In carrying the Penitentiary System into effect, it ought not to escape notice, that the hardship imposed on Convicts, with respect to manual labour, would be no more than every honest artisan who works industriously for his family, must, during the whole course of his life, impose upon himself. The condition of a Convict would, even in some respects, be superior, inasmuch as he would enjoy medical assistance, and other advantages tending to the preservation of health, which do not attach to the lower classes of the people, whose irregularities not being restrained, while their pursuits and labours are seldom directed by good judgment and intelligence, often produce bad health, and extreme indigence and distress. The difficulty which has heretofore been experienced with respect to productive labour in the Provincial Houses of Correction will vanish, when the System shall be exemplified in the National Penitentiary Establishment. To conduct a Plan of this nature with advantage to the Public and to the individual, an assemblage of _qualities_, _dispositions_, and _endowments_, which rarely meet in one man, will be necessary--namely, _education, habits of business, a knowledge of the common affairs of life--an active and discriminating mind--indefatigable industry--the purest morals, and a philanthropic disposition, totally divested of those hurtful propensities which lead to idle amusements_. Such men are to be found, and would come forward, as Contractors, with ample security as often as opportunities offered, after the System became matured. It is only by the uncontrolled energy of talents, where duty and interest go hand in hand, that labour is to be obtained from Convicts.--No fluctuating management, nor any superintendance whatsoever, where a spring is not given to exertion by motives of interest, can perfect any Penitentiary design; or, indeed, any design where profit is to be derived from labour. Hence the ill success of almost all the well meant establishments with respect to the Poor, and to most of the local Penitentiary Houses. In some instances a few establishments at first hold out prospects of success; but at length they dwindle and decay, and in the result they have mostly all been unprofitable. The death or removal of an active or philanthropic Magistrate produces a languor, which terminates often in the ruin or the abandonment of the design. The National Penitentiary System is guarded against this contingency; and until the local Establishments can enjoy equal advantages, success in any degree is scarcely to be expected, and _permanent success_ is altogether hopeless.