Volume 4 — APRIL, 1849. VOL IV.—NO. II.

Art. I.—HOUSES OF REFUGE.

I. Twenty-first Annual Report of the Managers of the Philadelphia House of Refuge to the Legislature and to the Contributors thereto. 1849, pp. 32.

II. Twenty-fourth Annual Report of the Managers of the Society for the Reformation of Juvenile Delinquents to the Legislature of the State and the Corporation of the City of New York. 1849, pp. 50.

We need, in some parts of the United States, a grade of penal institutions between what are called Houses of Refuge, or of Reformation for Juvenile Delinquents on the one hand, and the highest and best class of penitentiaries on the other.

As they are at present, our institutions of this class are neither schools nor prisons. They employ the inmates at labor and instruct them, as far as practicable, in the elements of useful knowledge and thus far they resemble the Industrial Schools of Europe. But they are places of close confinement—they have regulations and a police, not unlike those of a prison, and their inmates are sent thither as offenders—though juvenile offenders. The worst that can be said of some of them is, that they are incorrigible truants—of others, that they are past parental control, (and in this respect, perhaps, “more sinned against than sinning;”) but some are adroit thieves and bold burglars—some skilful forgers—some incendiaries, and some assaulters with intent to kill. Their ages, too, range from eight to sixteen or even eighteen, and their size and physical strength are equally various.

This is a motley group to bring into the relation of schoolmates or fellow-apprentices, and their care-takers must possess rare endowments, so to administer discipline, as to prevent much harm from being done to some in connection with all the good they do to others. For, that they have done immeasurable good, no one who has investigated their operations and results, can for a moment doubt. They have fully justified the high anticipations which were entertained concerning them at an early period of their history. “No disciplinary institution in our country,” said the Rev. Dr. Alexander of New Jersey, “promises to effect more for society, than a House of Refuge for juvenile delinquents. If it were ever lawful to rejoice in an event produced by crime, it would be, that these unhappy youth are, by the commission of a crime, snatched from the sink of pollution in which they have been immersed, and put to regular business, and educated as well as most children in the land.”1

Having fully sustained their claim to confidence, as a system of reformatory means, we naturally desire to see them rendered as effective as possible. And to this end we would have them adhere punctiliously to the original design for which they were instituted. This was not to inflict a penalty, but to interpose a shield—not to bring suffering upon the guilty, but to supply instruction, wholesome discipline and kind offices to the neglected and exposed. They may easily be perverted by opening their doors to youth (“young in years, but old in sinning”) who are thought to require some milder discipline than the penitentiary affords, but whose offences are really as rank and as indicative of deep-seated depravity as those of the oldest and the worst.

In determining, in any given case, whether to admit or reject an applicant, the managers of a House of Refuge would be governed, we presume, chiefly by the character, though in some degree by the size and physical strength of the individual, as a subject of mild, parental discipline. The question, how far a residence in the institution will be likely to bring about his radical reformation and the establishment of good habits has the first place; and another, and scarcely less important question would be, what influence will his admission have on others? If he is perverse and stubborn, and at the same time overgrown in size, so as require a disproportionate measure of care and vigilance, (in which case other and more hopeful subjects must be, to an equal extent, neglected,) his admission would seem inexpedient. Provision exists, or should be made for such an one elsewhere. So, also, if one is presented, deformed in body, deficient in mind, or of sickly constitution, and not likely to succeed in acquiring the knowledge of a trade, or unfitted to bear the proper discipline, he has higher claims on some other form of public charity. A House of Refuge is not meant for him, nor is it likely to benefit him.

An institution designed to keep boys and girls in due order and subordination, ought to be able to dispense with some of the more revolting appendages of a prison—such as unscaleable walls—narrow stone cells—and massive bars and bolts. We admit that all these are necessary the moment it receives a sturdy, hardened, hackneyed rogue of eighteen, sixteen or even fourteen; but it is a pity to force upon the whole establishment the gloomy appearance of a prison, rather than reject half a dozen youth of extra age and size, whom parents or friends naturally feel disposed to save from a felon’s doom.

The inquiry of chief interest, however, relates to character. What has been his career up to this time? Who have been his associates? To what species of crime has he been chiefly addicted? Has he, in the fury of unbridled passion, attempted the life of another? of his parent, or associate, or enemy? Has he deliberately forged another’s name? Has he been familiar with scenes of outrage and tumult? Is he a frequenter of the haunts of infamy? Has he good fellowship with a large circle of like characters with himself? These questions, or any of them, if answered affirmatively, would go far to turn the scale against his admission. The acts we have supposed, indicate in the perpetrator of them, a confirmed habit or propensity, which may, perhaps, be corrected; but not by the ordinary discipline of a proper House of Refuge. Nor should the attempt be made to employ it on so unpromising a subject, at the risk of introducing more evil than we can possibly hope to prevent. Indeed, it is difficult to conceive any good reason why a burglar or incendiary at sixteen, should be called a “delinquent,” and put to school, while the same grade of criminals at twenty, are called convicts, and sent to the penitentiary. Age, by itself, is a very unsafe criterion by which to determine the turpitude of crime or the appropriateness of punishment.

We do not say that no cases of this class can occur, in which the admission of the party to a House of Refuge, would be expedient; but, as a general thing, we should be disposed to confine its benign influence to those whose proclivity to a criminal career is but feebly though decidedly developed; whose delinquencies exist rather in an impatience or contempt of domestic restraints, than in deliberate violations of public law. The discipline, as well as the construction of Refuge-buildings and the usual means of safe custody, evidently contemplate a very young class of boys and girls, say from eight to twelve years of age, who may be incorrigible truants, disobedient to parents, insubordinate to masters, petty thieves, street-strollers, without a home or worse,—uneducated, unaccustomed to any kind of restraint. Such youth come under the discipline of an establishment, like our Houses of Refuge, with a prospect of great advantage.

Even those who have acquired fixed habits of lying, stealing, deceit and violence, are, at this age, physically reducible to order and industry. They are incapable of using dangerous weapons with effect—they are not likely to combine for outbreaks, nor to plot escapes. With wholesome food, and an hour or two’s recreation every day, they can be made to conform to stringent regulations, without great or long continued severity of discipline. Active employment in some handicraft, daily schooling, and proper religious culture, soon work a wonderful transformation in such a class of children, and if they can only be continued long enough to make their new course of life habitual, so that to be idle shall be as irksome to them as it once was to work, and to speak the truth shall be as easy as it once was to lie, the benefit of such an institution could not be overrated.

