makers, 10 carpenters, 2 sawyers, 10 smiths, 2 waggon-makers, 3 turners, 2 nailors, 7 coopers, 3 rope-makers, 10 shoemakers, 2'saddlers, 3 tanners, 7 tailors, 1 soap-boiler, 1 brewer, 4 distillers, 1 gardener, 2 grist millers, 2 oil millers, 1 butcher, 6 joiners, 6 dyers, dressers, shearers, &c., 1 fuller, 2 hatters, 2 potters, 2 warpers, 17 weavers, 2 carders, 8 spinners, 1 rover, I minister of religion, 1 schoolmaster, 1 doctor, 1 storekeeper with two assistants, and 1 tavern keeper with 1 assistant. The basis of the Society is religion, and all their temporal concerns are managed in subserviency to it. The greater part of the people were bred in the Lutheran persuasion, and their views of religion are nearly in conformity to it; but the principles which bind them together as a Society may be shortly expressed,-Love to God, goodwill towards man, purity of life, and a community of goods. The pastor is considered as having the call of God. His prayers and sermons are delivered extempore; and if he be indisposed or absent, the Society meet and confer on religious subjects. He is assisted in the management of the religious concerns by elders and deacons appointed by the Society. The youth of the Society are kept at school till they are 14 years old. The school hours are in the forenoon, and the afternoon is devoted to such labour as they can easily perform, it being a branch of the oeconomy of the Society to teach the youth to labour as well as to read and write. They are taught both the German and English languages, with writing and arithmetic; and such as may be destined for the study of medicine will receive a College education. At fourteen the male youths make choice of a profession, and learn it where it is carried on in the Society. The females, at the same age, are occupied in the usual branches of female labour. On Sunday the Society meet in their religious capacity at 9 o'clock, in the school-room, to examine the children, who exhibit different specimens of their performances. This ends about 11; they meet in the church at 12, when they go through the same exercises as those before noticed, which last about an hour and a half. They have another meeting at six o'clock in the evening; and besides the meetings on Sunday they have a sermon two nights in the week. There is no instance of the church being neglected by those who are well and able to walk. It is their delight to attend it, and the religious and moral deportment of the whole Society is highly praiseworthy. There are no vicious habits amongst them. There is not an instance of swearing or lying, or debauchery of any kind; and as to cheating, so commonly practised in civilized society, they have no temptation to it whatever. As individuals they have no use for money, and they have no fear of want. The temporal concerns are conducted in a very orderly manner, having superintendants in each branch, who manage them under the general direction of the Society. There are five master farmers, one master mason, one master shoemaker (who cuts out all the leather), one master tailor, and so on of the other branches. Frederick Rapp superintends the manufacturing establishment; and has the general direction, under the Society, of all the money matters and mercantile concerns. When the Society was first established here, the whole of their property, after defraying their expenses, amounted to only about 20,000 dollars; and this was soon exhausted in the payment for the land, and in supporting themselves till they could bring their industry into operation. Thus, without money and without credit, they suffered great privations; in consequence of which a number of their members shrunk from the difficulty, and retired into the State of Ohio to provide for themselves in a separate capacity. As they required what they had put into the common stock, the Society were thrown into some difficulty to raise it; but they got it accomplished, and they have now drawn up written articles, to be signed by those who join them, calculated to prevent any inconvenience of that kind in future. By these articles, such as may choose to retire are entitled to demand all that they put into the concern by certain instalments; but no interest. Any person may join the Society; and the mode of doing so is equally simple with all the other regulations. The candidate intimates his intention, and is received on trial for one month, during which he lives at the tavern. If he is then satisfied, and chooses to conform to their principles of morality, (they have no religious test,) he is forthwith received as a member, and entitled to all the privileges of the Society. If he is rich, he deposits all his property in the common stock; if he is poor, he has no lack,' all his wants are supplied out of that stock. The stock of the Society we estimated as follows: 9000 acres of land, with improvements Stock of provisions for one year, for 800 persons Dwelling-houses Horses, cattle, hogs, and poultry Dollars. 90,000 25,000 21,000 18,000 10,000 -1000 sheep, one-third Merinos, of which one ram cost 1000 dollars 6,000 Stock of goods, spirits, manufactures, leather, imple ments of husbandry, &c, 50,000 220,000 It may be remarked, that the Society purchased their land for about 20,000 dollars, so that 70,000 of the rise is upon it; but they have cleared 2500 acres, which adds to the value of the rest; and the rise of land, in this way, is always a favourable circumstance to new settlers, who, on the other hand, have many privations to undergo. It has been doubted whether the Society will continue united, on which alone depends their prosperity. From the principles on which the connexion is formed, and the objects they have in view, I am of opinion they will not only continue united, but that they will, in all probability, be a model for other societies. If their union continue, their prospects are bright indeed, both for time and eternity. Here they have the mutual aid of each other, and are free from a thousand temptations to which mankind in general are subjected. Having no fear of want, they have literally no care for the morrow; -they have no use for money- the love of which is the root of all evil. They can attend to the worship of God with single hearts and undivided minds; and all the duties of life are easy, because they go hand in