of all the comforts of life, a suspension of all social intercourse, no sight afforded of friends or acquaintances, no communication with them, no association or discourse even with fellow prisoners, no more or better food than is sufficient to support nature, nor clothing than is enough to cover the body and defend it from cold, nor bedding than straw, nor light than to render darkness visible. To be more particular: It is proposed, to place each convict in a solitary vaulted cell six feet square, (a brick building 45 feet long, 20 feet wide, and 30 feet high, containing three stories, with a row of 6 cells on each side of a gallery 3 feet wide, would contain 36 cells, and under the system proposed, it is likely that not more than 30 convicts would be in prison at one time where there are now 300). It is proposed that, when the convict is received, he shall be stript of his usual clothing, be washed, have his hair cut close, be supplied with a blanket to cover him, and a pair of wooden shoes, and nothing more, unless a medical attendant on the prison certifies that the prisoner's state of health or habits, renders stockings or other extra clothing necessary; that he shall be allowed no other food than coarse bread and water, and no other bedding than rough straw; he shall not be shaved during his confinement; he shall always be locked up in his cell, excepting one hour in the morning, and one hour in the afternoon, when all the prisoners on a floor shall be marched into a court-yard, and made to walk (a full pace at least asunder) round the court, on a narrow footway, which does not allow them room to walk otherwise than in single file; they shall be prohibited, under the penalty of a dozen lashes, from speaking to each other or making any unruly noise. When their beards do not sufficiently disguise them to prevent their being known to each other, they shall wear masks; they shall hold no communication, by word or writing, with any one during the term of imprisonment, excepting the officers of the prison.

65. If illness, or any other imperative circumstance, causes a suspension of the solitary discipline of their confinement, such time shall not be included in the term of their sentence.

66. A lighter cell, books, pens and ink, and permission to work, may be allowed in certain cases, where the apparent amendment and good conduct of the convict earn such indulgence, and in every such instance, a proportion of the convict's earnings may be given to him on his quitting prison.

Under such a discipline as this, the most turbulent spirit would be subdued and reduced to a proper mood to receive and benefit by good advice. A short and impressive daily exhortation in the gallery of the ward, (the doors thrown open, but the prisoners forbidden to come out,) would not fail to be listened to with eagerness; for the sounds of condolence and advice, and even of reproof, would be an acceptable relief to the cheerless blank of their existence.

Let not this system be too hastily deemed cruel,-rightly considered it will be found merciful. It will save the distressed from the allurements to crime, which prison comforts now hold out. It will save offenders that may be reclaimed from prison contamination and acquaintance-a most important consideration. It will save many from the publication of their disgrace, and consequent loss of character; besides all this, in proportion as it is proposed to increase the intensity of suffering, in a similar degree it is meant to shorten its duration. One month's imprisonment, upon the proposed plan, it is conceived, would go further in exciting dread and subduing bad spirits, than twelve months of the present equivocal punishments, made up of privations and indulgences, severity and tenderness, prayer and jollity. It is therefore presumed, that it would be unnecessary, under the proposed plan, to abstract more than a twelfth part of that portion of a criminal's life, which is sacrificed under the present system of imprisonment.

To the honest and industrious part of the public, to those whose hard earnings are now drained to supply the present prison comforts of their dishonest brethren, the proposed alteration would also be merciful; for while the prospect of effective punishment would deter very many from committing depredations, who at present do not feel so deterred, and while others, who had suffered the proposed punishment, would be reformed by the dread of suffering it again for the remainder, one twelfth part of the prison room and expenses now required, would be sufficient.

67. Forfeiture of Office, is a penalty obviously right upon men in authority, who grossly abuse its power or privileges. 68. Banishment. -The removal of an offender beyond the limits of his country, is a penalty suited to offences of a political nature, and some others, where the separation of the offender from his connexions at home, is deemed necessary for a time.

Upon the expiration of his term of banishment, the offender ought to find sureties to keep the peace for a similar term, or remain at the disposal of Government.

Infamous Penalties.

69. Forfeiture of civil rights, consists in the abstraction of

the rights of

Being an attesting witness.

Being a witness in legal proceedings.

Being a juryman.

Voting at Elections.
Holding a public office of trust.

Being a guardian.

Taking an apprentice.

Acting as executor or administrator.
Inheriting an estate.

Receiving a bequest.

Receiving a conveyance in law.

This penalty should always accompany convictions for Perjury, False Accusation, the greater sort of Frauds; also Embezzlement, Forgery and Coining, Stealing with force, and putting in fear, Burglary, Sodomy, Rape, Murder, Treason.

70. Forfeiture of property, is the adjudication of the property of the condemned, in possession and reversion, to the services of the state. It ought to extend to the several cases mentioned in the preceding article, and to such cases of repetition of crimes of dishonesty, as incur the penalty of hard labor for life.

71. Outlawry, is the forfeiture of a man's civil rights, and of his property, and of his capacity to maintain an action; and it exposes him to be seized by any one wherever he lies hid, and cast into prison, to abide a trial. This punishment is inflicted upon the application of an aggrieved party, where a man has fled from the pursuit of justice, and is not apprehended.

