duced. The committee found the statutes relating to this subject scattered over a legislation of so many years that it was difficult, in many instances, to discover what the law really was. Under such circumstances, it was believed by the committee that they could render a more important service to the State, as well as more fully effect their own object in the advancement of the interests of humanity, by collecting, arranging and consolidating into one act the then existing laws, introducing, however, at the same time, such new enactments as they might judge necessary. This was truly a Herculean task; but under the double prompting of patriotism and philantrophy, the committee undertook and accomplished the labor. The Legislature enacted into a law the bill so framed; and thus did the Prison Association bring the State under an obligation of gratitude for essential aid rendered in the important work of improving its criminal jurisprudence.

It would extend beyond due limits the present historical survey to pursue the chronological method throughout the whole twenty-five years of the society's work, besides involving not a little repetition in the narrative. We therefore propose, in the further prosecution of our design, to group the subjects to be considered, and to offer a summary of the results attained in each department of labor thus passed in review.

DETAINED PRISONERS.

We have already stated that the Association seeks to impart needful counsels and aid to prisoners under detention. Cases are daily occurring in which direction and assistance are imperatively required, and where the lack of such friendly offices would result in much wrong and suffering to the persons arrested and to others dependent upon them. There are frequent instances of commitments on insufficient grounds, as the numerous discharges without trial and the numerous failures to convict on trial attest. Innocent persons, through malicious or mistaken testimony, are often committed for trial, and sometimes, on trial, are convicted and sentenced. Not a few complaints are preferred from passion, or prejudice, or under the promptings of revenge, or which are of too trivial a character to be entertained. Foreigners, ignorant of our language and laws, and without money or friends, are not unfrequently found in our houses of detention in a state bordering on despair. Children detected in petty pilfering-often their first offence are thrown into the common receptacle of the city's felons, and subjected for weeks or even months to all its poisonous and polluting influences. Numbers of the arrested are the mere victims of circumstance or malice. They are found in evil company, it may

be unintentionally and by accident; or they are marked for sacrifice by some jealous or vindictive foe. The innocent are sometimes in danger of being condemned through inadvertence, or from mistaken testimony, or for want of the aid of honest lawyers; and even the guilty are made to suffer punishments which might be properly mitigated, if the circumstances in extenuation were reliably brought to the notice of the court; but this information, essential, it may be, to a righteous judgment, owing to the ignorance, the fears, the confusion, or the friendless situation of the accused, cannot be furnished without timely aid volunteered upon the spot. Cases of the kind just enumerated afford abundant occasion for the humane, discriminating and laborious diligence of the Association. Without its intelligent and kindly interposition, mistakes and abuses would multiply; and while the objects of them would be compelled to suffer without alleviation, the community itself would also be made to suffer from a corresponding increase of crime, consequent upon the education in villainy, afforded, and indeed almost necessitated, to numerous novices, by the associations of the prison house.

We would, however, pause, for a moment, at this point, to guard against a misapprehension and misinterpretation of our sympathy and care for persons under arrest. While much attention is given to the circumstances of detained prisoners, with a view to their protection against the arts of malicious prosecutors and dishonest lawyers, to the assertion of their rights while in confinement, to their discharge when improperly arrested, and to the procurement for them of a fair trial by calling to their aid competent and upright officers, the Association has ever been very far from any desire or endeavor to transform the criminal into an injured innocent, or to palliate his crime with the gloss of a morbid sentimentalism. We would not abate — we have never sought to abate-one tittle of the loathing which is felt for crime, nor would we shield the criminal from the just punishment of his unlawful deeds. It has ever been the aim of this Association, while extending a helping hand to the innocent, the unfortunate, the erring, the penitent and the reformed, to do nothing to impede the course of justice or to obstruct a righteous administration of the law. On the contrary, we have sought and those who know us best will most readily attest our sincerity in this statementto facilitate and promote such administration.

The following are the statistics in this department of our work for the quarter century just completed:

93,560 poor and friendless persons visited in the detention prisons of New York and Brooklyn, all of whom were counseled and assisted as their several cases seemed to require.

25,290 complaints carefully examined.

6,148 complaints withdrawn at our instance, as being of a trivial character, or founded on mistake, prejudice or passion.

7,922 persons discharged by the courts on our recommendation, who were either young in years, or innocent of the offences charged, or offenders under mitigating circumstances, or manifestly penitent and resolved to "sin no more." Giving a total of 133,922 cases in which relief of some kind has been offered in the detention department of our work.

We deem it proper, and indeed requisite, to offer a few cases as specimens of the nature and results of our labors in this department. A youth in a hardware house yielded to the temptation of purloining penknives. He stole some thirty dollars' worth, just enough to send him to State prison. The senior partner was determined that he should be punished to the extent of the law. The junior partner remonstrated, on the ground that it was his first offence, and that by a more lenient course he might be saved. At first, the senior partner peremptorily rejected the suggestion, but at length yielded so far as to agree to call on the Prison Association for advice. The young man was seen by our agent, and the firm advised to give him another trial. They assented, and the result was most satisfactory. The young man ever afterward conducted with entire honesty, and now holds a responsible position in one of the first houses of New York, and is trusted to an unlimited extent.

