ny; indeed, he was often compelled to leave it, and his wife
was not permitted to accompany him. From this cause alone, infinite vice
and misery has arisen; and a total disregard of ties so modified by a
police regulation; which, while encouraging women to marry, subjects
them to lasting desertion.

Before the introduction of Lord Stanley's probation system, several
pious ladies established a committee of visitation. They entered the
factories and cells, and conversed with the female prisoners. Official
teachers superseded these efforts of private benevolence; and lessons,
however excellent in themselves, lost the attraction of spontaneous
sympathy and disinterested toil.

It is with deep regret these observations are recorded. It is not
intended to assume that the reform of female prisoners is impossible. A
considerable minority are probably not inferior to the lower classes of
poor and uneducated women in the cities, or more uncivilised provinces.
Re-convictions are not numerous; though, of course, many are deeply
implicated with colonial crime. The law which consigns all to one penal
fate, devotes all to one common ruin. Were it possible to escape the
contamination of a gaol, what could be hoped, where the male population
is contributed chiefly by prisons? What can be done to obviate these
evils? Such is the enquiry of the philanthropist: would to God it could
be successfully answered.'

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 275: _Report of Hanwell Institutions_, 1842.]

SECTION XXVII.

Whatever details are omitted from the foregoing pages, nothing has been
withheld necessary to complete a colonial view of transportation. Errors
may doubtless be detected; but as they have not resulted from
carelessness or haste, it is hoped they will be found both unimportant
and rare.

The views expressed by various parties on the subject of transportation
are modified, or even wholly suggested by their interests. The English
peer rejoices that sixteen thousand miles of ocean divide him from the
"wretch" who entered on his preserves, or dragged his rivers, and is at
rest; the citizen is glad that one burglar less lives in his
neighbourhood, and considers that transportation is indispensible to the
safety of plate. The colonist farmer regards convictism as a labor
power; the working emigrant as a rival labor market; while the officers
in charge naturally cloak its evils and exalt its efficacy.

It is nearly impossible for a stranger to