. The young lads would go about with their pockets full of +money, and their hair decked up like girls. It was disgusting, 'pon my +word; and do you know what the authorities called it when cases were +brought before them?" + +"No." + +"Why, 'malicious gambling.' That was to deceive the public, you know. +There was plenty of 'snout' knocking about in all the prisons in those +days, and a fellow hadn't to go a day without a taste as he has to do +now sometimes. We used to have lots of rum at Bermuda, as well as +'snout,' and first-rate liquor, too. By the piper! I wish I had a drop +now." + +"How much could you do with?" + +"A wee drop in a bucket, about two hoops up. The last time I'd a drop +o' rum in me, do you know what I did? I had on a very shabby coat, all +torn at the elbows, and only one tail to it, so I spied a country bloke +with his girl, dressed out in new toggery. I says to my pal, 'I say, +O'Shockady, there's a new coat on that bloke's back that I must have on +mine; he is just about my size. You go up and be messing about with his +girl, and you'll see he will guard and offer to fight. You take off +your coat and put up your 'props' to him, and get him to strip also. +Well, I'll come up and see fair play, and while you're at the fists +I'll leave my tog and take his, d'ye twig?' Well, up O'Shockady went, +and, my crikey! if you had seen how the bloke fired up when his girl +was insulted! why, his coat was off in a jiffey, and it was soon +farther off than he could catch, I can tell you. After I got round the +corner O'Shockady gave in to the bloke and bolted, leaving him in his +shirt-sleeves to escort the girl." + +"That reminds me," said Dick, "of an affair I was once in. When I was a +lad I ran away from home. I was afraid to go back, lest I should get a +bashing. At that time there was a woman in the High Street of +Edinburgh, who took in lads situated as I was, and made them go out and +steal, to pay her for their lodging. There were about twenty of us in +the house at the time I went; some of them wenches and some of them +young chaps like myself. Well, one night we were rather hard up and we +wanted a good feed, so five or six of us set out, along with a great +stout fellow, and we actually stole a whole sheep that was hanging at a +butcher's door, and the big chap swagged it home. The old woman had it +put in the bed, and covered it with the bed-clothes, as if it was a +sick person; and the 'bobbies' found it there before she had time to +get it cooked for us, and, by jingo! we were all marched up to the +'lock-up' over it. Well, I got thirty days over that job. When I came +out of jail I went to a fair in the neighbourhood, and I prigged a +countryman's 'poke' as he was standing at one of those barrows where +they shoot for nuts; and, by the piper! the 'copper' saw me and marched +me off to the station. But just before coming out of the crowd I got +twisted round a little behind the 'bobby,' and I passed the purse into +his pocket. Well, off we marched to the station, and when we arrived +there the policeman swore that I stole a purse, and that I had it on +me, as he saw me put it into my pocket. They searched me, but of course +found nothing, and I got off. Determined not to lose the 'poke,' which +had a good many 'quids' in it, I watched the 'copper,' and prigged it +out of his pocket again. It was the same 'bobby' as got me this bit, +and I told him then all about it." + +"I once," chimed in Ned, "buzzed a woman on the 'fly,' and got her poke +with eighteen bob in it; she soon missed it, and I saw her go into a +shop, and watched her crying to the shopkeeper and telling him that she +had got all her husband's earnings for the week stolen. Well, I knew +she was a poor woman by that, and I went up and asked her if she had +lost a purse, as I had found one. She said she had, and I gave it to +her again. Now, mind you, I was very hard up at the time, but I don't +hold with stealing from poor people. Men that have more than they know +what to do with in a country where thousands are starving, ought to +have some of it taken from them: that I call 'fairation.' I once +prigged a priest's pocket, and he collared me and said, 'Well, if you +think you have a better right to that purse than I have, you may keep +it.' 