and much credit is due to the gentlemen who have assisted in carrying out, to the full extent, the letter of instructions.

Respectfully submitted.

CHAS. F. SMITH,

Chief Eng. Surv. St. Joseph River.

Detroit, January 22, 1838.

Estimates for the complete improvement of the river, securing five feet water to the Three rivers, and four feet from thence to Union city:

First division, 481⁄2 miles.

Commencing at St. Joseph and terminating at the state line. 12 dams and locks,

$73,954 00

112,397 cub. yds. side cut excavation, at 15 cts.

per yard,

16,859 55

8,219 cub. yds. excavation from the bed of the

river, at 25 cts. per cub. yard,

2,054 75

Clearing out logs, &c.

1,000 00

$93,868 30

Second division, 43 miles.

Embracing the portion of the river which passes through Indiana.

12 dams and locks,

4 small wing dams,

77,254 cub. yds. side cut excavation, at $15,

$74,214 00

2,500 00

11,588 10

19,330 cub. yds. excavation bed of the river, at 25 cts., 4,832 50

$93,134 60

Third division, 21 miles.

Extends from the state line to Three Rivers.

4 dams and locks,

$16,930 00

26,572 cub. yds. side cut excavation, at 15 cts. 5,550 cub. yds. excavation, bed of river, at 25 cts.

3,985 80

1,387 80

Closing channels,

2,377 00

$24,680 30

Fourth division, 46 miles.

Commences at Three Rivers, and terminates at Union City.

14 dams and locks,

171,900 cub. yds. side cut excavation, at 15 cts.

$41,950 00

15,785 00

16,600 cub. yds. excavation, bed of river, at 25 cts.

Clearing banks, &c.

$4,150 00

3.000 00

$64,885 00

Estimated cost of Canal from Union City to Homer, distance

twenty miles.

Estimate exhibiting the cost of improving some of the most

difficult points.

First division, 48 miles.

Four dams and locks, at Devil's Elbow, Moccasin

542 00

5,440 cubic yards excavation, bed of river, at 25 cts.

1,360 00

38,462 cubic yards excavation, side cut, at the dams,

at 15 cents,

5,769 30

Clearing river,

1,000 00

$36,780 80

Second division, through Indiana, 43 miles. Six dams and locks, at Stump, Twin and Baw Baw ripples, the island below Penwell's, Sturges' ripple, and at Elkhart,

41,375 cubic yards side cut excavation, at 15 cts. 11,380 cubic yards excavation, bed of river, at 25 cts.

Third division, 21 miles, to Three Rivers. Two dams and locks, below Mottville, and at Knapp's ripple,

11,584 cubic yards side cut excavation, at 15 cents,

$40,184 00

6,206 25 2,845 25

$49,235 50

$8,401 00

1,737 60

3,720 cubic yards excavation, bed of river, at 25 cts. Closing 4 channels, 2 above and 2 below Constantine, Clearing river,

$930 00

1,502 00 300 00

Fourth division, 46 miles, terminating at Union City.

$12,870 60

Six dams and locks,

$18,000 00

17,630 cubic yards bottom excavation, at 25 cts.

4,407 50

110,000 cubic yards side cuts and across points, at

15 cents,

15,500 00

To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Michigan.

The commissioners appointed by his excellency the Governor under the act on the subject of the State Penitentiary, passed March 22, 1837, respectfully submit the following report:

The law from which they derive their authority, requires that they should visit and examine such places in this state, as in their opinion, present the greatest advantages for the location of a state prison, ascertain such facts as they may deem essential respecting the natural advantages of such places, and the peculiar advantages they furnish; that they be authorized to receive propositions from individuals for a site and for furnishing materials and erecting such building or buildings as may be necessary for said prison, and also report what plan is preferable, as well as what system of prison discipline is in their view the most humane and most efficient for answering the ends of the institution.

In consequence of the illness of one of the commissioners, they have not yet been able to attend so fully to that part of their duty which relates to the location of the prison, as the importance of the subject demands; they will attend to the performance of this part of their duty at as early a day as possible, and make it the subject of a second report.

