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CLIMATE.

For the following Meteorological Observations we are indebted to Mr. Thomas Smith, proprietor of the Labyrinth Garden, on Arch-street, whose accuracy and attention to subjects of this nature, have been well known for several years. We hope, hereafter, to be able to obtain from the same source, regular monthly tables. It is to be regretted, that in this city so little attention has been paid to this subject, which has always been considered a very important one, by scientific men, and is not one of mere curiosity, but which may admit of a very beneficial practical application. Many individuals in this city have at different times kept registers of the weather, which are no doubt in the possession of their families or friends, and would if communicated to the

1826.

public, prove interesting and useful; and as we have in our plan allotted a portion of the Register for information of this kind, we would be obliged to any person having meteorological tables, if they will forward them to us for insertion. It is from observations correctly made, with suitable instruments, and not from our feelings at any particular change of the weather, that we can accurately judge of the past by the present. We hope, therefore, that those who have an opportunity of recording such observations, will attend to the subject and communicate the result to us. As it will be interesting to compare the state of the weather at the same time, in different parts of the state, we would recommend the observations to be made at the same hours of the day, viz, at sunrise, at noon and at 3 o'clock.

Rain Guage.

Mean Temperature.

Months.

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Sun Rise. Noon. 13 P.M. Temperature. Days. Deg. Days. Deg.

Range. Depth. Rainy Days.

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The fractions of mean temperature are omitted to guard against confusion. N.B. The Snow was melted, and is included in the above statement of Rain,

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PENITENTIARY SYSTEM.
Memorial of the "Society for alleviating the miseries of
Public Prisons," presented to the Legislature, on the
11th inst.

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, in general assembly met, the memorial of the Philadelphia Society for alleviating the miseries of Public Prisons, respectfully sheweth:

That your memorialists, impressed with a continued sense of the great interest and importance of a just and lenient penal code and system of prison discipline, feel it obligatory upon them again to lay before the Assembly those general views, which, from the first memorial presented, at the instance of this Society, in 1787, they have, under various circumstances and modifications of detail, constantly urged, up to the time of their last address to the legislature in 1821.

regards it as no legitimate aim of penal enactments. But it is not the mere imprisonment of the offender which is to benefit the community, or improve his condition. One of the first evils of which the Prison Society became painfully sensible, was the pernicious consequences arising from the indiscriminate congregation of all kinds of offenders. At the commencement of their labours, they found male and female, old and young, the debtors and criminal, the veteran and novice, mingled together in the most loathsome and defiling association. To attempt reasoning on the pernicious consequence of such society as this, would now be entirely supererogatory. No possible hope of reformation, but rather an increase and extension of crime were to be feared from such a mode of confinement; the labours of the Society have therefore been constantly directed to a complete separation of prisoners.

The system of prison discipline, then, which your memorialists have always been anxious to establish in Pennsylvania, possesses two strongly marked distinctive features. 1st. The recognition of moral reform as a principal aim of penitentiary punishment. 2d. The complete separation of prisoners, as the only mode by which this end can be obtained. As our system advances towards, or recedes from a strict separation, so, in the opinion of your memorialists, do we experience a diminution or increase of the miseries incident to promiscuous intercourse. In order, therefore, to show the legislature what have always been its views on this subject, the society beg leave to refer to their various memorials, the suggestions contained in which have received the kind attention of former legislatures, and have formed the basis of most of the enactments in regard to this subject. In the petition presented to the Assembly, at the instance of the prison Society, in 1787, we find these words: "Your petitioners wish the House would be pleased to revise the law, being fully convinced, that punishment by more private or even solitary labourwould more successfully tend to reclaim the unhappy objects."

Again, in 1788, in a report to the Supreme Executive Council of the state, solitary confinement, with labour, is strongly recommended and enforced, as the results of the experience of the able and benevolent men who were members of our society at that period.

To Pennsylvania belongs the honour of having begun the whole system of prison reformation. Her illustrious founder, abolishing the indiscriminate punishment of death, which then included in its awful doom almost every species of crime, substituted imprisonment for all offences inferior to deliberate murder, introducing, at the same time, many wise and salutary amendments, in the entire constitution of the criminal code, For thirty years, Pennsylvania enjoyed the benefits of this melioration, in defiance of the repeated attempts of the mother country to restore the ancient barbarous and exploded system. In 1718, however, this system was revised, and from that time to the revolution, all the evils and mise-keeper or his deputy must be present," In 1794, the ries, which it plentifully engendered, were painfully experienced.

