number, three have been killed and ten injured. The three reported killed were all out of this State, consequently I do not know any of the circumstances connected with either case. Of the ten injured, one was out of this State, and each of the other nine, the accidents could be charged to carelessness of the passengers themselves.

It will be noticed that quite a large number of the accidents are the result of people walking upon the track, and I am very firm in my conviction, that if a law was passed punishing, by a small fine, any persons walking upon the road, except at grade crossings, the result would be the saving of life and limb, and beneficial in every respect. I cannot close my report without referring to the death of the Hon. Wingate Hayes. He has been so long identified with the railroad interests of our State, so long counsel for some of our leading corporations, so thoroughly conversant with railroad laws and usages, so fully interested in the railroad growth and prosperity of our State, that I feel that his death creates a loss which will long be felt.

All of which is respectfully submitted,

HENRY STAPLES,

Railroad Commissioner.

PROVIDENCE, December 31, 1877.

FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT

OF THE

RHODE ISLAND STATE PRISON COMMISSION,

MADE TO THE

GENERAL ASSEMBLY

AT ITS

JANUARY SESSION, 1878.

PROVIDENCE:

E. L. FREEMAN & CO., PRINTERS TO THE STATE.

Rhode Island State Prison Commission Report.

PROVIDENCE, January 31, 1878.

To the Honorable the General Assembly of the State of Rhode Island, at its January Session, A., D. 1878:

The State Prison Commission herewith presents its fourth annual report, with an account of the doings of the Commission and of the progress of the work on the new State Prison, during the year 1877.

During the year 1877, the Commission held forty regular meetings. The attendance of the members of the Commission upon these forty meetings was as follows: Snow, 39 meetings; Brayton, 34; Greene, 37; Chace, 38; Woodbury, 38 meetings.

Besides attendance upon the stated meetings, the different members of the Commission have devoted 232 days, during the year, to the business of building the prison, in addition to the time of Mr. Greene as agent of the Commission.

Mr. Oren A. Ballou, a member of the Commission, died on Wednesday, February 21, 1877. He was appointed in August, 1875, in place of Hon. William B. Lawton, deceased. Mr. Ballou was sick for some months before his decease, his last meeting with the Commission being December 4, 1876.

At the meeting of the Commission, March 3, 1877, Mr. Allen Greene, of Providence, presented his credentials from the Governor as a member of the Commission in the place of Mr. Oren A. Ballou, deceased.