QUALIFICATIONS FOR LUSK.

83

"That farm belongs to the Queen," was the

reply.

"Blood-a-nagers, de ye tell me soso- though

I thought it something uncommon. The men look so well-dressed.

Sunday clothes ?"

I wonder is these their

"No, they wear those clothes every day." "They must get good wages."

"Board, lodging, and clothes, and half-a-crown

a week for pocket money."

"Very good, upon my conscience. Now would it be hard to get a week's work there?"

"Not without qualifying."

"What's that?"

"Did you ever steal a sheep?"

"God forbid !"

"Nor a cow, nor a horse ?"

"Neither one nor the other."

"Nor rob a gentleman's house at night?" "" Do you take me for a thief or robber?" "For neither; but you must do something of that

kind, before you can get employment on that farm."

"You are a quare gentleman," said the hind, scratching his head.

"But I am in earnest, man. The well-dressed labourers you see on that common, are thieves, housebreakers, and pickpockets."

"Are you in earnest, sir? Sure if that was known, they'd be put in prison."

"That's a prison."

"Is it the open common? Ayeh, don't be making a fool of me."

"I give you my honour that these men are prisoners—not yet discharged, though near it."

Then, be japers, there is sense in what you

say about staling a sheep,"-walking off with a new idea in his head.

"Come back here, my good fellow."

66 Well, sir ?"

I told you you would have to qualify to get in there."

"Yes, be staling a sheep, or a cow, or a horse, or breaking into a gintleman's house."

A LESSON NOT LEARNED AT LUSK.

"Yes, but there is another qualification."

"What's that?"

85

"You must first be confined in a solitary cell,

for nine months, in a prison they call Mountjoy."

"You would not liked to be spiked. Eh? "What is it, sir?"

"A desolate island, near Cork, where you will work under a truck like a jackass. So if you should ever think of stealing, you must not say that I deceived you."

"I'm obleged to you sir," said the poor hind, touching his old caubeen, and walking off muttering "Honesty is best after all."

But he did not learn this lesson at Lusk, but from the bird's-eye views he got of the prisons of Mountjoy and Spike Island.

Sir Walter Crofton fixed his eye almost exclusively on the effect which the discipline of Lusk would exercise on employers.

86

INTERMEDIATE DISCIPLINE.

The dialogue we have given shows its effect upon the employed, or the poor seeking employment.

Let us now consider which is more important than all-its effect upon the prisoners themselves, for if it succeeds in making honest and industrious tradesmen and labourers, they will succeed in spite of all opposition from employers.

I asked my friend, Mr. Lentaigne, InspectorGeneral of Irish Prisons, what he considered the special attribute of mind developed by intermediate discipline. His reply was "SELF-CONTROL."

Such a result would be worth the extra cost of

this new piece of machinery, but I cannot see that it follows from it. Some people think it surprising that the prisoners do not run away. I should be more surprised if they did. They are well fed, clothed, and housed; they have a sum of money to their credit in the prison bank, growing larger every week, and on leaving the prison, they expect a new suit of clothes; and they say to themselves,

It is just like living with a farmer;" and the

ITS INFLUENCE ON THE CONVICT.

87

average period they have to spend is about nine months.

I am far more surprised at the self-control exercised by the unreasoning boys in the Reformatories of Glencrea, in the County Wicklow, and Upton, in the County Cork, where they remain five or six years. Those who have prison experience know that boys are far more difficult to manage than men.

Instead of being surprised at seeing those men taking so kindly to the prison at Lusk, I could not but ask myself, "Is it desirable that a convict's last reminiscences of prison life should be pleasant?" Here we keep all the good things till the last. If there must be pudding, let it come before the meat. Is not a love or longing for liberty a far more wholesome state of mind than a love of Lusk? Give me the horse that champs his bit at the stable-door, and not the brute that loves the manger, and is misnamed Self-control. It is in this liberty-loving, and not prison-loving state of mind that convicts are