If the discrimination we have suggested, should be faithfully observed, we should find a very large class of youth who require penal discipline of a severer type, and for whom no provision is now made except in the penitentiary, which is quite as ill adapted to meet the exigency at this point, as the Refuge is at the other. We should, therefore, be disposed to take the most promising youthful inmates of the penitentiary, and the least suitable or most unpromising of the older inmates of some of the Houses of Refuge for juvenile delinquents, and provide an institution for them, that shall combine the severity of the former with the leniency of the latter. This idea is substantially embraced in the Parkhurst prison on the Isle of Wight, and is recognized to some extent in the new State Reform School at Westborough, Massachusetts.

The origin and peculiarities of these institutions, involve the vast and interesting subject of juvenile delinquency; its causes, effects and preventives, upon an investigation of which we promise ourselves some future opportunity to enter. As it is, our limits require us to pass abruptly to a few general remarks upon the present condition of our principal institutions designed for its correction.

From the twenty-first report of the Philadelphia House of Refuge, we learn, that during the year 1848, one hundred and sixty-eight inmates were received, (129 boys and 39 girls,) and 153 discharged, (116 boys, and 37 girls,) of whom, 89 were by indentures. Of the commitments, 86 were by request of parents or near friends. The average age of both sexes was a fraction over 14 years; but so far as the prospect of reformation is concerned, a girl is as old at 14 as a boy is at 18. There was only one death in the House during the year. Of the 65 boys indentured, 30 went to farmers; and of the 24 girls all were indentured to housewifery. The occupations of the inmates are, cane-chair seating, (48,) umbrella furniture, (57,) and razor-strop making, (71.) The income from the labor of boys during the year, was $5,598,88, and the total expenditures of the establishment, were $13,987,39. The principal of this institution has, at our request, furnished some valuable suggestions respecting the methods of administration and discipline, in establishments of this class, of which we gladly avail ourselves in the present connection.

He ranks classification, among the most obvious, important and difficult objects to be attained in such an institution. He admits that education, moral, intellectual, and religious, is all important; but he insists, that habits of industry and obedience, should be regarded as among the first and most desirable fruits of it. The power of habit, he thus forcibly describes:

“A boy, who has been unaccustomed to obey his parents, or respect his superiors, and has been allowed to spend most of his time in idleness before he is brought to the Refuge, if kept regularly at work, and at the same time compelled to obey those who have the care of him, will, in time, become so accustomed to labor, that he will even, in some cases, prefer it to idleness, and obedience will also become habitual. But this must be a work of time. He should be kept until he is thoroughly weaned from his former indolent ways. I have known boys who have remained three or four years in our institution and who have run away from their masters soon after they were bound out, come back to the city and resort to their old haunts and habits; but finding few if any of their old associates, they have soon felt that their former habits were not so pleasant, and having lost all relish for a vagabond life, have voluntarily returned to the house and asked admission and employment as a boon!”

He justly animadverts upon the unreasonableness of those who expect “a House of Refuge will accomplish, in a few months, what respectable and even religious parents find it difficult to do even in a series of years.” They have their children from the first hour of their existence, and through all that precious period of childhood, while they are comparatively strangers to evil habits and associations, and yet how often do they fail to secure their standing in good habits and sound principles? How preposterous then, must be the expectation that the House of Refuge will take them, when their moral and intellectual nature is so completely perverted and corrupted, and thoroughly reform them in a few months!

Touching the employment of boys in the institution, and after they leave it, many difficulties are experienced. The modes of labor which are adopted, are, of course, fitted to the age and physical ability of such children, but are by no means calculated to prepare them for that sort of life, which most of them expect to lead. To remove them completely from the temptations and exposures of city life, is considered very desirable; and hence, to place them with farmers in the country, where the means of indulging vicious inclinations are supposed to be few and far between, is always preferred to placing them with mechanics, where they will be likely to find associates who will be the subjects or agents of corruption. But to bind a boy to a farmer till he is of age, is regarded by most parents as a very undesirable disposition to make of him, and when a boy is thus bound, he generally understands that his parents or friends will readily connive at his escape. The general wish is, that they should be bound to trades, if bound at all.

It seems to be admitted that, as a general thing, city boys are not likely to make good farmers, unless put to it very young, and by degrees accustomed to hard work. “The routine of labor pursued in the Refuge, does not seem fitted to prepare boys for that kind of life, to which the greater part of them are destined. A boy here, works from five to seven hours a day at very light work, in a room that is warmed and made comfortable in winter, and sheltered from the wet and heat of summer. He has from one to two hours for play every day, and an abundance of playmates. After living in this way about one year, (sometimes a little less, and sometimes more than a year,) he is bound to a farmer, who makes him work, perhaps ten or twelve hours in a day, and at labor which is much harder than any thing he has been accustomed to before. He has, perhaps, repeatedly been told, while in the Refuge, to behave well, and he should soon have a good place, and it has been told in such a way, that to be with a farmer is, in his mind, to be in a kind of paradise. But when he finds hard work, no time for play, frequent exposure to heat and cold, few or no companions, it is not strange that some are disappointed and disposed to abscond.”

In contrast with this mode of proceeding, our correspondent proposes the following outline. “If it were possible,” he says, “I would keep every boy at least three years, and I would have him understand, when he comes into the Refuge, that he must not expect to be discharged in less than three years, so that his mind should be at ease on that point. I would have them employed at trades, that would be useful to them after their discharge. In three years they would acquire so much knowledge of a common trade, that their services would become desirable to respectable mechanics. In three years, if properly disciplined, their habits of industry, obedience, &c., would acquire a degree of strength. They would become weaned from their old associates and habits. In three years the older ones, (if too old for apprentices,) would become sufficiently acquainted with their business to earn their living. Their parents would not feel that their time was lost. They would see, and the boys themselves would see, that they are acquiring that sort of knowledge that will be useful to them in after life. Many of our older boys think now, that their time is in a good degree lost. They know, indeed, that the intellectual education they acquire will be of service to them, but they feel, at the same time, that they are not learning any thing that will secure them a livelihood after their discharge.”

Among the obvious evils of a short continuance in the Refuge, (besides the impracticability of forming new habits in the children,) are, (1.) The state of constant restlessness in the alternation of hope and disappointment, respecting a release. Parents are permitted to visit their children once in two months, and in these visits the principal subject of conversation is about their “getting out.” The children are constantly urging their parents to have them released, and the parents are equally constant in promising to do so. This excites much uneasiness in the former, and neutralizes what would otherwise be the useful discipline of the house; and, (2.) The institution is deprived of the fruits of its good discipline as fast, nearly, as they appear. “By constantly sending out the best, we lose their influence, which might be of much service with the more vicious. If, in any community, the best members were constantly leaving, and only bad members coming in to supply their places, the condition of that community, with regard to morals, would become very low, if not hopeless.”

