Prisoners on their first reception.

The fact is, that a thief is a very dainty gentleman. Male parta cito dilabuntur. He does not rob to lead a life of mortification and self-denial. The difficulty of controlling his appetites, in all probability, first led him to expenses, which made him a thief to support them. Having lost character, and become desperate, he orders crab and lobster and veal cutlets at a public house, while a poor labourer is refreshing himself with bread and cheese. The most vulnerable part of a thief is his belly; and there is nothing he feels more bitterly in confinement than a long course of watergruel and flour-puddings. It is a mere mockery of punishment to say, that such a man shall spend his money in luxurious viands, and sit down to dinner with fetters on his feet, and fried pork in his stomach.

Restriction to diet in prisons is still more necessary, when it is remembered that it is impossible to avoid making a prison, in some respects, more eligible than the home of a culprit. It is almost always more spacious, cleaner, better ventilated, better warmed. All these advantages are inevitable on the side of the pri son. The means, therefore, that remain of making a prison a disagreeable place, are not to be neglected; and of these, none are more powerful than the regula tion of diet. If this is neglected, the meaning of sentencing a man to prison will be this-and it had better be put in these words

And the same divisions for Women. But there is a division still more important than any of these; and that is, a division into much smaller numbers than are gathered together in prisons :-40, 50, and even 70 and 80 felons, are often placed togeth er in one yard, and live together for months previous to their trial. Any classification of offences, while there is such a multitude living together of one class, is perfectly nugatory and ridiculous; no character can escape from corruption and extreme vice in such a school. The law ought to be peremptory against the confinement of more than fifteen persons together of the same class. Unless some measure of this kind is resorted to, all reformations in prisons is impossible. A very great, and a very neglected object in prisons, diet. There should be, in every jail and house of correction, four sorts of diet ;-1st, Bread and water; adly, Common prison diet, to be settled by the magisrates; 3dly, Best prison diet, to be settled by ditto; thly, Free diet, from which spirituous liquors altogether, and fermented liquors in excess, are excluded. All prisoners, before trial, should be allowed best prison diet, and be upon free diet if they could afford it. Every sentence for imprisonment should expressly nention to which diet the prisoner is confined; and so other diet should be, on any account, allowed to such prisoner after his sentence. Nothing can be so preposterous, and criminally careless, as the way in which persons confined upon sentence are suffered to ive in prison. Misdemeanants, who have money in heir pockets, may be seen in many of our prisons with fish, buttered veal, rump steaks, and every other kind of luxury; and as the practice prevails of allow-nity.' ing them to purchase a pint of ale each, the rich prisoner purchases many pints of ale in the name of his poorer brethren, and drinks them himself. A jail should be a place of punishment, from which men recoil with horror-a place of real suffering, painful to the memory, terrible to the imagination; but if men can live idly, and live luxuriously, in a clean, wellaired, well-warmed, spacious habitation, is it any won-temperance. der that they set the law at defiance, and brave that These gradations of diet being fixed in all prisons, magistrate who restores them to their former luxury and these definitions of Jail and House of Correction and ease? There are a set of men well known to jailers, called Family-men, who are constantly returning to jail, and who may be said to spend the greater part of their life there,-up to the time when they are hanged.

Minutes of Evidence taken before Select Committee on Gaols'

MR. WILLIAM BEEBY, Keeper of the New Clerkenwell Prison. Have you many prisoners that return to you on re-commitment? A vast number; some of them are frequently discharged in the morning, and I have them back again in the evening or they have been discharged in the evening, and I have had thein back in the morning.'-Evidence before the Committee of the House of Commons in 1819, p. 278.

FRANCIS CONST, Esq., Chairman of the Middlesex Quarter Sessions-Has that opinion been confirmed by any conduct you have observed in prisoners that have come before you for trial? I only judge from the opposite thing, that, going into a place where they can be idle, and well protected from any inconveniences of the weather, and other things that poverty is open to, they are not amended at all; they laugh at it frequently, and desire to go to the House of Correction. Once or twice, in the early part of the winter, upon sending a prisoner for two months, he has asked whether he could not stay longer, or words to that effect. It is an insulting way of saying they like it.'-Evidence before the Committee of the House of Commons in 1819, p. 295.

