sery, starvation, and a world's scorn? In some degree the malice of
this regulation, which ought only to be inscribed on the statute-book of
hell, is impotent. The small glimpse of earth, sea, and sky a convict
can command, a spider crawling upon the wall, the very corners of his
cell, will serve, by a strong effort, for occupation for his thoughts.
Read the following tea-pot-graven monologue, written by some
mentally-suffering convict, and reflect upon it:--

"Stone walls and iron bars my frame confine,
But the full liberty of thought is mine,
Sad privilege! the mental glance to cast
O'er crimes, o'er follies, and misconduct past.
Oh wretched tenant of a guarded cell,
Thy very freedom makes thy mind a hell.
Come, blessed death; thy grinded dart to me,
Shall the bless'd signal of deliverance be;
With thy worst agonies were cheaply bought,
A last release, a final rest from thought."

"If the pains of a prison be not enough for you, I will teach you a
lesson in the art of torture which I learned from our chaplain, or one
of his substitutes.--`Make your cells round and smooth; let there be no
prominent point for the eye to rest upon, so that it must necessarily
turn inward, and I will warrant that you will soon have the pleasure of
seeing your victim frantic.' Look well to the temperance trash you
physic us with, and you will find, in the Almanac for 1837, a serious
attempt to make Napoleon Bonaparte out a drunkard, and to prove that a
rum-bottle lost him the battle of Waterloo. The author must himself
have been drunk when he wrote it. Are you not ashamed to set such
pitiful cant, I will not say such wilful falsehood and slander, before
any rational creature? Did you not know that an overcharged gun would
knock the musketeer over by its recoil? I do not tell you to give the
convicts all and any books they may desire; but pray what harm would an
arithmetic do, unless it taught them to refute the statistics of your
lying almanac, which gravely advises farmers to feed their hogs with
apples, to prevent folks from getting drunk on cider? Why not tell them
to feed their cattle with barley and wheat for the same reason? What
mind was ever corrupted by Murray's Grammar, or Washington Irving's
Columbus? When was ever falsehood the successful pioneer of truth!"

His remarks upon visitors being permitted to see the convicts are good.

"Among the annoyances, which others as well as myself felt most