urrence
of any such calamity. Hence, civil quiet ruffians, like the prisoner I
have referred to, are encouraged. They are an article with which they
have little trouble, and out of which they can make both profit and
capital.

My own case was somewhat different. Once out of prison I was not likely
to return; neither was I of the "sort" prison officials are accustomed
to manage. Moreover, my eyes were open, and my future was not quite so
certainly in their hands as to warrant them in feeling secure that what
I saw might not hereafter be described for the information of others.
The difficulties I experienced in gaining even the slightest concession
were great, and contrast strangely with the case I have mentioned. A
few months previous to my discharge from hospital, I gave in my name in
the usual manner as being desirous to speak with the visiting director.
I may here explain that there are four directors of convict prisons in
England. One of them had the manners and the reputation of a gentleman;
two of them may indeed have been men of ability, but their deportment
to the convicts was certainly not calculated to give them any more
exalted ideas than they already possessed of the civility and good
manners obtaining amongst those above them; the fourth was the beau
ideal of a bully, and his influence on the convict the statistics of
the prison will show to have been baneful in the extreme.

The powers of these directors are much more extensive than that of the
magistrates in our county prisons. In the latter, the visiting
magistrate will ask the prisoners if they have any complaint to make;
but this is not the case with the convict director, whom none can
approach without giving formal notice, and who generally leaves the
prison followed by the curses and maledictions of the majority of the
prisoners. In reality, the prison director holds absolute sway over
some thousands of his fellow men; there is no appeal from his
decisions; his court is held, and prisoners are sentenced and punished,
but there are no reporters for the press. The wholesome influence of
public opinion does not penetrate that secret and irresponsible
tribunal. Such being the case, it is to be lamented that we cannot or
do not find men to fill the office who are capable of discharging its
duties with fairness and civility. Before I sought an interview with
the director, I had written a letter to the late Mr. Cobden, in which,
after narrating the particu