al's health. Ill constructed and badly organized prisons injure the social state in many respects, and the prisoners who are accustomed to inaction, or to such labors as spinning wool, or sawing dye-woods, which will not answer for them when placed at liberty, often remain a long time without resource. It is not surprising, then, that we find the prisons generally peopled with persons who return to them the second and even the tenth time.

This faithful picture of places of confinement, shows the urgent necessity of combining in them all the institutions, proper to furnish to those who have been seduced, and those naturally wicked, all sorts of means to induce them to act conformably to social order, and to their own good.

These principles were not new at the time of the first impression of my work, and fortunately they are still less so at this moment. Men had long since insisted on the instruction of the ignorant, on the reform of the erring, on the amelioration of criminals, and the extirpation of vices. But these rules have not been very generally executed. It is at Philadelphia, that they have been put in practice for the first time.* The happy effects which resulted hence, have encouraged other humane governments to imitate the example. Several States, besides prisons, have established houses of reformation, and correction, where instruction is the principal object, and where they habituate the inmates to constant toil and an honest trade. On the other hand, punishment is no longer the only object in prisons; there is also regard had to the moral correction. There are daily given to the prisoners, lessons in reading, writing, calculation, morals and religion. It is also sought to direct their attention to the duties of the citizen, and to the mutual relations of social life. Those who know no trade, are compelled to learn one; and those who conduct in the best manner, serve afterwards as masters and overseers. Those who know a trade, practise it.

* Of the prisons of Philadelphia; by a European, M. Liancourt.

VOL. I.

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We may consider a prison, conducted in this way, as a manufactory. The labor of the prisoners provides abundantly for the maintenance of the house; and by giving them better food, it follows that scarce six in a hundred are incapable of working. Hence is avoided. that kind of injustice, which arises from feeding the disturbers of the public peace at the expense of society. What each individual gains above the sum prescribed, is placed in reserve; part is given to his family, if in want, or it is given to the prisoner himself at his departure, that he may not be obliged to commit any excesses while waiting for work.

In such establishments, the principle is duly regarded that food and drink have great influence on the actions of men. It is therefore attempted, by wholesome and simple diet, and by the absence of inebriating liquors, to calm the effervescence of the passions. The efficacy of all these measures, and of the employment of the noblest motives, is made manifest, by a comparison of the recommitments which take place in the common prisons, and those which occur in these establishments. In the first, it is calculated that among the prisoners, there are at least one half, if not three fourths, who are there for the second time; in the second, on the contrary, of an hundred who are set at liberty, scarce two again return.*

Though constant experience has taught, that such treatment is no less profitable to the state, than to the unhappy criminal, yet I have heard the remark made by some, that the only obligation of the state toward such beings, was to punish them, and that, as for education and instruction, it was for them to provide for it.

"But these are precisely the men," said the generous monarch of Bavaria to us, "who have the greatest need of assistance of this kind. How, in fact, can we exact social virtues from persons, who are absolutely ignorant

To understand this subject more fully, see, besides the work on the Philadelphia prisons, that of John Howard, on prisons, hospitals, and houses of correction, and the introduction to the code of public safety, reduced to a plan for the states of his majesty the king of Bavaria, by Scipio Bexon.

what relations exist between their own private interests and those of society, and who are besides a prey to the violence of their own gross passions? Besides, no crime is ever committed, without the life of innocent men, or their property, being the sacrifice." Let us then do that for society, which we will not do for the criminal. It will only be, when we have united to punishment the care of instructing the mind and forming the heart, that we shall be able to satisfy ourselves, that, in conformity to the law which directs us to prevent crimes,* we have done for these wretches, and for the state, all that is recommended by experience, the laws of man's organization, and the knowledge of his wants. So long as we are contented with forbidding and with punishing, we hold out an inducement to obedience, it is true, but this inducement acts only so long as the punishment appears certain. By enlightening the mind, on the contrary, by abundantly supplying it with the noblest motives drawn from morality and religion, means are given him, the force of which is never lost. Man then learns to recognize witnesses of his actions, from whose vigilance he cannot escape. Let us never lose sight of the fact, that of two objects, man does not, without motive, choose one in preference to the other, and that the perfection of the will consists in the knowledge of the goodness and excellence of the motives.