These opinions, formed from an intimate acquaintance with the practical working of the system, are entitled to weight. We do not adopt nor reject them. We do not say that any material modification of the present rules of admission, or of the form of discipline is practicable. But, if the views we have ever held respecting the design of a House of Refuge are just, viz., to rescue those whose childhood lies all open to evil examples and influences, and to put them under treatment, which shall resemble, in its main features, that of a good home, then are we clear, that a more rigid discrimination in the admission of inmates should be observed. The most hopeful subjects of such domestic discipline, are those who have not past into that stage of moral and intellectual stupor and impenetrability, on which ordinary sympathies fall as water-drops upon a marble slab. Notwithstanding the sad neglects and abuses they have suffered, there are still impulses in their young natures, which can be worked upon by kind words and approving smiles, and indeed, their present unhappy condition is owing, in no small measure, to the absence of such influences from the place which (for want of a better) they call their home. We have known cases, not a few, in which the manifestation of a real interest in the welfare of a child at a favorable moment, has been, in its effects, like the gushing forth of a living spring from the smitten rock. And it is in this view, that we most highly commend a recent measure in the institution, whose report is now under review, viz., the employment of an intelligent, judicious, capable female, to supervise with maternal care and tenderness the moral and physical condition of the boys.

We all know with how many chords the human heart is strung, which vibrate only to the soft breath of sympathy. A gentle accent—a trifling act of kindness, or even a glance of pity, will awaken their harmonies, and fill the heart of the rudest child with what may well pass for rapture. There is a period, however, at which these better feelings become comparatively incapable of excitement. They have either lost their vitality by abuse or neglect, or they have been overborne and swallowed up by the ebbless tide of vicious associations and indulgencies. The voice of virtuous charmers is no longer heard, charm they never so wisely.

But we cannot enlarge on this fruitful topic, suffice it to say that some of the defects of the present system are remediable, as we have already intimated, and others are inseparable from the very nature and design of the institution, and can only be set over against the greater good.

The report furnishes a very gratifying account of the progress which has been made in the erection of a new Refuge for Colored Juvenile Delinquents. A front view and ground plan of the structure accompanying our present number and the following general description of the arrangement of the various departments, may be interesting to our readers.

The site embraces eleven acres of ground, and is intended to afford ample room, (at some future time,) for a new Refuge for white children. The lot lies in the form of a parallelogram, 400 feet by 210, and is enclosed by a wall varying in height from 20½ to 30 feet.

“The arrangement of the buildings within the enclosure, which are all of brick, with slate roofs, is made with reference to a total separation of the boys and girls, and to the existence of three separate classes of both male and female inmates: the first (or best) and second classes each to have a play-ground and work-room, and the members of one class not to be allowed to converse with those of the other, on any occasion; the third class, consisting of the most depraved inmates, to be kept, until in a condition to warrant promotion to a higher class, in separate confinement, with a suitable allowance of out of door exercise for the preservation of health, said exercise to be taken in an enclosure specially designed for this purpose, where no conversation between the inmates shall be permitted.

“The numbers of these three classes which can be accommodated when the buildings marked on the plan shall be erected, as ultimately designed, are—

Boys. Girls.

1st Class 40 27

2d Class 56 45

3d Class 30 22

Total 126 94

“Dormitories for the first and second classes are at present provided for—

Boys. Girls.

1st Class 30 14

2d Class 42 22

Total 72 36

“The erection of all of the other buildings specified in the plan, was authorized, with reference to the accommodation of 250 inmates. They consist of—

“1. A main building, three stories in height, containing offices and chambers for the officers, school-rooms and infirmaries for the male and female inmates, a dining and sitting-room for the girls, &c.

“2. Two buildings projecting from the rear of the main building; the one in the male department, two stories in height, and containing the chapel and the boys’ dining-room; the other in the female department, three stories in height, and appropriated for the kitchen, the wash-room, store-rooms, &c.

“3. Two wings, each three stories in height; the one, in the female department, containing the dormitories and bathing-rooms for the girls; the other, in the male department, containing the boys’ dormitories.

“4. A building, two stories in height, near the southern wall of the male department, the first and second stories of which are designed for work-rooms, and the basement for a washing and bathing-room for the boys.

“A corridor, 12 feet in width, extends the whole length of the main building and wings, a distance of 243 feet.

“Many important points, in addition to the classification of the inmates, claimed the attention of the Board, in the preparation of the plan—e. g. security against the escape of the inmates, and their constant supervision by an officer at all times of the day; the proper ventilation and warming of all the apartments; provision for out of door exercise for the inmates in all states of the weather, &c. These, it is believed, have all been kept in view and provided for, in the plan adopted.

“The wall of enclosure, excepting the gate-way and a portion of the pointing, is completed; the work-shop is finished; and of all the other buildings the walls are up, the roofs on, and a small part of the flooring laid.”

Extracting flues, connecting with shafts leading to the external air, have been inserted in all the dormitories and other rooms, to ensure a good ventilation at all times; and suitable arrangements have also been made for heating the different apartments. We trust the Managers have succeeded in securing these two most important requisites to the health (physical and moral) of their new institution. A full supply of good water, fresh air and wholesome warmth, is what every institution of the kind wants; and yet in one or more of them almost all are deficient.

The second document, at the head of the present article, shows a prosperous state of the institution of which it treats. The whole number of children and youth who have found refuge within its walls is 4,397. Of these, 568 were under its care, at different periods, during the year 1848. The number remaining January 1, 1849, was 355; and 213 were disposed of during the year. The chief branches of labor are, making and seating chair frames and manufacturing razor strops. Among the improvements of the year is the introduction of a small steam engine, to relieve the severity of some parts of the labor, which is not unfrequently prejudicial to the immature strength of the inmates.

The disbursements of the year amounted to $22,896 10, and the receipts $24,122 32. Of the latter sum, $7,198 77 is from the labor of the inmates, $7,323 83 from the State, $4,600 from the city of New York, and $4,026 50 from theatre and circus licenses. The chief items of expense were food and provisions, $9,106 41; salaries, $4,875 89; clothing, $2,297 90.

The importance of more perfect classification and separation, especially among the female inmates, is urged. “Contact with the older and more depraved of their sex, is, for obvious reasons, far more destructive to young and comparatively innocent females than to males.”2

In confirmation of the views we have presented in a former part of this article, we cite the following passage from the report now before us.

