Social Scrence Congress. 181 
state of things to the minds of those likely to yield to the 
temptations which consign men to prison nearly as _ repul- 
sive ascan well be imagined. Indeed, such a regimen, 
where combined with long hours of labour, plank beds, and 
no more time for sleep than Nature requires, would form a 
system of treatment so depressing to the mind of the 
criminal that, if he were rendered hopeless of mitigating 
its severity by good conduct, appalling consequences might 
_be expected. His life might be shortened by despair, even 
if he were not driven to suicide. We are thus forced upon 
a problem not easy to solve—viz., how to inspire the crimi- 
nal with hope, without, by the relaxation of this object of 
harsh discipline, leading those who might be tempted to 
follow his example in crime to underrate the misery of his 
lot. When the prisoner knows that his confinement must 
come to an end, either because his term of imprisonment 
will expire or because he is in course of working himself 
out of prison by industry and good conduct, the danger of 
reducing him to despair is obviously lessened; and, with 
prisoners of ordinary temperament, unless the expected 
return to liberty is placed at too great a distance, such 
danger calls for no special attention. But in cases of im- 
prisonment for life, in which the number of discharges is 
insignificant, the hope of return to society cannot have a 
practical operation. Our expedients for exciting hope are 
limited, therefore, to affording the criminal opportunities of 
bettering his condition in the gaol itself. And, for the 
reasons to which I have adverted, even that amelioration 
must be slow in progress, and must lead to nothing which 
persons at large would not consider a miserable state of 
life. As he is not to ascend to any great height, and yet, 
as it is important that his rise, though slow, should be, 
unless, from his own fault, continuous (or, at least, station- 
ary only for short intervals), it is evident that at the com- 
mencement of his incarceration, he must be placed in a 
very low condition indeed. The class of prisoners who 
have deprived a fellow-creature of life, or diminished its 
comfort and enjoyment by the infliction of a grave per- 
sonal injury, should, I think, for a period more or less con- 
siderable, be placed in irons, heavy at first, as heavy, 
indeed, as nature can support; yet to be promptly 
lightened by good conduct until, at last, they are reduced 
to one ring, and even that one may eventually be with- 
drawn. This infliction of irons to be superadded to all 
the visitations undergone by convicts in penal servitude, 
