But those who should have taught his mind
By precept and example loud
Were stone-blind leaders of the blind;
Base, overbearing, lawless, proud.

Exacting, cruel, harsh, and grim,

In Christ no hope, in heaven no share,
They went not in, and hindered him

Who gladly would have entered there.
With no kind Christian friend to steer
His drifting bark to ports above;
No eye to pity, tongue to cheer,

Or loving kindred heart to love;

Condemned to herd with those who sought
His purer nature to defile,

Whose every word, and deed, and thought,
Was vile, the vilest of the vile.
To them, the vicious and depraved,
In his extremity he turned;

With them he sought the cheer he craved,
The sympathy for which he yearned.

They welcomed him to darker shame,
A baser life, a deeper fall;

And the once childlike youth became
The vilest, sternest of them all.
Rebellious, scornful, fierce, profane,
Vindictive, stubborn, void of fear;

Well might I marvel and exclaim,

How changed since first they brought him here!

Time went as time has always went

In pleasure swift, in sorrow slow;
And soon, unfettered and unpent,

He would be free to come and go.
Enraptured thought! ah, could it be?
He scarcely dared believe it so.
But time rolled on, and he was free:
But was he truly happy? No!

No, life had nothing left for him;
No joy to lend, no boon to give;
He could not sink, he could not swim,
But struggling, dying, doomed to live!
Yes, live, though life's bright sun had set,
He cared not how, he thought not why;

He knew that he must live, and yet
Forgot, alas! that he must die.

I saw him when, in after-times,
With nothing left of sin to learn,
He came again for darker crimes,

A bearded ruffian, hard and stern.
He mocked at those who brought him back,
And laughed to scorn their idle threats
What torture from his frame could rack
The sum of his unmeasured debts?

He laughed to think how many times
He'd sinned unpunished and uncaught;
What nameless and unnumbered crimes

That "red right hand" of his had wrought;
He laughed when he remembered how
His wrongs were soothed in human woes;
And he but one lone captive now,

To his ten thousand thousand foes.

He cursed the faithless hopes that first

His too confiding heart beguiled;

He cursed his innocence, he cursed

The dreams that mocked him when a child;

He cursed his lonely prison-den,

And death, hell, and the grave defied;

He cursed himself and fellow-men;

He cursed his Maker, God, and died.

The world will never know the wrong

That drives its erring children back To deeper crime, and those who throng

Destruction's broad and beaten track. "T will never know the trusts betrayed, The worth its wolfish tools devour; "T will never know the prices paid

To sate the cruel pride of power!

XXXV. PROPOSED NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCES ON

PENITENTIARY

AND REFORMATORY DISCIPLINE.

BY THE COMMITTEE ON THE ANNUAL REPORT.

It is nearly a year since the movements referred to in the heading of the present paper were first suggested. Since that time they have been before the public in a variety of forms; have awakened extensive interest; and have been widely regarded as likely to hasten the progress of prison reform throughout the world. Persons interested in questions of this nature, in our own and other countries, will naturally look to the Annual Report of the Prison Association for information concerning the state and prospect of movements likely to have so important a bearing on their solution. We deem it our duty, and it is certainly our pleasure, to gratify this reasonable expectation.

We cannot begin our statement better than by citing the text of a short article in the "General Intelligence" department of the second number of the Journal of Social Science, under the caption "International Congress on Criminal Law Reform and Penitentiary and Reformatory Discipline." Says the editor:

"At the stated monthly meeting of the Executive Committee of the Prison Association of New York, held in May last, the Rev. Dr. Wines, Corresponding Secretary of the Association, submitted a paper on this subject. Said paper, after reciting in a preamble that prison discipline constitutes at once a vital interest of society and one of the gravest problems of social science, that this question has awakened a wide interest and been earnestly studied within the present century, that experiments of great value have been recently made in different countries, and that it seems highly desirable that opportunity for conference and a general comparison of views should be had, states the opinion that the time has come when an International Congress on Criminal Law Reform and Penitentiary and Reformatory Discipline may be successfully inaugurated and held with the best results. The proposition being new and grave, action upon it was postponed for further consideration.