'Well, sir,' I said, 'I'm very hard up, and as there are only a +few shillings in it I hope you will allow me to keep them,' and, by +jingo! if the good old fellow didn't let me off, blessings on his head +for it. One of the narrowest escapes I ever had was one time I prigged +a poke with only seven shillings and sixpence in it. The copper saw me, +and chased me like Jehu. Well, I out with the money, pitched the purse +away, so that it could not be easily got again; and, one by one, I +swallowed the coins, and just as I was getting the sixpence down my +throat the 'bobby' had a hold of me by the collar. Of course he was too +late. I hadn't a rap in my pockets, but it was very near a 'legging' +for me. I had another narrow escape not long before I got this bit. I +knew a gentleman's house where they laid out the breakfast dishes on +the table for an hour before they took breakfast. During this hour the +room was left untenanted, and the window left open to let in the air. +Well, I bolted in and 'nicked' a nice silver teapot, cream jug, and one +or two other things, and off I started home, where I 'planted' the +articles, and then went to bed. Shortly afterwards a bobby came to the +door, and although I told them to say I was not at home, to get him +kept from coming in, by jingo! I soon found he was coming to search the +house. So I bolted out of bed like a shot, put my clothes into a +drawer, and up I went through a sort of trap-door on to the roof of the +house, and perched myself behind the chimney of the next house, with +nothing on but my shirt and stockings; I hadn't time even to get my +trousers pulled on. Oh! didn't I sit shivering there till they gave me +the tip that all was right in the house. The 'toff' that owned the +'wedge' made a dreadful song about it next day, and him wallowing in +wealth, what do you think of that? The copper knew I did that job, and +had me up on suspicion some time after, and gave me a drag (three +months) over it. The next bit I did was a 'sixer' (six months), and I +escaped from prison in about three weeks after I got it. Soon after +that I got this seven 'stretch' (years), and, by the piper! I'll take +care and not get the next for nothing!" + +"Oh! crikey," cried Pat, "here's a new screw come; what has he been, I +wonder?" + +"Where is he?" said Ned. + +"Yonder; he is coming this way, with a tall complexion, a leg o' mutton +whisker, and a pock-marked shirt," replied Pat. + +"Why, he's a big fellow?" + +"Big! I should think he was. He is like a double-breasted beer barrel. +He's been a screw at some other prison; you can see that by the cut of +his jib." + +"Oh! I know him," said Dick, "he's from Dartmoor; he is not a bad sort +of fellow, that. He is straightforward, and if ever he takes a prisoner +before the governor he speaks the truth, and you know they don't all do +that, by a long way." + +"How long were you at the Moor, Dick?" + +"Three years; but it's not like the same place now. Oh! we had rare +sport there at one time. There was an old half 'barmey' chap when I was +there, who was once admitted to the 'communion,' and it happened to be +his turn to get the wine first, and, by the piper! if he didn't drink +every drop that was in the cup, and cried, 'Oh! that's fine! I do love +this! I do love this!' We had plum pudding at Christmas in those days, +and the roughs did anything they liked almost, if they didn't strike a +screw. There was too much license there then, but now it's all the +other way. What good is this humbugging system going to do us? If they +want to keep us out of prison why don't they get work for us that we +can earn a proper living at?" + +"Oh! they're a lot of jackasses, that's what they are; they don't know +what to do with us," said Ned. + +"Look at this classification, and these marks and badges," said Dick, +"why, isn't it scandalous the way the public are gulled? First there +were big leather badges, that would cost probably a thousand pounds at +all the prisons. Then these were done away with, and we had badges half +the size, and then, after a few weeks, these were replaced by bits of +cloth. I wonder what they mean by all these changes of dress? Do they +think it punishes us?" + +"No doubt they do." + +"What fools they must be; what do we care what we wear in prison, as +long as it isn't thin rags that won't keep out the cold. Oh, have you +read that article in one of the periodicals about the Andaman Islands?" + +"No." + +"Well, the bloke who writes it proposes to send convicts out there, and +keep them for life and compel them to marry prostitutes or female +convicts, and then when the 'kids' are grown to take them away from +them! The fool! why, all convicts haven't life sentences, and does he +think that they would remain out there and do as he liked after their +time was up? It isn't likely." + +"Why, that would be worse than the slave trade," said Ned, "and +wouldn't there be a nice crop of murders there? Why, they would require +to get a factory specially for making hemp ropes to hang the culprits." + +"Who is it that writes the article?" asked