prisons turned into a plaything for magistrates, nothing can be more unpicturesque than to see one half of the prisoners looking on, talking, gaping, and idling, while their poorer brethren are grinding for dinners and suppers.

It is a very weak argument to talk of the prisoners earning their support, and the expense to a county of maintaining prisoners before trial,—as if any rational man could ever expect to gain a farthing by an expensive mill, where felons are the moving power, and justices the superintendents, or as if such a trade must not necessarily be carried on at a great loss. If it were just and proper that prisoners, before trial, should be condemned to the mill, it would be of no consequence whether the county gained or lost by the trade. But the injustice of the practice can never be defended by its economy; and the fact is, that it increases expenditure, while it violates principle. We are aware that, by leaving out repairs, alterations, and first costs, and a number of little particulars, a very neat account, signed by a jailer, may be made up, which shall make the mill a miraculous combination of mercantile speculation and moral improvement; but we are too old for all this. We accuse nobody of intentional misrepresentation. This is quite out of the question with persons so highly respectable; but men are constantly misled by the spirit of system, and egregiously deceive themselves-even very good and sensible men.

Mr. Headlam compares the case of a prisoner before trial, claiming support, to that of a pauper claiming relief from his parish. But it seems to us that no two cases can be more dissimilar. The prisoner was no pauper before you took him up, and deprived him of his customers, tools, and market. It is by your act and deed that he is fallen into a state of pauperism; and nothing can be more preposterous, than first to make a man a pauper and then to punish him for being so. It is true that the apprehension and detention of the prisoner were necessary for the purposes of criminal justice; but the consequences arising from this necessary act cannot yet be imputed to the prisoner. He has brought it upon himself, it will be urged; but that remains to be seen, and will not be known till he is tried; and till it is known you have no right to take it for granted, and to punish him as if it were proved.

There seems to be in the minds of some gentlemen a notion, that when once a person is in prison, it is of little consequence how he is treated afterwards. The tyranny which prevailed, of putting a person in a particular dress before trial, now abolished by act of Parliament, was justified by this train of reasoning:-The man has been rendered infamous by imprisonment. He cannot be rendered more so, dress him as you will. His character is not rendered worse by the tread-mill than it is by being sent to the place where the tread-mill is at work. The substance of this way of thinking is, that when a fellow-creature is in the frying-pan, there is no harm in pushing him into the fire; that a little more misery-a little more infamy-a few more links, are of no sort of consequence in a prison-life. If this monstrous style of reasoning extended to hospitals as well as prisons, there would be no harm in breaking the small bone of a man's leg, because the large one was fractured, or in peppering with small shot a person who was wounded with a cannon ball. The principle is, because a man is very wretched, there is no harm in making him a little more so. The steady answer to all this is, that a man is imprisoned before trial, solely for the purpose of securing his appearance at his trial; and that no punishment nor privation, not clearly and candidly necessary for that purpose, should be inflicted upon him. I keep you in prison, because criminal justice would be defeated by your flight, if I did not; but criminal justice can go on very well without degrading you to hard and infamous labour, or denying you any reasonable gratification. For these reasons, the first of those acts is just, the rest are mere tyranny.

Mr. Nicoll, in his opinion, tells us that he has no doubt Parliament would amend the bill if the omission were stated to them. We, on the contrary, have no manner of doubt that Parliament would treat such a petition with the contempt it deserved. Mr. Peel is much too enlightened and sensible to give any countenance to such a great and glaring error. In this case-and we wish it were a more frequent one-the wisdom comes from within, and the error from without the walls of Parliament.

A prisoner before trial who can support himself, ought to be allowed every fair and rational enjoyment which he can purchase, not incompatible with prison discipline. He should be allowed to buy ale or wine in moderation,— to use tobacco, or anything else he can pay for, within the above-mentioned limits. If he cannot support himself, and declines work, then he should be supported upon a very plain, but still a plentiful diet (something better, we think, than bread and water); and all prisoners before trial should be allowed to work. By a liberal share of earnings (or rather by rewards, for there would be no earnings), and also by an improved diet, and in the hands of humane magistrates, there would soon appear to be no necessity for appealing to the tread-mill till trial was over.

