for a pillow, with low diet, no meat, and steady work. At the end of four months he receives a bed, and his diet is improved.

By little and little the convict earns privileges; his cell is opened a part of the day, then all day, and he has secular and spiritual instruction. Zealous chaplains, Catholic, Episcopalian, and Presbyterian, give religious instruction, and lead in divine service, for which there are three neat chapels. Good schoolmasters are provided. Here the convict is made to understand that he is master of his own destiny; that his conduct, good or bad, will tell upon his position in that stage of his confinement in and by which his future position is fixed. The shortening of his sentence finally depends upon the date of his admittance into the intermediate prison (the third stage.)

SECOND STAGE OF IMPRISONMENT.

At the expiration of the first stage (the stage of separate confinement, the length of which depends upon the marks for conduct which the prisoner has earned) the convicts are transferred to a prison in which they are employed on government work. If laborers, they are sent to work on the fortifications; if artizans, to Phillipstown prison, where they work at in-door trades.

In this stage, something of the severity of the first stage is remitted; though, in the early part especially, the prisoners are closely watched. They work together during the day, at night they have separate cells.

A great feature of the system presents itself in this, the second stage. It is the employment of marks to de

termine the classification. The mark system is a perfectly intelligible monthly record of the power of the convict to govern himself.

The maximum number of marks attainable by a convict each month is nine, (9) viz., three (3) for “discipline"-that is, general good conduct; three (3) for "school"—that is, attention and desire shown for improvement, not the absolute proficiency; three (3) for "industry"—that is, diligence and fidelity in working, not merely the skill manifested.

There are five different classes in this "second stage," and a certain number of marks is necessary to advancement, beginning with the lowest, "Probation Class," "Third Class," "Second Class," "First Class," and "Exemplary Class."

There are rules touching the removal of prisoners from the "first stage," at Mount Joy, the place of separate confinement. Should any be sent on medical grounds. to Pike Island or Phillipstown, the "second stages," they must enter the "Probationary Class" Some who leave the first stage with the mark "Bad," or very "Bad," must enter the probationary class of the second stage, and receive the treatment of food, and separate confinement, of the first class. All who come from the first class without "bad" marks, or with "good" ones, take rank according to the character they bring; and any convict in the second stage may rise from the second to the first class in six months with fifty-four marks, and from the first to the "Exemplary Class" in twelve months, by gaining one hundred and eight marks.

There are certain pecuniary rewards for good conduct,

rising in amount with the class rank of the convict. This amount, carried to his credit, may be forfeited by misconduct.

Misconduct is also noted, recorded and reported.

Punishments consist in admonitions, deprivation of a ¦ meal, close confinement, with bread and water, forfeitures of gratuities and other privileges, degradation to a lower class, or even to the discipline of Mount Joy, the first stage.

Books of record of all proceedings and conduct are kept. Classes are distinguished by dress and badges. Each prisoner wears two badges, a "register badge”! on the right arm, to mark his sentence and "register number;" and a "conduct badge" on his left arm, to mark his conduct and progress. These badges are multiplied and varied in size and color, to denote conduct and class.

THE THIRD STAGE.

After passing at least a year in the "Exemplary Class," (a longer period, if the length of the sentence requires it,) the convict becomes eligible for removal to what is called an intermediate prison-the third stage-where even the last slight props are, as far as possible, withdrawn, and the convict, to use a distinguished prison phrase, "is left to stand on his own legs." All surveillance is withdrawn-labor is performed without an overseer, conversation free-few restrictions are imposedthe gratuity is increased-freedom in the use of earnings, excepting the purchase of intoxicating liquors. Here the effects of former discipline is tested, and preparation is made for future entire freedom. Lessons and instruc

tive lectures are enjoyed, and in the meetings of the half-freed prisoners, questions of various kinds, chiefly of social science, are discussed-and often well discussed.

FOURTH STAGE.

This Fourth Stage is not one of imprisonment, but a further and final trial. When the convict has been in the intermediate prison (the third class) for the prescribed length of time, (varying, according to the length of the sentence, from six months to two years,) he can claim the right of having the authorities consider the question whether he is entitled by his previous good conduct and character to his discharge on a ticket-of-leave.

The conditions of this ticket-of-leave are very stringent, and the departing prisoners are advised and aided, and while they are in Ireland they are carefully watched. But many of them go to the Colonies, more to the United States.

Many of these ticket-of-leave men find employment in factories and founderies, and on farms, and are preferred in many cases to the hands that have not undergone imprisonment.

The care of the Superintendent of the Third Class is extended over the prisoner as he goes forth with his ticket-of-leave-and in that care lies the great success of the system, perhaps; certainly of the Third Stage, as extended into the Fourth.

We have been speaking hitherto of the treatment of male convicts in the different stages of the Irish system, following the abstract in the New York report, or rather giving a meagre abstract of that interesting condensa

tion; and we have space now for only a very short notice of the treatment of FEMALE CONVICTS.

There is at Mount Joy, near Dublin, a convict prison for females, resembling in outward appearance that

for males.

Every arrangement here seems to be complete; and all the officers and their subordinates, are skilled in the treatment of the prisoners according to the system. The time and nature of the imprisonment is modified in regard to the sex, and something of what belongs to the second stage of the male prison is admitted in this the first stage for the female. The particulars are inter esting, and the success of the system must greatly depend upon an exact performance of the rules. And we notice that in this stage of female imprisonment there. is a little colony of infants-born in prison, or received under two years of age.

It does not appear that the female convicts have what is called the "intermediate," the "third stage;" its place is in part supplied by two excellent "female refuges," which have been established in connection with Mount Joy, the first stage, one for Protestants and the other for Catholics.

In the PROTESTANT refuge the number of inmates rarely exceeds ten; they are employed on laundry work, on which they earn a considerable sum.

They have hard work and poor fare, lest they should love the prison too well. The women get pretty good situations, and they are sought for; some of them emigrate. They attend the parish church in a body, but as individuals.