were lately) confined for refusing to tell to what parish they belonged. In the circumstances of these homeless wretches, was imprisonment a punishment? We would venture to say that they never were more comfortable in their lives. If you don't tell where you come from, you will be sent to prison,' says the magistrate. Thank you, that is exactly what I want,' replies the vagrant. But consider the loss of character." I care nothing for character: I want food.' The only food you will get is bread and water.' Better than not be fed on anything at all.' If you go on this way, and defy the law, you will be transported.' 'Nothing would be more pleasant.' When society comes to such a pass that people reason in this way, it is time to look about for some other corrective than prisons.

The number of re-commitments to the best conducted prisons in Scotland is said to be from sixty to eighty per cent. According to a late Report, the re-committals to the prison of Edinburgh was as high as seventy per cent. In the evidence taken on the subject before parliament, the following is given by one of the directors of the Prison Board of Scotland:-- You say that the attempt to combine those two results, the reformation of the criminal, and the deterring of evil-disposed persons, has hitherto failed. Do you think your experience of it has gone on so far as to enable you to give that opinion generally?' 'No: I would speak with the caution which I feel to be proper in such a case, because we have not had very long experience; but looking to the experience of five years, and the result-which shows that sixty-seven per cent. of those who have passed through the General Prison have been ascertained to have been re-committed-it does not seem to me that the combined system is producing such good effects as could be wished.' Turning to the Report respecting the prison at Reading, presented to the magistrates of Berkshire, Michaelmas 1847, we find it stated that of 840 prisoners who were in custody during the previous twelvemonths, 297 had been before in custody either in this or other counties, and of these 96 had been previously confined in your present jail.' Comparing this result with that stated in relation to Scottish prisons, Mr Field takes no small credit for the superior system of management in the prison to which he is attached. In the General Prison at Perth,' says he in his work on prisons, vol. i. p. 173, the officers are exemplary; the order maintained is excellent; all the prisoners are in separate confinement, and none less than twelve months. But there the fatal plan which has been referred to is followed [excess of industrial labour], and the effects are disastrous both to the culprits and their country. The Inspectors' Reports, and the evidence quoted, show us that not less than eighty per cent. of the criminals discharged from this prison are re-committed! How, then, shall we account for the fact, that of criminals of the same class released from the jail of Reading, the proportion re-committed does not amount to one-tenth of that number? The cause is easily described; because at Reading, whilst industrial training is not disregarded, it is subordinate to, and not suffered to interfere with, Scriptural, and therefore corrective instruction.'

On hearing a similar explanation from Mr Field personally, and after going from cell to cell, and listening to chapters from the New Testament, delivered from memory by the very contrite-looking prisoners, I felt as if at length the anxiously-considered problem of prison discipline had been satisfactorily solved. Reflection, however, suggests doubts as to the validity of the results said to be achieved. I may not deny the evidence of the amiable chaplain, earnest in the performance of his sacred duties; and yet there is reason to fear that fallacies lurk under his statements and comparisons of which he is not aware. It may be thought scarcely fair that he gives the go-by to the 297 out of the 840 who had already been in prison elsewhere, and fixes only on the 96 re-commitments to Reading prison. Such is not an exactly logical set-off against the re

commitments to the prison at Perth. This last-mentioned prison is for all Scotland, as respects long confinements-the Reading prison, as far as we are aware, is only for Berkshire, or at least a limited district; and we are not presented with any evidence as to how many of the 840 prisoners find their way afterwards into prisons in distant parts of the kingdom. But supposing the comparison instituted as regards the ratio of recommitments to be correct, we must still be on our guard against the possibility of error. It is true the amount of religious instruction imparted in Perth prison seems to be small, while the amount of work pretty nearly fills up all the time; but this is not the whole cause of the vast disproportion of re-commitments. Scotland has few parish workhouses, into which destitution may float and find a harbourage; the able-bodied poor are not entitled to relief; the means for procuring em. ployment are much more scanty than in England; a concurrence of causes-among others, the long suppression of harmless recreations and the neglect of matters of refined taste-has engrafted wide-spread habits of intemperance, with a lamentable abandonment of self-respect; in fine, the large towns are crowded with a population as abject and vile as the lazzaroni of Naples, and in circumstances fully more hopeless, while, as if to aggravate this enormous evil, Edinburgh, Glas gow, and some other cities—the prime fountains of crime are suffering from an influx of Irish in the last stages of destitution. That in such circumstances our prisons should be crowded, is not very wonderful, nor does it the least reflect on the course of discipline pursued, that it fails to prevent the return of offenders to what must be to them a comfortable home. Hear the evidence of the Lord Justice Clerk, our chief criminal judge, on the subject:-Even on the separate system, and for a long period, imprisonment has really no terror for the bulk of offenders; and the better the system, it is an undoubted result that the dread of imprison. ment will and must be diminished. After these offenders are all taught to read, and get books to read at extra hours, if reformation is not produced, at least the oppression of imprisonment is over to people of coarse minds, and living a life of wretchedness out of prison. And hence I am sorry to say that with those who are not reclaimed in our prison, the dread of imprisonment seems to have entirely vanished. And I understand that among the community at large in Scotland, and with magistrates and police officers, the feeling is very general that, owing to the comforts necessarily attending a good jail, the separate system, looked on first with alarm, has now no effect in deterring from crime those who are not reformed.'

