AustLit

These details for The Exile's Miscellany are derived from Owen Suffolk's autobiography Days of Crime and Years of Suffering (1867):

'At the commencement of the voyage [on board the convict – or 'exiles' – ship the Joseph Somes] Mr. C. [a schoolmaster from Millbank prison and the ship's 'religious instructor'] assembled nine or ten of the best educated among us, and suggested that we should produce by our joint efforts a weekly paper, to be entitled The Exile's Miscellany. I was from a first a contributor to this paper, and when about half the voyage was completed I was the editor of it. Two copies were transcribed from the original MSS. sent in by the contributors. One copy circulated among the prisoners, the other was monopolised by the cabin passengers. Neither was allowed to circulate without first being subjected to the censorship of Mr. C. In intimation of more pretentious journals, The Exile's Miscellany had a column for appointments and promotions, in which it was customary to notice any changes which had occurred during the week among the prisoners who, so to speak, were officially employed.'

(Note: this extract from Suffolk's autobiography appeared in the Australasian, 4 May 1867: 5. The newspaper serialised the entire work between January and October 1867.)