The justice which we do to the memory of the virtuous is not a simple laudation of the excellence of their character and conduct, but it is rather an homage to the cause which their conduct has illustrated and a proof that the living are competent to the great duty of appreciating the beautiful life of those whom they have known and whose labors they have witnessed.

We have this year to record the death of one of the faithful laborers in behalf of suffering prisoners.

SAMUEL CALEY, a useful member of our Society and an active, devoted member of our Acting Committee, was born September 1, 1790, in Newtown township, Delaware county, and died at Marpel, Delaware county, August 29, 1870, having closely approached four score years. Mr. Caley resided from the time of his birth till the year 1849 at the homestead, purchased by his grandfather, Samuel Caley the first, soon after his arrival from Europe. This farm descended through father to son to Samuel Caley, the present occupant, the son of our deceased member.

Early in life Mr. Caley, from deep conviction, united himself with the Society of Friends, and maintained his membership to the last.

In 1848 Mr. Caley, having two years previously married for the second time, removed to Philadelphia, and he manifested his interest in the cause of the suffering, and his respect for the Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons, by becoming a member of the Acting Committee, and fulfilling the appointment to the Eastern Penitentiary as a regular Visitor.

It was a beautiful conclusion of a life of actions of

distinguished integrity-integrity in the smallest as well as the largest transactions, and in all the relations of life-that having closed the work appointed, he could "lie down in peace" and sanctified integrity, and trust his immortal as he had trusted his mortal interests to Him "whose mercies are over all His works."

The long life of our departed co-laborer was closed in the clearness of mental perception, and he relinquished his hold on life with a resignation that showed how much above his own will was his deference to that of his Heavenly Father. The good which Mr. Caley did in his life, is remembered by his co-laborers with grateful sense of the benefit which flowed therefrom to the cause of philanthropy, and with practical suggestion to imitate his beautiful example.

CONCLUSION.

We close the labors of another year with an augmented sense of the importance of the work on which we are engaged. There are indeed some who declare that the work of ameliorating the condition of prisoners by making the punishment of crimes a means of improving the criminal is not merely useless, but one that withdraws the criminal from the full rigor of the law, and then. confounds vice and misfortune by equalizing their consequences.

We do not here propose to debate the question started in such an objection, but we may say that should, by

any chance, the unfortunate person sink into the same physical condition as one that is criminal, and it often happens; should the innocent be incarcerated for trial where the guilty is receiving his punishment for crime, that circumstance by no means confounds the case of the two persons, unless, indeed, it should be proved that to await an opportunity to prove innocence is the same thing as to endure the punishment of an exposed and proved crime. We must not confound guilt and innocence, because that has temporarily happened to the latter which is deserved and suffered by the former.

The attempt to alleviate the miseries of public prisons is not always commenced by leading the convict to think himself as good as others, nor to lead him to think that there is no difference between him and the person who, unable to obtain bail, is awaiting the time when he may establish his innocence.

The miseries of prisons are usually relieved, so far as regards the individual convict, by making him feel more miserable-lifting from him the veil by which he has hid den from himself, the character of his crime, and the necessity of punishment. This kind of alleviation is at first a severe aggravation, and it is only when a full sense of the evil nature of his course is made manifest by a comprehension of the perfect relation of his imprisonment and his crime, as effect and cause, that he commences the work of alleviating his own miseries and ameliorating his own condition.

Some seem to think that the work of alleviating the miseries of public prisons can be best performed by abolishing the prisons, and that the amelioration of the

condition of prisoners must be effected by relieving them from the penal action of the laws against vice and crime.

This Society protests against all extremities-against any utopian measures. While it would lessen the suffering of prisoners, it has no purpose to save the guilty from punishment, and while it desires to see the construction of prisons accommodated to the best plans for preventing physical and moral evil, it has no expectation, and in the present and probable future condition of society, it has no desire to dispense with prisons.

The great insurance policy, which is the basis of all society, will provide prisons and almshouses as the moral and physical asylums of the vicious and the unfortunate. The great philanthropic policy, which is the basis of the Prison Society, will lead to constant exertions to alleviate the miseries in both these institutions, to restore the criminal to usefulness in life, and to smooth down the rough declivity of the pauper's course, give him consolation in death. God help all, of both classes, and may God bless all with directed efforts to make the criminal virtuous and the unfortunate comfortable.

and

To these great ends we direct our labors; to the assistance of our efforts to attain these ends, we invite the co-operation of those who are willing to spend some time in labors which are not likely to be appreciated in this life, labors of which one scarcely thinks of speaking more directly than does the physician of his recent visitation to the sufferer by infectious and contagious disease.

We invite, also, the co operation of those whose tastes, whose condition, whose associations, whose active engagements will not permit their personal efforts to ameliorate the condition of the prisoner, and we suggest as a way of connecting themselves effectually with the good work, that they contribute of their means, which will aid the Agent of the Society to assist the discharged convict, and thus to alleviate the miseries of public prisons.

Our own choice is made, our own plans are formed and we shall endeavor to promote the great end of our Society by whatever means Providence has placed at our disposal.

All of which is respectfully submitted.

JAMES J. BARCLAY,

President.

ATTEST,

JOHN J. LYTLE,

Secretary.