In 1790, the legislature in conformity with these views, went as far towards their execution as the state of the public funds at that time permitted-Solitary cells were erected in the present prison on Walnut st. where the law directed, that "the more hardened and atrocious offenders should be confined;" and also, “that ordinary convicts should be kept apart, unless their employment did not admit of separation, in which case the legislature advanced one step further, by directing, that prisoners. for most offences, should serve some part of their sentence in solitary confinement, and in some instances enumerated in the act, this confinement might be extended to months, and even years.

Before calling your attention any further to the progressive advancement of Pennsylvania, from this period to the present, your memorialists would beg leave to state, what they conceive to be the true theory and designs of The growing population of the state, and consequent crimal law and punishment, and they apprehend it can increase in the number of prisoners, soon rendered it clearly be demonstrated, that the constant and unvary-impossible, with the scanty accommodations of the Waling policy of Pennsylvania in all her legal enactments, has fully recognised the verity of these views.

When the awful punishment of death, and the barbarous corporeal inflictions of former ages were abrogated, the only adequate punishment remaining was the restraint and imprisonment of the offender; and we do not hesitate to aver, that the moral reform of the person thus incarcerated, by the use of mild and just treatment is as much the aim and interest of every good system of prison discipline, as the mere restraint and coercion of the offender.

Herein consists a principal difference between the discipline of Pennsylvania and that of another prominent system in our country-the former considers moral reform as the primary design of prison discipline, the latter

nut street prison, to carry the plan of separation into effect; hence the prisons for many years have been rather a school of vice, than a place of moral instruction and reform; but we are justified in saying, that in many of these instances, and these alone, where a solitary confinement was exercised, a well ascertained and practical reformation was effected.

In the address from the prison Society to the Legislature, which induced the erection of the Arch street prison, the necessity of more extensive buildings, for the complete trial of the system of separate imprisonment, is strongly enforced, and with that intent the edifice was erected. In the year 1818, the Society again urged upon the legislature the necessity of the erection of penitentiaries, in suitable parts of the state, for the more

1828.1

PITTSBURG PENITENTIARY.

effectual employment and separation of criminals, and of proving the efficacy of solitude on the moral emendation of the unhappy objects, and soon the penitentiary In the same year, the at Pittsburg was commenced. Society, in a letter to the London committee for the improvement of prison discipline, emphatically stated, that one of the chief causes of the apparent failure of the penitentiary system, was the impracticability of confining the convicts to solitary labour.

In 1821, the Society made its last appeal to the Legislature. Your memorialists will not trespass further on your attention by entering into the details of this document: suffice it to say, that after forty years experience, they gave it as their decided opinion, that the erection of suitable edifices for complete practice of the system of separate confinement, was the only means by which the designs of benevolence, in regard to the improvement of prison discipline, could be achieved. During that session, the Legislature were pleased to order the erection of the Penitentiary, now nearly completed, in the neighbourhood of Philadelphia, with the definite object and design, that in it the system of separate confinement might be tried, under the most favorable auspices.

Your memorialists have been thus particular in tracing the progress of prison reform in Pennsylvania, in order to remind the assembly that the constant aim of all the legislation which has taken place upon this subject, has been the final adoption and prosecution of the system of separate confinement; and also to show, that the Society which now approaches you has always received the kindest attention to its suggestions, and the utmost facilities for executing its plans, which the legislature could afford.

Your memorialists would earnestly entreat the legislature now to perfect and consummate, by the passage of a penal code and system of prison discipline founded on the principle of solitary confinement, that great scheme of christian benevolence, which has its inception in Pennsylvania, and to effectuate which, you have expended large sums in the erection of commodious edifices. Your memorialists are aware, that great efforts are making to bring the system of Pennsylvania into disrepute, and to promote the adoption of a system which is of a totally dissimilar, and in the opinion of your memorialists, of a severe and cruel character; but without entering into a detailed examination of the respective merits of the two systems, they deem it right, in a few words, to correct some misrepresentations, with regard to their views and wishes on the subject of solitary confinement, which they believe to have been extremely injurious to the progress of prison reformation.

Solitary confinement has been represented as extremly barbarous. The idea has been inculcated, that every offender, on his entrance into prison, is to be immured in some narrow, gloomy cell, out of sight or hearing of any of his species-Insanity, idiocy, and great physical injury have been predicted as the certain consequences of so dreadful a system.-The dungeons of the Bastile and Inquisition have been held up as parallels to our places of confinement-Pennsylvanian benevolence has been affirmed to be in iminent danger of degenerating into Austrian tyranny. Permit us to say, that the whole of this horrible creation is the offspring either of ignorance or misconception.

