unaffected by all the cogent arguments and affecting appeals that were resounding through the country.

At length God, in His wonderful providence, revealed the way by which these miserable persons might be reached. And how simple! A few hard drinkers in the city of Baltimore, who were in the habit of congregating at a low tavern for the purpose of revelry, and had been drunkards for years, met one night as usual. All happened to be sober. Apparently by accident, the conversation fell upon the miseries of their life. One after another recounted his wretched history. All were deeply touched with the pictures of their own degra dation thus held up. Some one proposed that they should stop in their career of folly and wickedness, and form themselves into a Temperance association. They did so. Rules were written and signed on the spot. They met again the next night, related their histories, wept together over their past delusions, and strengthened each other in their new resolutions. They continued to meet almost every night-not, however, at a tavern. They invited their companions in sin to join them-these were affected and won. The fire was kindled, and soon it spread. In a few weeks four hundred such persons joined the society. In a few months two thousand drunkards in the city of Baltimore were reclaimed. Then the movement came to light. The newspapers spread the wonderful news. The whole country was astonished. Christians lifted up their hearts in thankfulness to God, and took courage. Benevolent men rallied around these reformed persons, and encouraged them to perseverance.

The society of reclaimed drunkards in Baltimore was invited to send delegates to other cities; and soon the "apostles of Temperance," as these men were called, went forth to every city in the land. Great was their success. Hundreds and thousands were reclaimed in New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Albany, Pittsburg, Cincinnati, and from these cities, as from great centres, other delegations of reformed drunkards went forth into almost every village and district in the land.

To go further into detail would not consist with the nature of this work. A large proportion of the population of the United States are now under the happy influence of the principle of total abstinence from all intoxicating drinks. In 1826, when the reform commenced, it was estimated that at least sixty million gallons of whiskey were manufactured and consumed annually in the United States, without including the imported brandies, rum, etc. This estimate was unquestionably a very low one. In 1850, that is, twenty-four years afterward, the census stated that the number of gallons of "whiskey," "high wines," and "rum," distilled during that year, was forty-seven

million eight hundred and sixty-four thousand seven hundred and twenty-four, showing a falling off of more than twelve million gallons: and yet, within the same period, the population had more than doubled. And all this reformation had been brought about solely through the operation of voluntary associations, without the slightest direct aid from the government, with the exception of its abolishing the daily ration of whiskey formerly given to the officers and men in the army. Could any thing in the world show more conclusively the resources which right principles possess in themselves for overcoming, under God's blessing, the evils that are in the world, and even those that derive most power from the depraved appetites of man?

Within the last five years, great efforts have been made to induce the State governments to break up the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors, by severe penal enactments. Some progress has been made in several States, but it is perhaps premature to speak confidently of the expediency of the measure, or of its probable result.

CHAPTER XXIV.

THE AMERICAN PRISON DISCIPLINE SOCIETY.

THE Prison Discipline Society was instituted in 1824. It had for its object an investigation into the best methods of treatment for convicts and other prisoners, with a view to their health, proper degree of comfort, and, above all, their moral and religious reformation.

Prior to the establishment of this society, the prisons in the United States were all conducted according to the old practice of herding the prisoners together in large numbers, without any due regard to their health, and with the inevitable certainty of corrupting one another. In most cases, there was little regular religious instruction; in some, none at all. The prisoners were generally left idle, so that their maintenance, instead of being so far defrayed by the proceeds of their work, fell entirely on the public, and involved a heavy ex

pense.

But a great reformation has now been effected. The society's late able, enlightened, and zealous secretary, the only agent, I believe, in its service, devoted nearly his whole time and energies to the subject for twenty-five years. During that period he examined the prisons in all parts of the country, studied whatever was defective or wrong in each, devised improvements in the construction of prison buildings, visited the Legislatures of the several States, and delivered lec

tures to them on the subject, besides giving to the world, in the Reports that came from his pen, such a mass of well-digested information as is probably nowhere else to be found in any language. The results have been wonderful. New penitentiaries, upon the most improved plans, have been erected in almost all the States by their respective governments, and in many cases at a great expense. These institutions are very generally under the direction of men decidedly religious. Judicious and faithful preachers have been appointed as chaplains in many of them; and in the others, neighboring pastors have been invited to preach the Gospel, and visit the inmates as often as they can. Bible-classes and Sunday-schools have been established in several instances; and in all, pains are taken to teach prisoners to read where they have yet to learn, so that they may be able to peruse the Word of God.

