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ness, that he could have done if his own interest had been his object; and I am convinced that he would not have felt the same gratification from obtaining any private advantage, that he did, from the adoption of those laws by the legislature, which he had long and ardently advocated, and which he considered as setting an example which would meliorate the condition of mankind. The members of the first board of governors of the state prison were mostly taken from the society of Friends. Mr. Eddy held the principal office, under the title, I think, of superintendent. The assistant attorney general was, ex-officio, connected with the administration of the prison, and this gave me an oppor-tunity of observing its management and government. The good order, comfort, cleanliness, industry, and devotion which prevailed, as long as the Friends had the management of the institution, were very remarkable. But in 1800, when there was a great revolution in political power, those who had effected the change thought their influence should be felt every where; and though there was no emolument annexed to the office of governor of the prison, there were those of the dominant party, whose ambition was to be gratified by being put in the place of the Friends who were managers of the institution. The differ-ence between the government of those who took the office merely from motives of philanthropy, and who devoted themselves to the discharge of its duties, and those who held it as an honorary dis-tinction, that deserved but little sacrifice of their private business, was soon perceived. The new management was so bad, that it had very nearly occasioned the failure of this great experiment; and nothing was more common than to hear it said, even by many of its original advocates, that it had done so, and that there was no resource but to the former sanguinary penal code. I have often heard Mr. Eddy lament this state of things; but he never abandoned the hope of seeing a system, of which he very justly considered himself as one of the founders, established; and he lost no opportunity of inviting the public attention to means by which he thought the objections to the new code might be obviated. He proposed that county or district prisons or penitentiaries should be erected. That the prison of the state should be reserved for offenders of the highest grade, while those of a lower degree should be punished in the former. I am convinced that among