The subject of prison discipline, has within the last few years, deservedly received much attention from many of the most enlightened nations of the earth, and a number of philanthropic individuals have devoted much of their time to the investigation of the subject.

Upon examination, the condition of many of the prisons in the United States was found to be bad. The prevailing practice of confining several convicts in the same room at night, was productive of evils of the greatest magnitude. When left to themselves during the whole period of the night, they were constantly engaged in devising ways and means for the furtherance of their criminal designs; they originated systems of signs by which they could communicate their ideas to each other during the day; they taught the younger and less experienced in crime the secrets of their art; they arranged plans for the commission of crimes when their term of imprisonment should expire, and they conspired with each other, that such as were first released from prison, should use all the means in their power to facilitate the escape of those sentenced to a longer period of confinement.

These prisons were nurseries of vice, the influence of the most hardened and talented rogues pervaded the whole number, and the novice in crime left the prison well schooled in the arts of pickpockets, thieves, incendiaries, counterfeiters, and all such other criminal practices as degrade mankind.

In tracing crimes to their origin, it has in many instances, been ascertained that some of the most heinous ones ever committed, were planned in the cells of a prison, and the first information obtained of the perpetrators, was from their companions still in confinement.

To remedy these evils, commissioners were appointed by several of the United States, and by two or more of the governments of Europe, who have carefully examined many of the prisons in the United States. After a close investigation of the subject, they have all reported in favor of solitary confinement with labor, as the most certain preventive.

The convict subjected to solitary confinement during the night, with labor in his cell, or with joint labor and silence in the workshop during the day, can never, if properly attended to by the of ficers of the prison, find an opportunity to form and arrange any plan of mischief or communicate any evil instruction to his companions; he is left to himself, to reflection, and remorse; his angry passions are moderated, he feels strongly his hapless condition; let him be ever so turbulent, time softens him; his mental punishment is greater than he can well bear; he seeks for relief and consolation in reading his bible and in conversation with his chaplain and such others as will endeavor to persuade him to reform his character and encourage him to persevere in any new

formed intentions of becoming, when he may be liberated from prison, a moral and correct member of community.

In the application of the system of prison discipline, founded on the plan of solitary confinement, with labor, some variety exists. The western penitentiary of the state of New-York, at Auburn, and the eastern prison of the state of Pennsylvania, at Philadelphia, exhibit almost all these varieties in detail. These prisons were visited by one of the commissioners during the past summer, and they may with propriety be called the best prisons in the United States.

After an examination of the subject, the commissioners find that the most important of the modern improvements have been adopted by one or the other of these prisons. The discipline and plan of building at Auburn has been very generally approved throughout the United States, and has received the appellation of the "Auburn system." More recently the Philadelphia prison discipline has grown into great favor among philanthropists, and has been denominated the "Philadelphia system."

The commissioners, believing that these prisons embrace the most perfect systems of discipline extant, imagine that they cannot better elucidate the subject than by giving a succinct account of each of them.

The prison at Auburn is conducted upon the plan of "solitary confinement at night, with united and silent labor during the day."

The following is the order of proceeding for a day: "soon after daylight, on a signal given by the prison bell, the turnkeys unlock the doors of the cells, when the convicts, each with his night-tub, water can, and mush kid, march out, and having disposed of these articles according to the order of the prison, proceed to the workshops, when they begin the labors of the day. At a fixed hour another bell is rung, when the convicts form again in a line and march with perfect silence and closed files to the messroom, where they sit down to breakfast at narrow tables, so arranged that they are placed with their backs to each other and are unable to exchange either looks or signs. After an interval of from twenty to thirty minutes, they are marched back again in the same manner as before to the workshops. At twelve o'clock dinner takes place, to which the convicts are marched as at breakfast, and the same care taken to prevent intercourse. On the approach of night, the convicts wash their faces and hands, and then at the ringing of the yard bell, form a line in their proper places according to the number of their cells, march out of the shops to their rows of tubs, and at the word of command take them up, step forward and empty into the drain the water which had been placed in them in the morning to purify them; they then proceed with closed files, the tubs hanging on their arms, to the room adjoining the kitchen, where their mush and