whilst those
for whom there was a constant demand, and who would have regarded
transportation and liberation abroad as the opportunity for escaping
from social prejudice, of retrieving their lost character, and of
commencing anew a life of honesty and industry, were condemned to pine
in the prisons at home, and in too many cases, to adopt a career of
crime when their sentences expired. The first and great commandment the
prison authorities regarded in their selection was, that the prisoner
should be physically healthy, sound in wind and limb; and the second
was, that he should have been a certain time in prison at home after
receiving his last sentence and conducted himself well whilst there. No
enquiry was made into the prisoner's previous history, employment,
education, or general disposition and habits, which, one would
naturally have thought necessary before any intelligent opinion could
be formed as to the probabilities of his future career abroad. Now,
although the qualifications of health and good conduct might seem to be
good and sufficient grounds on which to make such a selection as was
required for transportation, those acquainted with prisoners and prison
life will at once perceive that they were very far from being so. In
the first place, a great many of the prisoners who would have adopted
an honest life and been a benefit to the colonies if they had been sent
there, but who were rejected on account of ill-health, had become
diseased in prison and in consequence of their imprisonment, and would
in all probability have recovered their usual good health before they
had reached their destination abroad. These were generally men of
education, and accustomed to generous diet, but the prison discipline
and scale of dietary soon told upon their health, and disqualified them
in the eyes of the prison officials for the boon of transportation.
Even if their health was not restored by the sea voyage and liberation
abroad, it was only exchanging the hospital abroad for the hospital at
home. If the experiment succeeded, who may estimate its value to him
who was the subject of it? Again, "good conduct," as indicated by the
standard of our prison authorities, is anything but a trustworthy
criterion of the convict's true character and disposition. It does not
mean that the prisoner has shown himself honest, industrious, or well
disposed, or in any active sense what the phrase is ordinarily supposed
to mean; indeed the syst