Your memorialists cannot refrain from expressing a
hope, that the legislature will adopt such a penal code
as may enable us to test, in the penitentiary, for the
erection of which you have already expended large sums
of money; that system, which, for nearly fifty years,
your memorialists have been desirous to put in practice,
and fully and fairly to prove which, under the most fa-
they further earnestly request, that no other system may
vorable auspices, this very prison has been built-and
be adopted until that of Pennsylvania, has been fully,
fairly, and completely tried.

Your memorialists, in referring to the generous atten-
tion with which, in former years their suggestions have
been received, cannot but indulge the sincere hope, that
they shall not be unsuccessful in their present final effort.
WM. WHITE, President.
By order of the Society.
Philadelphia, Dec. 1827.
ROBERTS VAUX, Secretary.

PITTSBURG PENITENTIARY.
The Secretary of the Commonwealth being introduced
accompanied with the following document:
presented to the Senate a message from the Governor,
monwealth of Pennsylvania.
To his excellency J. Andrew Shulze, Governor of the Com-

The Commissioners for the erection of a State Peni-
That they have at length the pleasure of announcing
tententiary near Pittsburg, respectfully report:
the termination of their labours and the completion of
the building.

The penitentiary has been delivered over to the Board have been submitted to the examination of the Board of Inspectors, and the books, accounts and vouchers of Commissioners appointed by your excellency for that purpose. To their report, this board begs leave to refer for information as to the manner in which this important duty has been performed.

The cost of this splendid edifice, exclusive of the sum required for its furnishing, is $178,206 854; which leaves in the treasury $714 144, the unexpended balance of the different appropriations for its erection.

In addition to the sum above mentioned as expended in the erection of the building, 4,885 dollars 2 cents have been expended in making fences, procuring locks, stoves, grates, furniture, &c. according to the provision of the act of the 1st April 1826, entitled "An act further supplementary to the act, entitled an act to provide for the erection of a State Penitentiary on the public. land adjoining the town of Allegheny opposite Pittsburg which makes the total cost of this building and its equipin the county of Allegheny, and for other purposes,' ments $183.091 87.

The Commissioners appointed to examine the accounts of this Board, having in pursuance of the powers vested in them, made an award in favour of Thomas Fairman, John Hannen, James Anderson and Richard Gray of $1,402 92, it became the duty of the Board, in obedience to the provisions of an act relative to the Eastern and Western Penitentiaries, passed April 9th 1827, to pay to the said Thomas Fairman, John Hannen, James Anderson and Richard Gray, the above mentioned balance of $714 144, together with the sum of $114 98 remainthe 1st April 1826. But the Board having as they coning unexpended of the appropriation of $5,000, made Perhaps the term separate, rather than solitary confine-fidently believed, faithfully discharged the public trust ment, would more appropriately describe the kind of durance which we propose to inflict. Completely to separate one prisoner from another: to take away every possible chance of communication in prison, and mutual recognition, after discharge, is what we greatly desire. Suitable books and private religious instruction we would afford to all: but if labour should be introduced, we hope that no other will ever be permitted than such as can be performed in their private separate apartments, and that this will be employed as an alleviation, not an aggravation of their punishment.

reposed in them, and having by the completion of the Penitentiary and its appertinances, no further claims upon their attention, dissolved on the 22d day of November last, before any intimation of the award was received. Their books and accounts were closed, and they conceived these balances to be in the State Treasury and not subject to their order.

Previously to closing this final communication, it is proper to inform your excellency, that the Board on the for the use of the Commonwealth, all the remaining maoccasion of its dissolution, passed over to the Inspectors

terials and tools, with the request that they would dispose of them, and place the proceeds to the credit of the state. They have also respectfully solicited the Inspectors to inquire into the manner and cause of the escape of Hiram Lindsay and other convicts. Their report has not yet been made, but it is firmly believed, that notwithstanding their escape, the Penitentiary will be found to be fully adequate to the secure confinement of prisoners, and that the escapes are neither attributable to a want of strength in the prison, nor vigilance in the keepers, but to the unfortunate necessity of receiving convicts before the workmen were completely excluded from the yard, and thereby placing within the reach of those prisoners who had effected their liberation from their cells, boards and scantling, serving the purposes of ladders, whereby they obtained an easy passage over the outward wall, which, under other circumstances, would have been impracticable.

With high respect, I have the honour to be your most obedient servant,

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REVOLUTIONARY REMINISCENCE. The following anecdote is quoted from the new Philadelphia Quarterly Review.

