criminal, was to wear a prison-dress for life,
and was to have no hope of a different career held
out to him. Again, there were terrible defects
connected with the old plan of transporting, and
those could not be endured either. So we
hammered out our Home-Convict system. It
was adapted to meet everybody's views, and it
was to be free from everybody's objection. It
has unfortunately proved a very considerable
failure.

And so we come back to the dismal conviction
that if we would have a system which is to
be effective, we must have one that is defective
as well. Either we must be made wretched
by the thought that a certain number of
human creatures are leading a life of all but
hopeless servitude and confinement, and are
undergoing real punishment: or we must face the
horrors of a penal settlement, trying, however, to
reduce them as much as may be—or we must
put up with a worse defect still, and live in a
town where there is no safety for life and
property, and where abominations go on that are a
disgrace to a country which prefers such very
lofty claims as England does to a high and
exceptional civilisation. We must choose: there is
no help for it.

A great deal is gained, when we have a
difficult question to settle, if we can only manage
to simplify it. Let us try.

There have always been, there are at present,
and it is probable that there always will be,
some members of the community who refuse
to conform to the laws which the rest obey; who
will not work for their living; who hate all
wholesome restraints; who relish the licence
and excitement that belong to the career of
the ruffian. It is unnecessary to examine here,
how and why these men are what they are.
These bad people exist, and they exist by preying
on the honest members of our society.

What are we to do with these bad subjects?
Probably, when a man is brought home to his
family in a state of insensibility, with half his
teeth knocked out, and his face "looking as
if it had been seamed with fire," it is the opinion
of those near and dear to the injured man that
the useless degraded irreclaimable savage who
has done this wicked act, should be promptly
got rid of out of a world where he is not wanted,
and hung up on a gibbet, as a terror to other
evil-doers. Probably, when a good man, a
legislator, and useful member of society, is so
changed by the nervous shock of one of these
shameful night attacks made in the heart of the
best part of London, that the mere sudden
opening of a door is a terror to him, and he is
obliged to leave his home and the sphere of
his usefulness, and try what change and travelling
will do to mend his broken nerves—
probably, those who know and love the man, who
watch him, and note his sufferings, are of
opinion that hanging is rather too good for the
wretches who have wrought this mischief.
There are many people who would argue thus,
and not unreasonably. There are many men who,
if they had shot one of these ruffians, would not
feel any very serious oppression of conscience,
but would rather be of opinion that they had
"done the state some service." It may be
a grave question whether, in cases of brutal
violence to the person, and when the crime is
committed by a confirmed felon, capital punishment
ought not to be inflicted. But it is one
which it is useless to discuss. In this age such
a solution of the difficulty would not be listened
to. And so we get a step further. We cannot
hang for these—so-called—minor offences, and
the doers of these deeds remain to be punished
and disposed of somehow.

Will short but severe punishments do? They
would be convenient, economical, and would
satisfy a very natural vindictive feeling which is
daily getting stronger in the public mind; but
their efficacy is very questionable. Criminals
are bad calculators. You cannot overrate in
this discussion the importance of one phrase
which is continually in the mouth of the rascal
—"I'll chance it." Put before him the most
terrible punishment that human ingenuity could
devise, and he will "chance it" rather than give
himself up to leading a life of industry and
regularity. Why, the man is what he is, because
he will not lead that life. Short punishments
may be useful for beginners, or occasional
offenders, but they are worse than useless in the
case of the confirmed criminal. He will go on
"chancing it" to the end of the chapter, and
unfortunately when he is at large, we, too, going
out after dark, are obliged to "chance it"—
whether we get home again with a whole skin.

Hanging, then, will not do, and short punishments
will not do. Here are two things
disposed of that might hamper us. Are we any
nearer to the solution of the difficulty? The
confirmed criminal must be secluded from
society. Whether that is done by transporting
him, or by keeping him in penal servitude—real
hard penal servitude—at home, is, so far as
society is concerned, unimportant. While punishing
and secluding him, can we not utilise him?
Is slave-labour of no use? These men have
forfeited all claim to their misused liberty, and are
of right slaves. There are thousands of them.
Surely thousands of slaves ought, instead of
being an incubus, to be a valuable property.
Wherever there is hard work to be done, we
should send the slaves to do it; and as to
wardens to keep them at it, how could our
soldiers be better employed than in acting in such
capacity? A life of continual watchfulness, and
with some amount of risk connected with it,
is the right life for a soldier. Each regiment
would only be employed in this service for a
time. The continual changing of troops would
be, for many reasons, a matter of necessity,,
Wherever slave-labour is wanted, these men
who have forfeited their freedom should be sent.
If you want to form a settlement in one of our
colonies, send your slaves to that colony, and
send your soldiers to take care of them. If you
want to build fortifications at home, turn this
great brute force in that direction. There
should be a careful discrimination used in