took place, I had an opportunity of
learning, from the lips of one of the principal offenders in the case
for which this young man was unjustly punished, the following
particulars in reference to it, which I give in my informant's own
words:--"I and other two miners like myself went to a horse-race a few
weeks ago. Towards evening we got a little on the spree, and I asked my
two chums to come along and see a woman of my acquaintance. This woman
was kept by a gentleman in the neighbourhood, but this was only known
to a few. She was about forty years of age, and although she was
supposed by some to be 'fast,' I knew long before that she was 'loose.'
Well; as we were all enjoying ourselves in this woman's house, who
should come in but her brother! and so, to clear her character with
him, she swore a rape against us. But the worst of it was, that that
poor married man there got convicted instead of one of us. When we ran
from the house, the other fellow split out from us, and after we got
away a bit, we met the married man. As we were chatting together we
were all three arrested. The woman, it seems, had an ill-will either to
that man or his wife, and she swore against him on that account. And we
have all three got twenty-one years a-piece."

I was glad to hear afterwards that this man got his liberty after
suffering six months' imprisonment. But had it not been for great
exertions on the part of his friends, he would have had to pay the full
penalty. I have known, in the course of my prison experience, about a
dozen well authenticated cases of innocent convictions, but only two of
them succeeded in getting a pardon. The one after enduring about
eighteen months' imprisonment, the other a shorter period, but strange
to say his pardon arrived on the very day of his death in prison.

I have generally observed in cases of rape, and crimes of that kind,
when the female was advanced in life, that the crimes were not so black
in reality as they were represented in the newspapers, and that the
offenders, if not made actually worse in prison, would be much more
easily cured than the thief genus, who require special, and as I think,
very different treatment to that which they now receive.

In this prison I also made the acquaintance of a professional
"cracksman," or burglar. He was a man of fair education, good
appearance, and considerable natural ability; much above the average of
his professional brethren. He had been living luxu