and whiter, he began to sink lower as his muscles relaxed, there was a deep groan, and at the same instant he descended swiftly through the air into the water beneath.

The officers had to make a circuit before they could reach the water's edge, and when they had reached the spot where he had fallen, the water had almost recovered its smoothness, and everything looked quiet and peaceful as though pain and suffering did not exist.

The next day the body was drawn from the depths of the lake. As the woman was never discovered, the exact extent of the dead man's guilt is unknown; it is probable, however, that he first of all attempted to murder his master, and supposing that he had succeeded, had then wound the rope round his own neck, forgetting, or being ignorant of the fact that as the moisture from his skin was absorbed by the rope, it would necessarily swell and press ress more and more tightly on his throat, and in proportion as fear of death in reality increased the perspiration, so would the real danger increase. To bind the wrists with a circle of cord is easily accomplished. That his master had not died in consequence of the murderous attack upon him is one of those marvels which we can no

more understand than we can comprehend

how life can continue in a man who has a large musket-ball in his brain. That he had afterwards robbed his master and assumed his name we know, but as regarded the Syrian certificate we could only conjecture that it was either a forgery altogether, or had been obtained from the Druse sheikh whose signature it bore, by bribery or misrepresentation. all events, the office was saved from being defrauded of a large sum, and as the criminal had escaped human justice, it was not considered necessary to incur any further expense in unravelling the details of crimes of a man who was no longer in existence. G. L.

At

REMUNERATIVE PRISON LABOUR.

THE subject of this article is of great importance, and is one which at present engages considerable attention. We shall not here refer to the convict prisons, which are exclusively under the direction and control of the Government, but shall confine our remarks to the ordinary prisons of our country, which are destined for the correction of all those offenders whose crimes are not sufficiently serious to obtain for them a sentence of penal servitude in the Government prisons. The common county and city gaols, as well as the houses of correction or bride wells, are under the direction and control of the magistracy of our country.

Now, it is evidently a matter of great im

portance to society, whether the persons who have been subjected to imprisonment for infringement of the laws, return to it reformed, and able and willing to gain an honest livelihood, or the contrary. At the same time, the ends of justice require that punishment should have a deterrent character, as far as is compatible with the moral and physical well-being of the prisoner. It is also very desirable, that the cost of our penal establishments should be as low as is consistent with the object intended. The adoption of sound principles in our prisons may combine all these three objects.

Sir John Bowring has done good service at the present time by collecting a variety of valuable facts bearing on prison discipline from quarters which to many would have been inaccessible, and showing how remunerative prison labour may become, at the same time, an instrument for promoting the reformation, and diminishing the cost of offenders."*

Sir John thus sets forth the general principle which, in his opinion, should be the guide in our inquiry.

Return the felon to society instructed in some useful employment, and with the power of earning a respectable livelihood, and there will be no cost to society, but an ample saving. Unreformed, he levies his contributions by fraud or violence. He is a destroyer of the public wealth, as well as a disturber of the public peace. As a labourer he will add to the property and prosperity of the nation. It has been estimated that an evil-doer costs five times as much to the community, as the well-doer is called upon to provide for his own support. It cannot be contended that if the expenses of confinement result in the transformation of an offender against the laws to an example of industry, that those expenses are not abundantly repaid. The felon who is convicted because he is the enemy and the interrupter of the common weal, should, if possible, be made its ally and supporter.

We derive from this pamphlet the following valuable information respecting the results of prison labour abroad :—

In France the plan of absolute isolation of prisoners by day was abandoned in 1848, and a classified system of employment introduced. In all the central and departmental prisons the areas were turned into workshops, and, with some modifications, the arrangements

successfully carried out in the Auburn prison of the United States were adopted, in which, let it be remarked in passing, the re-committals are not 6 per cent. The system, which has gradually been extended, is the

* "Remunerative Prison Labour." By Sir John Bowring LL.D., F.R.S. London: Kent & Co., Paternoste Row.

