tiary, and adapted it for the confinement of 800 males and 400 females. There are now above 1100 separate cells, and by subdividing a few of the larger the number might be increased to 1200. The Separate System in England was first brought into operation in 1790, at the Gloucester County Gaol, under the auspices of Sir George Paul, a magistrate of enlightened views, who, in conjunction with Howard and Judge Blackstone, devised a plan for a national penitentiary; and Sir George Paul, then an active magistrate of Gloucestershire, induced the other magistrates of the county to give the plan a trial. It is an error to suppose that the separate system was first introduced in the penitentiaries of the United States. From 1790 to 1807 it was in most successful operation at Gloucester, until the increase of population outgrew the accommodations of the prison.

The Millbank Penitentiary is in the parish of St. John, Westminster, but an Act was passed for making it extra-parochial. It stands on the left bank of the Thames, about half a mile from the Houses of Parliament, and not far from the foot of Vauxhall Bridge. The soil on which it is built is a deep peat, and the prison buildings are laid on a mass of concrete. Still the lowness of the situation, the extent of the mudbanks exposed at low tides to evaporation, and the number of deleterious manufactures carried on in the vicinity, render the prison anything but healthy. It was first occupied by prisoners in 1816, when a part only of the Penitentiary was completed, and the whole was finished in 1821. At the end of 1823, in consequence of the prevalence of an alarming epidemic, the place was temporarily abandoned, the prisoners being removed to the hulks, under a special Act of Parliament, and it was not re-opened until August, 1824. The cost of the buildings has exceeded half a million sterling, or at the rate of £500 for each cell, but as the number of prisoners has only once been so high as 878 (in 1823), and the number for many years did not average 600, it is not extravagant to assume that the mere lodging of each prisoner involves an amount of capital sunk of not less than £1000, for which a builder would expect interest at the rate of £70 or £80 a year. By an Act passed in the session of 1843, the name of the Penitentiary was changed, and its proper designation is now the Millbank Prison. It is now under the control of a corporate body appointed by the Secretary of State, bearing the title of the Directors of Convict Prisons. They must be not less than three, and in them are vested the power for the management of convicts in this prison, in the Model Prison at Pentonville, that at Parkhurst in the Isle of Wight, and of every other place of confinement for male offenders in England under sentence of transportation. The prisoners are chiefly persons sentenced to transportation or to death, whose punishment has been commuted to imprisonment; and military delinquents. In their Report for 1840, the Superintending Committee remarked, that "in consequence of a distressing increase in the number of insane prisoners, the separate system has been relaxed." In their Report for 1841, the Committee state that eighteen months before the alteration of discipline took place, 15 prisoners became insane; in the eighteen subsequent months only 5. The Inspectors of Prisons, in their Seventh Report, state that the existing system of discipline "is neither calculated to deter from crime, nor contribute to the personal reformation of the offender." The defective health of the prisoners has always been a great obstacle to the maintenance of an efficient discipline. Much alteration has, however, been recently made to enable it to bear its part in the reformatory system in connection with the Model Prison at Pentonville and the establishment at Parkhurst. There are now 700 cells appropriated for prisoners undergoing their probationary punishment in separate confinement, which lasts about eight or nine months. On Dec. 31, 1849, there were 955 male and 138

female prisoners within the walls; the total number received during the year was 2589 males, and 458 females, and of this number 92 had died. The dietary and the general health were stated in the Fourteenth Report to be satisfactory.

The boundary wall of the Millbank Prison is nearly three miles in extent, with only one entrance-gate. It encloses an area of sixteen acres, seven of which are occupied by the prison-buildings and thirty airing-yards, and the remainder is laid out as gardenground. The plan of the prison-buildings is most intricate: arranged in the form of a pentagon, though a sixth angle has been added. In each division of the pentagon there are twelve cell-passages, each 152 feet long, or 1824 feet in each division, or 10,944 feet in the six-a length of cell-passages two miles in extent. These passages are broken most inconveniently, by 54 angles, into lengths of 50 yards each; so that to command a view of 100 yards of the passages it is necessary to stand at one of the angles. Besides these cell-passages there are others communicating with the two infirmaries, the two chapels, airing-yards, punishment-cells, &c. There are 28 circular staircases, and 12 square staircases, each of which is the same height as the building; making, in all, a distance of three miles to be traversed in going over that part of the building appropriated to prisoners. The Inspectors of Prisons state that, in consequence of the injudicious plan of construction, two or three times as many officers are required in the Penitentiary as would have been necessary under a better arrangement.

