mathematics, and I prognosticated a relapse; the very next day his pain, as intense as before, attended the left eye at the outer angle. He submitted to his former treatment, and was restored, he has remained well ever since, and has gradually returned to a well-regulated course of study.

I have drawn the attention of this Society to this case, because I have no doubt they will see this young man return from Cambridge with the honours that have adorned 'so many of his townsmen at that University.

ARTICLE IX.

GLASGOW BRIDEWELL.

WE recently inspected this establishment, and were very much pleased with the manner in which it is kept, and with the intelligence, frankness, and practical good sense of Mr Brebner the superintendent.

From 2d August, 1825, to 2d August, 1826, the total number of prisoners committed was

The four great classes of offences were the following, viz.

1. Theft, pocket-picking, and attempting to steal,
2. Reset of theft, fraud, and swindling,
3. Assaults, outrages, breach of the peace, rogues,
vagabonds, vagrants, and disorderly characters,
following no lawful employment,

4. Disorderly prostitutes, guilty of breaches of the
peace,

Add returning from banishment, having been for merly convicted of crime,

All other offences,

390
77

275

323

1389

194 1259

130

In surveying the heads of the offenders, the difference between the development of the thieves and swindlers, Nos 1 VOL. IV.-No VI.

2 N

and 2, and that of the individuals committed for outrages and breaches of the peace, Nos 3 and 4, was obvious and striking. In the former, the organs of Acquisitiveness, Secretiveness, and Cautiousness, predominated; in the latter, the base of the brain, viz. Amativeness, Combativeness, and Destructiveness, evidently held the ascendency; in them there was great breadth across the head, immediately above the ear, with a large portion of brain behind that line.' Of course we speak in general; for among the prisoners there were some whose development might have led them into either class, according as external temptations prompted them. In a few cases, especially among the young, the moral and intellectual organs were so deficient in proportion to the animal, that we should despair of their reformation while they were left open to the suggestions of their own minds, influenced by want and profligate society. In many of the criminals, however, these higher organs were fairly developed, although in conjunction with a large base of the brain; and on them instruction and moral restraint might be expected to produce a decided and salutary effect.gr:

!

All criminals may be regarded as patients. Their offences, when traced to their causés, appear to spring either from evil dispositions, or external temptation too strong for them to resist. Every Phrenologist knows that depraved tendencies are the accompaniments of animal organs predominant in size over the moral and intellectual organs; and that, on individuals thus constituted, temptation exerts its greatest influence. Until we shall practically apply these principles, we shall not succeed in preventing, or greatly diminishing, crime. At present, however, all we can accomplish is to proclaim the truth, and record with approbation, whatever appears to approach to it. The Glasgow Bridewell, we are happy to say, is excellently managed on the old system. With very few exceptions, every prisoner has a sleeping cell and a working cell for himself; and all communication with each other is completely prevented. They are employed in

picking cotton, spinning, winding yarn, weaving, making shoes, &c., in solitude, during the day, and are locked up in solitude during the night. Even on Sundays they are not permitted to assemble together. On week-days a regular teacher visits each cell, and communicates instruction, and on Sundays some pious individuals teach religion. These meritorious persons have formed themselves into a society, and all their members are freely admitted to the prisoners: ladies visit the females and gentlemen the males.

The effect of this treatment will obviously be to abate the vivacity of the animal propensities, and to rouse the moral and intellectual powers. Solitude and labour will tend powerfully to accomplish the first end; but the means employed for attaining the second are too limited. The average number of prisoners in confinement is 250, and it is impossible that the teacher and visitors can remain with each a length of time sufficient to make a deep or lasting impression. The periods of confinement also are too short to favour reformation by moral means. While we approve of the practice of preventing the criminals from associating together, we think they would be greatly benefited by more extensive social intercourse with moral characters. Human nature demands enjoyment as its first and greatest want. If the only experience of a state of morality afforded to criminals is characterized by severe privation of animal pleasure, and the almost total negation of moral and intellectual excitement, they must necessarily form a very unfavourable opinion of the attractions of a virtuous life. We should like to see them, if possible, made acquainted, from experience, with the pure and vivacious joys that flow from activity of the higher faculties of man.

Mr Brebner favoured us with the following tables of mitments :

com.

He has observed that offenders committed for the first time, for only a short period, almost invariably return to Bridewell for new offences; but if committed for a long period, they return less frequently. This fact is established by the following, table, framed on an average of ten years, ending 25th December, 1825.

Of prisoners sentenced for the first time to 14 days' confinement, there returned for new crimes, about...

-75 per cent.

----------none, ditto.

During the ten years 93 persons were committed for the first time for two years, of whom not one returned.

Mr Brebner conceives that punishment must never be lost sight of. The effect of the two years' confinement he attributes partly to the fear of punishment, and partly to the habits of order and industry acquired during it. When prisoners come back two or three times, they go on returning at intervals, for many years. He has observed that a good many prisoners committed for short periods for

first offences, are afterwards tried before the High Court of Justiciary, and transported or hanged.

: These results confirm the doctrine, that individuals cannot change their character and conduct by a mere act of volition, but that their minds must be operated upon by longcontinued influences, and gradually ameliorated; just as disease cannot be removed from the body by a spell, but by a sanative process, requiring both attention and time for its completion. The present practice is founded upon ideas of punitive justice, which appear, at first sight, natural and beneficial, but which do not stand the test of reason and rigid analysis. A boy picks a gentleman's pocket of a handkerchief,and is sentenced to 14 days' confinement in Bridewell; which seems a moderate and just punishment for a trivial offence; and if any one were to propose to imprison him for two years, the extravagance of the infliction, in proportion to the crime, would startle the public mind, and he would become the object of universal sympathy. Yet, if the real welfare of the boy be kept in view, and if we believe the foregoing facts, we shall find it difficult to resist the conclusion, that the sentence of 14 days is, in its ultimate results, attended with far greater severity, and more positive injustice, than would accompany confinement for two years. The offender, in the former case, becomes familiarized with crime, almost invariably returns to Bridewell, and proceeds from step to step till he is transported or hanged; in the latter case, his whole habits are changed, and so deep an impression is made on his mind, that he very rarely re-appears in the criminal kalendar. We say rarely, because the circumstance of his not afterwards becoming an inmate in Glasgow Bridewell is no proof of his entire reformation: he may have removed to another territory, where he thinks the law will be administered with less severity. But if the great majority of those confined for long periods did not abandon their criminal pursuits, some would undoubtedly find their way back to their old quarters; and as none appear to return, we may safely infer that many are permanently reformed.