72. Branding, it is conceived ought to follow the repetition of every public conviction of a crime which carries with it the punishment of solitary imprisonment, and ought also to follow the first public conviction of every heinous offence, punishable by solitary imprisonment; such as the greater sort of frauds, embezzlement, and forgery, and stealing with force, Malicious Injuries, Perjury, Subornation of Perjury, Conspiracies to charge another with a crime falsely, or to instigate another to commit a crime. Branding ought also to accompany all punishments of transportation, and hard labor for life. Branding is a very efficacious instrument of punishment, although lately cast into disuse, it being certainly no comfort. It might be made serviceable for the future recognition of the criminal on the following plan

Let the places of session be numbered, and at each place let a registry of convictions, producing the punishment of branding, be kept.

These two numbers should then be branded on the body of the

convict, one over the other, in the manner of a fraction; he would thus carry about with him at all times, a record of his identity and former life.

To show at once the nature of his former crimes, should the figures become obliterated, the marks might be arranged thus: Crimes of theft, to be marked on the right side of the back; of fraud, on the left side of the back; of lasciviousness, on the right breast; of malice, on the left breast. A convict doomed to perpetual imprisonment, to be marked on the forehead and both cheeks. If the marks are obliterated, or become indistinct, the executioner is to rebrand the parts, and he is to be at liberty to examine the convict's body from time to time, to ascertain how the fact is.

73. Emasculation, Amputation of offending members. When the use of these is perverted to acts of deep injury against individuals, or to acts of great outrage on morals, it seems only reasonable that the owner should be deprived of what he uses so mischievously, as in cases of Rape, and Sodomy, and perhaps in aggravated cases of Seduction, and Adultery.

74. Transportation to a remote place selected by the Government, is adapted to cases of criminality which require a heavy penalty, and an exile from family and connexions; but which would yet leave the offender an opportunity, by amended conduct, to regain some personal comforts in a new sphere of existence. It is well suited for female offenders who are not thoroughly abandoned, particularly where an increase of population is an object. It ought always to be for life, for a convict who has suffered the disgrace and contamination of transportation, cannot be received back to his country with advantage or satisfaction to himself, his family, or his neighbours. Branding and forfeiture of property and of civil rights, ought to accompany this penalty, but the two forfeitures might be remitted in part, or wholly, if the previous good conduct of the convict merited such a favor from Government.

75. When a criminal has incurred the penalty of transportation, whose age exceeds fifty, the penalty should be changed to hard labor for life.

75. Imprisonment and hard labor for life-are fit punishments when the infamy of a criminal's character, owing to repeated convictions for dishonesty, excludes the hope of reformation, or the probability of his gaining an honest livelihood as a free agent. It then becomes the duty of Government, to deprive him of a free agency which he has abused, and must continue to abuse. Solitary imprisonment may then be unnecessary. The object then is, to make him by hard labor, exonerate the public from the expenses of his maintenance and VOL. XVIII. Pam.

NO. XXXVI.

2D

safe custody as much as possible. For this purpose convicts may be mingled together, if by such means their labor may be made more productive, or the expense of providing for them may be lessened. Criminals thus sentenced ought to be branded on each cheek, and on the forehead, with the letters I. R. (for incorrigible rogue), and be subjected to the forfeiture of property and Civil Rights.

76. Death, the last dreadful penalty of the law, it is believed need not be frequently recurred to, if the minor punishments be divested of their present admixture of comforts and indulgencies, and be executed with strictness. In cases of Murder, Incendiarism, Burglary, Treason, and Coining, this dreadful penalty must still be enforced.

77. Death with previous amputation of the hands. When in order to facilitate the commission of a crime, or to prevent detection upon having committed it, or from a cruel disposition, Murder, or the attempt to commit murder, is found to accompany the commission of, or attempt to commit, any crime of Stealing, Burglary, Coining, Rape, Incendiarism, or Perjury, the double penalty may properly follow the double crime: besides, the corporal suffering of amputation, and the terrors of its appearance, would probably operate on the fears of some malefactors, on whom the mere abstraction of existence has failed to excite sufficient dread, and cause them to forbear an intended murder.

78. A Boy or Girl under 16 years of age, convicted of a crime which involves the penalty of death, or hard labor for life, may have the penalty mitigated to transportation for life in the discretion of the court.

79. Whenever a criminal's life is forfeited to the law, his body ought to be delivered to the use of the public, to be anatomized.

80. The bodies of persons who take away their own lives, ought to be appropriated to the use of the public in like

manner.

CHAPTER VI.

OF EMBARRASSED AND INSOLVENT DEBTORS.

1

There are connecting links between right and wrong, which it is impossible to place in either class in round terms. Thus with insolvent debtors, we cannot at once class them as dishonest persons, nor can we acquit them generally of being so. A particular chapter is therefore allotted, to distinguish the different characters of insolvency, and the treatment due to each, before we enter upon the classing of crimes and offences.