Such a commission may be expected to involve, eventually, the following important results:

1. A recognition by the law of the abundantly-proved fact, that uncontrollable dangerous insanity often exists collaterally with a knowledge of "the difference between right and wrong." This would modify the criminal responsibility of the insane. They would be held responsible to the extent of secure detention in asylums (even for life, where necessary), but not to the extent of a disgraceful death on the gallows, or a degrading transfer to a convict gang.

2 The proof of insanity in criminal cases would be no longer committed to advocates (legal or medical) of private interests, but would devolve upon an impartial jury or commission of scientific experts appointed by the government. The investigation would then be conducted with a dignity alike befitting the majesty of the law and the scientific experience of the medical profession.

3. Theory being then reconciled with fact, and law with science, the national conscience in regard to true justice would be satisfied, and legal administration would secure increased influence and support. Private interference would be superseded by systematic and impartial investigation. The punishment of the sane criminal would be more certain, and the restraint of the insane rendered at once more humane and sure.

XVIII. PUBLIC CHARITIES AND COUNTY JAILS IN OHIO.

BY THE CORRESPONDING SECRETARY.

EXTENT OF PUBLIC CHARITY.

Public charity forms one of the vital interests of society. It is stated, says Mr. Sanborn, on good authority, that the city of London expends yearly from thirty to forty million dollars in charity, among a population of three millions. If we take even the lowest estimate, it would be an expenditure of ten dollars for each inhabitant. This is far, very far, in excess of the cost of pauperism in any of our States. The same writer estimates that Massachusetts, in 1868, expended, for the support and relief of the poor, and the support of prisoners and juvenile delinquents (which last he counts as a public charity), $1,600,000, for aid to disabled soldiers and the families of those killed in the war, $900,000, and in private charities, $1,500,000, making an aggregate, in round numbers, of $4,000,000, devoted to charitable purposes in a single year in that State. But the amount paid to soldiers and their families may be regarded as a special charity. Deducting that from the total sum, there would remain, as the tax for pauperism upon each inhabitant (the population being about 1,400,000), a fraction over two dollars. The expenditure in the State of New York, for the same purpose, is no doubt equally great, and in Pennsylvania nearly as great. But, allowing a reduction of one-half in the ratio of Massachusetts and New York for the other States, we shall find (so Mr. Sanborn estimates) that the aggregate annual expenditure, for charitable purposes, of the whole country is at least $60,000,000, of which sum not less than forty million dollars are disbursed by public officers; that is, about one dollar to each inhabitant. Has not the whole community a vital interest in the honest and judicious disbursement of this vast amount?

NEED OF SYSTEM IN PUBLIC CHARITY.

Mr. Thomas Beggs, in a paper recently read before the British Social Science Association, states it as his opinion that forty-five million dollars are annually expended in London, as the cost of pauperism, and that one-half of that sum is wasted for want of a good system under careful supervision. This may be an exaggera

tion; probably it is so; but Mr. Sanborn thinks that it is no exaggeration to say that there, and here, at least a tenth part of the whole amount laid out in this direction is wasted, and worse than wasted, for lack of wise and efficient management. This we think an under-estimate by nearly or quite one-half, so that a thorough and effective system of public charities in the United States would save to our people something like eight million dollars a year.

Surely these statements are enough to show the immense importance of this question. No doubt, as Mr. Sanborn has observed, "with labor in constant demand, land cheap, and every career open to every person, we have the three greatest securities against pauperism. But these alone are insufficient. We need, besides, the constant activity of judicious and far-reaching charity, public and private; and we cannot have this without vigilant supervision." Well, therefore, it is that our people seem everywhere to be waking up to the vital necessity for such oversight. Already have boards of State charities been established in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, Ohio, Illinois, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. The principle on which such boards are based is a fruitful one, and it will work in our States like leaven till the whole are leavened.

REPORT OF THE OHIO BOARD.

The second annual report of the Board of State Charities of Ohio is now before us. It is a document of much interest. The board is greatly hampered in its work by the short-sighted policy of the State in refusing the means necessary to an active prosecution of it. The members of the board themselves serve without compensation, which is well; but the Legislature makes no provision for the employment of a paid secretary, which is very far from well, or wise, or liberal. The State penitentiary authorities at Columbus have generously allowed their excellent chaplain, the Rev. A. G. Byers, to act as secretary of the board, and to give to the work the limited service which his other official duties permit him to render. He has served them well and effectively, considering the little time he can devote to their work; but what is wanted-what, indeed, is indispensable to the accomplishment of the proper ends of such an organizationis the full time and strength of a competent and energetic secretary. The document before us consists of two parts-first, the report of the board; and, secondly, the report of the secretary. We do not propose to take up these papers separately, but shall draw upon both as occasion may require.

