men present, who showed us a table of the offences which had been committed by the men among whom we had been walking without fear or suspicion. We were astounded to find that they had been guilty of almost every conceivable offence. There were highway robbers, burglars, &c.; murderers, only, are not admitted here, but must finish their term of imprisonment under the closer confinement of the prisons. We were particularly anxious to ascertain this fact, having heard it asserted that the inmates of the Irish convict prisons were of a lower grade of crime than those in the sister country. This is not the case, and the table which he presented to us is a satisfactory proof of this.
Smithfield and Lusk Intermediate Prisons.
| Smithfield. | Lusk. | ||||
| 1st | Conviction | 12 | 1st | Conviction | 12 |
| 2nd | Convictiondo. | 10 | 2nd | Convictiondo. | 19 |
| 3rd | Convictiondo. | 12 | 3rd | Convictiondo. | 12 |
| 4th | Convictiondo. | 5 | 4th | Convictiondo. | 4 |
| 5th | Convictiondo. | 2 | 5th | Convictiondo. | 7 |
| 6th | Convictiondo. | 1 | 6th | Convictiondo. | 1 |
| 8th | Convictiondo. | 2 | 7th | Convictiondo. | 1 |
| 9th | Convictiondo. | 1 | 8th | Convictiondo. | 2 |
| 10th | Convictiondo. | 2 | 9th | Convictiondo. | 2 |
| 11th | Convictiondo. | 1 | 10th | Convictiondo. | 1 |
| 14th | Convictiondo. | 2 | 12th | Convictiondo. | 2 |
| 15th | Convictiondo. | 1 | 14th | Convictiondo. | 1 |
| 41st | Convictiondo. | 1 | 17th | Convictiondo. | 1 |
| 45th | Convictiondo. | 1 | |||
| — | — | ||||
| Total | 53 | Total | 65 | ||
Therefore 94 out of the 118 are known “Old Offenders,” some of the remainder being known to the police as bad characters, although not known to have been before convicted in the same county.
It is said, also, that the English are more unmanageable than the Irish. Our own experience of the criminals of both nations would be directly the reverse of this. There are, besides, many English in the Irish convict prisons, and many Irish convicts in the English prisons, but their peculiar nationality does not render any different treatment necessary. The objection is futile. The principles and the system which have happily been the means of bringing these outcasts of society into the orderly, respectful, self-controlled men whom we saw, are founded on universal conditions of human nature, and if proved true in one place may be readily adapted to another by men who, like Captain Crofton, comprehend them, and possess the personal qualities which are requisite to carry them out. What those qualities are, and what are the peculiarities of the plans, we more fully ascertained on our visits to the other prisons which form part of the whole system. On this occasion we were anxious to learn the actual truth, and of that we were fully satisfied. The testimony of the labour master was no more than we were prepared to expect.
“I have been engaged on various public works,” he said, “for thirty years, yet never before have I had under me a set of men so well conducted, so free from bad language, so attentive to their duty.”
MARK BOZZARI.
FROM THE GERMAN OF WILHELM MÜLLER.
Open wide, proud Missolonghi, open wide thy portals high,
Where repose the bones of heroes, teach us cheerfully to die!
Open wide thy lofty portals, open wide thy vaults profound;
Up, and scatter laurel garlands to the breeze and on the ground!
Mark Bozzari’s noble body is the freight to thee we bear,
Mark Bozzari’s! Who for hero great as he to weep will dare?
Tell his wounds, his victories over! Which in number greatest be?
Every victory has its wound, and every wound its victory!
See, a turban’d head is grimly set on all our lances here!
See, how the Osmanli’s banner swathes in purple folds his bier!
See, oh see the latest trophies, which our hero’s glory seal’d,
When his glaive with gore was drunken on great Karpinissi’s field!
In the murkiest hour of midnight did we at his call arise,
Through the gloom like lightning-flashes flash’d the fury from our eyes;
With a shout, across our knees we snapp’d the scabbards of our swords,
Better down to mow the harvest of the mellow Turkish hordes;
And we clasp’d our hands together, and each warrior stroked his beard,
And one stamp’d the sward, another rubbed his blade, and vow’d its weird.
Then Bozzari’s voice resounded: “On, to the barbarian’s lair!
On, and follow me, my brothers, see you keep together there!
Should you miss me, you will find me surely in the Pasha’s tent!
On, with God! Through Him our foemen, death itself through Him is shent!
On!” And swift he snatch’d the bugle from the hands of him that blew,
And himself awoke a summons that o’er dale and mountain flew,
Till each rock and cliff made answer clear and clearer to the call,
But a clearer echo sounded in the bosom of us all!
As from midnight’s battlemented keep the lightnings of the Lord
Sweep, so swept our swords, and smote the tyrants and their slavish horde;
As the trump of doom shall waken sinners in their graves that lie,
So through all the Turkish eaguer thunder’d this appalling cry:
“Mark Bozzari! Mark Bozzari! Suliotes, smite them in their lair!”
Such the goodly morning-greeting that we gave the sleepers there.
And they stagger’d from their slumber, and they ran from street to street,
Ran like sheep without a shepherd, striking wild at all they meet;
