A MODEL PRISON. 55 



Perfection again of a kitchen with an admirable, stout, 

 dignified chef -de-cuisine, graduate of Paris doubtless, presi 

 ding. The diet-table he explains to us, is scientifically ordered ; 

 the beef and bread and vegetable are of the best, and we are 

 shown how the quantity for each man in each particular is ac 

 curately weighed out. The patients are also weighed periodi 

 cally, and the allowance of food and of exercise is studiously 

 adjusted to the condition of each. 



Next we are taken to the day cells, which are in several 

 separate courts. Within each is an ingeniously-contrived crank 

 attached to a common shaft revolving through all. This crank 

 is the exerciser. The prisoner stands at a certain distance be 

 fore it, takes hold of it with both hands, and, as it turns, a cer 

 tain motion is given to his whole body the most healthful 

 sort of motion : expanding the chest, and moving every joint 

 of his limbs. He remains in this cell ten hours each day, 

 Sundays excepted ; and the usual allowance of exercise is half 

 an hour, with ten minutes rest after it, continued alternately 

 during that time. There is a library in the prison, from which 

 primers, picture-books, and tracts, are served out for the exer 

 cise of his mind during the ten minutes bodily rests. 



For Sundays, there is provided another sort of cells, which 

 are so arranged that each prisoner can look at the same central 

 point, but cannot see any other prisoner. At the central point 

 is placed a humble vessel, (doubtless as perfect as can be made 

 by ordinances, and duly clad in regulation vesture.) from which 

 a stated dose of &quot; gospel privileges&quot; is scientifically discharged 

 and systematically imbibed by every patient prisoner I mean. 

 There are two such rations given on Sunday, with a dinner 

 between, and opportunity for reflection in private, before and 

 after. 



It is a first principle of the plan that labour should end 

 where it begins. The exercising shaft is sometimes applied 



