ments are blinded by their sympathies? Nor can the inspectors of the prison be better instructed on the subject.-Ought a representation to be noticed by the Governor, emanating from any one but the President of the Court, before whom the case was tried? Who so well as he can know all the circumstances from which severity is to be inferred? In England, the King, perhaps always, disregards the petition of the people, if not strengthened by the report of the judge who heard the case. The consequence is, that syren hope never flatters; for so surely as there is undoubted guilt, the law is rigidly administered. The cruelty of the laws of England disgraces the wisdom of their administration; but is not the latter worthy of our imitation?"

In 1791 the salutary enactments in reference to the prison received a little alteration and improvement. The appointment of inspectors, which had been vested, the year before, in the Mayor, aldermen, and justices, was placed in the Mayor and two aldermen. These inspectors, so appointed, were to prescribe the allowance of provisions to the criminals, ascertained by weight and measure.

A very important change was introduced in 1794, both as regards punishments, and the penitentiary at Philadelphia. By this statutex hither were to be removed, from every county in the state, persons convicted of crimes which were capital in Pennsylvania anterior to 1786, or of uttering counterfeit coin, or of printing, signing, or passing, counterfeit notes of certain banks. And it required that the Court, before whom the conviction was had, should report to the inspectors at Philadelphia, the nature of the offence, with the circumstances, if any, of extenuation or aggravation.

Several additions were made to the statute of 1790, and its disagreeable provisions were repealed, by an act of 1795. The inspectors were enjoined to clothe, separate, and class the prisoners,

v Edward Livingston Esq., in his admirable criminal code of Louisiana, has these words: "the power of pardoning should be only exercised in cases of innocence discovered, or of certain and unequivocal reformation." The severity of the law should undoubtedly be relaxed when its purpose has been accomplished by the reformation of the prisoner; but what kind of evidence is necessary to render it " unequivocal?" Mr. Bradford says, this is easily counterfeited

w See 3 Smith. 44.

x See sections 10 and 12. 3 Smith, 189

y See 3 Smith. 247.

a

in such manner as would best promote the object of their confinement. The thirteenth section of the former statute requires habits of coarse materials for the prisoners, their heads close shaven, and their labour to be of the most laborious and servile description. The twenty-first section empowers the inspectors to inflict chastisement on the convicts, if confinement in the cells shall not be deemed sufficient punishment to restrain disorder. These were abrogated, and, for impropriety of conduct on the part of the prisoners, the inspectors were authorised to confine them to the cells, or dungeon, with bread and water only as sustenance, for a period not exceeding ten days for the first, and fifteen days for any subsequent transgression. The power of appointing and removing the keeper, and fixing his salary, was vested in the inspectors, as individuals whose opportunities enabled them to judge the merits of the keeper, and what remuneration his services required. The five per cent. on the proceeds of the labour of the convicts, given to their keeper as an inducement for providence, industry, and attention, by the act of 1790, being perverted from its original purpose, was taken away by this statute. A special statute, passed on the 10th of April 1799, authorises the removal of the prisoners from Philadelphia, if endangered by the visitation of a pestilential disease.

A notice of every provision, or of every statute, in relation to this subject, is foreign from our intention. Such would be an irksome, and, in a great measure, perhaps, a useless task. It must suffice to present the great features of the portrait, at the same time marking those revolutions, which enlightened zeal and welldirected benevolence have introduced.

From this period to 1803, the Legislature suffered the penitentiary system to remain unaltered. But in the meantime exertions were not wanting on the part of the "Philadelphia Society for alleviating the miseries of public prisons," to facilitate the great work of reform which they had begun. With this view they addressed a memorial to the Legislature, in which they expressed their

z See this sec. of the statute of 1790. 2 Smith. 535.

a See ibid. 537.

b By the statement of Mr. Lownes in 1795, it would appear that so degrading an infliction to men as whipping, was not requisite, even then, to enforce observ ance of the rules of the prison. See his Account, &c. p. 87-88.89.

d See Memorial in Vaug's Notices, &c. p. 36.

strong conviction of the superiority of solitude and labour in preventing crimes and reforming criminals, to free social intercourse. There are charms in society which dissipate even the gloom of a prison, which man in a state of nature was born to enjoy, and without which he must be miserable. But as this is a positive pleasure, its privation can only be a negative punishment, which offenders against the natural and moral law ought to feel, particularly when that association deprives confinement of its great, primary, and ultimate purposes.

Of this, the very intelligent society, above alluded to, were properly sensible; and, as their first petition did not effect the object of their wishes, a joint address of its members and the inspectors of the gaol was presented to the legislative bodies in 1803, setting forth the imperious necessity of another building for servants, apprentices, vagrants, and prisoners for trial, whom experience dictated the ruinous effects of suffering to be with the more atrocious offenders. An additional reason, cogently urged, was that the prison in Philadelphia was too full for a separation of the criminals, which the society had near at heart.

