(for I understand it, though I speak it not), of Constantinople?' The envoy suggested that he spoke Latin well, and French also. 'Not so,' Elizabeth imperiously rejoined: he speaks but little French, and less Latin; the Kings of Denmark and of Sweden, and the King of Portugal's son were willing enough to come here and show themselves, even though I asked not for them; and that barbaric King of Sweden has been at great cost for the marriage. But how,' she persisted, 'could we have agreed, our manners so greatly differing? For, do the best I would, they would give up none of their customs.' There would, the envoy suggested, be no such difficulty with the Archduke; no nations in the world had manners and customs so similar as the Germans and the English. Bred at the Court of a great prince, and in the most ceremonious country in the world, the Archduke could not be other than the pink of courtesy. For in those parts they modelled themselves somewhat on Italy. That,' said the Queen, 'is charming: I love the inanners and the ways of Italy; methinks I am half an Italian myself (" me semble que je suis demie Italienne")."

เ

The moment favoured a final effort. Madam,' cried the envoy, will not your Majesty give me a word of comfort for my master?' 'I can say,' she replied, 'nothing else: I must needs remain in majore ; si minorem addam, you will draw a conclusion.' From this position she would not stir. An embassy would be welcome; the more so if it came with his master at its head; but it was not for her to solicit any one; the Emperor might do as he would. Should not, Allinga urged, the consent of the Estates of the realm be sought in a matter touching the kingdom? Not for the marriage,' was the prompt reply; 'I am not their subject: they are mine.' So they fenced, the sovereign and the envoy. Elizabeth ever returned to the point. The Emperor might begin again, if he liked, but she was as deserving of consideration as he was. 'I shall stand now on tiptoe, as he does. If he send his son here of his own accord, I shall be all the better pleased; but it will be for the Queen of Scots, who is young and pretty.' That, the envoy hastened to assure her, would not be. Nay,' urged Elizabeth, 'she counts on his coming. be?' The Archduke, protested the envoy, widow. Yes, he will,' persisted the Queen; Prince, and would show myself grateful to him. My secretary shall hand you my letters to-morrow.' She placed her hands on Allinga's shoulders, and then withdrew.

And why should it not would never marry a I thank heartily your

'What! Girded for your journey?' was Cecil's greeting, when the envoy, his cap on his head, entered his chamber on the morrow. 'Yea,' he replied, 'it were vain that I should stay here longer.' To all Cecil's remonstrances Allinga remained deaf. It was clear to him that nothing could be done, if neither party were willing to take the first step. The Englishman pressed for an embassy from the Emperor; and indeed, whatever Elizabeth intended, it is evident, on comparing

Allinga's report with a letter from Roger Strange, written a few days later, that Cecil was wholly in earnest. He gave Allinga a letter for the Duke, thanking him for his intervention and assuring him that his envoy had been enabled to speak more freely to the Queen than he, as her Minister, could have done.

Elizabeth's own reply to her 'friend and dearest cousin,' that illustrious and most excellent prince, the Duke of Würtemberg and Teck, is preserved, with Allinga's report, in the Stuttgardt archives. A touch of simple pathos, a certain ring of truth, makes us loth to dismiss it as a mere diplomatic subterfuge. She thanks the Duke for his friendship, for his books, for his kind advice, and admits that his care for the reformed faith is shown even in his anxiety for her marriage. She had never regretted her single life, and had no more heartfelt desire than to die unmarried. But she foresees and fears that her fate will be far different. As the last child of Henry the Eighth, the most famous king of his time, her subjects pray and implore her, her friends abroad exhort her, the weal of her realm and the dangers of the future, reproaching her conscience, are driving her to abandon her happy celibacy for that estate which she has always disliked. She sees but too clearly that dire necessity will force her to accept the yoke, and that she must decide on a husband (hateful word). She must not disappoint her people, who have set their hearts upon her marriage, and who have left her a freer choice than ever sovereign had. And in that choice she will be guided wholly by the safety and the honour of her realm.

6

One seems to hear her people shout, God save Queen Elizabeth!

5 Calendar of Hatfield MSS., i. 291.

J. H. ROUND.

THE UNAVOIDABLE USELESSNESS OF

PRISON LABOUR

I HAVE observed that whenever discussion arises as to the mode in which prisoners should be occupied, the question is considered almost entirely from the moral point of view only-that is, whether it is or is not desirable or essential to promote the industrial employment of prisoners with a view to their moral well-being or reformation, or in order to provide them with means of earning an honest livelihood on discharge. The pecuniary view sometimes comes in, that is, the advantage of turning the labour to profitable account, so as to diminish in some degree the cost of maintaining the prisoners; and it appears as if it was supposed that the only difficulty the question presents is how far it is right that prison labour should compete with free labour, or under what safeguards to prevent unfair competition. It is assumed as a matter that requires no demonstration that it is always possible to employ all prisoners profitably, and that if this is not done it is from want of goodwill in some quarter or that somebody does not see the advantage or will not take the necessary steps.

