their home lives, they can often be led to consider seriously their position in the sight of God and man. They can be brought to feel that their first offence against the law has placed them on the threshold of a career of crime, from which it is but too likely that they may be drawn down step by step to graver deeds, till they sink in depths of evil hither undreant of and unknown. If in that crisis of their lives they can be awakened to the claims of the great unerring Judge upon them. they are often led to turn back of their own will from the fatal brink, and resolutely climb the steep ascent to the higher righteousness. whereby a lasting regeneration of their whole moral being is practically effected.

We can recall several instances where this was emphatically the case. One was a poor woman whose existence from her marriage in early girlhood had been a continual struggle to obtain the means of living for herself and her children, of which her husband's intemperate habits perpetually deprived them. Her life during all these years, though in no sense actively guilty, had been absolutely godless. She had acknowledged no higher law than the animal instinct of providing for her daily wants. She had never raised her eyes from the earth to seek in heavenly regions for a better and a purer hope than it could ever afford her, and no true words of prayer passed her lips, either for herself or for those she loved. At length, on one occasion, when her husband had been longer than usual lost to her in a low public-house where he spent every penny that should have provided food for his family, the woman was driven by actual starvation to her first offence against the law. She

stole a small piece of meat from a shop. wherewith to feed her hungry children. She had never been dishonest before: but from the moment when she cominitted this first theft. and passed the boundary-line between 'innocence and guilt, she becane entirely reckless. She told the prison visitor afterwards, that had she not been checked at the very outset of a potential course of crime, she was prepared to fling all considerations of equity to the winds, and seek a living for her family by any nefarious means that night be within her reach. Fortunately for herself, the theft was at once discovered, and she was sent to prison for a sufficiently long period to allow of a strong religious impression being made on her mind.

The punishment was to a person of her loving sensitive temperament exceptionally severe, as she was parted not only from her elder children, but also from a young infant, whom it pierced her mother's heart to leave. Nevertheless, before she passed out from the prison walls she was filled with the deepest gratitude for the blessings which her residence within them had brought to her.

unseen

She had known little of care or kindness in the outside world, and the knowledge which gradually dawned upon her of an undying Love that was not only ever round her, but would have its fullest revelation in an eternal future, seemed to flood her whole being with a new and rapturous life. She hung on the words that were spoken to her on this subject with eager delight. She spent her whole time when her labour tasks were done in reading the Gospels and in fervent supplications. Finally, as a result, no doubt, of

her intense preoccupation with her new-found hopes. she had a vision one night as she lay asleep on her plank-bed which illuminated her whole being with a light that never more faded from it. She related this strange experience next day to her visitor. with a trembling awe and ecstasy that were too real to be mistaken. She had seen the Divine Redeemner, she said. clad in robes of dazzling whiteness-glorious in majesty, yet looking down on her with compassion and tenderness. She had heard Him speaking to her in words of consolation as to Jerusalem of old. telling her that her miquity was pardoned. and her sins for ever washed away, and henceforth she was to follow Him in paths of righteousness, treading in His shining footsteps wheresoever they led her. through the dust and mire of this world's tortuous ways. That mystic command. however much it night have been the effect of pure imagination, she obeyed with indomitable perseverance. She went out from the prison a totally changed woman. We heard of her afterwards leading a most consistent and alınost saintly life, striving to induce her husband to reform. and resolutely bringing up her children in the fear of God.

In the case of prisoners convicted like this poor wonian of first offences, involving no great criminality, it is almost always possible not only to influence them for good but also to benefit them materially by placing them in a position to gain an honest living for themselves. We had a pleasant instance of this once in the case of two lads. sons of country labourers, who, in consequence of the agricultural depression, could no longer obtain even a scanty subsistence at honie. In a

