strong iron band locked round the leg immediately above the ankle.
These men have tried to escape. Necessary as it may be to adopt such
measures to prevent them from repeating the attempt, surely it is
unnecessarily cruel to compel these poor creatures to wear their irons
at night. Their dinner consists of a can of soup, a plate of meat, and
ten ounces of bread. They are allowed one hour, and are then marched
back again to their work in the quarries; they have supper, bread and
coffee, at five o'clock, and at half-past five they are all locked in
their cells, which, though scrupulously clean, are certainly too small
(about the size of an ordinary clothes closet), considering that the
prisoners have to pass twelve hours out of the twenty-four in them.

On Sunday the sewing-room of the female prisoners is used as a Chapel,
the men attending services in the morning, the women in the afternoon;
once a month there is service for the Roman Catholic prisoners. The
convicts have no privileges; a sharp, intelligent lad may become a hall
boy or get employed in the mess room; or a mechanic may be appointed to
one of the workshops and so gain some slight relief from the monotony
of their lives; but they get no reward, beyond a little tobacco once a
week for chewing; smoking is strictly prohibited; once a month they are
allowed to be visited by their friends. On entering the building the
visitor is forcibly struck by the following inscription over the
doorway.

'The way of the transgressor is hard.'

'Such is the greeting to the unfortunate criminal as he puts his foot,
often for the first time, within the prison walls. If an inscription be
necessary, surely the Department of Public Charities and Correction
might have chosen one less harsh in character; one that breathes a