Education; the Kind most useful. Life, Infancy, Youth, and Manhood. War; when Just and when Unjust. Hope; its Influence on the Mind. Palestine, Remarkable Places in. Slander and Envy, written by Mr. Organ. The Independence of a Soldier's Life. Life; its Maturity and Decline. Emigration; the Qualifications requisite in an Emigrant to insure Success. Wise Sayings of Wise Men. Meditation on the Forthcoming Year. Old Age and Death, paper written by Mr. Organ. Instability of Earthly Things, written by Mr. Organ.

"It is worthy of notice that the lectures on emigration and moral subjects are listened to with the greatest attention by all, and received in a spirit which proves, or gives hope, that the hearts of the hearers are awakening from that torpidity into which in the old prison days they had fallen. There are, indeed, to be found educationists opposed to the system of lecturing, whose position and literary acquirements entitle them to respect and their opinions to weighty consideration.

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"First awarding to these gentlemen that credit ever due to the expression of a heartfelt conviction and conscientious belief of any subject, at any hazard I respectfully beg to dissent from the opinions of these able and, no doubt, right-minded men. By lectures, properly selected of course, much can be done in the reformatory world. Some able and experienced educationists hold the same opinion. 'I quite concur,' writes the Rev. F. C. Cooke, one of her Majesty's Inspectors of Schools in England, with my colleague, the Rev. H. Moseley, in the remarks which he makes upon the importance of oral teaching, both as regards the effect upon the teachers and the benefits received by the students; there can be no doubt that the most remarkable progress of knowledge and in mental development, has been effected by the substitution of lectures for a dry and wearisome course of textual reading.'

"This statement, gentlemen, coming from such a source, is surely entitled to some consideration, no matter how great the diversity of opinion may be as to the system of lecturing at present pursued in Smithfield and elsewhere.

"If the duty of a reformatory teacher be to win the confidence and affections of his pupils, to prepare the mental soil for the seeds of morality, to substitute in their hearts truth and sincerity for deceit and falsehood, frankness and openness of character for dissemblance and low cunning; in fine, to prepare his pupils for the world outside, there to act their part as men; if such be the duties of the prison teacher, I hold that he must have recourse to lectures. Of course his lectures should be delivered with simplicity and effect, and the subjects such as to meet the requirements of his hearers. Thus he may make them new men by giving them not mere school knowledge, but new ideas- matter upon which to ponder in the waking hours passed in their sleeping-rooms; thus he may hope to draw them out of themselves, and to awaken in them a far higher and holier thing than the routine spirit of a good prisoner or a good overgrown schoolboy, namely, the active energetic reading spirit of a good man. To do this he must make them acquainted with God's works in creation, the simplicity of His laws must be explained to them, and His providence towards His creatures shown to them.

"Hence I tell them of the ocean and its mysteries, of the earth and the wisdom displayed in its structure, of the atmosphere and its uses, and of the firmament and its beauties. Industry and its rewards they are taught to appreciate; vice and its consequences they are exhorted to avoid; the justice and the impartiality of the laws they are taught to admire and respect; and in doing this I make no attempt at oratory. I speak to them

in language simple and sincere, and which I have ample reason to believe they understand and appreciate.

"Thus it is, gentlemen, that God is presented to them as the Author of the moral law, and the Ruler and the Creator of the universe. And thus it is they are made to see, feel, and know that not a flower

'But shows some touch, in freckle, streak, or stain,
Of His unrivall'd pencil.'

How, let me ask, is a knowledge of these things, poor of course, to be conveyed to the illiterate, but in many cases intelligent, prisoners; men who in many cases, know the why and wherefore of things better, perhaps, than the teacher himself; for it must be remembered that men can be educated though not versed in literary lore? Again, how is respect for superiors, obedience to the laws, gratitude for the acts of the good and the humane, and admiration of the wise and the great, to be engendered in hearts where crime and viciousness, hatred and revenge, long reigned triumphant? How I repeat, are men who from boyhood considered the English Government their oppressors, and the laws of the country partial and unjust, to be impressed with the erroneousness of such opinions and the folly and injustice of such prejudices, save by an exposition, suited to their intellect, of the laws which govern society in all its orders and classes? Again, how is the spirit of industry to be inculcated, and the reward of honest labour which awaits them in our colonies to be placed patently before them, and they be brought to hope that happy homes and cheerful firesides may succeed the frowning prison and the uncongenial cell, unless they be shown that self-reliance and industry can procure all that honest men of the class to which they should belong, but from which they had fallen, could hope for?

