ventilated, in which to have placed it. The operation was performed during the very hot weather in July, and although we put the patient in the largest and most airy cell in the building, it was very evident on entering, that ventilation was quite imperfect, especially so at night, when it was necessary to close the door in order to secure the nurses. The case of this patient, I think, urgently suggests the necessity of a hospital apartment to which the seriously sick may be removed for treatment."

"It is quite enervating to be confined in a narrow cell, where very little active exercise can be taken, and that cell kept at a temperature uncomfortably low. Such is the case in most of the cells in the south wing in very cold weather.

ministration here, the cells were oil, burned in small lamps.

When you commenced your adlighted with an inferior quality of Would it not be well to introduce

gas? It would certainly add to the convenience and health of the Prison."

The moral instructor's report contains a paragraph on conducting the correspondence of prisoners, which we extract, as important.

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"I have continued to write letters to the friends of all such prisoners as have desired it. . . . In most cases these written expressions of affection are met with a true and generous sympathy, a sympa. thy most grateful in its relief to the troubled heart, and which gives the best encouragement to resolves for future well doing; but in many instances I have observed what has seemed to me a heartless disregard of the prisoner's feelings. The answer to his message of affection is anxiously looked for day after day, but all in vain, and the conclusion is despairingly drawn, that for a solitary offence perhaps, he is forsaken by his family as well as by the world. Nothing is more wrong and condemnable than such neglect; nothing more adverse to the benevolent spirit of that conduct which our holy Master has stamped with the seal of his approbation, I was in prison, and ye came unto me.""

The moral instructor also gives some interesting results in his department.

"One hundred and twenty-five prisoners have been discharged during the year. Fourteen of these, at least, were professing, though quietly and humbly, to be truly and practically religious in their principles and in their hopes for eternity. . . Of the present number in the Prison, there are about a dozen who plainly seem to be guided by the principles and inspired by the hopes of the gospel. . . . . A few weeks since, a man who has been long in Prison, told me that he heard the two men on either side of him habitually, at morning and night, engaged in their prayers, and that unlike any other neighbors he had ever heard in Prison, they were sticking to it long and faithfully. A somewhat closer intercourse with the praying neighbors, sat isfied me that the information was perfectly correct, and that they were earnestly seeking from on high pardon and peace."

"One case only of the three (i. e., who died) afforded any good measure of pastoral satisfaction. From the first of the poor man's illness, he manifested an earnest and anxious desire to be rightly instructed in the way of salvation; he was gentle and patient, and to all appearance heartily resigned to the will of Heaven. His faith in his Redeemer seemed firm and warm, and in the clear consciousness that the time of his departure had come, he sunk down, and died in peace."

PENNSYLVANIA.

The Twenty-Third Annual Report of the Eastern Penitentiary of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, a legislative document, presented in February, 1852, is a neatly printed octavo pamphlet of 47 pages. It contains the reports of the inspectors, warden, physician, and moral instructor, together with copious extracts in the warden's report from the school teacher's report.

For statistical numbers, &c., we have the following:

"During the year, 147 prisoners have been received, and 136 discharged; leaving in confinement, Dec. 31, 1851, 310; namely, 217 white males, 15 white females; 71 colored males, and 7 colored females."

"Of the number discharged by expiration of sentence, 75 were white males, no females; 17 colored males, and 3 colored females. By pardon, 29 white males, 1 white and 1 colored female, and 3 colored males. Of those who died, 4 were white, and 3 were colored males."

The nativity of 147 received last year was, from Pennsylvania, 65; other United States, 29; from Ireland, 23; other foreign countries, 30; - total, 147.

The age was, 21 years and under, 27; 30 and over 20 years, 70; 40 and over 30 years, 33; over 40 years, 17.

The education was, could read and write, 99; could read only, 31; illiterate, 17.

Intemperate to intoxication, 67; moderate drinkers, 34; temperate, 46.

Apprenticed before committed, of those committed last year, and served until of age, 15; left employers before their time expired, 28; unapprenticed, 104.

The crimes were, larceny, 68; horse stealing, 13; arson, 6; burglary, 5; highway robbery, 3; burglary and larceny, 6; rape, 2; assault with intent to commit rape, 2; assault to kill, 7; manslaughter, 6; murder in second degree, 6; other crimes, 9.

First conviction, 127; second conviction, 14; third convic tion, 2; fourth conviction, 3; fifth conviction, 1; total, 147.

The length of sentences of those committed last year was, for 1 year and under, 57; for 2 years and over 1 year, 38; for 3 years and over 2 years, 27; for and over 3 years, 14; for 12 and over 4 years, 11.

In 22 years 2846 prisoners have been received into the Eastern Penitentiary, of whom 2290 have been discharged by expiration of sentence, pardon, and otherwise; and of these discharged, 287 have been recommitted.

Of the 2846 committed from the first opening of this institution, 377 were pardoned, 223 died, and 4 committed suicide. Total who were pardoned, died, and committed suicide, 604; which is nearly one third as many as were discharged on expiration of sentence, and more than one fifth part of all committed. The cases of death and suicide alone were 227, which is more than one ninth as many as were discharged by expiration of sentence.

The balance in pecuniary affairs against the institution, besides the salaries of officers, which were paid from the state treasury, was as follows: Amount expended for support, exclusive of salaries, for the year ending Dec. 31, 1851, $18,359 41; profit and loss $13,705 45. Balance against the institution, besides salaries, $4653 96.

