hurt at its
suppression, for its spirit was most unobjectionable; and the governor
seemed to think so too, for he allowed me a sheet of paper to write to
the director. My object in this letter was to obtain permission to
petition the Home Secretary for liberty to go abroad. At this time all
healthy and sound prisoners of my age, who had received the same
sentence, were about due for their "ticket," in Western Australia; and
as I did not see why the loss of a leg should cause me to be kept in
prison for years after they were liberated, I resolved to petition to
go abroad. I accordingly wrote my letter to the director, carefully
excluding any reference to my treatment in the government prison, so as
not to give any offence. An answer came back, in suspicious haste, that
I was to petition the Home Secretary in the very same language as I had
used in the letter. I was not exactly pleased with this, as I wished to
say something about the merits of my case; but there was no help for
it, and I must petition as I was told, or not petition at all. I
petitioned accordingly, in precisely the same language, merely using
the third instead of the first person singular. But it was of no use.
Indeed I do not believe the petition was ever sent to the Secretary of
State at all. All these documents go in the first instance to the
directors, and they are understood to deal with them as they think
proper.

Sometimes their machinery gets out of order, and the method by which
these things are done gets to be exposed. Two cases where answers were
received to petitions _which were never sent_, are very familiar to the
majority of convicts. In the one case the prisoner had drawn his paper,
but delayed writing the petition. The reply came notwithstanding, "Not
sufficient grounds." In the other case the petition was discovered
mislaid in the office, or some other part of the prison, after the
prisoner had received his answer. The official replies to petitions
appear to be stereotyped, and the names of the petitioners are merely
written on the margin. One reply does for any number of petitions, and
all the officials have to do is to write the name of the prisoner who
draws petition paper on the margin of the answer, about a month after
the paper has been issued. On the day I wrote the last petition I was
discharged from the hospital, and transferred down-stairs to a room
containing twenty-four prisoners.

CHAPTER X.

THE PRISON--DAILY RO