e was then open to the prison warder a rise in grade
to that of peon, with a distinctive badge, and eventually to the highest
grade of a tindal or duffadar, if duly qualified. In the case of the
industrial class there was also open a promotion to a higher grade, and
eventually to that of a foreman of artificers. All were fully occupied
and employed, and the jail was in point of fact a busy hive of industry,
the pervading idea of the convict authorities being to teach the convict
to love labour, and to take a personal interest in it.

We know that there are still some who think that no prisoner, while
undergoing his sentence, should be allowed to feel any pleasure in the
occupation in which he may be engaged; and hence they advocate the
crank, shot drill, and other aimless tasks, which serve but to irritate,
and do not the least good to the heart, from whence all our actions
spring. For a short term of probation, no doubt, the task should be
irksome; but when this is over and it should not be prolonged work
should be given which would tend to call out the best feelings, restore
self-respect, and act as a sort of cordial to remove lowering and
depression. To explain by a homely instance what we mean, we will
mention an incident that occurred to one of us when building the Woking
prison in 1866. A convict undergoing sentence there, of the labouring
class, was found to be of an exceptionally dogged and dull nature.
Nothing pleased him; he was disgusted with the world, and wished he was
out of it. After a time he was tried at plain brick-laying in a
foundation, and gradually began to handle a brick rather well. He
seemed to grow step by step more reconciled to his lot, and was advanced
to work upon a chimney-piece. A day or two later he was asked how he was
getting on. He then replied, with a bright smile upon his face, "Oh,
very well, sir, now! I likes my chimbley-piece, and dreams of her at
nights in my lonely cell."

Hence we see how the implacable temper of this convict gave way over a
congenial bit of work, and the first step was thus taken towards his
reformation of character, and he continued to improve until his release
from prison.

Herbert Spencer says with truth, "that experience and experiments have
shown all over the world that the most successful criminal discipline is
a discipline of decreased restraints and increased self dependence"; and
to a degree of this "self dependence" the convict we refer to had bee