CONDITION OF OHIO JAILS.

The first subject treated in the report is the county jails.

Here we have the old story, which, as regards this class of institutions, comes to us with melancholy uniformity from every State in our Union ill-arranged buildings; over-crowding; want of ventilation, and other sanitary appliances; defective separation of the sexes; enforced idleness; inexperienced and incompetent officers; the almost total absence of discipline; little attention, or none at all, to the moral wants of the prisoners; promiscuous association of all ages and classes of inmates, with all the contaminating and festering influences thence resulting; and, above all, a system of imprisonment radically and incurably vicious. The board and the secretary unite in pronouncing them "schools of vice," "base seminaries of crime," "manufactories of thieves and burglars," institutions "that corrupt the innocent, and establish criminals in all that is evil, rooting out the last remains of virtuous inclination;""prisons where the whole being, physical, mental, and moral, is soon fitted to receive all uncleanness with greediness;""a system in which lingers more barbarism than in all of our other State institutions together."

These general statements are abundantly confirmed by the details. Of the jail of one county, the secretary says:

It is utterly, indescribably mean. No adequate idea of this deep, dark, damp, deadly den can be had, short of actual observation. It is a cellar, the excavation having been made into cold, wet clay, the moisture of which is absorbed by the large, dense, but less impervious rock, constituting the floor and walls of the prison.

Of another he uses this language:

In the centre of the common hall, seated around a large table, there were some twelve or fifteen persons; these represented almost every grade of crime and criminal character. The boy of fourteen, charged with "stealing a saddle," sat opposite to a burly and hard-visaged English highwayman. Here were professional thieves of every class, from the convicted burglar to the lowest possible sneak-thief and pickpocket. They were in open, free, and (to the younger ones), evidently delightful conversation.

And that these "younger ones," except a moral miracle supervene to prevent it, will become professional criminals, we may be just as sure as we are, when we see the sun set at night, that it will rise again in the morning. We must give the secretary's description of a brand-new jail, to show the present state of the science of prison architecture in Ohio. He remarks:

Putnam county jail is entirely new, built of stone. * *

*

Had some inspira

tion of evil genius seized upon one to plan a building against light, air, and general comfort, it is doubtful if any thing better [worse?] than Putnam county jail could have been conceived. At all events, these are marked features of this new jail.

It is a pleasure to add that the board have presented the plan of a model jail in their report, which, without being perfect, contains many excellent points.

LACK OF PUBLIC INTEREST.

Such, with rare exceptions, are the jails of Ohio; and such, with exceptions equally rare, are the jails of the United States. Is this, then, the result of American civilization and American Christianity? Is this the last word of science? We answer, No; emphatically, No. Why, then, are such enormous and shameful social plague-spots permitted to exist? Why are they tolerated? Why does not an outraged, indignant community rise up, as by a common impulse, and sweep them out of existence? The answer is not far to seek. It is simply because the community knows nothing of the matter. Not one person in a hundred, probably not one in a thousand, ever visits a jail, or troubles himself about what is going on therein. Our Saviour's sorrowful declaration is as true now as it was the hour it fell from His compassionate lips: "I was in prison, and ye visited

me not."

Let a single fact be stated in confirmation. The Prison Association of New York has sought to enlist local co-operation in its work. It organized committees of correspondence in the county seats of not less than forty-five counties, composed of Christian gentlemen, many of them ministers of the gospel, who had been, in most cases, previously seen, and had agreed to serve. The duty required of these committees is to visit the jails in their respective localities, to hold religious services therein, to distribute religious tracts and papers to the prisoners, to establish small libraries for their use, and, generally, to look after the moral and spiritual interests of the inmates, and to seek to win them back to honesty and virtue, by supplying them with motives to a better life. What has been the result of this scheme, so benevolent in its design, and so simple in its machinery? In a dozen counties, or thereabout, the work is done, and well done; everywhere else the plan has proved a failure. The committees have been utterly derelict, in most cases not yielding the poor courtesy of replying to our letters. The want of interest, then, on the part of the community, and the want of knowledge consequent thereupon, are the cause of the corrupting and disgraceful condition of our common jails-the cause that propagates and intensifies the terrible social sore of which we complain.