The general result at which we would arrive respecting the separate system of imprisonment is, that it is a failure. Here and there, from some particular circum || stances, as at Reading, the per centage of re-committals may be moderate; but taken altogether, the number of those who are again convicted and imprisoned is considerable. A large number, indeed, suffer imprisonment four, five, and even six and eight times. Much of this no doubt is imputable to the practice of consigning young delinquents at first to prison for short periodsa time not sufficiently long to produce any good effects, but, on the contrary, calculated to harden the mind against moral and religious impressions. Reform in this particular is eminently desirable, though in such a way as to discriminate between petty and accidental misdemeanours and the offences of those who have, to all appearance, entered on a course of vice. So far the scandal of repeated imprisonments might, to a certain extent, be removed; but many other alterations for the better would be required in our social polity before the separate system of imprisonment can be said to have justice done to it. As matters stand, it is our deliberate impression that this system, with all its excellencies, and under regulations which may be pronounced per fect, is too greatly in advance of the present state of society, particularly in Scotland. The error, if any,

however, is on the side not of cruelty, but humanity; and we should be more rejoiced to see the people brought up to the level of the prisons, than the prisons depressed to suit the degraded condition of the people. W. C.

THE WAXEN HEA D.

A GAY, good-natured bavard was Lieutenant Auguste Dubarle, who, some twenty-five years ago, lived, laughed, and gossipped away the careless hours of a green old age in a modest but charming retreat situated upon the pleasant and commanding côte which overlooks the ancient town and port of Havre-de-Grace. Abstemious and frugal, like the generality of his countrymen, he easily contrived to maintain himself in sufficient comfort and respectability upon the, to English notions, scanty half-pay of a retired lieutenant of infantry.

The good-humoured veteran was a type, perhaps somewhat an exaggerated one, of a generation of soldiers now rapidly passing away, who-moulded in the fiery lava of the first French Revolution, trained in the glittering triumphs of the Consulate and Empire, and educated by the Moniteur'-looked upon war as the essential condition of a civilised and rational people; peace as an exceptional and unnatural state of things, to be abridged as much as possible, for the double purpose of keeping up a good supply of 'glory,' and keeping down population to its due limits; and who accepted with profound faith the dogma that a man born at Dover or Berlin could, under no possible circumstances, compare, as a fighting animal, with the individual specially privileged to open for the first time his peepers in Paris or Lyons. Still, the lieutenant was a goodtempered man; and I never saw him, during a seven years' acquaintance, lose his serene self-possession but once, and that was when I had the temerity to insist that apples, cherries, and plums of fine quality grew and ripened in England in the open air. This was too much! His temper gave way for a moment; but the atrocious absurdity of the assertion quickly subdued his choler, which expired in a boisterous guffaw.

I was a considerable favourite with the garrulous veteran, to whom talk, his own solo, was a great luxury; not always attainable, as his neighbours generally were rather shy at being held by the button or ear for a couple of mortal hours at a sitting, or standing, according to the locale in which he seized his victims; and I was fortunately a good listener. The refreshments provided on sitting occasions were snuff, and about a pint of vinordinaire, both of which, when I was auditor, were monopolised by my host, as I have ever kept a conscience clear of tobacco in every shape, and my stomach, a delicate one, rejected then, as it rejects now, vinegar, however disguised or attenuated. Sometimes Monsieur Dubarle was very entertaining, his actual experience in the horrors and honours of war being considerable; at others insufferably tiresome, especially if he stumbled upon Ratisbon; and I was never sure, however apparently distant we seemed from that abominable placeat the Pyramids, in Spain, Portugal, Russia-that we might not run our heads against it the very next minute. He unfortunately had been decorated there by the emperor's own hand.

lated into peacock extravagance, for certain ends well understood by war governments of all countries. But I am detaining the lieutenant from his story. That head, my young friend,' he began, 'was an improvisation of genius, which France, a country where, as all the world knows, coups d'éclair-lightning strokes -flash across the brains of thousands every day in the week, could rarely surpass. The spectacles-you observe the green spectacles-were an absolute inspiration, similar to that of the emperor at Ratisbon, when''Peste! Why, what on earth can the green spectacles have in connexion with your eternal Ratisbon?' 'A great deal, mon garçon. Had it not been for those spectacles, the grenadier Auguste Dubarle, who was there decorated by- Chut! chut! Don't fly off in that way. Morbleu! you are as impatient as a child!

