em of penal servitude does not permit the
prisoner any opportunity of showing that he is so. All that "good
conduct," in prison official language means is, that the prisoner has
not broken any of the prison rules, and is therefore a purely negative
quality; scrupulous obedience to prison discipline and regulations,
with severe penalties attached to transgression, is a very sorry basis
on which to found a character of good conduct in a convict. The
consequence was, if one of the greatest ruffians that ever entered the
prison gates were to make up his mind, as I have known many of them do,
to go abroad, he knew that he had only to study the rules of the prison
and obey them for a certain length of time, and he would obtain his
object, and be let loose among the innocent colonists, to rob and
murder as he found opportunity. Thousands of such men, who had
purposely behaved themselves well in the prison at home, with the grim
determination of making amends for their restraint by a career of
increased violence and ruffianism abroad, were thus let loose upon
colonial society, and there is no wonder that the colonies rose up in
indignation and shut their ports against them. As a rule, it was the
hardened criminal whose reformation under existing laws was, I may
safely say, entirely out of the question, who, on the score of health
and good conduct, most perfectly fulfilled the conditions required by
the prison authorities, and most frequently had the boon of
transportation extended to him. Accustomed by long and frequent
experience to prison diet and discipline, and to all the "dodges" for
augmenting the one and evading or modifying the other, he could keep
himself in perfect health under circumstances which would send a less
experienced and more sensitive man to the hospital in a month; whilst
his familiarity with all the petty rules and regulations of the prison,
which the novice is in constant danger of breaking (quite
unintentionally), enabled him to steer clear of any offence that could
be reported if he thought it for his interest to strive for the
convict's prize. In fact, "good conduct," as exemplified by a convict
according to the prison standard, affords no more reliable evidence of
his moral qualities and industrious habits, than proficiency in drill
affords of the moral character of the private soldier.

It is quite clear that selection on these terms could only by a rare
accident find the suitable men for sending ab