the establishment of auxiliary societies throughout the State would produce the ends proposed, viz., properly constructed prisons, the establishment and maintenance of proper discipline; and the whole co-operative and correspondent, each with the other, till the system work, with regard to the government, as perfectly in Pennsylvania as it does in Great Britain, and much more effective in the interest of humanity and virtue. We have little to change, excepting the structures of our prisons, and the consequent classification and treatment of prisoners; little to unlearn in their management; we are not wedded to any past theory. It is generally admitted, that much of what this Society condemns is wrong; the only doubt, or supposed difficulty, is how it can be remedied. That doubt and that difficulty will be removed when auxiliary Societies shall be established to correct and embody public sentiment, and when the parent Society, through its branches, shall be allowed to bring its moral action into co-operation with the physical efforts of the Commonwealth, to alleviate the miseries of public prisons. ------------------ COMPENSATION TO PRISONERS FOR OVER-WORK. Among the inquiries instituted by the Society this year, was one that related to the earnings of convicts in the Eastern Penitentiary, which arose out of a complaint made by a United States prisoner, who had received, as he thought, less for over-work than was in reality due to him. The character of the prisoner, or the title of the court by which he was sentenced, had nothing to do with the character of the claim, or the interest which the Society felt and would manifest in his behalf. He was a prisoner, and as such, whether in the County Jail or the State Penitentiary; whether sentenced by a Police Magistrate, or by a Judge of the Court of the United States, there could be nothing in his case to alienate him from our sympathies, or deprive him of the benefit of our interference in his behalf. A committee was instructed to present the case of the complainant to the proper authorities of the Penitentiary, and to ascertain, in the first place, on what principle the over-work of prisoners was estimated, and to make especial reference to the case of the United States prisoner, which had suggested the investigation. It need scarcely be said that these inquiries were to be made with that friendly feeling and high respect which have marked the intercourse of the Society with the authorities of the Eastern Penitentiary, and that the questions were answered with the freedom and feeling of those who have an established, well devised plan of action, and are conscious of an adherence to that plan in all its execution; and the friendly spirit of the Committee of this Society was reciprocated by those to whom the appeal was made.