which three months before would have been irresistible, not a single breach of discipline occurred; and at the first sound of the bell at night, the prisoners retired quietly to their sleeping-places!

Men out of number afterward told Captain Maconochie that it was this festival, and his confidence in them which it evinced, that chiefly contributed to win them from evil. Omitting the punch and the dramatic performances, which excited animadversion from those in authority at a distance, he always celebrated the day in the same manner; and also gave half-holidays on St. George's, St. Patrick's, and St. Andrew's days, and on the anniversaries of Trafalgar and Waterloo. On the latter, to his Waterloo men, of whom there were several, he gave a dinner of fresh meat.

So deeply was Captain Maconochie impressed with the injustice and inexpediency of withholding from the colonial prisoners the benefit of the mark system, under which the prisoners from England were placed, that soon after his arrival he determined to extend it to the former body also. Three months later, he received an order from Sir George Gipps to withdraw the privilege from the colonial offenders. From that time his power of urging them to well-doing for the most part was restricted to the moral influence he possessed over them. It was a bitter disappointment alike to him and the men, but they seemed to feel it even more for him than for themselves. They bore it without a murmur, and resolved they would yet "do the Captain credit." They succeeded, for on Sir George Gipps visiting the island three years subsequently, he asked Captain Maconochie what he had done to make the men look so well, declaring "he had seldom seen a better-looking set; they were quite equal to new prisoners from England."*

The prisoners from England meanwhile were proving the excellence of the new plan; and in his official report of this visit, Sir George Gipps says: "Notwithstanding that my arrival was altogether unexpected, I found good order everywhere to prevail, and the demeanor of the prisoners to be respectful and quiet."

Before Captain Maconochie's time, the corpses of convicts who died upon the island were treated with less care than even common decency demanded; trundled along in a cart, they were buried more like dogs than human beings. As M. Demetz had done at Mettray, so Captain Maconochie proved at Norfolk island the good effect which respect toward their dead companions produces upon even the

* What fearful testimony to the deteriorating effect of colonial penal treatment this remark of Sir George Gipps involves, as well as to the regenerating influence of Captain Maconochie's system.

most degraded survivors. He caused the funerals to be conducted with solemnity. They took place after work-hours, and all the men who wished it were permitted to attend. With their marks the convicts from England purchased a pall; this they lent to the colonial prisoners, who, by the discontinuation of their marks, were unable to make such a purchase a circumstance which shows that Captain Maconochie had succeeded in preserving a friendly feeling between the two classes, notwithstanding their unjust inequality of position. The coffin-bearers were always volunteers, and only upon one occasion did none come forward. This happened at the funeral of a man whose malicious character had procured him universal dislike. At length, however, one of the best-conducted of the prisoners offered to carry the coffin. Captain Maconochie asked him why he came forward; his answer illustrated one principle in the mark system. "Sir, we passed through much trouble together." Here is another anecdote of a like kind. When Captain Maconochie left Norfolk Island, two ships were sent, at an interval of three weeks, for him and those of the prisoners who were ready to depart. He was to sail in the first, and as the men believed it would be an advantage to accompany him, they greatly coveted the privilege. He settled the matter by directing that they should leave in the order in which they had come. One man, however, belonging to a party entitled to go with the captain, was very ill, and known to be dying in the hospital. Dropping some expressions of regret that he should linger behind his companions, they voluntarily waived their claim, and all remained for the second ship. Before it sailed he died. Their sacrifice was made only to gratify a whim, yet no word of repining passed their lips. It proved not to have been thrown away, for they reached Van Diemen's Land before Captain Maconochie left, and the anecdote procured them situations at once.

Captain Maconochie's system, from the first, lacked the hearty co-operation of both Sir George Gipps and the Home government, while his reforms created a strong feeling against them in those with whose selfish interests they interfered. Rumors of failure, often wholly without foundation, assumed, when carried to a distance, the authority of facts; and errors which had really occurred, as Captain Maconochie frankly admits, and that some were made in administering a new system under circumstances so disadvantageous is not wonderful,- when reported by hostile witnesses, acquired an aspect so grave as to alarm the powers at home. The difficulties of investigation at so great a distance were not grappled with. It seemed an easier course to recall Captain Maconochie; and thus a most important, and, as calm examination has proved, successful

experiment was brought to a hasty and premature conclusion. In February, 1844, Captain Maconochie left Norfolk Island. The prisoners were filled with grief at his departure. A few days afterward, four of them, picking up an old black silk neckerchief that had belonged to him, divided it among them, using it to cover their prayer-books.

