The Statesman.
London, England, 1819-04-14 00:00:00

rica, ant/ e7/dot c3l lied on addel I ei;

whkit It has been specially crested. The King de-
elatee himself the Protector, and sethorires the Dec
d'Angooleme to become the President, of the Secietj.
A Gement Council, of 24 Members, chosen by the
Minister of the Interior, and submitted to the ap.
probation of his Majesty, from among the Members
of the Society, is to take upon itself the emotive
labours of the iestitetioo. This Council is already
elected, end their names published. Among thee,
we gad the Dukes de larochefoucaelt, drAlbstfere,
and Denglie, MM. Chap's!, Pasqaier, St. Aulam
and Colt.. The last individual is, we believe, now
in England, to resew those enquiries into nor on
stripel jurisprudence which lie courenanced to the pre•
coding neer.
The seventh article of the Ordinance tbes de.
scribes the functions uhich the General Council will
have to discharge:—•• They are to communicate I.
the Minister of the Interior their sentiments upon
every part of the administration end internal asansge-
meat of the ileisoas of the kingdom, and especially in
whit relates to classifying the prisoners according to
their age, their sea, and the nature of their crimes;
the various kinds of !abut proper to be adopted in
prisons; the distribution of theproilts of that labour;
the internal discipline of prisons; the levalth,safety,
religious instruction, and moral reformation of the iii.
boners, together with their food aed clothing ;
the enlargement, general most rico ioa, end ',erotism
which my 'plow oecateery nr awful in the buildings
tbesseelves." In order Preciosity to accomplish these
objects, the General Council are to have free access to
all the prisons of France, to be ',applied with every
neceimuy information concerning them which may be
now, or hereafter, in the possession of Government,
and in fact, to receive every assistance from the Mi-
nisters which can at all facilitate their labours, or
give ellicieory to their recommendations. Dopert-
meotal Committees are arpointed, for the provino
cial jails, to co-operate with the General Council
They arc to pursue the same coarse of enquiry as the
latter body, and to report to it, from time to time,
the melts of their scrutiny. Tho... prisons of Paris
err to remain as heretofore, under the jurisdictioa of
the Prefect of Police of Faris, subject only to the
inspection of a Special Coot:ell of Administration,
nominated from am mg the Members of the General
Council. This Council is to consist of twirler. Mee.
to-rs, who are to comities equally component parts
of 'he former body. The twenty-first er.rele pep-
tides, that in every prison, all the prisoners, even
those who are sentenced to solitery or *eclat con.
linemen', 1114•11 be regularly reported to the !venal
Council, who shall receive iii it cenipleinli or willies,
end communieste them to the Minister.

camber of these melancholy steresstsies, the moat ob-
Scum are, deolvien, not the least urgent.
II When the lass inlict a punishment, and parti•
elderly that of impriseneneet, it is not a species of
vengeance which they esercise. O. one hood, they
show by that to ell citizens a warning to deter them
from crimes; awe en the oilier they show, that It Is
their object to put the criminal out of the poser of
injuring that society, which he has already an much
dietirbed; and at the degree of perversity of the
guilty, and by consetnesce the extent of the fears
which hi, liberty might to escits, can only be wet-
soled the heaviness n( the crime or offence he has
committed. the le* grub:stet) the dentition of int-
priesomeol peoponlooralip t petiseatias shot Goa ant
such lapses of time ought to reifies for the recom-
posing to be mode to aotiety without obliging it to
run new deafer,.
" Bet that the law may not be deceived kiln pro-
vi.ion", it is necessary that the penieheseut should
rodent upon the guilty who ate exposed to it, the
effect that It Is expected. This ought to regulate
the whole system with respect to th. cunlinemeat et
prisoners.
" The necessity of accomplishing this particular,
ought to re. elate the system to c,nsinct necessary to
be followed weird' prisouers, during the peeled
of shelf con6orment.
Tws essential consequent's., may lead to the end
which the law proposes. The first is, that there
should not be inflicted any punishment which may Res
Inqond that which the law has wished them to to
subjeeted to, in depriving theta of liberty. The seccoll
is, that it is dee to the interests of society to 'sect
that no care should be neglected in operating a re.
form in the menls of him, who may one day re.
enter its bosom.
" ho one can be ignorant, that of ell the causes
which may irritate or corrupt the character of man,
the most powerful Is the feeling of injestiee. Ife
then, the prisoner be slimed is his confinement
to sufferings, which the law that condemned him
neither ordained nor foresaw, there is room to dried
that, instead of acknowledging the equity of his cows
dernoatioe, he either contracts a now hatred to-
wards th.t society end authority, which teeniest,
him tirelessly, or ceases to take any care of his fate.
We k raw, Itesidet, that phytical sufferings, above ell
ets-is confissement is joined to them, destroy
very soon all energy In the nilvideal, all feeling of
Isurand dignity, end plunges him Into a sort of stupid
rfiekeeemest, from which even lb. hope of liberty
limy wit be able to drew him. This is certainly
sot whet the law Intends when It decrees the Wiwi•
sonment of a guilty person oboes it does sot for ever