* We should much prefer solitary imprisonment; but are at present speaking of the regulations in jails where that system is excluded.

Prisoner at the bar, you are fairly convicted, by a jury of your country, of having feloniously stolen two pigs, the property of Stephen Muck, farmer. The court having taken into consideration the frequency and enormity of this offence, and the necessity of re straining it with the utmost severity of punishment, do order and adjudge that you be confined for six months in a house larger, better, better aired, and warmer than your own, in company with 20 or 30 young persons in as good health and spirits as yourself. You need do no work, and you may have any thing for breakfast, dinner, and supper you can buy. In passing this sentence, the court hope that your example will be a warning to others; and that evil-disposed persons will perceive, from your suffering, that the laws of their country are not to be broken with impu.

As the diet, according to our plan, is always to be a part of the sentence, a judge will, of course, consider the nature of the offence for which the prisoner is committed, as well as the quality of the prisoner: and we have before stated, that all prisoners, before trial, should be upon the best prison diet, and unrestricted as to what they could purchase, always avoiding in

being adhered to, the punishment of imprisonment may be apportioned with the greatest nicety, either by the statute, or at the discretion of the judge, if the law chooses to give him that discretion. There

will be

Imprisonment for different degress of time. Imprisonment solitary, or in company, or in darkness.

In jails without labour.

In houses of correction with labour.

Imprisonment with diet on bread and water.
Imprisonment with common prison diet.
Imprisonment with best prison diet.
Imprisonment with free diet.

Every sentence of the judge should state diet, as well as light or darkness, time, place, solitude, society, labour or ease; and we are strongly of opinion, that the punishment in prisons should be sharp and short. We would, in most cases, give as much of solitary confinement as would not injure men's minds, and as much bread and water diet as would not injure their bodies. A return to prison should be contemplated with horror-horror, not excited by the ancient filth, disease, and extortion of jails; but by calm, well-re gulated, well-watched austerity-by the gloom and sadness wisely and intentionally thrown over such an abode. Six weeks of such sort of imprisonment would be much more efficacious than as many months of jolly company and veal cutlets.

108

Less than

It appears by the Times newspaper of the 24th | ment of refractory prisoners? I have.-Do you find it
of June, 1821, that two persons, a man and his wife,
were committed at the Surrey Sessions for three
years. If this county jail is bad, to three years of
idleness and good living-if it is a manufacturing jail,
to three years of regular labour, moderate living, and
accumulated gains. They are committed principally
for a warning to others, partly for their own good.
Would not these ends have been much more effectu-
ally answered, if they had been committed, for nine
months, to solitary cells, upon bread and water; the
first and last month in dark cells? If this is too se-
vere, then lessen the duration still more, and give
them more light days and fewer dark ones; but we
are convinced the whole good sought may be better
obtained in much shorter periods than are now resort-
ed to.

necessary occasionally to use them? Very seldom.-Have
you, in any instance, been obliged to use the dark cell, in
the case of the same prisoner, twice? Only on one occa-
a refractory prisoner to bring him to his senses?
son, I think. What length of time is necessary to confine
one day.-Do you think it essential, for the purpose of
keeping up the discipline of the prison, that you should
have it in your power to have recourse to the punishment
of dark cells? I do; I consider punishment in a dark cell
for one day, has a greater effect upon a prisoner than to
fore the Committee of the House of Commons in 1819, p 359.
keep him on bread and water for a month.'-Evidence be-
The evidence of the governor of Gloucester jail is to
the same effeet.

