breaches of trust? But
what does so-called justice now demand in such cases? Let ten clergymen
embezzle 100_l._ each, and hear how society indemnifies itself for
the crime and the loss! By the mouth of one judge, one of these
clergymen is sentenced to one year in prison; by the mouth of another
judge, another of these clergymen is sentenced to two years in prison;
by the mouth of a third, another is condemned to three years penal
servitude, to labour and associate with the dregs of society; by the
mouth of a fourth, four years of such humiliation; and so on.

Are all these just judges;--or is only one of them just? and which is
he?

These are questions I will leave my readers to answer for themselves.
Of one thing I am satisfied, that our present laws on the subject
require alteration.

CHAPTER XVI.

QUACKERY--FOOD--A CHATHAM PRISONER EATS SNAILS AND FROGS--SIR
JOSHUA JEBB'S SYSTEM AND ITS DEFECTS.

I have already said in a previous chapter that our prison authorities
regard the convicts as mere human machines, all made after the same
model, and that the machinery, by some abnormal defect in its original
construction constantly impels them in the wrong direction. In official
eyes they do not appear to be men having peculiarities of physical
construction and constitution, individuality of character, or to have
been so designed as to be like other men, moulded by circumstances, or
amenable to the influence of education or social position. They look at
him through the official spectacles, the lenses of which are carefully
adjusted so that the object shall present not only a perfectly uniform
appearance but also appear uniformly bad. If the convict is in good
health, the machinery working smoothly--but still by the defect in its
construction always in the wrong direction--there are the regulation
appliances, not for remedying the original defect in the machinery, it
must be remembered, and if possible getting it to work in the _right_
direction, but appliances to check, thwart, and by force drive it
backward, which in most cases it cannot and will not do, and breakages,
ruin of machinery and other appliances also are the only result. They
number and ticket the convict according to his sentence, range them all
up, count them eleven times a day and say to them, "Convicts, now here
you are, all ticketed and counted, all of you are afflicted with some
moral disease, we are here to cure you, and we have _one_ pill