“This is the proper place to allude to a practice of which we have already complained more than once—that of sending to the Refuge, from mistaken ideas of humanity, subjects so far advanced in years and in crime as to give but faint hopes of their own reformation, while by example and influence they are calculated to do infinite harm to others. Those who have travelled long and far on the downward road of vice, are most unfit companions for such as have been arrested at the outset of their guilty career. It is to guide and to reclaim the latter, that houses of refuge are established; the reformation of the former must be attempted in other places and by other means. To this practice of sending to the refuge hardened offenders, whose proper place is a State prison, the managers ascribe the frequency of attempts to escape. Many sent to us as boys, are men in size and strength, impatient of restraint, reckless of consequences, hardened, daring and ingenious in all mischief. While such subjects are sent us, to corrupt, to organize, and to lead the younger and more orderly, attempts at escape will continue to be made, and in spite of all the vigilance of the officers, will occasionally be successful.

“The rapid increase of crime in our city, and the constantly augmenting numbers of vicious and vagrant youth, is a subject of serious contemplation. It would be serious enough, if it only kept pace with the astonishing increase of our population, but it even outstrips it. There is no way of getting at complete statistics in this matter, but all the details that can be obtained confirm this view. Thus there were committed to prison in the city, including those sent before trial, and after sentence, and excluding summary convictions,

in 1835, 2387 persons,

in 1844, 9153 persons.

During this time the population increased from 270,089 to 312,710 (in 1845) or about 35.1 per cent., while the increase in crime was 354.6 per cent. The average number of inmates in the Tombs was, in 1846, 174; in 1848, 216, an increase of 21.2 per cent. in two years, or over three times the growth of the city, which of late was about 6.90 per cent. for two years. This startling disproportion, is more or less true of all large cities. It is a law of our social state, that growing prosperity shall find its drawback in the parallel increase of misery; and that crowded communities, as they offer the most liberal rewards to good conduct and enterprise, so shall contain likewise the most seeds of evil, the strongest temptations to vice, the largest amount of misery. And besides our own neglected and depraved population, the tide of emigration, now setting in stronger and stronger every year, while it enriches our country, leaves much of its refuse in our city. Pauper families, and even felons, are not unfrequently sent over to us, as a cheap way of disposing of them, by the selfishness or mistaken humanity of those whose duty it is to provide for them at home, thus swelling the number of houseless, friendless and lawless youth, drifting loose upon society, to become utterly ship-wrecked, unless the active hand of benevolence is stretched out to save them.”

Of those children received in 1848, 209 were boys, (192 white and 17 colored,) and 55 were girls, (45 white and 10 colored.) 140 of the whole number were from the Police and Sessions of the city, and of the white children only THIRTY-NINE were of American parentage. 127 were of Irish birth! Of 141 boys discharged, 53 were indentured to farmers, 14 to shoemakers, and 19 sent to sea; and of 47 girls discharged, 33 were indentured to housewifery. The average age of the inmates received during 1848, was thirteen and two and a half twelfths years. Seventy-seven were over fifteen when received.

New House of Refuge at Rochester.—Our readers are perhaps aware, that an institution similar to the present House of Refuge in New York, is about to be established in Rochester for the accommodation of the Western counties of the State. A friend has kindly furnished us with the following description of the buildings, &c. Mr. Wood, the present superintendent of the New York House of Refuge, is expected to take charge of the new establishment, and the discipline will probably be substantially the same. An appropriation is expected at the present session of the legislature, that will enable inmates to be received this spring. No provision is yet made for females.

“At present,” says our correspondent, “they have only erected a main or centre building and one wing. The whole length of this building is 234 feet. Main building 86 by 60 feet. Wing 148 by 32 feet, terminated by a building 37 feet square. The basement of stone, 10 feet in the clear, walls above of brick. The basement in the main building is intended for the culinary department; that in the wing for wash-rooms, bathing-room and workshops. The first and second floors of the main building are divided into four rooms, with suitable closets, and three halls, with staircases. The main hall in the centre is 15 feet wide; side halls to communicate with the wings 12 feet wide. The rooms on the first floor of the main building are intended for superintendent, matron, &c. The rooms on second story for hospitals and sleeping-rooms for the officers of the institution. The upper or third story of main building is intended for a chapel, 60 by 60 feet, the entrance to which is from the side hall.

“The first story of the wing is divided into two rooms for school and dining rooms, each 70 by 30 feet. In second story of wing are the dormitories for the inmates, two tiers in height, and 86 in number, arranged next the outside wall. Hall 15 feet wide in the centre. Each dormitory is 7½ feet wide and 7½ feet high, and is furnished with a narrow window reaching from floor to ceiling. Dormitory doors are of cast-iron open work for summer ventilation, allowing the air to pass directly across the building; in addition, each dormitory is supplied with fresh air, descending from the cornice by iron pipes, and passing through the iron doors. This building is surrounded by a stone wall, four feet thick at the foundation and tapering to two feet at the top, 23 feet from the foundation, and 20 feet above ground. The wall is 500 feet long and 400 feet wide, embracing about 4½ acres of land, and cost $12,000. The building, as above described, cost $26,000. The whole is a most perfect piece of workmanship in every respect, built in the very best manner, and is considered a most complete model for such a purpose.

“Attached are 40 acres of land, which it is intended the inmates shall cultivate, thus affording them a healthy employment, and, at the same time, furnishing a supply of vegetables, &c., to the institution. The buildings are situated about a mile from the centre of business, in a fine dry sandy soil.”

We had prepared a sketch of the proceedings at the opening of the State Reform School in Massachusetts, and of the discipline, &c., prescribed there, together with a view and ground plan of the buildings, but our limits are so contracted as to forbid its appearance in the present number.

Art. II.—MORTALITY AND CRIME.

It is not generally known, although the fact has been sufficiently demonstrated by different vital statisticians, that great annual mortality is accompanied by a proportionate increase of births, so that the population is kept at its usual average even if it does not increase. One effect of this mortality and increase of births is the disproportion between the numbers of the young, the improvident, and the thoughtless, and the older, more prudent and considerate. Mr. Slaney, in his report on Birmingham and other towns, made to the commissioners for inquiry into the state of large towns and populous districts, after referring to Mr. Chadwick’s exposure of the popular fallacy, that the sufferings caused by disease, especially among the poor, restrained the increase of population, says: “I have constantly observed, wherever the mortality was high in close, narrow, neglected courts and alleys, there the children swarmed, as if to fill up the places; and it has been demonstrated again and again, that a high mortality in an increasing country, only leads to a great increase of births.” After this preliminary notice, the reader will be able to understand the force of the following remarks on the connection between mortality, (including, of course, its physical and moral causes,) and crime.

Mr. Slaney contrasts the two classes or kinds of inhabitants of the same city, in the one of which the annual mortality is but two, and in the other four per cent. “We shall find the rate of mortality one great criterion of comfort, therefore, of contentment, of good conduct, of moral habits, of intelligence, docility, usefulness and value.”