A statute, in compliance with their remonstrance, was passed in the same year, authorising the inspectors of the prison to appropriate the proceeds of the sale of vacant public lots, in the city of Philadelphia, to the erection of a house of confinement for that identical description of persons named in the memorial. This was accordingly done, and the building located at the corner of Arch and Broad streets.

Further provision was not deemed necessary till 1807,8 when a statute was enacted, inflicting on those charged with duties to the prison, larger penalties than had been hitherto annexed. Neglect or refusal on the part of the gaoler to furnish to the commissioners of the proper county, a complete calendar of persons under sentence of servitude, was to be punished with the forfeiture of 100 dollars; neglect by the commissioners, after the receipt of such notice, to procure materials for labour, or an omission of any other duty, was to be punished with the same sum; permitting the criminals to have liquor was to be punished with a forfeiture of fifty dollars

e See the Address in Vaux's Notices, &c. p. 37.

f See Act, 4 Smith, 87.

g 4 Smith, 393.

from the gaoler; and negligently suffering an escape was visited with a penalty of 300 dollars.

The prison having thus been provided with every necessary, to render the prisoners as comfortable as was consistent with the purposes of their incarceration and the dictates of humanity; proper penalties being suspended over officers entrusted with important duties, and every emergency guarded against, which experience had suggested or penetration could foresee, it remained that the Legislature should watch with tutelar solicitude the effects of their labour, to correct degeneracy, obviate innovation, and counteract remissness. These not occurring, no material change or alteration seemed to be required, and accordingly the only statutes, passed for nine years, worthy of recital, were those of 1812 and 1816. The formeri appropriated twenty-five thousand dollars for the completion and improvement of the county gaol in Arch Street, and the latterk authorised the preparation of apartments in that prison for the reception of debtors hitherto confined in Prune Street, and their removal thither when the apartments should be prepared. The alteration of the house and part of the yard of the Debtors' Apartment, for the confinement of that description of persons, hitherto kept in the Arch Street edifice, and of the remainder of the yard for the employment of convicts, was enjoined, and composed the residue of the latter statute.

But this long interval was not, in other respects, altogether unemployed. Laws were not necessary, since enactments, relative to the condition of the prison, were sufficiently comprehensive for the purposes of humane and repressive justice; but it would be unpardonable to omit a notice of the efforts which the society, so often referred to, made to meliorate the prisoners. They distributed bibles and testaments among them. An enlarged philanthropy prompted them to enquire into the propriety of disseminating useful knowledge by means of other religious books, but a committee, appointed for the purpose, reported against the measure. Corresponding secretaries were constituted, to communicate with other states in the Union which had attended to their criminal jurisprudence and prison discipline, and to ascertain their effects on moral delinquency. Unwearied attention appears to have been paid to the

state of the prison, and an earnest, undeviating eye to have been directed to the system of solitude and hard labour.1

The prison, at the corner of Sixth and Walnut streets, being the only repository in the state for such felons as were punished with death before 1786, had become crowded, which defeated this one great object of the society. Wherefore, the Legislature was petitioned for the erection of other penitentiaries in other parts of the state, and in 1818" an act was passed appropriating sixty thousand dollars for a building "on the principle of solitary confinement," to be situated in Alleghany county, at the western extremity of the state. Supplementary statutes were made in 1819, 20 and 21; the two former describing its plan and formation, and the latter granting an additional appropriation.

These grants only prepared the way for greater extension of liberality; for the principal gaol, in this city, though enlarged by part of the Debtors' Apartment, and in other respects altered, was, by no means, suited to the improvements of which many years' experience and reflection had convinced the inspectors and the Prison Society, prisons were susceptible. To accomplish their ardent wishes on this subject, a memorial was presented to the Legislature, in 1821, enforcing their convictions, in a nervous and cogent manner. The petition was successful, and the munificence of the Legislature manifested, by appropriating, at that session,' one hundred thousand dollars to the construction of a penitentiary, similar to that at Pittsburg, within this city and county. The statute appoints eleven commissioners to superintend the building, who are authorized to build it on the plan of the Pittsburg penitentiary, with such alterations and improvements as they may deem proper, if approved by the governor, and "on the principle of solitary confinement."

The latter prison, it is understood, is now finished, and ready for the reception of convicts.

This penitentiary encloses an area of about 24 acres, is in shape an octagon, and contains 192 cells. The cells are one story high, and six feet by eight, each having an iron ring in the centre for

1 See Vaux's Notices, &c. p. 40.

m By the statute of 1797, see page

n 7 Smith. 62.

o Ibid. 150.

p Ibid. 293.

q Ibid. 447.

r See Mem. in V's Notices, &c. p. 44-5.

s See 7 Smith. 389.