His father was subject to Very low spirit- Could read and write well;

Nothing pecu- Read well, write tolerably;

The inference is clear, that the greater still more so when we take into the account that, portion of these men were benefited. If we while other prisons contain individuals of all ages, look at the actual cases of mania occurring, the Pentonville prisoners, with a few exceptions, the tables yield the following results. In are from twenty to forty years of age; and that it the first year (1843), of 332 convicts, the foreign lunatic asylums, nine in number, as afford is proved by the experience of such English and daily average in the prison, three became the opportunity of making the comparison, that in affected with insanity. In 1844, when the no less than 57 per cent. of the whole number of daily average was 456, no case occurred. insane persons the symptoms of the disease are first There was one in each of the two following manifested in the course of these twenty years." years-when the daily averages were respectively 445 and 423.-In 1843 the cases Of course no exact comparison can be were in the proportion of 9.03 per 1000.- made between the inmates for eighteen During the whole period (four years and a months of Pentonville and the miscellanequarter) since the prison was opened, the ous and diversely sentenced residents in any proportion of cases to the daily average of ordinary jail; but the Commissioners are prisoners has been that of 2-29 per 1000 so far supported by the following Note, for annually. From the end of the year 1843 which we are obliged to Mr. Perry, Inspecto the present time the annual proportion tor of Prisons in the Southern and Western has been no more than 1.48 per 1000.

The Reporters say :

"The remarkable difference in the number of cases of insanity at these periods may have been partly owing to accidental circumstances. We believe, however, that to a great extent it admits of explanation, and that in the year 1843 there were some special causes in operation tending to affect the minds of the prisoners, which do not exist at the present time. However that may be, there is reason to be satisfied with the result, when we find that the proportion of insanity in the last three years has not been more than one-sixth part of what it was in the first instance.

"The statistics of insanity do not afford us the means of comparing the amount of this disease which exists at Pentonville with that in the general population. It would be more to the purpose to compare it with that which is met with in other prisons; but here also we found it difficult to obtain such data as would enable us to arrive at an accurate conclusion. The returns from the various prisons of England and Wales, however, justify us in believing that, if the year 1843 be excluded from the calculation, the proportion of prisoners who were affected with insanity after committed to Pentonville is actually smaller than what occurs among persons of the same age in other places of confinement. The conclusion to be drawn is certainly favorable to the separate system. But it is

STATIONS.

Districts. This officer says

"The places of confinement in the southern and western districts are eighty in number-of which seven are conducted on the separate system. In the year from 29th Sept., 1844, to 29th Sept., 1845, the daily average of prisoners in the whole eighty places was 4361-in the seven on the sepa rate system it was 644. The average period of confinement was rather less than seven weeks. Thirty seven prisoners were affected with insanity; in nine of whom the symptoms first showed them. selves during the period of their imprisonment: but of these nine, not one occurred in the seven on the separate system. The proportion of fresh cases of insanity was therefore 2.06 per 1000 in the year, being somewhat less than the proportion at Pentonville during the whole period that has elapsed since the prison was opened; but considerably greater, if the year 1843 be excluded from the calculation."

The following RETURN well deserves to be considered in connexion with the foregoing statement of the Pentonville Com

missioners. It will show the annual ratio of mental diseases per 1000 strength in our troops quartered at home, or in our most healthy stations abroad. We are indebted for it to Dr. Balfour of the Guards :

Compare the numbers in the last column at enlistment, are better fed, better lodged, with the recorded amount of mental dis- and have less onerous duties to perform eases among 1000 per annum in the model than the great mass of the laboring populaprison, and we shall find that while the tion."-Report on the Mortality of Troops, annual ratio in the latter is 1-48-it is p. 4.

nearly 1 at home among the Dragoon The chief lowerers of life on the prisoner Guards and Dragoons,-1-43 in the Ionian are bad food, bad air, and depressing pasIslands,-1.33 in Canada, and 1.41 in sions. The two former are so completely Gibraltar; so that it may be fairly said under control as to admit of any degree of that the prisoner under separate confine- modification. The mind of man is a more ment suffers about as much as the soldier stubborn element; nevertheless the discion the choicest spots of the Mediterranean, pline of the cell is so essentially mental as to or in the bracing climate of Canada. leave no doubt of its effect on the generality.

