administered in the manner most likely to conduce to the real
reformation of the prisoner. You then go to the root of the matter,
for though severe punishment may in a measure deter them and others
from crime, it does not amend the character and change the heart;
but if you have altered the principles of the individual, they are
not only deterred from crime because of the fear of punishment, but
they go out, and set a bright example to others.

Both the _silent_ and _solitary_ systems were condemned by her as being
particularly liable to abuse. She considered the silent system cruel,
and especially adapted to harden the heart of a criminal even to moral
petrefaction. But the strongest protest was made against _solitary_
confinement. Upon every available opportunity she spoke against it to
those who were in power. Unless the offense was of a very aggravated
nature, she doubted the right of any man to place a fellow-creature in
such misery. Some intercourse with his fellow-creatures seemed
imperatively necessary if the prisoner's life and reason were to be
preserved to him, and his mind to be kept from feeding upon the dark
past. To dark cells she had an unconquerable aversion. Sometimes she
would picture the possibility of the return of days of persecution, and
urge one consideration founded upon the self-interest of the authorities
themselves. "They may be building, though they little think it, dungeons
for their children and their children's children if times of religious
persecution or political disturbance should return." For this reason, if
for no other, she urged upon those who were contemplating the erection
of new prisons, the prime necessity of constructing those prisons so as
to enable them to conform to the requirements of humanity.

Her opinions and reasons for and against the solitary system of
confinement are well given in a communication sent to M. de Beranger
after a visit to Paris, during which the subject of prison-management
had formed a staple theme of discussion in the _salons_ of that city.
With much practical insight and clearness of reasoning, Mrs. Fry
marshalled all the stock arguments, adding thereto such as her own
experience taught.

In favor of the solitary system were to be urged:--

1st. The prevention of all contamination by their fellow-prisoners.

2d. The impossibility of forming intimacies calculated to be injurious
in after life.

3d. The increased