I hold to punishment, but it is the punishment of _mercy_. Let the sinner endure the consequences of his crime, but let _goodness_ inflict the rod. Let his punishment be _severe_, if necessary, but never capricious; let its object be the good of the sufferer, not vengeance; and when he is penitent, let the punishment cease. But the reformation of prisoners is only a small fraction in the reformations which are called for. The whole world needs reforming; and the reformation of prisoners will keep pace only with the reformation of those who are free; and as long as these places must be under the control of corrupt and depraved minds, alas for the cause of reform! Some of the iniquity of prison keepers has been discovered by the public eye, but what has been seen by _that_ eye, is only a drop to a fountain, compared with the whole.--Enough is known about the guilt of _prisoners_, because the keepers who make the report are _believed_; but the keepers have no observers of _their_ conduct but _prisoners_, and these are not _credited_ when they tell the truth. It is believed _in general_, that prison keepers are tyrants. The voice of every age and country unites in describing this class of men as coming the nearest of any in moral resemblance to Satan; and yet no prisoner is believed when he complains of abuse. Let some great Howard go through the prisons in the United States, and take his accounts from _prisoners_ as well as keepers, and he will give a different Report from the one before me. There is as much need of a society to reform _keepers_, as there ever can be to reform prisoners; and there can be but little ground to hope for success _in prison_ till the _keepers_ become not merely _honest men_ but _pious christians_. My statements in respect to the destruction of the chapel and the neglect of the means of grace in the Windsor Prison, are confirmed by the Reports of this Society. In the FIRST REPORT, pages 32, 33, the Society say, that, "In the Vermont Penitentiary, one hundred dollars only are appropriated for religious instruction. The chapel has been converted into a weaver's shop. The services on the Sabbath are irregular, and the Scriptures are not daily read to the assembled convicts."--SECOND REPORT, page 56, "The duties of Chaplain are very irregularly discharged. In truth there is no stated Chaplain whose services can be relied on." One quotation more on this subject is all that I can now make. It is from the SEVENTH REPORT, page 10. "The legislature of Vermont, at the last session, provided by law an additional compensation for a Chaplain; so that the state now pays three hundred dollars per annum for this service, and a chaplain has been appointed to discharge the duties of the office." Will the Secretary of this Society be so good as to inform the public in his next Report, how much service the Chaplain in the Vermont Penitentiary renders for his salary of three hundred dollars?