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as an Insurance broker, and did considerable business as an underwriter, in which 1 was successful. In 1793, or 1794, I was elected a Director in the Mutual Insurance Company, and soon after a Director in the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company, and in 1797, was appointed Treasurer of that Company. From early life, all improvement of a public nature, that tended to benefit the country, or in any shape promote the happiness and welfare of mankind, were considered by me as highly important, and claimed my attention. I have been connected with a num-ber of public institutions, and have providentially been the means of their being established. Mr. Eddy, at this time, being in easy circumstances, had leisure to turn his attention to some of those charities that are of permanent benefit to mankind. He had read the human mind with great sagacity and attention, and had analyzed the spirit of society in his own country. He found, as every wise man will, that if there are inevitable evils in the world, yet much may be done by way of softening them, or preparing the mind to bear them. One of the first objects of his exertions was that of establishing a penitentiary in the State of New York, for he believed that many who had been al-lured to the paths of vice might be recalled, if proper methods were taken to instruct them in trades, to give them industrious habits, and to keep them from the pollution of those hardened in iniquity. He was well acquainted with the general plan and economy of the penitentiary establishment in Philadelphia, which had been got up by the influence of the Soci-ety of Friends, but he thought even this system was susceptible of improvement. No other state had then followed the example of Pennsylvania, nor had its fame reached the leading philanthropists of New York. The penal code in most of the States still has the sanguinary spirit and hard features of the English penal code, which, with all their boasted love of