hand with self-interest. In health, they have the fellowship of people of the like mind with themselves-in sickness, they have the advice and assistance of friends on whom they can rely with perfect confidence; of a medical man, who can have no wish but to render them a service; and of a minister of religion, to pour the balm of spiritual consolation into their wounded spirits without money and without price.' At death, they can resign their offspring to the charge of the Society, in the full confidence of their wellbeing; which single circumstance disarms the grim messenger of more than half his terrors. And the purity of their life having fitted them for the enjoyment of God, they can resign their spirit into the hands of the merciful Father of spirits ;-and their bodies being consigned to the dust among the abodes of their brethren, their graves are so many memorials of their virtues. We turned round by Zelionople, half a mile from Harmony, where the Society first attempted to fix their town; but some difference happening between them and the proprietor of the grounds, they moved to the eastward, where they are now situated; and Zelionople looks like a deserted village, having a few miserable wooden houses only. Report from the Committee of the House of Commons on the King's Bench, Fleet, and Marshalsea Prisons, &c. Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed, 1st May 1815. THE important labours of this meritorious committee being advanced to that state of maturity which is indicated by the title of this Report, it is our duty to endeavour to give the public as correct a notion as we are able of the interesting facts which it exposes to view, and of the reforms to which we trust that it will pave the way. This Report is another disclosure of the horrible condition in which prison management remains in this country; a condition which has received but few improvements since the days of barbarous ignorance; and which in many respects has grown more shocking to humanity, as civilization, in matters unconnected with law, has advanced in the country. But truly may it be said, that it is not for want of disclosure, not for want of virtuous men to render the mischief known, that it has been allowed to remain so long; but for want of the exertion of those in whose hands the power is chiefly lodged of removing the evil, or preventing its removal. To speak of no more of those philanthropic individuals, who from the bosom of private life have endeavoured to call attention to the horrible sacrifices of human happiness, human virtue, and human life, daily and hourly offered up in the prisons of this country to the dæmon of abuse, hunted on by avarice and malignity, and left to pursue his prey by negligence, and that detestable and prevalent feeling which has unfortunately too generally guided the legislation of the world,-that if those only are well taken care of who have plenty of money, it is no matter what becomes of those who have none;-to speak of no more of such individuals than Howard and Neild, who qualified themselves to disclose such a range of misery; these men have exhibited a picture, which it might have been expected would have excited horror from one end of the country to the other, and would have rendered it impossible to let the evil remain so nearly quiet and undisturbed to the present day. It may well then be asked, What is the use of making disclosures when they produce no effect? It is not for want of knowledge of the dreadful circumstances, that the existence of so much misery remains unregarded. No man above the education of a porter,-not to speak of the education of a legislator,can pretend to be ignorant of the horrors of the case. The want, therefore, is the want of humanity; and the exhibition of cruelty and wretchedness to minds too callous to regard it, does not by its repetition tend to awaken a regard to human nature, but to render the insensibility more hard and incurable. What hopes, then, it may be said, are we entitled to entertain, that any better consequences will flow from this new exhibition of the abo minations of the prison-houses of the people of this country, than have flowed from the minute and extensive exhibitions which have been made before? To these very reasonable questions we are constrained to answer, that truly the prospect is not a very cheering one; that the same sort of persons who had power to prolong or reform the abuses, have still the power; that the same individuals among them who derived selfish advantage from the abuses and the misery which the abuses produced, still derive these advantages, and have the same influence over the rest of those among whom the power is shared; that the apathy and indifference of the rest to the happiness or misery of that class of the people who are most liable to the horrors of imprisonment are the same as before, as well as the prejudices by which their minds are placed in a state in which they very nearly believe that it would not be good for them, if a certain proportion of their countrymen (meaning the greater proportion) were not liable to oppression. No man who understands to the bottom the tone of feeling, and even of thinking,—if thinking it can be called, which prevails among the powerful classes of this country, will dispute that these prejudices have an influence, and a governing influence. But, though we are constrained to allow all these unfavourable symptoms, we would still further reply, that in a cause like this, so long as there is the smallest portion of hope that our exertions will not be fruitless, it is our bounden duty to go on; so long as we can expect to produce any portion of good, howsoever small; so long even as we can expect to make a single proselyte, our endeavours ought by no means to slacken. A company, however small, to whom some are always added, will sooner or later become large; and as soon as ever the company of those whom the horrors of British prisons have roused be. comes sufficiently enlarged, reform takes place of course; the happy day can no longer be postponed. We cannot help believing that this Report itself is a proof that a concern for the miseries which are the needless and detestable offspring of British prisons is extending itself, and even making its way into some hearts which are of the class which |