er at a
convict being exasperated if, as it often happened, he had written to a
wife, or a father, or brother or sister to meet him on a certain day at
the railway station, when he was due for his liberty, and then was
disappointed and had to wait a fortnight or three weeks before he could
see his friends? This neglect on the part of the authorities at the
Home Office, had the effect of making all those who were due for
liberation early in the month quite regardless of the prison
regulations, as one short sentence would not have made any difference
to them under the circumstances.

In Sir Joshua Jebb's day anything of this kind seldom happened. The
prisoner's chief grievance then was the robbery of his food by the
officers, and as the discipline was lax a mutiny would be the result.
This had a good effect for a short time, and as long as the attention
of the press was directed to the question, but matters soon became as
bad as ever, and it was not until the subject came before the criminal
courts that there was any improvement. The name of Sir Joshua Jebb is
still held in great veneration by the convict, but as the duty of
carrying out his system was entrusted to men of a totally opposite
character, it was impossible for it to succeed. Independent, however,
of its moral administration, it had defects inherent in itself. No
penal bill will suit all moral complaints, and the sooner we depart
from quackery the better it will be for the prisoner and the nation as
well. Sir Joshua Jebb's system entered too largely into competition
with our workhouses and county jails. The prisoners were never taught
suitable trades, they were no doubt supplied with food in abundance,
and with some opportunities of learning to be industrious and for
improving their minds, but they were completely surrounded by far more
powerful counter-influences. Even the higher officials carried on a
system of wholesale robbery, and winked at the very large retail
business done in the same line by the prisoners and under officials. At
Bermuda and Dartmoor convict establishments I believe there were more
crimes committed by officers and prisoners together than the prisoners
could or would have committed if they had been at liberty. Prisoners
could do very much as they liked in those days, and the consequence was
that the "roughs," or the worst characters, gave the "ton" to the whole
prison. A country bumpkin who had stolen a bag of potatoes, perhaps,
soon l