Mr. THOMAS CUNNINGHAM, Keeper of the Gloucester Gaol.-Do you attribute the want of those certificates enfinement? I do most certainly. Sometimes, where a cerFor the purpose of making jails disagreeable, the tirely to the neglect of enforcing the means of solitary conprisoners should remain perfectly alone all night, if it tificate has not been granted, and a prisoner has brought a is not thought proper to render their confinement en- certificate of good behaviour for one year, Sir George and tirely solitary during the whole period of their im- the committee ordered one pound or a guinea from the prisonment. Prisoners dislike this-and therefore charity.-Does that arise from your apprehension that the it should be done; it would make their residence in prisoners have not been equally reformed, or only from the want of the means of ascertaining such reformation? It is jails more disagreeable, and render them unwilling to for want of not knowing; and we cannot ascertain it, from return there. At present, eight or ten women sleep their working in numbers.-They may be reformed? Yes, in a room with a good fire, pass the night in sound but we have not the means or ascertaining it. There is one sleep or pleasant conversation; and this is called con- thing I do which is not provided for by the rules, and finement in a prison. A prison is a place where men, which is the only thing in which I deviate from the rules. after trial and sentence, should be made unhappy by When a man is committed for a month, I never give him self for air; he has no other food but his bread and water, public lawful enactments, not so severe as to injure any work; he sits in solitude, and walks in the yard by himthe soundness of mind or body. If this is not done, except twice a week a pint of peas soup. I never knew an prisons are a mere invitation to the lower classes to instance of a man coming in a second time, who had been wade, through felony and larceny, to better accom-committed for a month. I have done that for these sevenmodations than they can procure at home. And here, teen or eighteen years.-What has been the result? They as it appears to us, is the mistake of the many excel- dread so much coming in again. If a man is committed lent men who busy themselves (and wisely and hu- for six weeks, we give him work.-Do you apprehend that the most beneficial means of working reform? I conceive manely busy themselves) about prisons. Their first solitary confinement for a month, without employment, is object seems to be the reformation of the prisoners, it is.-Can it operate as the means of reform, any more not the reformation of the public; whereas the first than it operates as a system of punishment? It is only for object should be, the discomfort and discontent of small offences they commit for a month.-Would not the their prisoners; that they should become a warning, same effect be produced by corporal punishment? Corpofeel unhappy, and resolve never to act so again as toral punishment may be absolutely necessary sometimes; No, it would put themselves in the same predicament; and then as but I do not think corporal punishment would reform them much reformation as is compatible with this the better. so much as solitary confinement.-Would not severe corharden them more than anything else.-Do you think benIf a man says to himself, this prison is a comfortable poral punishment have the same effect? place, while he says to the chaplain or the visitor that efit is derived from the opportunity of reflection afforded he will come there no more, we confess we have no by solitary confinement? Yes.-And very low diet also? great confidence in his public declaration; but if he Yes.'-Evidence before the Committee of the House of Comsays, this is a place of misery and sorrow, you shall mons in 1819, p. 391. not catch me here again,' there is reason to believe he will be as good as his word; and he then becomes (which is of much more consequence than his own Hence it is we 'Mr. WILLIAM STOKES, Governor of the House of Correcreformation) a warning to others. object to that spectacle of order and decorum-car-tion at Horsley.-Do you observe any difference in the conduct penters in one shop, tailors in another, weavers in a of prisoners who are employed, and those who have no emthird, sitting down to a meal by ring of bell, and re- ployment? Yes, a good deal; I look upon it, from what to take a prisoner and discipline him according to the rules as ceiving a regular portion of their earnings. We are judgment I can fo m, and I have been a long while in it, that afraid it is better than real life on the other side of the the law allows, and if he have no work, that that man goes wall, or so very little worse that nobody will have any through more punishment in one month, than a man who is fear to encounter it. In Bury jail, which is consider-employed and receives a portion of his labour three months; ed as a pattern jail, the prisoners under a sentence of but still I should like to have employment, because a great confinement are allowed to spend their weekly earn- number of times I took men away who have been in the habit ings (two, three, and four shiilings per week) in fish, of earning sixpence a-week to buy a loaf, and put them in soliwithout work.-Which of the prisoners, those that have been tobacco, and vegetables; so states the jailer in his tary confinement; and the punishment is a great deal more examination before the House of Commons-and we employed, or those unemployed, do you think would go out of have no doubt it is well meant; but is it punishment? the prison the better men? I think, that let me have a prisonWe were more struck, in reading the evidence of the er, and I never treat any one with severity, any further than jail commitree before the House of Commons, with that they should be obedient, and to let them see that I will do ted under my care, or any other man's care, to a house of corthe opinions of the jailer of the Devizes jail, and with my duty, I have reason to believe, that, if a prisoner is comunit rection, and he has to go under the discipline of the law, if he the practice of the magistrates who superintend it.* 'MR. T. BRUTTON, Governor of the Gaol at Devizes.-Does is in for the value of a month or six weeks, that a man is in a this confinement in solitude make prisoners more adverse great deal better state than though he stays for six months; he to return to prison? I think it does.-Does it make a strong gets hardened by being in so long, from one month to another. impression upon them? I have no doubt of it.-Does it -You are speaking now of solitude without labour; do you make them more obedient and orderly while in gaol? I think he would go out better if he had been employed during have no doubt it does.-Do you consider it the most effectu- the month you speak of? No, nor half; because I never task I do.-Do you those people, in order that they should not say I force them to al punishment you can make use of? think it has a greater effect upon the minds of prisoners do more than they are able, that they should not slight it; for The prisoner who is employed, his time than any apprehensions of personal punishment? I have if they perform anything in the bounds of reason, I never find no doubt of it.-Have you any dark cells for the punish-fault with them. passes smooth and comfortable, and he has a proportion of his *The Winchester and Devizes jails seem to us to be con-earnings, and he can buy additional diet; but if he has no ducted upon better principles than any other, though even labour, and kept under the discipline of the prison, it is a tight piece of punishment to go through.-Which of the two these are by no means what jails should be.

