in Printing, the act of retrench- ing the faults in a work; or the reading which the corrector gives the first proofs, to point out and amend the faults, to be rectified by the compositor.

The corrections are placed on the margin of each page, right against the line where the faults are found. There are different characters used to express different corrections, as D or δ, dele, for any thing to be el- iminated or left out. When anything is to be inserted, the place is marked in the line with a caret ^, and the insertion added in the margin. When a word, syllable, &c. is to be altered, it is erased out of the proof, and that to be put in its room written in the margin; always observing, if there be several mistakes in the same line, that the corrections in the margin be separated by little bars, or strokes, |. If a space be omitted, its place is marked with a caret, and the margin with ×. If a space be wrong placed, as in the middle of a word, the two parts are connected with a caret, and the same character put in the margin. If a letter be inverted, it is expressed on the margin with 9. If any thing be transposed, it is marked thus: The shortest are the fullest least; for the shortest follies are the least; and in the margin is added tr in a circle. If Roman characters are to be changed for Italic, or vice versa, a line is drawn under them thus, and Roman or Italic added in the margin; if to capi- tals, a double line. If a word or sentence is entirely omitted, the place is marked with a caret, and in the margin is inserted the word out. If the letters of a word stand too far asunder, a line is drawn under them, and in the margin is put a crooked line or hook, thus .

Correction House, a place of confinement, where vagrants and persons guilty of crimes of an inferior degree, suffer punishment by being obliged to labour for a certain period of time, as for months or years, according to the nature of the crime. The benefit arising to society, and the reformation of offenders, from this mode of punishment, have been variously esti- mated by different writers, according to the views which they have taken of the effects and consequences which are supposed to follow the confinement and re- straint to which the criminal is subjected. It has been regarded as one of the greatest defects of the laws of this country, that, excepting the punishment of death, there is no other which is accompanied with that degree of severity and terror to awe or restrain offenders from the commission of crimes. To this pur- pose are the following observations of Dr Paley. The laws of England, he says, "are not provided with any other punishment than that of death, sufficiently terri- ble 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 be- cause exile is in reality a slight punishment to those who have neither property, nor friends, nor regular means Correction 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.

This defect, it has been supposed might be made up by the proper management of houses of correction. For as the object of punishment is not only the amendment of the offender, but is also intended to operate as an example to others, both these objects seem to be more certainly attained by the confinement and labour to which criminals are subjected in houses of this description than by any species of punishment provided by the laws of Britain. It is greatly to be regretted that the punishments inflicted by the laws of this country, whether imprisonment or exile, pain or infamy, have rarely the effect of producing any reformation of the criminal. On the contrary he often returns to the world more hardened in crime, and more determined in his wicked courses. Houses of correction might probably in this respect be attended with more beneficial consequences. This seems to be the case with the Amsterdam house of correction, an account of which in this view will not, it is hoped, be unacceptable to our readers. It is extracted from the Journal of the Travels of M. Thouin.

The Amsterdam correction house, from the employment of the prisoners confined in it, is called the rapping-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 scissure 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 mattress, a blanket, and a coverlid to each, tables, chairs, and stools, glafs, &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 hematosylum campechianum, the morus tinctoria, the caesalpinia japonica, &c. They are all exotics, with the exception of the evonymus 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 flints, 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), afflicts 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. Correction 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 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 manufactury than to a prison. It were to be wished, that all similar institutions were conducted upon a similar plan.

But it is probable that solitary confinement and less intercourse with their friends would have a better effect in reforming the habits of offenders than the indulgences which M. Thouin considers as so beneficial. The philosopher whom we formerly quoted observes, 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 seclude 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 addition to the confinement and labour which offenders undergo in houses of correction, some are subjected to whipping at certain stated intervals. The benefit arising from this mode of punishment, with regard to the reformation of the criminal, has been justly questioned. If any good effect is to be expected from this discipline, it must be inflicted in private. It has been observed by one* who knew human nature well,* Fielding, that punishment which deprives a man of all sense of honour will never contribute to make him virtuous; and it is generally found that the folder who has once been whipped, becomes quite indifferent to propriety of conduct. Fasting, which is not attended with shame, promises to be a more effectual punishment of profligacy.