*

Upon

This tread-mill, after trial, is certainly a very excellent method of punishment, as far as we are yet acquainted with its effects. We think, at present, however, it is a little abused; and hereafter it is our intention to express our opinion upon the limits to which it ought to be confined. this point, however, we do not much differ from Mr. Headlam: although in his remarks on the treatment of prisoners before trial, we think he has made a very serious mistake, and has attempted (without knowing what he was doing, and meaning, we are persuaded, nothing but what was honest and just) to pluck up one of the ancient land-marks of human justice. †

AMERICA. (E. REVIEW, July, 1824.)

1. Travels through Part of the United States and Canada, in 1818 and 1819. By JOHN M. DUNCAN, A.B. Glasgow. 1823.

2. Letters from North America, written during a Tour in the United States and Canada. In 2 volumes. By ADAM HODGSON. London. 1824.

3. An Excursion through the United States and Canada, during the Years 1822-3. By an English Gentleman, London. 1824.

THERE is a set of miserable persons in England, who are dreadfully afraid of America and everything American-whose great delight is to see that country ridiculed and vilified-and who appear to imagine that all the abuses which

* All magistrates should remember, that nothing is more easy to a person intrusted with power than to convince himself it is his duty to treat his fellow creatures with severity and rigour, and then to persuade himself that he is doing it very reluctantly, and contrary to his real feeling.

+We hope this article will conciliate our old friend Mr. Roscoe, who is very angry with us for some of our former lucubrations on prison discipline-and, above all, because we are not grave enough for him. The difference is thus stated:-Six ducks are stolen. Mr. Roscoe would commit the man to prison for six weeks, perhaps,-reason with him, argue with him, give him tracts, send clergymen to him, work him gently at some useful trade, and try to turn him from the habit of stealing poultry. We would keep him hard at work twelve hours every day at the tread-mill, feed him only so as not to impair his health, and then give him as much of Mr. Roscoe's system as was compatible with our own; and we think our method would diminish the number of duck-stealers more effectually than that of the historian of Leo X. The primary duck-stealer would, we think, be as effectually deterred from repeating the offence by the terror of our imprisonment, as by the excellence of Mr. Roscoe's education-and, what is of infinitely greater consequence, innumerable duck-stealers would be prevented. Because punishmont does not annihilate crime, it is folly to say it does not lessen it. It did not stop

exist in this country acquire additional vigour and chance of duration from every book of Travels which pours forth its venom and falsehood on the United States. We shall from time to time call the attention of the public to this subject, not from any party spirit, but because we love truth, and praise excellence wherever we find it; and because we think the example of America will in many instances tend to open the eyes of Englishmen to their true interests.

The Economy of America is a great and important object for our imitation. The salary of Mr. Bagot, our late Ambassador, was, we believe, rather higher than that of the President of the United States. The Vice-President receives rather less than the second Clerk of the House of Commons; and all salaries, civil and military, are upon the same scale; and yet no country is better served than America! Mr. Hume has at last persuaded the English people to look a little into their accounts, and to see how sadly they are plundered. But we ought to suspend our contempt for America, and consider whether we have not a very momentous lesson to learn from this wise and cautious people on the subject of economy.

A lesson on the importance of Religious Toleration, we are determined, it would seem, not to learn,—either from America, or from any other quarter of the globe. The High Sheriff of New York, last year, was a Jew. It was with the utmost difficulty that a bill was carried this year to allow the first duke of England to carry a gold stick before the King-because he was a Catholic' -and yet we think ourselves entitled to indulge in impertinent sneers at America, as if civilisation did not depend more upon making wise laws for the promotion of human happiness, than in having good inns and post-horses, and civil waiters. The circumstances of the Dissenters' marriage bill are such as would excite the contempt of a Chictaw or Cherokee, if he could be brought to understand them. À certain class of Dissenters beg they may not be compelled to say that they marry in the name of the Trinity, because they do not believe in the Trinity. Never mind, say the corruptionists, you must go on saying you marry in the name of the Trinity whether you believe in it or not. We know that such a protestation from you will be false: but, unless you make it, your wives shall be concubines, and your children illegitimate. Is it possible to conceive a greater or more useless tyranny than this?