I think my experience may be useful in the discussion, and as I shall have to show that these assumptions are very far from being warranted, it may be well that I should commence by some autobiographical recollections, which will make it clear that my prejudices have been in favour of the advantage of industrial employment of prisoners from all points of view, and also of the capabilities of prison labour.

My connection with prisons, which terminated only last year, commenced in 1851, when I was sent as a subaltern attached to a company of Royal Engineers (Sappers and Miners they were then called) to Western Australia, to help in directing the labour of the convicts who had lately been sent to that colony. I was put in charge of a large district in which the convicts were to be employed in making roads and bridges. These convicts had all arrived at that stage of their sentences in which they might be released on ticket of leave if they could find an employer, and until this happened they lived in depots,' which they had to build themselves.

I had a detachment of sappers under me, some of whom were employed to instruct the prisoners, and to act as foremen and in charge of detached parties. There was no great number of artisans among the prisoners-free artisans were expensive to hire, and the company of sappers could not spare nearly so many to act simply as artisans as were required. In course of time, nevertheless, we got the prisoners to do nearly everything that was required for our works. We made our own bricks, sent parties into the bush to cut and saw timber, others to split shingles for the roofs, others to burn charcoal for the blacksmiths and lime for the building, and in fact provided almost everything for ourselves; and of course I acquired a high opinion of the capabilities of convict labour.

After returning home from this service and working for some years in the War Office in designing fortifications, I was again brought into connection with the prison service by being appointed a Director of Convict Prisons, especially in connection with those prisons in which large public works were being carried on by the convicts. These works offered great opportunities for teaching convicts trades, and the convict prisons were in fact, and still are, schools of technical instruction in various trades. After some years I became head of the department, and as it happened at a moment when the number of convicts was rapidly increasing on our hands on account of the cessation of transportation, the question how these increasing numbers were to be employed loomed in the not distant future. With a view to inviting suggestions on the subject, I read a paper at the Society of Arts, supposing that among the members would be found many who could tell of manufacturing processes in which the prisoners could profitably be employed. The fruit of that paper was lamentably disappointing; the only proposal came from a patentee of some sort of compressed peat, that we should embark on the manufacture of this fuel. The discussion on the paper was all directed to the moral question; many who took part in it described the advantages to the prisoners of industrial work, but nobody gave any help in solving the practical question which it was my object to raise-what employment could they in large numbers be put to?

Sir Henry Cole afterwards suggested the manufacture of a certain kind of marble mosaic in slabs for floors, and this was adopted as an employment for women, whom it suited admirably. A good deal of this work was done for the South Kensington Museum, where it may now be seen. By personal efforts I got orders for a certain quantity at St. Paul's and elsewhere, but the demand was limited. The product was at a disadvantage in comparison with that which could be executed in situ by free labour with the ordinary tesseræ, because of the cost of packing and transport and laying the slabs, which had to be done by free labour. This experience gave a

practical demonstration of the necessity, and also of the difficulty, of insuring a market for the produce of prison labour, a difficulty which all persons who set up a factory have to overcome or else to fail, and which some fail in while others succeed by methods which are not all open to a Government Department.

A great deal of very valuable employment was found in erecting all the buildings required in the prisons. These had been executed by free labour until my predecessor commenced employing prisoners on them.

A very large amount of this work has been done, and it is of the most valuable kind, because it gives the opportunity for learners to acquire practical knowledge of various trades. One or two instances of these works may be given, because of the peculiar circumstances under which they were undertaken. The large prison at Wormwood Scrubs, containing some 1,400 cells, was commenced by surrounding the site by a timber hoarding, and placing inside it a temporary building of wood lined with iron to accommodate 100 prisoners. From this beginning the whole building has been erected by convict labour, the bricks made on the spot, the stone supplied from Portland, castings and forgings from various prisons, and the mechanic's work done in the prison itself, of which the population was increased as the accommodation grew. The circumstances of the construction of Borstal Prison near Rochester are still more remarkable. The site was surrounded by a hoarding, and convicts were brought out daily in omnibuses three miles or so, under suitable guard of course, to erect the buildings inside it. When the buildings were finished the convicts proceeded to construct certain adjoining forts and defensive works, and to cultivate the ground, all in the open country; and when in course of time it was desired that certain more distant forts should be undertaken, a steam tramway was laid, and the novelty might be witnessed of convicts being taken daily in trams backwards and forwards some two miles from their prison to the site of the fort, where they worked surrounded by a palisade.

About the same time printing was introduced as an employment for convicts, but it was limited to supplying our own requirements, for we never could get any other Government printing. Continual attempts were made to induce the Admiralty and War Departments to give employment in manufactures to our prisoners; but these departments naturally, perhaps, looked on the question of supplies from their own point of view only, and considered the prison department like any other manufacturers and not at all as being broadly a Government interest which should be encouraged. When supplies of certain articles were wanted we got them to send us notices that we might tender in competition against ordinary manufacturers, and this sounds fair enough, but it did not enable us to undertake much, for we could not set up a factory merely to execute one order, or