(Nicolaus), the reformer, if not the inventor, of the true system of the sun, holds so conspicuous a place in the republic of science, that every man of a liberal education must be interested both in the events of his life and in the history of his discoveries. Accordingly, in the Encyclopedia, we have given a short sketch of his history, as well as an account of what led him to suppose the sun placed in the centre of our system (see Copernicus, and Astronomy, no. 27. Encycl.) Since these articles were published, Dr. Adam Smith's Essays on Philosophical Subjects have been given to the world; and in that which is intitled The History of Astronomy, we have an account of Copernicus's discoveries, so much more perspicuous and satisfactory than anything which we have elsewhere seen on the subject, that we are persuaded our readers will be pleased to meet with it here.
"The confusion (says Dr. Smith) in which the old hypothesis represented the heavenly bodies, was, as Copernicus himself tells us, what first suggested to him the design of forming a new system, that the noblest works of Nature, might no longer appear devoid of that harmony and proportion which discover themselves in her meanest productions. What most of all disturbed him was, the notion of the equalizing circle, which, by representing the revolutions of the celestial spheres as equable only, when surveyed from a point that was different from their centres, introduced a real inequality into their motions; contrary to that most natural, and indeed fundamental idea, with which all the authors of astronomical systems, Plato, Eudoxus, Aristotle, even Hipparchus and Ptolemy themselves, had hitherto set out, that the real motions of such beautiful and divine objects must necessarily be perfectly regular, and go on, in a manner as agreeable to the imagination as the objects themselves are to the senses. He began to consider, therefore, whether, by supposing the heavenly bodies to be arranged in a different order from that in which Aristotle and Hipparchus had placed them, this so much fought for uniformity might not be bestowed upon their motions. To discover this arrangement, he examined all the obscure traditions delivered down to us, concerning every other hypothesis which the ancients had invented, for the same purpose. He found, in Plutarch, that some old Pythagoreans had represented the earth as revolving in the centre of the universe, like a wheel round its own axis; and that others, of the same sect, had removed it from the centre, and represented it as revolving in the ecliptic like a star round the central fire. By this central fire he supposed they meant the sun; and though in this he was very widely mistaken, it was, it seems, upon this interpretation that he began to consider how such an hypothesis might be made to correspond to the appearances. The supposed authority of those old philosophers, if it did not originally suggest to him his system, seems at least to have confirmed him in an opinion which, it is not improbable, he had before-hand other reasons for embracing, notwithstanding what he himself would affirm to the contrary.
"It then occurred to him, that if the earth was supposed to revolve every day round its axis, from west to east, all the heavenly bodies would appear to revolve, in a contrary direction, from east to west. The diurnal revolution of the heavens, upon this hypothesis, might..." operations be only apparent; the firmament, which has no other sensible motion, might be perfectly at rest; while the sun, the moon, and the five planets, might have no other movement beside that eastward revolution which is peculiar to themselves. That, by supposing the earth to revolve with the planets round the sun, in an orbit, which comprehended within it the orbits of Venus and Mercury, but was comprehended within those of Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, he could, without the embarrassment of epicycles, connect together the apparent annual revolutions of the sun, and the direct, retrograde, and stationary appearances of the planets; that while the earth really revolved round the sun on one side of the heavens, the sun would appear to revolve round the earth on the other; that while he really advanced in his annual course, he would appear to advance eastward in that movement which is peculiar to himself. That, by supposing the axis of the earth to be always parallel to itself, not to be quite perpendicular, but somewhat inclined to the plane of her orbit, and consequently to present to the sun, the one pole when on the one side of him, and the other when on the other, he would account for the obliquity of the ecliptic; the sun's seemingly alternate progression from north to south, and from south to north, the consequent change of the seasons, and different lengths of days and nights in the different seasons.