"In the religious freedom which America enjoys, I see a more unquestioned superiority. In Britain we enjoy toleration, but here they enjoy liberty. If Government has a right to grant toleration to any particular set of religious opinions, it has also a right to take it away; and such a right with regard to opinions exclusively religious I would deny in all cases, be cause totally inconsistent with the nature of religion, in the proper meaning of the word, and

the murder of Mrs. Donatty; but how many Mrs. Donattys has it kept alive! When we recommend severity, we recommend, of course, that degree of severity which will not excite compassion for the sufferer, and lessen the horror of the crime. This is why we do not recommend torture and amputation of limbs. When a man has been proved to have committed a crime, it is expedient that society should make use of that man for the diminution of crime: he belongs to them for that purpose. Our primary duty, in such a case, is so to treat the culprit, that many other persons may be rendered better, or prevented from being worse, by dread of the same treatment; and, making this the principal object, to combine with it as much as possible the improvement of the individual. The ruffian who killed Mr. Mumford was hung within forty-eight hours. Upon Mr. Roscoe's principles, this was wrong; for it certainly was not the way to reclaim the man :-We say, on the contrary, the object was to do anything with the man which would render murders less frequent, and that the conversion of the man was a mere trifle compared to this. His death probably prevented the necessity of reclaiming a dozen murderers. That death will not, indeed, prevent all murders in that county; but many who have seen it, and many who have heard of it, will swallow their revenge from the dread of being hanged. Mr. Roscoe is very severe upon our style; but poor dear Mr. Roscoe should remember that men have different tastes and different methods of going to work. We feel these matters as deeply as he does. But why so cross upon this or any other subject,

equally irreconcileable with civil liberty, rightly so called. God has given to each of us his inspired word, and a rational mind to which that word is addressed. He has also made known to us, that each for himself must answer at his tribunal for his principles and conduct. What man, then, or body of men, has a right to tell me, 'You do not think aright on religious subjects, but we will tolerate your error?' The answer is a most obvious one, 'Who gave you authority to dictate ?-or what exclusive claim have you to infallibility?' If my sentiments do not lead me into conduct inconsistent with the welfare of my fellow creatures, the question as to their accuracy or fallacy is one between God and my own conscience; and though a fair subject for argument, is none for compulsion.

"The Inquisition undertook to regulate astronomical science, and kings and parliaments have with equal propriety presumed to legislate upon questions of theology. The world has outgrown the former, and it will one day be ashamed that it has been so long outgrowing the latter. The founders of the American republic saw the absurdity of employing the attorneygeneral to refute deism and infidelity, or of attempting to influence opinion on abstract subjects by penal enactment; they saw also the injustice of taxing the whole to support the religious opinions of the few, and have set an example which older governments will one day or other be compelled to follow.

"In America the question is not, What is his creed?-but, What is his conduct? Jews have all the privileges of Christians; Episcopalians, Presbyterians, and Independents meet on common ground. No religious test is required to qualify for public office, except in some cases a mere verbal assent to truth of the Christian religion; and, in every court throughout the country, it is optional whether you give your afirmation or your oath."-Duncan's Travels, II. 328-330.

In fact, it is hardly possible for any nation to show a greater superiority over another than the Americans, in this particular, have done over this country. They have fairly and completely, and probably for ever, extinguished that spirit of religious persecution which has been the employment and the curse of mankind for four or five centuries,-not only that persecution which imprisons and scourges for religious opinions, but the tyranny of incapacitation, which, by disqualifying from civil offices, and cutting a man off from the lawful objects of ambition, endeavours to strangle religious freedom in silence, and to enjoy all the advantages, without the blood, and noise, and fire of persecution. What passes in the mind of one mean blockhead is the general history of all persecution. "This man pretends to know better than me-I cannot subdue him by argument; but I will take care he shall never be mayor or alderman of the town in which he lives; I will never consent to the repeal of the Test Act or to Catholic Emancipation; I will teach the fellow to differ from me in religious opinions!" So says the Episcopalian to the Catholicand so the Catholic says to the Protestant. But the wisdom of America keeps them all down-secures to them all their just rights-gives to each of them their separate pews, and bells, and steeples-makes them all aldermen in their turns and quietly extinguishes the faggots which each is preparing for the combustion of the other. Nor is this indifference to religious subjects in the American people, but pure civilisation—a thorough comprehension of what is best calculated to secure the public happiness and peace-and a determination that this happiness and peace shall not be violated by the insolence of any human being, in the garb, and under the sanction, of religion. In this particular, the Americans are at the head of all the nations of the world and at the same time they are, especially in the Eastern and Midland States, so far from being indifferent on subjects of religion, that they may be most justly characterised as a very religious people. But they are devout without being unjust (the great problem in religion); a higher proof of civilisation than painted tca-cups, waterproof leather, or broad cloth at two guineas a yard.

