APPENDIX.

The Chairman of the Editorial Board of this Society was invited to prepare a paper for the Convention that was held in Cincinnati in September last, to consider the important questions of Social Science involved in the administration and discipline of Public Prisons, and the subject of a periodical for prisoners was suggested. An Essay was written, but it did not reach the Convention. It contains some ideas that may be approved by the "Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons," but as it also contains opinions not submitted for judgment of the members, it has been thought not improper to give it publication, but at the same time to give it a place where it may not be considered as necessarily the Society's views. The author is responsible for what he has written, but he gives it as an opinion that may be modified, but which certainly appears to be sustained by what is discernable among convicts. An enlarged experience with prisoners individually, and a close intimacy with their views, thus acquired, have lead to the conclusions which are set forth in the Essay. The writer believes that his conclusion results in presenting the best forms of periodical literature for the convict-but he is not so wedded to that opinion as to think that if the best cannot be supplied, then the second should be refused. Let the best possible means be adopted; but it often happens that, from various circumstances, the first is unattainable. Then let the second be employed and a blessing may follow for the intention.

PRISON LITERARY GAZETTE.

The question of a paper or Gazette for Prisons has been considered worthy of a special thesis, as including a proposition for ameliorating the condition of prisoners, and hence entirely consistent

with the views of those whose charities are especially exerted in behalf of the incarcerated, and who looked to this Convention for the enlargement of existing means, by the proposal of new plans of doing good in that direction.

The importance of the end proposed justifies the inquiry whether a paper for prisons should be established, and how it should be conducted. Is the establishment of a Gazette for the special use of prisoners practicable, and if practicable, is it desirable? Can the work be accomplished? And if accomplished, will it provide the great object in view?

The proposition should, for the sake of proper consideration, be presented in a definite form.

Can a newspaper specially for the use of prisoners be made of ⚫ considerable moral use? If so, it ought to be established by any available means, and sustained at any cost. There can be but little doubt of that, and as little that it would be established and maintained.

If these good results cannot be hoped for, then it seems equally plain that the labors and expenditures necessary for such an undertaking, should be transferred to some other branch of the good work of those who stand pledged "to ameliorate the condition of Public Prisons," and "alleviate the miseries of the prisoners."

The wealth of philanthropic zeal with which so many are endowed, great as it is, should be economized. There is a waste of philanthrophic efforts that is as injurious to the great and good objects proclaimed, as is the rash expenditure of fiscal men on undertakings which look to future schemes of profit. Plans should be suggested with great prudence, and weighed with mature judgment. That which at first blush promises a general good, may be so conducted as to lead to that amount of individual evil, that shall eventually work out a permanent and extended injury to the whole prison literature; that is the literature of prisons. Literature practised in prison, and emanating thence, has, perhaps, been among the most beneficial that is extant. The "De Profundis" of the Royal Poet may not have owed its melancholy pathos to the grated windows of a cell, but David suffered confinement before he wrote his Psalms. That Jeremiah wrote his Lamentations in the dun

geon, into which he was lowered, is scarcely likely, but it is proba ble that a sense of his separate and solitary confinement influenced the composition of his most pathetic complaints.

John the Baptist, perhaps, did not write much in his prison, but certainly he maintained moral truth there, and came forth only to suffer for his zeal for public morals.

John the Evangelist wrote his Apocalypse on the penal Island of Patmos; and, overlooking the thousands of other lives that are recorded as asserting the truth in their prison cells, we find Grotius occupied in Holland, with his pen in prison; Tasso wrote from the prison in Ferara; and, perhaps, without a prison the world would never have had the delight of Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. Men seem, like certain herbs, to emit their sweets only as they are trodden on, and the prison and the dungeon are the alembics in which are distilled, and whence flow, the richest and most exquisite emanations of the human mind.

But the literature of the prison, is not the literature for the prison. The crushed heart that gives out its richest sweets, may need other medicaments to heal its wounds, and vice and crime demand something, for their disease, different from that which sorrow and oppression have wrung from the innocent sufferer.