'A love of glory and adventure is born with Frenchmen, and I was not an exception to the rule. The old heroic chants of the country, which were familiar to me from childhood, combined with the brilliant exploits related by my venerable grandpère, who had served when a young man under Villars, who so unmercifully handled your famous Marlbrook'

'Come, come, Monsieur Dubarle; that is pitching it rather too strong. Marlborough beaten indeed! Allons donc !'

'You dispute it? Of course you do! The imagination that improvised the cherries can scarcely be expected to recognise plain facts.'

'Well, well; go on. If I attempt to stop you every time you take liberties with history, you will not have finished by midnight.'

These stories of the excellent grandpère fired my young blood, and I determined to devote myself to the glory of France, much against my respected father's advice-a good man in his way, but with the most strangely - twisted notions imaginable. I have heard him say-the drôle-that Jacquard, a silk-weaver, or something of the sort, had done more for France than Napoleon! and that pruning trees was a more honourable occupation than thinning Austrian ranks! Bah! what was the consequence? He died, poor man, not many years ago quietly in his bed. He had, to be sure, been three times gloriously killed by proxy-a mere pekin, never having even seen the emperor; never witnessed a trifling skirmish, much less the splendour of a field, where perhaps twenty thousand noble fellows had died or were dying in a full blaze of overpowering glory!'

The veteran having paid the tribute of a passing sigh to the sad fate of his eccentric relative, proceeded:'Soon after I joined the army, America began fighting to free herself from the fangs of the English leopards, and naturally turned for assistance towards France, ever the disinterested protectress of struggling nationalities.'

'He-e-m!' Monsieur?"

'Nothing, nothing! A slight choking sensation, that's all.'

'Bon! The French army flew to her assistance with the swiftness of an eagle! The American stars renewed their waning light in the presence of the bright lilies of France; the two armies were placed under the dictatorship of Lafayette, and the British were, as a matter of course, driven à pas de charge into the sea. Some few, I believe, luckier than their brethren, escaped in their ships.'

'I imagined Washington held some slight command in that war?'

'Did you ever write a romance, Monsieur Dubarle?' 'No. I have no imagination unluckily. If I had one like you now-if I could invent plums purpling amidst eternal fogs; cherries'

'A thousand pardons, monsieur. But really your historic lights are so new and dazzling, that one can scarcely help being startled now and then.'

'Well, I accompanied the army to America, and returned with it, rich in glory, it is true, but miserably poor in everything else. We were nearly all in the same condition, and consequently became valuable auxiliaries in the strife that soon afterwards commenced in France.

on.

'The work, as you know, went bravely and swiftly Down tumbled the throne, and up went the guillotine. Nay, nay, do not fear that I am about to enter into a raisonnement of the revolution. That is a question for a philosopher, which no one will expect a French grenadier to be. There are, I know, two sides to every piece of work, and it is hardly fair to be always turning the seamy one outwards; but I, who am a royalist-an imperialist, I should say, entre nous, by habit and instinct rather than reason and logic-confess to you that the day, the 18th Brumaire, when Napoleon puffed away the immortal republic by a whiff of grapeshot, was one of the happiest days of my life!

'Before all those glorious events occurred, I was married to Mademoiselle Coralie Dupont, an artist in wax, settled in the Rue des Capiennes, Paris. The mode of our introduction to each other was so unpleasantly singular, so strangely bizarre, that I may as well relate it to you.