The Pentonville Commissioners very pro- It is not chimerical to hope that, as all perly acknowledge the want of data for a the circumstances of imprisonment are more deduction of mathematical accuracy: but or less controllable, so most of its decided looking at the general results, they seem to injuries may be warded off. It is curious be fully justified in their belief that the ef- to remark the effects of diet on the prisonfect of the separate system, when enforced ers (5th Report, p. 12)-how little shook for eighteen months, is not injurious to the the scales in the balance of health and dishuman mind; and we think we have evi- ease. No less striking has been the dimidence before us which sustains equally the nution of consumptive cases from attention opinion that it is not injurious to the phy- to suspicions as to their origin. From the sical health. On this last point the writers opening of the prison to the termination of hostile to the system rest certainly on 1844, the annual mortality per 1000 from grounds far less safe than those adduced by phthisis had amounted to 11:47. The the Commissioners. For example, these physician, Dr. Owen Rees, suspected that writers think it much for their argument the dusty trades carried on the cells might that the mortality per 1000 in the metro- have added to the chances of death by this politan population between the ages of 20 disease. In 1845 measures were taken to -40 is 10, while it is 15 at Pentonville, or guard against the supposed cause; in 1846 one-third more. The gross results are only four cases per 1000 of consumption merely looked at, and it is not considered occurred; and in 1847 (upon the 20th of that while the population of the prison is October) there has not been a single death. selected from a vicious community-that of from this terrible scourge.

the metropolis includes the sober and in- We could readily produce evidence that dustrious. Men gamble with life-the the mortality in many callings is much honest equally with the dishonest. There greater than in prisons; but we have puris not the slightest doubt that the latter posely selected the soldier at home. If the are greatly the losers, are pained more, discipline of the cell is not worse in its phygain less, and die very much sooner than sical and mental effects than that of the the former. But in the honest and honora- parade, there should not be much to comble pursuits of life is there no risk? Take plain of. It has been objected, that to carry the casualties of our soldiers, for example, through that of the Separate System, a in England, in home service. While the large amount of food and more stimulants annual mortality of Pentonville per 1000 also are required. This, however, is not is 15.70, that of the Foot Guards is 216- the case. As compared with the consumpnay, the mortality from consumption alone tion of the soldier, the prisoner is underfed: in the Guards is nearly as high (14.1 per the former has daily twelve ounces of meat, 1000) as the total mortality of Pentonville and a pound of bread, with coffee and vegeprisoners-men, be it remarked, of about tables, and this may be increased under the the same age on an average as the soldiers. discretion of the commanding officer-not Even in the Household Cavalry the mor- to say his own; the prisoner has four ounces tality, varying from 13 to 15 per 1000, of meat, and twenty ounces of bread per day, is but a fraction less than that of the crimi- with vegetables, gruel, and cocoa. nal population in the Model Prison. "Yet only after repeated experiments and careful these soldiers," says Colonel Tulloch, weighing of each prisoner that the dietary carefully selected, and, so far as can be was adopted. On a daily average of 423 ascertained, subject to no physical defect prisoners, in 1846, 37 required extra diet.

