SUPPL

SUPPL. VOL. I. Part II.

vious to describing that which I found during our voyage round the world. The form of this is almost orbicular, the long diameter being to the short one as three lines to two lines and three quarters. The first spire is by far the largest, occupying nearly half of the longitudinal diameter. The summit is placed at the distance of about two-thirds of this diameter; it is terminated on the right side by a very small knob visible only through a magnifier, thus differing from the ammonite of Rimini, which besides is microscopical and celled, the inside of this which we are now speaking of being entirely plain. The number of spiral circumvolutions is four and a half; they are equally convex on both sides, and are fixed on a plane, dividing the shell into two equal parts: there is on each side a kind of boss formed by the increase of the perpendicular diameter of the spires, in proportion as they recede from the centre. The surface is smooth; the back is armed with a flat, even, brittle crest, as thin as paper, surrounding it on every side like a ruff: it is about half a line broad, extends over the summit of the spires, and serves to join them together. The mouth of the shell is nearly triangular; its edges project in the form of lips, and are rounded at the border. I have often found this ammonite enclosed in the stomach of the bonetta (scomber pelamis, Linn.), caught in the South Sea, between the tropics, where no bottom was found with a line of more than two hundred fathoms. These shells were covered with a black clayey mud. Their size varies from one to four lines across; they are consequently the largest living ammonites that have yet been discovered."

It is well known for what purpose the modern philosophers of France have been so indefatigable in the study of natural history; and there can be little doubt but that it is to serve the same purpose that Lamanon thus reasons for the destruction of the ancient race of ammonites in some universal convulsion of the world. But supposing his arguments conclusive, they affect not the truth of the Jewish and Christian scriptures. It is nowhere said in the Bible, that the matter of this globe was brought into being at the moment when Moses represents the Creator as beginning to reduce the chaos into order; and it is more than insinuated that there will be a new earth after the present system of things shall be dissolved. That new earth will certainly be stored with some kind of inhabitants; and could it be demonstrated that there was an old earth, previous to the era of the Mosaic cosmogony, inhabited by creatures rational and irrational, and that the fossil cornua ammonis make part of the wreck of that system, the cause of revelation would remain uninjured. "Moses, as a real philosopher* has well observed, writes the history, not of this globe through all its revolutions, but of the race of Adam."

This secret attack, therefore, made by Lamanon against that religion of which he once professed to discharge the duties of a priest, is nothing more than telum imbelle sine ictu. Yet it may be worth some naturalist's

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ralist's

Correction ralist's while to enquire, whether, though feeble, it has been fairly made. We confess that our own suspicions of unfair dealing are strong; for when a man of science contradicts himself in the course of two pages, the blunder must be attributed to some other source than mere inadvertency. M. de Lamanon wishes to prove, among other things, that the ancient ammonites did not inhabit great depths of the sea; and that Linnaeus was mistaken when he supposed that in great depths they may still be found. Yet he himself tells us, that he frequently caught ammonites in the South Sea, where no bottom was to be found with a line of more than 200 fathoms; and to put it beyond a doubt that the animals had been at that bottom, he informs us, that their shells were covered with a black clayey mud. It is true these ammonites were but small; while of 300 varieties of fossil ammonites which he mentions, some, he says, have been found ten feet in circumference. But is it certain that these large shells were real cornua ammonis? If they agree not exactly with our author's description of the shell of the ammonite (a fact into which we have had no opportunity of inquiring), his arguments for the extinction of the ancient race are gross sophisms, unworthy of a man either of science or of candour.

CORRECTION-HOUSE is a prison where idle vagrants are compelled to work, and where persons guilty of certain crimes suffer punishment and make reparation to the public. Of the former kind of correction-houses, perhaps enough has been said in the Encyclopædia under the title WORK-HOUSE; but of the latter very little will be found in that work under the titles BRIDEWELL and IDLENESS.

Perhaps houses of correction, as means of punishment, are not, in this country, employed so frequently as justice and expediency seem to require. In the opinion of Dr Paley, whose opinions are always worthy of attention, it is one of the greatest defects of the laws of England (and we may say the same thing of the laws of Scotland), that "they are not provided with any other punishment than that of death, sufficiently terrible to keep offenders in awe. Transportation, which is the punishment second in the order of severity, answers the purpose of example very imperfectly; not only because exile is in reality a slight punishment to those who have neither property, nor friends, nor regular means of subsistence at home, but because the punishment, whatever it be, is unobserved and unknown. A transported convict may suffer under his sentence, but his sufferings are removed from the view of his countrymen; his misery is unseen; his condition strikes no terror into the minds of those for whose warning and admonition it was intended. This chasm in the scale of punishment produces also two farther imperfections in the administration of penal justice; of which the first is, that the same punishment is extended to crimes of very different characters and malignancy; and the second, that punishments, separated by a great interval, are assigned to crimes hardly distinguishable in their guilt and mischief."

