The Sun.
London, England, 1833-04-11 00:00:00

LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, APRIL 11, 1833.

duct as men ioned in last Report, being 68 males
and 14 females, 6 males and 3 females have sine
applied, to whom the Committee granted the usual
reward, their conduct having been found, upon due
inquiry, to be deserving.
Of the prisoners discharged in 1831, being 152
males and 50 females, 59 males and 20 females have
received graatities for good conduct since their li-
beration; 3 males and 1 female are known to have
since died; 3 males and 4 females hive been re-
fused ; the claims of 3 males and 3 females are at
present under consideration; 10 males and 6 fe-
males have been again convicted ; 1 female is going
on ill; and of the 74 males and 15 females remain-
ing of the number discharged in that year, several
are known to be conducting themselves well who
have not applied for the gratuity, and others are
doubtful, inasmuch as they have not made any ap-
plication, or have not been heard of.
The Superintending Committee having in the
month of November, 1831, appointed a Sub-Com-
mittee, for inquiring into the state of the Prison,
a considerable body of information was obtained as
to various evils and irregularities which were found
to exist in it. A Report was made by the Sub-
► Committee, which was afterwards approve I by the
Superintending Committee, and which has beea:'
1 id before his Majes•y's Secretary of State for the
Home Department.
The principal evil which was found to exist in
the system arose from too great a degree of inter-
course which the prisoners of the second class were
enabled to bold with one another; the more aban-
doned and depraved characters thus corrupting those
who were comparatively uninstructed and well con-
ducted. The Sub-Committee accordingly stated it
as their opinion, that the well-being and pros-
perity of the Establishment depended upon effecting
a more strict seclusion of the prisoners one from
another ; at the same time, being sensible that this
could not be effected without materially increasing
the hardships of imprisonment, they recommended
a considerable reduction to be made in the period
of confinement of such prisoners as may have con-
ducted themselves properly.
The Committee thereupon recommended several
alterations, in point of discipline and local arrange-
ments, calculated to carry their recommendations
into effect, and a series of rules, founded upon this
recommendation(which is inserted in an Appendix),
has since received the sanction of the Judges ► f
the Court of King's Bench, and has been a-lopted
to carry the details of those tneaau es into execution.
The Superintending Committee are enabled to
report, that these new arrangements, which have
now been in operation above nine months, have
given the highest satisfaction, by the inzreased order,
regularity, discipline, and good conduct which is per-
ceptible in the Establishment.

The Chaplain concludes his journal on the 31st
December last as follows:—" In closing my report
for this year, I cannot help expressing my satisfac-
tion at the great and satisfactory changes which
have been effected during the course of it. It may
now be said that the Institution approaches in some
measure near to what a Penitentiary ought to be ;
and that under the blessing of God we may hope
to see much good effected, not only upon the in-
mates of its wards, but the country generally. The
new Regulations have now been in force long
enough to judge of the effect produced by them ;
and any one who consults the Misconduct Book for
the last eight months, and compares it with any
other eight months from the very first opening of
the Institution,--any one who goes among the pri.:
soners, and inquires into their state of mind,—any
one who consults the oldest arid most experienced'
officers, especially those who are immediately over
the prisoners, and have hourly opportunities of ob-
serving them,—will find that a most salutary effect
has been produced, so as fully to justify both those
who recommended the changes and those who
effected them; and to encourage, nay, call upon
them to go on with the wolk, and carry it into
every part of the Pi ison."
The Superintending Committee have great plea-
sure in bearing testimony to the continued zeal, ac-
tivity, and capacity of the Governor, Captain Chap-
man; and they cannot with justice omit to express
their sense of the ex•raordin:rry exertions fur the
religious instruction of the prisoners which have
been made by the Rev. Whitworth Russell, the
Chaplain, who is alone charged with the arduous
duty of the religious and moral instruction of the
Prison. In addition to the usual public and private
ditties incident to his office, he has adopted the
practice of assembling large classes of prisoners four
days in the week, besides Sunday, in the chapel,
for lectures on moral and religious subjects. 1-k
has stated to the Committee, that in the course of
very extensive inquiries which he has made, " he
has found that riot even the shortening of the period
of confinement has reconciled the prisoner s so much
to the increased severity of their imprisonment, as
the opportunities they now have of acquiring useful
and religious knowledge; and that the respectful
and fixed attention which the male prisoners pay to
somewhat long scripture lectures, entitle them to
• his approbation and gratitude."
The Committee think it, however, their duty,
while upon this subject, to observe, that notwith-
standing the increased exertions of the Chaplain,
there is still much want of further means for the
communication of moral and religious knowledge to
the prisoners; and this is more especially felt in the
female wards, in consequence of the extra exertions
of the Chaplain not having been extended to them
as yet ; and from the appointment of a Matron not
having► been filled up, from motives of economy,
since it became vacant in the month of Dec., 1829.
A Statement of the Earnings of the Prisoners,
and an Account of the Expense of the Establish-
merit, during the year 1832, are subjoined to this