"If this new hypothesis thus connected together all these appearances as happily as that of Ptolemy, there were others which it connected together much better. The three superior planets, when nearly in conjunction with the sun, appear always at the greatest distance from the earth, are smallest, and least sensible to the eye, and seem to revolve forward in their direct motion with the greatest rapidity. On the contrary, when in opposition to the sun, that is, when in their meridian about midnight, they appear nearest the earth, are largest, and most sensible to the eye, and seem to revolve backwards in their retrograde motion. To explain these appearances, the system of Ptolemy supposed each of these planets to be at the upper part of their several epicycles in the one case, and at the lower in the other. But it afforded no satisfactory principle of connection, which could lead the mind easily to conceive how the epicycles of those planets, whose spheres were so distant from the sphere of the sun, should thus, if one may say so, keep time to his motion. The system of Copernicus afforded this easily, and like a more simple machine, without the affluence of epicycles, connected together, by fewer movements, the complex appearances of the heavens. When the superior planets appear nearly in conjunction with the sun, they are then in the side of their orbits, which is almost opposite to, and most distant from, the earth, and therefore appears smallest and least sensible to the eye. But as they then revolve in a direction which is almost contrary to that of the earth, they appear to advance forward with double velocity; as a ship that sails in a contrary direction to another, appears from that other to fall both with its own velocity and the velocity of that from which it is seen. On the contrary, when those planets are in opposition to the sun, they are on the same side of the sun with the earth, are nearest it, most sensible to the eye, and revolve in the same direction with it; but as their revolutions round the sun are slower than that of the Copernicus earth, they are necessarily left behind by it, and therefore seem to revolve backwards; as a ship which sails slower than another, though it sails in the same direction, appears from that other to sail backwards. After the same manner, by the same annual revolution of the earth, he connected together the direct and retrograde motions of the two inferior planets, as well as the stationary appearances of all the five.
"This far did this new account of things render the appearances of the heavens more completely coherent than had been done by any of the former systems. It did this, too, by a more simple and intelligible, as well as more beautiful machinery. It represented the sun, the great enlightener of the universe, whose body was alone larger than all the planets taken together, as established immovable in the centre, shedding light and heat on all the worlds that circulated around him in one uniform direction, but in longer or shorter periods, according to their different distances. It took away the diurnal revolution of the firmament, whose rapidity, upon the old hypothesis, was beyond what even thought could conceive. It not only delivered the imagination from the embarrassment of epicycles, but from the difficulty of conceiving these two opposite motions going on at the same time, which the system of Ptolemy and Aristotle bestowed upon all the planets; I mean, their diurnal westward, and periodical eastward revolutions. The earth's revolution round its own axis took away the necessity for supposing the first, and the second was easily conceived when by itself. The five planets, which seem, upon all other systems, to be objects of a species by themselves, unlike to every thing to which the imagination has been accustomed, when supposed to revolve along with the earth round the sun, were naturally apprehended to be objects of the same kind with the earth, habitable, opaque, and enlightened only by the rays of the sun. And thus this hypothesis, by clasping them in the same species of things, with an object that is of all others the most familiar to us, took off that wonder and uncertainty which the strangeness and singularity of their appearance had excited; and thus far, too, better answered the great end of philosophy.
"Neither did the beauty and simplicity of this system alone recommend it to the imagination; the novelty and unexpectedness of that view of nature which it opened to the fancy, excited more wonder and surprize than the strangest of those appearances, which it had been invented to render natural and familiar, and these sentiments still more endeared it. For though it is the end of philosophy to allay that wonder which either the unusual or seemingly disjointed appearances of nature excite, yet the never triumphs so much as when, in order to connect together a few, in themselves perhaps inconsiderable objects, she has, if I may say so, created another constitution of things, more natural indeed, and such as the imagination can more easily attend to, but more new, more contrary to common opinion and expectation, than any of those appearances themselves. As in the influence before us, in order to connect together some seeming irregularities in the motions of the planets, the most inconsiderable objects in the heavens, and of which the greater part of mankind have no occasion to take any notice during the whole course of their lives, she Copernicus, she has, to talk in the hyperbolical language of Tycho Brahe, moved the earth from its foundations, flopt the revolution of the firmament, made the sun stand still, and subverted the whole order of the universe.
Such were the advantages of this new hypothesis, as they appeared to its author when he first invented it. But though that love of paradox, so natural to the learned, and that pleasure which they are so apt to take in exciting, by the novelty of their supposed discoveries, the amazement of mankind, may, notwithstanding what one of his disciples tells us to the contrary, have had its weight in prompting Copernicus to adopt this system; yet when he had completed his Treatise of Revolutions, and began coolly to consider what a strange doctrine he was about to offer to the world, he so much dreaded the prejudice of mankind against it, that, by a species of contumacy of all others the most difficult to a philosopher, he detained it in his closet for thirty years together. At last, in the extremity of old age, he allowed it to be extorted from him, but died as soon as it was printed, and before it was published."
