n will
be sent out to them, when one-half the cost of so doing has been paid,
either by themselves, their friends, or their parishes in the United
Kingdom; or the expenses of their passage may be assumed as a debt by
the ticket-of-leave holder, to be repaid (under a bond) by the same
means as the expenses of his own passage.' This is paid by the
employer handing over to the comptroller-general annually any sum not
exceeding one-third of the ticket-holder's salary, and not above L.5 a
year in any case, unless at the man's own desire. On the subject of
this forced payment of L.15 to government, the comptroller-general in
his Report animadverts strongly. He says that ticket-men will try
every trick to evade it; and that many of them openly say, that the
situation of a well-conducted ticket-holder is such, as to make them
think it not worth while paying so much as L.15 for a conditional
pardon. The employers, however, he hints, object to pay ticket-men at
all; seeming to think government ought to assign them gratuitously, as
was done, we believe, under the old system.

The surgeon states in his report, that the food supplied at the
establishment is 'wholesome, and ample;' and the health of the
convicts seems very good, for only two had died up to that time, and
both of these were landed in a very debilitated condition. He states
the number of convicts in January 1851 at 140.

The chaplain's report is interesting and encouraging. He says, that
'the present discipline is well calculated to maintain the habits of
industry, order, and cleanliness acquired in preceding prisons;' and
he speaks well of the general attention of the convicts to religious
exercises. Above all, he strongly and wisely advocates the formation
of a library for their use; and hints that the books selected should
not merely be religious, but 'entertaining and instructive'--such as
history, biography, voyages and travels, scientific books with
illustrations, &c. One exceedingly interesting fact mentioned is, that
certain of the best educated and most intelligent convicts have been
permitted to deliver _lectures_ to their fellow-prisoners on the
subjects with which they were best conversant, and with the happiest
effects. Thus, a man who had been employed in a large brewery,
described the whole 'mystery' in a very able manner; a second, who was
by trade a French polisher, did the same; and a third, who had been a
sailor, gave two lectures on the art of nav