towards rendering them supportable; and how earnestly we wish you, during your separation from the world, to "consider the things "which belong to your peace."

It is not my business, on this occasion, to draw the line of distinction between the different crimes and circumstances which have brought you hither. You are certainly here under very different descriptions; some having been convicted of very heinous offences; others in a state of punishment for slighter transgressions; whilst a third class consists of persons only suspected for the present, and waiting the event of a trial, which will either demonstrate their innocence, or confirm their guilt. Your own consciences do either accuse or excuse you, in proportion to the weight of guilt which lieth upon them. In the eye of Heaven we have all acknowledged this day, and are ready at all times to confess, that we are miserable offenders: it is not, therefore, from any presumptuous conceit, that themselves are without sin, when the ministers of GoD stand forth to discharge that important duty, which they have received authority and commandment to perform, namely, to admonish, to reprove, and to exhort, as occasion shall be given them; when they "cry "aloud, and lift up their voice like a trumpet,' to "shew" the ungodly "their transgressions," and the enemies to religion and virtue, as well as to the peace of society, their sinful and dangerous state.

With very few exceptions, then, I have a right to assume, that you here present yourselves before us, as those who have transgressed both the laws of GOD and of your country and my business is to shew you the mischief and the misery, and consequently the extreme folly, of wilful disobedience. Your own sad experience of the effects of irreligion upon your minds, has long since convinced you of the truth of what an inspired writer has declared, that "the fear "of the LORD, that is wisdom, and" that "to "abstain" or "depart from evil, is understanding." You need not be told, on divine authority, that "the wicked are like the troubled

sea, when it cannot rest;" and you need only have recourse to your own hearts to know, that "6 THERE IS NO PEACE TO THE WICKED." You will be thankful, therefore, to those who shall endeavour to restore to your minds that PEACE to which you have been strangers, since you have engaged in the service of sin. The cup of intemperance may for a time have drowned reflection; a momentary gratification of the senses may have banished care; the encouragement of evil companions may have given you a little confidence; and perhaps some success in the article of plunder, may have enabled you for a while to rise above the sufferings of extreme necessity; and you may have been tempted to fancy, that the life of a libertine is not without its pleasures and advantages, whilst it lasts, though it may be soft

ened by disease, or by the sentence of the law.

Now the situation to which (let me call it) the humanity of our courts of justice has sentenced you, is peculiarly calculated to convince you, how wretchedly you have been mistaken both in your sentiments and conduct. You are brought to this place, as the sick and wounded are sent to other places to be cured of your folly, by serious reflection, if your minds are not hardened beyond the power of conviction: and the means here made use of, are such as, if it be not your own fault, will tend to make you wiser, and better, and happier, than you have ever yet been.

We are not ignorant, however, of the prejudice which is gone forth among the wretched individuals of your class, respecting the nature and discipline of this place: they have annexed to it an idea of more than ordinary severity, which does not actually belong to it. On the contrary, we affirm, that the grand principle on which every thing here is about to be conducted, is a principle of justice, tempered with mercy. From no other motive than this, can any system be supposed to have originated, which can claim for its patrons, and its warm supporters those great examples of goodness and humanity, an HOWARD and an HANWAY. It was their wish, that prisoners, conducting themselves with propriety, should have all the favour shewn to them, which the nature of their sentence

sentence and the circumstances of their situation would admit; that their food, and their degree of confinement, should be regulated by a due regard to their health and strength; indulgence, they knew could not be reasonably expected in a place set apart for punishment and correction: the smallest share of it can only be hoped for by constant diligence, and can only be obtained by good and submissive behaviour. With respect to labour, it was their great object, that such only should be imposed upon prisoners, except in extraordinary cases, as might bring their minds into that habit of industry, which might be useful to them, as long as they live and so to solitary confinement, this, they meant, should chiefly depend on the use which they were disposed to make of the liberty which might be occasionally allowed them. If the conversation of a prisoner is found or suspected to be of a wicked and mischievous tendency, an entire separation becomes absolutely necessary: if his behaviour shews a corrupt and depraved disposition, nothing can be more prudent, than that he should be excluded from society, as an infectious member of this community.

After all, we know that the discipline of this house will be looked upon with disgust by those who HATE TO BE REFORMED; since reformation is its principal object: it will be detested by those who are so sunk in habits of idleness, as to hate the very name of useful employment; and yet more, the idea of that daily labour,

which

which is certainly intended to be here required. It will be abhorred by those, who are such enemies to seriousness and sobriety, as not to endure that separation which is most friendly to reflection, and those restraints from excesses of every kind, which tend to establish an habit of temperance and self-government. Far more agreeable to such would be that society, which has hitherto increased the evils of imprisonment an hundred fold; that evil communication, which has heretofore been suffered to spread its contagion through every part of our prisons; confirming the old offender in his evil ways, and preparing the novice in iniquity for new and more distinguished acts of villainy, from the moment of his departure from the prison-door.

This mischief of indiscriminate intercourse, it is our first concern to obviate. We receive you under our inspection with all your sins and evil habits about you; and our object is, by every prudent method, to bring you to a state of seriousness and reflection; to convince you that you have been living under the displeasure of heaven without knowing, and too probably, without caring, how you might be restored to the divine favour. When once you are persuaded, that obedience to the laws of GOD and man is the truest wisdom; that honesty is the soundest and surest policy; and that your past conduct has been in direct defiance of these principles; every thing that we wish will follow in its course. We shall then find you enquiring