to
act as a deterrent to others, though to the convict himself it was
"greater in idea perhaps than in reality." To the native of India it
meant even a severer punishment than to the European, for to be sent
across the "kala pani," or "black water," in a convict ship or "jeta
junaza," or "living tomb" as they called it, meant, especially to a man
of high caste, whether of the right or left hand section, the total loss
to him of all that was worth living for. He could never be received in
intercourse again with his own people, and so strong are the caste ideas
of ceremonial uncleanness that it would be defilement to his friends and
relations even to offer to him sustenance of any kind, and he was in
point of fact excommunicated and avoided. Happily this dread of caste
defilement has now, by railway communication over the country and
equalization of classes under our rule, greatly diminished, but it is
still, as Balfour says, "a prominent feature in every-day Hindu life."
Sir Stamford Raffles' views as to the treatment of those transported
convicts have in the main been recognised by all authorities in the
Straits Settlements since his time; and his suggestion as to the
privileges to be granted to men of the first class, though not defined
by him as a "ticket of leave," has been all along kept in view, and was
in regular force in the jail of which we treat. He divided his convicts
into three classes only, but as time went on they were separated into
six classes, and later on in the narrative will be given the reasons for
this enlargement of the number. Dr. Mouat, Inspector General of Jails,
Bengal, in a paper read before the Statistical Society some few years
ago, spoke of this jail and the ticket-of-leave system as follows:--

"I visited the Straits Settlements in 1861 when under the rule
of my friend, Sir Orfeur Cavenagh, and found in existence a
system of industrial training of convicts superior to anything
we had at that time on the continent of India. It was said to
have been inaugurated by the celebrated Sir Stamford Raffles in
1825, when Singapore was first selected for the transportation
of convicts from India, and to have been subsequently organised
and successfully worked by General H. Man, Colonel MacPherson,
and Major McNair. The ticket-of-leave system was in full and
effective operation, and very important public works have been
constructed by means of convict labo