desire, are still frequently rewarding and encouraging to, the Committee of our Society, and illustrative of the benefit of our plan of proceeding.

It is thought to be right to repeat what has been more than once stated in preceding numbers of this Journal, viz., that while it would be gratifying to those who labor in the cause of humanity at the cell-door, that there should be a statement of their business; and while such a statement of well established facts might encourage others to assist in the good work of reforming prisoners, it seems certain that any statement containing the name of a prisoner who had gone forth, and was redeeming his pledge to lead a good life, or any reference to the circumstance or condition of such a person, so direct as to attract attention, would defeat the effort of the released man to regain position, and would disappoint the expectations of the friends that helped him. The following are the statistics of the Penitentiary for the past year to the 1st of December:

Whole number in confinement 1st December, 1867, 596.

We are indebted to a member of our Society connected with the administration of the Eastern Penitentiary, for the following exceedingly interesting table, showing

the working of the Penitentiary from the day it was opened for prisoners, October 29, 1827, to October 25, 167, a period of thirty-eight years.

COMMITMENTS TO THE EASTERN STATE PENITENTIARY.

From the above it appears that there were 5,349 different prisoners sentenced to the Penitentiary; of this number there has been discharged 4,825, as follows:

In confinement October 25, 1867, under first conviction,

Total number of different prisoners received,

4,825

524

5,349

If, now, we deduct from the 4,825 discharged prisoners the number died, committed suicide, and hanged, amounting to 276, it leaves us 4,549 different discharged prisoners, who were liable to re-conviction; and of this number the above table shows only 463 were returned to the prison, being a per cent. of 10.13 in discharged prisoners, a result very satisfactory to the friends of the Separate System.

Of the various subjects that have within the past years been presented to the readers of this Journal, as connected with the plans and principle of this Society, as well promotive as disturbing causes, and not here specially noticed, it is proper to state, that those within the proper sphere of the Society's action, have not been lost sight of. Appropriate times and circumstances must be waited for; but whatever affects the cause of public virtue, concerns those who watch over the discipline of public prisons; and the form and management of almshouses must be interesting to those who would promote philanthropic action. There has been no change in the system of Police Magistracy in this city, and, consequently, no improvement. The complaints justly made on this subject are against the system, not against the magistrates. In a time of general difficulty, such as in the late war, and not less in the succeeding season, men excuse themselves from meddling with existing institutions that are no worse than they have been; and when all is settled and quiet, men postpone the duty of correcting evils of an established system for the purpose of inaugurating something that may assist the movers.

There is no cessation of the evil of drunkenness; and it is difficult to say what would be the effect of any measure considerably stringent to diminish the use of intoxicating liquors. The popular will-public sentiment-gauged by the public vote, is omnipotent in the matter of State legislation, and, so many circumstances, direct that vote, even when a single question is at issue; that it is often to be feared that some local or colla

teral interest has had expression in the vote, rather than that which is ostensibly before the public.

The measure which has commanded the services and means of the Society for a few years past, viz., that of having the administration of the prisons and almshouses in the State all subjected to one general responsibility, is, thanks to the efforts of the Society, gaining favor. The appointment of Mr. Mahlon H. Dickerson as commissioner to visit all the prisons and almshouses in the State, and to make report upon the structure of the buildings, and the administration of their affairs, may be regarded as the first effective step in their good work; and Mr. Dickerson's thorough discharge of the duties devolved upon him by the Governor, leads to the hope that we shall soon realize the benefits that the Society has been promising from such a commission.

It will be seen by the proceedings of the Society in West Chester, that as soon as organization was completed, plans were laid for carrying on one of the most important objects of this Society, viz., that of direct application of the principles of improvement to the individual inmates of the prison. This, the Parent Society is most thankful to Providence for the blessing on all efforts to establish Auxiliary Societies for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons; but its greatest joy in that direction, is to find that these Auxiliaries are engaged in the generous effort to alleviate those miseries; that, besides the organization of societies, they are organizing bands of visitors, who are dealing individually with the prisoner. This "separate" approach to the unhappy inmate of a cell is a part of the system of separate con

finement; and the proceedings at West Chester show how well our friends there understand the vast and beneficial capabilities of the Pennsylvania System.

THE AGENT'S PROCEEDINGS.

The Society continues its labors through the agency of WILLIAM J. MULLEN, and has reason to believe that great good has been done by the timely interference in behalf of prisoners, whose friendless condition left them almost hopeless sufferers in the cells of the prison.

Mr. Mullen must, in the past year, have procured the release of more than a thousand persons committed for trial, of several hundred who having been committed absolutely, were discharged by the magistrate through Mr. M.'s interference.

It is impossible to form an adequate idea of the amount of misery endured by the head of a family in prison, and the family itself at home with the father or mother in that condition. We do not now allude to the shame, the wounded family pride caused by this incarceration, but we refer to the absolute physical suffering resulting from the loss of the day by day income for the parent's labor. This of course leads to moral social evils, as the want of parental provision and discipline at home often sends the children abroad to obtain what they require without much discrimination as to the means employed for that desirable end.

But the imprisonment of the father or mother often