The warden says, the mental condition of five who were received last year was of an extremely doubtful character. In addition to those, there were nine others whose minds were so low as at once to be apparent. Of this class he says, they are very improper subjects for a separate system, at least under the present system of long sentences.

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They do not possess a sufficient amount of mental energy to sustain them for any considerable length of time, under the depressing influences - to their weak intellects - of constant isolation."

"These men, without the knowledge of any mechanical employment, and incapacitated by nature from acquiring it, together with those who enter Prison with bodies enfeebled by their vicious lives, constitute the drones in all large establishments. Did we possess a sufficient space of ground within the walls to enable us to employ them in cultivating articles for the consumption of the house, they might be profitably employed; but enclosing them continually within the walls of a cell, and endeavoring to teach them that which they have no ability to learn, must ever be lost labor." (p. 11.)

The common school teacher in this institution says, "I have given instruction during the year to 178 prisoners. Of these, the majority of the indifferent readers improved much. About 51 have improved much in writing; in arithmetic nearly 60 have received instruction. On the whole they have advanced as rapidly as could be expected. The prisoners generally

have appreciated my visits. I have had on my regular list about 120, whom, with few exceptions, I visited once a week."

The warden passes high approbation and praise on the services of the school teacher; also on the benevolent ladies and gentlemen who have continued their voluntary service in the institution. He commends the general conduct of the prisoners; suggests again, as he has done before, that it is his earnest conviction that from 12 to 18 months ought rarely to be exceeded, in the case of young men on their first conviction, unless there are circumstances of atrocity attending the commission of the crime; he warns the public against the danger of fire in the Prison, consequent upon the building up of the city in the neighborhood of the Prison, and the covering of nearly all the blocks of cells, where the prisoners are confined, with cedar shingles. The inspectors call attention to the same danger. They also appear to concur with the warden in regard to the length of sentences.

In regard to suitable provision for insane prisoners, the warden says,

"By information derived from the public prints and other sources, the State Asylum at Harrisburg would appear to be designed as a hospital for the cure of the insane, to the exclusion of the hopeless sufferers from this distressing malady, who may offend against the laws thereby leaving us still to be the recipients and guardians of these unhappy people.

"If such be the case, I would earnestly inquire whether the subject should not be at once so understood, and suitable arrangements for their comfort and security be immediately made, under the sanction of legislative aid and authority."

The inspectors respectfully suggest that the legislature provide by law for the removal of insane prisoners to the State Lunatic Hospital.

They say also, "It becomes our duty once more to ask attention to the dilapidated and decaying condition of some of the buildings belonging to the state, within the walls of the Penitentiary."

They adhere to their previous opinion in favor of the system.

The late physician, Dr. Given, after seven years' residence at the Eastern Penitentiary, has retired from it, and says, in his last report, —

"Gentlemen: To-day, seven years, I entered on the duties of physician to the Eastern State Penitentiary. Perhaps I cannot more appropriately terminate my official connection with the institution, than by stating my present opinion of the effects of its discipline on

the various classes of prisoners I have seen subjected to it; and by giving a brief account of the hygienic measures which have been introduced by the inspectors during my residence within its walls."

"That the past history of the institution reveals an undue amount of disease among its inmates, I freely admit; but I feel confident that much of this evil was owing to hygienic defects, and an indiscriminate application of its discipline. At the end of a seven years' experience, I have still unshaken confidence that a large majority of prisoners can be subjected to the intelligent administration of the Pennsylvania system for moderate periods, with entire safety to the health of both body and mind; but the friends of penal reform should remain no longer blind to the momentous fact that a certain class of convicts cannot be placed under the usual isolation, without the greatest risk of insanity supervening. In those of thoroughly sound and moderately educated minds, the development of insanity is comparatively rare. This is an important distinction, as it warns us of the quarter whence most danger is to be apprehended, and affords ample time to take the necessary measures of precaution. In the Twenty-second Annual Report, I referred to a portion of them, and stated that in any separate Prison, where their peculiarities are not regarded, and in which suitable provision is not made for their treatment, there will be a development of insanity highly discreditable to its administration.' In truth, these men should be associated in workshops during the day, under vigilant supervision, and many of them require laborious employment in the open air. This opinion of the necessity for modifying, to a certain extent, the Pennsylvania system, has not been hastily formed, or uttered without due consideration."

"A few years ago, the effects of our discipline on the health of those subjected to it were entirely unsuspected, its friends being so dazzled by its moral influences as to be totally blind to its physical and mental evils. A reaction in a contrary direction has now taken place, and I regret to hear the institution as blindly condemned as it was heretofore lauded. . . . . Let me respectfully remind both parties, that the subject is one of the deepest interest to society, involv ing the life and the reason, the reformation, and, it may be, the eternal welfare of many of our fellow-men, and should not, therefore, be discussed in a partisan, but in a philosophic and Christian spirit ; weighing accurately all the facts, no matter how they tend, and giving to each its true value."

"For my own part, I must again declare that I would earnestly regret the abandonment of the Pennsylvania system; but on the other hand, I would be equally sorry to advocate its indiscriminate application to all classes of convicts. It may be asked, Are the prisoners whom I would exempt from the separate discipline fit subjects for penal restraint of any kind? Should they not rather be placed under the care of a Lunatic Asylum? To this I would reply, that, in many of them, the mental deficiency is so slight as hardly to challenge casual observation, or to prevent them from following successfully the ordinary pursuits of life; and to consider such men as irresponsible