The Pauper The Thief And The Convict PDF Download

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1865 edition. Excerpt: ... xiii. the convict establishment at portland. When I left my two convicts to work out the period of their second stage of servitude at Pentonville Prison, I remarked that one of them, at least, probably looked forward with some hope to his removal to the Government establishment in the island of Portland. Had he known how large a measure of liberty would be secured by attaining this third stage his anticipations would have been even more pleasant; or, on the other hand, I may wrong him by not having taken into consideration the likelihood that he had heard all about it from some acquaintance who had recalled the pleasant memories of this penal settlement long after obtaining that "ticket," of which he found it difficult to make any practical use. However this may be, it is certain that in this last and considerably longest stage the thraldom of separate confinement and silent labour, commenced at Millbank and rather refined than mitigated at Pentonville, is virtually abandoned. Increased diet, healthy work in the open, bracing air, and companionship (which includes conversation) during the hours of labour, must make Portland a sort of paradise, where imprisonment is abolished in favour of friendly guardianship and wholesome restraint. This would doubtless be the impression upon the mind of a convict on whom his previous discipline had produced the desired effect, and who came out into the corridor at Pentonville on the morning of his removal, chastened, reformed, and repentant; that it is really the opinion of a very large majority of the eleven hundred and fifteen felons, most of whom are now quarrying stones for Portland Breakwater, would be too much to expect. The faces of the eight men who have just been assembled in the prison-yard...