The work open to the industrious prisoners included that of an ordinary labourer, of a skilled artisan, and of a man with a trade, and ranged up to that of a teacher, an actor, an author, or an artist! A complaint of the French Government was that the British did not employ their prisoners on works outside the walls, as the British were employed in France. The answer to this is that the French male labour market was exhausted by the serious depletion due to conscription of the adult male population, and that the French Government, in the interests of France, gladly availed itself of the services of the British, under military surveillance, for public works, etc. No such necessity pressed on the British; there was an ample supply of labour, and the introduction of competing gangs of prisoners of war would have led to trouble, and was in fact a domestic impossibility. There were occasions when the prisoners were employed on large constructive works connected with their own prisons. Dartmoor Chapel was built by the prisoners in 1810–14; the masons were paid 6_d._ a day, it being understood that the money should accumulate, and that should any workman escape, the whole of the pay due to the gang would be forfeited. By this means every prisoner was made a warder over his fellows. {125} They were also regularly employed in their prisons as labourers, and those who knew a trade as tradesmen. From the accounts of Norman Cross Prison (which are scattered among various bundles, and difficult to find) has been selected the wage sheet for the midsummer quarter of 1789. The total is £408 1_s._ 6_d._; of this £13 7_s._ 6_d._ was paid to the Dutch, and £32 to the French prisoners employed as labourers. Under the head of tradesmen’s bills for the same quarter are entered, French prisoners £35 3_s._ 4_d._; Dutch prisoners £541 6_s._ 2_d._ These sums represent the employment of a considerable number of men, as, the recipients being lodged and fed at the expense of the State, the wage each man received was very small, much below the normally low wage paid for labour at that date. The accounts show that the practice of employing and paying the prisoners was in vogue in the first years of the Depot’s existence, and that it went on until its last year is shown in the report of Mr. William Fearnall, the surveyor, {126} who recommends certain repairs, and states that Captain Hanwell, the Agent, can find thirty-six carpenters, two pairs of sawyers, and three masons from among the prisoners. Further, as already stated, the prisoners held several paid posts, such as cooks, nurses, hospital porters, and the like, within the prison walls. [Picture: Plate XI.—Work-box made by the French Prisoners of War at Norman Cross (Peterborough Museum)]