the Act are disregarded alike in the letter, and spirit of the law, and the prisoner is coerced by such a list put into the hands of a spiritual person, unless possessed of uncommon moral courage, into a system or religious persuasion, to which he may most conscientiously object; simply because he has had the misfortune to be born or brought up in it, or from ignorance, or haste, or mere mistake happened to be set down in the books under a certain denomination.

I would respectfully ask: Are the accredited ministers of all persuasions, differing from that of the Established Church, to be furnished with lists of persons nominally belonging to them? Or, is the Board prepared to affirm the application of a Mr. Oakeley, and ignore a similar one from a Dr. Cumming? Why should the special license be granted to the Roman Catholic minister? I most respectively submit that of all persuasions, the ministers of that church are the very last to be so favoured; for they alone are bound to secresy as to what may transpire between them and prisoners, whether it affect discipline, morals, the course of human justice, or even life.

I further beg leave to say what must also follow from an arrangement of this nature. Under the provisions of the same Act (30th section) I shall consider myself, as chaplain of this prison, to have free access for all spiritual purposes to all prisoners, "except such as shall be of a religious persuasion different from that of the Established Church, who SHALL HAVE

MADE A REQUEST THAT A MINISTER OF SUCH PERSUASION SHALL BE

ALLOWED TO VISIT THEM." Hence, inevitably, new and increased difficulties, of a very delicate nature, must arise, in the government of the prison, embarrassing, it may be, to Government itself. If I have put a wrong interpretation on the law, of course my case falls to the ground, but I have this presumption in favour of my views, that supplying Roman Catholic ministers with lists of prisoners is quite a new proceeding.

I have confined myself to my own case, because I feel that I am not justified in going further, but I venture to hope that the Board will take occasion to consider the question in all its bearings, and in reference to the whole convict-establish

ments.

In consequence

of

my vindication of the civil and

religious liberty secured to these poor men by the law, the Board of Directors examined them individually, and those who said they were Roman Catholics and wished to be visited by the priest, were alone left on his list. Hence the reduction that Mr. Lucas speaks of, as being produced by an improper or senseless sort of influence on my part.

What could the civil Government do? coerce the reluctants to confession, or recognize their legal rights, and protect the men in their assertion of them? With respect to my mode of proceeding in general towards Roman Catholic convicts, (the same is pursued by all my brethren in like circumstances, with whom I am acquainted,) it has always been as follows:

Whenever a Roman Catholic prisoner requests to see his priest, I cease to minister to him in spiritual things, but acquaint him that he may have my friendly counsel and help in all things as before. I give direction to the schoolmaster to avoid, in circulating the library, placing in the man's cell any books which must necessarily offend him; and in every other way possible I continue to seek to promote his comfort and well-doing.

The result has been, uniformly, that the prisoner feels that difference in character and conduct only can affect his condition and prospects.

If, however, the convict, under the instruction of his priest, (as sometimes has happened, though, very rarely,) feels so anxious about his salvation, that he cannot refrain from seeking my advice re

specting it, I have certainly never failed to set before the poor sinner, yet without controversy, Christ as the way, the truth, and the life; the only and the all-sufficient Saviour. And this, by God's help, I shall never cease to do. Nor can any Protestant minister ever act otherwise; unless prevented by some new and strange law from entering into conversation with the people of his nominal charge.

"To do the work of a controversialist," however, which Mr. Lucas is pleased to represent as the first, in my notions of duty, as a prison chaplain, has been, neither first nor last, nor indeed any part of them at all.

The Man of Sin, the Pope, Popery, or the Roman Catholic Church, I have never once named, to the best of my recollection, in my daily expositions of Holy Scripture, or in my Sunday sermons.

That I have been guilty of publishing "a book " or books, in which neither the Pope nor his missionaries have been over-complimented, I cannot deny; but in nothing that I have written, have I ever called "the Catholic Church, Antichrist." God forbid! The Catholic Church, in my belief, being the "congregation of all believing people of every country and age, in which the pure Word of God is preached, and the sacraments duly ministered according to Christ's ordinance.'

Mr. Lucas has a right to his theology, and so have I to mine; and when I became the chaplain of a prison, I did not forego that right. Unless, therefore, the honourable member could have proved

that I had improperly exercised my office in any respect, he had no business, in his place in Parliament to insinuate it.*

* With respect to my statement before Lord Brougham's Committee in 1847, my experience then led me to entertain that opinion. I had reason to think that the proportion of crime amongst the Roman Catholic population was really higher than our returns showed-hence, that there must have been deception. (Some of the cases of cunning hypocrisy amongst these men, Mr. Lucas has brought to my recollection; they will be found appended to the next chapter.) On looking to the prison books I find there were in the first 1000, 56 Roman Catholic convicts, but according to Mr. Oakeley's list there are now some 150 in the 1000. This latter proportion agrees with Dr. Wilson's experience, to which Mr. Lucas refers, and with the returns of Millbank Great Convict Depôt, which last year gave a list of religious denominations as follows:-

I may add, that Mr. Lucas's and Dr. Wilson's figures fully bear out the statements made in a previous chapter, respecting the great excess of crime amongst the Roman Catholic population of England.

CHAPTER V.

ILLUSTRATIONS FROM A PRISON.

"All are wanderers, gone astray,
Each in his own delusions; they are lost
In chase of fancied happiness, still wooed
And never won."-CowPER.

THE reader now may feel some wish to take a view within the walls of the prison, and converse with the unhappy inmates on the causes of their downfall, their treatment, their feelings under correction, or their future prospects.

Let him in imagination, then, accompany, for this purpose, the chaplain of this prison through the round of his sad duties for a few days, and he will have a clearer insight into these matters, than if he inspected the building, but was precluded-as all ordinary visitors are-from converse with its living, thinking inhabitants. The writer will do his best, in the simplest manner, by facts, and reflections, such as may naturally arise from them, to gratify the wish, and to meet such inquiries, as a mind intelligently and humanely interested in the subject might make. There shall be no imagination, how