A robbery had been committed. An industrious mechanic by the name of Patrick, who had been in State prison, was arrested on suspicion; not that there was an item of proof against him, but solely because he was an old jail-bird, and the robbery had been perpetrated in his immediate neighborhood. The agent of the Association knew him, and believed him to be a thoroughly reformed man. He said to him: "You were not concerned in this robbery, were you?" He replied: "No, indeed, I was not. God is my witness that I want to lead an honest life. But what good will that do me? Everybody will say, 'he has been in State prison,' and that is enough." The agent did not ask him twice, for he felt assured that the poor man had spoken the truth. When he was called up for examination, the agent appeared before the magistrate and said: "I am ready to affirm that I believe this man is innocent. It will be a serious injury to him to be taken from his business, until such time as this can be proved. I will be security for his appearance when called, and I know very well that he will not think of giving me the slip." The gratitude of the poor fellow was overwhelming. He sobbed until his strong frame shook. The real culprits were soon

after discovered. Patrick, till the day of his death, continued to lead a virtuous and useful life.

A woman was charged with burglary, in the city of Brooklyn. In the absence of the family she had entered a house, gathered up a large bundle of clothing, and removed it to a house in Williamsburgh, where it was found by a police officer. On her arrest she represented that this was her first offence, and begged to be forgiven. Our agent had grave doubts of the truth of her statement. On making inquiry into her character, his suspicions were confirmed. Having learned that a discharge was expected, he waited on the prosecuting attorney, and communicated the result of his inquiry. The consequence was that the woman, instead of getting off on the false pretence that it was her first offence, was sentenced for six months to the penitentiary.

A porter was indicted for grand larceny, stealing $3,000 from his employers. The firm not wishing him punished with severity, on the advice of his counsel, he pleaded guilty to an attempt at grand larceny. The recorder requested our agent to investigate the case, and ascertain why the firm wished to show him so much mercy. After diligent inquiry the agent felt compelled to report that nothing of an extenuating character appeared in the case, and that the accused richly deserved a severe sentence. He was accordingly sent to Sing Sing.

Another case was that of a young English woman, arraigned on a charge of grand larceny. She had a trunk containing $22 in money, two gold watches, and much valuable clothing. Her lawyer-one of the class known as shysters-had procured from the girl an assignment of this property, and an order on the property clerk for its delivery to him. Indeed, he was already in possession of the money and the watches, and only awaited the sentence of the girl, who had pleaded guilty to petit larceny, to secure possession of the trunk and clothing. Our agent insisted on a return of the watches, and warned him that the trunk would be taken at his peril, telling him plainly that if he went on in this way, he apprehended that he would ere long find his way to Sing Sing. A few days afterward he received a letter from the counsel, accompanied by the watches, and an order on the property clerk for the trunk and clothes.

A German woman, under false representations by the proprietor, had been brought one evening, as cook, to a low restaurant in West Broadway. Not liking the looks of the place, she refused to remain, and expressed a wish to leave immediately, but they would not let her go. Early the next morning she left the place, and later in the day called for her trunks. They were refused, till a claim of twelve

shillings for lodging should have been paid. She declined to meet this iniquitous demand, and applied to the Prison Association. Our agent addressed a line to the keeper of the restaurant, demanding the woman's trunks. They were refused. He then applied to the mayor, through whose aid they were recovered, without the payment of a dime.

A child nine years old had been charged with petit larceny, aud on that charge committed by the court of special sessions to the house of refuge. The parents were distracted, knowing the child to be innocent. They applied to the Association. Our agent carefully collected and arranged all the facts in the case, and submitted them to the court. The court was convinced that it had acted on mistaken information, and the result was a prompt restoration of the little creature to the weeping father and mother. Boundless gratitude was expressed for our timely and successful interposition.

The foregoing cases are but specimens of the thousands of similar ones to which the attention of the Association has been given, more or less of which form a part of our daily experience. They reveal several phases of this department of our labors, exhibiting the Association as a shield to the innocent; an effective agency for reclaiming those just entering on a career of crime; a friend and helper of children, when falsely accused; a protection to the friendless and the feeble against the dishonest arts of professional and other sharpers; a sharp detector of old offenders; and a fearless agent in preventing their escape, through whatever false pretences, from the just punishment of their transgressions.

DISCHARGED CONVICTS.

The Association, as before stated, seeks to encourage and assist discharged convicts in their efforts to lead an upright life and earn an honest living. To this object our efforts are constantly and earnestly directed. Christianity makes no distinction in regard to the prisoners whom it enjoins upon us to visit, to care for, and to relieve. It is this pre-eminently humane and unselfish principle, which lies at the foundation of our society, and to which it seeks to give that broad and effective application, which was manifestly intended by Him who announced it as the law of His kingdom. Pitiable had been the condition and dismal the prospect of the discharged convict, compelled often to experience the blighting influence of despair. But a new era dawned upon the criminal with the formation of this society. It gave to convicts new hope and new incentives to virtue. They felt that they were no longer hunted like wild beasts, but cared for as rational beings. The consequence has been, that many have resolved so to conduct them