But human life may be a positive good, and it is at once the duty and the pleasure of those who would. assist the prisoner to be better, to endeavor to assist her to live better-and hence if the repentance is sincere, and "not to be repented of," the longer the life the better the example.

REPENTANCE.

But relapses are too frequent to allow any friend of the prisoner to shut his eyes to the danger, and hence to the constant importance of watching over the departing convict. Advice and assistance may do much, and cut off a thousand vices that are not unfamiliar to the prisoner; but renewed evil association and sudden temptation renew the old condition, then the repentant convict becomes the relapsing culprit.

The Grecian fable tells us that Hercules undertook as a "second labor" to destroy a terrible Hydra, with many heads. He crushed the heads and cut them off, but unfortunately, as fast as he cut off one, two heads would spring up in its place. At length he called for assistance, and Iolaus took fire brands, and as a head fell he would seer the neck of the hydra, and he thus effectually checked the growth of more heads. We have many a good Hercules among our visitors, who seems to be as effective with the vicious convicts as was the old hero with the Hydra's numerous heads, but we lack the Iolaus who will complete the work of

Hercules, and prevent the restoration of the Hydra heads of vice with which our community is afflicted, and by which our half repentant convicts are tempted to destruction. Our Society sends to the cells of the Prison and of the Penitentiary many good men and women to do the great labor of a Hercules. It is greatly desirable that one or two more could be found that would imitate the work of Iolaus.

EASTERN PENITENTIARY.

In a succeeding part of this Report, special reference. will be made to the labors of the Agents of this Society for the Penitentiary and for the County Prison. We shall forbear particular statement of the effect of their labors upon those in whose behalf they are employed. But we shall scarcely succeed in our efforts to place before the Society and its friends, an idea of the works of the Committees; if we neglect some particulars of their efforts, it being understood that the action of the two Agents are under the supervision of the two branches of the Acting Committee, to whom each Agent respectively reports.

The labors of the two Committees have this in common, namely, they are dealing with prisoners; but while the Committee on the County Prison has a mission to prisoners of every class, tried and untried, and sometimes prisoners of the shortest terms, and convicts of every grade, whose sentence may include a term of twelve years or more, the Committee on the Penitentiary consider the case of only one class of prisoners,

viz., convicts varying in length of time from one year to thirty years, or even for life. The Committee on the Penitentiary have a regular meeting once in each month, at which each member reports the number of his visits to the Penitentiary, the number to each cell door, and the number of visits within the cells. These Reports cannot fail of great interest to all who seek the improvement of the convict, and desire his restoration to usefulness in society.

Many circumstances render the labors of the Penitentiary Committee more pleasant and fruitful of good than can be those of the Committee to the County Prison. The greater length of imprisonment affords a better opportunity of obtaining an understanding of the mental proclivities of the convict; of ascertaining the extent of the moral disease which has brought him to that place, and thus directing all ministrations to the cure of that particular disease, and the encouragement and extent of those principles which have survived the attack which led to imprisonment. But one great advantage, one superiority that is of immense consequence, belongs to the ministrations of the Committee on the Penitentiary. Large proportions of the prisoners in that institution are in separate confinement, and may, therefore, be reached by the sympathizing visitor, and the counsel given may be considered and applied. The silence and solitude of his cell unbroken by a thoughtless companion, and the impressions are permitted to remain.

To those who have shared in these missions the importance of reflection in the convict is well understood,

and the danger of the influence of improper cell companions fully comprehended. It is gratifying to learn that these ministrations are fruitful, and that many who have been visited by members of the Committee, have, at the termination of the sentence, been assisted forward, to service, to work, to homes, by the Agent.

The number of women convicts in the Penitentiary is small, scarcely a dozen; but these are regularly and carefully visited.

On the whole, if this Committee were supplied with funds to complete their work, to place the discharged convict in some position where he would be more out of the way of temptation, there would be but little to desire, excepting, perhaps, a larger blessing on their devoted labor; a blessing which would seem almost certain to follow the uses of larger means.

One great demand of the convicts is for books. Most of them can read, and those who, when free, seldom spend an hour or a moment with a book, acquire a strong appetite for some kind of literature in the solitude of their cells. Some judgment is necessary in supplying the pabulum for this new tate. Fortunately the Eastern Penitentiary is enriched by a library containing books of almost every kind that it is proper to put into the hands of a person whose tastes and habits need correction. We have said less about the Library, perhaps, than it deserves, because its formation is not the work of this Society. Its benefits, however, are entirely coincident with the results which are hoped for from our labors.

The good work of reformation is promoted in the

Eastern Penitentiary by a special officer, the Moral Instructor. Whose labors, though suggested and compensated by the Board of Inspectors, are in the same. direction with the works of the Committee of this Society.

It may be added, the organization of the Committee on the Penitentiary is admirable, and the visits of the members to the cells of the convicts are numerous and regular.

FISCAL MEANS.

The fiscal means of this Society consist in the interest of small investments and the annual payment of the small due of two dollars by each member. The last influx is not equal to what might appear from an estimate of the number of members, because many of them have made themselve life members by paying the sum of twenty dollars on admission, and by regulation of the Society, that amount goes into a permanent investment, and only the interest thereof goes to the appropriation for discharged prisoners. A small contribution by the State to the Society for the use of persons discharged from the Penitentiary was economically and most beneficially used by the Committee at the Penitentiary; but hopes of a continuance of the appropriation have not been realized.

Small sums have been supplied from time to time to the Committee on the County Prison, and under their