_The “Auburn” or Congregate Silent System._—The principle of “separation,” in the abstract, seems to be very extensively, if not generally conceded, both in this country and in Europe; but, on various pleas, it is but partially adopted in practice in the United States beyond the limits of Pennsylvania, and therefore, as we contend, fails in effecting the desired results. This partial adoption under the “Auburn” system consists of confinement in separate cells at night, but congregation in the workshops, or elsewhere, during the day—under the positive injunction, however, that when together, the prisoners shall have no communication with each other by word or sign of any kind, and this injunction is enforced by the presence of armed guards, and any breach of it is visited by heavy penalties. This system is adopted on the strange plea that man is a social being, and he is therefore entitled to society as a natural right, not seeming to be aware that, by the restraints imposed, they entirely rob him of his social character. It reminds one of the Fable of Tantalus, the “Lydian King, who was condemned to be plunged in water, with choice fruits hanging over him, without the power of reaching them to satisfy his hunger or his thirst.” Notwithstanding, however, the strictness of the watch maintained, the severity of the threatened penalty, and the example of the actual punishment administered upon those who have in any way violated this rule of silence, and non-recognition of each other when together—from the almost irresistible craving for the enjoyment of some of the rights of social intercourse, which is stimulated by being brought into the presence of each other—considerable intercommunication, by various methods ingeniously devised by them, it is admitted, does, in fact, take place between the prisoners. To enable the officers in charge effectually to prevent this, and to maintain the general discipline of the Prison, corporal punishment, it is believed, is deemed to be an essential part of the system, and this is consequently frequently administered with great severity. At the meeting of the American Prison Association, held in the city of New York in the Autumn of 1860, (at which some of our members were present as delegates) a New York gentleman, prominent as a philanthropist, familiar with the character of their Prisons, and who had been one of the regular visitors at Sing Sing, declared that their Prisons were like menageries, in which the prisoners were kept and treated as so many wild beasts, and that, a few years back, the severity of the punishments at Sing Sing was such, that the stone at the foot of the whipping-post was always wet with the blood of the victims of the lash. We trust, however, the discipline is now maintained there by means less severe. The regulations connected with our system, on the contrary, entirely exclude the lash, and, excepting in solitary and very extreme cases, admit of no more severe punishment than