were the soul of their system. They determined to visit every lunatic with lenity and liberty. Though such an experiment endangered their lives, yet they opened every door of the building, and gave its inmates free access to every part of the asylum, treating them, "as much as possible, as though they were sane.' The result is ennobling-after the pursuing of such a course for twenty years, no accident has happened from it. Miss Martineau, after visitthe asylum, says, "I saw the worst patients in

the establishment, and conversed with them, and was far more delighted than surprised, to see the effect of companionship on those who might be supposed the most likely to irritate each other. One poor creature, in a paroxysm of misery, could not be passed by; and while I was speaking to her as she sat, two of the most violent patients in the ward joined me, and the one wiped away the scalding tears of the bound sufferer, while the other told me how gentle an education she had had, and how it grieved them all to see her there. The talk of these paupers often abounds with oaths, when they first enter; but the orderly spirit of the society soon banishes them. I cannot hear those words,' Mrs. Ellis says, 'I will hear any thing you have to say in a reasonable manner. I am in no hurry; I will sit down now, let me hear?' No oaths can follow an invitation like this; and the habit of using them is soon broken."

The results have been extraordinary, for not only has kindness won the love and gratitude of the insane, but has rendered charms entirely useless, so that, though in 1834, they had 562 patients, there were only ten whose arms it was necessary even gently to confine. Ninety out of every hundred patients have been cured under this kind of treatment. Glorious results of the divine law, "Overcome evil with good."

TESTIMONY OF THE GRAND JURY OF LONDON.

In 1818, the Grand Jury of London visited the female prison, after its three hundred inmates had been a few months under the instruction of Mrs. Fry, whose rule was kindness, and made a "report to the court of the Old Bailey." After enumerating the blessings produced by the actions of Mrs. Fry and her friends, the report says, "If the principles which govern her regulations were adopted towards the males as well as females, it would be the means of converting a prison into a school of reform; and instead of sending criminals back into the world hardened in vice and depravity, they would be repentant, and probably become useful members of society." O how sublime and powerful is kindness!

EFFECT OF KINDNESS ON SLAVES. Says Miss Martineau, "A highly satisfactory experiment upon the will, judgment and talents of a large body of slaves was made, a few years since, by a relative of Chief Justice Marshall. This gentleman and his lady had attached their negroes to them by a long course of judicious kindness. At length an estate at some distance was left to the gentleman, and he saw, with much regret, that it was his duty to leave the plantation on which he was living. He could not bear the idea of turning over his people to the tender mercies or unproved judgment of a strange overseer. He called his negroes together, and told them the case, and asked whether they thought they could manage the estate themselves. If they were willing to undertake the task, they must choose an overseer from among themselves, provide comfortably for their own wants, and remit the surplus to him of the profits. The negroes were full of grief at losing the family, but willing to try what they could do. They had an election for overseer, and choose the man their master would have pointed out, decidedly the strongest head on the estate. All being arranged, the master left them with a parting charge, to keep their festivals, and take their appointed holidays, as if he were present. After some time, he rode over to see how all went on, choosing a

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festival day, that he might meet them in their holiday gaiety. He was surprised, on approaching, to hear no merriment. On entering his fields, he found his force' all hard at work. As they flocked around him, he inquired why they were not making holiday. They told him, that the crop would suffer in the present state by the loss of a day; and that, therefore, they had put off their holiday, which, however, they meant to take by and by. Not many days after, an express arrived to inform the proprietor that there was an insurrection on the estate. He would not believe it; declared it impossible, as there was nobody to rise against; but the messenger, who had been sent by the neighboring gentlemen, was so confident of the facts, that the master galloped, with the utmost speed, to his plantation, arriving as night was on. As he rode in, a cry of joy arose from his negroes, who pressed round to shake hands with him. They were in their holiday clothes, and had been singing and dancing; they were only enjoying the deferred festival. The neighbors hearing the noise, on a quiet working day, had jumped to the conclusion that it was an insurrection. The proprietor said that no trouble had arisen; and that for some reasons, ever since this estate had been wholly in the hands of his negroes, it had been more productive than it ever was while he managed it himself.”

A PEACEABLE SOCIETY IN AFRICA.

Ricnard Lardner, who conducted an expedition in Africa in 1830, states that a community of Peiatahs, who reside at Acha, unlike the surrounding population, are very quiet, take no part in war, are unambitious to gain territory, and carefully avoid all the quarrels of their neighbors. The consequence is, that they are highly respected and esteemed by all around them, while they remain entirely unmolested by the most warlike tribes.

KINDNESS IN SCHOOL.

Hon. Horace Mann, Secretary of the Board of Education in Massachusetts, is engaged in a controversy with certain pedagogues in the city of Notions, on the question whether corporeal punishment is either useful or necessary as a means of securing proper discipline in schools. The Secretary tells the following story, which is a sufficient answer to all that we have ever seen urged in favor of the ferule and switch:

"In a town not thirty miles from Boston, a young lady, who aimed at the high standard of governing without force, and determined to live or die by her faith, went into a school which was far below the average in point of good