That such a sum should have been actually produced by persons under sentence of the law, towards the cost of their own maintenance, is a fact in itself very satisfactory. It becomes still more so, and extremely important, when it is considered that this very labour is preparing the prisoner to gain his own living on his discharge. The results, as far as they can be gathered from the following statement, are excellent.

In a report lately made to the French Legislature by M. Jules Simon, he states that, under the beneficent influences of the new system, the number of prisoners had diminished by half.

In Holland a very complete system of labour is carried on in the gaols, including many trades requiring skill.

"To exercise these," we learn from an official report, is deemed a great privilege and an encouraging reward among the prisoners, more especially as on leaving the prison there is no difficulty in finding employment, and to give the hopes of instruction in these more lucrative branches, is found one of the most potent instruments for the reformation of the offender."

Part of the earnings of the prisoner is placed to his account.

The tables show that the average gain to a prisoner is 2d. per day-of which one half is placed to accumulate for the time of his departure, the other half he may dispose of to his family, or employ in the purchase of articles allowed to enter the prison. But, besides the allotted portion of wages, special premiums are given for meritorious labours.

The minute details which are presented in the pamphlet, derived from official sources, respecting the pecuniary results of this prison labour, are of a most satisfactory kind. Inquiries were made by the Minister of Justice in 1848.

"As regards the importance of remunerative prison labour,' says Sir J. Bowring, "the Commissioners express the most decided opinion. They report generally that productive labour is a potent instrument of reform; that it is not only a useful but a needful instrument; that it checks re-committals and provides against misery; and they quote approvingly the words of M. Berenger to the French Chamber of Peers, that "whatever be the character of the imprisonment to which a criminal is condemned, labour must be the basis of all moral improvement, and its employment a necessity from which it is impossible to escape.' P. 13.

In Switzerland we learn that in many cantons a large proportion of the expense of each prisoner is defrayed by his own earnings.

In Båleville (1862), with 228 men and 68 women, the expenditure per head was 51. 8s., the net profit on labour 27. 11s., after deducting 20s. average allow ance to prisoners, leaving the net cost to the State 21. 17s. each. In this prison the average gains, male and female, are, per working day, 91d. Shoemakers gain 13d., chairmakers 11d., mattress makers 20d., locksmiths 12d., stonemasons 1s. 9d. per day.

In Baden (Argovia), 70 men cost 121. per head; prison labour, 71. 2s.; net cost, 47. 18s.

In Aarburg (Argovia), 186 men and 103 women cost 47. 198. per head; prison labour, 21. 3s.; net cost, 21. 16s.

In Lausanne, 133 men and 25 women cost 16%.; prison labour, 81. per head; net cost, 81.

In Friburg, 120 prisoners cost per head 181.; produce of labour, 107.; net cost, 81. per annum.

In Berne, 414 men and 92 women cost 177. 168. per head. The average produce of labour is 11. 12s. The net expense, 6l. 4s. In this canton there is a distribution of agricultural and manufacturing labour among the convicts. The net expense of maintenance, after deducting the produce of labour, is 2d. per day. Escapes are very rare among those engaged in out-door occupation.

In the United States a system of remunera tive labour in prisons has been greatly developed. In Massachusetts, the produce of the prisoners per head in 1862 was 231., and in New Hampshire as much as 271. per annum.

The great difference in the circumstances of our own country from those of the others which have been referred to will probably render it impossible that so large a proportion of the maintenance and entire cost of our prisoners should ever be defrayed by their own earnings, but surely it is for the advantage of the country that as near an approximation as possible to this, should be made. Hitherto, however, in Great Britain the subject has not received the attention which its importance deserves. There has been great diversity in the system adopted in different prisous; in some, unproductive labour by the crank or the treadmill constitutes the main feature of the discipline, the object being apparently only to make it as penal as possible; in others remunerative industrial work has been developed to some extent.

