allow prisoners to purchase in addition to meat under the expressions" any other indulgences," in the sentence cited above, from Mr. Buxton's book, but I suspect the list of non-prohibited articles would not be a very short one. I know that fish is purchased in one of our best prisons; and in a house of correction, which has been considered as a model for those prisons in which a portion of earnings is to be delivered to the prisoner, tea and sugar are expressly included among the provisions in which his money may properly be expended. Where prisoners work by choice, it may be very right, and may constitute a proper distinction between them and prisoners of another description, to reward their industry by allowing them to dine at their own expense upon rump steaks, and solace themselves afterwards with tea, or with coffee, if they so please; but surely it is more fitting, that prisoners who perform work as a part of their punishment, should be sustained on the coarse parts of the beef and water gruel.

I do not think it necessary at present to consider the difficulties that would arise in the details of any plan for allowing prisoners to furnish themselves with meat, &c. in a penitentiary, because my objections go to the principle of such a measure; and I will therefore only observe upon that head here, that I do not see how it would be possible to give the prisoners the means of dressing their meat, or the other articles which they might so purchase, more difficulty in fixing a dietary for a prison than may at first sight appear. We cannot ascertain the capacity of men's stomachs and appetites, as we can measure them for clothes; and if the same allowance is to be distributed to each, some will not have enough, unless more is given than what the wants of others may require. It should, moreover, be remembered, that a large proportion of the prisoners in the Millbank penitentiary are mechanics, or persons from great towns, who have been used to better fare than country laborers, and that the diet settled for them is to be continued during a long imprisonment, so that if it be too low, its influence must be severely felt. Of the two errors, however, of giving too much or too little, we were of course most on our guard against that which would have been most injurious in its consequences, and we are therefore not unlikely to have fallen into the mistake of being over liberal. But let the fixed dietary of a prison be ever so abundant, it cannot equal in indulgence the permission to a prisoner to purchase food for himself. I have heard it said by prisoners in the penitentiary, that they were not used to barley-broth, and did not like water-gruel. To this, those who would allow a prisoner to spend a portion of his earnings, would probably answer, (at least in the case of a skilful manufacturer, for how they would answer a bad workman I do not presume to conjecture,) "Make haste and finish the work you have in hand, and you may then cook what soup you please for yourself, instead of the barley-broth, (unless you prefer fish,) and may take your choice of tea or coffee in place of the water-gruel." In the penitentiary the prisoners were of course told, that they were not sent there to eat what they liked, but were to take what was provided for them, and should be thankful that it was wholesome in quality, and sufficient in quantity.

without abandoning the system of separate confinement, and giving up altogether the distinctive characteristic of a penitentiary.

It will, perhaps, be said, that with my views of this subject, I ought not to approve even of the setting aside a part of the offender's earnings, to be paid to him when he shall quit the prison; since the skilful workman will possess the same advantage in the amount of his gains, over the prisoner who shall only be industrious, whether they be carried to his account, or delivered to him for his immediate use. This is certainly the fact, but the advantage will not operate within the walls of the prison, it will not affect the treatment of the individual so long as he shall continue under punishment; and in case a very industrious prisoner shall appear to have but a small pittance to receive, when his account comes to be settled at the end of his confinement, those who manage the prison will have an opportunity of applying some remedy to this hardship (if it can be so considered), by giving him on his discharge a larger gratuity (keeping always within the limits laid down by Act of Parliament for the gratuities to discharged prisoners) than they would otherwise think it right to bestow; besides which, they may be induced, by his former diligence, to use great exertions to procure him a creditable situation. I do not, however, consider the appropriation of part of the prisoner's earnings to his future benefit, simply in the light of an encouragement to industry. It furnishes a fund to answer some expenses to which he may become liable during his imprisonment, such as the postage of letters, or any charge for damage done wilfully or by gross negligence, to any of the property of the prison; it is some security for his general good behaviour, being subject to be forfeited by misconduct, and it is useful to him on his discharge, by affording him the means of support till he can get into work. But its principal recommendation is, that it tends to form a very important moral habit, that of contemplating with satisfaction the gradual accumulation of petty earnings, a much better foundation for industry than the stimulus created by any sensual gratification.

Mr. Buxton very truly represents the offenders confined in the penitentiary as "creatures of present impulse, persons who have already sacrificed every thing to immediate gratification, and are imprisoned because they have so done;" as being "men of strong passions and little reflection;" but when he adds, "the present is uppermost with them, and to affect their minds you must hold out the temptation of speedy enjoyment," he is surely incorrect in his reasoning-it should be our business rather to endeavour to weaken these passions, and to increase reflection, than to take this defective disposition as we find it, and even to strengthen its

defects, for the purpose of making them the ground-work of the character we wish the individual to acquire in prison; and it may be worth considering, where a habit of industry is to be formed in connexion with a habit of indulging in delicacies which the labor of the individual may not always be enabled to command after he shall have left the prison, whether the latter (which in that case will prove a pernicious habit,) may not be the more lasting of the

two.

