Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

To His Excellency the Governor, and the Honorable Council of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts:

As the several reports, presented by the warden, chaplain, and physician, embrace a full and detailed account of all the material facts and events which have occurred during the current year, affecting the interests of the Prison, the inspectors believe that their duty will be best performed by taking a brief view of its general concerns and condition. More than this could hardly be done without entering upon those departments of official duty which appropriately belong to others.

The financial condition of the Prison, at the present time, is not so prosperous as it was a year ago, and has generally been. This difference, however, is the result of causes which could not have been prevented by any system of economy or retrenchment that could have been practised, as is made fully to appear by the warden's report. Among the principal of these, is the large amount that has been necessarily expended for repairs upon some of the buildings, in consequence of a destructive fire that has occurred during the year, and also from the exorbitant prices that have been paid for certain articles of provision, of which the convicts have always consumed large quantities.

The different branches of labor in which the prisoners have been engaged have been, we believe, as successfully pursued, and been made as productive, in proportion to the number of laborers employed, as in former years; so that the present pecuniary condition of the Prison is principally, if not wholly, owing to the large and unavoidable outlays which have been made during the year beyond what is usual.

!

As regards the health, both of body and mind, which has prevailed among the convicts since our last report, it is enough to say, that it has been no less remarkable than in former years; and we have cause to believe, from the best authenticated statistics, that the degree to which our Prison has been favored, in both these particulars, for many years past, is without a parallel, in any similar institution, in this or any other country.

The Sabbath school, so long connected with the Prison, and which we have cause to believe has, from its origin, been productive of great good, we are happy to say, is well sustained, and in a prosperous condition. The faithful labors of a sufficient number of competent teachers, under the immediate care and supervision of the venerable and devoted chaplain, so long at the head of this department, has placed it among the most valuable institutions of the kind in the country.

The inspectors beg leave, in conclusion, to say, that the favorite system of congregate labor and lenient discipline, established in our Prison, has fully answered the high expectations of its most zealous advocates. Every year brings with it new proof of its practicability, and of its great superiority over any and every other that differs from it.

And

The time is coming, and is not far distant, when the treatment heretofore, and even now, to some extent, administered to men in Prison, in our own and in other countries, and especially the corporal punishment, which, in aggravated forms, they are doomed so often to receive, will be looked upon as unchristian and be denounced as a relic of barbarism. the wonder is, that a practice, so inhumane and reprehensible, should have been so long tolerated in Christian communities. Humanity should long ago have risen up against it and thrown her arm of protection around the erring tenant of the cell. It should be remembered by all those who are intrusted with the high prerogative of administering punishment, that the convict in the Prison is sentenced by the law to expiate his crime by confinement and hard labor, and that every degree of punishment beyond what is needful for the due execution of this sentence, and the attainment of the best ends to be answered by