For the Term of His Natural Life

nce the 30th June, that which records the advent of our ne

. His knowledge of prisons and prisoners gives him an advantage over Burgess, otherwise he much resembles that murderous animal. He has but one thought-to keep the prisoners in subjection

estroyed lest the men should obtain a leaf of it. The privilege of having a pannikin of hot water when the gangs came in from field labour in the evening has been withdrawn. The shepherds, hut-keepers, and all other prisoners, whether at the stations of Longridge or the Cascades (where the English convicts are stationed) are forbidden to keep a parrot or any other bird. The plaiting of straw hats during the prisoners' leisure hours is also prohibited. At the settlement where the "old hands" are located railed boundaries have been erected, beyond which no prisoner must pass unless to work. Two days ago Job Dodd, a negro, let his jacket fall over the boundary rails, crossed them to recover it, and was severely flogged. The floggings are hi

els in the place to office, compels them to find "cases" for punishment. Perfidy is rewarded. It has been made part of a convict-policeman's duty to search a fellow-prisoner anywhere and at any time. This searching is often conducted in a wantonly rough and disgusting manner; and

g the initiation of this system, "to think that these vi

shall flog 'em. If they do what I tell 'em, they'll make themselves so hated that they'd h

f a wild beast den. They must flog the an

aving once flogged 'em, they'd do anything r

at the Keeper of the Tormented would use, I should think. I am sick unto death of the place. It makes me an unbeliever in the

usly rough and brutal. He has sunk to a depth of self-abasement in which h

had been aware of the plot. He said "No," falling into a great tremble. "Major Pratt promised me a removal," said he. "I expected it would come to this." I asked him why Dawes defended him; and after some trouble he told me, exacting from me a promise that I would not acquaint the Commandant. It seems that one morning

o get at this man's hear

gaol-gang, but Frere refused. "I never let my men 'funk'," he said. "If they'v

he wretch who was foremost cried, "There's for you; and if your master don't take care, he'll get served the same one of these days!" The gang were employed at build

ult; he should hav

id I. "I did all I could," was the man's a

seers, and they have addressed a "round robin" to the C

ne of the most galling contempt, did not move them. I saw a dozen pairs of eyes flash hatred, but the bull-dog courage of the man overawed them here, as, I am told, it had done in Sydney. It would have been easy to kill him then and there, and his death, I am told, is sworn among them; but no one raised a finger. The only man who moved was Rufus Dawes, and he checked himself instantly. Frere, with a recklessness of

at the gang winced. "You'll find me one," said Frere, with a laugh; and, turning to me, cont

preaching to stones, and such doubly-dyed villains as this Dawes were past hope. "I know the ruffian of old," said he. "He came out in the ship from England with me, and tried to raise a mutiny on bo

evidently, and yet I feel a str