herwise have
resulted from the regulations being strictly adhered to; and in the
Scottish prisons the use of tobacco appeared to have the same effect.
While on the subject of diet, I may allude to a rule which had a very
bad effect on the minds of the prisoners who expected justice at the
hands of the officials. In the dietary scale brought out in 1864, it
was specified that when a prisoner had been two years in prison, he
would be permitted to have the option of tea and two ounces of bread in
lieu of the oatmeal gruel for supper, and when he had been three years
in prison he might have roasted or baked meat in lieu of boiled. The
convicts sentenced under the old Act were placed in the first or lowest
grade in the scale of the Act of 1864, but were denied the option of
those changes of diet which were permitted under it, and which were
considered necessary for the preservation of their health by the
medical authorities. The consequence was, and is, that there were
prisoners with life sentences who had been ten, twelve, and sixteen
years in prison on a diet inferior to those who had only been in prison
two years. No tea and bread at night for them, and no roasted meat.
This regulation was considered unjust by the prisoners, who said, very
naturally, "They took us off the good diet allowed by the old Act under
which we were sentenced, and placed us on the lowest scale of the new
dietary, and now, after being two years on the diet we ought not to
have been put on at all, we are not even allowed the changes open to
other prisoners. It is scandalous, after being ten or twelve years in
prison, to see other prisoners who have only just commenced their time
much better off than we are," &c.

Another grievance the prisoners had, of which they loudly complained.
It was the custom at the Home Office to forward the prisoners' licenses
to the prison once a month, but as a rule these documents were ten
days--sometimes three weeks--later than they ought to have been. If a
prisoner had earned his marks, and was due for his license, say on the
1st of March, he expected the authorities would keep faith with him,
and that his license would arrive on the day it was due. Whatever the
convict may be himself, he expects a good example and honourable
fulfilment of the engagements on the part of the authorities. In this,
however, he was often disappointed, and many a million curses were
heaped upon them in consequence. And after all can we wond