“In the one case we shall find a population having little to complain of, ready to attend to advice, having had time to learn and to think, having experience from lengthened life, and being valuable subjects, docile and industrious, possessing their chief safe-guard against tumults or disorders, ‘the hope of improving their condition.’ In the other will be found a body, consisting in a great measure of the young, who cannot repay their support; a large proportion of the rest will be inexperienced, untaught, untried, having had no time to learn or to think. All will be more or less reckless, and hard in mind and conduct; they have been formed by the cautious course of circumstances around them; poison to the mind, to the body, has been the course of their only education. Their maxim will be the heathen maxim of old, ‘Eat and drink, to-morrow we die;’ forced by their necessities to labor, experience and wisdom will be wanting; they will not husband their wages, but seek for excitement in intemperance, or low sensual indulgences; their consumption of spirits will be ten times that of the happier class. The gratification of their animal passions will be their chief object; illicit connections will be formed; early ill assorted marriages will take place without any chance of provision for offspring; there will arise multitudes of sickly and neglected children, pressing into the place of those early victims just departed, and to be cut off by the same melancholy process; and thus the scene revolves. This class will eagerly join in mobs or disturbances, partly for the sake of excitement, and because they have not that security for good conduct—the hope of improving their condition.”

Dr. Lyon Playfair, one of the commissioners, in his report on the large town in Lancashire, remarks: “The tendency to crime is increased by the comparatively few old and experienced men left to counteract the haste and inexperience of youth. In the recent mobs in Lancashire, the great majority of the rioters were found to consist of persons just emerging from boyhood; the absence of elderly persons among them was a matter of common remark. Mr. Combe has observed, that the comparative paucity of aged and cautious persons is the cause of the inconsiderate and turbulent movements in America. The obstacles in the spread of education are, also, connected with these causes.”

Dr. Playfair said previously, “The facts exhibited in the preceding sections, will, I apprehend, convincingly show, that a crowded and unhealthy district, with all its inevitable accompaniments of low morals and low intelligence—where the condition of human beings is scarcely above that of animals—where appetite and instinct occupy the place of the higher feelings—where the lowest means of support encourage the most improvident and early marriages,—is not the place where we shall find a diminishing or even stationary population. For the early unions there, are followed by early offspring; and although more than half that offspring may be swept away by disease during early infancy, yet nearly a third of it will grow up, in spite of all the surrounding evils, to follow in the steps of their parents, and in their turn to continue a race ignorant, miserable and immoral as themselves.” In a note, Dr. Playfair makes the following estimate. “If we suppose a district of 50,000 inhabitants, with births as 1 in 22, and deaths as 1 in 33—a ratio not actually as unfavorable as that of Holme—a little calculation will show that, by the end of twelve years, the population will have swollen it to nearly 60,000!”

Sameness of the Causes of Crime and of Disease.—Dr. Lyon Playfair, in the report already referred to, says expressly: “All the experience acquired during this inquiry, points out that one immediate effect of the operation of morbific causes, even when not present in sufficient intensity to produce direct disease, is to create an appetite for vicious indulgences. It is too common a mistake to transpose the effect for the cause, and to ascribe the disease to the indulgence of those passions, which, in the first place, were created by the low sanatory state of the district.”

To the same purport are the pointed conclusions of Mr. Slaney. He had just been describing the low class of dwellings of the poor and the wretched, and the self-interest of small capitalists to prefer the erection of these to ones of a better description. He goes on to say:

“I have endeavored to describe some of the evils arising from the want of proper sanatory regulations in many of these crowded and neglected places. They may be summed up as follows:

“1st. Shortening the duration of the lives of the community.

“2nd. Disease, suffering and inability to work on the part of many who survive—the cause of great cost to the country.

“3d. Crimes, theft, and the loss of property, which the police constantly point out as arising from these neglected classes.

“4th. Riots, disturbances and drunkenness, which may generally be traced to the same class of persons, often to the same place.

“5th. Great injury to the education of the poor, which is constantly neutralized in its good effects by the neglect and evils they see around them. The same observation applies to the inestimable advantages of religion and of attendance on religious worship.

“6th. Great discontent in some, and sluggish apathy in others, producing recklessness of conduct, indifference, and want of attachment to the institutions of our country.

“7th. The loss in the humbler classes of the cheapest, best and most enduring pleasures, viz., those arising from the kindly influence of the domestic relations between husbands and wives, parents and children, brothers and sisters—this pure source of happiness derived from mutual kindness, attachment and good offices—is, amid the hardening and disgusting scenes described, almost destroyed.

“Amid such scenes, the children become hardened, careless of cleanliness, unused to order, and all the benefits derived from the best education which may be given, is destroyed by the constant evil examples they see around their homes. This is especially the case with the female sex, who, if early tainted by the disgusting scenes existing in the places described, and by the want of all decency and self-respect there exhibited, become at a future day, the nursing mothers of vice and wretchedness, instead of inculcating the household virtues.”

The sameness of the causes of diseases and of crime, are clearly indicated by the Rev. Mr. Clay in his report in the borough of Preston, as where he says:—

“A map of the town has been made, shaded in those districts which are ill ventilated, drained and cleaned; the increased depth of tint indicating a proportionate degree of dirtiness, &c. The number of deaths in the respective streets is also given, every blue spot representing a death from fever or epidemic disease, and the red spots showing the frequency of death from other disorders. The residences of persons charged with offences during the last year are also indicated, and the whole tends to show, that dirt, disease and crime are concurrent.”

Overcrowding and Defective Ventilation.—Dr. Southwood Smith, in his evidence before the commissioners for “Inquiring into the state of large towns and populous districts,” adduces the following painful, but yet instructive observations. We reproduce them here, not merely as a warning against a remote, or even a threatened evil, but with the hope of stimulating our fellow-citizens to the adoption of such measures as shall eradicate similar nuisances too near their own doors.

