our all their
lives. They are chiefly young and able-bodied, and here they are well
cared for and taught. Surely here, if anywhere, the convict may repent
his crimes, and be fitted to return to society a wiser and a better man!
We cannot exactly say what are the effects of all this; but surely the
convicts must be better from this separation from their usual haunts and
associates. Portland Prison is admirably adapted for carrying out a
great experiment in the treatment and improvement of the criminal
classes. It has now been in existence twelve years, and the experiment
hitherto has succeeded. At any rate, if it is a blunder, it is not a
costly one, like some establishments nearer town.

It is now nearly ten years since transportation to the colonies ceased to
be a punishment for criminal offences. The Tasmanian and Australian
authorities refused to receive them; and the government establishment at
Norfolk Island was abandoned, the home government resolving to make an
effort to dispose of the convict population in some other manner. The
convict establishment on the Island of Portland was the first scheme
proposed for the employment and reformation of offenders. The principal
object was to secure a place of confinement for long-term convicts; the
next, to systematically apply the labour of such convicts to "national
works of importance," the prosecution of which at once was profitable,
and afforded the means of training the convicts to habits of industry.
The Penal Servitude Act was passed in 1850, and under it the
much-condemned ticket of leave came into operation. It substituted
sentences of penal servitude for all crimes formerly visited by sentences
of transportation to a less period than 14 years. As few of such
sentences, comparatively, reached over that period, the Act practically
reduced the transportation sentences to a mere tithe of what they were
before--the average during the years from 1854 to 1857 not being more
than 235 out of 3200. In 1857 the transportation sentences only amounted
to 110, while the penal servitude sentences were 2474. In that year an
Act was passed with a small proportionate remission of sentence as a
reward for good conduct. The advantages of the system thus established,
were considered to be--1st, Its deterring effects. 2nd, Its affording
encouragement to the convict. 3rd, As giving the means of dealing with
refractory convicts; and 4th, As affording means of employment t