mation relative to the penitentiary in New York

.
We have to address you in the name, and on behalf
of the Philadelphia Society for alleviating the mise-
ries of public prisons, which, at a late meeting,
directed the secretaries to correspond with such per-
sons as are engaged in the conduct of penitentia-
ries, instituted in the different states of the union,
wherein the humane and improved system of penal
laws are enforced; and, especially, to ascertain the
influence thereof, on the subjects of such treatment,
as well as their effect on the general condition of
society.

Since the establishment of this institution, many
of its zealous and benevolent founders have gone
down to the grave. Some few, however, continue
actively interested in its concerns; who were early
engaged in those humane exertions, which, regardless
of the influence of prejudice, and the example of
ages, aimed at the accomplishment of a reformation
in the penal jurisprudence of Pennsylvania

. With
these are now united others, who, from a conviction
of the importance and utility of those labours, as well
as knowledge of the success of the experiments
which flowed from them, have been induced to give
their assistance to the same philanthropic cause.

To both these descriptions of our members it hath
become an interesting inquiry, what have been the
effects produced in your state by the adoption of a
meliorated code of criminal laws? Whether, allowing
for the increase of population, since their creation, crimes
have diminished in their number, or degree of enor-
mity? Whether individuals, who, by their errors,
have unhappily been the subjects of your peniten-
tiary system, are, since its wholesome correction,
restored to usefulness in the community? and, gene-
rally, whether the moral condition of society has
been improved, and the security of its members pro-
moted, by the abolition of punishments, which were
not less vindictive and cruel, than was the employ-