HISTORY OF EUROPE. 



143 



addition to the encouraging pros- 

 pect the system itself holds out, 

 let us look to the effect of it 

 upon the happiness of the different 

 countries wherein it has received 

 encouragement. He concluded by 

 saying, that, recollecting how fre- 

 quently that plan had been near to 

 maturity, and not discovering any 

 necessity for further delay, he 

 should support the motion. 



The Solicitor (Jeneral had no 

 hesitation in declaring his opinion, 

 that the mode of punishment now 

 almost universally adopted, was 

 not calculated to produce on the 

 mind of the offender any sense of 

 his disgraceful situation, or to 

 amend his habits. If there was 

 a chance of producing that good, 

 the excellent principle on which the 

 penitentiary Houses were found- 

 •€d, was that by which it was to be 

 accomplished. On this point he 

 dwelt at considerable length But 

 he said, that they should seek in 

 vain for the advantages appertain- 

 ing to that system, if they did not 

 assure themselves, in the first in- 

 stance, that they had adopted the 

 wisest and safest course. He was 

 persuaded they should derive much 

 useful and important information 

 from a little delay. Another rea- 

 son which induced him to think 

 that more deliberation was requi- 

 site in coining to a decisive con-"* 

 elusion on that subject was, the 

 propriety of considering whether 

 it would not bo better, instead of 

 confining the plan to the metro- 

 polis, to extend it to all the coun- 

 ties of England. He was also 

 extremely anxious to know the 

 names of those persons who were 

 prepared to come forward to se- 

 cond the efforts of the. executive 

 government, and add strength and 



vigour to the plan. It might 

 further be necessary to consider 

 whether one great penitentiary 

 House or several small ones, would 

 be preferable. 



Mr. Whitbread was a strenuous 

 advocate for the system now, for 

 the third time, brought under the 

 consideration of the House. To 

 this he wished to proceed imme- 

 diately. By delay, other objects 

 would intervene to divert the at- 

 tention of the legislature. The 

 public attention would be other- 

 wise occupied, and they should 

 hear no more of the penitentiary 

 Houses. Yet he was not so san- 

 guine as to suppose that the old 

 system could be done away all at 

 once ; nor was he persuaded that 

 they could put every offender, 

 whose case did not call for the last 

 and severest measure of punish- 

 ment, into a penitentiary House. 

 H chad heard JVIr.Howardsay, that 

 solitary confinement was a punish- 

 ment too severe for human reason 

 to endure ; that he had seen in- 

 stances of the cruelty and harsh- 

 ness of it carried to an extent thai 

 made him shudder. "I have my- 

 self, said Mr. Whitbread, seen a 

 person committed to solitary con- 

 finement for two years ; but I 

 trust I shall never behold another 

 instance of the same kind again ; 

 and I only hope, that those who 

 administer the justice of the coun- 

 try will reflect on the sentiment 

 of the immortal Howard, " that so- 

 litary imprisonment is too severe 

 for mankind to endure." 



What is here so humanely 

 stated and urged by Mr. Whit- 

 bread, opens a curious vista to 

 the inquiries into the philosophy 

 of the human mind, As common 

 senseis preserved and strengthened 