“I wish particularly,” Dr. S. Smith states, “to draw attention to the importance of having a certain number of rooms in the dwelling-houses of the poor, though I am aware of the difficulty of legislating on this matter, and of the still greater difficulty of carrying out practically what the legislature may declare to be its intention and will. Still it is right, that the attention of the legislature and other public bodies should be called to the physical deterioration and moral degradation, which results from the want of proper room in the dwelling-houses of the poor. Besides the evidence on this subject, which has been published in the report on the sanitary condition of the laboring population, a large mass of evidence to the same effect will be found in the reports of the sub-commissioners under the Children’s Employment Commission, and in the statements of a great number of witnesses examined by them. Instances such as the following are given: ‘A mother and her son, being an adult, sleep in the same bed. Grown-up females and unmarried young men sleep in the same room. A man, his wife, and his wife’s sister, the latter being an adult, sleep together in the same bed.’ I have myself seen, a young man, twenty years of age, sleeping in the same bed with his sister, a young woman, sixteen or seventeen years old. That incestuous intercourse takes place under these circumstances, there is too much reason to believe; and that when unmarried young men and women sleep together in the same room, the women become common to the men, is stated as a positive fact; but I regard another inevitable effect of this state of things as no less pernicious; it is one of the instances which, for want of a better term, may be called unhumanizing, because it tends to weaken and destroy the feelings and affections which are distinctive of the human being, and which raise him above the level of the brute. I have sometimes checked myself in the wish, that men of high station and authority, would visit these abodes of the less fortunate fellow-creatures, and witness with their own eyes the scenes presented there; for I have thought the same end might be answered in a way less disagreeable to them. They have only to visit the Zoological Gardens, and observe the state of society in that large room, which is appropriated to a particular class of animals, where every want is relieved, and every appetite and passion gratified, in full view of the whole community. In the filthy and crowded streets, in our large towns and cities, you see human faces retrograding, sinking down to the level of those brute tribes; and you find manners appropriate to the degradation. Can any one wonder that there is among these classes of the people so little intelligence—so slight an approach to humanity—so total an absence of domestic affection, and of moral and religious feeling? The experiment has been long tried on a large scale with a dreadful success, affording the demonstration, that if, from early infancy, you allow human beings to live like brutes, you can degrade them down to their level, leaving to them scarcely more intellect, and no feelings and affections proper to human minds and hearts.”

Dr. Lyon Playfair adduces instances of the crowding of persons in the same room, without even the plea of necessity. They are not, he informs us, the most extreme cases of the kind.3

In Preston, out of 442 dwellings examined in unhealthy localities, and inhabited at the time of the inquiry by 2400 persons sleeping in 852 beds, it appeared that

In 84 cases 4 persons slept in the same bed,

In 28 “ 5 “ “ “

In 13 “ 6 “ “ “

In 3 “ 7 “ “ “

In 1 “ 8 “ “ “

“Amidst the dirt and disease of filthy back courts and alleys, vices and crimes are lurking,” says the Rev. Mr. Clay, “altogether unimagined by those who have never visited such abodes.” The inspectors of prisons in Scotland, from separate inquiries, have also come to the conclusion, that the physical causes of disease, indirectly become the causes of crime.

Public Lodging Houses, are another prolific source of disease and vice. They are, in nearly all large cities, the nightly resorts not only of the migrating laborer, and travelling artisan, but, also, of the lower mendicants, thieves, and prostitutes. These resorts are well known to the criminal police. In 1831, Mr. James knew a house of this description in London, to contain 126 persons, many of them women and children, and perhaps not more than a dozen beds in the place. At the census of 1841, there were not more than 30 to 40 in any of these houses; “still these numbers crowd the houses most annoyingly.” It is no uncommon thing, as we learn from Dr. Duncan, (Report on the Sanatory State of Liverpool,) for the keepers of lodging houses to cover the floor with straw, and allow as many human beings as can manage to pack themselves together, to take up their quarters for the night, at the charge of a penny each. The havoc made by the cholera in the lodging houses at Manchester, in 1832, was terrible. In some of these houses, as many as 6 or 8 beds were contained in a single room, which are crowded promiscuously with men, women, and children. Dr. Howard, after showing the lamentable extent to which they become the hot-beds of febrile diseases of the most violent and fatal character, owing mainly to their filthy and unventilated condition, thus describes the morals of their frequenters, and their malign influence in this way on the young and inexperienced. “They serve as open receptacles of crime, vice, and profligacy, and as nurseries in which the young and yet uninitiated, become familiar with every species of immorality. They are the haunts of the most depraved and abandoned characters, as well as the most miserable and suffering objects of the town, (Manchester,) and constitute one of the most influential causes of the physical and moral degradation of our laboring population.”

Unless we are misinformed, the investigations now making by the Board of Health of Philadelphia, will reveal a state of things, not much behind, although on a smaller scale, those described in the foregoing extracts; and as regards New York, Dr. Griscom’s report, made a few years ago, exhibits a still darker picture. With the warnings on the other side of the Atlantic to deter us, we ought to have kept clear of these nuisances entirely. Let us, as we have imitated the people of Great Britain for evil, imitate them also for good, by instituting the same searching inquiries into the nature and extent of these physical and moral corruptions, that are recorded in the proceedings of the various Parliamentary committees and Royal Commissioners.

In Glasgow, the lodging houses have been subjected to regular municipal supervision and ordinance, and, as we are told, with excellent effects.

Art. III.—STATE PENITENTIARIES.

I. The Twentieth Annual Report of the Inspectors of the Eastern State Penitentiary of Pennsylvania, transmitted to the Senate and House of Representatives. March 1849, pp. 36.

II. Report of the Board of Inspectors of the Western Penitentiary of Pennsylvania, for the year 1848, with the accompanying documents. Pittsburg, 1849, pp. 21.

III. Report on the condition of the New Jersey State Prison, embracing the Reports of the Joint Committee, Inspectors, Keeper, Moral Instructor and Physician. Trenton, January 1849, pp. 44.

IV. Documents relating to the State Prison. Senate of Massachusetts, Document No. 5, pp. 24.

I. The first document in the above list is worthy of a much more extended notice than our limits allow us to give. We shall notice its constituent parts in their order.

(1.) In their report the inspectors refer with natural interest to the opening of the State Lunatic Asylum, which is expected to be completed as early as January 1851. For want of it, “instances have occurred in which the sheriff has been the medium of a message from the judge who pronounced the sentence, to the chief officer of the prison, informing him that the prisoner was insane, but that no other mode of providing for the case existed.”

The subject of pardons occupies a prominent place in their report. It appears that but a fraction over six per cent. of the pardoned have been recommitted; and the percentage of pardons in relation to number, sex and color, cannot be so well set forth in any other way as by transferring the table to our pages.

Table showing the whole number of pardons granted from the establishment of the prison in 1829 to 9th July, 1848.

Year. Whole number in confinement. No. of pardons. Annul average per centage.

Whites. Colored. Total, both colors. Whites. Col’d.

M. F. Tot. M. F. Tot. M. F. Tot. M. F. Tot.

1831 75 75 25 4 29 104 1 1

1832 90 90 27 4 31 121 4 4

1833 129 129 41 4 45 174 2 2

1834 189 189 81 2 83 272 8 8 1 1

1835 261 8 269 155 11 166 435 10 10 4 4 2.38

1836 278 11 289 179 19 198 487 2 1 3

1837 320 8 328 199 19 218 546 4 1 5

1838 333 11 344 199 22 221 565 10 10

1839 241 6 247 150 16 166 413 2 2 1.26

to Jan. 15th.