It is at the new Model Prison at Pentonville that we must expect to see carried out the views of the most enlightened minds of the present day on the subject of prison discipline. The contest between the "Silent System" (recommended by a committee of the House of Lords in 1835) and the "Separate System seems to have gradually become most favourable to the latter mode of discipline, though the "Separate System" has often been confounded with the punishment of solitary confinement. The Model Prison is a place of instruction and probation, and not a gaol of repressive punishment. It is for adults between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five: the Reformatory Prison at Parkhurst, in the Isle of Wight, for juvenile offenders, is on the same principle. The government is vested in the Directors of Convict Prisons, and the correct name of the place is "The Model Prison, on the Separate System." The objects to be kept in view are thus explained by Secretary Sir James Graham, in a letter addressed to the Commissioners in December, 1842:-"I propose that no prisoner shall be admitted into Pentonville without the knowledge that it is the portal to the penal colony; and without the certainty that he bids adieu to his connections in England, and that he must look forward to a life of labour in another hemisphere. But, from the day of his entrance into the prison, while I extinguish the hope of return to his family and friends, I would open to him fully and distinctly the fate which awaits him, and the degree of influence which his own conduct will infallibly have over his future fortunes. He should be made to feel that from that day he enters on a new career. He should be told that his imprisonment is a period of probation; that it will not be prolonged above eighteen months; that an opportunity of learning those arts which will enable him to earn his bread will be afforded under the best instructors; that moral and religious knowledge will be imparted to him as a guide for his future life; that at the end of eighteen months, when a just estimate can be formed of the effect produced by the discipline on his character, he will be sent to Van Diemen's Land, there, if he behave well, at once to receive a ticket of leave, which is equivalent to freedom, with the certainty of abundant maintenance, the fruit of industry; if he behave indifferently, he will be transported to Van Diemen's Land, there to receive a probationary pass, which will secure to him only a limited portion of his own earnings, and which will impose

certain galling restraints on his personal liberty; if he behave ill, and if the discipline of the prison be ineffectual, he will be transported to Tasman's Peninsula, there to work in a probationary gang, without wages, deprived of liberty, an abject convict. This is the view which should be presented to the prisoner on the day when he enters Pentonville; this is the view which should never be lost sight of, either by him or by those in authority over him, until the day when he leaves the prison for embarkation; and when, according to the register to be kept of his conduct, the governors will determine in which of the three classes he shall be placed."

The Model Prison is situated between Pentonville and Holloway, and occupies an area of 63 acres, surrounded by lofty boundary walls. The first stone of the prison building was laid in April, 1840, and it was completed in 1842, at an expense of £85,000. It contains four radiating wings, with corridors running throughout, having cells on each side. The structure is massive, and the entrance arched gateway has more the air of the entrance to a feudal castle than to a modern prison. There are 1000 cells, each of which is 13 feet long, 7 feet broad, and 9 feet high, and are all of uniform dimensions. Each is provided with a stone water-closet pan, a metal basin supplied with water, a three-legged stool, a small table, a shaded gas-burner, and a hammock, with mattress and blankets. There is a bell in each cell, which, when pulled, causes a small iron tablet, inscribed with the number of the cell, to project on the wall to direct the officer on duty. Each cell is warmed by hot air, and the ventilation is effected by means of perforated iron plates above the door of the cell, which communicate with a lofty shaft. None of the prisoners are ever seen by each other, and in chapel each has his separate box. The officers wear felted shoes, and can inspect the prisoners, whether in the cell or in the airing-yard, without being either heard or seen. Each prisoner is visited hourly during the day by a keeper, daily by the deputygovernor and chief officer; and the surgeon and schoolmaster are frequently in attendance upon him. Some modifications of the plan, as detailed by Sir James Graham, have been introduced, but the main plan on the whole is still followed. The inmates in ordinary cases are subjected to three periods of discipline before serving out their sentence or obtaining a conditional pardon; the first is passed in separate confinement here, the duration of which depends on good conduct, but the maximum period is eighteen months; the second is passed at hard labour on public works for a period proportioned to the sentence, varying from two years to ten and a half; the third is passed with a ticket of leave in one of her Majesty's colonies, and arrangements are made for facilitating the conveyance of their wives and families to them. It can hardly be said that the plan has yet been successful, though some good has occasionally-perhaps frequently-resulted from it in the reformed habits of the criminals confined therein, and their consequent greater value in the colonies to which they were transported; thereby, to some extent, lessening the reluctance of the colonies to receive the offscourings of the villainy and ruffianism of the mother country. The expense also forms an objection, as the cost of each prisoner averaged £29 88. 9d. for the year 1849, while the earnings amounted to £5 each. The number of prisoners on January 1, 1849, was 507; 599 were admitted during the year, and 486 was the average number in confinement.