While, however, under all the circumstances attending the establishment at Millbank, we have thought it expedient to place a part of the earnings of the prisoners to their account, I am by no means prepared to contend for the universal adoption of this practice in all prisons. The importance attached to the profits of manufacture in those prisons in which a portion of earnings is appropriated to prisoners in any shape, and another portion is paid to the officers set over them, will be attended with more inconvenience than may appear at first sight, and will lead to many abuses, if the arrangements connected with work in such prisons shall not be watched with a very jealous eye. It seems to be supposed by many, that as long as the prisoners are employed, the prison will be in good order, and nothing will remain to be done except to keep up a good stock of materials; but there are many occasions on which work, which is to produce profit, will run counter to discipline and moral improvement. It will often be found convenient to the Task-master to bring together, for purposes of manufacture, prisoners who ought not on other accounts to be permitted to associate with each other; and it is often very much against his interest, that a prisoner, from whom others are to receive instruction, or on whose exertions in some particular branch of manufacture they may depend for materials, or who is to put the finishing hand to the work on which they are employed, should be taken away from them to be placed in strict confinement for some fault committed within the prison. It is for the benefit of the concern in regard to profit, to overlook much, to forgive much, and to grant much indulgence to a skilful manufacturer; and there is danger, that many an offence or irregularity will be suffered to pass without notice in such a prison, lest work should stand still, or a constant customer be disappointed.

If the skill of the manufacturer may thus create an improper influence in his favor, it may on the other hand sometimes operate as improperly to his prejudice, and prolong his imprisonment, by rendering him too useful to be parted with, and thus delaying an application for his pardon on the score of merit. And there is one point upon which the real and pecuniary interests of a prison must always be at variance-its real interests require, that the prisoners

employed as wardsmen, or cooks, or in the performance of other services in the prison, should be selected from the most orderly and trust-worthy prisoners; whereas the task-master would always wish to see placed in such situations those of whom he can make the least, not the best men, but the worst workmen.

I do not dwell so long upon this subject with a view of discouraging all work of this kind in prisons, but to diminish a little the ardor, with which it seems now to be pursued, to the neglect of every other consideration; to lessen, if I can, the space which it to fill in the minds of some who enter into these discusappears sions, and to show, that a prison cannot be conducted simply upon the principles of a manufactory. One practical recommendation I certainly wish to urge on this part of the subject, viz. that the keeper of a prison, (especially in large prisons, where there is a task-master to take care of the interests of its manufacture) should not be permitted to share in the produce of the prisoners' earnings. Let us at least have one man in every prison beside the chaplain, who is not interested in pushing profitable work to its utmost

extent.

I say this the more earnestly, because I hope we shall endeavour to bring back hard labor, which will rarely be found profitable, but for which no other employment can be substituted with equal advantage, either to the prisoner or the public, in a house of correction. A large proportion of the offenders committed for punishment to those prisons, are such as cannot be converted into manufacturers, nor is it desirable that they should be so converted: for the imprisonment, which was inflicted to prevent the repetition of the offence, is not intended to change the ordinary habits and course of life of the offender after he shall have quitted the prison. To attempt to teach a servant in husbandry, who has misbehaved, a turnip stealer, a breaker of hedges, or a poacher, to make shoes and coats, during the short period for which he is confined in a house of correction, is a mere waste of instruction and materials; it is cutting leather to pieces, and spoiling cloth, without either increasing the punishment of the offender, or promoting his future advantage; whereas a manufacturer will be more effectually punished, by being put to work requiring a degree of personal exertion to which he is not accustomed, than if he were employed at his own trade.

It is said, that hard labor is not to be found, but this is only true, because it is sought in conjunction with profit. There has no yet been sufficient experience of Mr. Cubitt's mill for grinding corn, for us to know how far it will succeed; but I have no expectation, that grinding corn can be made profitable in houses of correction in the country, where the grain is to be brought from NO. XXXV. VOL. XVIII.

Pam.

M

a distance, and the flour cannot be delivered for consumption in the neighborhood, and where, from the manner in which the number of prisoners must fluctuate, the labor in the prison cannot be depended upon for a regular and steady produce; but if the consideration of profit should be abandoned, hard labor may easily be introduced, and the expense of instruction and task-masters saved into the bargain. There can be no difficulty in the invention of machines which shall turn with difficulty, and without producing any other effect than hard labor and good exercise in the open air, in which most of the persons committed to houses of correction should be employed, in arcades, or under sheds.

In my opinion we should act much more judiciously in providing the means of labor without any attempt at profit, in prisons of this description, than in carrying on works of trade and manufacture in the manner, and upon the principles, now pursued in many of our most celebrated prisons: I do not mean to say, that profit is to be intentionally rejected, and that if the power of a machine moved by prisoners can be made to effect a valuable purpose, it should not be so applied; but I contend, that a pecuniary gain should be taken as an accidental advantage to be accepted if it presents itself, and not as an essential to be required in a scheme for setting such offenders to work, as are by the law committed to hard labor. If prisoners so sentenced, instead of being employed in works of trade and manufacture, were put to turn wheels, which should in the first instance be used in raising water and grinding corn for the prison, but from which, whenever the reservoirs of water were filled, and corn enough were ground, the machinery producing those effects should be disconnected, such weights being hung on in its stead as should occasion the wheels to move with the same difficulty as before, I believe that in most prisons the counties would be no losers by the change; for I am much inclined to think, that except in a few manufacturing districts, where master-manufacturers may find it convenient to send their raw materials to be worked up, and to fetch them away again, paying for the work done, it will rarely happen that manufactures can be carried on in a prison to any considerable extent, without positive loss, the whole earnings of the workman being insufficient to counterbalance the disadvantage at which the raw materials must be purchased, added to the want of opportunities of getting rid of the manufactured articles except at a reduced price, not to mention occasional losses by inferior workmanship, and now and then a bad debt.

The approbation, which has been so liberally bestowed upon the gaols, in which the prisoner has been excited to work by indulgence, appears to me to be owing in a great measure to the circumstance of their having been viewed in comparison only with