, if need be, a runaway. We
have heard gentlemen say that at Bermuda and at Gibraltar, the convicts
will not work. All we can say is, that at Portland they do, and so
effectually, as to cost the country but little more than four or five
pounds a year. Our out door inspection over, we then went over the
sleeping apartments, and the chapel, and the kitchen, and laundry, and
bakery. The impression left on us was very favourable. The food is of
the plainest, but most satisfactory character. The allowance for
breakfast is 12 oz. of bread, 1 pint of tea or cocoa. Dinner, 1 pint of
soup, 5.5 oz. of meat, 1 lb. of potatoes, 6 oz., of bread or pudding.
Supper, 9 oz. of bread, 1 pint of gruel or tea. The chapel is a handsome
building, capable of containing fifteen hundred people, and the sleeping
apartments were light and airy, and well ventilated. Each cell opens
into a corridor, there being a series of three or four storeys; each
sleeping apartment can contain from a hundred to five hundred men; in
each cell there is a hammock, and all that is requisite for personal
cleanliness, besides a book or two which the convict is allowed to have
from the library. Of course the manner of life is somewhat monotonous.
Before coming to Portland, the prisoners have passed their allotted time,
(generally about nine months), in what is termed separate confinement, at
Pentonville, Millbank, Preston, Bedford, Wakefield, or some other prison
adapted for the first stage of penal discipline. Upon their reception
they are made to undergo medical inspection, a change of clothes, and are
required to bathe; they are then informed of the rules and regulations of
the prison, and moved to school for examination in educational
attainments, with a view to their correct classification. Afterwards
they receive an appropriate address from the chaplain, and are allowed to
write their first letter from Portland to their relations. They are then
put to work, and are made to feel that their future career depends in
some measure on themselves. Thus there are four classes, and the convict
in the best class may earn as much as two shillings-a-week, which is put
to his credit, and paid him when he becomes free, partly by a post-office
order, payable to him when he reaches his destination, and partly
afterwards. The dress consists of fustian, over which a blue smock frock
with white stripes is thrown. Convicts who are dangerous, and have
maltreated their