"With a view to eliciting opinions that might aid the Executive Committee in its decision, the Secretary, on his personal responsibility, addressed a circular letter to a number of gentlemen, asking their views as to the policy of the proposed conference. More than forty replies

were received, mainly from governors of States, wardens of prisons, and superintendents of reformatories, all, with one or two exceptions, strongly favoring the proposition. Mr. Commissioner Hill, of England, said I heartily approve of the proposed Congress.' Sir Walter Crofton, author of the Irish Prison System, said: 'I think that an International Conference, in accordance with your programme, will be of very great value.' Mr. Bonneville de Marsangy, of France: I applaud, with all my heart, your idea of an International Congress.' Among American gentlemen favoring the project may be named ExGovernor Seymour, Hon. Charles Sumner, Gen. Amos Pilsbury, Gideon Haynes, Z. R. Brockway, F. B. Sanborn, Dr. S. G. Howe, and Samuel Eliot, President of the American Social Science Association. Gov. Seymour said: 'I think well of the plan of an International Congress on Prison Discipline. I will do what I can to promote the project.' Senator Sumner said: An interchange of opinion and experience on the treatment of prisoners would be of great value.' Dr. Howe: 'By all means, let us come together.'

"At the stated meeting of the Executive Committee of the New York Prison Association, in June, the question of the Congress was again laid over, with an informal understanding that the Secretary would continue his correspondence on the subject. Accordingly, a second circular was sent out, of the same general tenor with the first, and containing extracts from answers thereto. In reply, one hundred and thirty-two letters were received-thirty-six from foreign countries, and ninety-six from our own. Of those from abroad, seventeen were from England, three from France, two from Ireland, one from Scotland, two from Belgium, two from the Netherlands, two from Canada, two from Denmark, one from Italy, and one from Bremen. All of them favor the Congress; most of them strongly. The ninety-six letters from gentlemen in the United States are thus classified-twenty-six from governors of States; two from ex-governors, twenty-four from wardens of prisons, three from other prison officers, twelve from superintendents of reformatories, two from chaplains of reformatories, sixteen from gentleman connected with penal and correctional institutions as inspectors or managers, six from gentlemen connected with boards of State charities, and eight from other persons interested in prison discipline. All the governors of States who replied to this circular expressed approval, and promised co-operation; and the other gentlemen, without exception, regarded such a conference as likely to result in much good.

"At the stated meeting of the Executive Committee of the Prison Association, in September, a committee, consisting of Theo. W. Dwight, Francis Lieber and E. C. Wines, was appointed to meet a similar committee of the Philadelphia Prison Society, composed of J. J. Barclay, Jos. R. Chandler and A. J. Ourt, to consider and take action in reference to a National Conference on Prison Discipline, to which joint-committee

was also referred the question of an International Conference on the same subject, for such recommendation as they might think proper to make thereon to the National Congress. The above joint-committee held a meeting in New York on the 22d of November, and passed resolutions affirming the expediency of a National Congress for conference on criminal punishment and correctional discipline; designating the classes of persons of which the Congress should be composed; appointing the time and place for holding the meeting; and recommending the appointment of a joint-committee of arrangements, to consist of five members from each society. This action was reported to the New York Prison Association at its monthly meeting, on the evening of the 25th November, which thereupon passed a resolution to the effect that, on further consideration, it judged it inexpedient to take the initiative in calling the proposed conference at the present time.

"The New York Prison Association, having thus declined taking the lead in this movement, the following call was issued--signed by leading officers of prisons and reformatories, and by friends of prison reform throughout the country: "The undersigned, deeming prison discipline a vital interest of society, as well as one of the gravest of social problems, and on both these grounds worthy of the closest study and freest discussion, cordially unite in calling a National Congress for conference on criminal punishment and reformatory treatment, to be held in the autumn of 1870, in the city of Cincinnati, the Board of Directors of the Cincinnati House of Refuge having signified that such a conference would be welcomed in that city. [Here follows the nomination of thirteen gentlemen to act as a Committee of Arrangements.] We recommend that the Committee of Arrangements and the Conference give consideration to the question of an International Congress on Penitentiary and Reformatory Discipline."

"The above call is signed by John David Wolfe, President N. Y. Prison Association; Theo. W. Dwight, Chairman Ex. Com. N. Y. Prison Assoc.; E. C. Wines, Cor. Sec. N. Y. Prison Assoc.; Gideon Haynes, Warden Mass. State Prison; Amos Pilsbury, Supt. Albany Penitentiary; Z. R. Brockway, Supt. Detroit House of Correction; Henry Cordier, Warden Wisconsin State Prison; R. Burr, Warden Ohio State Prison; B. Wardwell, Warden Virginia State Penitentiary; Oliver S. Strong, Prest. Board Managers N. Y. House of Refuge; the entire Board of Directors of the Cincinnati House of Refuge; and some sixty other gentlemen.

"The matter has now taken such a shape that the International Congress will undoubtedly be called, and will probably be held some time in 1871 or 1872. We believe that, by collecting and diffusing information, by discussing and settling principles, by quickening the public interest, and by educating public opinion on questions connected with penitentiary and reformatory discipline, the Congress will form an era in the progress of this great interest of society."