ADMONITION TO PRISONERS.

DEAR Friends and Fellow-voyagers,-The desire to communicate useful knowledge-the experience of a former voyage recently performed under similar circumstances added to the interest he naturally feels in the destiny of those under his charge as religious instructor, induce the writer to address you. His duties have made him acquainted with the condition of the prisoner in all its phases, whether holding a ticket of leave, or condemned as an incorrigible to hard labour in Van Dieman's Land, or, infinitely worse, in Norfolk Island, where the punishment does not abridge the duration of the original sentence. This experience he desires to communicate to you, in the humble hope that it may, under the blessing of Providence, be the means of guarding you from the dangers to which you will be exposed on landing in Hobart Town.

The tickets of leave which your good conduct during your terms of imprisonment has earned for you, will place you in comparative, but not complete freedom. They will confer on you the privilege of being hired to the trades or occupation for which you are or may be thought suited, by masters whose interest it will be to treat you well. You will receive the current rate of wages of the colony on your arrival, subject to deduction of one-third for the first year, which Government retains as a set-off against the expense of your voyage out. At the end of one year spent in the service of your first employer, or of eighteen months if with two masters, you will be allowed to seek other employment, or to enter into business on

your own account, under arrangements depending on the character you may have acquired.

On the arrival of the ship at Hobart Town you will be examined, and classified according to your different trades and callings. Should any act dishonestly, by passing himself off as capable of doing that which he is found to be ignorant of, the magistrate is empowered to punish him, by imprisonment or forfeiture of his ticket of leave for a period of time, at his option.

As we have mentioned tickets of leave, it may be as well to state here that they are not complete until they receive the certificate of the Surgeon Superintendent of the ship you go out in, as to your good conduct during the voyage. Should he see fit to withhold such certificate, or, what is worse, mark your conduct as bad or indifferent, the Comptroller-General of convicts in Van Dieman's Land will withhold your ticket of leave, and condemn you to hard labour, without any remuneration, during such `period as he may determine. In like manner, should any of you, after receiving the money granted for your labour at public works, and after being hired, be found loitering about town, or absent from his district beyond the time specified in his pass, you will be sure to fall into the hands of the police, be brought before a magistrate, and sent to the treadmill for such period as he may determine. Having completed this sentence, the convict returns to Government employ till re-hired, unless his first employer is willing to receive him.

These are consequences which it behoves all to be particularly guarded against, because unfortunately there exist many idle and dissipated persons in Hobart Town, who will use all their wit to bring any of you into trouble, for the pleasure such success will give them, and for the

purpose of plundering you, after which they will deliver you up to the police. They are your greatest enemies, who entice you to make the first downward step on the ladder which has been placed before you, and which, if rightly ascended, will, by short and agreeable gradations, lead to your re-establishment in society.

I am happy in being able to tell you, that, out of one hundred and thirty-nine prisoners who went out with me from Portland, under similar circumstances to yourselves, although all had on the average received L.4 or L.5, and were liberated in the midst of many temptations, only one conducted himself improperly. When I visited him on the treadmill afterwards, his expressions of sorrow and repentance so deeply impressed me, that they can never be forgotten. He had been mate in a merchant ship, and was a well-educated young man. His conduct on board induced us to recommend him for a situation of trust, in which he would have every opportunity of doing well, but which his delinquency sacrificed.

Four of the ticket-of-leave men, influenced I believe by the incorrigibles, committed during the voyage unpardonable offences, which forced the Surgeon Superintendent to withhold their tickets. They were in consequence consigned to hard labour at public works, for periods of four and six months each, before again becoming eligible for private service. It is also to be kept in mind that their eligibility then would not necessarily procure employment, as good masters would naturally reject those whose certificates were incomplete, thus handing them over, if hired at all, to indifferent masters.

These men were under the delusion that they could do as they pleased on board, without incurring any sacrifice; and that, on their arrival at their destination, they would

be permitted to go on shore, perfectly free to follow the bent of their minds. How wofully were they deceived! On my return from Norfolk Island, they were found fully impressed with the folly and wickedness of their conduct, and were doing their best, by exemplary conduct, and working extra hours, to shorten their periods of punishment. This all have the power of doing. These are the only instances of misconduct I witnessed among the ticketof-leave men; but I am sorry to say they are not so infrequent as these few cases may lead us to believe.

Now, the more pleasing task remains, of recording some instances of good conduct, and the rewards bestowed on it. In the first place, seven ticket-of-leave men received on landing conditional pardons, which permitted them to act in all respects as free men in the Australian colonies. Those whom we could conscientiously recommend procured situations as servants, and in other capacities, in some of the best families in the place. So great was the anxiety to procure labour, that I saw ninety hired in the short space of two hours that I stood in the penitentiary yard, and had the satisfaction of saying good-bye to upwards of a hundred who were leaving for their destinations. On the third night after disembarkation, I do not believe that one of the ticket-of-leave men slept in the penitentiary, unless perhaps two or three, who were employed as clerks at the rate of two shillings a-day, besides lodging and rations, and occasionally liberty to go out two or three hours at a time.

Before concluding, let me remind the married men that they can get their families sent out to them by paying into the hands of Government L.7, 10s. for each grownup person, and that in the neigbourhood of Hobart Town there is one of the noblest charitable institutions in the

world for the education and support of orphan children. I have to recommend you to take advantage of these privileges, by bringing your families out as soon as possible; for you cannot but feel how much they would comfort you in affliction, and inspire you with energy and perseverance, by being present with you.

With every wish and prayer for your welfare, and especially that a wise and merciful Providence may strengthen you in your exertions to "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who worketh in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure," I subscribe myself, with every sentiment of regard and sympathy, YOUR RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTOR.

WEEKLY RECORD.

WE have to congratulate ourselves in already having probably performed a third of our voyage. We have left the equator behind, and the southern cross is high above the horizon. A new system of stars is beginning to occupy overhead the place of those so long familiar to us, and although not so densely clustered, they yet possess perhaps in their characteristic grouping a more interesting effect. We have observed the anxiety manifested by some to get a sight of the line, so much talked of as encircling the globe. They have unsuccessfully watched the horizon, and peered deep into the pellucid waves. If, however, they have not exhausted themselves, and really desire to see it, they must turn their eyes heavenward, and regard astronomically the portions of those brilliant orbs that illuminate the sky, for it exists only in the imagination,