Perhaps this chasm might be properly filled up by houses of correction under judicious management, which might likewise promote another important purpose, better than the punishments in common use.

The end of punishment is twofold, amendment and example. In the first of these, the reformation of crimi-

nals, little has ever been effected, and little indeed seems practicable by the punishments known to the laws of Britain. From every species of punishment inflicted among us, from imprisonment and exile, from pain and infamy, malefactors return more hardened in their crimes, and more instructed. The case we think would often be different when they returned to the world from a well-regulated house of correction. As experience is the only safe guide in matters of legislation and police, we shall lay before our readers M. Thouin's account of the house of correction at Amsterdam, which seems to corroborate our opinion.

The Amsterdam correction-house, from the employment of the prisoners confined in it, is called the rasping-house, and is destined to the reception of those malefactors whose crimes do not amount to a capital offence. Their punishment cannot so properly be denominated solitary confinement as a sequestration from society during a limited term of years. The building is situated in a part of the suburbs to the north east of the city. The exterior has nothing remarkable, either with respect to form or extent. It is detached from the street by a spacious court, which contains the keeper's lodge, together with apartments for the different servants belonging to the establishment. Over the gate, which opens from this court into the prison, are placed two statues, as large as life, representing two men in the act of sawing a piece of logwood.

The inner court is in the form of a square, round which are arranged the apartments of the prisoners, together with the necessary warehouses. One part of the ground story is divided into different chambers; the other serves as a depot for the logwood, and the implements employed in its preparation.

The keeper, whose countenance, contrary to the general custom of persons of his profession, was strongly indicative of urbanity and gentleness, introduced M. Thouin into an apartment where two prisoners were at work in sawing a large log of Campeachy wood. The saw is composed of four blades joined together, with very strong, large, and sharp teeth, which make a scuffle in the wood of nearly two inches in breadth. The operation is repeated, till the pieces become too small to undergo the saw, when they are ground in mills peculiarly constructed for this purpose.

This employment requires an extraordinary exertion of strength, and is at first a severe penance even to robust persons; but habit, address, and practice, soon render it easy; and the prisoners in a short time become competent to furnish, without painful exertion, their weekly contingent of 200 lb. weight of sawed pieces. After completing this task, they even find time to fabricate a variety of little articles in wood and straw, which they sell to those who visit the prison, or dispose of, by means of agents, in the town.

M. Thouin next inspected three apartments of different dimensions, which opened into the inner court. The one was inhabited by four, the second by six, and the third by ten prisoners. The furniture of the rooms consisted in hammocks, with a matras, a blanket, and a coverlid to each, tables, chairs, and stools, glass, &c. earthen vessels, and various other articles of convenience. Every thing in these apartments was distinguished by neatness and propriety; and notwithstanding the number of inhabitants allotted to each, was fully adequate to

to the dimensions of the rooms; the senses were not offended with any disagreeable scent, and the air was in every respect as pure and wholesome as the surrounding atmosphere.

In an obscure part of the building are a number of cells, in which formerly those prisoners who revolted against the proper subordination of the place, or ill-treated their comrades, were confined for a few days. But the keeper assured M. Thouin that these cells had not been made use of for upwards of 10 years. They are dark gloomy dungeons, with only a small aperture for the admission of light and air. The suppression of this barbarous and coercive punishment does honour to the humanity of government.

The store-rooms are filled with various kinds of wood for the purposes of dyeing; as the haemotoxylum campechianum, the morus tinctoria, the caesalpinia sappan, &c. They are all exotics, with the exception of the Exonymus Europæus. The warehouses were not of sufficient extent to contain the quantity of wood, which was deposited in piles in different parts of the court.

The prisoners, amounting to 76 in number, were uniformly habited in coarse woollens; wear very good stockings, large leather shoes, white shirts, and caps or hats. They are, by the rules of the house, obliged to frequent ablutions, which greatly contribute to the preservation of their health. There was only one sick person amongst them; and, what is not a little remarkable, almost all the prisoners had formerly lived in large commercial towns; very few villagers were amongst them. They had all been sentenced to imprisonment for theft; but it depends upon themselves, by reformation and good behaviour, to shorten the term of their confinement, which many of them frequently do.

