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ed account of Mr. Eddy, by my apparent negligence;my correspondence with him being only occasional, and extending to little more than the interchange ofnew publications, although I always entertained avery high opinion both of his benevolence and hisliterary talents. As the indisposition to which I have referred, attacked me at a lime when I was en-gaged in a debate with some of your countrymen,on the subject of prison discipline, my medical friendsadvised me, for a time, not to enter again upon that subject, and it is only of late that I have been able tohave the satisfaction of hearing of the system of dis-cipline recently established at Pennsylvania; whence,for many years, I have been led to expect the adop-tion of the horrid punishment of solitary confinement, without permitting the convicts to labour; withwhich view, the legislature has erected two large andexpensive prisons, intending to confine the criminalsin such a manner that they should be separated, notonly by night but by day, and should be deprived ofthe liberty of working, lest it should be an allevia-tion of their suffering. Against this inhuman andunchristian-like system, my humble voice has been raised, amongst those of many others of more impor-tance, for several years past; but it is only a fewweeks since that I have learnt, by a communicationof authentic documents from Philadelphia, that the legislature have at length given way to the feelingsof humanity, and have determined that the convictsshall be allowed to labour in the day, and shall beinstructed for that purpose, as well as in whateverelse may be requisite for their reformation. Thecommissioners, whom the legislature had appointedto consider and report to them on this subject, had,indeed, recommended to them, in their report, thatthe convicts should be permitted to labour in compa-nies, under proper restriction; but with this the legis-lature would not comply, which I cannot but greatlyregret; although I cannot but rejoice, at the same