Year: 1870

DehVeTeu IuIb uoEutuHs


Court of Quarter Sessions--,Jtsdge PeiTee.


This morning, the Grand Jury for the March
term was organized, Joseph Hopkins, Esq,
being appointed foreman, and his Honor Judge
Peirce charged them as follows:-


Gentlemen of the Grand Jury:-You have been
called from the pursuits OF business ana the
walks of everyday life to assist in the admins
tration of the criminal law. It Is wise provi-
sion of the common law which requires that
both grand and petit jurors shall come directly
from the people. From no other source could
fair and evenhanded justice be so well admins
tered, or the decisions of public tribunals be SO
well received and acquiesced in, as from body
of men who come directly from the people, and
who have no interests but those which are COM
mon to their fellow-citiZens.


You are TO inquire for the city and county of
Philadelphia of those offenses which are vio-
lations of the criminal law, and by your oaths
of Office you are to present no man for envy,
hatred. or malice, nor to leave any man unpre-
secuted for fear, favor, or affection.


In the discharge of your duties yoH will be
assisted by the District Attorney, who is the law
officer of the Commonwealth, and you may also
seek the advice and counsel of the Court In all
matters of law in which you may need such
assistance.


In all prosecutions, cases of felony excepted,
if you return the bill 'ignoramus" you are re-
quired to decide and certify on the bill whether
the county or the prosecutor shall pay the costs.
By judicious use of this power, You may do
much to repress hasty and unnecessary litiga-
tion the fruit of passion and malice, and to visit
upon the offenders, partially at least, the penalty
due to their rashness and malevolence Before
you return bill 'ignoramus" you should exam
inc every witness whose name is endorsed
on the BILL otherwise it may be sent back to you
for further inquiry.


You are by law and usage official visitors of
the Philadelphia County Prison, the House of
Refuge and the Almshouse. In the discharge
of these important duties, you can render great
public service not only by ascertaining whether
;sr,tt ad in rDnifx
with law and for the welfare of their inmates,
but you may also make such suggestions as you
may suppose win increase their usefulness, and
make them more valuable as retormatory and
protective asylums


The fruitful sources of vice are idleness, igno-
rance, and intemperance. Every community
has right to be protected from these by such
measures as will ensure that end. II evil doers
do not like the restraints of law they should
withdraw to some land where there is no law,
and where they may practise their evil dolngs
upon one another to their fullest satisfaction.
Right doers are entitled to the protection of
law.


Idleness is the parent of both ignorance and
vice. Our law Furnishes vagrancy, which is one
of the fruits of idleness as crime, and 1t would
be well if the law were more vigorously enforced
against the numerous street beggars who beset
our highways. They are usually not only idle
but vicious and dissipated, petty thieves and
pilferers, drunken and debauched. The prison
and the Almshouse are their home until the
House Oh COrTecLlOn, WHICH, tuc SlIJ SouuCHs
have so long promised US, shall be ready to re-
ceive them and put them to work for the good
of both their bodies and souls.


fear that not any of us have sufficiently con-
sidered the reformatory influence OF labor
When God banished man from the garden OF
Eden He said unto him, "ln the sweat OF thy
face shalt thou eat bread" Labor was a neces-
sity of his new conditions. 1t was necessary for
his physical health and for his moral health.
The laborious have neither the inclination nor
the time to transgress. 1t removes from man
the necessity and the temptation to sin. IL our
criminal classes were compelled to pass the
time of their imprisonment in severe labor, not
half labor with bribe to induce them TO do
a little more, but fatiguing labor, such as
would send them to their beds at night with
sense of wearinesss and necessity
for rest, two consequences would be likely TO
result. First such painful labor would have q
tendency to deter them from a repetition OF
their crimes, because such repetition would
mean renewed labor without pecuniary profit to
them; and second, knowing that imprisonment
meant hard work, they would be more likely
to labor voluntarily out of prison for a reward
than involuntarily in prison for punishment
A third, and perhaps the most powerful reason
may be added-the habit of labor would be
created in them, and labor would thus become
not only necessity, but protection and plea
sure to them.


In the investigations which you will make into
these public institutions, it would be we'll per
haps to INQUIRE not only into the cleanliness anC





the labor which is imposed upon the inmates
and to what extent idleness prevails in these in
stitutions of reform. ..


The like remarks will also apply to our Aims
house, where perhaps not one-half of the in
mates would remain if they were compelled tc
earn their own support by labor.


The objhction which is made to prison ano
almshouse labor, that it interferes with the
regular pursuits of the industrious classes, Il
valid, which think it is not, could be met by
limiting the products OF such labor to the want:
of the inmates themselves and their families
If there were a surplus, itwere better TO destroy
it than that the discipline of labor should not bt
imposed on such persons. Ignorance is the
twin brother of idleness. 1t is said that al
empty mind is the DEVILS workshop. In sucf
minds and out of such material he labricate
such associations known as the Ramblers
Rangers, Badgers, Darts, and other like organi
cations of vicious young men which lnies
our city. From such associations they
graduate to be thieves burglars highway
robbers, and cutthToats. Some of them have
reached the prison and the penitentiary; other
are on their way there and to the galloWs. Ou
great public school system makes Ignorance in
excusable; and l am glad to observe that tn
Board of Controllers of the Publlc Schools hay
framed an Act which they ask the Legislature
TO adopt, imposing penalty on persons VIII
refuse or neglect to send their children to schoo
part of each year. L fear the proposed penalt
isnot sufficient to entirely secure the end, but
is a movement in the right direction, and will
] enacted, be productive of good results. 1t
also worthy of consideration whether som
system of prison and almshouse instruction
should not be devised to teach the ignoran
inmates of these institutions the ordlnar
branches OF an English education and the me
ehanical arts
to contend with is intemperance. The license
and unlicensed liquor traffic which exists in ou
midst is resulting in untold mischief to ou
people. There are four thousand and seve


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