Star.
London, England, 1824-02-07 00:00:00

RIMIGIOUS EDUCATION.

. This day was published, price is. bound,
.
THE NARRATIVE PARTS of the Old anti New
Testaments, printed verbatim front the Authorised Version,
in a large Type, for the use of the Junior Claws iu Schools, and
illustrated with one hundred and twenty Engravings.
tly the REV. S. HARROW,
Author of School Sermons, Questions on the Oldand New

Testaments, dtc. &c.
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LATIN COMPOSITION.
This day was published, in royal 12mo. consisting of more than
1,000 pages, price 15s. bound,
ADICTIONARY of LATL.N PHRASES; compre-
hending a Methodical Digest of the various Phrases from
the best Authors, which have been collected in all Phraseological
Works hitherto published; for the more speedy progress of Students
in Latin Composition'.
By WILLIAM ROBERTSON, A.M. of Cambridge.
A New Edition, with considerable Additions. Alterations, and Cor-

rections. In one volume.
London: Printed by A. J. Valpy, and published by Baldwin,
Cr adock, and Joy.
••• The present FAition has this advantage over its predeces-
sors, that it is enriched with many hundred phras.'s which have
hitherto been unrecorded : and these have been drawn from the
purest fountains, by actual perusal—from Cicero, Tacitus, Terence,
Plautus, &c.

THE TREAD-WI !EEL.

(Extract from the Fifth Report of the Society fur the Improvement

of Pri:ion Discip!int, &c.)
66 The merits of the tread-wirecl, as an instrument of
prison-labour, have, during the past 'year, excited con.
siderable interest. Objections of a very serious nature
have been urged against it by a Magistrate, whose
labours for the improvement of prison discipline, during
a long and honourable life, entitle his sentinieqs, to
great attention. Highly as the Committee appr'xiate
the motives which animate the benevolent author, they
do not concur with the reasoning contained in a recent
work on prison labour; the object of which publica-
tion is to show that the ordinary discipline of the tread.
wheel is unsafe, unhealthy, and degrading punishment.
The Committee believe that they were the first tore-
cognize the excellence, and advocate the introduction
of this description of prison labour ; and, after mature
consider'ation, they can dicOvei 9thitig insthe proper
use and mOdtrile application of tius punisbnienti, that ii
iireconcileable with the feelingrof humanity, incl.thomt
principles of prison discipline which it ii the object of
~
this Society to recommend. ~
. .
" From documents which have,been laid before
Parliament,-the healthinpis or the treo.:Wheel:eseiCik
is satisfactorily proved.. - opinions of die medical
officers in attendance at the various 'prisons, concur in
declaring that,the general healtV pTtbe prisoners his in
no degree suffered injuu pi I.4eo,;iscise; but that, of
the contrary, the labour has..in•t firr
,ea_ pect heiti' WV-.
) ~
ductive of considerable benehte.. eCein inquiries wßoffk
the Committee. have instituted,.anfiiru these tesps.
monies; and, agitinst evidence. lo conclusive, a juclg.
ment,formed-prkneipatiy from,f,bityact reasoning, and
unsupported. by that peed* esperienCe Which the
daily observations,a4 prisoti4urgeori alords,c.an have
bUt little Weight:
The mischievous consequences of;which ices states;
that the tread-wheel is the source, attach not, i4tOch
to the nature of the labour, as to the degree in 4141 it
may be enforced. There is nothing painful in theliin.:
ple position of the body on the wheel; and. the tn:lihi.i
nery may be made to revolve so slowly, as scarcely to
form a punishment ; while, on the other hand, it cannot
be denied, that by excessive application • it may be ren-
dered an instrument of unjustifiable tigotir.' The'dithi
question then, on which the safety and expediency °Hsi
tread-wheel depends, is simply this—can 'the degree of
labour be so regulated as to be ascirtabied Without' dlf
ficulty, and restrained at all times within safe limits
This consideration has occupied the particular attention
of the Committee ; and they have the pleasure to state
that these very desirable objects can be accomplished:
" It occurred to the Committee, on pursuing their
inquiries upon this subject, that as the several details in
the management of the tread-wheel are proportionate
in their vat iations, they might conveniently be laid
down upon a sliding scale. The idea ha, been carried
into execution in a very ingenious manner by Mr. Bate,
mathematical instrument-maker to the Board of Excise-,
who has constructed an instrument, by the simple in:
spection of which the rate of labour can at all times be
ascertained. The utility of this invention is obvious:
it at once enables the Islagistiate, or the Governor of a
pi ison at which a tread-wheel is in operation, to secure
precision of management, and by affording an accurate
measure, applicable in all cases, may prevent the inad-
vertent excess, or intentional abuse, of this species of
punishment.—lt is perfectly true that the labour of the
tread-shed, unless it he regulated with great care, may,
to use the language of an able and experienced Gover-
nor of a prison On a recent communication with the
.Committee) 6 become, in the hands of some, an engine
of terrible oppression.' In order to skew the importance
of further attention to this subject, and the great confu-
sion that at present pievaiis in the manner of enforcing
the labour, the Committee refer to the table in the Ap-
pendix, founded on returns recently received, shewing
the great varieties of punishment inflicted ; a bare re-
ference to which will prove the necessity for adopting
some uniformity of practice, in order to equalise the ad-
ministration of prison discipline.
"The present inequality, it will be perceived, arises not
only from the varied degrees of velocity, and the flue-
ettLihtinughtertir
biuttioalliss(:df:owaoirtkhi
en gd
iarrtenir e rnecsen ni
ng
thep ri swo
on
rekr si
nagt
hours of summer and winter; a difference which
amounts in the daily rate of labour at some prisons to
at least 50 per cent. By an adherence, however, to the

