Very truly your’s, OSWALD THOMPSON. PHILADELPHIA, _March 21, 1861_. DEAR SIR—I wrote to you a short note yesterday, upon the subject of our late interview, and entrusted it to one of the officers of the Court for delivery. I am surprised that it did not reach you. I repeat now, in substance, its contents. The plan suggested, of giving to persons convicted and sentenced for crime, the power of shortening their term of imprisonment, I think an admirable one; and one which, I confess, had not suggested itself to my mind before its presentation by you. One thus confined will feel that something is left to him after the prison doors have closed upon him, for which he may strive. Something he can do by which he will be personally benefited—that _all_ is not hopeless; and as an inducement to good behavior, self-control, and the foundation of habits to which, in many instances, he was before a stranger, will not be without its present and future benefit to him. I think the experiment well worthy of a trial. It promises, in my judgment, beneficial results, not only to the prisoner but to society, and if it should not answer the expectations of its friends, it can at any time be abandoned. J. S. ALLISON. WEST PHILADELPHIA. DEAR SIR—Your note of 19th inst. has received attentive consideration, and although I cannot, at this time, give to you my reasons for the conclusions to which I have arrived, yet I can give you these conclusions, as follows, viz.: As a matter of experiment the act might be passed, subject to the following restrictions: 1st. That the time specified shall not exceed _three_ days in any one month. 2d. That it shall only apply to cases of first conviction. 3d. That it shall expire by its own limitation, in say two or three years, unless experience demands its re-enactment. 4th. That the act shall in no wise be considered as the beginning of a system which has for its objects the enactment of a series of laws intended in practical operations to discharge every prisoner when supposed to be, or when he is in fact, reformed. Your’s truly, _March 20, 1861._ JAS. R. LUDLOW. PHILADELPHIA, _March 20, 1861_. MR DEAR SIR—I highly approve of the enacting of a law to enable those convicted of crime to diminish their sentence by a continued course of good conduct. Towards the close of prisoners’ terms the authorities are often beset with applications to shorten it, and if the prisoner knew that it was in his power to do it, the authorities would be released from such application, and the prisoner, by adherence to good conduct, would form habits of subordination and virtue that would go far towards protecting him from perpetration of crime when released.