Connected with jurisprudence is prison discipline; and the Americans valuing themselves on the superiority of theirs, it seems needful to advert to it. This subject early claimed the attention of the Pennsylvanians; and the citizens of some of the other States have also thought much on the subject. It is one of so much importance, that philanthropists and statesmen in Europe have not been unmindful of it, since the time when the benevolent and indefatigable Howard, first aroused the public feeling on the necessity of improvement in the construction and management of jails. His successor Neild was of some service; but in England, little was done in effecting a thorough change till very recently.

The publications of Roscoe, Buxton and Gurney, in conjunction with the society established in London for a superintendence of the subject, have been the means of very considerable changes and certainly some good being introduced. Yet it does not appear that prison discipline on a right footing has yet been established on either side of the Atlantic. When men however think long on a practical subject of a simple nature, they generally arrive at a conclusion near the true one. We may therefore hope that the reasonings and experience of the

two countries will soon lead to this desirable end.

The Pennsylvanians rightly judging that employment for prisoners would be preferable to idleness, established manufactures of various kinds in their jails. Weaving, shoe making and other handicraft and mechanical trades were regularly taught to the prisoners, who were then required to perform a given quantity of work. At the expiration of their sentence, a certain part of their earnings was returned to them, that they might be enabled to purchase tools and implements necessary to carry on the trade they had learnt, and thus at once commence a reputable course of life. The jailer and his turnkeys were under the inspection of a committee of managers, whose duty it was to see that no cruelty or needless severity was used to the prisoners. Their allowance of food was both ample and good. A coarse dress was worn by each when within the walls, their own being taken care of till the period of the expiration of their sentence. Good beds were placed for their use; and if they could obtain sheets they were allowed to use them. There was in this treatment too much of indulgence. It is said that kindness is more influential in reclaiming bad characters than harshness.

This probably is the case when those characters are convinced of the motives which prompt it; but still it is essential that such a degree of punishment be inflicted, as to create a horror of confinement. Prisoners whose comforts are as great as at their own houses, will be apt to regard confinement as so slight a punishment, as not to be deterred from crime by it. But when as in the Jail of Philadelphia, the comforts are even greater, how can it be expected that criminals should much dislike it? The jail certainly exhibits a pleasing scene of industry and order; but its discipline has been signally inefficient in reclaiming its inmates. I enquired of the jailer what proportion of the convicts had been in his custody before. He said he did not know the exact proportion, but that there were more than half, and he believed nearly two thirds. ful state of things has convinced many of the necessity of a change of system. A new jail is in progress of erection, in which it is intended to try the effect of solitary confinement without labour. This will be a most dreadful punishment, increasing the horrors of confinement in a tenfold ratio. But if carried to the extreme contemplated, it will I conceive be productive of evils as great as those sought to be removed. When a man has been confined solitarily for a

This fright

long period, without employment corporeal or mental, his faculties sink into a state of torpor, and sometimes, as was proved in the Bastile, into idiotism. It seems to me, that solitary confinement if the period be short, may effect much good; if long, much evil. Unless therefore an alteration take place in the existing laws, in the apportionment of punishment to crime, they will be oppressive and unjust.

The first object of punishment, it is contended, ought to be the reformation of the criminal. This is I think a mistake. Surely the first object, as has I believe been argued in the Edinburgh Review, is the protection of society. Punishment therefore should be of a nature to deter not only the criminal from a repetition of his offences, but others from committing the like; and if at the same time, a moral reformation can be effected in his character, it is of prodigious importance that it should be attempted. But unless it can be shown, that this moral reformation is the most effectual in protecting society from a violation of the laws, I must think that it is only a secondary object. As it is supposed by many, that solitary confinement is conducive not only to moral reformation, but is a terror to evil doers, it may be exceedingly proper to adopt it on a

limited scale, though I much question whether the improvement anticipated will be realized. That moral reformation alone is insufficient to secure society from a repetition of offences, will be evident from a consideration of the frailty of human nature. Suppose a prisoner under the discipline of a taskmaster, and from the effect of religious exhortation, to have become so entirely changed in his views,as to be as desirous of acting properly as he was before careless about it, does it follow that he will never relapse into his disregard of moral rectitude? Human nature, alas! is too prone to evil for us to suppose it. He finds, when set at liberty, that he is no longer what he was. His acquaintances of unblemished reputation shun him; but as he is naturally desirous of some society, he gradually slides into familiarity with the bad, rather than have none. Temptation soon assails him, and then, if the horrors of the jail are not before his eyes, he is very likely to yield to it. If he has been in a prison conducted on what is called the comfortable system, this is almost sure to be the case, as he remembers the days of his confinement with a degree of indifference as to their renewal. The great number of recommitments in the Philadelphian jail, is a proof of this.. At Baltimore and Richmond, I found on enquiry, that