422 REVIEWS. 



in the prison of Munich ; and Captain Machonochie, in the penal set- 

 tlement of Norfolk Island. There can be no doubt whatever that in 

 these cases convicts of the vs'orst character were governed by moral 

 influences, and a real reformation was produced in many instances. 

 The effect may be attributed to the peculiar oharacter of the men, 

 and it may be thought impossible to find ofiicers for public gaols who 

 could carry out such systems ; but. Miss Carpenter argues forcibly to 

 prove that the influence depended on principles which may be sanc- 

 tioned by public authority ; and, in that case, may be usefully applied 

 by ordinary officers carefully selected. A very interesting portion of 

 this chapter consists of a long extract from an admirable paper, read 

 at the general meeting, of the Law Amendment Society, January 12th, 

 1863, and by them ordered to be printed ; the author of which, Mat- 

 thew Davenport Hill, Esq., Recorder of Birmingham^ is one of the 

 most intelligent, enlightened, and persevering advocates of the im- 

 provement of prison-discipline. We wish we could copy the whole 

 passage — the opinion of an eminent lawyer — and, as recorder succes- 

 sively of several great cities, an experienced judge, being likely to 

 have more weight, with many readers, than any amount of argument 

 even from persons of great practical experience, as well as intellectual 

 power, who have not the same connection with the administration of 

 Law. 



Our author's next chapter relates to the English Convict System ; 

 that is, to the system pursued in those gaols which are intended for 

 the reception of persons undergoing a sentence of penal servitude, 

 according to the plan followed since the unavoidable discontinuance 

 of transportation, by the refusal of nearly all the colonies to receive 

 convicts. Now this system is professedly reformatory, and as it has 

 certainly failed to produce the real reformation of any considerable 

 number of the convicts ; and has, on the contrary, been attended by 

 much evil, the conclusion naturally to be drawn is that the attempt 

 to make prison-discipline reformatory has failed, and this opinion has 

 actually been adopted by many. Miss Carpenter feels herself, there- 

 fore, called upon to show — and she has shown most clearly — that the 

 system adopted in these gaols was not what is approved by the advo- 

 cates of the reformatory plan of punishment — was not that, or at all 

 resembling that, which has been so successfully applied in the refor- 

 matory schools for juvenile offenders : and was not such as to give 

 any reasenable hope of a successful issue. The evidence on this sub- 



