David Weatherly, watch makers of the City of Phila- for serving notices to Physicians and Managers, and for delphia, be and they are hereby appointed a "commit-commissions on collections, $16 12; Printing Constitutee on public clocks," and are empowered to take the tion and Annual reports, and for their distribution $38; direction of all clocks that Councils shall declare for Medicines, Bleeding and Leeching, $15 63, and public; and they are hereby authorized subject to the for Nursing $40-making altogether $109 75, by approval of Councils, to appoint a suitable person which it appears that a balance of $11 23 was due the to take charge of and regulate all "the public Treasurer. clocks," and whose salary shall be $200 per annum, payable quarterly. Sec. 4. And be it further ordained and enacted by the authority aforesaid, That the "Committee on markets," is hereby authorized to make suitable accommodations for a public clock and bell, at the east end of the market house in High street west of Broad street; and that "the Committee on public clocks," is authorized to procure, under the direction of said "Committee on markets," the said clock and bell; and also a new el ck, to be located in place of the old one, now at Second and High streets. The subject of the funds, being of vital importance to the prosperity, even to the further progress of this Institution, as exhibited by the statement of the Treasurer, naturally suggests the necessity of greater exertions on the part of the managers, contributors, and friends of this charity, to extend the list of annual subscribers, which appears to be the readiest method we can now avail ourselves of, ta replenish the exhausted Treasury. A fund is always required to defray the expenses of medicines, nursing, &c. But it is believed that were this Association in circumstances adequate to the erection of a Lying-in Hospital, as contemplated in Sec. 5. And be it further ordained and enacted by the revised Constitution, its usefulness might be greatthe authority aforesaid, That the clocks in the follow-ly extended, and its rank among the best charitable ing locations shall be hereafter " Public Clocks," viz: institutions of the present times be soon fully established. The foregoing Report brought in by a Committee, was adopted and ordered to be printed. ROBERTS VAUX, At the State House. At the Market House, Pine and Second streets. At the Market House, High and Second street. Sec. 6. And be it further ordained and enacted by the authority aforesaid, That the Mayor is hereby authorized to draw on the City Treasury for the expens. es that shall be incurred under the provisions of this ordinance; and that the ordinance enacted September 19, 1833, entitled "An ordinance providing for the regulation of time keepers,"" be and the same is hereby repealed. THIRD ANNUAL REPORT OF THE PHILADEL PHIA LYING IN CHARITY. Having in our former annual reports, fully stated the object of this association, and its importance in the list of Charitable institutions, as well as its title to the beneficence of a liberal and enlighted community, we do not purpose to remark much further at present upon these points. The District Physicians have faithfully attended to their duties, in all cases brought to their notice by order of the managers, and many poor industrious females have experienced their kind attention, at a time when their domestic concerns would otherwise have been sadly interrupted by an absence from home, or their feelings of independence in a great measure destroyed by a recurrence to that relief which public bounty pro vides, but from which the delicate female heretofore accustomed to comforts of her own, revolts at the idea of receiving. It is not our business, or in the least degree our intention to attribute to any particular cause the difficulties which have more or less affected the community, during the past year, the effects of which in many instances fell heavily upon the laboring classes: the relief extended to some of these by the "Lying in Charity," has been well timed and efficient. By information obtained from our District Physicians, it appears that they have attended on 69 cases during the past year., By a statement of Edward Needles, the Treasurer, dated on the 1st inst. it appears, that there have been received since our last annual report, in the eleventh month, 1833, the sum of $29 23-making together with the balance of $69 29, then in the Treasury, an aggregate of $98 52, available funds for the current expenses of the Institution. There has been expended, Attest H. WALTON, M. D. Secretary. Vice President. DEFENCE of philadelPHIA. At a meeting of the Military Council of the First Brigade First Division, P. M. held at the Military Hall, on Thursday, March 5th, 1835, the following resolutions were unanimously adopted: Whereas, It appears that the Congress of the United States has adjourned, sine die, without having made any provision for the defence of the river Delaware, and particularly, that the appropriation for the repair and armament of Fort Mifflin, has not become a law, by which neglect, the city of Philadelphia is left exposed to insult and invasion. Therefore Resolved, By the Military Council of the 1st Brigade 1st Division, P. M. in full Council assembled, That the Brigadier General commanding this Brigade, be and he is hereby requested. to address forthwith, his Excel lency, the Governor of this Commonwealth, upon the exposed situation of the city of Philadelphia, in case of war between France and the United States,-and that he would suggest to his Excellency the propriety of his strongly recommending