In respect to food, the following is the Austrian dietary. “The prisoner has one pound and a half of bread _per diem_—a farinaceous dish with milk thrice a week—and on Sundays a soup, with a quarter of a pound of meat, and the farinaceous dish again.” _Hawkins._ This, it must be confessed, is meagre fare; but _half_ of what the prisoner can earn, _beyond his daily task_, is given to him for the purchase of additional comforts. Instruction, both religious and lay, is provided by the state—consisting of reading and sometimes of arithmetic—but not _writing_, as that might lead to correspondence not entirely composed of love-letters or letters of love! It is clear, indeed, that the Emperor of Austria (though himself a PAPIST) has no great faith in the dogma of a POPE— “HEAVEN first taught _letters_ for some wretch’s aid. Some banished lover, or some _captive maid_.” At all events, Prince Metternich has not recommended his master to follow the example of HEAVEN in teaching his subjects to write _letters_; nor is it likely that the veteran and wily minister will introduce a penny postage, to enable the subjects of the whip and bastinado to— “Waft a _sigh_ from Indus to the Pole.” Nevertheless there are many good points about German prison-discipline. The classification of the prisoners—the separation of the juvenile from the hardened offenders—the law of rendering labour the only means of procuring anything like comfortable diet—the regularity of religious instruction and duties—the laudable exertion of Government to reinstate the liberated and punished prisoner in the social position previously occupied—not forgetting the humane injunction never to hurt the _feelings_ of the flogged—are all worthy of praise and imitation.