This notice, which frequently is not more than three
or four hours, is all that is given them; a regulation rendered
necessary to obviate the bustle and confusion heretofore experienced, by
their friends and relatives thronging the gates of the prison,
accompanied by valedictory exclamations at the departure of the van in
which they are conveyed. Before this order arrives, most of them have
endured many months' confinement, and having exhausted the liberality,
or funds--perhaps both--of their friends, have been constrained to
subsist on the goal allowance. This, together with the sameness of a
prison life, brings on a weariness of mind, which renders any change
agreeable to their now broken spirits; the prospect of a removal
occasions a temporary excitement, which, to those unaccustomed to reason
on the matter, may appear like gaiety, and carelessness of the future.
The noise and apparent recklessness, however, on these occasions, are
produced more by those prisoners who are to remain behind, availing
themselves of the opportunity to beguile a few hours of tedious
existence by a noisy and forced merriment, which they know the officers
on duty will impute to the men under orders for the ship.
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