o
offenders on their discharge.

Portland Prison, as the chief punitive establishment under this new
system, is, of course, most deserving notice. In 1857, the total
expenditure on this prison was 48,782 pounds. The total value of the
labour performed in the same year was 41,855 pounds, which, divided by
1488 (the average number of prisoners), gave 28 pounds 2s. 7d. as the
rate per man. We doubt if the labour in our county prisons has ever
reached the half of this value. Large numbers of the Portland prisoners
have obtained employment at harbour and other similar works since their
discharge, and generally their conduct has been satisfactory. The
Discharged Prisoners' Aid Society regularly assists the well-behaved
convicts in finding employment on their release from confinement, and
that society's operations have been remarkably successful. Pentonville
prison has ordinarily from five to six hundred prisoners; while in
Milbank the daily average number, in 1857, was about 1100. Parkhurst
prison is kept for boy convicts, of whom the average daily number in
1857, was 431; and Brixton, for females, of whom 784 in all were received
in that year. The Fulham Refuge is another female institution, in which
convicts are received previous to being discharged on license, and in
which they are taught a knowledge of household work, such as cooking,
washing, &c., calculated to improve their chances of getting employment.
Portsmouth, Chatham, Lewes, and Dartmoor are also used as convict
establishments; the latter, however, is being gradually given up, as
utterly unfitted for such a purpose, its temperature in winter somewhat
approaching to that of Nova Zembla. It is difficult to say what are the
numbers requiring to be disposed of in these convict prisons in the
average of years, but they probably range about 7,000 males and 1,200
females. If the decrease of crime in 1858 continue in subsequent years,
our home prisons will amply suffice for the reception of our convict
population.

CHARTER XVIII.
CONCERNING CABS.

One of the most blessed institutions of London is the cab. I prefer it
much to the 'bus--to equestrian exercise--and if I had, which I have not,
a carriage of my own, I dare say I should prefer it even to that. If the
horse falls down, it is not yours that breaks its knees; if the shafts
suddenly snap asunder, they are not yours that are damaged. And you need
not be imposed on, unless you are flat enoug