We must quote also the the evidence of the gover nor of Horsley jail.

should you think most likely to return immediately to habits | be entered with horror, and quitted with earnest resoof labour on their own account? The dispositions of all men lution never to return to such misery; with that deep are not alike; but my opinion is this, if they are kept and disci-impression, in short, of the evil which breaks out into plined according to the rules of the prison, and have no labour, perpetual warning and exhortation to others. This man who is kept here without labour once, will not be very great point effected, all other reformation must do the ready to come here again.'-Evidence before the Committee of greatest good. the House of Commons, pp. 398, 399.

that one month will do more than six; I am certain, that a

There are some very sensible observations upon this point in Mr. Holford's book, who upon the whole has, we think, best treated the subject of prisons, and best

understands them.

Mr. Gurney and Mr. Buxton both lay a great stress upon the quiet and content of prisoners, upon their subordination and the absence of all plans of escape; but, where the happiness of prisoners is so much con- 'In former times, men were deterred from pursuing the road sulted, we should be much more apprehensive of a that led to a prison, by the apprehension of encountering there conspiracy to break into, than to break out of, prison. disease and hunger, of being loaded with heavy irons, and of The mob outside may, indeed, envy the wicked ones remaining without clothes to cover them, or a bed to lie on; we have done no more than what justice required in relieving within; but the felon who has left, perhaps, a scold- the inmates of a prison from these hardships; but there is no ing wife, a battered cottage, and six starving children, reason that they should be freed from the fear of all other sufhas no disposition to escape from regularity, sufficient ferings and privations. And I hope that those whose duty it is food, employment which saves him money, warmth, to take up the consideration of these subjects, will see, that in ventilation, cleanliness, and civil treatment. These Penitentiaries, offenders should be subjected to separate consymptoms, upon which these respectable and excellent finement, accompanied by such work as may be found consistent with that system of imprisonment; that in jails or houses men lay so much stress, are by no means proofs to us of correction, they should perform that kind of labour which that prisons are placed upon the best possible footing. the law has enjoined; and that, in prisons of both descriptions, The governor of Bury jail, as well as Mr. Gurney, instead of being allowed to cater for themselves, they should insist much upon the few prisoners who return to the be sustained by such food as the rules and regulations of the jail a second time, the manufacturing skill which they establishment should have provided for them; in short, that acquire there, and the complete reformation of man- prisons should be considered as places of punishment, and not ners, for which the prisoner has afterwards thanked as scenes of cheerful industry, where a compromise must be him the governor. But this is not the real criterion made with the prisoner's appetite to make him do the common work of a journeyman or manufacturer, and the labours of of the excellence of a jail, nor the principal reason the spinning-wheel and the loom must be alleviated by indulwhy jails were instituted. The great point is, not the average recurrence of the same prisoners; but the paucity or frequency of commitments, upon the whole. You may make a jail such an admirable place of education, that it may cease to be infamous to go there. Mr. Holford tells us (and a very curious anecdote it is), that parents actually accuse their children falsely of crimes, in order to get them into the Philanthropic Charity! and that it is consequently a rule with the governors of that Charity never to receive a child upon the accusation of the parents alone. But it is quite obvious what the next step will be, if the parents cannot get their children in by fibbing. They will take good care that the child is really qualified for the Philanthropic, by impelling him to those crimes which are the passport to so good an education.

