courts. Certainly the French author argues strongly in favor of the Casiers, with regard to all the interests which we have noticed.

We have spoken above of what is meant by Casier, but as it is probable that from one or two circumstances the question of the creation of such a branch of judicial business may occupy the public mind, we translate a short description of the plan:

"A Casier, in the proper sense of the word, is a collection of little cases or compartments, of regular form, all of one height, breadth and depth. A large press, or closet, in the form of the Casier, is placed in the office of the clerk of each tribunal of the first instance (the lowest court), in a position the least accessible to the public, and as far as possible in the places in which are kept the record of the court. In each one of the compartments, or boxes, or divisions of this armory or press, answering to the letters of the alphabet, are received and classed alphabetically, the bulletins containing the sentence pronounced against each individual born in that arrondissement or court district.

It is important to add that, with a view of facilitating examination, all the papers relative to the same person are placed together in one enclosure, bearing, as a superscription, the name of the sentenced person.

Further the order of dates should be observed in the partial classification, in order that the extracts destined to make known the instruction furnished by these Casiers may fully present the statement of the prisoner's condemnation in chronological order.

We derive our knowledge of this scheme of Casiers

from a volume of four hundred octavo pages, from the pen of O. Despalys: "Substitute du Procureur General pris le Tribunal de Reims." The author has a full knowledge of the operation of the scheme as practised in France and Italy. Portugal has commenced the work, and Austria, Bavaria, Switzerland, Wertemberg, are about to give it a trial.

It seems to work well in France, and the author anticipates its good effects in the United States, in which, he says, several societies, established with regard to the progress of legislation, have requested from M. Bonneville further explanation and exposition. And the author says the answer to their request was delivered to an association in 1868, and it is added, "The question of Casiers is now undergoing consideration in the United States, and we may hope that it will be carefully examined and soon applied."

The system of Casiers is, the writer believes, applicable to all nations that have a judiciary, and the system could be made international. We are not prepared to advocate the measure, but one which promises so much good, and of which so much good is already reported, is certainly deserving attention. There will always be a difficulty in adapting the judiciary measures of other countries to the wants of our own people. The federal character of our government renders it difficult to make co-operative the judiciary of various States. Still the cause of justice and the cause of mercy are always worth attention, and if some parts of the French system may be considered as inapplicable in this country, by the difficulty, if not the wrong, of palliating the crimes, and

the errors, and even the criminal misfortunes of individuals, that which is strictly "judiciary," and which bears only upon malefactors, may, at least in large States, be found beneficial.

PRISON MATTERS IN THE UNITED STATES.

MASSACHUSETTS.

It is a

We have received and read the Sixth Annual Report of the Board of Charities of Massachusetts. beautiful volume of more than four hundred pages. We like to notice the liberality which provides good printing for public reports. It shows that a proper estimate is set upon the matter reported.

This Report, besides statements at large of the situation and working of all the institutions to which the State of Massachusetts contributes either the whole or a portion of the means, contains elaborate and masterly essays upon the subjects of the Report.

We observe that there is in Massachusetts a growing disposition to place paupers and lunatics and some young clients of the public in families, in preference to asylums. No doubt that would be a great improvement, if humanity and science could direct the new members of the family, but experience in this State, with reference to paupers, would seem to discourage such a course.

The Massachusetts State Prison at Charlestown is represented as not only paying its own expenses from the labors, of the inmates, but really adding to the income

of the State. That may be-must be, as it is so stated— but in looking over the statement of expenditures and incomes in the County Prisons, Houses of Correction, &c., we notice that the balance is on the other side. For example, the New Bedford Jail and House of Correction seems to employ the prisoners not only in but about the prison, and the receipts on account of the labors of prisoners, are $9,900 02 (the highest with the exception of the Boston House of Correction), yet the whole expenditures of the New Bedford institution, noticed above, are $29,993 11; leaving a balance against the place of $20,093 09.

The State Prison is said, by some persons, to yield a profit of about $18,000 by the contract system. We do not learn that the convict shares, in in the proany way, in the fit of his labor, as he does in the Eastern Penitentiary of this State, and in the Philadelphia County Prison. But on examination of the official Report, we find that there has been no such profit. On the contrary, from the year 1850 to 1859 the dead loss, the balance against that State Prison was $105,675 43, and from 1860 to 1869, $4,123 20. These are large changes, and in the right direction; but there may be a change, in the decade before the great loss, that is from 1840 to 1850, the loss was only $8,744 24. But while the State Prison is said to be profitable by the work of the convicts, we notice that the Boston Jail and the House of Correction give a very different statement of their balance sheets. For example, the House of Correction, where so much work is carried on, is kept up at an an nual deficiency of $11,599 00, and the Jail, where no

work is done, at a dead loss of $28,404 15. No County Prison or House of Correction in Massachusetts is selfsupporting.

Drunkenness.-We feel, as all do, an interest in the progress of attempts to stay the scourge of drunkenness in our land, and we then turned to the tables to see what drunkenness had done to swell directly the list of prisoners in Massachusetts.

We notice that the whole number of drunkards in all the various kinds of prisons-Work House, House of Industry, &c.—in Massachusetts, on the 30th of Septem ber, was 797, of whom 329 were women, rather a large proportion; of these, the County Prison of Boston had 55 men and 22 women.

There was not a single drunkard in the Prison of Plymouth County, and the Prisons of Barnstable and Edgarton were without prisoners of any kind-a proof of good morals among the people or independence in the magistracy.

The perfect organization of the Board of Charities of Massachusetts, its experience of several years, the homogeneous character of the people, with perfect sympathy between the Capital and the State insure to the Charities of that Commonwealth good direction and able historians.

NEW YORK STATE REPORT.

Among the reports of prison proceedings which we have read, is a volume containing the Annual Report of the Inspectors of the State Prisons of New York, for the year ending September 30, 1869. Before we make any