If this institution had been more in the country, and if some of the penitents (or patients), whose robust physique seemed to require it, could have been provided with plenty of work in the open air, such as gardening, keeping cows or poultry, &c., I should have considered the arrangements, for a Catholic country, perfect. They are calculated to fulfil all the conditions of moral and physical convalescence; early rising; regular, active, useful employment; thorough cleanliness; the strictest order; an even, rather cool temperature; abundance of light and fresh air; and more than these, religious hope wisely and

siastic, containing some farther particulars relative to Madame de Barol's Institution. It appears that the number of inmates is at present two hundred.

The Refuge itself, and the ground on which it stands, were purchased by the government, after Madame de Barol had expended a large sum of money in the original arrangements. The government granted 10,000 fr. a year to the necessary expenses, and have since made over the Penitentiary to the Commonalty of Turin; but the hospital for the children, and the convent with the gardens adjoining, have been erected on land belonging to Madame de Barol, and at her sole expense. The infant hospital contains eighty beds. The whole institution is managed by Madame de Barol, and she has the entire control of the funds which the city has placed at her disposal, in addition to those contributed by herself.

kindly cultivated; companionship, cheerfulness, and the opportunity of exercising the sympathetic and benevolent affections.

If these conditions could be adopted in some of the female penitentiaries at home, I think failure would be less common; but since the difficulty of redemption is found to be so great, should we not take the more thought for prevention? Among the causes of the evil are some which I should not like to touch upon here; but there are others, and not the least important, which may be discussed without offence. The small payment and the limited sphere of employment allotted to the women of the working classes are mentioned, by a competent witness, as one of the causes of vice leading to crime. "Much I believe would be done towards securing the virtue of the female sex, and therefore towards the general diminution of profligacy, if the practical injustice were put an end to by which women are excluded from many kinds of employment for which they are naturally qualified. The general monopoly which the members of the stronger sex have established

for themselves is surely most unjust, and, like all other kinds of injustice, recoils on its per

*

petrators." The same writer observes in

another place: "The payment for the labor of females in this country is often so small as to demand, for obtaining an honest living, a greater power of endurance and self-control than can reasonably be expected.”

Here, then, is the direct testimony of an experienced man, that the more we can employ women in work fitted to their powers, the stronger the barrier we shall oppose to misery and intemperance, and more especially to that pestilence "which walketh in darkness," and to which we can hardly bring ourselves to give a name.

I COME now to an institution peculiar to ourselves; and truly can I affirm that if ever the combination of female with masculine supervision were imperatively needed, it is in an English parish workhouse. Really it is not

* On Crime, its Amount, Causes, and Remedies, by F Hill, p. 85.

without a mingled feeling of shame and fear that I approach the subject. I shall be told that it is very un-English and very unpatriotic to expose our social delinquencies, — particularly as I have just been praising some foreign institutions. It is not an excuse for us that on some points other nations are as bad as ourselves, or worse; but it is a disgrace to us if they are in advance on those very points where publicity and freedom of discussion ought to have shielded us from mistake.

I have seen many workhouses, and of all grades. The regulation of details varies in different parishes. Some are admirably clean, and, as far as mere machinery can go, admirably managed; some are dirty and i ventilated; and one or two, as we learn from recent disclosures, quite in a disgraceful state: but whatever the arrangement and condition, in one thing I found all alike;-the want of a proper moral supervision. I do not say this in the grossest sense; though even in that sense, I have known of things I could hardly speak of. But surely I may say there is want of proper moral supervision where the most vul

gar of human beings are set to rule over the most vulgar; where the pauper is set to manage the pauper; where the ignorant govern the ignorant; where the aged and infirm minister to the aged and infirm; where every softening and elevating influence is absent, or of rare occurrence, and every hardening and depraving influence continuous and ever at hand. Never did I visit any dungeon, any abode of crime or misery, in any country, which left the same crushing sense of sorrow, indignation, and compassion,- almost almost despair, as some of our English workhouses. Never did I see more clearly what must be the inevitable consequences, where the feminine and religious influences are ignored; where what we call charity is worked by a stern, hard machinery; where what we mean for good is not bestowed but inflicted on others, in a spirit not pitiful nor merciful, but reluctant and adverse, if not cruel. Perhaps those who hear me may not all be aware of the origin of our parish workhouses. They were intended to be religious and charitable institutions, to supply the place of those conventual