A "Ticket Of
Leave," Which, As Long As A Man Keeps Clear Of Suspicion As
Well As Of Crime, Makes
Him free within a certain district, is
given upon good conduct, after years proportional to the
length of the sentence;
Yet with all this, and overlooking
the previous imprisonment and wretched passage out, I
believe the years of assignment are passed away with discontent
and unhappiness. As an intelligent man remarked to
me, the convicts know no pleasure beyond sensuality, and in
this they are not gratified. The enormous bribe which Government
possesses in offering free pardons, together with the
deep horror of the secluded penal settlements, destroys
confidence between the convicts, and so prevents crime. As to a
sense of shame, such a feeling does not appear to be known,
and of this I witnessed some very singular proofs. Though
it is a curious fact, I was universally told that the character
of the convict population is one of arrant cowardice: not
unfrequently some become desperate, and quite indifferent as
to life, yet a plan requiring cool or continued courage is
seldom put into execution. The worst feature in the whole
case is, that although there exists what may be called a legal
reform, and comparatively little is committed which the law
can touch, yet that any moral reform should take place
appears to be quite out of the question. I was assured by
well-informed people, that a man who should try to improve,
could not while living with other assigned servants; - his
life would be one of intolerable misery and persecution.
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