It was

In some the addition was merely a few school, the proficiency of the disciple shows ounces of bread; in others, stimulants were a hearty and a healthy direction of his will. given, as wine and porter. With regard to It is not to be supposed that the labor of the extra diet-even including these ex- learning, which he has hitherto abhorred, tras the amount of food is never greater does not now demand a sustained effort of than that of the ration of the soldier, and will. The chaplain reports that, of 1000 in most cases not so great. Occasionally, prisoners, 696 at leaving the place possessed of course, stimulants are required for the considerable general knowledge "-that sick and weakly in all hospitals, military 713 had mastered the "higher rules of or civil; but the documents as to the rela- arithmetic "—and that in many cases it is tive stress of wear and tear on the soldier found necessary to check and moderate the and prisoner are precise. At Pentonville, ardor of investigation-especially as to rethen, the daily ratio is 14 sick in 423, or ligious subjects. Take from the same genabout 33 in 1000. Among 1000 of the tleman's paper the following out of many Dragoon Guards and Dragoons serving in specimens of the concentrated activity of the United Kingdom, 40 are daily sick. the mind in the Pentonville prisoner. Much stress has been laid as to the Pentonville prisoners being "selected." It is true "Reg. 432. This man had received, he told they are, but selected notoriously from a me, some injuries in his head from falling down short-lived and ill-conditioned class. Pro- a steep place some years back; had been a vavided no overt disease or marked diseased tendency be apparent, the convict is at once admitted; and we have seen from the table furnished by the chaplain that many are received whose minds and bodies exhibit anything but a vigorous constitution. It is "Reg. Nos. 548, 590, 685, and 558. These an abuse of terms to call this selection, as men were of uncommonly low intellect, and on compared with the kind of man required write their own letters, and so well express their admission did not know the alphabet; they now for the Dragoon Guards. No insurance ideas on the simple subjects before them, that their office would take the majority of Pentonville relatives can scarcely believe that they are the prisoners even as average lives; a very cur- writers.

grant and singing beggar in the streets, and an associate of gipsies. When he left this place, whatever his moral character may prove to be (of which I am not now speaking), he knew more of religion and of general subjects than even respect. able working citizens in general.

sory glance at the congregation in the "Reg. 580, a cab-driver,-elevated now from chapel is sufficient to satisfy any physician the most debased and ignorant state to a very good on that point. In truth, there can be no acquaintance with religion and the elements of question that the mass of our genuine cri- secular knowledge. His health, almost ruined by minal population is below par in physical, spirit-drinking, is also visibly improved.

if not also in mental calibre.

Reg. 689 is an instance of mind of some power, but previously uncultivated. He could With regard to the injurious effect on read when he came, but had no knowledge of "the will," as evidenced in "the listless figures. Having made himself master of Thomplook," ""the want of alacrity," "the loss son's Arithmetic, however, he is now working at of their gregarious habits," a supposed mensuration by himself; for the masters lose no "dullness of comprehension," &c., we may time upon such. "Of Reg. 504, I may confidently say that he say, that this faculty is certainly the one so cultivated his mind in solitude, latterly with the most influenced by the discipline of the help of books only, that he was sufficiently well separate system. All but a few reprobates grounded to begin a course of study in the higher are thoroughly tamed. Punishments to departments of almost any one subject of useful enforce obedience are very rare; no corpo- knowledge. His proficiency in the trade of ral punishments have ever been required at basket-making was equally remarkable. Being Pentonville. The aspect of men who have very much interested in this young man, I took a been kept in comparative seclusion, and copy of one of his letters to his family, in which he says:- I will tell you how I amuse myself whose thoughts have been forcibly turned of an evening, after work, on school-days, and at within, no doubt may present peculiarities. meal-times. I peruse and study those works The prompt and constant subjection to the which you were so kind as to send me, and then will of others may also give a cast to the when my hands are busily engaged in bending physiognomy, but if will does not mean the pliant twig,' my head is equally busy in apwilfulness, there is abundant evidence to plying the theory. I divide my subject into three show that that faculty is in full vigor under and when I am at exercise I have a turn at mental parts, and allot a fixed portion of my time to each; the separate system. Whether the test be arithmetic. That pump is a rare place for sumtaken from assiduous labor at a trade or in ming; the revolutions of the handle answer the

purpose of a slate, and the clicking of the wheel the name of which it was stigmatized. Howmakes it equal to any ready-reckoner. During the ever, the Pentonville prisoners, who arrived summer I had an hour's practical experience in the at Van Diemen's Land under promises of study of natural history every day; it was rather

