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the great principle contended for in the Official Paper quoted from above. Whether regarded as a means of reformation and occupation in after life, or as a source of present remuneration in aid of their cost to the state, the employment of prisoners should be such as we have indicated, as much as possible in conformity with their previous occupations, as well as of a nature likely to be adopted by them in their after-career. Although it would be highly desirable that we possessed data, as to the after-career of liberated prisoners, in order to judge of the moral effect of their punishment, we need no statistics to assure us that an agricultural laborer put to weaving, or carpentering, or smith-work whilst incarcerated, will not follow any such occupation on his return, however skilful he may become in his forced calling; but will, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, prefer his own caste profession, poorly though it may remunerate him, and uncertain though it may be.

Equally certain are we that the petty trader, or dealer, or artificer, who may be put to agricultural, or any description of out-door or field work, would not take to it under almost any inducement when liberated, but would prefer having recourse to the calling in which he had been brought up from his early days. The well-known character of the natives of this country leads us to this belief, a conviction which scarcely requires proof in tabulated returns.

It follows then as a natural consequence of this conclusion, that we are wasting time and flinging behind us our opportunities for good, in teaching a ryot to make gunny bags or table-covers, bathing-stools or frying-pans; and that the sooner we put him to something more just, prudent and profitable in a moral and economical point of view, than making roads or pounding soorkie, the better for humanity, the better for the State. Every native reclaimed from the chances of a re-commission of his offences, is an honest man gained to the community. Somebody once said that the worst use we can put a man to, is to hang him we turn him to but little better use, when we herd him with others in a limited space, in close contact with the worst criminals, to exasperate and worry him with some hateful occupation, when perhaps the poor wretch committed the offence for which he suffers under the pressure of extreme want.

Whilst we are quite of opinion, with the writer of the document just quoted, as regards the work to be exacted from nonagricultural offenders, and those who may have been guilty of affrays, tumults, &c., we would advocate the use of some agricultural labour for ryot offenders against the laws, whose offences were thought of a serious character. In all industrial occupation

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within or without our Jails, let the teaching be of an improving, an elevating character. Every new idea you can instil into the mind of the poorest ryot, every improved process you can introduce amongst the most abject class of toilers on the soil, at the loom or at the forge, will prove the germ of after good; the spring for some future stream of thought, polluted and unsightly at its source, but as it flows onwards becoming purified and wholesome.

We are in the habit of complaining that the Hindus are impregnable to new processes, and hopelessly attached to the ancient systems of their country. Let us then introduce improvements, when the power of doing so is in our hands, by the instrumentality of convicts. The native is given to doubt the value of any new method; it is most difficult to persuade him, that time, and trouble and outlay on some time-honored system, will yield sure and ample returns. If we can but demonstrate the truth of our new theory by practical illustration, we shall generally succeed in overcoming all the opposition. The reason why so little has been done in India in the way of improving agricultural or other processes, has been that no persons were to be found willing to incur the first experimental outlay. Let those experiments be made by means of Jail labor in the vicinity of our Jails, and at the cost of Jail funds. Let the State bear the brunt of it in the first instance, for, in the long run, the State will be the great gainer.

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If we are not greatly mistaken, Dr. Mouat has already made some proposal of this kind to the Government. Most cordially do we back the suggestion. Let it be tried by all means. Every novelty is at first regarded in the light of a vexatious innovation. We remember when the "Road Ordinance was introduced into Ceylon, compelling every man to give six days' labor, or the equivalent in money, towards the construction of new roads, the opposition to it was most violent. But the Government were firm; and at the end of the first year, so sensible had the natives become of the benefit derived from the law, that in many districts, they volunteered ten and twelve days' labor!

We can see no practical objection to the formation of small model farms attached to some of our Jails, where circumstances will allow of its being done without incurring too heavy an outlay for guards. Can we for a moment doubt the ultimate value to the country of improvements in the preparation of the soil, in the system of rotation of crops, in the agricultural implements employed, in the application of manures, in the better cultivation and preparation for the market of such plants as hemp, flax and jute? Let these or some of them be put in practice on

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the Jail industrial farms, by means of forced prison labor, and we shall soon find the free laborer imitating the processes, and reaping some of the advantages, of the penal establishments.