"Now, I would respectfully ask how can such an education, having for its end and aim the amelioration of the prisoner, and the good of the commonwealth, be imparted, save by lectures suitable to the capacities and wants of the humble and the lowly? But I fear that those opposed to the system of lectures are not fully acquainted with the nature of the lectures, nor the manner in which they are delivered. I further fear that their notion of a lecturer is rather elevated, and they forget to draw a line of demarcation between lectures ex cathedrâ and lectures of a simple conversational character. Possibly they cannot draw a distinction between the lecturer 'anxious to make a display of his own learning' and the lecturer whose simple and only object is to impart useful knowledge as familiarly as his tact will admit, to sow the seeds of morality, and cheer those whom he may know to be men anxious to preserve in the world that character which they have earned in prison, who prove their desire to obliterate the vices of the past by their well-doing in the future, and who evince this desire by an anxiety to improve their education, literary from the lecturer, moral and religious from the chaplain.

"Lectures, therefore, I hold, may be delivered, and are delivered, with advantage to prisoners. Procure fit and qualified men to deliver them, and they cannot fail to produce results gratifying and satisfactory. And it is with delight I perceive, gentlemen, that they are to be delivered by qualified and competent teachers under your Board, and that the time set apart for school business is to be the same in many of your prisons as that now appointed in Smithfield and at Lusk. The evening is the part of the day most suited for the purpose, especially with adults; and my experience

leads me to believe, if evening education be properly carried out, that neither you, gentlemen, nor the prisoners either, will have cause to regret the change thus effected in prison management.

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office.

Turning from my duties as a lecturer, I come to another feature in my

"Whilst attending to the educational wants of the prisoner, I endeavour to make myself acquainted with the history of the man. Individualization has always appeared to me one of the greatest and most important aids to success in the reformation of a criminal-I may add the greatest and sole aid. If you desire to reform the criminal, you must make yourself acquainted with his past history and future intentions. Therefore I learn the name of the prisoner, his place of birth, his age, the circumstances that led to his fall, the number and nature of his former convictions, and, above all, his natural character-in point of fact, his whole antecedent life; and these facts I desire to learn from himself, comparing them with the information contained in your official books.

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Acquainted with their antecedents, I converse with the men from time to time, and soon I learn from them their future intentions, and, the careers upon which they purpose to enter; all this time, of course, forming my own judgment as to the honesty or dishonesty of their protestations, the reasonableness or unreasonableness of their hopes.

"The importance of individualization of prisoners cannot be overrated. To deal with them in the mass would be to commit a grievous error, and to act unjustly both towards the prisoners and the public. And here I deem it my duty, as a public servant, to observe that no matter how fully individualization may be carried out, the wisest observers will at times be deceived. Prisoners practise hypocrisy more or less from the moment they first cross the threshold of the gaol. I have always looked upon hypocrisy as the armour of the criminal; and I must confess that this armour has frequently bid defiance, notwithstanding all my efforts, to my humble powers of discrimination. However, I have from the first made it a practice to suspect the saintly prisoner, and doubt his plausible storiesTrust not those cunning waters of his eyes, For villany is not without such rheum; And he long traded in it makes it seem Like rivers of remorse and innocence.'

“This advice of the great master of the human heart has not been altogether forgotten by me whilst dealing with the men at Smithfield.

"It would be absurd in me to state that I was successful in all instances, nor do I for a moment mean to convey that I have been universally successful; but in the great majority of cases my efforts to arrive at the natural character of the prisoner have not been entirely useless.

"In my last Annual Report on Smithfield, when speaking of the importance of individualization, I wrote as follows:- I believe that if such men as ours are not individualized, all efforts at reformation, however earnestly made, must of necessity lose half their effects.' Such was my opinion then; such, I may add, is my proved conviction now.

"I continue my weekly visits to the infirmary as usual, and there converse with the patients, and endeavour to cheer them, and lessen their pain, by hope-a medicine that seldom fails to sustain them in those times, when, unassociated with their fellows, and suffering from disease or pain, their unformed minds are apt to collapse in despair or helplessness.

"The results of the influence of hope, even on the minds of the inmates of the hospital, are apparent even to the casual visitor, and have been more than once acknowledged by our kind, humane, and skilful physician, Dr. Brady, whose name is ever mentioned with gratitude and respect by the prisoners.

"I have already stated that I endeavour to make myself acquainted with the antecedents of the men, for which purpose I keep a private note-book. "In the observation' column is written my opinion of each man when about to be discharged; and should he continue in my district after leaving the prison, I, at certain intervals, compare my opinion of him as a free man with that which I held whilst he was a prisoner. Doubtless these opinions cannot be expected always to agree; but when I find that my power of discrimination between the good prisoner and the good man was at fault, I endeavour most strenuously to profit by the discrepancy in my future estimates of character and recommendation of men.

