TROUBLE REWARDED.

73

were really coming, when he packed up his traps and marched off with his men.

The free labourers took possession of these Forts in June, 1861, when the semi-intermediates returned to Spike Island, and the intermediates— the men who only wanted to show what they were -went to Smithfield and Lusk, where there is a broader field for bringing them out before the public. Sir Walter Crofton must have concluded they were more suited for parade than actual warfare.

I think we have dealt fairly with the three distinct meanings of this word individualization. We have had some little trouble in cutting them clean out of the tangled web in which Sir Walter Crofton placed them; but our trouble has been rewarded, for we now know that he attaches more meanings than one to the word.

We have no objection whatever to any or all of the three meanings he has attached to this long word, or to the three different kinds of individualization themselves, but we emphatically assert

74

INITIATION OF THE NEW SYSTEM.

that individualization in no one of the three significations just mentioned was in operation in either of the intermediate prisons of Forts Camden or Carlisle. I say this deliberately, having been the chaplain of those prison forts for the five or six years that the intermediate discipline was in operation there.

The Directors of Irish Convict Prisons, in their Report for 1858, say that the intermediate system commenced in November, 1855. Smithfield was opened as an intermediate prison on the 1st of January, 1856; but did not become exclusively such till the 1st of February, 1856.

The new system was initiated under most favourable auspices. Mr. Organ, the Lecturer, and indeed the factotum of the system, says :

"The institution at Smithfield has now become known to the public. Several gentlemen of distinction have visited it; and His Excellency the Lord Lieutenant has been a constant attendant."

No means were left unemployed to keep the

THE FIRST REPORT.

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intermediate system before the public eye. It was well launched, and took the water with flying colours ;

"There sits quiescent on the floods, that show

Her beauteous form reflected clear below;
While airs impregnated with incense play
Around her, fanning light her streamers gay."

The first report opens with a sound of trumpets. Mr. Organ strikes the keynote in a sketch of his able lectures on emigration, and a variety of other useful and practical subjects, and informs us of his arrangements for visiting the prisoners after discharge.

The Episcopalian chaplain discourses most ably on individualization, and of the general improvement of the prisoners.

The superintendent, the Roman Catholic and Presbyterian chaplains, all write to swell the pæan, or hymn of praise.

If I were to consult my own feelings, I should be happy to see all our convicts in houses and farms, like Smithfield and Lusk.

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AN UNFOUNDED CONCLUSION.

Prisoners write from these places to prisoners engaged on the heavy work of Spike Island :-"You will find it a great change to come here; it is not like prison at all."

Sir Walter Crofton says:- "There was the strongest desire on the part of the prisoners to get into those intermediate prisons and refuges, which show that they had a desire to reform."

The conclusion which Sir Walter Crofton draws, and which I have put into italics, is not a legitimate one. He falls into the very common error of confounding cause and effect.

The desire to get to these prisons does not necessarily, or perhaps frequently, result from a desire to reform; but the desire to reform generally results from a desire to get to those prisons.

As a prisoner said to me a few months ago:“I shall mind myself now, sir, and get to Lusk or Smithfield, for there I shall be comfortable."

Yes, "comfortable" was the word, and comfort was the motive.

ATTRACTION OF REFORMATORIES.

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"I hope you will mind yourself," says a prisoner at Lusk, writing to his friend at Spike Island, "and come down here as soon as you can. It will be a great relief to you after your long imprisonment, where you can get a few comforts of life."

When I saw two or three young fellows-who had been working in some other part of the cityreturning, at dinner time, to Smithfield Reformatory, and taking two or three of the prison steps at a bound, I could not but soliloquize—“ These young fellows take to reformatory prisons as young ducks do to water."