of Prison Commissioners have their headquarters at the Home
Office in Parliament street, London, and are under the control of the
Home Secretary of State. One of these visits each of Her Majesty's
convict establishments once a month, in order to try any cases of
insubordination which are of too serious a nature for the governor of
the prison to adjudicate upon, he not being permitted to order any
penalty beyond a few days of bread and water and loss of a limited
number of remission marks.

The head authority at each prison is the governor, of whom the largest
establishments, like Chatham, have two. Next comes the deputy
governors--the medical officer and an assistant doctor; the chaplains
and schoolmasters, Protestant and Catholic. There are four grades of
prison warders, viz., the chief warder, principal warders, warders and
assistant warders. The chief warder, of course, stands first in the
list, and his duties, if honestly executed, render him the most
important, as he is the most responsible of the prison officials, save,
perhaps, the medical officer, who is the autocrat of the place. But, in
case anything goes wrong, he is the man who gets all the blame, and when
matters run smoothly and well, the governor gets all the thanks. During
the absence of the governor the deputy takes his place, and in turn the
chief warder performs the duties of the deputy governor's office. As all
business passes through the chief's hands, he must be a fair scholar,
though sometimes a principal warder who understands bookkeeping is
detailed to assist him. He must be of strict integrity, a thorough
disciplinarian, and of a character to make him respected both by his
superiors and inferiors in position. The warders of all grades are under
his command, and must fear him for his inflexibility in punishing any
breach of regulations, and have confidence in his disposition to act
justly toward them, he being the one on whom the governor relies for all
information regarding their conduct. It is on the reports of the chief
warder that the governor acts in all cases involving their promotion,
reprimands or fines, and their application for leave of absence must be
approved of and signed by him. It is clear that unless he is very
straight in the performance of his duties, he would soon place himself
in the power of some of the warders, who would not fail to take
advantage of any knowledge of his derelictions to benefit themselves,
and to the detrim