As to (2) it has since been made a charge against the administration of these days that it erred on the side of a too severe repression. To those who have lost their faith in the virtues of the cellular system, it may seem unduly rigorous that a prisoner should have remained subject to that system during the whole length of his sentence. There were, of course, exceptions to the general rule, _e.g._, persons employed in the service of the prison, and other forms of extra-cellular labour, but separate confinement remained the rule for Local Prisons. To those, also, who condemn all forms of mechanical and unproductive labour, it may seem unduly rigorous to have insisted so minutely on the exact performance of a task of so-called first class hard labour. It is doubtful if public sentiment at that time would have been satisfied with the comparative leniency of the modern prison régime. The result of the earnest thought and discussion which have taken place through the civilized world during the last quarter of a century on all matters affecting the welfare of the prisoner has been, no doubt, to place his punishment on a more rational basis than that of mere obedience to mechanical and uninteresting forms of labour. The State until now had had no experience in dealing with short sentences. The problem to be solved was a new one, _viz_:--how to deal effectively with a man who was in prison for only a few days or weeks, and to whom during that time no useful trade could be taught. It is indeed a problem which may well vex the brains of the wisest, and if the solution has not yet been found, we have at least got beyond the stage where it was thought sufficient, by the invention of fantastic devices for executing sentences of so-called hard labour, to give expression to a sentence of imprisonment. The Prison Authority of this day perhaps erred in regarding it as a part of their duty to add to the penalty prescribed by the Court by imposing, in the name of the Progressive Stage System, certain penalties and incapacities as a peculiar feature of the early Stages. The only precedent for dealing with short sentences was that afforded by Military Prisons. It is well-known that the Committee on Military Prisons of 1844, which was in favour of hard penal treatment--shot-drill, cranks, &c., (in use in military prisons as a punishment for recalcitrant soldiers) exercised a considerable influence with local authorities in administering Civil Prisons, and the reproach, so often directed to the Local Prison System, that it was too military in its character, was probably due to this source.