]8(iS.] 485 [Lesley. 



secured the hoped for result. No man ever exhibited a more 

 refined courtesy towards all kinds and classes of ])ersons. His 

 careful considerateness, his nianl}^ concession to prejudice, and 

 to peculiarities of temperament, and his persuasive statement of 

 the points he wished to carry, smoothed away before him all 

 difficulties. But the execution of a law demanding such accu- 

 rate and uniform reports as "were indispensal)le for his object 

 was found to be less easily attainable than its enactment. On 

 his return from Ilarrisburg he reported a visit to the Lancaster 

 Jail, which brought about action in the Society resulting in the 

 erection of a new first class prison in that place. 



In 1847 he published a description of the New Bucks County 

 Prison. " We look upon its erection," he writes, " as a harbin- 

 ger of good to the State at large Thus may we at length 



accomplish a general reform, which has been too long delayed." 

 Heated and ventilated on the best plan, furnished with baths and 

 every other needful convenience for health, he looked upon this 

 prison as a model. 



In the spring of 1850 he submitted the draft of a new law to 

 procure uniformity of jail erection and discipline throughout the 

 State upon the separate system, discriminating between the dif- 

 ferent classes of detained persons, and providing for the comfort 

 and health of all. 



In March, 1851, he published a detailed report of a plan for the 

 New Schuylkill County Prison ; and afterwards a description 

 of the same prison erected by Le Brun. "It would be scarcely 

 credible," he begins, " had we not the unqualified fact before our 

 eyes, that our government has permitted county after county to 

 build public prisons in open defiance of the clearly expressed 

 policy of our Legislature ; and that, except when the Prison So- 

 ciety of Philadelphia has urged the subject upon the attention of 

 our lawgivers, absolutely nothing has been done towards com- 

 pelling county officers to give ell'ect, within their jurisdiction, to 

 the design of our laws in relation to public discipline. To our 

 shame be it acknowledged, that while we boast of our reforms, 

 and of their triumphant influence abroad, we are neglecting the 

 most important of our penal institutions. Without a bureau, or 

 even a clerk, or a clerk's cabinet, appropriated to the subject of 

 prison administration ; without a report worth the name, upon 

 the condition of jails throughout the State; ^yith a law upon our 