When the British army held possession of Philadelphia, Gen. Howe's head-quarters were in Second-street, the fourth door below Spruce, in a house which was before occupied by Gen. Cadwallader. Directly opposite resided William and Lydia Darrah, members of the society of Friends. A superior officer of the British army, believed to be the adjutant general, fixed upon one of their chambers, a back room, for private conference; and two of them frequently met there, with fire and candles in close consultation. About the 2d of December, the adjutant-general told Lydia that they would be in the room at 7 o'clock, and remain late; and that they wished the family to retire early to bed; adding, that when they were going away they would call her to let them out, and extinguish their fire and candles. She accordingly sent all the family to bed; but as the officer had been so particular, her curiosity was excited. She took off her shoes, and put her ear to the key-hole of the conclave, and overheard an order read for all the British troops to march out late in the evening of the 4th and attack Gen. Washington's army, then encamped at White March. On hearing this she returned to her chamber and laid down. Soon after the officer knocked at the door, but she rose only at the third summons, having feigned herself asleep. Her mind was so much agitated, that she could neither eat nor sleep; supposing it to be in her power to save the lives of thousands of her fellow countrymen, but not knowing how she was to convey the information to Gen. Washington, not daring

to confide it to her husband. The time left, however, was short. She quickly determined to make her way as soon as possible, to the American outposts. She informed her family that, as she was in want of flour, she would go to Frankford for some; her husband insisted she should take her servant maid with her, but to his surprise she positively refused. She got access to Gen. Howe, and solicited what he readily granted, a pass through the British troops on the lines. Leaving her bag at the mill, she hastened towards the American lines and encountered on her way an American lieutenant colonel (Craig) of the light horse, who, with some of his men, was on the look-out for information. He knew her and inquired where she was going? She answered, in quest of her son an officer in the American army, and prayed the colonel to alight and walk with her. He did so, ordering his troops to keep in sight. To him she disclosed her secret, after having obtained from him a

solemn promise never to betray her individually, as her life might be at stake with the British.

He conducted her to a house near at hand, directed something for her to eat, and hastened to head-quarters when he brought Gen. Washington acquainted with what he had heard. Washington made, of course, all preparation for baffling the meditated surprise. Lydia returned home with her flour; sat up alone to watch the movements of the British troops; heard their footsteps; but when they returned in a few days after, did not dare to ask a question, though solicitous to learn the event. The next evening the Adjutant-general came in, and requested her to walk up to his room as he wished to put some questions. She followed him in terror; and when he locked the door and begged her, with an air of mystery, to be seated, she was sure that she was either suspected or betrayed. He inquired earnestly whether any of her family was up the last night when he and the other officer met: she told him they all retired at eight o'clock. He observed, "I know you were asleep, for I knocked at your chamber door three times before you heard me: I am entirely at a loss to imagine who gave Gen. Washington information of our intended attack, unless the walls of the house could speak. When we arrived near White Marsh we found all their cannon mounted, and the troops prepared to receive us, and we have marched back like a parcel of fools."

CHRONICLE.

The commissioners of the County of Philadelphia have made the following appointments for the present year: WILLAM MOULDER, Treasurer. WILLIAM RODERFIELD, Chief Clerk. PETER F. FRITEZ, Assistant Clerk. THOMAS SERGEANT, Solicitor.

ARCH. RANDALL, SCounsels for the collection

of fines and forfeited recognizances.

JOHN R. VOGDES.
JACOB ZEILEN, Superintendant of public buildings.
WILLAM GILBERT, Messenger.

ceived and read.
The following communication from the Mayor was re-

Mayor's Office, Philadelphia, Jan. 6, 1828. To the president and members

of the Select and Common Councils, GENTLEMEN-Through the instrumentality of our respected townsman William Meredith, Esq. I have recently obtained possession of the missing minutes of the councils of this city. I have caused them to be interleaved, and securely and carefully bound up in a single large volume. These minutes commence on the 3d day. of October, 1704, and end on the 17th February, 1776. They present an interesting mass of information, being an almost unbroken series of record of the incipient proceedings and wise doings of the Fathers of the City, developing the origin and gradual progress of many of our important local establishments. I have much pleasure in laying this volume on the table of Councils. With great respect, I am, your obedient servant,

JOSEPH WATSON, Mayor.

Greensburgh, (Pa.) Jan. 11. The Flood.-At no period since the settlement of this country, is there known to have been so much rain as within the last six weeks. The Kiskiminetas was so high that the water ran into the salt pans in the manufacturing establishments. Mill-dams and bridges have suffered severely.

Printed every Saturday morning by WILLIAM F. GED DES, No. 59 Locust street, Philadelphia; where, and at the EDITOR's residence, No. 51 Filbert street, Subscriptions will be thankfully received. Price five dollars per annum-payable in SIX MONTHS after the commencement of publication--and annually thereafter, by Subscribers resident in or near the city-or where there is an agent. Other Subscribers pay in advance.

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