ld fellow, take care of
old Tommy's black draughts, and look after yourself when you get out.
Good-bye."

"Good-bye, old fellow, good luck to ye."

"Fall in."

"There's the officer shouting 'fall in.'"

"Well, ta ta."

"Ta ta."

CHAPTER XX.

CAPITAL PUNISHMENTS--I RECEIVE MY LICENSE--STRANGE BED-FELLOWS--MY
LIBERATION.

During the last year of my imprisonment a bill relating to the crimes
of murder and manslaughter was brought before Parliament, and the
discussion in the House of Commons which ensued was much commented upon
by the prisoners. About the same time I read a lecture touching on the
same subject, which had been delivered to the Young Men's Christian
Association, at Exeter Hall, and it may not be out of place here if I
venture to express my opinion on the subject as well, possessing as I
do the advantage over most of those who have discussed it out of doors,
in having heard the opinions of those likely to commit such crimes, and
having a familiar acquaintance with their habits, and the motives from
which they act. The reverend lecturer to whom I have referred, based
his argument for the continued infliction of capital punishment on the
perpetual obligation of the Mosaic law: "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by
man shall his blood be shed." He also maintained, if I understand him
rightly, that the office of the hangman ought to be considered the
highest object of human ambition, and that the hangman himself should
take precedence of archbishops, kings, and emperors, inasmuch as he
occupied the position of Almighty God, taking vengeance for the
shedding of human blood. I confess I can scarcely conceive of a
Christian man occupying such a position, neither can I agree with the
reverend lecturer that the command given to Noah was intended to extend
to all generations and societies of men. When it was promulgated there
were only a few individuals left to people the universe, and the
command was made _absolute_. There is no intimation of any distinction
between the deliberate and the accidental shedding of human blood, and
until some such distinction is made our conceptions of the eternal
rectitude and justice of God, must be of a very peculiar and imperfect
kind. That some distinction ought to be made is a fact which men in all
ages and of all degrees of civilization have recognized, and have found
their authority for making such a distinction, not in any spoken or
written law, but in a much higher