Now we may distinctly perceive a different effect on the mind of a prisoner between the first kind of discipline,-compulsory work, enforced for the sake of punishment, and without any useful end being obtained by it, either to himself or others ;-and industrial work, which, however hard, is training him to good habits, and has a useful end in view. The first rouses his hostile feelings and increases his antagonism to society; the second shows him that his own benefit has not been lost sight of, while the law requires his punishment, and prepares him to re-enter society on his discharge as a selfsupporting and honest citizen. To unite the two objects, of punishment and of reformatory

discipline, is the grand problem to be solved in our dealings with the criminal class.

observed on the health of the prisoners as to require immediate attention; "the warders were over worked and discontented, sickness was prevalent, complaints were numerous, and the number of extra diets amounted to no less than fifty-four." This was on the 27th of June. no sooner was the completed system thoroughly developed in that gaol, embracing a steady

But

They are of opinion that there are some changes that may be made which will secure a more effective discipline; but in any such changes they wish not only to give effect to the penal part of the system, but to see more fully developed those influences which may tend to the reformation of the prisoner. With this view they recognise both the discipline of hard labour, and the discipline which may be enforced under industrial work; both may be made integral parts of a prison system, but it is important to keep them separate. "Hard labour," properly so called, belongs to short sentences, to the earlier. stages of long imprisonment, and to the correction of prison offences. It ought, in the opinion of the committee, never entirely to disappear from the system of penal discipline, but it may with advantage be allowed, as the sentence advances, to give place gradually to industrial work. The committee believe that reformation of conduct, wherever possible, must be tested by the practical proofs of an industrious disposition, rather than by professions of feeling, and in this sense of the word they would wish to see the reformatory principle not only carried out more fully in the later, but commenced in the earlier stages of imprisonment. They desire that from comparatively an early time the prisoner should understand that the system under which he is placed is a strictly progressive one; that, in the successive stages of imprisonment opportunities will be given him of proving his good intentions by the performance of actual work; and that it depends on himself to ameliorate his condition morally and materially.

These principles are entirely in accordance with those laid down by the select committee of the House of Lords in their report of July, 1863, and also with the Bill for the regulation of the county prisons introduced into Parliament during this session by Sir George Grey. They will probably, therefore, be generally recognised in the new arrangement of our prisons.

It must, however, be observed that remunerative work in prisons, however valuable in a pecuniary point of view, and however important it may be made in reformation if employed as an agent-cannot alone produce any moral effect on the prisoner; indeed, a part of the system carried out in isolation from the rest may even prove injurious. This was strikingly proved in the case of Winchester Gaol, where the system was first tried. The penal part of the system, we learn from the Michaelmas Report of the Visiting Justices for 1864, having been developed in an increase of hard labour, and the limitation of indulgences, without the reformatory influences, so serious an effect was

sive improvement in condition, dependent on these marks, than a change was rapidly perceptible; and on the 11th of October in the same year there were only six prisoners on the sick list, and none on extra diet. In other departments of the gaol, the improvement was equally satisfactory. The limits of these pages do not permit of our entering on the very interesting details of the process by which this change was effected; we may, however, conclude this paper with the encouraging results stated by the Recorder of Birmingham in his recent charge.

On Monday last the Visiting Justices of Hampshire presented a most gratifying report as to the improvements effected at Winchester; stating also that the adjoining county of Wilts "is now engaged in reorganising its gaols at Salisbury and Devizes on our model," and that "what is still more gratifying is, that the Secretary of State for the Home Department has introduced into the House of Commons a Prison Bill avowedly based on the principles in operation in this county, and that if it should become law it will not involve a single change in the system now pursued in Hampshire." One fact mentioned in this report will, I have no doubt, attract the attention of all local authorities engaged in the conduct of prisons. It is that the receipts in cash for industrial labour during the quarter amount to 4061. Os. 5d., against 477. 18s. 6d. in the corresponding quarter of last year, the industrial receipt for the last three quarters having together amounted to 7172. 188. 2d., against 847. 17s. 8d. for the three corPerhaps, responding quarters of the previous year. gentlemen, you may be of opinion that I have not enabled you to catch more than a glimpse into the new state of things, and that it would be presumptuous, prior to the results of a long experience, to surrender ourselves to the pleasure of sanguine expectation. Should that be the frame of mind into which this

address has brought you, I am bound to admit that I cannot gainsay the good sense of such a conclusion. Indeed it has forced itself upon my own mind perhaps even to an undue extent. But years of disappointment have made me distrustful. Moreover, I am an old man, and we are told by the great Lord Chatham that confidence is a plant of slow growth in aged bosoms. Nevertheless, we also know that, to use the words of the poet,

"A GRAVE DISTURBANCE." TO THE EDITOR OF "ONCE A WEEK.”

