56 
ployed as an instrument of torture, or as 
2 means of rendering Jabour disgusting; 
for, alihough idleness is the root of all 
evil, yet idleness is not the sole cause 
of crime, and the inability to obtain em- 
ployment as often leads to vicious 
courses as the desire to evade it. When 
punishments are legally apportioned to 
repetitions of offences, and first trans- 
gressions in many descriptions of crime 
are visited with only cautionary punish- 
ments, then Tess sympathy will attend 
convicted persons than at present; but, 
when the Jaw so little discriminates as 
to inflict capital punishments on chil- 
dren and on youths who have not 
arrived at years of discretion, the com- 
mon sense and universal sentiment of 
mankind revolt, and punishments lose 
their effect by their misapplication. 
The engraving exhibits a party of 
prisoners in the act of working one of 
the tread-wheels of the discipline-mill, 
recently erected at the House of Cor- 
rection for the county of Surrey, sitn- 
ated at Brixton. ‘The view is taken 
from a corner of one of ihe ten airiay 
yards of the prison, all of which radiate 
from the goyernor’s house in the centre, 
which is scen in the drawing at the op- 
posite end of the yard, so that from his 
windows he commands a complete view 
into all the yards. The building which 
appears in the engraving behind the 
tread-wheel shed, is the mill-house, 
containing the necessary machinery for 
grinding corn, for which purpose there 
are four pairs of stones, &e. On the 
right side of this building, a pipe is seen, 
passing up to the roof, on which is 
placed a large cast-iron reservoir, eapa- 
ble of bolding about 6500 gallons of 
watcr, for the service of ihe prison. 
This reservoir is filled from a well be- 
hind the mill-house, nearly 200 feet 
deep, by means of a forcing-pump, con- 
Proceedings of Public Societies. 
neeted with the principal axis which. 
works the machinery of the mill. This 
axis or shaft passes under the pavement 
of the several yards, and by means of 
universal joints* at every turn communi- 
eates with the tread-wheel of cach class. 
* Itis by means of these universal joints 
upon the main shaft connecting the tread- 
wheels with the machinery of the mill or 
pumps, that the relative position of each 
may be varied so as to suit the plan of 
almost any prison. On this subject, it 
may be proper to. observe, that the mill- 
beuse should be so placed as to exclude as 
much as possible any. thoroughfare in a 
prisen, by the passing and repassing of 
[Aug. 1, 
The tread-whcel, which is represented 
in the centre of the engraving, is exactly 
similar to a common water-wheel; the 
stepping-boards upon its circumference 
are of suffivient length to allow stand- 
ing rodif for a row of fifteen persons.* 
The weight of these persons—the first 
moving power of the machine—pro- 
duces the greatest effect when applied 
upon the circumference of the wheel at 
or near the level of its axle; to secure, 
therefore, this mechanieal advantage, a 
sereen of boards i3'fixed up in an in- 
clined position above the wheel, in 
order to prevent the prisoners from 
climbing or stepping up higher than the 
level required. A hand-rail is fixed 
upon this sereen, by holding which they 
retain their upright position upon the re- 
volving wheel.¢ ‘The nearest end is ex- 
posed to view in the plate, iv order to re- 
present its cylindrical form mach more 
distinctly than could otherwise have 
been done. In the original, however, 
both ends are closely boarded up, so 
that the prisoners bave no access to the 
interior of the whecl, and all risk of 
injury is prevented. A)light shed pro- 
teets the prisoners, as well in wet wea- 
ther as from the heat of the sun in sum- 
mer; and it is so constructed as not to 
carts with corn and flour. When the mill- 
house is situated ontside’ the boundary 
wall of the prison, every inconvenience of 
that kind is avoided, and the security and 
quiet of the prison is promoted. . Care 
should, however, be taken, that sueh, 
building be detached from the outer wall, 
lest the security of that boundary be 
impaired, 
* ‘Twenty inches is the common allows 
ance of standing room to each man. There 
are at present ten tread-wheels erected in 
this House of Correction, one in each 
yard = two of these wheels are capable of 
hoiding six persons each; two, nine persons 
each; four, fifteen persons each; and. twa 
wheels, eighteen persons each ;—making 
up altogether 126 persons. aibse 
+ It was discovered, in one recent ine 
Stance, that, in conseqnence of the hand- 
rail projecting too forward, the prisoners 
had the means of leaning or resting upon 
it; by which loss of weight, the working of 
the wheel was checked, and the labour to 
the prisoners became much lightened. To 
obviate this, it was found necessary to 
have the hand-rail made sufficiently nar- 
row, and. so fixed upon the sereen of 
boards in front of the prisoners, as fully to 
afford them the means of supporting theme 
selves upon the wheel, but without allow-. 
ing them the means of evading - the- 
labour : Y 
interfere 
