grade of barbarism; and if they assimilate to one another, it is not so much because they emanate from a common origin, as that they represent the tendencies of a common nature. They accommodate themselves to local conditions and circumstances. I had once a black guide, who conducted me through the tracks among those huge granite boulders, covered with mysterious inscriptions, which separate Upper Egypt from ancient Ethiopia-the country probably of the Essenes. (Assouan is the modern name of the principal town.) No region can afford grander materials for tradition and imagination to illustrate. On the adjacent Nile are the beautiful ruins of the marble temples of Isis and Osiris; in the desert magnificent rocks and wild recesses, peopled with ghosts and genii; and at every step my companion had some wondrous tale to tell of what he himself knew to have happened, or what he had heard from undoubted authority. So in the Holy Land, I was provided with a Mascara, whose duty it was to relieve the tediousness of the journey by narrating stories such as those which may be read in the Arabian Nights, but which were usually associated with the history of the district through which we travelled. Sir Walter Scott was in the habit of entertaining his guests with the romantic legends of the hills and the vales and the rivers in the districts through which he conducted them. In truth, man is everywhere man, and everywhere fond of the marvellous.

ON PRISON DISCIPLINE.

BY E. VIVIAN, J.P.

As a committee was appointed at the last quarter sessions of this county, on the motion of our first President, to investigate and report upon the whole question of prison discipline, and the introduction of industrial labour into our prisons, it might seem premature to bring the subject before this Association; but as a member of that committee, I am very desirous of obtaining an expression of opinion in this town, and amongst the agriculturists of North Devon, who are supposed to be mainly affected by the proposed changes.

I may assume that punishment should not be vindictive, or simply retributive; it remains therefore to consider it as either reformatory or deterrent.

The formation of habits, either good or bad, is in some measure simply the passive result of a train of thought or action; but it is expedited and confirmed by the development of right motives, and the proposal of suitable objects for attainment. Occupation, both of mind and body, is essential to their health. In the language of Dryden, we may thus apostrophise even the "hard labour" of our jails:

"Offspring of woe, and parent of our ease,
The toil which teaches pleasure's self to please,
Allays the grief which spurns direct control,
And stills the raging tempest of the soul."

Imprisonment without labour of some kind should be altogether banished from our prison system. Idleness is a habit more readily acquired than industry, and, paradoxical as it may appear, is at first even more irksome than compulsory labour. In the instance which I referred to at the sessions, a hard working, industrious man, committed for four months, without hard labour, assured me that he would not only have preferred the treadmill, but that, however much against his will, he was acquiring habits of idleness of body and recklessness of mind, which would, if continued, unfit him for

his former occupation. He obtained speedy permission to work in the governor's garden, or I believe his anticipations would have proved too true. An idle "rogue and vagabond" would not have felt this; so that imprisonment without labour has the additional evil of being inversely proportioned in its severity to the deserts of those upon whom it is imposed.

There is no difficulty in making industrial labour sufficiently onerous; indeed, beyond a certain amount it ceases to have a beneficial effect, and can only be advocated as being deterrent. Hood thus moralises in one of his humorous sketches:

"Poor Peggy hawks roses from street to street,
Till-think of that to whom life's so sweet-
She hates the smell of roses."

The middy who passes his examination, after hard cramming,
nails up his Euclid, and consigns it to the deep; but it may
be doubted whether the second nature of industrious habit
does not always rise again in after life.
least is there accumulated ready for use.

The material at

The question now immediately under consideration is, whether penal labour should be reformatory or deterrent. In the Devon County Prisons hitherto, the latter has been principally adopted. Labour is made degrading by the unproductive use of the cranks; and a treadmill is now ordered, which will not be applied, even as at first proposed, for grinding corn. Labour without production is doubly irksome to those who retain any feeling of industry, whilst the consciousness that they are a mere burden to those who impose the punishment, instead of earning the cost of maintenance, affords a malicious satisfaction to the depraved. The exposure on the treadmill, especially to visitors, is also an aggravation of punishment, felt most by those who retain a sense of shame; it is therefore open to the objections which have led to the discontinuance of the pillory and stocks, or the moral penalty which, in the use of the lash, is superadded to corporal suffering. Self-respect-Verecundia custos omnium virtutum-cannot be too carefully husbanded.

