"I have nearly finished, but I should not do justice to my subject did I omit to advert to the beggarly catch-penny system on which the whole concern is conducted. The convicts raise pork and vegetables in plenty, but they must not eat thereof; these things must be sent to market to

prisoners must catch cold and suffer in the hos pital, and the wool and stone shops, because it would cost something to erect comfortable buildings. They must not learn to read and write, lest a cent's-worth of their precious time should be lost to the city. They may die and go to hell, and be damned, for a resident physician and chaplain are expensive articles. They may be dirty; baths would cost money, and so would books. I believe the very Bibles and Almanacks are the donation of the Bible and Temperance Societies. Every thing is managed with an eye to money-making-the comfort or reformation, or salvation, of the prisoners are minor considerations. Whose fault is this?

for

“The fault, most frugal public, is your own. You like justice, but you do not like to pay it. You like to see a clean, orderly, well-conducted prison, and, as far as your parsimony will permit, such is the House of Correction. With all its faults, it is still a valuable institu

some. It looks well, for the most has been made of matters. If you would have it perfect you must untie your purse-strings, and you will lose nothing by it in the end."

301

ARMY.

A STANDING army is so adverse to the institutions, and so offensive to the people of a democracy, that, were it possible, there would be no such thing as American regular troops; but, finding it impossible to do without a portion, they have a force as follows:

Of which military force the privates amount to only 5,652 men.

This is very insufficient, even to distribute

but now that the Florida war has so long occupied the troops, these outposts have been left in a very unprotected state. Isolated as the officers are from the world, (for these forts are far removed from towns or cities,) they contrive to form a society within themselves, having most of them recourse to matrimony, which always gives a man something to do, and acts as a fillip upon his faculties, which might stagnate from such quiet monotony. The society, therefore, at these outposts is small, but very pleasant. All the officers being now educated at West Point, they are mostly very intelligent and wellinformed, and soldiers' wives are always agreeable women all over the world. The barracks turn out also a very fair shew of children upon the green sward. The accommodations are, generally speaking, very good, and when supplies can be received, the living is equally so; when they cannot, it can't be helped, and there is so much money saved. A suttler's store is attached