If, on the contrary, the offender is to be punished simply by being placed in a prison, where he is to be well lodged, well clothed, and well fed, to be instructed in reading and writing, to receive a moral and religious education, and to be brought up to a trade; and if this prison is to be within the reach of the parents, so that they may occasionally visit their child, and have the satisfaction of knowing, from time to time, that all these advantages are conferred upon him, and that he is exposed to no hardships, although the confinement and the discipline of the prison may be irksome to the boy; yet the parents may be apt to congratulate themselves on having got him off their hands into so good a berth, and may be considered by other parents as having drawn a prize in the lottery of human life by their son's conviction. This reasoning is not theoretical, but is founded in some degree upon experience. Those who have been in the habit of attending the committee of the Philanthropic Society know, that parents have often accused their children of crimes falsely, or have exaggerated their real offences, for the sake of inducing that society to take them; and so frequent has been this practice, that it is a rule with those who manage that institution, never to receive an object upon the representation of its parents, unless supported by other strong testimony.'-Holford, pp. 44,45.

gence.**

This is good sound sense; and it is a pity that it is preceded by the usual nonsense about the tide of blas phemy and sedition.' If Mr. Holford is an observer of tides and currents, whence comes it that he observes only those which set one way? Whence comes it that he says nothing of the tides of canting and hypocrisy, which are flowing with such rapidity?-of abject political baseness and sycophancy-of the dispo sition so prevalent among Englishmen, to sell their conscience and their country to the Marquis of Lon. donderry for a living for the second son-or a silk gown for the nephew-or for a frigate for my brother the

That I am guilty of no exaggeration in thus describing a prison conducted upon the principles now coming into fashion, will be evident to any person who will turn to the latter part of the article, "Penitentiary, Millbank," in Mr. Buxton's Book on Prisons. He there states what passed in conversation between himself and the governor of Bury jail, (which jail, by the bye, he praises as one of the three best prisons he has ever seen, and strongly recommends to our imitation at Millbank). Having observed, that the governor of Bury jail had mentioned his having counted 34 spinning-wheels in full activity when he left that jail at 5 o'clock in the morning on the preceding day, Mr. Buxton proceeds as follows:-"After he had seen the Millbank Penitentiary, I asked him what would be the consequence, if the regulations there used were "The consequence would be," he replied, adopted by him?” "that every wheel would be stopped." Mr. Buxton then adds, "I would not be considered as supposing that the prisoners will altogether refuse to work at Millbank-they will work during the stated hours, but the present incentive being wanting, the labour will, I apprehend, be languid and desultory." I shall not, on my part, undertake to say that they will do as much work as will be done in those prisons in which work is the primary object; but, besides the encouragement of the portion of earnings laid up for them, they know that diligence is among the qualities that will recommend them to the mercy of the crown, and that the want of it is, by the rules and regulations of the prison, an offence to be punished. The governor of Bury jail, who is a very intelligent man, must have spoken hastily, in his eagerness to support his own system, and did not, I conceive, give himself credit for as much power and au thority in his prison as he really possesses. It is not to be wondered at, that the keepers of prisons should like the new system: there is less trouble in the care of a manufactory than in that of a jail; but I am surprised to find that so much reliance is placed in argument on the declaration of some of these officers, that the prisoners are quieter where their work is encouraged, by allowing them to spend a portion of their earnings. It may naturally be expected, that offenders will be least discontented, and consequently least turbulent, where their punishment is lightest, or where, to use Mr. Buxton's own words, "by making labour productive of comfort or conven

