one of us at Newgate, was expelled from
the service and imprisoned eighteen months. Another at Portsmouth
Prison underwent the same fate, save that his term was but six months,
for sending and receiving letters for a prisoner, and similar cases are
of frequent occurrence.

The warders and assistant warders are the ones who come in direct and
constant contact with prisoners, and when the eye of no superior
authority is on them, or nothing else to deter, they are "hail fellow
well met" with such of the convicts as are unprincipled enough to curry
favor with and assist them in covering up their peccadilloes from their
superiors. They naturally recoil at the hardness and parsimony of the
Government toward them, evading the performance of duties when they can,
and I have heard more than one say: "Why should we care what prisoners
do, so long as we don't get into trouble? The Government grinds us down
to twelve hours' daily duty on just pay enough to keep body and soul
together; then, if we complain, tells us that we can leave if we like,
as there are others ready to step into our places. Bah! what do we care
for the Government? It is of no benefit to us; the big guns get big pay,
and the higher up the office the more the pay and the less the work. To
be sure, we can go out of the prison to sleep, but otherwise we are
bound as closely as you are." Yet these very warders, the moment any
superior authority appears on the scene, are as obsequious and fawning
as whipped dogs, and recoup themselves for this forced humiliation by
taking it out of such of the convicts as fail to curry their favor, or
offend, or make them trouble. Surely their office is a very responsible
one, and it is blind, false economy to retain low-priced men in such a
position. The present English system of penal servitude is perfect on
paper, but the moral qualities of most of the warders and assistant
warders preclude all possibility of the reformation of those in their
charge.

Notwithstanding the expositions of the English delegates at the
international meetings, prison reform has never yet been tried in Great
Britain and Ireland. In other words, all efforts in that direction have
been defeated by placing convicts in the immediate charge of a class of
men who, by education and training, possess none of the qualifications
requisite for such a responsible position.

In so far as forms are concerned, the business of the prison is carried
on most systematic