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on the trial, that C., the woman, and the girl, all slept in the same bed! This wretched man sends for me almost daily, to entreat that I will do something' to obtain a mitigation of his sentence. The interviews are very painful to me. C. is in the most abject despair. He persists in his innocence, and gives explanations which manifest his guilt. He seems to have read the Scriptures with a diligence only equalled by the extraordinary perversity with which he wrests and misunderstands them. He admits his long course of sin, but is sure that it is not the will of the Almighty that he should be punished for it by man. I never witnessed such a melancholy perversion of all moral sense and principle in any one not insane."

These cases show the danger of giving men of depraved mind a verbal knowledge of Scripture. It can do them no good. It must produce distaste or perversion. We agree with the Berkshire magistrates, that it is desirable to act upon the mind of the prisoner; but we would act upon the mind, as nature does, through the body. Work should first be given-hard, unremitted work. Then let instruction follow in the wake; but not too much of it at once. No man, not even the scholar, with his well-disciplined mind, can bear to be employed in "nothing but education." It is absurd to suppose that the ordinary criminal can. The great difficulty is to fix the attention of a person of this class at all; to command it continuously is next to impossible. That to such a mind, constant drill is very severe,

we can easily believe. When we hear a culprit. declare, that he believed his offence was not committed in Berks, or he should not have done it for fear of being sent to Reading Gaol, we are not surprised. The same phenomena are recorded in the early history of the solitary system in Philadelphia. But Berkshire may buy the fear of its own criminal population too dearly. It will not do merely to drive them over the county-line. If it do not reform and deter, the Reading system will surely have missed its purpose. But should its plan of drilling men into virtue and religion induce a life-long contempt of the one and the other, as is not unlikely under present arrangements, its machinery will effect its aim only too quickly and too well.

P.S. As not a little blame has been cast upon the magistrates of Berkshire, for their supposed objection to public scrutiny of their prison establishment, it is only just to them for me to state, that so far as I am concerned, I have had every facility afforded me for arriving at a sound judgment on its demerits. So far from throwing any obstacles in the way, those gentlemen courted the inquiry of which the report is now made, and frankly laid open every source of information which they possessed.

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PARTICULARS of the Escape of Lord Nithsdale from the Tower, written by his wife, Lady Nithsdale, to her sister, Lady Lucy Herbert, Abbess of the Augustine Nuns at Bruges. The letter is dated Palais Royal de Rome, 16 April, 1718 :—

"DEAR SISTER,-My Lord's escape is now such an old story that I have almost forgotten it; but, since you desire me to give you a circumstantial account of it, I will endeavour to recal it to my memory, and be as exact in the narration as I possibly can; for I owe you too many obligations to refuse you any thing that lies in my power to do.

"I think I owe myself the justice to set out with the motives which influenced me to undertake so hazardous an attempt, which I despaired of thoroughly accomplishing, foreseeing a thousand obstacles which never could be surmounted but by the most particular interposition of Divine Providence. I confided in the Almighty God, and trusted that he would not abandon me, even when all human suc cours failed me.

"I first came to London upon hearing that my Lord was committed to the Tower. I was at the same time informed, that he had expressed the greatest anxiety to see me; having, as he afterwards told me, nobody to console him till I arrived. I rode to Newcastle, and from thence took the stage to York. When I arrived there, the snow was so deep, that the stage could not set out for London. The season was so severe, and the roads so extremely bad, that the post itself was stopped; however, I took horses, and rode to London through the snow, which was generally above the horses' girth, and arrived safe and sound without any accident.

"On my arrival, I went immediately to make what interest I could among those who were in place. No one gave me any hopes; but all, to the contrary, assured me, that although some of the prisoners were to be pardoned, yet my Lord would certainly not be of the number. When I inquired into the reason of this distinction, I could obtain no other answer, than that they would not flatter me; but I soon perceived the reasons which they declined alleging to me. A Roman Catholic, upon the frontiers of Scotland, who headed a very considerable party; a man whose family had always signalized itself by its loyalty to the Royal House of Stuart, and who was the only support of the Catholics against the inveteracy of the Whigs, who were very numerous in that part of Scotland, would be come an agreeable sacrifice to the opposite party. They still retained a lively remembrance of his grandfather, who defended his own castle of Carlaverock to the

very last extremity, and surrendered it up only by the express command of his royal master. Now having his grandson in their power, they were determined not to let him escape from their hands.

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'Upon this I formed the resolution to attempt his escape, but opened my intentions to nobody but to my dear Evans. In order to concert measures, I strongly solicited to be permitted to see my Lord, which they refused to grant me unless I would remain confined with him in the Tower. This I would not submit to, and alleged for an excuse, that my health would not permit me to undergo the confinement. The real reason of my refusal was, not to put it out of my power to accomplish my design; however, by bribing the guards, I often contrived to see my Lord, till the day upon which the prisoners were condemned; after that we were allowed for the last week to see and take our leave of them.

"By the help of Evans, I had prepared everything necessary to disguise my Lord, but had the utmost difficulty to prevail upon him to make use of them ; however, I at length succeeded by the help of Almighty God.

"On the 22d of February, which fell on a Thursday, our petition was to be presented to the House of Lords; the purport of which was, to entreat the Lords to intercede with his Majesty to pardon the prisoners. We were, however, disappointed the day before the petition was to be presented; for the Duke of St. Albans, who had promised my Lady Derwentwater to present it, when it came to the point, failed

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