It is quite obvious that, if men were to appear again, six months after they were hanged, handsomer, richer, and more plump than before execution, the gallows would cease to be an object of terror. But here are men who come out of jail, and say, "Look at us, we can read and write, we can make baskets and shoes, and we went in ignorant of every thing: and we have learnt to do without strong liquors, and have no longer any objection to work; and we did work in the jail, and have saved money, and here it is." What is there of terror and detriment in all this? and how are crimes to be lessened if they are thus rewarded? Of schools there cannot be too many. Pe. Ditentiaries, in the hands of wise men, may be ren-ience, you do much towards rendering it agreeable;" but dered excellent institutions; but a prison must be a must be permitted to doubt, whether these are the prisons of prison-a place of sorrow and wailing; which should which men will live in most dead.'-Holford, pp. 78-80

captain? How comes our loyal carcerist to forget all these sorts of tides?

The female prisoners should be under the care of a matron, with proper assistants. Where this is not the case, the female part of the prison is often a mere brothel for the turnkeys. Can any thing be so repugnant to all ideas of reformation, as a male turnkey visiting a solitary female prisoner? Surely, women can take care of women as effectually as men can take care of men; or, at least, women can do so properly, assisted by men. This want of a matron is a very scandalous and immoral neglect in any prison system. The presence of female visitors, and instructors for the women, is so obviously advantageous and proper, that the offer of forming such an institution must be gladly and thankfully received by any body of magistrates. That they should feel any jealousy of such interference, is too absurd a supposition to be made or agreed upon. Such interference may not effect all that zealous people suppose it will effect; but, if it does any good, it had better be.

Irons should never be put upon prisoners before trial; after trial, we cannot object to the humiliation and disgrace which irons and a particoloured prison dress occasion. Let them be a part of solitary confinement, and let the words 'Solitary Confinement,' in the sentence, imply permission to use them. The judge then knows what he inflicts.

To this system of severity in jails there is but one objection. The present duration of punishments was There is a great confusion, as the law now stands, calculated for prisons conducted upon very different in the government of jails. The justices are empow-principles;—and if the discipline of prisons was ren. ered, by several statutes, to make subordinate regula- dered more strict, we are not sure that the duration of tions for the government of the jails; and the sheriff imprisonment would then be quite atrocious and dissupersedes those regulations. Their respective juris- proportioned. There is a very great disposition, both dictions and powers should be clearly arranged. in judges and magistrates to increase the duration of imprisonment; and if that is done, it will be dreadful cruelty to increase the bitterness as well as the time. We should think, for instance, six months' solitary imprisonment to be a punishment of dreadful severity; but we find, from the House of Commons' report, that prisoners are sometimes committed by county magi strates for two years of solitary confinement. And so it may be doubted, whether it is not better to wrap up the rod in flannel, and make it a plaything, as ít really now is, than to show how it may be wielded with effectual severity. For the pupil, instead of giv ing one or two stripes, will whip his patient to death. But if this abuse were guarded against, the real way to improve would be, now we have made our prisons healthy and airy, to make them odious and austereengines of punishment, and objects of terror. In this age of charity and of prison improvement, there is one aid to prisoners which appears to be wholly overlooked; and that is, the means of regula ting their defence, and providing them witnesses for their trial. A man is tried for murder, or for housebreaking, or robbery, without a single shilling in his pocket. The nonsensical and capricious institutions of the English law prevent him from engaging counsel to speak in his defence, if he had the wealth of Croesus; but he has no money to employ even an attorney, or to procure a single witness, or to take out a subpæ na. The judge, we are told, is his counsel;-this is sufficiently absurd; but it is not pretended that the judge is his witness. He solemnly declares that he has three or four witnesses who could give a completely different colour to the transaction; but they are sixty or seventy miles distant, working for their daily bread, and have no money for such a journey, nor for the expense of a residence of some days in an assize town. They do not know even the time of the assize, nor the modes of tendering their evi dence if they should come. When everything is so well marshalled against him on the opposite side, it would be singular if an innocent man, with such an absence of all means of defending himself, should not occasionally be hanged or transported: and accordingly we believe that such things have happened.† Let any man, immediately previous to the assizes visit the prisoners for trial, and see the many wretches who are to answer to the most serious accusations, without one penny to defend themselves. If it ap peared probable, upon inquiry, that these poor crea tures had important evidence which they could not bring into court for want of money, would it not be a wise application of compassionate funds, to give them this fair chance of establishing their innocence? It seems to us no bad finale of the pious labours of those who guard the poor from ill treatment during their imprisonment, to take care that they are not unjustly hanged at the expiration of the term.

