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TICKET-OF-LEAVE STATISTICS.

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number of miles travelled, we shall find they bear no proportion to those of former days. If, in the same way, we were to make a calculation of the increase of our population, our trade and commerce, and the extent to which our increased wealth and business transactions have enlarged the liabilities of robbery, theft, and fraud-displayed in a thousand new forms-we should not be surprised at the number, daring ability, and success of our thieves. I conclude that their number and activity bear a fair proportion to our thievable property, and suspect, till we have the millennium, that this will be the case.

Let the following figures sink into the minds of the English public. The total number of male English convicts liberated on ticket-of-leave, from October, 1853, to April, 1861, was 9180. Of these, but 1038, or 11 per cent. were reconvicted during this period of seven and a half years. See Sir Joshua Jebb's "Memorandum on the Management and Disposal of Convicts." Published 1861, pages 6, 7.

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SCALE OF REMISSIONS.

Prisoners transported to penal colonies, may, under the act of 1857, be enlarged on tickets of licence, after undergoing about half their term of servitude at hard labour. A prisoner detained at home may get a remission-according to the length of his sentence of from one-sixth to onethird of the term.

According to the scale of remission, a prisoner with a sentence of three years' penal servitude, must put up two years and six months in prison. A four-years' man must put up three years and three months; a five-years' man, four years; a six-years' man, four years and six months; a sevenyears' man, five years and three months; an eightyears' man, six years; a ten-years' man, seven years and six months; and a twelve-years' man, nine years.

A man with a sentence of fifteen years, or upwards, may, for exemplary conduct, get a third of the period remitted. "Sentences for life will be considered by the Secretary of State, according to the special circumstances of each case."

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THEIR BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE.

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Let the reader cast his eye a second time over the scale of remissions here quoted, and say if there is anything extravagant about it. There is but a sixth of the three years' sentence remitted for good conduct; and a man with a sentence of twelve years, no matter how exemplary his conduct, must put in nine years.

Would it be wise to remove this motive and main-spring of good conduct from our convict system, and to render our prisoners stubborn, lazy, morose, and vindictive? I have no hesitation in saying, that, were we to do so, and thus to deprive the prisoner of an earlier hope of liberty, as the reward of his industry and good conduct, it would be impossible to govern our public works' prisons.

I had a prisoner under my instruction, at the intermediate prison of Camden, who had been a highwayman, and he had the wild and daring look of one. But he saw the evil and danger of his former course of life, and resolved to mend his ways," if he got a chance."

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FORGOTTEN IN PRISON.

Five or six years ago, Irish prisoners, going out on ticket-of-leave, were allowed to write for employers. No prisoner could be discharged, at that time, who had not some one willing to take him into his service. A fellow-prisoner, whom I shall call White, promised Rob Roy that he would get his friend, Doctor C-—, into whose employment he was just going, to employ him. Weeks and months passed, but no letter from White, or Doctor C——. It was the case of Pharaoh's chief butler, who forgot Joseph. Rob was melancholy, dark, and sullen. I observed his change of mood, and asked the cause. He told me White had forgotten him, and that he did not know "a man in the wide world" who would trust him. I took him aside, by the lapel of the coat, sat down beside him on the green sward, with the wild heather round us, and the wide sea before us, and looked into his eyes, as I inquired, "Can I trust you?

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I am not sure there was not moisture in my

POLICE SUPERVISION.

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eye, but I saw a tear upon his cheek. I never had cause to regret recommending him to an employer.

As the feeling, or prejudice, is so strong against ticket-of-leave men, I should be disposed to abolish the thing altogether, and allow the prisoner, who, by good conduct, has merited a mitigation of the sentence, to go forth a free man.

The prisoners who were detained at home in the hulks, during the operation of the old transportation act, received an important mitigation of their sentences, and were set at perfect liberty, without ticket-of-leave.

It does not work well to hold a man by the leg in this way, more especially as it induces the public to avoid him as they would a mad dog.

The late Chairman of the Board of Irish Prison Directors attached a sort of French queue or pig-tail to the Irish convict system, in the form of police supervision. This article, which sticks out behind, must be worn by every ticket-of-leave man, so that the public may have an opportunity

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