fit of desperation they started one winter's day to walk to a far-distant town in search of work. After toiling on for many hours without food or shelter. sleeping, we believe. half frozen under a hedge all night, they rose to pursue their way next morning in spite of the weather. which, if we remember right, had culminated in a heavy snowstorm. They plodded on wearily through that day, while the gnawing hunger which had taken possession of them alone prevented them from letting themselves fall down on some snow-heap and yield to the drowsiness that would have ended in the sleep of death. Darkness had closed in upon them, and they were almost in despair when they saw a light in the distance, and made for it eagerly, in the hope that it might be shining from a house where it would be possible for them to obtain a little food. It proved to proceed from a candle placed in the window of a farmhouse, to which they could approach very near in the snow without being overheard. They looked through the panes of glass into a room quite untenanted, and on a table close to them reposed a Christmas plum-pudding of most fascinating appearance and proportions. They had never been dishonest boys before, but this sight was too much for them. They found it quite easy to raise the window, gently seize the seductive pudding, and scud away through the snow without being seen. They were too ravenously hungry to go very far before they proceeded to devour their prize, which they did crouching down in the first sheltered spot they could find. There, however, vengeance was speedily upon them,the empty dish which had once contained the special Christmas

dainty was quickly perceived by the inmates of the farmhouse. the open window and the foot prints in the snow led to the swift detection of the thieves, and before they had almost finished the delectable pudding, they found themselves on their way to the lock-up for the night.

As soon as possible they were brought before the nearest justice of the peace, a country gentleman not, it is to be presumed, very learned in the law as it affects gradations in crime, and by him they were summarily sent to prison for six months a very severe sentence under the circumstances, but one that the two lads are now most thankful to have undergone. During the whole period of their detention they were systematically instructed in good principles, and at the close of it they were provided with an outfit and an introduction to an employer of labour in Canada, to which their passage was paid; and when we last heard of them they were doing extremely well, with excellent prospects before them.

Most of the simple people who come to prison under short sentences can generally be led to make use of their brief retirement from the world as a time of quiet reflection, which is very advantageous to them; but the form which their newly developed piety takes is sometimes rather embarrassing to their instructors.

A good homely woman, who was prospering as the keeper of a small shop in a country town, was sent to our jail once under circumstances certainly of considerable hardship. Her sole offence consisted in having received from her son some pieces of timber, which he had taken from the river where they were floating, and used them as fuel for her fire. They proved

to be the property of a man who was utilising the stream as a means of transit for his wood. and poor Mrs Merry was indicted for receiving and appropriating stolen goods, her son having left the town.

The name we have given her best expresses her real designation, which had a most hilarious sound. Nothing could exceed her unressoning horror and fear when she found herself actually within the prison walls. What secret tortures she expected to be inflicted on her cannot be guessed; but she seemed to look on all connected with the place as terrible agents of justice, whom it was necessary to propitiate by every possible means. When she was for the first time brought before the prison visitor according to custom, she suddenly, to the great dismay of that individual, dropped prone on her knees in the middle of the floor, and joined her hands in mute supplication to be spared the unknown agonies she expected to undergo. It was in vain that the visitor implored her to rise: she persisted in remaining in the attitude of a victim prepared for the sacrifice, and when an attempt was made to lift her bodily from the ground, it was found that the enormous weight of her portly person rendered the effort quite abortive. At length, however, by dint of strong insistence, she was induced to creep up from the ground and sit on the edge of a chair in presence of the formidable being with whom she had been left alone. After this concession it did not take long to win her simple confidence, and the flood-gates of her speech being unloosed, she poured out a complete history of all her delinquencies from infancy upwards. From that day Mrs Merry became the absolutely devoted slave of the person she had so much dreaded, and she

devised every means she could think of to win favour in the eyes of her new friend. Some of her expedients were decidedly appalling. On one occasion she appeared with a beaming countenance, and triumphantly announced that she had learned by heart the whole of the first seven chapters of the Book of Genesis, and intended to recite them aloud then and there. Without leaving time for any remonstrance, she proceeded to declaim them in a high-pitched tone of voice with wonderfully glib utterance, and marginal readings of her own which slightly impaired the solemnity of the proceeding,"Now the serpent was the most suitable of the beasts of the field," and so on. Mrs Merry departed from the prison a much-sobered woman, and has led an exemplary life, we believe, ever since.

With these comparatively harmless prisoners the work is easy enough; but it is of course far otherwise in the case of men and women stained with the deepest guilt. Yet even with such criminals there are often remarkable instances of reform, which ought effectually to dispel any doubt as to the value of prison visitation, and the possibility of a permanent good work being accomplished amongst the more hardened prisoners. We will give two typical instances, the one of success and the other of failure, which are genuine illustrations of our position.