This Ordnance is folk. :d by • Report made to separate frolnmieti-i it ought, thewforevle fellow
by him into the prison to which it has nit him ; aod
the King Ise the Reit of
the Minister of the Interiotrh,PoPfrwilsoicnsh itnbeFrfaZi:wtsi, by
is not " "stY that his ""P"resi elditettett 211".111
be better than a hen he enjoyed state of freedom;
is a translation:—
bat, on the other band, he should MK be pet to on-
" Stat,—The state of tile prisons of the kingdom Necessary pin. It is incumbent oh society to sap.
has always elicited, In • particular maneer, the pa.
pay bin with soffit it.nt 1/o•TiAnsent, healthy lodging,
tenni solicitude of your Majesty. In 1814 your. ;ailment to protect him from the in of the
Majesty ordered the establishment of en experiments, mesons, and the necessary sarcoma is cases cf disease.
prise., destined to offer a model of the ameliorations It mere penitently owes to him 'Want protection
of which the regulation of the prisons in general were ageism the veastioes end abuses, of which be might
susceptibly. This establishment had particularly for become the object ; for the best mode of impressing
its object, to demonstrate by what means setbotity,
his mind with a sense of the jostles of his condemn..
in punishing crime, with a view to the public interest,
Can is to make him undergo his seating under the
may render the chastisement conducive to the moral
empire, and at it were, in the very presence, of the
reform of the criminal, and also restore to society a
moat enact and most attentive jellies.
useful citizen, after having preserved his from a deo.. ill But this jeMice of "shortly toward, the pit.
*6666+ 66666 enemy.
sowers, however perfect it might be, would Not pro-
" The success which had attended similar attempts trebly make of itself to predate In their dispositions
in different reentries, gave reason to hope that this sod character that feeling upon which the law calms-
' esperiment world not be made in vale; end that, bites, and which shoed resider their restoratiou to
after having ascertained its salutary effects, it would freedom, on she aspiration of their penishmeots, safe
have helm easy to have deduced therefrom a good aye- both to society and themselves. This change to fres.
tem of administration and lateral' regulation for all dom most become the ohjem of 1111110 direct attendee,
the prisons of France. The fatal mots which or. in order to afford a prospect of attaining it with any
coned at the moment when the Ordinance of the !rah certainty. The privateer must be pet late a way of
lof September, 1814, was on the point of heist* car. life calculated to divest him of the vicious habits which
vied into execution, prevented the realizetiou of this bad led him into crime. Let him be *objected to eon.
beneficent conception of your Majesty. stunt labour, of the fruits of which be is to be a par-
t' Since that ;mind the Administration, amidst taker both for the present and in future. Let nee
the grand interests •bich occupied its attention, has those who inhabit the same prison be suffered to pass
not been able to effect iu the state and management of their time in commeoicatieg their perverse Incline.
the prisons all the changes which it had recognized to dons and culpable acquitentears to each other. Let
he Necessary. Nevertheless, its efforts and its zeal religion supply thee with its cense:alines, and ince!.
have not been altogether Inflame. The central houses cote its precepts open their anode. le a word, let
of detinstioe, appropriated to the reception of eon. order. which is indispensibte to the acquisition's(
vim, who had undergone impritonmeet for a year moral habitude, and even of moral ideas, prevail
and upwards. had particularly attracted its sepetin. around them, and regulate their condition in
Wachner. New buildings wens commented ; some (1.44 e ere the mean' which may be *gaveled to art
ethers are completed, audio "metal they bate been p mitts efficacy on the sternal dispnai lons of prisoners,
well adapted to their object. In all the central jails and to render their future enlargement innoatiosa.—
a good system of labour has been introduced; end its The employment of these means is a (ley incumbent
advantages, both with regard to the physical welfare, on the authorities to which the keeping and super.
sod the morel reform of the prisoner., ere already inienilance of the priories ere confided. By this alone
apparent. The House of Detention at Fonterraelt is can thew trimly fulfil, with a view to the common in-
the only one in which the insufficiency of the build. terest of society and the prisoners, the mission which
Ingo completed has net yet admitted of the establish. they have received front the laws.
ment of all the workshops wltich the number of its " Such, if I rightly comprehend your Majesty's
inmates would require. The state of the prisoners, intentions, is the grand and Watery beneficence
with regard to fond, lodging, and clothing, has ender. ! which you wish to torrent with regard to the
gone important ameliorations; and measures have i sons. Your Majesty is •ware that, in order to the
been taken to protect them from the copidity and execution of your intentions, • considerable estop.
arbitrary oftedeet of their keepers. ijkt6" will ho ; aletnat every where the
" But these ameliorations have necessarily been , relent ante of the bai:Astio Pr the prisons is 'node.
hitherto only partial sod insulated; it has been Im.. prate- almost every • h.r. th-ir diminutive size, end
possible to mend them to all the prisons it. rise king. t the I:4l•rringerri.nt of the interior, 'soak) predawn
dont ; they cannot have had the result 'Lien there is 1 that insalubrity and itisenter, owing to which at
room to expect from s system complete'', its delhilsj wheal so Pliny prisons present a hideous spectacle:
uniformly adopted, and every where kneeled up with order to commence. at least, the pray"s of
peneverance. Yet this is the point which it is Indio. perilleation cad repair. its Ilona places where they
pensably necessary to accomplish. I' - .s
P JO Majesty has el.esdy hats