America is exempted, by its very newness as a nation, from many of the evils of the old governments of Europe. It has no mischievous remains of feudal institutions, and no violations of political economy sanctioned by time, and older than the age of reason. If a man find a partridge upon his ground eating his corn, in any part of Kentucky or Indiana, he may kill it even if his father be not a Doctor of Divinity. The Americans do not exclude their

own citizens from any branch of the commerce which they leave open to all the rest of the world.

"One of them said, that he was well acquainted with a British subject, residing at Newark, Upper Canada, who annually smuggled from 500 to 1,000 chests of tea into that province from the United States. He mentioned the name of this man, who, he said, was growing very rich in consequence; and he stated the manner in which the fraud was managed. Now, as all the tea ought to be brought from England, it is of course very expensive; and therefore the Canadian tea dealers, after buying one or two chests at Montreal or elsewhere, which have the Custom-house mark upon them, fill them up ever afterwards with tea brought from the United States. It is calculated that near 10,000 chests are annually consumed in the Canadas, of which not more than 2,000 or 3,000 come from Europe. Indeed, when I had myself entered Canada, I was told that of every fifteen pounds of tea sold there thirteen were smuggled. The profit upon smuggling this article is from 50 to 100 per cent., and, with an extensive and wild frontier like Canada, cannot be prevented. Indeed it every year increases, and is brought to a more perfect system. But I suppose that the English Government, which is the perfection of wisdom, will never allow the Canadian merchants to trade direct to China, in order that (from pure charity) the whole profit of the tea trade may be given up to the United States."-Excursion, pp. 394, 395..

"You will readily conceive that it is with no small mortification that I hear these American merchants talk of sending their ships to London and Liverpool, to take in goods or specie, with which to purchase tea for the supply of European ports almost within sight of our own shores. They often taunt me, by asking me what our Government can possibly mean by prohibiting us from engaging in a profitable trade, which is open to them and to all the world? or where can be our boasted liberties, while we tamely submit to the infraction of our natural rights, to supply a monopoly as absurd as it is unjust, and to honour the caprice of a company who exclude their fellow subjects from a branch of commerce which they do not pursue themselves, but leave to the enterprise of foreigners, or commercial rivals? On such occasions I can only reply, that both our Government and people are growing wiser; and that if the charter of the East India Company be renewed, when it next expires, I will allow them to infer that the people of England have little influence in the administration of their own affairs."-Hodgson's Letters, II. 128, 129.

Though America is a confederation of republics, they are in many cases much more amalgamated than the various parts of Great Britain. If a citizen of the United States can make a shoe, he is at liberty to make a shoe anywhere between Lake Ontario and New Orleans, he may sole on the Mississippi, -heel on the Missouri,-measure Mr. Birkbeck on the Little Wabash, or take (which our best politicians do not find an easy matter) the length of Mr. Munro's foot on the banks of the Potomac. But woe to the cobbler who, having made Hessian boots for the alderman of Newcastle, should venture to invest with these coriaceous integuments the leg of a liege subject at York. A yellow ant in a nest of red ants-a butcher's dog in a fox-kennel-a mouse in a bee-hive, all feel the effects of untimely intrusion ;-but far preferable their fate to that of the misguided artisan, who, misled by sixpenny histories of England, and conceiving h.s country to have been united at the Heptarchy, goes forth from his native town to stitch freely within the sea-girt limits of Albion. Him the mayor, him the alderman, him the recorder, him the quarter sessions would worry. Him the justices before the trial would long to get into the tread-mill; and would much lament that, by a recent act, they could not do

-

* This puts us in mind of our friend Mr. Headlam, who, we hear, has written an answer to our Observations on the Tread-mill before Trial. It would have been a very easy thing for us to have hung Mr. Headlam up as a spectacle to the United Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland, the principality of Wales, and the town of Berwick-on-Tweed; but we have no wish to make a worthy and respectable man appear ridiculous. For these reasons we have not even looked at his pamphlet, and we decline entering into a controversy upon a point where, among men of sense and humanity (who had not heated themselves in the dispute), there cannot possibly be any difference of opinion. All members of both Houses of Parliament were unanimous in their condemnation of the odious and nonsensical practice of working prisoners in the tread-mill before trial. It had not one single advocate. Mr. Headlam and the magistrates of the North Riding, in their eagerness to save a relic of their prison system, forgot themselves so far as to petition to be intrusted with the power of putting prisoners to work before trial, with their own consent-the answer of the Legislature was, "We will not trust you,"-the severest practical rebuke ever received by any public body.