This noble theory, however, being repugnant to the prejudices of habit and education, was at first coldly received, or utterly rejected, by every class of men. The astronomers alone favoured it, with their notice; though rather as a convenient hypothesis than an important truth. By the vulgar it was considered as a chimera, belied by the clearest evidence of our senses; while the learned beheld it with disdain, because it militated against the fanciful distinctions and the vague erroneous tenets of the Peripatetic philosophy, which no one had ventured to call in question; and it is amusing to observe with what dexterity the Copernicans, still using the same weapons, endeavoured to parry the blows of their antagonists. Its real merits and blemishes appear to have been overlooked by both parties. Brahe framed a sort of intermediate system; but this Danish astronomer was more remarkable for his patience and skill in observing the heavens, than for his talents of philosophical investigation. Towards the commencement of the 16th century, a new order of things emerged. The system of Copernicus became generally known and daily made converts. Its reception alarmed the ever-watchful authority of the church, roused her jealousy, and at length provoked her vindictive artillery. The ultima ratio theologorum was pointed at the head of the illustrious Galileo, whose elegant genius discovered the laws of motion, extended the science of mechanics, and added lustre and solidity to the true system of the universe. From the storms of persecution Copernicus himself had been exempted only by a timely death.
Copper, one of the metals; for the properties of which, see Chemistry-Index in this Supplement.—The Chinese have a metal which they call pe-tung, but which Sir George Staunton denominates White Copper. This metal has a beautiful silver-like appearance, and a very close grain. It takes a fine polish, and many articles of neat workmanship, in imitation of silver, are made of it. An accurate analysis has determined it to consist of copper, zinc, a little silver, and in some specimens a few particles of iron and of nickel have been found. From this account it would appear that white copper is not an artificial mixture of metals, but is found native in the mine. Yet in the very same page and paragraph, Sir George proceeds to say that Dr Gillan was informed at Canton, that the artists, in making their pe-tung, reduce the copper into as thin sheets or lamines as possible, which they make red hot, and increase the fire to such a pitch as to soften in some degree the lamines, and to render them ready almost to flow. In this state they are suspended over the vapour of their purest tu-te-nag or zinc, placed in a subliming vessel over a brisk fire. The vapour thus penetrates the heated lamines of the copper, so as to remain fixed with it, and not to be easily diffused or calcined by the succeeding fusion it has to undergo. The whole is suffered to cool gradually, and is then found to be of a brighter colour, and of a closer grain, than when prepared in the European way. Surely this is not the white copper, which consists of copper, zinc, silver, iron, and nickel.
Cork is the exterior bark of a tree which has been described in the Encyclopaedia. When the tree is about 15 years old it is fit to be barked, and this can be done successively for eight years. The bark always grows up again, and its quality improves as the age of the tree increases. It is commonly fanged a little over a strong fire or glowing coals, or laid to soak a certain time in water, after which it is placed under stones in order to be pressed straight. We were wont to procure the greater part of our cork from the Dutch, who brought it principally from France; but they imported some also from Portugal and Spain.
This tree, as well as the ufs to which its bark is put, was known to the Greeks and the Romans; by the former of whom it was called ἀσπίς, and by the latter ἀσπίς. By the Romans, as we learn from Pliny, it was even employed to stop vessels of every kind; but its application to this use seems not to have been very common till the invention of glass bottles, of which Professor Beckmann finds no mention before the 13th century.
In later times, some other vegetable productions have been found which can be employed instead of cork for the last-mentioned purpose. Among these is the wood of a tree common in South America, particularly in moist places, which is called there mambu or mambu, and by botanists *podocarpus lutea*. This wood is brought to England in great abundance for that use. The spongy root of a North American tree, known by the name of *syris*, is also used for the same end, as are the roots of liquorice, which on that account is much cultivated in Slavonia, and exported to other countries.