1839 335 9 344 214 30 244 588 9 9 1 1

1840 331 8 339 203 31 234 573 19 19

1841 293 6 299 171 32 203 502 11 1 12 1 1

1842 298 5 303 153 21 174 477 20 20 2 1 3

1843 319 6 325 146 16 162 487 15 15

1844 332 12 344 136 17 153 497 39 39 4 3 7

1845 230 10 240 97 11 108 348 23 1 24 2 2 5.37

to Jan. 21.

1845 305 15 320 113 16 129 449 5 5

1846 321 14 335 110 16 126 461 24 1 25

1847 297 9 306 113 13 126 432 20 20 5 5

1848 245 8 253 97 12 103 356 6 1 7 4.08

to July 9th.

During the year 1848, there were received 121 convicts, viz., 88 whites (two females), and 33 colored (three females), and 128 were discharged. Of these, 83 served out their time; 13 were pardoned; 11 discharged by order of law; 15 died from disease, and one was a suicide. The whole number of convicts in confinement during the year was 415, viz., 299 white and 116 colored. Of the 16 deaths, 10 were whites and 6 colored.

(2.) The warden’s report shows that of the 121 convicts received, 32 were foreigners, and 56 were natives of Pennsylvania. Ninety-one were under middle age; 96 were of intemperate habits; 76 could read and write; 60 were unmarried. Only 14 were bound and served their time out; 13 were bound and broke their indentures; and 96 were never bound.

Some curious facts appear in the various summaries which these details embrace. For example, of the 2,421 prisoners received into the institution from its opening in October 1829, 619 could neither read nor write; 2,020 were addicted to the use of intoxicating drinks; 460, or more than one-sixth, were foreigners; and of these last, Ireland supplied 199 and Germany 112. Seventeen hundred and twenty-nine were first convictions; 1,451 were never married; and 18 had been married and separated; 1,631 were whites (48 females) and 790 colored (86 females); 467 broke their indentures, and 1,569 were never bound. Of the 2,421 crimes, 2,000 were against property.

(3.) Next in order is the physician’s report, in which special reference is made to the inordinate length of sentences, when the nature of the discipline is duly considered. Dr. Given thinks the coloured prisoners as a class, suffer a double burden, inasmuch as their sentences are longer and the enervating influence of imprisonment is more severely felt by them,—and he furnishes the following items on this subject.

Whole number of white prisoners, 1631

Whole number of colored prisoners, 790

Average length of sentences of white prisoners, 2 y., 8 ms., 2 days.

Average length of sentences of colored prisoners, 3 y., 3 ms., 14 days.

Whole number of pardons of white prisoners, 253

Whole number of pardons of colored prisoners, 25

Whole number of deaths of white prisoners, 73

Whole number of deaths of colored prisoners, 141

The Doctor is disposed to vindicate the exercise of the pardoning power, even to a still greater extent than heretofore, unless the need of its exercise is taken away by a proper adjustment of the penal code to the penal discipline of the State. We are not prepared to say how far it would be safe to entrust the executive with power to remedy the errors or supply the defects of the Legislature, but if it is given, its extent should be clearly defined, and its exercise closely watched. We do not make this remark with any reference to the past. It is suggested by the idea, advanced in the report before us, that the pardoning power must needs be freely exercised, to compensate for the undue severity of the sentences. It is easy to see where such a doctrine would lead if followed out. We do not doubt the correctness of the statement, that the sentences at present prescribed by our laws, are quite too long and too indiscriminately inflicted, if we take into consideration the nature and efficacy of the discipline under which they are to be worked out; but in our haste to remedy the evil, we need to be cautious, lest we incur another and even a greater, because a more general and radical one. We hope this distinct call of attention to the subject, will awaken our legislators to early and efficient action. Where crying injustice is now done under color of law, a double wrong is inflicted on society. The agent and the instrument, become alike odious.

Dr. Given seconds the movement of the inspectors towards some relief from the commitment of insane convicts. He speaks of it not as a thing happening now and then, but as “A PRACTICE to send thither as criminals, persons notoriously insane or idiotic.” He also suggests the importance of some more suitable provision than now exists, for those who may become insane during their imprisonment.

Of the 15 deaths by disease, eleven were more or less diseased on admission. The mortality for 1847 and 1848, gives a mean of 4 per cent., which is the usual average. In respect to insanity, Dr. Given’s researches show, that of the 121 commitments during the year, 30 have had insane relatives;—10 cousins, 10 uncles or aunts, 5 parents, 4 mothers or sisters, and 1 grandparents.

Ten cases of insanity are reported, 5 whites and 5 blacks, average age, 25. Four were in imperfect health when admitted; one has an insane uncle, and two have an insane brother; 5 are stated as cases of dementia, and 5 as cases of monomania.

(4.) The moral instructor’s report informs us, that 288 sermons have been preached in the prison, which is an average of 48 to each corridor, and nearly one service for every Sabbath of the year. The whole number of visits recorded as having been paid by this officer to the convicts, in the course of the year, is 3,385.

II. The condition of the Western Penitentiary, is exceedingly gratifying. The inspectors allude briefly to the animadversions which have been made upon the Pennsylvania system; but they express their confidence, that the happy results which have attended its administration in that institution, will excite in the public mind the same confidence in the advantages of that system over all others, which long experience and personal observation has excited in theirs.

The number of convicts received during the year 1848, (all males,) was 55—discharged in the same time, 52. Of 1,286 prisoners received from the opening of the prison, July 1826, only 22 have been white females; and only 215 colored convicts, of whom 37 were females. Of the 115 in confinement January 1, 1849, 88 were addicted to intemperance; 44 were natives of Pennsylvania, and of the 55 received during the year, 32 were unmarried. In respect to occupation, 42 of the 115 were laborers, 15 boatmen, 6 blacksmiths, 5 tailors. Of the 55 received during the year, 38 were under middle age.

The physician’s report shows, that among 167 prisoners in confinement during the year, only 4 deaths have occurred. Two of the four were thoroughly diseased when admitted, a third was of a consumptive family and died of consumption, and the fourth was sixty-one years old, of intemperate habits and died of apoplexy. A complete table is presented by the physician, showing the color, sex, duration of imprisonment, and state of health on reception and discharge of each prisoner, released by expiration of sentence or by pardon, from which it appears, that, with one exception, they were all received and discharged in good health. Among these there were eleven, one or both of whose parents died of consumption, two who were intemperate, and one very intemperate, and their average term of imprisonment was eighteen months. Six were in better health when discharged than when admitted, and one, who was partially insane when admitted, was discharged in good health.