Pat. + +"A government commissioner, but he does not give his name." + +"Troth, and I should be ashamed to give it if I was he; I propose he +should be taken and compelled to marry a 'tail,'[22] and sent out to try +it himself first; why such men are not fit to live, and these are +Christians! those are the men who do unto others as they wish to be +done by, God help us!" + + [22] Prostitute. + +"Have you heard what the director did when he was down on Saturday?" +enquired Ned. + +"A precious sight of good he does to be sure," replied Dick, "why he +has given orders that no prisoner is to be allowed to see him about the +food and the marks, and you must tell the chief warder what you want to +see the director about before you can be allowed to go before him. +Isn't that a pretty thing? What a nice easy way of earning a thousand a +year the director has?" + +"What has caused this fresh order?" + +"There were two causes--three of the convalescent invalids went to the +director to ask to be able-bodied in order to get the able-bodied diet. +They are doing as much work now, except that they are not quite so long +at it, but they are willing to work for the diet the same as the +others. The director refused to allow them to work more, and of course +they can't get the grub, and he gave orders that no more of such cases +should be allowed to come before him. Another case was this--two +fellows saved their cheese on the sly for several weeks, and in this +way managed to have each about four cheeses beside them. Well, one of +them told the officials what he was going to do, and the other kept his +intentions secret. The first one went before the director and asked him +if he would be kind enough to look at the cheese he had been supplied +with for some weeks, and see whether it was the quality it ought to +have been. The governor chimed in at once, and said that this was the +only complaint he had heard about the cheese, and that all the other +prisoners were satisfied. The prisoner was then bounced out of the +room, and threatened with a 'report' if he complained again. Well the +next man was called, and this happened to be the other 'bloke' with the +four cheeses. Before going in he took them out of his pocket, and what +do you think they did? Why, he wasn't allowed to go before the director +at all; they squared him and coaxed him, and at last persuaded him not +to insist on seeing the director at all, by threatening to send him to +the refractory cells for having four cheeses on his person, which was +quite contrary to the prison rules! Isn't it a ---- shame the way the +head blokes go on? How can they expect a fellow to reform when they rob +us of our food and show us a bad example?" + +"What o'clock is it, Pat; d'ye see the clock there?" + +"It wants a quarter to three; I say, Dick, will you give me a mutton +for a pudding, that beastly stuff lays heavy on my stomach, and I know +you are fond of it." + +"I don't mind, but how are you to get it sent to me?" + +"I'll send it by some fellow in our ward who works in your gang." + +"I am hard up for snout," said Ned, "can you give us a bit, Pat? Upon +my word I've just had one old pipe head for the last three days and it +wasn't up to much, it had been too much used." + +"Well, I'll lend you an inch or two, but I hope you will soon pay me +back; why there is none to be had now under a bob an ounce; but I say, +Ned, if you should get another legging I would advise you to declare +yourself a Jew. You look something like a sheeney at any rate. Why look +at that old 'Chickarlico;' he goes twice a week to school and has two +Sundays every week, besides ever so many feast days." + +"Oh, I can do another 'bit,' no matter whether I am Jew, Turk, or +Christian; but if I get an easy job I mean to go on the square, upon my +word I do." + +"Who'll employ you, do you think?" + +"Why, I shall go to the society." + +"The society be ----! they will not do you any good." + +"I believe it is under new management now, and they don't cheat a +fellow out of his gratuity as they used to do; but I think it's a wrong +name to give it--The Prisoners' Aid Society! the very cases requiring +most aid they won't assist at all, and unless a fellow is stout and +hearty and has got some gratuity they won't have anything to do with +him. If I had only a few shillings coming due to me they would not aid +me, but as I have five or six pounds they will, now that looks +suspicious. Then, if I had lost a leg, like that bloke over there, they +wouldn't aid me. But if I don't go to the society I will, perhaps, go +to Ireland and give them a turn there." + +"Oh!" said Pat, "you'll find nothing that wants lifting