soners were well dressed in prison dresses; neat and comfortable. The fault of the establishment appeared to be in the numbers; a want of classification; and consequently the penitentiary system was not as effective as it ought to be.

In the Bicêtre, six hundred and eighty-two persons of all descriptions were confined, four hundred of whom were at work in different trades. Some earned as high as thirty or forty sous a day. The earnings were divided in thirds, as before mentioned. No irons used, but the prison was in general dirty and offensive.* The chief defects in these establishments, in many respects so creditable to the country, seem to be the want of separate sleeping rooms, and an inattention to cleanliness— circumstances of the most indispensable importance to the health and improvement of the ' prisoners, and to the success of any Penitentiary.

To the above information, extracted from the more ample accounts given by Mr. Bennet, I am enabled to add the purport of an Ordonnance of the King in 1814, by which it is directed, that all prisoners sentenced by the tribunals, and under twenty years of age, shall be taken from

* See Second Report of Police Committee, p. 801, &c.

the prisons of the capital and neighbouring departments, and placed in a separate place of confinement, under a director-general, who shall regulate the police, labour, instruction, and administration of the prison; and who shall present for the approbation of the Minister of the Interior an associate and six inspectors, who can only be expected to undertake such an office through humane and liberal motives, and whose services will therefore be gratuitous. Provision is also made for a regular visitation and inspection of the prison, and for the verification of the accounts; and a power is particularly reserved for granting pardon, before the expiration of the sentence, to such of the prisoners, the propriety of whose conduct affords reason to believe in their amendment, and who can be liberated with safety to society, and with advantage to themselves. The execution of this decree is entrusted to the Duke de Rochefoucault and M. the Baron de Lessart; from which we may conclude, that nothing will be wanting for carrying it into full effect.*

*This Ordonnance is given in the Appendix, No. VII.

129

THE PENITENTIARY SYSTEM IN ENGLAND.

NOR is the idea of reforming criminals, by a system of discipline, new in this country. The establishment of Bridewells and Houses of Correction, at different periods, demonstrates that such plans have been considered by our ancestors as neither visionary nor impracticable.*

* By the 7 Ja. I. c. 4, rogues, vagabonds, idle and disorderly persons are to be committed to houses of correction and punished, " by putting fetters or gives upon them, and by moderate whipping of them;" and they are to have no allowance whatever, "but such as they shall deserve by their own labour and work."

By a more reasonable statute (19 Cha. II. c. 4.) intitled, "An Act for relief of poor prisoners, and setting them on work,” it is observed, "that there is not yet any sufficient provision made for the relief and setting on work, of poor and needy persons, committed to the common gaol for felony and other misdemeanours, who many times perish before their trial; and the poor there living idly and unemployed, become debauched, and come forth instructed in the practice of thievery and lewdness." It is therefore directed, that the justices may provide a stock of materials, and pay and provide fit persons to oversee and set the prisoners on work, and make orders for punishment of neglect, and other abuses; and for bestowing of the profit arising by the labour of the prisoners for their relief. These objects are more fully provided for by the 22 Geo.III.

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If it be asked, why these establishments have not succeeded, it may be answered, because labour has been inforced as a punishment, and not encouraged as the means of amendment; because the directors of them have, by stripes and severity, compelled the hands to work, but they have hardened the disposition, and rendered the criminal more unwilling to engage in any useful occupation than he was before. Accordingly, such establishments are now justly regarded, not as places of reformation, but of punishment; and although they have of late attracted considerable notice, and are in many places much better regulated than formerly, yet, upon the whole, they may be considered as tending to increase, rather than diminish, the general depravity of manners, and as unworthy the character of a great and enlightened country.

Towards the end of the last century, a more effectual attempt was made. The beneficent labours of Mr. Howard had opened to his countrymen the dreadful state of the prisons, and had represented the miseries, which,

c. 64.—24 Geo. III. c. 54.—and 31 Geo. III. c. 46-containing many judicious and humane directions; which, if they had been duly carried into execution, would, in a great degree, have obviated the complaints so justly made of the inefficacy and injurious effects of these establishments.

under a mistaken idea of justice, were inflicted on their unfortunate though guilty inmates. In his journeys to the continent, he had paid particular attention to the good effects produced by the habits of industry and regularity, inculcated on criminals, in the different places through which he passed; and he had imbibed a thorough conviction, that the introduction of a similar plan into this country, would be productive of the greatest utility. At the same time, other circumstances seemed favourable to the promotion of his design. Sir William Blackstone had published his celebrated Commentaries, by which he had demonstrated, that the general spirit of the Law of England is not cruel and oppressive, but mild and merciful; and Mr. Eden, afterwards Lord Auckland, gave to the world his treatise on penal Law,a work that must always rank amongst the most valuable productions of the kind.

It is truly remarkable, that these three distinguished individuals, who, of all men living, were, perhaps, the best qualified to judge on such a subject, were so strongly impressed with the practicability of a more humane and effectual system, that they earnestly united in promoting this object; and in consequence of their exertions, an act passed the legislature, in the year 1779, for establishing Penitentiary Houses near the Metropolis; the great objects of which were,

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