--prisoners of the more respectable
class are confined. Of the other, we have little description to offer,
as the different wards necessarily partake of the same character. They
are provided, like the wards on the women's side, with mats and rugs,
which are disposed of in the same manner during the day; the only very
striking difference between their appearance and that of the wards
inhabited by the females, is the utter absence of any employment.
Huddled together on two opposite forms, by the fireside, sit twenty men
perhaps; here, a boy in livery; there, a man in a rough great-coat and
top-boots; farther on, a desperate-looking fellow in his shirt-sleeves,
with an old Scotch cap upon his shaggy head; near him again, a tall
ruffian, in a smock-frock; next to him, a miserable being of distressed
appearance, with his head resting on his hand;--all alike in one respect,
all idle and listless. When they do leave the fire, sauntering moodily
about, lounging in the window, or leaning against the wall, vacantly
swinging their bodies to and fro. With the exception of a man reading an
old newspaper, in two or three instances, this was the case in every ward
we entered.

The only communication these men have with their friends, is through two
close iron gratings, with an intermediate space of about a yard in width
between the two, so that nothing can be handed across, nor can the
prisoner have any communication by touch with the person who visits him.
The married men have a separate grating, at which to see their wives, but
its construction is the same.

The prison chapel is situated at the back of the governor's house: the
latter having no windows looking into the interior of the prison.
Whether the associations connected with the place--the knowledge that
here a portion of the burial service is, on some dreadful occasions,
performed over the quick and not upon the dead--cast over it a still more
gloomy and sombre air than art has imparted to it, we know not, but its
appearance is very striking. There is something in a silent and deserted
place of worship, solemn and impressive at any time; and the very
dissimilarity of this one from any we have been accustomed to, only
enhances the impression. The meanness of its appointments--the bare and
scanty pulpit, with the paltry painted pillars on either side--the
women's gallery with its great heavy curtain--the men's with its
unpainted benches and dingy front--the tottering li