A great blessing has rested upon these efforts. In many prisons very hopeful reformations have taken place; and in many cases, it is believed, after long and careful examination and trial, that convicts, who were hardened in their sins, have submitted their hearts to that adorable Saviour who died to save the very chief of sinners. Taken as a whole, in no other country in the world, probably, are the penitentiaries and prisons brought under a better moral and religious discipline. This great result has been brought about, first, by the erection of new and more convenient buildings, and, secondly, by committing their direction so generally to decided and zealous Christians. This has brought pure Christianity into contact with the minds of convicts to an extent unknown in former times in America, and still too little known in many other lands.*

*It may not be generally known that two different systems of discipline are to be found in the prisons of the United States, each having its ardent advocates. There is, first, the Philadelphia system, according to which the prisoners are entirely. separated day and night, so that they are unknown to each other, and live in separate chambers or cells. And next there is the Auburn system, so called because adopted in the prison for the State of New York, at Auburn, a town in the central part of that State. According to it, the prisoners are separated from each other at night, and work together in companies during the day, under the eye of overseers and guards, but are not allowed to speak to each other. They are assembled, also, morning and evening, for prayers; and on the Sabbath they meet in the chapel for public worship, conducted by the chaplain or some other minister of the Gospel. Each system has its advantages and disadvantages. For health, facility in communicating religious instruction, and the saving of expense through the avails of the labor of the prisoners, the latter, in my opinion, has evidently the advantage. The former furnishes greater security, enables the prisoners to remain unknown to their fellows on leaving the prison, and more effectually breaks down the spirit of the most hardened criminals. But the difference in point of expense is immense: nor are the moral results of the more expensive plan so decidedly superior as to com

Besides effecting this great reformation in the State penitentiaries and prisons, the society has directed much of its attention to the asylums for the insane, and to county or district prisons for persons committed for trial, convicts sentenced to short terms of imprisonment, and debtors, in States where the law still allows imprisonment for debt. In all these various establishments the American Prison Discipline Society has exerted much influence, and gradually effected the most important ameliorations. It has also discussed, in a very able manner, many questions in criminal legislation, such as those of imprisonment for debt, capital punishments, etc., and its labors in this department have not been in vain. Yet the society has had but one agent-its excellent secretary-and its whole receipts scarcely exceed $3,000. With these limited means it has accomplished an immense amount of good.

I know nothing that more fully demonstrates how favorably disposed our government is to religion, and to all good objects, than the fact that the Legislatures of so many of our States, as well as Congress itself, have been so ready to second every feasible plan for ameliorating the condition of mankind by moral and religious means, as far as they can do so consistently with their constitutional powers. Indeed, they are ever ready to adopt measures suggested by good and judicious men, as likely to benefit the public interests and to promote religion, provided they fall within their sphere of action.

I

may conclude this chapter by referring to the encouraging fact that crime has been for some years decreasing in this country, at the rate of from two to three per cent. per annum. This is the more satisfactory, when we consider how many difficulties have to be enpensate for this disadvantage. It is a singular fact that the Auburn system has been decidedly preferred by the Prison Discipline Society, and by our citizens generally, for it has been adopted by all but four of the penitentiaries* in the country; whereas the Philadelphia plan has been preferred by the commissioners sent from France, England, and Prussia, to examine our prisons. For myself, I apprehend that sufficient time has scarcely been allowed for a due estimate of their comparative merits. After paying considerable attention to the subject, as far as I am able to judge, I should say that, with the right sort of men to manage a prison-religious men of great judgment and self control-the Auburn plan is the better. But if such men can not be had, the Philadelphia system is safer. The former demands extraordinary qualities in the keepers, and especially in the superintendent, whose powers, as they must be great, are capable, also, of being sadly abused. Much, indeed, depends on keepers under either system. I may add that for the ignorant, the rude, the sensual, the Auburn system is far more salutary than that of Philadelphia; for to such, entire solitary confinement is sadly destructive to health and happiness. On the other hand, the Philadelphia system is more tolerable and useful to the better educated and the more intellectual classes.

* And even one of these has abandoned it for the other system.

countered in a new country, and what a mighty stream of emigration from foreign lands is continually bringing over new settlers who have had little proper moral culture, not a few of whom are almost desperately depraved. Nor is it less gratifying to think that this occurs by a process in which brute force is superseded to such an extent in the suppression of vice and crime by means essentially moral.

I SHALL now include in one chapter a notice of two or three other instances, in which the variety and energy of action possessed by the voluntary principle are remarkably illustrated.

Societies for the Promotion of a better Observance of the Sabbath. Although the Sabbath is recognized, and its observance is enjoined by the laws of every State in the Union, and although that sacred day is observed in the United States in a manner that strikingly contrasts with its neglect in Europe, and particularly on the Continent yet in certain quarters, and especially in places that are in some sense thoroughfares, the violation of it is distressing, nay, alarming to a Christian mind. Hence the formation of societies for the better observance of that day.

These are sometimes of a local and limited nature; sometimes they embrace a wider sphere of operation. By publishing and circulating well-written addresses and tracts-still more by the powerful appeals of the pulpit, they succeed in greatly diminishing the evil. By such measures they strengthen the hands of the officers of justice, and give a sounder tone and better direction to public opinion, greatly to the reduction, if not to the entire remedy, of the evil to be cured. What is best of all, this result is obtained most commonly by the moral influence of truth-by kindly remonstrance, and arguments drawn from the Word of God and right reason. I may state that I have myself seen the happiest influence exerted by these associations.

Anti-slavery Societies.-And so with respect to slavery, an evil which afflicted all the thirteen original colonies at the epoch of their declaration of independence, and which still exists in fifteen of the thirty-one States, as well as in the District of Columbia; though no longer to be found in the six New England States, or in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wis