to the Legislature the necessity tion for the complete repair and armament of Fort of its making an immediate and sufficient appropria· Mifflin. Brigadier General to recommend to the Legislature, that all fines hereafter to be collected in the 1st Division, P. M. for non-performance of militia duty, shall be expended in equipping the several volunteer regiments in the said Division. Resolved, That the Governor be requested by the Resolved, That these proceeding be published in the daily papers of the city. A. M. PREVOST, Brigadier Gen. and Pres't. of the Council. JAMES PAGE, COL. J. S. RILEY, Vice Pres'ts. A. J. Pleasonton, Printed every Saturday morning by WILLIAM F. GEDDES, No. 9 Library street. The publication office of the Register has been removed from Franklin Place, to No. 61, in the Arcade, Western Avenue, up stairs. HAZARD'S REGISTER OF PENNSYLVANIA. DEVOTED TO THE PRESERVATION OF EVERY KIND OF USEFUL INFORMATION RESPECTING THE STATE. Letter of Mr. Wiltse, Agent of Sing-Sing State Prison. Mount Pleasant, Aug. 27, 1834. My Dear Sir,- Whatever may be the fact in other countries, there can be but little doubt but education, and early application to some kind of business, would have a powerful tendency to decrease crime. From my long intimacy with criminals, I have found that a large majority of convictions may be traced to the formation of bad habits in early life, from a total neglect on the part of their parents, or guardians, in giving them education, and confining their attention to some regular, systematic I am, very respectfully, business. To DR. F. LIEBER. Yours, ROB. WILTSE. There are at present 842 prisoners. R. W. "In my last annual report, I alluded to the want of common school learning, which prevailed so generally among convicts. On a more minute examination of this subject,I find that of the whole number received into this penitentiary, from the opening, viz: two hundred and nineteen, that forty-two could neither read nor write; fifty-nine could read, but not write, and one hundred and eighteen could read and write: of the latter class, one had been educated at a university, one had a good English education, and is a tolerable Latin and French scholar, one understands English, Dutch and Hebrew; besides these, there are no more than seven who have had a good education, and not more than two others N. B. You will observe that but 50 out of 842,* who could read and write tolerably, leaving ninety-have received any thing like an education. eight who could read or write indifferently, many of these as well as most of those who could read only, were not able to read a sentence without spelling many of the words. It is not only in their elementary education that these have been neglected in their youth, but also in another respect, namely, their ignorance of trades and occupations to qualify them for useful citizens. On an investigation of this point, I find that out of the whole number (219) only thirty were regularly bound and served out their apprenticeship, sixteen remained during their minority with their parents, thirtyeight were apprenticed, but left their masters under various pretences, most of them ran away, and gave as a reason, the severity with which they were treated; the want of food, clothing, &c.; two of them declare that their masters first taught them to steal; eight were slaves until twenty one or twenty-eight year of age, and one hundred and twenty-one were never apprenticed, but were either hired by their friends or themselves, and lived in this unsettled way during their minority. 85 510 42 8 have never been at school of any kind. know how to read, but not to write. know how to read and write, but a large proportion of this number very imperfectly. received a good common English education. went through a college. 485 have been habitual drunkards; about one-third of the above number actually committed their crimes when intoxicated. The other queries about the apprenticeships I cannot answer correctly, without going to each man in the prison; at present, my time will not permit me to do it. R. W. Addition from page 149, of A Constitution and Plan of Education for Girard College for Orphans, Philadelphia, 1834. "There are among mankind some who have been liberally educated, and carefully superintended during "As it is a question of great interest to the crimitheir youth, who nevertheless become abandoned, and nalist and moralist, to know how many convicts have we see others, without these advantages, rise to the first lost their parents at an early age, I begged Mr. Wiltse, stations in society, yet the disproportion is great. I the agent of the Sing-Sing Penitentiary, to answer certherefore believe, that had the two hundred and nine-tain queries, which he promptly did, with that kindteen convicts above mentioned, received a suitable education, both moral and physical, and been placed with good masters until twenty-one years of age to learn some practical business, where they would be taught industry, economy, and morality, instead of spending their youth as they have, that few of them would ever have been inmates of a prison. All philanthropists agree, that the best mode of preventing crime, is properly to educate youth." *By Samuel R. Wood, Esq. ness with which he has always afforded me information respecting the state prison under his superintendence. There are about 800 convicts in Sing-Sing. Some few of them were unable to say when they had lost their parents; of whom, therefore, many must be supposed to have lost them early; of the others, 72 48 lost their parents before they were five years old. after they were