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Thus, day after day-in the workshop or in the field—at recreation or at work-at study or at voluntary employment-in the prison or in the world-on the bed of disease or in the enjoyment of health-I observe their ways, hear their tales, listen to their grievances, share their joys, and make myself acquainted with their hopes and fears-all of which they tell me without any attempt to conceal. By means of this identification with them, I endeavour to obtain an intimate knowledge of the men, and essay, at the same time, to turn such knowledge to their use and advantage, and likewise to the advantage of those who shall enter Smithfield in future.

"What a reformatory institution should be is a question now occupying the attention of many able men. That religion should form the basis of reformation cannot be questioned: take it away, and the formation of a new heart is utopian. A criminal devoid of it must necessarily be a bad subject for moral and industrial training. The difficulties attending the moral reformation of such a man, however, are better known to his chaplain, who is more competent to deal with them than the writer. I merely mention the all-powerful agent, religion, to acknowledge its influence and effect when brought to bear upon the heart, though that heart beat within the bosom of a ticket-of-leave man. Beautifully and wisely have the effects of religion been expressed by the able and good man who wroteOh, the wonders it will accomplish! It wipes guilt from the conscience, rolls the world out of the heart, and darkness from the mind. It will brighten the most gloomy scene, smooth the most rugged path, and cheer the most despairing mind. It will put honey into the bitterest cup, and health into the most diseased soul. It will give hope to the heart, health to the face, oil to the head, light to the eye, strength to the hand, and swiftness to the foot. It will make life pleasant, labour sweet, and death triumphant. It gives faith to the fearful, courage to the timid, and strength to the weak. It robs the grave of its terrors, and death of its sting. It subdues sin, severs from self, makes faith strong, love active, hope lively, and zeal invincible. It gives sonship for slavery, robes for rags, makes the cross light, and reproach pleasant; it will transform a dungeon into a palace, and make the fires of martyrdom as refreshing as the cool breeze of summer. It snaps legal bonds, loosens the soul, clarifies the mind, purifies the affections, and often lifts the saint to the very gates of heaven. No man can deserve it, money cannot buy it, or good deeds procure it; grace reigns here."

No. CXVIII.-MILITARY PRISONS.

Report on the Discipline and Management of the Military Prisons.
By Colonel JEBB, C.B.

[Presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command of Her Majesty.] THE military prisons in operation in 1857 were as follows:-In England; Chatham, Gosport, Weedon, Devonport, and Aldershott. In Scotland; Greenlaw, near Edinburgh. In Ireland; Dublin, Cork, Limerick, and Athlone. Abroad; Gibraltar, Quebec, Halifax (Nova Scotia), Bermuda, Vido (Ionian Islands), St. Elmo (Malta), Mauritius, Barbadoes, and Montreal: making a total of 19 military prisons, of which 10 are in the United Kingdom, and 9 at different foreign stations; the whole being capable of accommodating about 1,500 prisoners.

The total number of prisoners admitted in 1857 was 5,572, constituting 5.62 per cent. of the force. The daily average number of prisoners in confinement throughout the year was 744, or 1.91 per cent. of the force. The average length of sentences was 49 days. There were 5 corporal punishments, of 200 lashes; 12 sentences to solitary confinement; and 3 to separate confinement. Of the 5,572 prisoners, 723 were under 20 years, 4,339 from 20 to 30 years, 488 from 30 to 40, and 22 above 40 years of age. As to country, 3,422 were English, 432 were Scotch, and 1,712 Irish. As to religion, 3,600 were Protestant, 338 Presbyterians, and 1,634 Roman Catholics. The number of men punished for minor offences has, in 1857, been smaller than in any previous year. The average length of sentences was also much reduced. In 1857, the average force was 76,360; and the number of desertions was 1,888, or 2.48 per cent. The number absent without leave, 1,734, or 2.27 per cent. The crimes were as follows::Number charged with drunkenness, 619, or 0.82 per cent ; number guilty of disgraceful conduct, 277, or 0.37 per cent.; guilty of other crimes, 1,038, or 1.37 per cent. The expenditure on account of military prisons, including the total charge for pay and allowances of prison officers, and for the subsistence and washing of the prisoners, amounted to 18,232. The full pay and beer-money of prisoners in confinement not issued, amounted to 16,0087., thus reducing the expenses of military prisons at home to 2,2241.

Besides the number of prisoners in military prisons, there were, on an average, 122 prisoners, or 0·17 of the force, in barrack cells, including all, whether by sentence of regimental court-martial or by the award of commanding officers. So that the total average in military prisons and barrackcells amounted to 866, or 11.3 per cent. The health of the prisoners has greatly improved since 1854. The proportion of the number treated for sickness to the total number in confinement in 1854, was nearly 21 per cent.; while, in 1855, it decreased to about 15 per cent.; in 1856, to 17 per cent.; and in 1857, to 16 per cent.