leads to a mental suffering that would create sympathy in every well regulated mind.

"But," it is asked, "are all those whose releases are procured by the agent, innocent of the crime charged upon them."

The answer is explicit, "No."

Is it then laudable to save from punishment persons who have been guilty of a violation of the penal laws of the State?

We answer, that when the end proposed by the infliction of punishment has been attained, all infliction beyond, is, at least useless, if not unjust.

Crimes must be punished, so that it may be evident that the laws of Society distinguish between the good and the bad, so that the offender may know that he cannot with impunity violate the rights of others, so that seeing this, he may not be tempted again to expose himself to the penalties of the violated statute, so that the offender may be mended as well as punished, and by all these, so that Society may be guaranteed against the misdoing of the offenders.

Often, very often has the Agent been called to examine a case of a prisoner in which it was found that the act charged had really been committed-perhaps some petty pilfering for the first time. One night spent in the station house that the alderman may hear the testimony against the accused, in order to commit him to prison for trial, is something from which a sensitive mind must revolt. A residence in the untried apartment of the County Prison, in companionship with filthy and hardened offenders awaiting the action of the Court

of Sessions, may be regarded as something in the way of penance. Enough at least to show that the law and its ministers have no idea of allowing crime to go unnoticed undistinguished from virtue. Enough to satisfy the accused that he is not master of the situation which he has assumed. Enough to make him say to bis visiting friends, "I have felt enough to satisfy me that not only must I make restitution in some form to men and society whom I have injured, but I must give security that I will not repeat the wrongs I have committed." It is due to those with whom Mr. Mullen deals to say, that many seem to find enough, full enough in these preliminary punishments to lead them to repentance, when there is reason to believe that had the punishment proceeded to the trial, conviction and imprisonment of the offender, his course of life would have been fixed in the pathway of crime. None can judge of this like one who has been for seven years watching, at the cell door, the movements, and listening to the language of young prisoners. It is not difficult to ascertain pretty well the amount of sincerity in the language of regret used by those newly accused; to one accustomed to the scene it is easy to distinguish between remorse for the crime and regret for the consequences, between mortification at the loss of position and regret for the disgrace brought upon others. A friend at the door hears and understands all this, and satisfied that the moment is pregnant with the fate of the young man, the agent proceeds to procure a settlement of the case, and in a large majority of the instances of his interference the results have been the restoration of the offender to society, and his entire

separation from the class of persons with whom he has been unprofitably associated.

This abatement of a vast amount of evil we cannot doubt operates beyond individual comforts into public. proprieties, and many who have indulged in bad habits of rushing to an alderman upon every occasion of of fence received, that they may punish an offence given, that they may avoid punishment, have learned a wholesome lesson to bear and forbear, to give and to forgive.

It is worthy of remark that a large number of the cases of which the Agent procures the settlement before, or in Court, the prosecutor himself pays the cost, and contributes something towards placing the accused beyond the reach of temptation, or at least where employment may be secured. It is wonderful how placable are many people who seem to be irrascible and bitter; it needs in most cases only the persevering mediation of some kind hearted person whose common sense and disinterestedness are as apparent as are his desires to reconcile.

In this great work, the Society by its Agent believes that it stands prominent among all associations for alleviating the miseries of public prisons.

We should, if we had space, give some extracts from the interesting monthly reports of Mr. Mullen, as to his success in procuring the release of prisoners; but important as they seem and abundant as they are, we lose a portion of their interest by being unable to follow him in the work of providing for the discharged prisoner; and we lose much more in the fact that the smaller cases that are less difficult and less striking have no re

port, although the mere sending home of a father or mother that has erred, to children that are suffering for want of the customary earnings or customary care may often, save from destruction, certainly from suffering, many whose cases are as important to themselves as are those of people that have distinguished themselves by great deviations from propriety.

It is impossible to make these things fully understood by those who have not seen prisoners in their cells, inquired into their condition, and ascertained the amount of suffering which the absence from their family produces, and how little good it does, and how little evil it prevents to hold them thus incarcerated. We do not mean that vice should not be condemned nor the vicious punished, but we would have great discrimination in all commitments, and equal care in all discharges.

Society is more injured by the confirmation of an erring one in guilt, by injudicious imprisonment, than it could have been by the exercise of the liberty which penitence had asked and charity granted. The prison is always open to receive any who fail of redeeming their pledge, to avoid vice and crime. It would be well if society were as open to receive and encourage those who have given a pledge not to return to crime and vice.

The law has a name for the crime of multiplying suits without cause, and it has a punishment for those who are proved to have committed that crime. It would be a blessing to society at large if in this matter the laws would provide a preventive as well as a penalty. Independent magistrates, we mean magistrates made independent of fees, by a fair, competent salary, could and

would prevent much of the vexatious litigation that fills the prison-cells, offends the Grand Jury and multiplies the vexations of our criminal courts and the expenses of the county. We know of no other preventive. Mr. Mullen does immense good by saving from twelve hundred to fifteen hundred people a year from trial, that would probably only keep them for a time in prison and keep up the taxes of the city. There is work for the agent, ample work to occupy all his time, even were there no commitments that the law will not sustain and the Grand Jury will not condemn.

AUXILIARY SOCIETIES.

The Society has diminished none of its efforts to estab-` lish auxiliary associations in the interior of the State, and though only partial success has attended their ef forts, yet it is gratifying to state that the subject of prison discipline upon the plan of improving, as well as punishing the offenders, is occupying more and more public attention. The animated exertions of the Society in New York city and the co-operation of the State authorities in Massachusetts, in the great work, show how prevalent has become the opinion that something may be saved from the wreck of a human being, and while he is submitted to discipline for a violation of the law of men, he may be made better by an application of the law of God, the law of love-a law no ways inconsistent with the administration of a law that punishes the offender. It is to be regretted that our co-laborers in the cause of prison improvement, in New York city and in