322 
and thwarting, by senseless animosity 
and factious intolerance, every measure 
for the general wellare and tranquillity. 
On such distracted elements the influ- 
ence of government might be benefi- 
cially exerted. The firststep would be 
to listen to the zealots of no party. 
Partizans are invariably the calumni- 
ators of their opponents, and entertain 
ridiculous opinions of their own virtues 
and remedies, By all means then keep 
them ata distance; do not suffer them to 
infest the chambers of legislation, the 
halls of justice, nor the bench of magis- 
tracy. They cannot enlighten, they 
can only mislead: they are blind them- 
selves; and, whoever submits to their 
guidance, must be seduced into their 
follies and extravagance. 
But, besides the mere devotees of 
faction and intolerance, there are others 
to be notless guarded against, the regu- 
lar traders in politics and corruption, the 
hunters after honours, places, and de- 
corations, these who would make the 
government of Ireland a mere job, a 
family contract, a monopoly of which 
themselves, and a few favoured fol- 
lowers, should enjoy the emolument. 
These last are infinitely more danger- 
ous than the first; the former may be 
known by the foam at their mouth and 
the wildness of their eye, but the latter 
are disguised in a thousand ways in a 
semblance of loyalty, in pretended de- 
votion 1o the constitution, in affected 
horror at innovation, and ultra zeal for 
the Protestant ascendancy. Both par- 
ties, however, are alike enemies to Ire- 
jand: her happiness cannot be. pro- 
moted by either: blind zeal is the zgnis 
Fuiuus of one, and selfishness the god of 
the other's idolatry. 
Tn all that respects this part of the 
subject, one cannot do better than re- 
commend ministers to follow up the in- 
' tentions expressed by the king in his 
late visit :—to govern Ireland on princi- 
ples ef toleration and forbearance, not 
io ireat her asa nation of castes, using 
the follies and prejudig¢es of one class 
to keep another in subjection; but, as 
an homogeneous community, all of 
whose meinbers, not incapacitated by 
real delinquency being considered en- 
titled to equal favour and protection. 
J'or this end it will be necessary to dis- 
countenance, and even to repress all 
badges and memorials of former feuds 
and animosities, and to lessen the in- 
fluence, and. lisien. cautiously. to the 
suggestions, of those who. have been 
citer implicated in, or Wish to keep up, 
On Prison Discipline in America. 
[May 1, 
the remembrance of them. In short, 
the grand principle fs te govern Ireland 
independently of herself, to place an 
authority over her that shall’ be ele- 
vated above her divisions, that shall 
have no respect to persons, no commu- 
nion with sects and parties, and that 
shall apparently forget itself, and cause 
to be forgotten by others, (if that be 
pe) all memory of her past history 
and misfortunes. Evupoxus, 
Dublin, April 2, 1822. 
————— 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
PROGRESS of the NEW PENITENTIARY 
SYSTEM and PRISON DISCIPLINE in 
AMERICA.‘ 
T is well known that the Peniten- 
liary establishments, first under- 
taken in America on the principle of 
moral discipline, in opposition to the 
old penal Jaws, have not been attended 
with those advantages, and entire suc- 
cess, that the friends and promoters of 
them had been led to hope. 
The reports from the different state 
prisons hitherto received in this eoun- 
try, were certainly not so favourable as 
we could have wished, But this should 
not, and has not, we are rejoiced to 
say, in the least checked the ardour and 
expectations of the founders and sup- 
porters of these excellent institutions. 
Persevering in their plans of gradual 
improvement and reform, by calin ob- 
servation and experience they have 
been enabled to remedy and overcome 
many defects and disadvantages which 
opposed themselves to their views. 
The alarming proportion of dismissed 
prisoners returned upon their hands for 
arepetition of offences, have in most of 
the states, owing to such increased ex- 
ertions, rapidly diminished, Instead of 
one out of every four or six, for asecond 
or a third time committed, it appears 
that in the state of Massachusetts they 
are now only in proportion 6f one to 
eight or twelye. From a small publi- 
cation, entitled, “The Penitentiary 
System Vindicated,”) by an officer of 
this establishment connected: with the 
Massachusetts state prison, and: pab- 
lished at Charlestown, we Jearn that, 
as far as regards those crimes only, 
which, are. punishable by state-prison 
confinement, they have rather de-: 
creased than multiplied of Jate years. 
The number of convicts in the Massa- 
chuseftsstate prison has been for about 
two years decreasing, and there are now: 
more than one hundred less than there 
were inthe fall of 1818. Thenumber 
of 
