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as labourers, or in the country as farmers. I agreewith thee in most of the sentiments contained in thyprivate remarks, and have handed a copy to the lead-ing members of our legislature, who, I know, areheartily disposed to improve our penal code, andestablish the mildest penitentiary system. I havethe fullest confidence, that the most objectionableparts of the commissioners report will not be adopt-ed; and, in time, I am satisfied, that confinement incells, on bread and water, for breach of prison disci-pline, will be practised instead of corporeal punish-ment. The public feeling, and the principles of com-mon sense, will prevail, and do away the deep rootedprejudices of our public legislation—the work is slow,but sure. My friend Hopkins, whose character isknown to thee, is a good man, but the report of the commissioners serves to prove, that he has some veryincorrect notions respecting the penitentiary system;however, I believe his mind is now got to be moreenlightened on the subject. My particular and inti-mate friend, Cadwallader D. Colden, an eminentlawyer, and formerly mayor of this city, and now amember of the Senate of this state, has been closelyunited with me for many years, in endeavours forthe improvement of our penal laws and penitentiarysystem. He has been uniformly most decided in hissentiments in favour of the great object we have inview; and I have full confidence in his judgment,zeal, and attention to any legislative business, thatmay be introduced in the course of the present win-ter. The prison building in Philadelphia to accommo-date six hundred convicts, will be finished next year,and will cost five times as much as ours at Sing Sing,which will have eight hundred cells. Their plan is,that a convict sentenced for three, four, or five years,shall, during the whole period of his sentence, be con-fined in his cell, at some kind of work; this, they say,will produce complete reformation, and they are so fixed