had observed an ominous pause before the convict had struck the pole with his legs. He sent for his case of instruments, and, withdrawing a probe, he with little difficulty removed the film off both of the man's eyes, which proved to be nothing more nor less than the thin membrane found inside an egg, which the convict had artfully introduced, and renewed from time to time. Of course he was reduced to the fifth class, and to the hardest labour. We have often thought it strange that none of his fellow-convicts appeared to suspect him, or if they did, they kept it back from the jail authorities; and certainly to any casual observer the deception was complete, and it was the best case of feigned blindness we have ever known or heard of. Upon the whole, however, cases of malingering were few and far between, as most of the convicts became after a time interested in the works upon which they were engaged, and those in irons were ever on the look-out for promotion to a higher class. Sometimes there was a case of feigned rheumatism or paralysis, but the application of the galvanic battery invariably cured them of that after a few powerful shocks. Chapter XIII CONCLUSION We have now given a full, and, as far as we could, a succinct account of the system pursued in the old Singapore jail. We have traced the history of the convict establishments in all the penal settlements in those seas, and have shown the progressive improvements in the convict prisons up to the time when, as was acknowledged by many competent authorities, a system of organization and discipline had been satisfactorily attained to, especially at the headquarter jail at Singapore. We have also shown the number and variety of industries that were from time to time introduced, and the utilization of trained artificers in the construction of important public works in the Straits Settlements. Perhaps we may say that the conduct of these prisons from the year 1825, down to 1845, was in a measure experimental; but at any time we do not assert that the system was free from defects. But on the whole, in the treatment of these trans-marine convicts, it worked with remarkable success, and was well adapted to their condition and circumstances; for it must not be forgotten that we had to deal with convicts who in great part had expiated their crimes by a sentence of banishment to a foreign country, which we have already explained was more severely felt by a native of India than could possibly be by any European. As a matter of fact, owing to caste prejudices, transportation across the seas was to many of the Indian convicts worse than death itself, for it carried with it not only expulsion from caste, but, owing to their wrong conception of fate, or "nusseeb" as they call it, a dread of pain and anguish in another existence.