five years old, and before they were 14 years old. after they were 14 years old, and before they were 18 years old. 161 lost their parents before they had arrived at their 41 inquiries respecting the former character of the convicts in this prison, as it regards their education, habits,&c.; and as my sphere of duties has led me to be more familiar than he is with the subject, he requests me to furnish the answer, which I most cheerfully do. Some of the questions, however, I cannot answer at all, and few, if any, of the others, in precisely the form in which they are proposed, without interrogating, sepa rately, six or seven hundred convicts, which, with my limited opportunities of intercourse with them, would necessarily delay this reply for months. I must therefore beg you to accept, as the best reply which I can at present give to your interrogatories, the following statements, (taken from minutes which I have at hand) from which you will, I hope, be able to glean the substance of the information sought, on most of the points of inquiry. The statements which follow, relate to the 670 convicts (twenty-eight of whom are females) in prison on the first ult. REMARKS. Under the head "Education," my fifth class answers to your first-" Do know neither to write nor to read." It embraces not those only who did not know the alphabet, but all those who could read in the New Tes tament, when they came to prison. My fourth class answers, with little variation, to your second-" Know how to read, but not to write.". Some of them could write very poorly, but few of them more than their names. My third class embraces some of your third, fourth and fifth-("Know to read and write"-"Know to read, write, and cast accounts"-" Received a good common English education"-but consists chiefly of your fourth. There are a few in it who can be said to have "received a good common English education.” The other classes are sufficiently explained by the terms used. Regretting, extremely, that I am unable to answer inquiries more definitely, Yours of the 12th inst. came duly to hand, and is cheerfully replied to as soon as answers to your questions could be obtained. If the following statements should somewhat more than cover the ground embraced in your inquiries, I doubt not, that your interest in the subject, will cause you to give them a welcome reception. The whole number of convicts in the Connecticut State Prison is 180. No convict here has ever received either a college, or classical education; nor has any one of such education ever been an inmate of this prison. The Chaplain, who, from 1827 to 1830, was acquainted with nearly 1000 convicts, in the Mount Pleasant State Prison, at Sing Sing, N. Y., and with many other convicts in the prisons in Philadelphia, Baltimore and Auburn, has never known a liberally educated convict in prison. The proportion of 8 in 100 convicts when they came to prison, could read, write and cypher. The proportion of 46 in 100 of convicts, could read and write. who are owners of real estate who are owners of real estate, and were temperate who were owners of real estate, and unmarried who have never been married who were married, and followed 4 in 100 6 in 100 2 in 100 0 64 in 100 4 in 100 0 who acknowledge themselves to 40 in 100 deprived of their parents, before 32 in 100 a trade who were married, followed a trade, and were temperate have been habitual drunkards 75 in 100 not natives in Connecticut they were 10 years old deprived of their parents, before they were 15 years old those who are colored are 15 in 100 *25 in 100 Upon an average, each criminal cost the State for his apprehension and conviction, $75, and the average term of time that each was sentenced to remain in confinement, (abating 45 sentences for life) has been 3 years. Since the prison has been established in this place, some seven or eight years ago, the number of convicts has considerably increased, and hence, the French commissioners, and English gentlemen may have naturally inferred, that there must have been an increase of crime in equal proportion. But the truth of this As soon as the new prison matter seems to lie here. was built, the criminal code was revised, and alterawith confinement in the State Prison. Besides, because tions made so as to punish a larger number of offences, the discipline of the prison was thought to have a strong tendency to reform those, who came under its influlabor of the convicts more than meet the expenses of ence, and as such economy was used, as to make the the whole establishment, the courts in the different counties, were more than ever inclined to sentence individuals to the State prison for the same offences.For some time past there has been a very manifest decrease in this State in the instances both of crime and convictions. Ever sincej last January, there has been a diminution of at least 20 in the number of convicts. Viewing with high satisfaction the deep interest which you evince in that department, where my labors have for many years centred, I am Sir, With sentiments of sincere regard, yours, &c. A. PILSBURY, Warden of Connecticut State Prison, pr. G. Barrett. To Dr. F. LIBER,} * In the State blacks are to the whites as 3 to 100. OBSERVATIONS BY DR. JULIUS. Having had the privilege, during my stay in the city of Philadelphia, to assist at a meeting of the members of the Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons, where the preceding Letter of Dr. Leiber on the Relation between Education and Crime, was read, Children not yet hav- 410 .357 431 469 Proportion of the whole population 1:16924 1:21524 1.21167 1:17460 The first