Add to this Sir Robert Anderson’s description of his sensations (_Nineteenth Century_, March, 1902), after he had caused himself to be locked up for only a few hours with a political prisoner. “I seemed to be in a pit. There was no want of air, and yet I felt smothered. My nerves would not have long stood the strain of it.” This is the conclusion, from personal experience, of H. B. Montgomery: “The whole of this procedure” (solitary confinement) “is cruel and barbarous, unworthy of a humane or civilized nation. To my knowledge it drives many men mad, and even when it does not induce lunacy, mentally affects a large proportion of those subjected to it . . .” And: “The less a prisoner is thrown in on himself and the more he is encouraged to foster his home ties, the less likely is he to descend into that condition of despair and demoralization which are such potent factors in driving men to perdition.” These are the words of Colonel Baker, of the Salvation Army, before your Departmental Committee of 1895: “As to convicts on discharge, I should like to say that we find a great number of them incapable of pursuing any ordinary occupation. They are _mentally weak and wasted_, requiring careful treatment for months after they have been received by us. In several cases they are men who are only fit to be sent off home or to a hospital.” These, after personal experience, are the comments of W. B. N. in his moderate, and stoical, book “Penal Servitude”: