enemy. That I regard him as sent to me to be reformed, and not merely to be punished. I explain to him the rules of the house, and tell him that they are all calculated for the improvement of the prisoners; that if he will be my friend, I shall be his; and that suffering and misery will overtake him here only in consequence of his own fault. The rudest natures can rarely resist such an appeal. The big tears often roll down cheeks that were never wet with weeping before, and I soon make them feel that my words are not speeches, but the expression of actual things. I give the new comer into the charge of the superintendent of the department for which he is most fitted, and recommend him to his care as his friend and adviser; and I appeal to the other men in his behalf.

Should the new convict, as frequently happens, not believing in the reality of the law of kindness, begin to behave ill to his fellow-convicts, they soon check him and set him right. The public spirit among them is in favor of obedience and steady conduct, and they say to him, "That conduct will not do here; Herr Von Obermaier is our friend, and we shall not allow you to act contrary to the rules of the house." But, said I, at night are not all abominations practised, or how do you restrain them? You see, said he, that there is a space between each bed; an overseer, one of themselves, whom I can thoroughly trust, is on watch all night, with a bright light burning in every room, and every offence is observed and reported to me. I use persuasion with the offender-punish him by withholding part of his food, or depriving him of some other enjoyment-and he generally gives up his misconduct. When the general spirit of the men is directed toward virtue, an individual finds it extremely difficult to persevere in vice in the face of their condemnation.

It would not be fair to withhold the fact that some distinguished men, and among them the illustrious Mittermaier, were of the opinion that Obermaier was the subject, to some extent, of an illusion regarding the success of his system. But, per contra, it must be remembered that Professor Mittermaier might not have been wholly free from an opposing bias, considering his intense attachment to the separate system of imprisonment.. We are inclined to accept the judgment of Mr. Combe as a witness, at once intelligent and unprejudiced; and the facts he states, according to the common dictum concerning this class of proofs, are "stubborn things."

XXIII. MACONOCHIE AND HIS PENAL COLONY ON NORFOLK ISLAND.

BY MR. COMMISSIONER M. D. HILL, OF BRISTOL, ENGLAND.

[The following account, somewhat abbreviated, of Captain Maconochie's great experiment in prison discipline, is taken from "Our Exemplars," by Mr. Hill. COR. SEC'Y.]

Norfolk Island, so named by Captain Cook, who visited it in 1774, lies nine hundred miles east of New Zealand, and far distant from any of the other numerous islands of the South Pacific Ocean. It is about fifteen miles in circumference, with so precipitous a coast as to be accessible from the sea only in calm weather, but in climate and every other element of natural beauty it is almost unrivaled. Here Captain Maconochie arrived on the 6th of March, 1840. He found the state of things even worse than he had expected. One thousand four hundred men, the very refuse of New Holland and Van Diemen's Land, who had incurred this further punishment while under sentence there, were huddled together at night in barracks where the arrangements were such as to violate all sense of decency; while by day they were rigorously coerced, their better feelings outraged, their self-respect destroyed. They were required to salute every private soldier, and even empty sentry boxes. If they met a superior officer they had to uncover their heads in the burning sun, and stand aside-in the ditch it might be until he had passed, often without taking any notice of them. For the most trifling conventional faults-the omission of a mark of respect, the possession of a newspaper, or of some article of clothing not furnished by government - they were heavily ironed and flogged, until in some instances the lash brought away pieces of flesh; and then consigned to stone cells, their lacerated bodies being left to nature to heal. But moral offences of the blackest hue were little regarded, the offenders being even pointed out as objects of curiosity by the officers, who related their deeds as amusing anecdotes to new comers. Though they worked in chains, it was considered dangerous for even armed officers to approach within three yards of them; and when the governor spoke to them they were required to throw aside their tools, while he was additionally protected by a guard of two armed orderlies. They were fed more like hogs than men. As it was considered unsafe to trust the men with knives, they tore their

food with their hands and teeth, and they drank out of water buckets. Theft was common among them, and in the case of assigned servants was often connived at by the masters who benefited by it-themselves government officials! The physical health of the convicts was deplorable. Hundreds were swept into an early grave by the combined effect of improper food, bad lodging and the most depressing moral influences, while the constitutions of those who survived were more or less injured. A chaplain had latterly been appointed, but no place of worship existed upon the island; there were no schools and no books. The effect upon the prisoners was such that a convict said: "Let a man be what he will, when he comes here he is soon as bad as the rest; a man's heart is taken from him, and there is given to him the heart of a beast." The men's countenances revealed the treatment they had received. Among the most formidable spectacles Captain Maconochie ever beheld was the sea of faces upturned toward him, when he first addressed these convicts. Marvelous was the effect he wrought upon his hearers! The countenance of him to whom they listened reflected the noblest attributes of mind and heart with which man was ever endowed by his Creator. None could gaze upon it and doubt the sincerity of the words that fell from his lips. Yet those words were full of lovingkindness toward them-hopelessly as they had deemed themselves cut off for ever from the sympathy of good men and recognized even them, the outcasts of the outcast, as of the same human brotherhood with himself. An eye-witness has described the scene. The men had assembled in hardened indifference. He began; their attention was arrested; he went on; their features began to work; they struggled hard, but nature prevailed. The floodgates were opened by the first touch of human sympathy, and tears streamed down faces whose eyes for years had not been moistened.