there." + +"Have you been to Spike Island, Pat?" + +"Yes." + +"What sort of place is it, and what about this Irish system?" + +"Oh! the place is something like the public works here, and as for the +Irish System--I can see nothing in it except that they get most of the +prisoners sent to America, and if they would send _us_ there, we +might get a living too, without going on the cross! There are not many +regular prigs in the Irish prisons. Many of them are fellows who got +into trouble in some drunken row, and the people in Ireland are not so +prejudiced against convicts as the English are, so that work is easier +got; another thing is when your time is near up you are trusted a +little, and get some liberty to go about. In this way the authorities +can see who's who. Then the numbers are fewer altogether, and a small +lot of men are easier dealt with, you know, than many thousands. It +wouldn't work quite so well here, but the great thing is sending the +prisoners abroad in some way or other. Do you know that Lafferty and +Badger are going to be sent to New Orleans, by the Catholic Aid +Society?" + +"No! what will Lafferty do there?" + +"Oh! he must go on the cross, I expect, but Badger is able to work. +He's a very good 'buzzer,' is Lafferty, mind you, and he might do very +well out there." + +"Well, the time's up Ned, I suppose you'll be going up to the 'farm' +to-night, and we sha'n't see you again. Well, old fellow, take care of +old Tommy's black draughts, and look after yourself when you get out. +Good-bye." + +"Good-bye, old fellow, good luck to ye." + +"Fall in." + +"There's the officer shouting 'fall in.'" + +"Well, ta ta." + +"Ta ta." + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +CAPITAL PUNISHMENTS--I RECEIVE MY LICENSE--STRANGE BED-FELLOWS--MY +LIBERATION. + + +During the last year of my imprisonment a bill relating to the crimes +of murder and manslaughter was brought before Parliament, and the +discussion in the House of Commons which ensued was much commented upon +by the prisoners. About the same time I read a lecture touching on the +same subject, which had been delivered to the Young Men's Christian +Association, at Exeter Hall, and it may not be out of place here if I +venture to express my opinion on the subject as well, possessing as I +do the advantage over most of those who have discussed it out of doors, +in having heard the opinions of those likely to commit such crimes, and +having a familiar acquaintance with their habits, and the motives from +which they act. The reverend lecturer to whom I have referred, based +his argument for the continued infliction of capital punishment on the +perpetual obligation of the Mosaic law: "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by +man shall his blood be shed." He also maintained, if I understand him +rightly, that the office of the hangman ought to be considered the +highest object of human ambition, and that the hangman himself should +take precedence of archbishops, kings, and emperors, inasmuch as he +occupied the position of Almighty God, taking vengeance for the +shedding of human blood. I confess I can scarcely conceive of a +Christian man occupying such a position, neither can I agree with the +reverend lecturer that the command given to Noah was intended to extend +to all generations and societies of men. When it was promulgated there +were only a few individuals left to people the universe, and the +command was made _absolute_. There is no intimation of any distinction +between the deliberate and the accidental shedding of human blood, and +until some such distinction is made our conceptions of the eternal +rectitude and justice of God, must be of a very peculiar and imperfect +kind. That some distinction ought to be made is a fact which men in all +ages and of all degrees of civilization have recognized, and have found +their authority for making such a distinction, not in any spoken or +written law, but in a much higher and older law than these, the +universal conscience of mankind. That such a distinction was found +necessary as the race became more numerous, is conclusively shown by +the promulgation of the Mosaic law: "He that smiteth a man so that he +die shall be surely put to death, and if a man lie not in wait, but God +deliver him into his hand, then I will appoint thee a place whither he +shall flee." (Ex. xxi., 12, 13.) This was a great modification of the +original injunction, and also shows clearly, to my mind at least, that +all human punishments should be regulated by the condition of the +people for whose benefit they are designed. Again, in the same chapter +from which I have already quoted, I find the following, "Thou