_Annual County returns of Crime, &c._—In 1839 and 1840, the Acting Committee of the Society was engaged by calling the attention of the Executive to the subject, and otherwise, in endeavours, by legal enactment, to secure an annual return being made to the Secretary of the commonwealth, with regard to the condition of all the county jails, and the proceedings in the criminal courts; giving full statistics on all points of especial interest, with a view to aiding in adapting legislation to the existing state of things in the prisons, and improving the criminal code, where necessary. Although a law was subsequently enacted, to effect this very desirable object, it has been almost wholly without operation. _Moral and Religious Instruction._—From its first introduction, moral and religious influences, and instruction were considered to be necessary adjuncts to the separate mode of discipline. This subject was consequently referred to a committee of the Society in 1841, and in 1843, the appointment of a special officer as a moral instructor for the Philadelphia County Prison, was reported, his salary being paid by private subscription. Such an officer had been appointed in the Eastern Penitentiary in 1838. _Quarterly Journal._—The Society had, at different times from its rise, expended considerable sums of money in publishing pamphlets, &c., with a view to enlightening the public mind, and thus furthering the benevolent objects for which they had associated, and for the promotion of which they were so constantly and zealously laboring; and, finally in the autumn of 1844, it was deemed expedient to commence the publication of a quarterly journal, as furnishing a means by which they could embody in a more permanent form, the results of their observation, inquiry and experience, and might also embrace other kindred subjects. In pursuance of this conclusion, at the beginning of the next year, the first number of the “Pennsylvania Journal of Prison Discipline and Philanthropy” was issued, and, (with the exception of one year,) has been continued until the close of last year, (1861,) comprising in all 16 volumes. “_House of Refuge._”—In 1845, after observing the successful progress of the House of Refuge for juvenile delinquents for a period of nearly twenty years, the practice of frequently sending boys of an older and more hardened character, to be confined there with the younger and less so, was seen to be an evil which ought to be remedied if practicable. The subject was discussed by the Society from time to time, and the suggestion was made that a prison on the separate plan, somewhat modified from the penitentiary, should be erected for the reception of this older class, but the heavy cost of such an establishment seemed to be an insuperable difficulty in the way at that time.