The scrupulous cleanliness, perfect plan of conservancy, excellent order, well-regulated system of labour and punishments, and the high standard of health attained are not surpassed in any other well-regulated institution of the same kind that I am acquainted with in Europe or in Asia. My personal knowledge of prisons and of all details of prison management is sufficiently extended to entitle me to speak with authority on this subject. In many important points of internal economy and discipline, Singapore can fairly lay claim to being _Primus in Indis_ in the adoption and practical working of principles that are now generally accepted as sound and correct. My own feeling on the subject is that Colonels Man and Macpherson and Captain McNair, to whom the chief credit appears to be due, are entitled to rank in the first class of prison officers and reformers in India." Perhaps the last addition to the jail buildings was the erection by the convict bricklayers and plasterers of a stand to hold the prison bell, and from whence to call the roll at general musters. It was built in the form of a "monopteron," a sort of structure without walls, and composed of columns arranged in a circle, and supporting a covered cupola. Chapter VIII DIVISION INTO CLASSES, TRADES, FOOD, AND CLOTHING We now come to deal with perhaps not a very inviting part of our subject, viz. the division of the convicts into classes, their supervision, artificer trades, hours of work, food, and clothing, but it must be told in brief in order to make the narrative of this jail complete. They were divided into six classes, but since the year 1857, when Major McNair took charge, sec. A of the third class, and sec. A of the fifth class were added to the classification. The _First Class_ consisted of trustworthy convicts allowed out on ticket of leave. _Second Class_ consisted of convict petty officers, male and female, and those employed in hospitals and public offices. _Third Class_ were convicts employed on roads and public works, having passed through their probationary course. _Fourth Class_ were convicts newly arrived, and those degraded from other classes or promoted from the fifth class. They worked in light irons. _Fifth Class_ were convicts degraded from the higher classes, and such as required more than ordinary vigilance to prevent escape, or regarding whom special instructions had been received from India. They worked in heavy irons. _Sixth Class_ were invalids and superannuated convicts. Youths were transferred to a special gang for "boys." [Illustration: DUFFADAR RAM SINGH, SENIOR PETTY OFFICER OF THE JAIL. _McNair._ _Plate XII._]