lodging therein the female prisoners. This place is entirely under ground, with small apertures to give air and light; the former is damp and unwholesome, the latter little more than sufficient to make "darkness visible." At this time the rooms are uninhabited except by a number of pigeons and other fowl, the property of the jailor.

2. The lower or ground floor, is partly occupied by the families of the jailor and turnkeys. It is not considered sufficiently convenient for keeping the prisoners, or some other reason determines the jailor not to keep them there, some exceptions are occasionally made in favour of particular persons. One of the rooms on this floor is occupied as a bar-room, where several articles are sold for the accommodation of the prisoners, at an advanced price. The profits of this establishment is one of the perquisites of the jailor.

3. The middle floor is occupied by those prisoners, who, able to contribute a small sum towards a stock-purse, for the purpose of whitewashing and lighting the hall, and defraying other charges requisite to their comfort, qualify themselves thereby to become members of the "Middle Hall Society."

4. The upper floor is occupied by persons either unable or unwilling to contribute to the expense of living on the middle floor.

A 5th place worthy of note is the garret, which is not accessible to prisoners, except during the day, on account of the possibility of escapes in the night. This respectable place, is during the day occupied by a number of tubs, placed there as substitutes for a necessary, there being no such convenience attached to this prison. Other tubs for a similar purpose, are placed in the dungeon; the prisoners remain between the dangerous effluvia of both nuisances; nor is it possible, without coming close and nearly in contact with them, to pass to the top of the house, where alone, any free or uncontaminated air can be expected.

The distinction between confined criminals and debtors is, that the former are fed, and in some instances clothed, whilst

DEBTORS PRISON.

105

the latter are left to starve without the least provision for their support. As to the upper hall, little could be added to the wretchedness of most of its inhabitants. They seldom can afford to light their hall; rooms with little or no fire, are generally crowded by debtors, most of whom are supported by the charitable donations of the humane society, and many of them nearly naked by day, lie on the floors without beds, during the night; in one room of the upper hall all the white female prisoners are lodged, in another, (except when too numerous to be contained in one,) all the persons of colour, without distinction of sex.

According to the annual report of the Humane Society of the last year, it will appear, that from December 1808 to December 1809, there were confined in the debtor's prison of this city, 326 persons for debts between 25 and 15 dollars, 235 for debts between 15 and 10 dollars, and 591 for debts under 10 dollars.Total under 25 dollars, 1152.-During the preceding year, the number was upwards of 1300. Nearly the whole of them were supported while there by the Humane Society.

I cannot conclude this hasty sketch of a great and growing evil, without expressing an ardent hope, that the legislature will, during their present session, enact such amendments to the insolvent laws, as will, in rendering them in general more equitable and merciful, at once increase the good and lessen the evil which results to individuals and the community from their present operation.

HOWARD.

(106)

FOR THE THEOPHILANTHROPIST.

INTERCOURSE BETWEEN INTELLI

GENT BEINGS.

The Editors of the Theophilanthropist, professing the utmost liberality of thought, and wishing to give fair scope to the human mind, cannot, with propriety, refuse admission to the following logical essay.

With fish

The intercourse between intelligent beings depends entirely on their capacity for reciprocating intelligence. This faculty in man is improved by education: it is also improvable, and by the same means, in dogs, horses, and other quadrupeds. The congeniality, in some particular points, of their natures with ours, appears indispensably necessary to this intercourse. and fowl, the ability to correspond is, on both sides, very inadequate but it is in exact proportion to the disparity of their several natures. Descend still lower on the scale of existence, and man, though surrounded by myriads of sentient beings, finds society totally at an end. "Tis the same if he attempts to ascend the scale. The reports of the existence of such beings as angels, it is difficult to conceive. We necessarily conclude that as the exercise of power and intelligence universally indicate mind, the infinite power and intelligence manifested in the organization of vegetables, animals, and the world, must have proceeded from an infinitely powerful and wise being; and these conclusions are the only possible intercourse that we are capacitated ever to have with such a being. For if neither our physical, nor our moral powers, qualify us for corresponding with the beings the next below, or the next above us, on the great scale of existence, how is it possible that we should hold communication with beings a great many degrees higher? And if such intercourse with finite beings is impossible, how

much more impossible must it be to correspond viva voce, with the highest and first of all beings, viz. with the Infinite and Eternal Mind? It also must appear, from the great disparity between the infinite mind and the effects of its operations, that the infinite being cannot, in our present circumstances, communicate, or hold correspondence with us, in any other manner, or by any other means, than through the medium of the vast creation, or, its operations on matter. The small degree of power and intelligence in the being called man, is not sufficient, as yet, to comprehend the organization of even a blade of grass, or a grain of wheat; and for such a being to pretend to hold a direct, spontaneous, and immediate intercourse and correspondence with the great creating and sustaining cause of grass and grain, an intercourse he is not capacitated for, and therefore cannot be benefitted by, is a pretence that can be founded only on extreme ignorance and presumption or worse.

In tracing the manifestation of power and intelligence, whether in a solar system, a man, or a grain of wheat, we find that they all, universally and necessarily lead to the same conclusions, and the same source; i. e. to a perfectly intelligent and powerful cause, that must have designed, and made them all exactly what they are, consequently must have had this perfect power, intelligence and design, before they had existence; and that without the aid of such a cause it is not possible to account for their existence, organization, or nature, at all.

I am led to say, "that the infinite and eternal mind cannot correspond with a limited and finite mind, except through the operations of the creation, or of what is, in other words, commonly called nature," from the necessary impossibility of such a correspondence. Let us not start at the supposition. All direct and immediate communications must be made between beings in some degree, and in some circumstances, respectively consonant and equal to each other; but what degree of equality, or relationship, or consonancy or correspondence, can there possibly be between a limited and an unlimited being; between finite and infinite?-None.

The marks of the perfections of the eternal mind, or intelligent cause of that most great and complete effect which we call nature, are, to us, so manifest and so numerous, that we cannot suppose any thing imperfect, or absurd, in that cause; for it follows, that if we did, we should suppose a manifest contradiction.

Circumscribed as our knowledge is of the vast creation, we know, however, finite and frail as we are, and it is a great deal for us to know, that infinite power and wisdom cannot contradict itself; cannot cause a greater number to be taken from a less ; cannot cause two hills without a valley between them; cannot cause a thing to be, and not be, at the same time; cannot cause a part to be equal to the whole. The laws that govern the universe, appear to have been the offspring of an infinitely powerful, wise, and immutable mind. All viva voce correspondence, therefore, between this mind and man, for any particular purpose whatever, suggests a mutability which all nature loudly contradicts; and all such reports and pretentions, must consequently be founded on ignorance, presumption, policy, or imposture.

INVESTIGATOR.

FOR THE THEOPHILANTHROPIST,

REVOLVING BATTERY.

THE following article is copied from a late periodical work published in Scotland. The hints which are here thrown out respecting the construction, principles and properties of Mr. Gillespie's Revolving Battery, may, perhaps, be of some impor