lled the Longridge cells. I have frequently
found in my daily visits as chaplain from twenty to forty men confined
by threes and fours in the Longridge cells, doing what was called
'solitary;'--three men sleeping together on the floor of a cell four and
a half feet wide by seven feet long. For pulling a lemon or guava--for
laughing in the presence of a convict policeman--for having a pipe--for
wearing a belt or button not issued by government--for mustering in
dirty trousers on Sunday, although to wash them the owner would have to
go naked all the Saturday afternoon--for having half or a quarter of a
pipeful of tobacco--for offences the most trivial, and sometimes on
false charges--the most inoffensive and best behaved men of Cascade and
Longridge were often to be found filling up the cells which might
otherwise have been set apart for the custody of some of the grosser
criminals who were tried at the assizes.... The convicts selected as
constables were like a ruthless band of predatory assailants, seizing
their fellow-prisoners under any and every pretence, in order to have
'cases for the police-office!' A first-class officer overheard the
following speech uttered by a convict policeman:--'I have no case for
court this morning--what will Mr. ---- say to me? But a case I must
have--and a case I will have--and here goes!' This policeman proceeded
with another into the bush, and in an hour returned bringing in two men
on a capital charge. On the evidence of their captors alone these two
men were committed to gaol, tried at the assizes, and sentenced to
death. By whom were the police compelled to such activity? By Mr. Price.
His opinion, publicly expressed, was, that a policeman could not be
doing his duty unless he had 'cases for court.'"--Ibid, pp. 88, 89.

* * * * *

"A short analysis of the abstract would quickly strip the favored '25'
of some rays of their infamous glory, and do more to expose the
blunders, follies, and ferocious inhumanities of convict discipline than
volumes of concocted reports and oracular despatches. From his position,
Dr. Hampton must know that under the name of _discipline_, deeds have
been done sufficiently atrocious to glut the soul of a Caligula. He
knows that the perjuries and punishments about tobacco were sins that
cried to heaven for abolition. He knows that in every seven cases out of
ten the convicts at a penal station are more sinned against than
s