482

CONCLUSION.

verted them, they are condemned to solitude and silence. Idle-ness had depraved them, they are made to labor. Want hadled them to crime, they are taught a useful art. Intemperancehad enervated their bodily, mental, and moral powers ; they aretrained to habits of entire abstinence. Ignorance had held themin darkness, by instruction in the Sunday School they are en-lightened. Inveterate habits of sin had almost obliterated theirsense of moral obligation, they are brought under the redeeminginfluence of religious truth. They have violated the laws oftheir country, they endure the punishment of this violation.Their lives are protected, their bodies are kept sound andhealthy ; but their mental suffering is unequalled. They aremiserable, they deserve to be so. Reformed, they will behappy in the society whose laws they will have been taught torespect. It is difficult to conceive of a system more perfectlyand philosophically calculated to secure the great end which ithas in view.

“ And what it promises in theory,” continues he, “ I confi-dently affirm, it accomplishes in its practical operation. This Ishould maintain with great confidence, had I no other evidenceof it than what I find in its apparent effects within the prisonwalls. It does appear to lead the thoughtless to reflection ; thereckless, to circumspection ; the vindictive, to a mild and forgiv-ing temper ; the lawless and refractory, to habits of cheerfulobedience ; the intemperate, to a sober determination to abandona course which has led them to infamy and the prison ; the ig-norant, to an ardent thirst for instruction ; the irreligious, to aclearer view of the obligations, a more conscientious regard forthe precepts, and a juster appreciation of the hopes and consola-tions, of our holy religion.”

Again, he says, “ These are confidently claimed to be theactual and legitimate effects of the system, as a whole. With-out the checks and constraints of its admirable police organiza-tion, the religious instructions, I am fully aware, would be oflittle or no avail; and I am as thoroughly convinced, that, with-out the aid of religious influences, the other part of the systemwould fail to produce any radical or permanent changes in thecharacter of its subjects. In the combination of both, lies the