shalt +give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot +for foot, &c.," a law evidently designed for a semi-barbarous people, +and admitting of prompt administration and summary execution. Turning +to the Christian law on the subject we find, "Ye have heard that it +hath been said an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth, _but I_ +say unto you that ye resist not evil." This would appear to introduce a +new principle of forbearance, and if we refer to the case of the woman +taken in adultery, where the legal penalty was death, we find that +mercy, and not vengeance, is the principle on which our penal code +ought to be based. + +But leaving scriptural grounds and descending to those of expediency +merely. Does capital punishment deter men from committing murder more +effectually than perpetual imprisonment would? I believe that 999 out +of every 1000 of our convicts even would not commit deliberate murder, +although the penalty was only a few months' imprisonment and detection +_certain_, unless under peculiar temptation or provocation. It is +a crime naturally abhorrent even to the thief, and the majority of +those men capable of committing wilful murder would on the whole, I +believe, prefer to be hanged out of their misery, than remain in prison +all their life. If all hope of release could be utterly extinguished, +very few of such men would chance perpetual imprisonment, if they had +it in their option. Of course we could not banish hope from the minds +of all, and therefore many would at first cling to life, and after a +few years seek death as a release from bondage, and even commit suicide +rather than endure such suffering longer. I knew one prisoner who +pleaded to be hanged, and others who would certainly prefer execution +if they had no hope of ultimate liberty. The general opinion of those +who had been in prison ten or twelve years out of a 'life' sentence was +in favour of execution at once, as being the less dreadful alternative, +so that with respect to punishment as a deterring influence, I have no +doubt that perpetual imprisonment would be more efficacious than the +capital sentence. + +Those who are capable of deliberately taking human life with the view +of obtaining money, may be divided into two classes. The one class +comprising such as prisoners who perpetrate the crime cunningly and in +secret, in the firm belief that they will escape detection; the other +class are the highwaymen and garotters, who go daringly and violently +to work, pretty sure in their own minds that they will be clever enough +to escape. + +With regard to the former class, the deterring influence is detection. +Capital sentence, perpetual imprisonment, or even a less severe +sentence would operate equally in preventing the commission of the +crime in their case, because the idea is not generally present in their +mind when they premeditate it, or is completely outweighed by the fear +of detection or discovery. With reference to the second and bolder +class, a lingering imprisonment would appear more horrible in their +estimation, and exercise an equal if not a greater deterring influence +than the scaffold. Some of those men with whom I have met would glory +in dying 'game' as they term it. Those who commit murder in order to +gratify feelings of revenge, usually, I believe, find the gratification +of the passion so sweet that they are for the time quite regardless of +their own lives; and when jealousy is the cause of murder, it often +happens that the murderer takes the law into his own hands and visits +upon himself the penalty. I met cases in point, and in none of them did +the fear of the death sentence operate against the perpetration of +crime. They had made up their minds to lose their lives, and did not +calculate on escape. Such cases are not common, however, and perhaps it +is not possible to prevent them occurring. + +Those murders perpetrated for the love of money might to some extent be +prevented by the general elevation of the mass of society, and by +increasing the swiftness and certainty of detection; and I have come, +after long study of the subject, and from frequent contact with those +saved from the gallows, to the conclusion that capital punishment may +now be safely abolished in this country. In all countries where +secondary punishments are severe and capital punishments rigorously +inflicted, murders are numerous, and in countries where the machinery +for the detection of crime is defective it may be the same. Earl +Russell, in a late edition of his work on the constitution, expresses +opinions on this subject with which I coincide, but I disagree with him +when he prescribes