ART. L.-Sixth Report of the Surveyor General of British and Scotch Con- "It embodies more information on the subject of prisons, arranged and expresse d in the spirit of literature and science, than any other publication of our country, and will compare with any Journal devoted to this departmentof knowledge in Europe."-Hon. Charles Sumner's Speech, in debate on the prison question in From the North. American and United States' Gazette. We have received from Messrs. E. C. & J. Biddle the last number of the Pennsylvania Journal of Prison Discipline, which is published quarterly, under the direction of the Philadelphia Society for alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons. A glance through its pages shows what is well understood that it is a highly valuable periodical, communicating much and various important informa- tion upon the subject of which it treats. It is the only publication of the kind in the country, is certainly a very much needed one, and ought, therefore, to be well THE PENNSYLVANIA JOURNAL OF PRISON DISCIPLINE. VOL. IX.-JANUARY, 1854.—No. 1. SIXTH REPORT OF THE SURVEYOR GENERAL OF BRITISH AND SCOTCH CONVICT-PRISONS. June 14, 1853. pp. 127. In our last number we noticed, with as much fullness as our limits allow, a valuable work by John T. Burt, B. A., Assistant Chaplain at the Pentonville Prison, and formerly Chaplain to the Hanwell Lunatic Asylum, in which he treats of the results of the system of separate confinement as administered at Pentonville. We need not say, that such qualifications as the author of this work possesses to judge of these results are rare. His former connection with one of the most extensive, celebrated and successful institutions for the treatment of insanity, and his intimate association with the subjects of penal discipline in separation, combine to give an authority to his opinions, to which we cannot but pay some deference. If the chief strength of the objection to the seclusion of convicts from each other's society, lies (as we may safely assume,) in its tendency to derange the mind, an intelligent, judicious chaplain's position is certainly very favorable for the detection of such tendencies. And if, in addition to other qualifications, he has had the opportunity to become familiar with the different phases of mental derangement by an official connection with an institution for its treatment, we could scarcely expect a more desirable VOL. IX.-1 |