THE INSTRUMENT AND THE MODE.

It is gratifying to be able to state, as we have done in our reports for several successive years, that the philanthropic inquiries of people in this country, and in most of the countries of Europe, are taking a direction towards the subject of prison discipline, its improvement and its ends, and naturally, as we think, the number of those who participate in these investigations is constantly increasing.

The evils of which complaints are made are real and extensive, and the good proposed is great, and becoming more and more apparent, and by investigation, and the details of experience, more and more attainable.

There is no diminution of the feeling, and from time to time we see it expressing itself in plans that demand execution. There seems to be a certain time necessary for the gestation of all great and greatly useful schemes. A too early attempt at execution usually produces abortion, and causes delay in the work of improvement. Circumstances must be moulded or waited for, and public sentiment educated or stirred up to the requirement of the work.

In the course of the last summer, a letter was received from a distinguished individual in a neighbouring county by one of the officers of this Society, to which an answer was, as soon as possible, returned. We subjoin a part of the letter calling for information, and append thereto the answer, as containing some of the views which the

Society is willing to have promulgated as those by which it is itself influenced, and which it would have acted upon by others.

West Chester, Pa., July 27, 1869.

"I know little, indeed almost nothing of the results of the labors of your association; I think, however, I can see that they have affected beneficially our State legislation. But is it not desirable that something more shall be done than has yet been by the Legislature towards rendering the efforts now made for the reformation of convicts more effective than they are?

"It has seemed to me that larger provision ought to be made for discharged convicts, in order that they may be furnished with remunerative employment immediately upon their discharge, until they can find a way of making a living for themselves, or at least for a time sufficient to afford them an opportunity of engaging in some kind of business. The means now provided by the State appear to be indequate; and they are probably often expended without much profit to the donees. Has your association matured any plan of action in reference to this subject?

"Would it not be well that every convict sent to the State Penitentiary should be taught to read and write, and to keep accounts, when destitute of education? And ought not this to be a subject of special attention, and placed under the care of paid instructors provided by the State? And would it not be eligible to appoint some women for such a purpose. I am strongly impressed with the belief that no influences more potent for good than those which may be exerted by virtuous and sympathizing women over degraded and fallen man exists in creation. If Eve tempted Adam to his fall, her daughters have done more and can do more to help their brothers to rise again, than the best of those brothers can do for each other.

Ought not the Governor, or some other officer, to have a general power to mitigate the rigor of prison discipline in cases of good behavior, and to propose as rewards for such behavior an abridgment of the terms of service according to some established rule?

"Have you considered the eligibility of establishing courts of

conciliation, such as exist in France, as an aid to the administration of justice in Philadelphia? This, however, is outside of the scope of my present inquiry.

"My interrogatories, I have no doubt, disclose to you how little I know about the subject on which I write; but I am asking for information, and 1 have sought to do no more than to indicate the direction of my thoughts, and the range of my inquiries.

"Very respectfully yours, &c.,

Το

Rooms of the Society for Alleviating the}

Miseries of Public Prisons.

Philada., Sept. 9, 1869.

Dear Sir,―The published proceedings of the "Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons," show that from the time when it first put forth its efforts beyond mere organization and government, it has led in all measures which relate to the objects included in its comprehensive title, or if by chance others have conceived the idea of improving the law or its administration, this Society has not hesitated to second the movement, and aid in testing its value. It has not failed to admit the merits of a scheme merely because that scheme may have claimed other paternity. The benefit of the prisoner, in all that makes punishment subservient to improvement being the great object of the Society and the motive of its members, the question has never been, when any plan of "alleviating the miseries of public prisons" is presented, "who is its author?" but "what may be its fruits?"

This Society, however, on examining good schemes for attaining the object of its establishment and maintenance, has had much occasion for self gratulation in the belief that if the plan involved the means of much good to the public, the prison, and the prisoner, it has usually been the work of some of its members at home, or the result of investigation abroad, suggested by its own teachings.

Before certain queries propounded relative to a change in the laws are answered, it seems desirable to notice the operation of the system upon which those laws are to operate.

The change from the old method of conducting prisons to that which is called "the Pennsylvania System" was so great, and so much time was requisite to develop for public comprehension its beneficial effects upon the prisoner; and, it may be added, the first cost of the experiment was so considerable, in the construction of buildings, that many counties and States tried at considerable cost to patch up their buildings and plans, and make them "do for the present;" and some that did not comprehend the system, and some who did, and yet loved to oppose, adhered to their established plans, and seemed to sanction the belief that punishment has nothing to do with reform, and that the bad rule, injuriously applied to woman, is applicable to all, viz.,

"That one false step forever blasts her fame."

Prisons are rather imposing structures; their towers and battlements, and their cold, repulsive walls, meet every eye; but few, very few, think of the temporal or

eternal interests of the many who are beneath those battlements, and within those walls.

The city or county is concerned in having a handsome prison, something that will in a degree compensate for its great cost, and gratify the civic pride of the tax payer; but for the scoundrels and the impure that are incarcerated therein, there is less general sympathy, and the good old Bible rule that "the way of the transgressor is hard," is illustrated by having everything about him hard and repulsive, not so much from a want of Christian charity in the members of the community, as from an indifference to the condition of those who, being out of sight, become also out of mind. An indifference perhaps excused (not excusable) from the fact that these felons get no more than they deserve in the way of punishment as felons-hence some neglect the claims of humanity, for their improvement

as men.

We are apt to charge upon the Legislature of the State a great neglect of the interests involved in our public prisons. And perhaps less has been done than the friends of humanity acting in that direction could desire; but, considering the immense amount of legislation that the "General Assembly" of our State has to perform for objects pressing, important and useful, for those who are present and urge their own case, and make themselves felt and their cause understood, it can scarcely be wondered at that some interests of public prisons should be neglected where neither affection nor immediate interest urges action, and where sometimes a love of the ease of old establishment is antagonistic to the willing