As a striking illustration of the healthfulness of the institution, the physician states that between sixty and seventy different convicts have been employed during the year in the shoe department, and forty-eight or fifty on a daily average; “of this number only four have failed in consequence of indisposition, to perform their full task of work. Throughout the year every other than the four referred to have performed their regularly allotted task.” We are not surprised that the medical officer thinks it proper to italicise a record of so remarkable a measure of health.

From the moral instructor’s report, we extract a single, but very sensible paragraph.

“It is not unfrequently the case that subjects which have been presented in the ministrations of the Sabbath, are called up by the prisoners themselves during the daily visitation in their cells, and thus the opportunity is furnished of impressing upon their minds, when alone, that heavenly truth which may ultimately bring them to repentance and to God. In this feature of the separate system, one of its principal excellencies consists. The prisoner, by himself, separated from all vicious influences, is far better prepared to receive and retain wholesome instruction than when surrounded by men of a moral cast like his own. If the reformation of convicts be accomplished at all, it must be done, as a general rule, by those moral influences which are made to reach him, when and where intercourse with the vicious is cut off. In this situation he will listen, reflect and reform.”

III. The New Jersey Penitentiary, at Trenton, received 108 convicts during the year just past; and had 176 in confinement December 31, 1848, which is 23 more than at the close of 1847. Of the 85 discharged during the year, 71 had completed their sentences, twelve were pardoned, (two on the day before their sentence expired,) and two died. Of 176 in confinement at the date of the report, 99 were received in 1848, and 38 in 1847. Eighty-six were for crimes against property, 142 for a first offence, 127 were under middle age and 42 were foreigners. In respect to color, 123 were whites, (114 males and 9 females,) and 53 were colored, (one a female.) Sixty-six had no trade or occupation. The available means of the prison, at the close of the year, were upwards of six thousand dollars.

The physician’s report states, that “but one death occurred during the year and that a suicide. From diseases contracted within the prison, (where there are under discipline 260 persons,) do not average one a year.” The physician says, that “all experience has proved steam to be the best carrier of heat, and by far the most certain and economical.”—p. 43.

The report of the Rev. Mr. Starr, (the moral instructor,) is quite a valuable and intelligent document. We cannot refrain from copying a single paragraph, touching the advantages of separation as an element of prison discipline, especially in its relations to moral and religious instruction.

“The chances of amendment under the separate system, duly sustained, must be incalculably greater than where companies of men are congregated in their workshops. The plan is severe; but, to use a paradoxical phrase, it is a mild severity. The less abandoned are shut out from association with the hardened, who may have spent years in familiarity with crime. Each man has his books and his thoughts and his conscience for companions. His keepers, his physician when in sickness, his moral instructor, the superintendent of his daily labor, he soon learns all are his friends. A great deal is in their power, through the pleasant look, the friendly salutation, and the kind interest manifested in those little alleviations which in no degree interfere with the strictest and most wholesome discipline. The prisoner’s self-respect will thus be encouraged and cultivated, as he sees that he is not by all the world regarded in the light of a hopeless outcast. He may be inspired with the noble ambition of regaining his character, and leading in future a reputable life. Such like benefits can be extended with four-fold advantage in the separate plan of imprisonment, while its solitude is relieved by the kind offices of a sympathizing friendship.”

IV. The inspectors of the Massachusetts State prison at Charlestown, make a very favorable report of the health of body and mind of the convicts under their care. “The favorite system of congregate labor and lenient discipline, established in our prison,” they say, “has fully answered the high expectations of its most zealous advocates. Every year brings with it new proofs of its practicability, and of its great superiority over any and every other that differs from it.”

None will dissent, we presume, from the remark of the inspectors, that “it should be remembered by all those who are intrusted with the high prerogative of administering punishment, that the convict in the prison is sentenced by the law to expiate his crime by confinement and hard labor, and that every degree of punishment beyond what is needful for the due execution of this sentence, and the attainment of the best ends to be answered by it, is excessive, is beyond the sentence and intention of the law, and is without law or justice.”

The number of convicts received during the year ending September 30, 1848, was 122; number discharged during the year 129; remaining, 281. Of those discharged, 94 were by expiration and 27 by remission of sentence, 2 were removed to the lunatic asylum, 2 escaped, and 3 died. Of the 281 in prison, 22 are negroes, and 8 mulattoes, 203 are below middle age, and 228 are for crimes against property! Seventy-one are foreigners, of whom 30 are from Ireland. Of the employments, 72 are stone-cutters, 20 blacksmiths, 69 cabinet-makers and upholsterers, 21 brush makers, 9 “solitary prison-sweepers.”

The report of the warden concerning the twenty-seven who were (during the year) pardoned, is very encouraging. “All but one are doing well—are obtaining a livelihood by honest labor, and are becoming respected citizens in the communities where they reside.” Forty volumes have been purchased during the year for the use of the prisoners, among which we notice the Autobiography of Goethe, Bushnell’s Christian Nurture, and Vestiges of Natural History.

The warden is of opinion that the lives of the three prisoners who died was prolonged by their imprisonment, as they had been long diseased!

The prison suffered a serious loss by fire during the year, and from this and other causes the revenue of the institution is less than the expenses by $4,242 79.

The physician’s report is a modest and sensible document, evidently prepared with care. The sickness of the prison would be represented by an average of four patients a day in the hospital. Four hundred and twenty-five days of light labor were prescribed during the year, and about the same number of changes of labor. The general average of convicts during the year was 287; and Dr. Bemis thinks his report shows “a fair average degree of health fully equal to that of the community at large, and vastly superior to what would have been enjoyed by the same class of men in pursuit of their usual modes of living when at large.”—p. 21.

The three deaths were of consumption.

The following remarkable statement from the physician’s report, we cannot refrain from transferring to our pages.

“The average period of imprisonment of all those sentenced for life to the State Prison, since 1818, (amounting to 125,) has not exceeded seven years. Nineteen of this number have died in the Prison after an average confinement of seven years.”

The supply of a substantial suit of clothes and a sum of money, not exceeding five dollars, to each discharged convict, occasioned an expenditure last year of more than five hundred dollars. In consequence of the frequent instances in which the money thus furnished is spent indiscreetly, it has lately been proposed in the Legislature to entrust the dispensation of this bounty to the “Boston Society for the relief of discharged convicts,” and a bill was introduced for that purpose. We have not learned its fate. From a cotemporary print we learn that, in consequence of the great increase in the number of convicts at the Charlestown prison, it has become necessary to use other accommodations than those which belong to the prison proper.4 The chief cause assigned for this increase is intemperance.

State Prison of Michigan.—It is said that 128 convicts are confined in the Michigan State Prison, and that the annual deficiency in the receipts ranges from $5,000 to $10,000. The Governor thinks that this sum is not more than a reasonable profit upon convict-labor, considering what is made in other State Penitentiaries within his knowledge! -