punishment, but primarily and principally to the prevention of crimes. Now crimes are best prevented, and the foundations of good government most securely laid, when piety towards God, a reverence for the laws, and a regard for virtue are instilled, by proper authority, into the minds of the people." "But it may be said, that these people (unhappy victims of vice and imprudence) are incorrigible and incapable of reformation, and that the sooner they fill up the measure of their iniquity, the better will it be for the community. This is an unphilosophical, and, what is of more importance, it is an unchristian conclusion, to say that any accountable being, that any being endued with understanding and liberty, is incapable of reformation. It should be the policy of every wise, state to govern men by the fear of infamy, rather than by the fear of death: for death robs the community of a citizen, whilst the fear of infamy is the parent of virtuous endeavour to recover lost reputation." Sermon before the Society for the Suppression of Vice. 1804. ·

No. 5.

Extract from a Letter of the Rev. Dr. Forde, Ordinary of Newgate. Jan. 22, 1808.

"In answer to your letter relative to the reformation of convicts, I must close the prospect all at once, by informing you, that I have never yet seen one of that class! In such a prison as our's, reformation is not thought of, nor expected. We try, at the Old Bailey Sessions, both for the city of London, and the county of Middlesex. The city prisoners seldom amount, in number, to one-eighth of the county prisoners. This day, one of our eight Sessions ended, after sitting nine days. There were 100 indictments for Middlesex, and 15 for London*. All prisoners, under sentence of death, will be either executed or respited, at the nert Sessions, the latter end of February.-Too short a time for reformation! Those who are not executed, at that period, have their sentence of death mitigated to transportation for life; and, in

The Old Bailey Sessions in Sept. 1808, commenced with a calendar of nearly 180 prisoners,

two or three days, are removed to the hulks, Woolwich or Portsmouth; there to labour, till it is convenient to our government to transmit them to New South Wales.

"All prisoners under sentence of transportation only, are sent to the hulks, within six or eight days after the Sessions are finished; and this for the general health of the city, in the first instance; and in the second, that the convicts may receive the punishment, which hard labour inflicts upon the idle, and which, in some sort, prepares them for a life of industry, when they arrive at New South Wales.

"Many prisoners are, for small offences, whipped and discharged: of course, no reformation can be expected from them, any more than from the transports. Those of the county of Middlesex, who are sentenced to six, twelve, or eighteen months imprisonment, or even two years, are dispatched, the day after the Sessions, to the county house of correction at Clerkenwell. So that we have none left in Newgate, except some defaulters on the State side of the prison, some few of the city prisoners, who are under six, or

twelve mouths imprisonment, and the debtors, who often mount to three hundred.

"The different felons are disposed of, during their confinement, in various parts of the prison, according as they have money or friends. There is nothing done, in the prison, in the way of labour. There is no place to work in, if they were so inclined; but they are not. And woe be to that man, who would dare to shew symptoms of reformation before his brother felons *. Nor indeed would their reformation avail them any thing; for after the expiration of their

* This melancholy observation is dreadfully illus trated by the following paragraph from a public Newspaper, April 11, 1808.

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Shepherd, an accomplice of the footpads, who were executed at Horsemonger-lane on Wednesday last, was admitted an evidence on their trial, but is retained to be tried for robbing, &c. On Friday evening when the prisoners in Newgate were about to be locked up, one of the turnkeys imprudently pointed out Shepherd to them, as having given information against his companion; the prisoners in consequence, set upon him in the most brutal manner, and there is little doubt but they would have murdered him had they not been prevented. They stabbed Shepherd in the hip with a knife. He was not out of danger on Saturday,"

temporary imprisonment, who would be hardy enough to employ them? So that we invariably find, that they who have once transgressed, and have had a temporary punishment inflicted on them, are certain of being speedily reconducted to Newgate, from the necessity of being compelled (as it were) to plunder, to ward off the invincible calls of Nature.

"If, instead of transportation, penitentiary habitations were provided, wherein labour was enforced and good conduct rewarded, something perhaps might be done towards reformation; but, in the present state of things it is, in my humble opinion, impossible.

"The great causes of crimes, may be resolved to two in number; or three at the most. The first is idleness, or an aversion from labour. The second is a love of society, which leads to drinking. The third is a natural propensity to wickedness, though in part connected with the two first.-The proper punishment for the idler is to make him work. For the lover of society to put him in solitary confinement, with the addition of labour also. And for them who are wicked