It was no bed of roses he had occupied there. Difficulties of every kind had surrounded him. The officials, accustomed to exercise the harsh discipline of former times, could not reconcile themselves to his plans. The convict-buildings were totally unsuited to the requirements of the severe probationary stage, which he was, nevertheless, greatly blamed for not carrying into effect; but more harassing still was the refusal of government to confer upon his marks the power of purchasing freedom, in which lay the very mainspring of his system. Yet, crippled as he was, he obtained results which irrefragably demonstrate the soundness of his theory and the skillfulness of his practice.

It has been asserted that his treatment was so indulgent as to make his men desirous to get back to Norfolk Island. Yet the re-convictions of men discharged by him were under three per cent; while of those discharged in Van Diemen's Land, they amounted to nine per cent; and, in England, exceed thirty per cent.

It has been likewise said, that offences during his rule became rare, because its laxity left them unrecognized.

On the contrary, every moral offence was vigorously punished, and, by the vigilance of his police, and by his own influence, Captain Maconochie succeeded in obtaining evidence against culprits to an extent unknown before or since his term of office.

In one respect, however, his task was easy. He was working with Nature, instead of against her. He convinced his men that he had their welfare at heart, and thus secured that essential element of success their co-operation.

"As pastor of the island, and for two years a magistrate," wrote the Rev. T. B. Naylor, who became chaplain at Norfolk Island during Captain Maconochie's governorship, and remained after his departure, "I can prove that at no period was there so little crime, or any thing like the tone of improved feeling which characterized the period of his residence there; and I am willing to stake all my credit upon the assertion, that if he has a fair field and fair play, his cause will be triumphantly established. I never met with a prisoner who does not confirm my conviction of the improving tendencies of the efforts he made." The author of "Settlers and Convicts" (published in "Knight's Weekly Volumes") says: "Captain Maconochie did more

for the reformation of these unhappy wretches, and amelioration of their physical circumstances, than the most sanguine practical mind could, beforehand, have ventured even to hope. It is greatly to be regretted that his views were not carried out to their fullest extent, in the most cordial spirit. My knowledge of the convict's character warrants my saying, expressly, that they offer the only approximation that has ever yet been made to a correct penal theory."

Want of space alone prevents our citing further testimony to his success at Norfolk Island. He found it a hell; he left it a wellordered community. Not long, alas! did it remain so. A harsh, military rule, sustained by physical force, replaced his enlightened administration. Constant floggings, imprisonment with chains, gagging by means of wood thrust into the mouth, and other cruel punishments, went far to reduce the men to their former state of ferocious barbarism. Their gardens and even their kettles were taken from them the latter deprivation was the proximate cause of a fearful riot, in July, 1846, when three officers lost their lives. Numerous executions followed its suppression - twelve men being hanged in one morning! At length, the horrors of Norfolk Island became too great for endurance, and the penal settlement was broken up.

VIII. THE MARK SYSTEM AS APPLIED TO COUNTY PRISONS IN ENGLAND.

BY THE EARL OF CARNARVON.

[Sir Walter Crofton has forwarded to the corresponding secretary the report of the visiting justices on the jail of Hampshire county, England, for 1869, drawn up by the Earl of Carnarvon, from which we offer a few passages, as showing that the system of progressive classification, each advance being earned by a certain number of merit marks, is applicable to county as well as convict or State prisons, and has, in fact, been successfully applied to the jail just named. The extracts exhibit cheering results, and cannot fail to be read with interest and gratification by all the friends of prison reform.]

The visiting justices next addressed themselves to the establishment of a classification of the prisoners, the hard labor being graduated to the different classes, and the remissions and indulgences being made dependent in the promotion of the prisoner from a lower to a higher class.* They, therefore, divided the prisoners into five classes, regulating their advance from one to another by marks to be gained by industry and general good conduct. As the upward progress through each of these classes in succession may be hastened by these qualities, so it may be retarded by the opposite conditions, and it has been found, that, apart from other privileges, there is a strong inducement to industry in the liability to degradation + from a higher to a lower class for idleness or misconduct, and in the gradual substitution of industrial and lighter work for the monotonous labor of the treadwheel, the crank, or oakum picking. Under this head the new system has been carried out with absolute success; it is understood both by prisoners and prison officers, and it has secured an amount of work done larger in quantity and better in quality than heretofore, and it has been followed by a marked diminution in the

* Class I is composed of prisoners during the 1st month of imprisonment; class II, during the 2d and 3d months; class III, during the 4th, 5th and 6th; class IV, during the 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th; and class V, during the remainder of the sentence.

This has been found to be a useful addition to the ordinary prison punishments. It entails on the prisoner the necessity of working his way a second time through the inferior and more penal classes, it cancels all claim to mark money already gained, and is considered to be of so severe a nature, that the visiting justices retain the infliction of it in their own hands, and exercise it sparingly.