The benefits produced for some years by the Royal Society for the Amelioration of Prisons, founded in 1819, under the ministry of the Duke of Decazes, are too striking and too well known, to make it necessary for me to dilate upon this generous enterprise. Let my readers examine the statistics, the various reports made by Counts Dru, de la Borde, &c.

Unhappily, all these generous efforts will fail ofentire success, so long as criminal legislation continues to condemn to the collar (carcan) and to branding, for crimes which are judged insufficient to deserve perpetual imprisonment.

* Beccaria on Crimes and Punishments, § 36. + Homel, Gedanken iiber das Criminat recht.

"Of Repentance, or of the Conscience of Malefactors.

It is commonly imagined, that malefactors, who are condemned only to imprisonment of greater or less duration, end with repentance, and finally resolving to renounce their evil habits and return to good behavior. Nay, more; the hope is cherished, that those condemned to perpetual imprisonment, to hard labor for life, to the punishment of death, will make a sincere confession of all their crimes and all their accomplices, and in their effort to obtain pardon, at least in the other world, will be tormented by the stings of conscience and will experience sincere repentance.

But experience, in this respect, gives a very different result. I do not deny that some criminals experience sincere repentance: there are some who have been drawn into crime by want of reflection, by an unfortunate fit of passion, by poverty and want, by seduction, and other very pressing external circumstances. If, for instance, a dishonored and abandoned mother, in an instant of wild despair, lays a trembling hand on her child, and deprives it of life, its innocent blood will always be present to her eyes, and will poison every moment of her existence. When once the fatal concurrence of circumstances has passed, the milder feelings within will again be awakened. There then appears a total contradiction between the natural sentiments and the act committed; and this contradiction is what constitutes repentance, or the natural conscience. We saw a man at Spandau, who had killed his wife in a violent fit of anger this man was so unhappy, that he eagerly demanded death, to be delivered from the insupportable burden of his remorse. Charles Benzel, born of good parents and with an internal disposition to piety, had been well educated; accordingly, he was the only one of all the band of Schinderhannes, who repented of his conduct.

But he, who is drawn into crime by internal propensity, will rarely experience natural repentance. In such a man, the inclinations which lead to evil are predominant-if the expression may be used, they compose his proper character; consequently, all the acts which emanate from him are in harmony with his whole being, and the tranquillity of his soul is rarely disturbed by them. This depraved view of man may naturally displease some of those persons, whose dreams are only of the dignity of the human species. But, examine the usurer, the libertine, the villain, and you will see that each of them is happy, only in proportion as he satisfies his desires. It is in vain, that the cheated orphan, that betrayed and abandoned innocence often console themselves with the idea, that such a villain will one day feel repentance for his criminal actions.* I have, from my youth, made the sad and alarming observation, that the most perverse men grow proud of their talents for deceiving and abusing, and that they always dwell, with a sentiment of delight, on the striking traits of their disorderly course. Go into the prisons; place yourself in the midst of the prisoners; avoid the appearance of a public functionary, lest you be mocked with pretended repentance; inspire these men with frankness and confidence; with what internal satisfaction, with what joy and pride in wickedness, will the distinguished criminals recount to you their crimes, without forgetting the most insignificant details, and the particular mode they adopted in committing them! If, at any time, one of them gives himself the trouble to speak on the subject with pretended horror, there will generally escape a malignant smile, which betrays his hypocrisy. Most of them employ their wit in uttering the gayest sallies on the most atrocious actions; and frequently, at the moment you shudder with horror, they burst into a laugh. Reckon up in

"The soul of the wicked desireth evil; his neighbor findeth no favor in his eyes." Prov. xxi. 10.