It has been truly said that when a woman is thoroughly bad and unscrupulous, she is radically worse than any man can succeed in being with his best endeavour, and we shall therefore select our cases from that-which can scarce, in prison latitudes, be termed the gentler sex.

There came to the jail one day

a middle-aged woman, well known to the officials, for those iron doors had closed upon her many a time before. She was considered to be an absolutely hopeless case coarse depraved woman, repulsive in appearance, blasphemous in language. She was brought to the visitor, as all the prisoners were in rotation, and as a matter of duty some words of counsel were spoken, without the least hope that they would make any impression upon her; but she seemed in a strange state of mental excitement, and suddenly plunged into an account of her life since she had last been within those walls. It was plain as she related it, that her. thoughts were engrossed with one tragic incident, which stood out dark and terrible from all minor events. The man-not her husband-with whom she had lived for many years, had hung himself in the one room where they had dwelt together, in the practice of all manner of evil deeds.

"Yes," she seemed ready to say

"he put an end to it all for himself he had been a cruel man to me he has knocked me down and trampled on me scores of times, but when I came and saw him hanging stone dead I forgot it all, and now" The expres

sion of her uncouth features seemed to indicate a terrible thought in her mind-"Now I suppose he is in hell-in hell!” She looked up, as if to put her dark doubt in the form of a question; but it was one to which no answer was returned, only after a few minutes the visitor began to speak to her on that theme which rings for ever sweet and true within the prison walls. "The quality of mercy is not strained,"

-mercy, to which all must be left who have passed to the secrets of eternity-mercy, still full of wondrous possibilities

for her living self. Then she burst into a wild appeal for help to save her own sin-stained soul. She wanted to give up her past iniquities. to change her life. to do better. lest she should herself come to that place of torment - help! -she only wanted help that a way out of the mire and clay might be opened to her. an upward path to pure air and the sunshine of God's countenance.

The help was given, the way was made for her to leave the city, which had been the scene of all her guilt and misery, and to enter elsewhere on an honest and respectable calling. It must be owned, however, that this was done without almost any hope of a good result the inveterate habit of intemperance, which had always held her in possession, seemed to prohibit any chance of amendment.

About two years later, the visitor was called one day to see a very respectable looking person who was anxious for an interview. It was a woman with a pleasant countenance, very well dressed in dark suitable clothing, who looked up with a smile, and yet almost with tears in her eyes, when she saw that she was not recognised. It was indeed the depraved criminal of the prison, who had never swerved from the path of rectitude on which she had entered when she left its doors. She was earning a good livelihood for herself by her industry and consistent conduct, and her superfluous earnings had enabled her to take a few days' holiday in order to come and show her friend that she had been true to her word, and was trying to do right at last, with an honest and true heart-faithfully.

The second case, given in connection with that just recorded, seems almost to reproduce the story of the two women grinding in the

mill, the one being taken and the other left.

A strong muscular-looking matron was committed to our jail for the manslaughter of her infant. There was no doubt that she had compassed the death of the child, for which iniquity she had justly received a heavy sentence; but it seemed to have been done rather through complete neglect and carelessness than from an actual murderous intention. She was, however, absolutely indifferent to the fatal result; unlike all other female prisoners we have known, she appeared to be entirely destitute of that pure instinct of mother's love which usually burns as an unquenchable flame even in the most sin-darkened souls. Apparently she was rather relieved to know that by the disappearance of the poor infant she had a child the less to require attention from her; but in fact she had no room in her thoughts for the matter at all. The one absorbing topic of interest in her mind was her intense detestation of her sister-in-law, who had been the principal witness against her at her trial. According to her own account, these two ladies, mutually abhorring one another; had been in the habit of having periodical combats in the open streets of the town where they dwelt. The prisoner insisted on describing with the greatest gusto how they had been wont to challenge each other to a stand-up fight, and then retired for a few minutes to their homes to put on suitable garments for the fray, returning to the place where a ring was formed round them by an expectant throng; they would then have, as she expressed it, a certain "number of rounds," and would only cease when there seemed a risk of one or the other being incapacitated from