Cornua Ammonis, in natural history, are fossil shells, of which a pretty full account is given in the Encyclopaedia. See Cornu Ammonis and Snakes-Stones. It was observed in the last of these articles, that few, if any, of these shells are known in their recent state, or as occupied by the living animal; but some authors have asserted, on the authority of Linnæus, that ammonites, with shells similar to all the varieties of the fossil ones, are yet found alive in the depth of the sea. We are much inclined to embrace this opinion; but it has been controverted by M. de Lamaron, who accompanied La Pérouse on his voyage of discovery, by such arguments as we know not how to answer. This unfortunate naturalist (see Lamaron in this Supplement) allows that there are still in the sea living cornua ammonis; but he thinks that they are in very small numbers, and materially different from the greater... greater part of the fossil ones. According to him, these last ought to be considered as a race, formerly the most numerous of all, of which, either there are no descendants, or those descendants are reduced to a few degenerate individuals. That there are no living animals with shells of the very same kind with some of the fossil cornua ammonis, the following observations he considers as a sufficient proof.
"The fossil shells are very light and thin, whereas the shells of those animals that live in very deep water are always thick and ponderous; besides, the form of the fossil cornua ammonis points out to us, in some measure, the organization of the animal which inhabited it. The celebrated Jussieu proved, in 1721, that there existed a very close analogy between the ammonite and nautilus (a). It is well known that the nautilus, by filling or emptying a part of its shell, has the power of remaining stationary in any depth it pleases: the same was doubtless the case with the ammonite; and if this species still abounds in the sea, it would surely be occasionally discovered by sailors.
"The waves also would throw fragments of it on the shore; fishermen might sometimes entangle it in their nets; or, at least, there would be fragments sticking to the lead of the sounding line when ascertaining great depths. It may also be added, that if the ammonites never quitted the abysses of the sea, those which are found petrified would not be constantly met with on the same level, and in the same bed, as those shell fish that only inhabit the shallows. There are, however, found in Normandy, Provence, Touraine, and a multitude of other places, ammonites mixed with turbinis, buccina (whelks), and other littoral shells. They are found, besides, at every degree of elevation from below the level of the sea to the summits of the highest mountains. Analogy also leads us to suppose, that Nature, who has given eyes to the nautilus, has not refused them to the ammonite; now what use could these be of if they remained confined to those depths which the light is unable to penetrate?
"The extinction of the ancient race of ammonites is therefore an established fact, which no rational supposition can destroy; and this fact is undoubtedly the most surprising of any that is presented to us in the history of aquatic animals. The discovery of a few living species of cornua ammonis does not destroy the truth of this, for these ammonites are very different from those which are found petrified. They are extremely rare, and cannot be looked up to as the representatives of the old ammonites, so varied in their species, and the number of which in the ancient ocean was probably far more considerable than that of all the other shells besides."
To every univolve shell, rolled in a spiral, so as that a horizontal plane will divide it into two equal parts, formed of united spirals, and bearing a certain proportion to each other, our author gives the name of an ammonite. "I thought it absolutely necessary (says he) to ascertain the precise meaning of the term ammonite, previous 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 bows 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 (fomber 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 Lamont 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 intimated 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 Robinson of Edinburgh.
This secret attack, therefore, made by Lamont against that religion of which he once professed to discharge the duties of a priest, is nothing more than telem imbele sine illu. Yet it may be worth some naturalist's
(a) There are, however, some striking internal differences: first, the partitions in the shell of the nautilus are more curved than those of the ammonite; secondly, the ammonite wants the small hole which communicates from one cell to the other. Correction rais'd a 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-house, perhaps enough has been said in the Encyclopaedia under the title Work-House; but of the latter very little will be found in that work under the titles BAIDEWELL 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 flight 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 criminals, 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 sawing-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 cleft 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 lbs. 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 matress, a blanket, and a coverlet to each, tables, chairs, and stools, glas, &c., earthen vessels, and various other articles of convenience. Everything in these apartments was distinguished by neatness and propriety; and notwithstanding the number of inhabitants allotted to each, was fully adequate 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 haemotoxylin campechianum, the morus tinctoria, the caesalpinia fappan, &c. They are all exotics, with the exception of the Erythrus Europaeus. 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 invites 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), affords 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 rapping-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 tête-à-tête.—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 rapping-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,
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(a) We do not know that M. Thouin's journal of his travels has been yet published. Extracts from it have been inserted into the Decade, a periodical publication at Paris, whence this account of the Amsterdam house of correction was first copied into the Monthly Magazine for June 1798. Correction nefs, which distinguishe 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 worst 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 fasting 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 anything.