hastily, and, you will excuse me, madam, I think so too." J. B. said, "F. J. thinks some remarks I made on Sunday were entirely meant for him, which, however, were unpremeditated." I asked, "Do you frequently think me personally severe then?" "We do," he replied, "and the prisoners talk of it." "But if they feel offended at the moment, they feel the justice of it afterwards." "That," said he, "has been my own case, but I have done the same thing, and have been as bad as they." I went up to the room, and told F. J. I should be happy to receive him again, and he thanked me.

Feb. 11.-This day I afforded F. J. the opportunity he desired, of some private conversation with me, by asking him to take my Bible up to the gate. He said, he should be sorry to bring up his children with such views as he had expressed; that he had reflected, and felt that he had been wrong: he expected to be ridiculed by the other prisoners, but was determined to adopt a new line of conduct altogether. There was deep feeling, thoughtfulness, and strong earnestness of manner; he spoke highly of his wife: here I asked, "Do you love your wife?" "Oh yes, and my wife loves me." "And do you love you. children?" 66 Oh I love my yes, “An children." were I or any other to say, I hate your wife, I hate your children, would you like it?" "No, I should not." "And yet you spoke against my God; and of this lovely book you said, 'It is all a pack of nonsense, I do not believe one word of it!'" F. J. acknowledged the application with much emotion. He said he had been accustomed

to sit from Sunday morning till Sunday night in a public house, but would attend a place of worship in future, which his wife had formerly advised in vain he acknowledged that I was justified in leaving him, after his having spoken of the Bible and of God as he did.

Some further notice is made of F. J., and thus summed up in the Liberated Prisoners' Book.

July 1.-F. J. has called upon me, and of him I have the highest hope. He was tried and convicted for a felony, and sentenced to six months imprisonment his previous character had been bad. At first he was quiet, and for a while I did not discover that he was a scorner of all things sacred. The circumstance which led to his discovery is written in the Every-day Book. After the date February 11, he seemed a new character, no longer close or sly on the one hand, nor presuming on the other; but simple, honest, and open. The poor fellow has obtained no work; his children are ill, and his excellent wife, whilst rejoicing at the change in her husband, is cast down by extreme poverty. I gave them an order for some flour.

October, 1837.-J. N., a donkey, 188.

October 17.-N. has been in the gaol six months, for stealing deals out of the sea: he has a wife and four young children, and earned his living by fishing, selling fish, etc. The chief means of their support in winter, appears to have been that of selling fish in the villages, which was hung in hampers on each side of his donkey. During his imprisonment, his wife sold the donkey, as she could not afford to feed it, and wanted the money

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for her own support; they had a pig also, which she was obliged to sell to procure food for the family. The parish gave them a small allowance part of the time, up to the last fortnight of N.'s imprisonment, which was then withdrawn, as the officers thought his term of imprisonment was six lunar months, and they were calendar. Their distress was relieved by a three-penny loaf each day for that fortnight, at the end of which, they must all have gone to the workhouse, except some efficient means of support had been immediately adopted. After considerable attention to the matter, my conclusion was this; I had better set about purchasing a suitable donkey, and let him load it with fish to sell along the villages, by which N. thinks he can honestly keep out of the workhouse.

Oct. 18.-N. came to speak to me this morning as I desired; he was liberated yesterday; he thought a donkey would save him and his family from the workhouse. I judged the thing worth the trial, and consulted where it would be best to seek one, as I was at liberty, in the hope that he would turn out well, to purchase a donkey at the expense of the magistrates; which if it answered the purpose, and he used it well, would in the end. be his own. His wife's relations at a village a few miles off, knew of one four years old, which had not been broken down by bad usage, for which the owner asked 17. He offered to go and fetch the animal for me to look at, which I desired him to do, and as he had six persons to feed, and was earning nothing, I gave him one hundred herrings to sell on his way. N. came this evening

with the donkey and its owner; it seemed a good animal, and I bought it for 18s., the least he would take; he said he would not have sold it in Yarmouth, except where he thought it would be used well. N. sold his hundred herrings on the way, and said he got 1s. 3d. by them. He engages to lead the donkey to my residence frequently for me to see, and inform me of his success.

Oct. 19.-N. called this morning to say he had been as far as Little Ormesby, and sold a hundred and a half of herrings, and that no donkey can go better. Mr. F. has given him leave to cut some grass for it, off his ground.

March 12, is the last notice of this circumstance, "the donkey which I bought N., they have now, and value greatly."

It was

Jaly 24.-T. H. is under sentence of nine
months' imprisonment, for having broken into an
old lady's house, and stealing a quantity of plate.
The house stands in a row, with a garden and
stone yard in front, and a gate of entrance, which
is locked at night. J. D. B., who was removed
for transportation July 2, was in the same room
and yard with T. H., when the latter was in
prison a few months ago for an assault.
then J. D. B. told the story of having been at
work on the premises of Mrs. R., (he being a
bricklayer,) and of having seen where the plate
was kept. "I stole a spoon," said he, and described
the house. This being remembered by T. H., in-
duced him, with J. S., to effect the robbery almost
immediately after his discharge. B. gave me this
account in the presence of T. H., saying, "it
was a bad thing for him to have met J. D. B.”

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T. H. confirmed the statement. Since I heard the above account, showing the contaminating influence of prisoners over each other, and its danger to the public, I have called on Mrs. R. for further confirmation: it is true that J. D. B. worked on her premises six years ago, and that a silver spoon was stolen.

Sept. 9.-The three boys who were discharged yesterday, were in the Bridewell with A.; he is now alone; when I was with him to-day, he said, "If those boys' fathers don't keep them from going together, they will do worse: one said,

If my father won't give me a pair of shoes, I will try and pin a pair in the market on Saturday."" They talked of going to Norwich: F. said he had an uncle in Lynn, it would be worth going there. Lynn gaol was a better gaol than this, and they meant to be in gaol in winter. This is only a specimen of contaminating influence: bad as they all three are, they make each other worse; and are all so poor, and ill-fed when out of prison, that their living in it is better.

LETTERS AND PRISON BOOKS.

Jan. 6.-The young boys have been very idle, upon the whole H. behaved best. T. says he does not like his book, he likes to play about; and they have all got the notion that they are not obliged to learn, or, to use their own words, "not forced to learn."

I wrote the above in the presence of the boys, and read it to them, informing them also, that they were not forced to learn, if they liked better to be locked up in the cell. I found they were unwilling to have what I had written exposed to

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