From this moment signs of improvement were discernible. The fearlessness which Captain Maconochie displayed produced an immediate and most beneficial impression. Some small cannon guarded the commandant's house. Within a few days of Captain Maconochie's arrival, the convicts themselves were employed to dismount them; and, removed to a distance, their only use during his sojourn on the island was to fire an occasional complimentary salvo.

As civil commandant he was allowed one orderly, but his attendance was dispensed with except upon the queen's birthday, when a visit of ceremony was to be paid to the military commandant.

From the first Captain Maconochie went unreservedly among the convicts unarmed, either alone or accompanied only by his wife,

whose zeal and self-devotion in the cause with which he is identified are equal to his own; and soon all the free inhabitants, officers, women and children, alike traversed the island singly and without fear. Yet the number of soldiers in garrison during his residence did not exceed one hundred and sixty; and but five of his inferior officials were free men. From two hundred to three hundred soldiers, and twenty to thirty free officials have, since his departure, been found necessary. The police and overseers he selected from among the prisoners themselves. The convicts were relieved from their chains, and surveillance over them was diminished; yet offences of violence rapidly decreased, and robbery became rare, although the rigor with which every theft was investigated and punished, and so brought to light, gave color to the report that they increased, instead of greatly decreased, as the fact was, under Captain Maconochie's administration. Malingering-feigning illness—almost entirely disappeared, and more work was willingly performed than it had previously been possible to extract by the severest compulsion.

The means by which Captain Maconochie obtained these results were various, but all had for their object to cultivate the self-respect of the prisoners, and their sense of moral and social obligation. To this end he allotted gardens to individuals or to groups, adding the privilege of rearing pigs and poultry. By thus giving them property he taught them to respect the property of others. He improved the prisoners' dwellings, so far as his very limited opportunities permitted, diminishing the numbers to be accommodated in the barracks by hutting some of the best conducted out in the bush; he furnished them with knives, forks, pannikins, etc., and allowed his first-class men to wear a dress superior to the ordinary convict uniform. Schools, of course, he established, or rather encouraged when suggested by the men—a plan he preferred to originating improvements himself; but the apparatus at his command was of the humblest description. There were but few school-books on the island, and none suited to beginners. Some types given to his children, as playthings, served to print the alphabet, and a few easy sentences. The men, with the marks his system enabled them to earn, paid their teachers-the better educated of their own body. These were aided, however, by members of Captain Maconochie's family; who also shared the readings aloud, which, with excellent effect, he had introduced among the convicts. He built two churches, distributed books, and gave prizes to the convicts for assiduity; and by his constant presence and counsel directed their thoughts to noble aims. With their marks, also, they were permit

ted to subscribe to a friendly society, originated by themselves to give aid in case of sickness or accident. Impressed with the purifying effect of music, Captain Maconochie brought with him, from Sydney, a variety of instruments, and a fine band was formed among the convicts. So eager were they to improve, that they would rise at four in the morning to get through their work and obtain leisure to practice.

The mark system, however, was the basis of his reforms, although he was not permitted to establish it in its integrity. The home government long delayed any answer to his application that the marks earned by his prisoners should purchase their freedom, and when at length the decision arrived it was unfavorable. Thus, the only value with which he could invest his marks was the power of procuring such privileges as the nature of imprisonment rendered possible. Among these was the option of purchasing food, in addition to the bread and water to which Captain Maconochie had reduced the fixed rations.

That portion of his system which consisted in associating the men in small groups, under mutual responsibility, exercised a potent influence for good upon their conduct. At first they could not admit the justice of the scheme; their objection, however, it is worthy of remark, was not always that they should suffer through the ill-conduct of their fellows, but that their fellows should suffer through theirs. Soon, however, they appreciated the wisdom of a plan, copied from Nature's own law, by which none of us can do good or evil without benefiting or injuring our fellow-creatures.

The Queen's birthday occurred in less than three months after Captain Maconochie reached Norfolk island. Convinced of the wisdom of cultivating loyalty and the love of home in the class to which his men belonged, and aware that the observance of national festivals tends forcibly to nourish those feelings, he resolved to make this anniversary a happy holiday throughout the island. Fresh food was supplied to the convicts, and after an address which went to their very hearts, the captain proposing "The health of Victoria our Queen, and old England for ever!" with his own hand gave each man a halftumbler of lemonade, containing a small portion of rum, which was drunk amid shouts of "Long live the Queen!" National sports were engaged in for prizes, the band played national airs, and in the evening was performed a drama, " The Exile's Return." During the day, the convicts, 1,800 in number, unwatched, traversed the island in all directions. Two boats lay along the new wharf, and powder for the rockets and for firing the cannon was at hand, without a single soldier to guard it. Notwithstanding these temptations to revolt, [Senate No. 21.]

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