any. Still, it would do no harm to prepare and deliver a discourse from
the text, "Vengeance is mine and I will repay, saith the Lord,"
designing to show the impolicy of attempting to take vengeance into
one's own hands, and that vengeance should be left for God to
repay.--The discourse was given, and things passed on as usual, no
signs of an outbreak appearing, and I finally gave the matter up as one
of the man's imaginings.

But, the next spring, one of the prisoners, when leaving, alluded to a
combination of a number, the year previous, and said considerable
preparation for the work had been made, but after hearing that Sabbath's
discourse, so many abandoned the project that the leaders had to
relinquish their effort. This was repeated in substance by another.
Hence, after all, it appeared that what the first man said may have been
true, and that, possibly, my poor labors may have been of service to the
warden, perhaps saved his life. Certainly, I did what I could.

14. _National Prison Reform Congress._ In October this body assembled
for deliberation at Cincinnati, O., it being the first gathering of the
kind. Delegates were present from a large number of the United States,
also from the British Provinces and South America, but I was the only
one from New Hampshire. The great, central ideas pervading the body were
the finding of the best method of prison management and how to introduce
this to general and uniform use. All the subjects so earnestly grappled
there, would hinge around these. The field was somewhat widely examined
and much discussion awakened,--discussion earnest, though courteous. The
religious element largely predominated, and great harmony prevailed.
True, an atheist attempted to throw in a firebrand by making a cat's paw
of the Jew, but wholly failed, not exciting a single remark in reply. A
U. S. judge was present, several State judges, a number of governors and
ex-governors, lawyers, clergymen, philanthropists in private life and
prison officials, showing that the move had taken strong hold of that
class, especially, which will push it forward.

Those prison officers present who had ever persisted in the knock-down
argument of former generations, were moved forward many years. I thought
of N. H., and wished that some of her fossils could have been present
and become vitalized. What a blessing it would be to the State!

The points considered and settled, so far as that body could settle
t