The keeper, whose humanity to the unfortunate persons committed to his care entitles him rather to the title of their protector than their gaoler (and M. Thouin informs us, that the prisoners generally called him by no other name than father), assists them with his counsels and friendly admonitions. He registers every week, in a book appropriated to this purpose, both the instances of good and bad behaviour, which is annually submitted to the examination of the magistracy, who, from this report, abridge or prolong the term of confinement, according to the degree of indulgence which each prisoner appears to merit. Cases frequently happen where a malefactor, condemned to an imprisonment of eight years, by his good behaviour procures his enlargement at the expiration of four; and so in proportion for a shorter term. But great attention is paid to discriminate between actual reform and hypocritical artifice.

The reward of good behaviour is not, however, confined to, or withheld till, the period of actual liberation. Their restoration to society is preceded by a progressive amelioration of their lot. Their work is gradually rendered less laborious, they are accommodated with separate apartments, and employed in the services of domestic economy. The keeper even entrusts them with

commissions beyond the precincts of the prison; and Correction. scarce a single instance has occurred of their abusing this indulgence. By this prudent management, a considerable saving is effected in the expense of the establishment, at the same time that it tends to wear away prejudice, and to initiate the prisoners by gradual advances into the reciprocal duties of social life.

M. Thouin made particular inquiries whether it was customary for persons after their discharge to be confined a second and third time, as is but too often the case in many countries, for a repetition of their offence. He was informed, that such instances very rarely occur; but the case is not without precedent, as he observed in the person of a young Jew, who was then in the rasing-house for the third time. The case of this man is somewhat extraordinary. During the period of his detention, he always conforms, with the most scrupulous observance, to the rules of the place, and gives general satisfaction by his exemplary conduct. But such, as he himself avowed to our traveller, is his constitutional propensity to thieving, that no sooner is the term of his imprisonment elapsed, than he returns with redoubled ardour to his lawless courses. It is not so much for the sake of plunder, as to gratify his irresistible impulse, that he follows this vicious life; and M. Thouin adds, that he recounted his different exploits with as much exultation and triumph as a veteran displays when rehearsing his warlike achievements.

Another salutary regulation in this institution, from which the best consequences result, is the indulgence granted to the prisoners of receiving the visits of their wives and mistresses twice every week. Proper care, however, is taken to guard against the introduction of disease; and the ladies, in one sense, purchase their admission by giving a trifling sum of money at the gate, which becomes the perquisite of the aged prisoners, whose wants are of a different nature from their youthful comrades. Thus the pleasures of one class contribute to the comforts of the other; and the entrance money, trifling as it is, keeps away a crowd of idle vagabonds, who have no acquaintance with the prisoners. The ladies at their visits are permitted to eat and drink with their lovers; and when the conversation becomes too animated for a third person to be present, the rest of the company obligingly take the hint, and leave them to enjoy a tete-a-tete.—By this prudent regulation, many hurtful consequences attendant on a total seclusion from female society are guarded against.

M. Thouin concludes his account with observing, that the rasing-house at Amsterdam bears a greater resemblance to a well-ordered manufactory than to a prison. It were to be wished, that all similar institutions were conducted upon a similar plan (A).

So says our author: But though we have admitted experience to be the only safe guide in regulating institutions of this kind, we cannot help thinking that the plan is susceptible of improvement. We do not see the propriety of locking up four, six, or ten thieves in the same apartment. The uncommon attention to cleanliness,

ness, which distinguishes all ranks among the Dutch, may indeed prevent the room from having an offensive scent; but what can prevent such a number of unprincipled persons from corrupting each other in Holland, as we know that they do in Great Britain? The introduction of females of loose character to felons suffering punishment for their offences in a prison, is a practice which we trust will be approved only by philosophers of the French school. The British philosopher, whom we have already quoted with approbation, is of opinion, and we heartily agree with him, that "of reforming punishments, none promises so much success as that of solitary imprisonment, or the confinement of criminals in separate apartments. This improvement of the Amsterdam house of correction would augment the terror of the punishment, would exclude the criminal from the society of his fellow-prisoners, in which society the worse are sure to corrupt the better; would wean him from the knowledge of his companions, and from the love of that turbulent pernicious life in which his vices had engaged him; would raise up in him reflections on the folly of his choice, and dispose his mind to such bitter and continued penitence, as might produce a lasting alteration in the principles of his conduct."

In some houses of correction, the prisoners are subjected to the discipline of flagellation at stated intervals. We will not take it upon us to say that this punishment is never proper; but we are fully convinced that it is not often so; and that flagellation, if it can at all produce any good effect, must be administered in private. It is observed by Fielding, who well understood human nature, that flogging is the proper punishment of profligacy, not any punishment that, like flagellation, is attended with shame. Punishment (says he) that deprives a man of all sense of honour, never will contribute to make him virtuous; and we believe it is generally admitted by the gentlemen of the army, that a soldier who has suffered the punishment of whipping seldom proves good for any thing.