A newspaper, such as is read in the principal cities in the Union, is what almost every prisoner craves, and is that which he urgently solicits from his keeper, that which he most earnestly desires his visitors to bring to him. The strong desire of every man who can read, to have "a newspaper," the unfailing indulgence of every one in the luxury of a newspaper, till that luxury becomes a necessity, seems to justify the idea that a paper is a desirable, almost a necessary means of reaching the affections, and then the conscience, of one who is suddenly and temporarily withdrawn from social intercourse, without any diminution of interest in social life; with no diminution, indeed, except that of the liberty of sharing in, and enjoying social intercourse.

The papers which men ordinarily take are those that promulge and sustain some opinions in which they have interest, or some dogma to which they give assent, and they find pleasure in reading arguments and statements that are concurrent with their views, and

tend to give them confidence in their opinions, these in general are more concerned in strengthening than in correcting their beliefmore pleased with a writer who supports, than with one who purifies their views. We say not that this is wrong, men can have little enjoyment when they have an unstable political creed, and though all else should be sacrificed to truth, yet with pious attachment to creeds and opinions it is difficult to convince them that any sacrifice is required. Hence even the religious and political press fail of one great result, they strengthen existing opinions much more frequently than they aid in inducing a change. They do not liberalize the mind and prepare it for the truth. They rather strengthen attachment to a supposed truth, or an admitted apothegm.

The press, active as it is, it may be feared, fails of the useful of which it is capable, fails, perhaps by the very activity of which it boasts for which it is indeed remarkable. But the papers will be sustained because men will take them and pay for them, and those who write about the public press, must discuss that which does and will exist. The question is not "shall there be a press ?" That is settled by the press itself, showing that its own existence is a necessity, showing that opposition would not destroy it. The question is, how may the press be made a means of continued, genuine good; and what is the discrimination by which it may be made ministrant to particular advantage? How may it be accommodated to certain circumstances, that are not connected with the ordinary condition of society, so that certain classes may profit most by its powers? The inquiry now proposed is the advantage of a newspaper for prisoners, as a means of improvement while in prison.

We see that "the public press," as the newspapers are usually denominated, is not calculated for all purposes, all associations, and all objects We see that, by the obvious fact that a large number of similar religious denominations, philanthropic, and scientific combinations, are not content with the "general newspaper." In the case of science it may be said that the columns of a newspaper are so filled with general facts, political arguments, and business statements, that there is not sufficient space for the scientific articles that interest a certain class. That is true in regard to science,

and partially true with almost every other matter that occupies almost exclusively the mind of classes of inquiring men.

So that we may remark that the idea of exclusiveness has such possession of the people that it would almost seem impossible to satisfy any man without a constant ministration to the particular scheme toward which he has a ruling proclivity. A paper that deals with things in general, does not meet with the approving support of such a person. And a "paper" that deals only with what alone occupies his thoughts, is that alone which he thinks worthy of encouragement. A few others unite with him in views and in support of a separate paper, and a sickly addition is made to what is called the press of the country, and the little strength which it has is drawn from the vital support of the general press, and many sickly papers enjoy the sympathy and support of a small community that might otherwise be amused and instructed by a wholesome sheet, that should mingle the news of the day with the essay of the moralist, the politician, the statesman, the merchant, and the man of science, referring the reader who needed additional knowledge to the library, now, alas, too generally neglected for the trashy essays that treat of subjects as if a single day was all that any man had to give to any one subject. We have lately heard a person state that he had "done Europe in six months," and there are people who imagine that they can do the whole circle of science and the higher arts in six months, and reduce the contents of massive tomes to half a dozen newspaper essays. We may thank the man that by labor and devotion simplifies any science, and shows its adaptability to practical purposes-he is a public benefactor-but the simplicity that is to be useful, is obtained rather by amplifying than shortening the process, and while an essay may awaken a good appetite, it does harm if it satisfies that appetite.

But is a "paper" required for the prisons, or will a paper be useful to the prisoners, for if it will be greatly useful, then it is greatly

necessary.

We will not now discuss the question whether the ordinary newspaper of the day is calculated to do the good desired and proposed; we think it would not be beneficial; we speak generally, not doubting that there are exceptions, especially when the character, attain