report.
The Committee regret that the expenses of the
last year should have exceeded those of the preced-
ing; but they have been occasioned by the required
altrra,ions in the building, for the adoption of those
measures above referred to; and by the necessary
precautions adopted, and expenses consequently in-
curred, by additional medical aQsistants, nurses, and
officers, during the prevalence of cholera; as also
by the diminution in the amount of prisoners' earn-
ings, compared with the former year, amounting to
no less a sum than 7871. 4s. 4d., arising Irmo the
very low prices obtained for work, and the dept-
elated terms which the master manufacturer is
obliged to have recourse to, from competition for
the supply of clothing to the Board of Ordnance;
together with the comparatively few prisoners, and
the adoption of the new regulations of their almost
daily attendance in the chapel, thereby sheitening
their hours of labour.

lIEXLEN, Chairman.
General Penitentiary, 13th March, P 333.

REGULATIONS REFERRED TO IN THE PRECEDING REPORT.

That the prisoners of both classes shall in future walk
in single files, and in silence.
That no second-class pri oner shall ever be placed back
in the first cla-s. Any second-class prisoner entity of a❑
offence by which be incurs the privity of degradation,
shall be placed in some vacant part of the prison apart
from other prisoners.
That each prisoner of the second class shall be placed
in a separate cell, in which he shall both work and sleep :
B. ward shall be equally divided between A. and C. wards,
which shall then form the second-class wards under the
new arrangements,

That G. gallery, pentagon No. 2, be immediately
warmed, and attached respectively to the present infirma-
ries, for the reception of patients under medical treatment
helouging to pentagons 1,2, 5, and 6. And the medical
officers are particularly directed apt to admit any patients

into the general infirmary, whose cases shall not absolutely
require it.
That no prisoner shall be ever placed in the kitchen,
or appointed to any place of trust, on any reason whatever
except good conduct.
That the open part of the chapel be provided with
benches, to enable the chaplain to assemble large classes
of the prisoners for religious instruction, in such manner
as shall be agreed upon between the governor and chaplain.
That the time of the schoolmaster be entirely at th,
disposal of the chaplain, for the purpose of giving more
eff,ctive instruction to the prisoners : for which purpose
he shall, under the direction of the chaplain, be permitted
to visit prisoners in their cells ; but whenever the school-
master shall visit any wards in that part of the prison
which is appropriated to female prisoners, he shall be
accompanied by the task-mistress, or some other fern ale
officer. . .

Teat such parts of the prison as shall remain vacant,
be appropriated in part to form first-class wards for new
prisoners, should a greater number be admitted into the
Ins,ir.ution than the present first-c!ass wards can accom
mi,date ; and in part for the confinement of such con
v:cts as it shall be deemed expedient to place apart from
other prisoners : such parts of the prison being previously
warmed.

A BILL TO ALTER AND A MEND THE