on a small scale, and I dare say you will smile at employment, found none. They were thrown it, but it gave me information and amusement too. among large gangs of convicts, idle, reckIn front of our airing-yard there is a grass-plat, less, and depraved,-and, moving in masses and I distinguished about a dozen different sorts of over the country, to the terror of the insmall plants and grasses, to which I gave names habitants, no wonder that the good seed of my own. I found out at what time they came was choked by the tares. Some appear to into flower, how long they remained, and the de- have struggled hard, judging by their letgree in which each was able to bear the drought ters; but the very great majority, we be

that occurred. I learned the habits of several

kinds of insects; and the sparrows, building their lieve, fell rapidly to the level of the slime. nests or feeding their young in the holes of the The condition of the convict colonies was

wall, afforded me another source of entertainment. such that it was deemed fit to put a stop, Such is the plan I have adopted. It may seem for a period, to further transportation thifoolish to you, who may look about you as you ther. But as no other of our colonies will replease, but it is to this I attribute, with God's ceive a criminal population, or can legally blessing, the good health I enjoy, and the rapidity be compelled to do so, an expedient was with which time passes away."' now resorted to which permitted them to

We shall not extend this paper by trac- receive transports without infringement of ing more minutely the various feelings and the law. The convicts lost their penal dispositions educed under the Separate Sys- character-were dubbed "exiles," and thus tem; nor shall we dwell on the testimonies acquired at once, within the colony, the of the Judges and other responsible watch- privileges of freemen. In a word, in lieu ers of this discipline. As one example, we of the old system of transportation, crimifind the Lord Justice Clerk of Scotland ex- nals underwent 18 months of the Separate pressing in his evidence (a most careful and System, and were sent abroad pardoned and elaborate document) great satisfaction, that free, with the sole condition that they should the arrangement of most of the Scotch jails not return to England pending their term is now such as to admit the adoption of the of sentence. Of the working of this plan, Separate system, and his earnest desire to in the case of some 460 Pentonville convicts, see the same thing practicable at Edinburgh we have found access to pretty full details; and Glasgow. But let us at once proceed and we can thus enable our reader to judge to the history of the convicts after their re-for himself what is the amount of punishmoval from Pentonville. ment awarded by England, in A. D. 1847, About 218 were sent to Van Diemen's to the second class of crimes. We must Land, under regulations laid down in Lord premise, however, that the whole of this Stanley's able dispatch, of November, 1842. most difficult subject seems to be at sea at According to these, a prisoner could, by good present. We are apparently about to abolconduct, gradually pass through various ish transportation, and adopt the old sysgrades of relaxation of his sentence, until he tème des Bagnes of France, while our neighentitled himself virtually to absolute pardon. bors, themselves, are doing away or modiBut the radical defect of the system render-fying the system of keeping criminals at ed all skilful details quite nugatory. Crimi- home, and adopting that of deporting them nals were associated in gangs, and therefore to Algeria. We are thinking of employing deteriorated. The shocking scenes brought convicts, in gangs, on public works and in to light by the Reports on our convict popu- our arsenals; our neighbors have come to lation in Norfolk Island and Van Diemen's the conclusion that the valuable property Land, paralleled only by the cities of the contained in them would be just as safe, plain, prove too clearly the wisdom of Pa- when unguarded by a population who do not ley's rule, "the necessity of dispersion." stick at murder or arson, to gain their libThese Reports, too, show that the Assign- erty. We have as yet limited the cellular ment System, which separated and absorb- discipline to eighteen months. Prussia and ed the criminal population, was preferable France, and other countries, have made it to that which succeeded it. It succumbed, indefinite. However, among ourselves it as we all know, to the cry of "white slave- would appear that many would see no obry," though in reality it had a far greater jection to a longer period, or at least to reanalogy to our home apprenticeship, with committal to the same discipline, on a seall its inequalities of lot, than to that with cond offence. Mr. Recorder Hill would