necessary than to keep active and zealous men steady to first principles
in subjects of great general interest. We are not guilty of underrating
the value of statistical tables; albeit we have seen figures arrayed
against figures, as if there were two arithmetics, as if there were two
churches in the doctrines of addition and multiplication; but the truth
must be kept in view, that to read statistical tables aright, something
more is required than a knowledge of the rules of arithmetic. A few
sound principles, based on a knowledge of human nature, and the
elementary bonds of human society, may often preserve us from false
deductions, which seem to be the sure product of the array of figures
that are presented to us.

We intimated that Captain Maconochie's pamphlet contained what appeared
to us a valuable contribution towards a good prison discipline. That
contribution is simply--the commutation of _time_ of imprisonment for
quantity of _labour_ to be performed. The amount of work done by the
prisoner could be estimated by certain _marks_ awarded or reckoned to
him, and the duration of imprisonment measured by the number of those
marks to be earned, instead of a certain fixed number of months or
years. This is a very simple idea, and is all the better for its
simplicity. The punishment would be probably rendered more effective as
a threat, and the moral effect of the punishment, when inflicted, would
be much improved. A compulsion to labour (which becomes, in fact, a
compulsion of moral motive, as well as of sheer external control) may
lead to a permanent habit of industry. There would be all the difference
between the listless and disgustful labour of enforced time-work, and a
labour in part prompted by the hope of expediting the term of release.
An idle vagabond might thus be disciplined and trained into an
industrious workman.

We have no doubt that this principle has already been partially applied
in the management of our prisons, and perhaps in more instances than we
at all suspect; but that it has not yet been extensively applied, or
received the trial which it appears to merit, is certain--because such
an experiment must have been preceded by a very notorious and signal
alteration in our laws.

We should be doing an egregious injustice to Captain Maconochie if we
were to judge of him only by the instances we have given of his powers
of general reasoning. The perusal of his pamphlets has left in our mind
a stro