-------- -
tolowing regulatiocts,anct.with the aid of the scale to
w:iich the Com mittee have referred, the tread-mills in va-
t inns pt isous, even those on the most diversified principles
of construction, may be conducted upon one uniform and
certain system of operation throughout the kingdom.
41. Every tread-whtel should be provided with a regulator,'
by which its rate of revolution may at all times be restrained within
safe
" 2. To the tread-wheel should also be affixed • a dial-register,
on reference to which the rate of Labour may at any flue be se-
cunarly ascertained.
" 3. The daily rate of labour should in no case exceed 12,000
feet in ascent.
" 4. Care should be tak':n to apportion the diet to the degree of
t:bour enforced.
" The Committee are aware that the observance of
t -ese rules will not remove the objections•. which
ninny respectable persons entertain against the use of
the tread-wheel : they regard the punishment, under
any circumstances, as too rigorous. In the opinion,
however, of the Committee, the primary feature in the
character of hard labour should be severity ; no.t
equal, indeed, to every description of criminals, not
irreconeileable with the feelings of humanity, nor one
degree beyond that which the public interests justify,
and the reformation of the criminal. demands; yet a
severity that shall make those who have violated justice
feel the penalties of the law,and the consequences of guilt.
The Committee believe that, for a certain class of offen-
ders, the tread-wheel is, under proper regulation, a pu-
nishment of this description, and that no House of Cor-
rection should be without it. The great proportion of
offenders committed to such places of confinement are
sentenced to hard labour,' and but for short periods of
imprisonment, during which the tread-wheel is an ap-
propriate punishment. Brit in bearing this testimony
in its favour, they feel no hesitation in declaring their
opinion that its value may be overrated, and its disci-
pline misapplied. Notwithstanding the acknowledged
excellencies of the tread-wheel, it ought not to form the
punishment of those whom the law sentences to impri-
sonment only. To inflict it on this description of pri-
soners would be to change the character (it their sen-
tence. To subject, also, convicts committed for long
periods of imprisonment, day after day, to this disci-
pline, is inconsistent with the views of the best writers
on the Penitentiary system, and at variance with those
principles of prison management which Howard never
ceased to inculcate, and to realize which the enlightened
exertions of Sir George Paul and miter eminent Magis-
ti ates have been zealously. directed.
41 The practice of employinE females at the tread-
wheel is, in the o?inion of many benevolent persons, in
no case justifiable. In this sentiment the Committee do
not concur. Upon hardened offenders committed to
Houses of Correction—such as the law has truly desig-
nated idle and 'disorderly'—the labour is productive
of excellent effects, and, if superintended by a careful
matron, may be safely administered ; but the general
employment of females at the tread-wheel is liable to
serious objections; and as there are, even in the absence
of pm ison trades, other kinds of labour to be found for
women in a gaol that are congenial to the habits of
their sex, the practice of thus employing this class of
offenders is not justified by necessity.
" But let the punishment of tread-wheel labour be
ever so caiefully regulated, there is one consideration
which ought not to be forgotten, and to which the Corn-
mittea cannot too earnestly entreat attention. Punish-
ritnts, however salutary, cannot alone be expected to
reclaim;, nor do they, under any form, diminish the
necessity for those moral and religious services, with-
out which all plans of prison discipline will prove
inefficient, and the formation and recovery of good
character become alike utterly hopeless. The Com-
mittee have been led to offer these remarks, be-
cause it has appeared to them that in some prisons by
far too much dependence has been placed on the deter-
ring influence of ueach wheel labour, while but little
earnestness has been evinced to take advantage of that
subjection of mind which' the punishment has a ten-
dency to produce, and which might be available for the
purposes of religious impressions and permanent im-
p! ovement. Thete is nothing in the character tf tread-
wheel labour that may not be made to strengthen the
power of religion, and extend the influence of her mi-
nisters over the mind and feelings of a prisoner; and it
would be indeed to be deplored, were the introduction
of hard labour to be considered as superseding or weak-
ening the necessity for their labours, without which the
great objects cf prison discipline can never be attained."

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