of seventeen imprisonments and other punishments before his career was
stopped by transportation; a sentence which does, however, sooner or
later overtake them, and which would be better both for themselves and
the country were it passed the first time they were in the hands of the
court as known thieves. Observing only a certain, and nearly an equal,
number transported each session, they have imbibed a notion, that the
recorder cannot exceed it, and that he selects those to whom he takes a
dislike at the bar, not for the magnitude of their offence, but from
caprice or chance. It is under this impression they are afraid of
speaking when in court, lest they should give offence, and excite
petulance in the judge, which would, in their opinion, inevitably
include them in the devoted batch of transports, of which their horror
is inconceivable; 1st, because many have already undergone the
punishment; and 2dly, all who have not are fully aware of the privations
to which it subjects them. Their anxious inquiry regarding every
particular relating to the treatment, is a strong manifestation of their
uneasiness on this subject. Yet Mr. Wontner and Mr. Wakefield (says the
_Quarterly_ reviewer) think neither transportation nor the hulks have
any terrors for them. How they come to this opinion, I cannot imagine.
If they draw their inference from the noise and apparent mirth of the
prisoners when they leave Newgate for the hulks, I think their premises
false.

The transports are taken from Newgate in parties of twenty-five, which
is called a draft. When the turnkeys lock up the wards of the prison at
the close of the day, they call over the names of the convicts under
orders for removal, at the same time informing them at what hour of the
night or morning they will be called for, and to what place and ship
they are destined. This notice, which frequently is not more than three
or four hours, is all that is given them; a regulation rendered