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KIDD’S OWN JOURNAL, 359 

also sought to direct their attention to the duties 
of the citizen, and to the mutual relations of 
social life. Those who know no trade, are com- 
pelled to learn one ; and those who conduct in the 
best manner, serve afterwards as masters and 
overseers. Those who know a trade, practise it. 
We may consider a prison, conducted in this way, 
as a manufactory. The labor of the prisoners 
provides abundantly for the maintenance of the 
house ; and by giving them better food, it follows 
that scarce six in a hundred are incapable of work- 
ing. Hence is avoided that kind of injustice, which 
arises from feeding the disturbers of the public 
peace at the expense of society. What each 
individual gains above the sum prescribed, is 
placed in reserve ; part is given to his family, if 
in want, or it is given to the prisoner himself at 
his departure, that he may not be obliged to 
commit any excesses while waiting for work. 
In such establishments, the principle is duly 
regarded that food and drink have great influence 
on the actions of men. It is therefore attempted, 
by wholesome and simple diet, and by the absence 
of inebriating liquors, to calm the effervescence 
of the passions. The efficacy of all these measures, 
and of the employment of the noblest motives, is 
made manifest by a comparison of the recommit- 
ments which take place in the common prisons, 
and those which occur in these establishments. 
In the first, it is calculated that among the pri- 
soners, there are at least one half, if not three 
fourths, who are there for the second time; in 
the second, on the contrary, of an hundred who 
are set at liberty, scarce two again return. 
Though constant experience has taught, that 
such treatment is no less profitable to the state, 
than to the unhappy criminal, yet I have heard 
the remark made by some, that the only obliga- 
tion of the state toward such beings was to 
punish them, and that, as for education and 
instruction, it was for them to provide for it. 
‘But these are precisely the men,” said the 
generous monarch of Bavaria to us, “‘ who have 
the greatest need of assistance of this kind. How, 
in fact, can we exact social virtues from persons 
who are absolutely ignorant what relations exist 
between their own private interests and those of 
society, and who are besides a prey to the violence 
of their own gross passions? Besides, no crime 
is ever committed without the life of innocent 
men, or their property, being the sacrifice.” Let 
us then do that for society, which we will not do 
for the criminal. It will only be, when we have 
united to punishment the care of instructing the 
mind and forming the heart, that we shall be able 
to satisfy ourselves, that, in conformity to the 
law which directs us to prevent crimes, we have 
done for these wretches, and for the state, all that 
is recommended by experience, the laws of man’s 
organisation, and the knowledge of his wants. So 
long as we are contented with forbidding and 
with punishing, we hold out an inducement to 
obedience, it is true; but this inducement acts 
only so long as the punishment appears certain. 
By enlightening the mind, on the contrary, by 
abundantly supplying it with the noblest motives 
drawn from morality and religion, means are 
given him, the force of which is never lost. Man 
then learns to recognise witnesses of his actions, 
from whose vigilance he cannot escape. Let us 

never lose sight of the fact, that of two objects, 
man does not, without motive, choose one in pre- 
ference to the other, and that the perfection of the 
will consists in the knowledge of the goodness 
and excellence of the motives. 
‘The benefits produced for some years by the 
Royal Society for the Amelioration of Prisons, 
founded in 1819, under the ministry of the Duke 
of Decazes, are too striking and too well known, 
to make it necessary for me to dilate upon this 
generous enterprise. Let my readers examine the 
statistics, the various reports made by Counts 
Dru, de la Borde, &c. 
Unhappily, all these generous efforts will fail of 
entire success, so long as criminal legislation 
continues to condemn to the collar (carcan) and 
to branding, for crimes which are judged insuffi- 
cient to deserve perpetual imprisonment. 
Of Repentance, or of the Consience of Malefactors. 
It is commonly imagined, that malefactors, 
who are condemned only to imprisonment of 
greater or less duration, end with repentance— 
finally resolving to renounce their evil habits and 
return to good behavior. Nay, more; the hope 
is cherished, that those condemned to perpetual 
imprisonment, to hard labor for life, to the punish- 
ment of death, will make a sincere confession of 
all their crimes and all their accomplices, and in 
their effort to obtain pardon, at least in the other 
world, will be tormented by the stings of conscience 
and will experience sincere repentance. 
But experience, in this respect, gives a very 
different result. I do not deny that some crimi- 
nals experience sincere repentance: there are 
some who have been drawn into crime by want of 
reflection, by an unfortunate fit of passion, by 
poverty and want, by seduction, and other very 
pressing external circumstances. If, for instance, 
a dishonored and abandoned mother, in an instant 
of wild despair, lays a trembling hand on her 
child, and deprives it of life—its innocent blood 
will always be present to her eyes, and will 
poison every moment of her existence. When 
once the fatal concurrence of circumstances has 
passed, the milder feelings within will again be 
awakened. There then appears a total contra- 
diction between the natural sentiments and the 
act committed; and this contradiction is what 
constitutes repentance, or the natural conscience. 
We saw a man at. Spandau, who had killed his 
wife in a violent fit of anger: this man was so 
unhappy, that he eagerly demanded death, to be 
delivered from the insupportable burden of his 
remorse. Charles Benzel, born of good parents 
and with an internal disposition to piety, had been 
well educated ; accordingly, he was the only one 
of all the band of Schinderhannes who repented 
of his conduct. 
But he who is drawn into crime by internal 
propensity, will rarely experience natural repen- 
tance. In such a man, the inclinations which 
lead to evil are predominant—if the expression 
may be used, they compose his proper character ; 
consequently, all the acts which emanate from him 
are in harmony with his whole being, and the 
tranquillity of his soul is rarely disturbed by them. 
This depraved view of man may naturally dis- 
please some of those persons, whose dreams are 