fact resulting from this table is,-that under I was requested to state what I thought to be the result the Prussian School system, a simultaneous increase of of the school system of Prussia in reference to this inter- 13,000,000) and a decrease of indictments against chilthe population of three per cent, (from 12,700,000 to esting question. I shall refer, therefore, as shortly as possible, the few conclusions I have thought myself fact, connected with the remarkable circumstance, that dren, of three per cent has taken place. This cheering competent to deduce from an uninterrupted observa- the indictments against children below eleven years, tion of the number of crimes, as well as of the state of who had enjoyed the blessings of the system only dureducation in most of the countries of Europe and Ame. rica, during ten years, without claiming for what I haveing four years, have increased, (from 81 to 94) when a to say a greater authority than the observations of a large decrease of the indictments against children of single individual, spending the largest part of his time more than eleven years, (from 671 to 638) took place, which were able to reap the full benefit of a religious in an inland continental capital, may entitle him. and moral education, seems to prove undeniably The well known-and, since Mr. Cousin published that the effects of the system have been good and benehis interesting Report-far-famed Prussian system of ficial. National Education, went properly into practice in the year 1819, and has three fundamental principles and supporting pillars. First, the erection of seminaries or schools for teachers in the elementary schools, of which Prussia, with a population equal to that of the United States, has now forty-three, of the Protestant and Catholic denominations, furnishing annually from eight to nine hundred teachers, well informed and trained during three years, for their future avocation. Secondly, the legal obligation of parents, guardians, &c. to send children under their care, if they are not instructed by qualified teachers at home, or in authorized private schools, to the public schools, from the first day of their seventh to the last day of their fourteenth year. Thirdly, the foundation of the whole system on a religious and moral basis, so that the first or the two first hours of each day are devoted entirely to a regular course of religious instruction, teaching, besides the reading of the scriptures, (for the Catholics, histories taken from the Bible,) all the duties of man towards his Creator, the constituted authorities, and his fellow creatures, as they are inculcated by the gospel. These general regulations on education have been gradually augmented and strengthened by the Prussian Minister of Public Instruction, with a particular care for the reformation of juvenile offenders. In this way, since the year 1820, twenty-eight institutions for juvenile delinquents, or neglected children, none of them larger than for sixty boys or girls, have been established and supported by voluntary subscriptions, in different parts of the kingdom, under the especial protection of the above-mentioned minister. Since 1828, the board of the same minister has collected from all the tribunals and courts of law in the kingdom, regular returns of all the indictments brought before them, against boys or girls, not older than seventeen years. The numbers furnished by these official returns, and the proportion of this kind of indictments in each year, to the general population of the monarchy, are the following: Another remarkable fact resulting from these Prussian returns, is, that the smallest number of juvenile delinquencies occurred in the least instructed entirely agricultural provinces of Pomerania and Posen, (the first protestant, the last Catholic) and the largest numbers in the best instructed but also most industrious and manufacturing provinces, those of Saxony and the Rhenish countries, whose commercial and manufac turing districts surpass even the capital in this kind of transgressions. Trying to elucidate the circumstance just mentioned, I must state that the crimes for which the children were committed in those parts of the kingdom, where their number was small, have been generally of a more henious character (arson, &c.) than in the provinces with more indictments, but principally for fraud or larceny. Similar observations relating to the whole number of criminals, and to the kind of crime, can be made in the Austrian monarchy, which contains very heterogeneous and widely different masses of population. The order in which the proportion of the number of every kind of indictments to the population, has increased during the five years of 1824, 1825, 1826, 1827, and 1828, was in seven provinces of Austria, the following:Provinces. Moravia and Silesia, Austria Proper, Bohemia, Galicia, Interior Austria, Tyrol and Vorarlberg, German and Italian, Dalmatia, Sclavonian, German and Solavonian, 1 to 1707 German, 1 to 1676 Sclavonian and German, 1 to 1428 1 to 1382 German, Sclavonian & Italian, 1 to 609 1 to 322 1 to 138 The decreasing proportion of children visiting the schools, among one thousand able to attend, was in the same provinces in the years 1824, 1825, and 1828, the following: From 1000 Children went to School. Provinces. 94 Bohemia, 544 638 Dalmatia, Whole number of committed children 752 Uninstructed children 80 56 • The legal qualification of a teacher consists in his having passed different examinations, the last by the Consistory court of the province where he intends to settle. Interior Austria, 948 945 919 906 649 443 115 |