We object to the office of prison inspector, for reasons so very obvious, that it is scarcely necessary to enumerate them. The prison inspector would, of course, have a good salary; that in England is never omitted. It is equally matter of course that he would be taken from among treasury retainers; and that he never would look at a prison. Every sort of attention should be paid to the religious instruction of these nnhappy people; but the poor chaplain should be paid a little better-every possible duty is expected from him-and he has one hundred per annum.

Whatever money is given to prisoners, should be lodged with the governor for their benefit, to be applied as the visiting magistrates point out-no other donations should be allowed or accepted.

If voluntary work before trial, or compulsory work after trial, is the system of a prison, there should be a task-master; and it should be remembered, that the principal object is not profit.

Wardsmen, selected in each yard among the best of the prisoners, are very serviceable. If prisoners work, they should work in silence. At all times, the restrictions upon seeing friends should be very severe; and no food should be sent from friends.

Our general system then is-that a prison should be a place of real punishment; but of known, enacted, measurable, and measured punishment. A prisoner (not for assault, or refusing to pay parish dues, but a bad felonious prisoner), should pass a part of his three months in complete darkness; the rest in complete solitude, perhaps in complete idleness, (for solitary idleness leads to repentance, idleness in company to vice). He should be exempted from cold, be kept perfectly clean, have food sufficient to prevent hunger or illness, wear the prison dress and moderate irons, have no communication with any body but the officers of the prison and the magistrates, and remain other wise in the most perfect solitude. We strongly sus pect this is the way in which a bad man is to be made afraid of prisons; nor do we think that he would be less inclined to receive moral and religious instruction, than any one of seven or eight carpenters in jail, working at a common bench, receiving a part of their earnings, and allowed to purchase with them the deli- a cacies of the season. If this system is not resorted to the next best system is severe work, ordinary diet, no indulgences, and as much seclusion and solitude as are compatible with work-always remarking, that perfect sanity of mind and body are to be preserved.

* House of Commons' Report, 355.

From the Cromwell Advertiser it appears, that John Brien, alias Captain Wheeler, was found guilty of murder at the late assizes for the county of Waterford. Previous to his execution he made the following confession:God by whom I will soon be judged, and who sees the secrets 'I now again most solemnly aver, in the presence of that of my heart, that only three, viz. Morgan Brien, Patrick Brien, and my unfortunate self, committed the horrible crimes of murder and burning at Ballygarron, and the four unfortu nate men who have before suffered for them, were not in the smallest degree accessary to them. I have been the cause for which they have innocently suffered death. I have contracted death of justice with them--and the only and least restitudeath befor my eyes, to acqu.t their memory of any guilt in tion I can make them is, thus publicly, solemnly, and with the crimes for which I deservedly suffer!!!-Philanthropist No. 6. 208. Pereunt et imputantur,