imprisonment and hard labour as being the most +suitable method of dealing with criminals not capitally punished; I +refer, of course, to imprisonment and hard labour as generally +understood. + +There are three systems of imprisonment: the solitary, the separate and +silent, and the promiscuous association of all prisoners at the public +works. + +The solitary system feeds the lunatic asylums, the separate system has +its advantages, if not too long continued, and of the promiscuous +association system I have already at some length given my opinion. + +In my humble estimation a prison ought to be a place for extracting as +much usefulness as possible out of a prisoner for the benefit of that +society whose laws he has offended; but the "hard labour" in our +prisons is not useful in any sense of the word, either to the prisoner +or society, it is sheer waste of energy, which is in itself an evil, +and it gives the prisoner an aversion to labour of all kinds, which is +another and a much greater evil. Moreover, long imprisonments are +injurious to the prisoner under any discipline. If you take a bird, and +place it in a cage, and next day liberate it, it will ever retain a +dread of confinement; but, if you keep it in a prison for years, and +then open the cage door, instead of the sudden eager flight to freedom, +it will hover round its little prison, perhaps it will even re-enter +it, preferring it to that liberty which it has lost the power to enjoy. +So it is with many prisoners, keep them confined, and accustom them for +years to prison life, such as it is in the most approved "models," or +indeed under any conceivable mode of discipline consistent with +unshortened life in such a place, and they will re-enter the world in a +great measure, unfitted for the business of life. + +I remember having a conversation with an intelligent prisoner who was +by no means a criminal at heart. He asked me what means would I +recommend for the destruction of these schools of crime?--for so he +called the convict prisons. + +"Sentence Charles Dickens to ten years' penal servitude, and allow him +to use his pen," I replied. + +"Well," he said, "I daresay that might do, especially if those intended +for our future judges were sentenced along with him; but why should we +not try to enlighten the public when we are liberated?" + +"You might do so," I replied, "and I sincerely hope you will do so; but +I fear, like the down of a thistle on an elephant's back, so would the +words of a convict fall upon the public ear!" + +"Look at Napoleon III.," said my friend, "he is an ex-convict, and do +his words fall lightly on the public ear?" + +"His is hardly a case in point," I said; "the greater the criminal, or +rather the higher the object he endeavours unlawfully to obtain, the +less prejudiced is society against him. They regard these Fenians for +instance in a different light to us, yet these men at bottom are or +would be wholesale destroyers of human life, whilst we had no intention +of doing anyone any injury either in person or property. We are loyal, +they are traitors. We would willingly lay down our lives to regain our +lost characters and attain to an honourable and useful position in +society; they will go out of prison rebels, ready to take up arms +against all authority save that of their misguided chiefs, whenever +they can do so with apparent safety! Yet these men will be more +favourably received by society than you or I will be. You will find +when you get free that your position will be very different from what +it was, and that anything you say will be viewed with suspicion, as +coming from a prejudiced and untrustworthy person, and a well-told +falsehood by an official will far outweigh the whole truth if related +by a prisoner." + +"I could now prove," said my friend, "by the Blue Books, that most of +the reports sent to the Home Office regarding these establishments are +unreliable, and calculated to deceive and mislead the public as well as +the government." + +"You will require to be very guarded," I replied; "and above all things +adhere strictly to the truth, and if you can gain the ear of some +eminent man who takes an interest in the question, you might be the +means of doing your country much service." + +In consequence of such conversations as the one I have just related, I +was led to form the idea of giving this narrative to the public. If it +should lead to any change or modification in our criminal law, +conducive to the welfare and security of society, I shall consider that +my labours have not been altogether vain and unprofitable. + +A change of government having taken place during the last year of my +imprisonment