314 THEIR TREATMENT. 



to two separate yards classed according to their behaviour. 

 But so slight a classification has only, to a trifling extent, 

 the good effect intended. The man guilty of theft or 

 insubordination, for example, must of necessity consort 

 with murderers and those who have committed crimes of 

 a much more serious nature than himself. It is clear, 

 therefore, that by such associations their reform is 

 rendered impossible, and the punishments to which they 

 are doomed, instead of making them better men, only 

 tend to their further demoralization. Were a larger space 

 set apart for the prisoners, and if they were classed 

 according to their several crimes, the education they have 

 received being, at the same time, taken into consideration, 

 it would no doubt tend to their improvement, as also 

 render it easier to maintain the requisite discipline 

 amongst them. 



" Each convict costs the State about £6 annually, for 

 which outlay his labour at the fortifications is an equiva- 

 lent. One hundred and sixteen of them, on the average, 

 are thus employed throughout the year. In the summer, 

 they work twelve hours in the day, but in tlie winter only 

 five. Their treatment is as mild as circumstances and 

 regard to their security admit of; tliat is, unless one 

 adopts the modern notion, wliicli inculcates the propriety 

 of conciliating, or rather making much of rogues and 

 l)anditti, who, more dangerous and untameahle than wild 

 beasts, are always ready without the slightest provocation 

 — as the records of the fortress in too many instances 

 show — to thrust the murderous steel into the heart of a 

 fellow-man. The idea so generally entertained as to the 

 severe lot of the prisoners in Carlsten is a bugbear ; for 

 they, in reality, enjoy every advantage that individuals 

 in their circumstances can expect or hope for. The work 

 is not more severe than free men of the labouring class 

 would undertake for common wages ; ard if thev are sick 



