The eagerness to learn, which has been manifest on the part of the criminals who needed instruction—the attention and application which they have evinced, and the improvement which they have made, are exceedingly gratifying."

A young man writing to his brother, from the Eastern Penitentiary of Pennsylvania, where the criminals are not only instructed in good trades, but in reading, writing, arithmetic, religion, &c., says:

"I can now make a good shoe, and the improvement of my mind, I leave you to judge by comparing my letter to sister of some time since, with this. My mind is the main point at which I am aiming. I am determined to master the arithmetic, and other books. This imprisonment will be the most useful of all my life spent so far, and I assure you I shall try to improve by it whenever the opportunity offers itself. When I am liberated, instead of wasting my evenings with engine companies, I will attend some useful lecture at the Franklin Institute, or in reading books from which I can derive some useful information. My eyes are now open, and I see the disgrace of being ignorant. I shall always look upon this imprisonment as the greatest benefit I ever had, and when that happy time arrives that I can be able to call myself worthy of my relatives, then I will look back on these walls, and thank God that I ever inhabited them."

2. In the Disciplinary Department, reform is also still needed.

Prisons are too generally controlled by brute force. Blows, chains, the lash, kicking, the screw, the showerbath, and other barbarous and cruel treatment has been employed as a means to control and subdue the offender, instead of persuasion and kind, Christian, moral means.

The benevolent Howard beheld this wherever he went; and he saw no good resulting from it, but, on the contrary, it but increased the desperation of the offender hardened in crime, and utterly froze all his better feelings to their very fountain. He, therefore, resolved to be governed only by kindness and tenderness in his visits to the wretched criminal. "Overcome evil with good," he believed to be the true principle; and "experience soon convinced him that there was no man so debased, or his feelings so callous, but that he could be reached and softened by Christian kindness. Blows, kicks, starvation and neglect, only turned the heart to iron; but no sooner was the angel voice of this Christlike man heard, and his kindness felt, than the longsealed feelings were opened, the dried up sources of tears were filled, the waters of sorrow flowed, and the heart of sin became radiated with deep and undying love for his benevolent visitor."*

Such are the effects of the law of Love, in all prisons where it has been made the governing element. Says an intelligent gentleman,† in describing what he saw and heard during a visit to the Pennsylvania Institution a few years ago: "I was greatly pleased to witness the effects of kindness, in the gratitude and reverence manifested toward the warden. We were shown to, and into perhaps a score of the cells in one of the wards-not by selection, but by succession-and we did not see a single instance which would create suspicion of the existence of any other law than kindness (associated, of course, with firmness.) The address of the warden, a mild and kind Quaker, was indeed fatherly;-as, for example, he would say, when he let down the iron wicket:

*Montgomery's Law of Kindness. Rev. A. C. Thomas, Philadelphia.

"Well, Ned, how does thee get along to-day, my boy? Does the work go to suit thee?' To another, who was lying down and was striving to rise quickly, when he heard the wicket open-There, there, lie still, Sammy, I am afraid thee don't feel well to-day. I am bringing some friends to see thee, Sammy.' And thus from cell to cell we went to see and converse with the prisoners— some of them committed for terrible crimes-and the good warden was ever the same kind friend, as the evident gratitude and respect of the convicts denoted.

"The punishments, aside from separate confinement and the necessity of work, are only two in number; in minor offenses a withholding of food for one or more days, and in aggravated cases a removal to what is termed the dark cell. Of the latter description, during a year, out of more than 400 prisoners, only 15 were thus treated."

"When he took charge of the prison, he was informed of a very hard subject-a stout, violent and very profane mariner. He was told that nothing short of great sternness and severity could tame this rebellious spirit-and so it seemed likely to prove, for offenses in violation of rules of order, were reported daily of 'Ben.' After a week had elapsed, the warden went to the grating of his room, and simply said: "Now, Ben, thee must go to the dark cell."

The keepers ironed and removed him as directed. He was perfectly furious, and broke out into the most violent imprecations, which continued, with scarce an interruption, for hours.

In this state, affairs remained until the next day, and taking the advantage of a quiet spell, the warden opened the wicket. Ben saluted him with a terrible storm of abuse;—but the warden merely looked at him

in silence. "For full ten minutes, I should think," said the worthy man in relating the incident, "Ben continued his bitter tirade of abuse-and I continued to look at him in silence. The truth is, I was querying with myself whether I had not taken wrong means to subdue this violent man, and was striving to discover some way of mending the error. But by-and-bye he was worried out with his own vehemence, and he heaved a deep sigh and was quiet.

"Thee has noted such states in children, I suppose. I knew it was a tender time with him, and so I said kindly, "Ben, has thee a mother?'

"The strong man was subdued in an instant, and sobbed like a child.

"I saw he was melted, and ordered the keepers to take off his irons and return him to his cell. Visiting him immediately after, I had a long private opportunity with him—and to good effect, for he was afterward an orderly and well-behaved man, And when his time expired he left us with tears. I do not say that he was altogether a changed man; but I do think that kindness und tenderness did for Ben what nothing else on earth could have accomplished."

Many facts of a similar nature, going to show what power there is in the principle of love, to overcome the most ignorant and depraved, might be adduced, had we space. All the prison keepers, both of this country and Europe, who have been at all successful in "taming the savage breast," have owed their success to it. They could accomplish nothing with vengeance. Some men think that philosophy is better than Christianity. They are not aware that Christianity is the truest philosophy. "God made us and not we ourselves." He knows, therefore, what is in us and what will answer our moral

and spiritual wants. And when Christ said, "Bless them that curse you," and Paul exclaimed, "Overcome evil with good," a principle of moral philosophy was enforced, which has been found by actual demonstration, to be the only power that will soften the heart of the criminal and fill him with better desires and holier resolves.

Perhaps no man ever lived who was more successful in reclaiming and subduing the savage spirit, than Captain Pillsbury, of the Weathersfield Prison, in Connecticut. Previous to his connection with the prison, the convicts were visited with the most shameful cruelty. The rooms were filthy, whipping was frequent and severe, while many of the convicts were kept continually in irons. This state of things was not only detrimental to industry, for the institution run the State in debt every year, but its effect upon the temper of the convicts was very injurious, producing in them "a deep-rooted and settled malignity." And there were so many recommitments to this and other prisons, of convicts who had been sentenced to it in the first instance, as to demonstrate that such treatment did not produce reformation. But when Captain Pillsbury took charge of the new prison in Weathersfield, and the convicts were removed to it from Newgate, he instituted a very different course of treatment. He was kind in every respect, yet inflexibly firm in the discharge of his duty. He substituted the law of kindness for severity. Says the Report, "He mingles authority and affection in his government and instructions, so that the principles of obedience and affection flow almost spontaneously towards him from the hearts of the convicts." The consequences of such a course, were immediate and obvious. The convicts were liberated from their irons; their respect and obedience to the agent were gained, and the institution began to