Sir,-As your readers have no doubt perceived, I offered my solution of this mystery merely as a suggestion; and your correspondent, Mr. Reece, may readily be acquitted of intending me "any disrespect," when he calls it " an attempt at a solution."

He is, of course, better acquainted than I am with all the facts of the case; but I think that he has not yet shown any improbability in my theory.

His first objection is, that "the substance of the rock is flinty, and would afford no entrance by permeation to a rising body of water." Now my proposition was, not that water rose through the rock, but that it flowed into the vault, and was 66 a flood of surface water, caused by rain."

The next question to be considered is,could the inundation have been "so local as not to have penetrated to the other contiguous vaults, the contents of which were undis. turbed?" The latter fact (which, by the way, I do not find in the original account) may be attributed to the closing of the neighbouring vaults being more effective than that of the one in question. Then, with regard to the weight of the leaden coffins being always found "considerably greater than those which were made of wood," the weight was no doubt tested at a time when the vault was dry, and the water had drained out of the wooden coffins, leaving them even lighter than before the action of the water took place.

The next objection is, that, if a body of water had reached the vault, all the coffins would have been more affected than they were, but I should have judged from the first account of the mystery, that the argument least likely to be urged against a solution was the insufficiency of the disturbance.

The greatest difficulty, however, seems to be the improbability of water penetrating a vault "hewn out of the flint," or "partially hewn out of flinty rock," as originally stated; and with regard to this I am inclined to think that the words of the first account are correct, as it would surely be an enormous labour to work out a vault twelve feet long, and six and a half wide, from flint, and one indeed that I can scarcely think would be undertaken.

At all events, there was an opening to it, and this, it appears, was secured by "a massive stone," and regularly closed by masons," but most stones are porous, and the setting of it, if of ordinary mortar, would afford an easy ingress; it would be very difficult to set so large a stone (requiring six or seven men to

move it) so as to make the entrance watertight. It is strange, I admit, that, while the contiguous vaults were not affected, this one, in which especial care was taken "to set damp at defiance," should have been inundated with water, but have we not often experienced the failure of extraordinary and the success of ordinary care? And in this case, perhaps,

there was the

"Vaulting Ambition, which o'erleaps itself,
And falls on the other" (side).

Lastly, Mr. Reece has clearly misunderstood me, when he says that I see "no improbability of water rising to the height of 100 feet through the flint rock." This, as I have already said, is quite foreign to my theory; I never contemplated the water flowing up through the rock, but from the surface of the land around, and I do not think that the height above the sea would affect this. A vault, situated on a high hill in England, was lately discovered to contain water of such depth as to reach up to a man's waist, and appeared to have been recently full of water.

Nor do I think that the distance inland

from the sea affects my suggestion, though I understood that the vault was near the sea, (vide line 10 of the original article).

The part of the matter which still appears to me most incomprehensible is that wooden coffins should be placed in such a receptacle at all; the consequence of reopening the vault, unless after a very long period, will be evident to everyone.

In my last letter I passed over one fact, which is, I think, in favour of my view of the matter, viz., that the coffins were found turned lids of coffius are somewhat larger than their over; this would naturally be the case, as the bottoms, and the ornaments and plates of inscription would cause them to turn over while floating.

I am, Sir,

Your obedient servant,

J. ARNOLD.

"THE LESSER LIGHT."

TO THE EDITOR OF "ONCE A WEEK." SIR. In an interesting article in your December number, on "The Lesser Light," by Mr. J. Carpenter, the following experi ments are suggested to those who have still a "lingering notion " in favour of the nonrotation of the moon on her axis in her revolution round the earth :

"Let the reader place himself before a round table with a ball or basin in its centre ; let him suppose this central object represents the earth and himself the moon; let hiin tie