ears'
sentences. In one year as many as 1800 men were sentenced to three and
four years' penal servitude, being a large proportion of the total
number. Such men are now for the most part sentenced to eighteen months
and two years' imprisonment, which will account for a decrease in the
number of convicts and an increase in the number of county prisoners.
This is a short step in the right direction. The convict directors take
credit to themselves for this reduction in the number of convicts, and
boast that they have at last found the true panacea for criminal
diseases. A report to that effect, cut out of a newspaper, was
circulated amongst the prisoners, and their indignation was great at
the way in which the public were "gulled" about themselves and prison
treatment. No doubt a few more thieves and burglars are driven to
pursue their callings in France and America by the operation of the new
police regulations, and I freely admit that a few more may annually be
sent into another world by the same means, but no one can yet point to
a reformed professional "Cracksman," "Coiner," "Hoister," or
"Screwsman," as proof of the beneficial results of the change. The most
unpopular clause in the Act was that relating to police surveillance.
The majority of the prisoners were very much annoyed at this
regulation, some of them, indeed, would much rather have remained in
prison than encounter it. For my own part, I approve of the principle
of surveillance. I see in it the germ of a system whereby a large class
of criminals may ultimately be punished entirely outside the prison
walls. I object, however, to the police being entrusted with the duty.
Their proper business is to catch the thief and preserve order. The
surveillance of liberated prisoners ought to be entrusted to those who
are directly interested in empty jails, and who would endeavour to
assist the liberated men either in getting employment or to emigrate.

With reference to the _classification_ of prisoners which commenced
under the Act of 1864, I have no hesitation in saying that it is a
gross fraud upon the public, a delusion and a snare. The error which I
pointed out in a former chapter, as being committed in the selection of
convicts for transportation, is here repeated and in a more aggravated
form, if that were possible. By the new Act the prisoners were divided
into four great classes. Into the fourth, or "probation class," all
prisoners were required to enter on be