92 THE SPORTSMAN IN FRANCE. 



racters of their crimes, or the duration of 

 their punishment. This is surely wrong ; 

 and the demorahzing effect of placing 

 in juxtaposition the youthful dehnquent 

 with the hardened criminal is too pal- 

 pahle to call for comment here. One 

 cruelly inhuman law is, the strict inter- 

 diction, or rather prohibition, of any com- 

 munication or intercourse with the other 

 sex. The wives of these degraded men 

 are never, upon any pretence whatsoever, 

 allowed to visit them. This is an un- 

 christianlike and barbarous regulation, 

 and a disgrace to a civilized nation. The 

 consequence is, that the most unnatural 

 and revolting: crimes are of common oc- 

 currence. They are committed with im- 

 punity, if not connived at. One shudders 

 at such atrocities, but they are melancholy 

 facts, and I turned my back upon this 

 modern Gomorrah with feelings of loath- 

 ing and disgust. 



On my return to Quimper, I found that 