There was a grand wedding at the church of St Rocq-about the last grande noce celebrated there till the brilliant days of the Empire shone upon Franceand I was among the crowd pressing forward to obtain a peep at the great people. Little Jules my nephew, now a lieutenant in the 9th dragons-you saw him here the other day-but then a mischievous little gamin of four or five years of age, sidled up, and begged piteously that I would carry him into the church when the doors opened. I was ass enough to comply, and hoisted the young coquin astride my shoulders. The doors were an instant afterwards thrown back, and in we all pressed pêle-mêle. The crowd was the densest I ever beheld. We were packed, wedged together, without the possibility of turning or moving. My arms were pinioned to my side, which being perceived by amiable Master Jules, he forthwith began to use my shoulders as a new and delightful sort of rocking-horse, bumping up and down with a short, quick motion, and freely using my hair as a bridle. I strove to liberate one of my arms to reach the young villain, but it was impossible. He spurred away too charmingly, now with his heels in my ribs, and now with his toes in the back of the neck of a lady immediately before us. This brought on a new infliction: the lady, justly indignant that such liberties should be taken with her, and unable to turn round to ascertain the cause, retorted in the only way she could, by kicking out viciously behind; and if ever a pair of vigorous heels played a devil's tattoo upon a poor fellow's shins, hers did on mine. Tonnerre! but it was dreadful! Vainly did I in frantic whispers adjure her, by all the saints in heaven, to forbear. It was useless. Human nature could not have borne it much longer, when fortunately the priests entered, and the ceremony began. Jules had some religion, if he had no mercy, and forbore his exercise. The lady, finding the assault had ceased, also graciously, after one vigorous parting salute, suspended hostilities. At length all was over, and out we struggled. The lady, Mademoiselle Coralie Dupont, on being apprised of the cause of the assault upon her, and perceiving the effect of her cruel retaliation, melted with compassion, and insisted upon my accompanying her to her établissement, where she dressed my wounds with her own fair hands. Our friendship, commenced in this odd manner, thrived so rapidly, that a month afterwards I

was her adored, adoring husband, and the master of a comfortable ménage, about a hundred wax figures, the best exhibited then in Paris, a good sum of money in hand, and as pretty an equipment of argenterie as any bourgeois could desire. Parbleu! it was a happy life I led then; but my paradise was at last invaded by one of the foulest serpents that ever crawled the earth. 'One of the rooms-au troisième-of the house in which we lived was occupied by a sinister-looking scoundrel, a sort of clerk, who had managed in those topsy-turvy days to wriggle himself into an influential office-and a lucrative one of course, connected with the revolutionary tribunal. I had long felt, for various reasons, a dread of this Monsieur Tricard. Coralie had also her apprehensions, and frequently cast about in her powerful mind for the means of defeating him, should things come to the worst. To the worst they soon did come with a vengeance. My wife and I were sitting together after dinner sipping a glass or two of muscadin, and chuckling over the rumours, then rapidly acquiring strength, of the approaching downfall of Robespierre, Couthon, and the other scélérats, when in stalked an officer with an order for my immediate arrest. I resigned myself, after the first shock, to what was inevitable, and was leaving the apartment, when Coralie, matchless, divine Coralie! who was weeping as if her tender heart would burst, cried out, "Your spectacles, cher Auguste; do not go out into the cold air without your spectacles, you that have such weak eyes." What could she mean? I had never worn spectacles in my life! I, however, fortunately held my tongue, while Coralie placed them, and tied them behind. The officer laughed hoarsely, and brutally remarking that I should not suffer much from weak eyes by that time on the morrow, bade me follow without delay. I did so. We entered a fiacre, and speedily arrived before the infernal tribunal. In about half an hour my turn came. The trial was by no means tedious. I was told that I was accused by Citoyen Tricard of incivisme-a charge which ranged from a plot to upset the republic, to the crime of doubting if Maximilian Robespierre was as lovely in person as he was gentle and mild in disposition. I had, it seems, or at least Monsieur Tricard said so, which was all the same, spoken disparagingly of Messieurs the executioners en chef of France; and was accordingly condemned to be decapitated on the following day. My goods and chattels were at the same time declared forfeit to the republic; the republic in my case meaning an amiable lodger au troisième. I was dragged off to La Force, crammed into a miserable cell, and there left to the undisturbed contemplation of my present situation and future prospects.

"Two hours had lingered wearily away, when the bolts of the dungeon were suddenly drawn, and in stepped, like an angel of hope visiting the regions of despair, my charming Coralie.

A rapid explanation ensued. M. Tricard had already taken possession; but dreading, as my guardian angel soon perceived, that his master's reign was drawing rapidly to a close, he was anxious to obtain a better title to my effects than a mandate of Robespierre's creatures, and he therefore proposed to marry Coralie. Yes, the gredin actually offered marriage to my wife; and she, the syren, affecting dread of falling into poverty, consented, after a sufficient hesitation, to espouse him on the following morning, immediately after my head had fallen! She was now visiting me for the purpose of coaxing me to tell her where I had hidden certain rouleaux of gold which M. Tricard happened to know we were possessed of a few days previously. Coralie added that her future husband had fortunately obtained a peremptory order for my execution at dawn of day!

'I comprehended all this very well afterwards; but as Coralie ran it over, weeping, smiling, laughing, all in a breath, I became every instant more and more confounded.

""Ah ça !" I said at last; "all this seems to amuse