PHILADELPHIA. 13 
aged and reduced persons seek refuge in this 
place, and leave it again on the return of 
spring. Whilst they stay there, they are un¬ 
der very little restraint, and go in and out when 
they please; they must, however, behave or¬ 
derly. This institution is supported by a tax 
on the town. 
The gaol is a spacious building of common 
stone, one hundred feet in front. It is fitted 
up with solitary cells, on the new plan,, and 
the apartments are all arched, to prevent the 
communication of fire. Behind the building 
are extensive yards, which are secured by lofty 
walls. This gaol is better regulated, perhaps, 
than any other on the face of the globe. By the 
new penal laws of Pennsylvania, lately enacted, 
no crime is punishable with death, excepting 
murder of the first degree, by which is meant, 
.murder that is perpetrated by wilful preme¬ 
ditated intention, or in attempts to commit 
rape, robbery, or the like. Every other of¬ 
fence, according to its enormity, is punished 
by solitary imprisonment of a determined du¬ 
ration. Objections may be made to this mode 
of punishment, as not being sufficiently severe 
on the individual to atone for an atrocious 
crime; nor capable, because not inflicted in 
public, of deterring evil-minded persons in the 
community from the commission of offences 
which incur the rigour of the law; hut on a 
