688 



PRISON DISCIPLINE. 



eligibility of the ministers of the negotiating 

 Churches to calls in the English Presbyterian 

 Church, was approved. 



On the evening of April 17th, the com- 

 mencement of Presbyterianism in England, at 

 Wandsworth, in 1572, was celebrated. Visit- 

 ing delegates representing the Presbyterian 

 Churches of France and Switzerland were 

 present and addressed the synod. The fol- 

 lowing statistics were presented : Number of 

 churches, 332 or 133; communicants, 24,500; 

 general receipts, 70,000 ; average amount of 

 stipend, 224. 



The United Presbyterian Synod of England 

 met at Birkenhead in October. Two days were 

 occupied with the discussion of a proposal for 

 effecting a union with the English Presby- 

 terian Church, without waiting for the accom- 

 plishment of the contemplated union by the 

 Churches in Scotland. A wide difference of 

 views regarding the propriety of such a pro- 

 ceeding was exhibited. The synod determined 

 upon the appointment of a committee of ten 

 ministers and five laymen, who were in- 

 structed, " in conjunction with the special 

 committee appointed by the Supreme Synod 

 in Edinburgh in May, to invite conference with 

 the union committee of the English Presby- 

 terian Church, with the view of ascertaining 

 on what terms union with that Church may 

 be effected, and to report to the Supreme Syn- 

 od at its meeting in May, 1873." 



PRISON DISCIPLINE PRISON CON- 

 GRESSES. The question of the best methods 

 of governing and controlling prisoners is one 

 of great importance, and has received the 

 thoughtful consideration of many of the most 

 eminent statesmen and philanthropists of the 

 past hundred years. It involves, in its larger 

 sense that of the administration of all punish- 

 ment of crime, short of the death-penalty 

 three principles, all of them of great impor- 

 tance, viz.: 1. The removal of the offender 

 from a position or condition where he can com- 

 mit crime, and the consequent relief and pro- 

 tection of society. 2. The reformation of the 

 offender, and his subsequent possible restora- 

 tion to society as an honest and worthy citizen. 

 3. The necessity of deterring others from the 

 commission of the same or similar crimes, by 

 its certainty, promptness, and suitable severi- 

 ty. Imprisonment is the means now univer- 

 sally adopted throughout Christendom for the 

 accomplishment of these results. In former 

 times, the prison was, for the most part, only 

 a place of detention ; and though often griev- 

 ous sufferings, and sometimes death, were in- 

 flicted by imprisonment, this was not inten- 

 tional. The gallows, the headsman's block, 

 the gmllotine, the stake, or some other still 

 more hideous form of inflicting the death-pen- 

 alty, were the appointed retribution for all 

 the greater, and some of the lesser, crimes ; 

 while, for those more venial, the pillory, the 

 stocks, the whipping-post, or, in more cruel 

 ages, the various forms of torture, scourging, 



the bastinado, cropping, branding, putting out 

 the eyes, cutting off the hand, etc., were the 

 approved penalties. The prison was reserved 

 for two classes political prisoners whose of- 

 fences did not quite justify the infliction of 

 the death-penalty, and unfortunate debtors. 

 For the political prisoners there were some- 

 times oubliettes, or bottle-shaped dungeons, 

 where, without ventilation, and with scanty 

 and unfrequent food, they were suffered to 

 perish by starvation and suffocation, forgot- 

 ten, it was pretended, by their jailers. It is 

 now (1873) just a hundred years since the first 

 efforts were made in England by John How- 

 ard to improve the character and manage- 

 ment of prisons in Great Britain. About the 

 same time the works of Beccaria appeared on 

 the Continent, and Howard was reenforced 

 the powerful assistance of Sir William Black- 

 stone, Jeremy Bentham, and Sir Frederic 

 Eden. But the abuses were slow of correc- 

 tion ; and, notwithstanding the noble and self- 

 sacrificing labors of Howard, and, in the early 

 part of the present century, Mrs. Elizabeth Fry 

 and others, the condition of the prisons in Eng- 

 land in 1818 was very little better than in How- 

 ard's time, forty -five years before. Mr. (after- 

 ward Sir) Thomas Fowell Buxton then com- 

 menced agitation for a reform in the manage- 

 ment of prisons, which, after twenty-four years 

 of incessant labor, accomplished greatly benefi- 

 cent results. For many years, however, the 

 British Government resorted to transportation 

 as an alternative for imprisonment a measure 

 which, however beneficial it may have been 

 to the finances of the mother-country, and 

 perhaps advantageous in reforming some of 

 the criminals transported, was so grossly un- 

 just to the colonies, and so prejudicial to 

 their interests, that it was finally abandoned. 

 There are now penal establishments on the 

 Andaman Islands, in the Bay of Bengal, where 

 are gathered all the criminals under life-sen- 

 tence from British India. The prison-disci- 

 pline of Great Britain and Ireland is now con- 

 ducted on a mixed or eclectic system. The 

 prisoner at first undergoes solitary confine- 

 ment, with hard labor, at one of the solitary 

 prisons, seeing only the warder or superin- 

 tendent, the chaplain, etc. This is continued 

 for a longer or shorter time, according to the 

 length of his sentence, but may be materially 

 shortened by his own good conduct. lie is 

 next taken to some one of the congregated 

 prisons, where he is allowed to work at farm- 

 labor, quarrying, or at some trade, if he has 

 one, either in the open air or in a large room, 

 but at first remanded to a separate cell at 

 night. By good conduct he can receive merit- 

 marks, which will entitle him to further privi- 

 leges, of instruction, the acquisition of a trade, 

 gratuities for overwork or good conduct, etc., 

 etc. He is eventually allowed to sleep in a 

 dormitory with other well-behaved convicts: 

 and finally, some time before the expiration 

 of his sentence, is permitted to go out on what 



