Note 106 — LETTER XIV

This succession of philanthropists, whose labors extended over the century from 1750-1850, worked tirelessly to stir up English public sentiment against their criminal code, which contained over two hundred and nineteen offenses punishable by death, and their deplorable system of prison management. Consequently early English travellers were particularly interested in the American system. In 1831 a Parliamentary Commission was sent to investigate the prisons of Pennsylvania and New York, and upon its return certain American methods were adopted.—Ed.