Solitary confinement and the silent system alone are objectionable, on the ground that the reality is greater than the terror which they inspire; they are therefore only deterrent to those who have actually undergone them, not to the outer criminal world. If unaccompanied with labour, they aggravate the evils of compulsory idleness, and deteriorate both the intellectual and the moral faculties.

Under our present system punishment is continued even during the night. For six weeks prisoners are compelled to sleep upon plank beds. If we analyze this, the discomfort must be felt either whilst awake or asleep. If the former, it would surely be preferable that the time in bed should be shortened; and it is difficult to conceive how punishment can be operative during sleep, even in prison dreams. I fear the truth is, that broken rest adds weariness to the daily task, with an aching back, especially in women, and in some cases bedsores, which doubly incapacitate for the resumption of honest industry. If corporal punishment is ever necessary, it would be far better to allow wholesome sleep, followed by some dozen lashes.

Industrial labour is, I believe, in all respects, preferable. It forms or confirms habits of industry, and is most severely felt by the idle and profligate. It also compels the criminal to earn his own livelihood, instead of burdening the county rates. Under both these aspects prisoners may be advantageously committed for longer terms than at present, so as more effectually to break evil associations, and enable them, under suitable regulations, to accumulate a small fund, which may facilitate the resumption of their former position on leaving prison, instead of relapsing into crime.

On the Continent, especially in Switzerland and Belgium, and in America, and in some of our own prisons, the industrial system has been tried with very great success. The most encouraging of these is the Bedford County Jail, where the whole of the dietary is paid for by the prisoners' labour. The following is from a summary of the results recently published in Meliora:

BEDFORD PRISON.

Sale of manufactured goods and other work done for the year ending

In addition to this, the whole of the tailoring, shoemaking, and repairs of the establishment, including the officers' uniform, is done within the prison.

The amount of cash paid to the county treasurer as profits

for

ON PRISON DISCIPLINE.

THE NORTH.

ATHENÆUM BARNSTAPL

From Michaelmas 1853 to Michaelmas 1866, sale of articles manufactured in the prison £12,415 16s. 3d., yielding a profit of £4286 1s. 9d., exclusive of work done in and about the prison, for which no charge is made to the county.

The average number of committals for 1848 to 1852 inclusive was 677, and of re-committals 213; but during the five years from 1858 to 1862, the industrial system being then in full working, the committals have averaged only 503, and the re-committals 158.

The same principle has already been introduced, with much success, into our reformatories and industrial schools. The Devon Reformatory for Boys, at Brampford Speke, contains on an average 26 inmates, and the Devon and Exeter Refuge for Girls 43. In addition to these for young persons convicted of criminal offences, there is an admirably-conducted Home for Neglected Children in St. Thomas, to which, at the last sessions, a capitation grant of 2s. was voted. In each of these industrial labour is enforced, and the proceeds defray a considerable portion of the expenses.

The objections which have been raised against the industrial system are-1. That it competes injuriously with free labour. 2. That it offers a premium to vice, by enabling criminals to acquire a trade, thus raising them above the honest labourer.

The first of these objections offends against the most elementary principles of political economy. Whatever is expended in the unproductive maintenance of criminals must be withdrawn from the wages fund for free labour,-every additional prisoner therefore throws some industrious man out of employment, or adds an equivalent burden to the ratepayer. If instead of 1 per cent. of the population being in confinement 99 per cent. were dependent on the rates, it would be apparent to all, that the one man out of 100 who had to maintain the other 99 would no longer object to their earning their own maintenance, although competing with him in the industrial market. The principle is the same when the proportion is reversed.

The second objection is more plausible; it was urged at the last sessions, and has been supported by the Press in the supposed interest of the agricultural labourer. Unquestionably, if lucrative trades were taught in our prisons, so as to enable the criminals to earn better wages on their discharge, there would be an injustice done to the honest labourer; but this is not proposed. The only branches of industry which can be acquired by adult prisoners (as mat-making and some