I had the good fortune to get a few months' more remission +of sentence than might otherwise have been the case. + +While I feel truly thankful to those noblemen and gentlemen and other +friends who interceded for me, my special gratitude is due to Mr. +Walpole, for the promptitude he displayed in acknowledging my claim to +the few months' mitigation of punishment it was in his power to bestow. + +On a Friday morning I was unexpectedly called before the governor, and +informed that my license had arrived. I was asked certain particulars +in reference to my future intentions and address. I was next measured +for a shoe, the only decent and honest article of clothing I ever +received in prison; tried on a suit of clothes, and had my portrait +taken. On the Saturday morning I was weighed and measured, and taken +before the chaplain to receive a few formal words of parting advice. On +the following Monday I was again taken before the governor to hear my +license read. On Tuesday morning I was removed to Millbank Prison, and +lodged there for the night, in a cell along with two other prisoners +going to liberty like myself. We slept on narrow dirty mattresses, laid +on the floor, so close as to be touching each other. One of my new +companions had been nearly four years in the lunatic asylum at +Fisherton, and had recovered. The other was a young professional thief, +belonging to London, whose mind was just on the verge of insanity, +through long confinement in separate cells. To sleep on the floor of a +dusty cell, between two such companions, was not quite so comfortable +as a bed in the Hotel Meurice, at Paris, where I had spent my last free +night. Every moment that divided me from the hour of my liberation now +seemed magnified into days. Wednesday morning at last dawned upon me. I +was taken out and placed before a regiment of policemen, who each +scrutinized me, and that done I received my license. With feelings of +inexpressible thankfulness and gratitude to God I heard the heavy +prison doors close behind me, and once more I inhaled the sweet free +air of Heaven! + +Tears streamed down my cheeks as I trudged along the streets, in my +shabby clothes and with my deal crutch. I felt a new punishment +creeping over me, even whilst the glorious sun of freedom was shedding +its welcome rays on my dishonoured head. + +With nineteen shillings and threepence in my pocket, but with my +reputation lost, my health ruined, alone and a cripple, whom no +"Prisoners' Aid Society" would assist, I was expected to begin anew the +battle of life! + +While I write these lines the bitterness of my new punishment has +already visited me. Repulsed from every door where I seek employment, +waiting patiently for the replies to my applications for advertised +situations, which never come, the brand of the convict has indeed +become the very mark of Cain, and I feel as if my fellowmen shrink from +me as they pass. Fortunately I found at the post-office a few pounds +sent to me from my brother, which, with slight additions, have enabled +me to procure a mechanical leg, and to live till I have completed this +narrative. But what is the fate of the many so situated, with no +friends to help them, save the workhouse or the prison once again? A +dreary life amongst paupers, or a short life of pleasure and crime, and +long years of bondage to atone for it. Do you wonder if some choose the +latter?... May you, gentle reader, never know what it is to lose your +limb, your liberty, your character, or your home. May my history prove +a beacon to warn you from the quicksands of ambition, on which so many +human souls are wrecked, and may your little barque, wafted by gentle +sunny gales, be safely steered across the great ocean of life, and at +last be securely moored in that haven where blessedness and peace for +ever reign! + + + + +APPENDIX. + + +_Consultat General de France en Angleterre._ + +Londres, le 1^er September, 1863. + +Le Consul General de France a Londres a l'honneur de transmettre a +Monsieur ----, avec priere de vouloir bien lui en accuser reception, +une lettre et une medaille qui lui sont destinees. + +Monsieur ----, _Negociant_. + + + + +_Ministere de l'Agriculture du Commerce, et des Travaux +Public--Secretarian General, Medaille._ + +Paris, le 22 Juin, 1863. + +Monsieur a la suite du traite de commerce conclu le 23 Janvier, 1860, +entre la France et la Grande Bretagne, le Gouvernement de Sa Majeste +l'Empereur a du proceder a une enquete dont les resultats devaient le +mettre a meme de determiner les Tarifs des droit d'importation en +France des produits fabriques en Angleterre. Pour Consacrer le Souvenir +de cette enquete, l'une des plus