The task which private enterprise fails to take in hand, by reason of a defective state of society, or from some other cause, may well be undertaken by the State. Our opinion of Jail labor has ever been that it should, so far as practicable, be made the pioneer of progress. Those who have outraged society by crimes or offences, are surely called upon to render reparation by some bold and forward work on behalf of that same society. The early convicts of Great Britain planted new colonies in the islands of the south: they pioneered the way for armies of free settlers, and laid the foundation for great and happy states. In doing that they rendered back the price of their great offences. We would say in this present time, do yet the same. Let the imperial convicts go forth to other lands, and repeat the self-same process. Here in India, let it be done in smaller things. Instead of founding empires, let our felon population lay the foundation of a better system of industry. It needs but the order to go forth to have it done. In the present Inspector of Jails, we have a man in every way fitted for the task, one who adds the will to the power of doing good service. Let it be set about in no niggard spirit, but with large and practical views. Let an ample support be given to the toiler, with full and effective assistance.

We are far from expecting complete success to attend at once upon such an experiment. Many difficulties will be found in the way: many disappointments will be met with. It is simply a question of patience and time. Dr. Mouat has before him a great and noble task, and he will do well to let no ordinary discouragements turn him aside. We can conceive no loftier work in this world of ours, than that of "turning the hearts ' of the disobedient," of reclaiming to society its lost children. "An honest man is the noblest work of God," and surely he who becomes the human instrument of recovering honest men from amongst the lost ones, can desire no better task. There have been noble spirits engaged in this work before. It is something to toil in the same field as Howard and Fry! It is something to feel that whilst others are engaged in struggles with the material things of the world, the toiler in Jails is overcoming the hearts and minds of men.

This work of mercy is one of England's noblest tasks: its fruits will live for ever. When the classic New-Zealander takes his stand on Westminster Bridge, and looks down on the hoary ruins of her capital, he shall think of her great mission with warm affection. The Hindus of those unborn days, in SEPT., 1857.

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speaking of her eastern rule, shall dwell but lightly on some things, but name her works of charity and mercy with child-like reverence. They shall say the Saxon race which come from o'er the seas a thousand years ago, ruled our forefathers with an iron rule, yet tempered might with mercy. The memory of their victories has passed away: not so the good they did. Our children in their earliest books are taught to know the men who, armed with the strength of giants, used it like angels.

ART. III.—A visit to India, China and Japan, in the year 1853. By BAYARD TAYLOR. Putnam and Co., New York.

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E owe an apology to the accomplished author of this work, for having so long neglected to notice it. We have repeatedly intended to call the attention of our readers to it, but have been unable till now. The work is one which deserves a kindly reception from English residents in India, and which will afford many an hour of pleasant and instructive reading. It is written in a very lively tone, contains vivid descriptions of scenes through which the writer passed, and exhibits that peculiar phase of Indian life and Indian celebrities, in which all persons of educated taste must feel an interest.

The author, Mr. Bayard Taylor, has been employed for many years as one of the correspondents of the New York Tribune. His pleasant and lively sketches of all sorts of scenes, places, and events within the United States and Mexico, have done much to increase the popularity, and extend the circulation, of that influential journal. Of the same school with Douglas Jerrold and Albert Smith, his warm imagination enlivens every subject that his pen describes, and sets off even the dull details of the routine of political life. Mr. Taylor is one of the most extensive travellers of modern times, and his pen has been specially employed in describing the countries he has visited. Having exhausted Mexico and the States, he set out in August, 1851, for an extended tour in the old world. He visited the greater part of Europe, passed through Constantinople, Asia Minor and Palestine; ascended the Nile to Abyssinia, and then examined the remains of Moorish supremacy in Spain. Thence he turned his face to the distant east; embarking from Gibraltar, he travelled the overland route to Aden and Bombay; crossed the country by Indore to Agra, ascended the Himalaya to Landour, and visited Lucknow, Allahabad and Benares. Embarking once more at Calcutta, he went by steamer to Hong-Kong and Shanghai, joined the American expedition to Japan and Loochoo; and having paid a passing visit to the grave of Napoleon on his return home, finally landed on the Eastern Quays of New York, after an absence of two years and four months. Few men have traversed so many of the most interesting countries of the world; fewer still have visited them in so short a time; and few have been so ready to describe intelligently the scenes which so rapidly passed before their eyes.

In visiting India, he came merely as an intelligent traveller, to see the great objects for which the country has been celebrated. He came not to study our military supremacy and the

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