wine bottles in a basket, and wondered who
it was that had so large a traffic to and from
his cellar. I found out that the bottles
contained {} draught and physic for the
prisoners, and then my interest abated.

At last the morning came on which I was to
be again taken to the Mansion-house. Before
breakfast, I was got up for the event like a
school-boy who is wanted in the parlour. As
I had never shown any symptoms of a desire
Co defeat the ends of justice, I had been trusted
with my razor, and allowed to shave myself.
The warder, however, lounged against one of
the window-sills in the yard (the barber's
shop) the while, indulging in gruff but well-
meant remarks on the young men who had
come under his care. On this particular
morning he was more than usually chatty.
"Ah! I have known some first-rate men in
here; and enjoy themselves very much, they
did. Poor fellows; all their troubles
commenced when they left here. That's the time
—you'll find that when you get out. Every
man that looks at you a little harder than
usual in the streets you'll think knows you
have been in Newgate. You'll think every
one knows where you've come from; and, sure
enough, its wonderful what a sight of people
do find it out." He ended by hoping he
should not see me back again in Newgate.

Soon after morning chapel there was a cry
heard of "Send down them remands!" I was
taken down with half-a-dozen others, and
paraded in line waiting for the van. When
all was ready we were led through the long
dark passage to the entrance-hall. The
warden at the gate, having seen that we were
the right persons to go out, required me to
enter my name in his account-book as an
acquittal for his disbursements in the character
of steward to my funds. The great iron gate
then swung upon its hinges, and we passed to
the van one by one through a lane of curious
observers.

The van contained separate cabins, with
swing shutters to the doors fastened by
buttons, and all opening into the central passage.
A young man, "very faint," requested that
his shutter might be left open. " Yes," said
the Serjeant—"then you'll be all talking, you
will."—"O no indeed, sir, we won't, I assure
you. Do let me have it open if you please,
sir." The plaintive tone prevailed; and,
after the van door was locked, the young man,
putting out his arm, unbuttoned the other
shutters, and a romp began. Jokes were
bandied, arrangements and appointments
made in the event of release, and the great
game was for each to lie in wait watching the
other shutters, and be ready to box the ears
of any one who popped his head out. In
that spirit of levity young and old men,
accused of grave offences, went to trial. At
the Mansion-house the hand of Mr. Keggs
appeared at the van door ready to help me
down. That amiable friend bade me good
day, and took me to the cage again.

I did not reappear in Newgate to add to
my experience a knowledge of the kind of life
led by committed prisoners or others in a lower
deep—the convict department. I have told
my tale simply as so much experience, and
have no desire or talent for constructing any
theories upon it.

A DIGGER'S DIARY.

IN OCCASIONAL CHAPTERS.

September 7th.—So, here we are at last, in
sight of Australia. That faint grey
something, seen through the worst of weather, we
are told is Cape Otway. What a time we
have had of it these last three weeks. It is
all over with my Diary, as indeed it has very
nearly been all over with everything else
in the Rodneyrig, ever since we passed the
little black rocky islands of St. Paul's and
Amsterdam. If I ever again take to keeping
a journal, it must be on the plan of no-plan
—I mean of no sort of regularity as to the
intervals.

The condition of our cabin—our berths—
every cabin, and every berth in the 'tween
decks, no tongue can tell. All washed out,
and everything left, not high and dry, but
moist, rotten, broken, trodden up, strewn
about, and turned to rags and slush. The
grand summit of all our sea-disasters we
reached on the 10th inst.—was it the 10th or
the 9th, or the 7th?—oh, I forget, but it topped
everything. We had gone to bed durng
gales, and got up in the morning to find a
storm, to say nothing of any of the roaring
hours between, for some time; but one day
we had a hurricane that never ceased for a
minute, so that when it grew dark we all fairly
turned into our berths to avoid being
knocked and battered to pieces against the
ship and each other, and there we all lay wide
awake, listening to the various effects—such
as roars, howls, hisses, gushes, creaks, clanks,
shrieks, flaps and flanks, rumbles and falls, and
sudden shocks, with the steady, monotonous,
vibrating drone of the mignty wind holding
on through all, without intermission. This
lasted in all its force through the night, till
from sheer exhaustion by attending to it I
dropped off to sleep. Sometime between
twelve and two I awoke with a start, caused
by a loud and violent booming blow, followed
by a rush of water, which came dashing
down the main hatchway, and flooding all
the 'tween decks, every cabin inclusive. A
lurch instantly followed, which sent all the
water swosh over to the other side of the
ship, but this seemed only done to give a
more vehement impulse to the counter-lurch
on our side, the roll of which went to such
an extent lower and lower that I thought
this time at last we must go clean over, and
while the result was yet suspended in the
darkness, down came rushing to our low
sunken side an avalanche of all the moveable
contents of the entire 'tween decks—cooking