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ment of them degrading to the character of our spe-cies? It is not only for our own satisfaction, that we aredesirous of obtaining whatever information you canfurnish in relation to these interesting subjects, butbecause we believe the combined experience of allthose who have been engaged in this great object ofstate polity, cannot fail to advance its value in the estimation of others, and thereby subserve, at once,the purposes of justice, and the cause of humanity. We believe that, in our own country, the numberof its friends is gradually multiplying; and it is with peculiar satisfaction, we have heard of the exertionswhich some benevolent individuals, in their privatecapacity, as well as enlightened statesmen, in theirpublic character, are employing in Great Britain, torender the laws of that kingdom less sanguinary.—These advocates of reformation have had the candourto acknowledge, that they were encouraged to com-mence the laudable work, from the success which had followed our experiments; and hence we see theimportance of embodying all the evidence which canbe collected, to support, in England, this effort ofmercy, and of diffusing these beneficent principles, through all those nations and states, by which they havenot yet been adopted. We are, very respectfully, &;c. CALEB CRESSON, junr.,ROBERT VAUX, } Secretaries. New York, 6th month, 5th, 1802. RESPECTED FRIEND, Thy sentiments on crimes and punishments com-municated to the public, in two excellent works onthe Police of London and the Thames, has inducedme, without the pleasure of a personal acquaintanceto inform thee of the progress of an experimentmaking in this state, by adopting a plan similar tothe one formed, soon after the revolution, in Pennsyl-vania, for the amelioration of the penal laws.