importantes de ce genre qui aient ete +faites en France, le Gouvernement a fait frapper une medaille +commemorative et il a decide qu'un exemplaire en bronze de cette +medaille serait mis a la disposition des Industriels qui ont depose +dans l'enquete. J'ai l'honneur, Monsieur, de vous adresser a ce titre +l'exemplaire qui vous est destine. Recevez, Monsieur, l'assurance de ma +consideration tres distinguee. + +Le Ministre de l'Agriculture, du Commerce et des Travaux Public, + +G. ROUHER. + +Monsieur ----, _Negociant_. + + + + +[It is requested that any further communication on the subject be +addressed to the Secretary to the Board of Trade, Whitehall, London, +S.W.] + +_Office of Committee of Privy Council for Trade_, + +Whitehall, 9th May, 1861. + +SIR, + +I am directed by the Lords of the Committee of Privy Council for Trade +to transmit to you the accompanying Volume, which contains the evidence +taken by the Counseil Superieur du Commerce on the Industries of +England and France, during their recent enquiry at Paris, in connection +with the Commercial Treaty between the two countries. In requesting +your acceptance of this Work, of which a limited number of Copies has +been placed at the disposal of Her Majesty's Government by the +Government of France, I am to convey to you the best thanks of this +Board for the valuable assistance which you rendered upon that +occasion, both to the Counseil Superieur and to the British +Commissions. + +I am, Sir, + +Your obedient Servant, + +J. EMMERSON TENNENT. + + + + +_Order of License to a Convict, made under the Statutes 16 & 17 Vic., +c. 99, s. 9; and 27 & 28 Vic., c. 47, s. 4._ + + Whitehall, ---- day of ---- 18-- + +Her Majesty is graciously pleased to grant to ---- who was convicted of +---- on the ---- day of ---- 18--, and was then and there sentenced to +be kept in penal servitude for the term of ----, and is now confined +in the ---- Her Royal License to be at large from the day of his +liberation under this order, during the remaining portion of his said +term of penal servitude, unless the said ---- shall, before the +expiration of the said term, be convicted of some indictable offence +within the United Kingdom, in which case such License will be +immediately forfeited by law, or unless it shall please Her Majesty +sooner to revoke or alter such License. + +This License is given subject to the conditions endorsed upon the same, +upon the breach of any of which it shall be liable to be revoked, +whether such breach is followed by a conviction or not. And Her Majesty +hereby orders that the said ---- be set at liberty within Thirty days +from the date of this order. + +Given under my hand and seal. + +Signed, S. H. WALPOLE. + +_True Copy_ } E. Y. W. HENDERSON, +_License to be at large._} Chairman of the Directors of Convict Prisons. + + * * * * * * + +CONDITIONS. + +1.--The holder shall preserve his License, and produce it when called +upon to do so by a Magistrate or Police Officer. + +2.--He shall abstain from any violation of the law. + +3.--He shall not habitually associate with notoriously bad characters, +such as reputed thieves and prostitutes. + +4.--He shall not lead an idle or dissolute life, without visible means +of obtaining an honest livelihood. + +If his License is forfeited or revoked in consequence of a Conviction +for any Offence, he will be liable to undergo a term of Penal Servitude +equal to the portion of his term of ---- years which remained unexpired +when his License was granted, _viz._:--the term of two years and +eleven months. + + * * * * * * + +NOTICE. + +He shall report himself to the Police on discharge, and subsequently +once in each month; and if he changes his residence from one Police +District to another, he shall report himself to the Police of the +locality he leaves, and to the Police of that to which he goes, within +three days of his arrival: if he fails to do so, his License will be +forfeited. + + * * * * * * + +In the foregoing "Ticket-of-leave" the word Licence is spelt with an +_s._ In the Police Documents it is spelt with a _c._--So much for the +education of Government Officials. + + * * * * * * + +SAVOY STEAM PRESS, SAVOY STREET, STRAND. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Six Years in the Prisons of England, by +A Merchant - Anonymous + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PRISONS *** + +***** This file should be named 21284.txt or 21284.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/1/2/8/21284/ + +Produced by StevenGibbs and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.ne + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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