CONTENTS. CLAIMS OF THE SUBJECT UPON PUBLIC CONSIDERATION. Expense Enormous-Cost of 14 Criminal Boys-Amount stolen-A Gang THE CHARACTER AND CHIEF CAUSES OF CRIME IN ENGLAND. Proportion of Crime to Population-Crime in England and France compared THE PUNISHMENT OF CRIME BY IMPRISONMENT. State of Prisons when Howard began his Inspection-Present State of some -The Newgate System-Scenes in Prisons of this Kind-The Silent- associated System-Separate Confinement-King of Sweden on Separate CONVICT SYSTEMS, PAST AND PRESENT. Botany Bay-Norfolk Island-Assignment System-Probation System of Lord Stanley-Earl Grey's Scheme-Government Home Prisons Reviewed -New Ticket-of-leave System in England-Brixton Female Convict Pri- PAGE 7 32 Notes of Ten Days' Routine of a Chaplain's Duties-Visit from Cell to Cell -Refractory Ward-The Visiting and Parting Room-Affecting Scenes- Causes of their own Crime stated by a Hundred Convicts-Letters to and from Prisoners-Prisoners' Lives saved by gallant conduct of a Governor- Remarkable Address from a Convict to his Fellow-Prisoners-Some cases A CHAPTER FOR OFFICERS IN CHARGE OF PRISONERS. Rules in Government Prisons-Officers addressed from these Rules-A good Discipline Officer a great Help to Reformation of Prisoners-How best to discharge his Duty-Officers of Low Habits warned by Examples- Chaplains and Governors Addressed-Suggestions to Magistrates upon EFFECTS OF CHRISTIAN TREATMENT IN GENERAL UPON PRISONERS. Convict-ships in former times and of late years-Sir Edward and Lady Parry at Port Stephen-Elizabeth Fry-Sarah Martin, of Yarmouth- ON CAPITAL PUNISHMENTS FOR MURDER. The Right of the State to inflict Capital Punishment―The Expediency— Prevention of Relapse-Continental and Home Institutions-Prevention of Crime in Classes most in danger-Benevolent Plans Reviewed-Pre- vention of Crime by National Improvement-The Result of Revived State of Religion-The Pulpit-The School-The Family-Numbers of Roman Catholics in England, and the Deplorable Excess of Crime amongst 1. Comparative Statistics of Crime in England, Scotland, and Ireland 2. Report of Chaplain of Pentonville Prison, referring to Changes in the CHAPTERS ON PRISONS AND PRISONERS. INTRODUCTION. THE following pages have no pretensions to literary merit, and, therefore, neither invite nor deprecate criticism. They are the productions of a hasty pen, noting down under convenient heads such facts and observations as seemed likely to be of use in meeting the question, What shall we do with our criminals? and in promoting that other more important one: What shall we best do to prevent crime altogether? or, if this cannot be looked for, to check its progress in the land? They aim also, all through, at being useful, by way of warning and example to the young and inexperienced, in the hands of those to whom the Chief Shepherd has intrusted the care of souls-parents, pastors, and employers, and I would fain hope even in their own. For although there is not very much に B here to arrest the lively and the gay, most people, in our inquiring age, like to know what is passing in the world around them, even in things most foreign to their own pursuits, and to be able to form an opinion for themselves, on subjects popularly debated in parliament and elsewhere and all have their moments either of vacuity or thoughtfulness, when a book, on a subject not the most inviting, would not be despised in lieu of a better. It would not have been difficult (at least in other hands) to make the subject more attractive to the lover of light reading. There is more romance in real life than is generally supposed, and there exist materials in abundance within the walls of a prison, for the construction of the most exciting tales. To attempt, however, to gratify a taste of this kind would be, in the writer's judgment, to pander to a morbid appetite, and to plant with one hand some of the germs of criminality in the breasts of the young, whilst professing to eradicate them with the other. Therefore, only such facts are here referred to as seemed calculated from their truth, their painfulness, and their moral, to engage the healthful sympathies of the heart, and instruct as well as interest the mind. A Christian cannot trifle with the guilt or misery of his fellow-man. Much of the utility of the work will depend on the manner in which it is taken up by my brethren in the ministry; and by that great community of Christians of every name in the land, who holding in common the great principles of truth, are |