As this is the first proceeding under the provision of the law, it has received particular attention in the report of the Inspectors, and may claim a brief notice in our pages. And we must in the first place take exception to the phraseology in a clause of the Act of Assembly, which is open to misconstruction. "A certain class of prisoners" is mentioned, "whose mental and physical condition may require, in the opinion of the Inspectors, a temporary relaxation of the separate confinement system." The framers of this paragraph were probably unaware that all the provision which any body ever considered necessary for the class of prisoners alluded to, may be enjoyed without any "relaxation (temporary or permanent) of the separate confinement system." It is the _unbroken solitude_ which, by an existing law, should be relieved two or three times a day, but in some past periods has not been relieved for days together; it is the confinement to an unwholesome or stultifying trade; it is the brooding over a seven or ten years' sentence, a ruined and helpless family, and a blasted reputation,--these are the causes, and not _separation_ from other convicts that threaten to undermine the health and derange the reason of convicts of a peculiar temperament. Now, if the money appropriated could be expended in a few extra lodges, with ample exercising yards, and perhaps one-tenth of it for an additional attendant or two, to have charge of enfeebled prisoners (whether they were so when admitted, or became so as a natural effect of prison-life) this provision of the section would be very reasonable. The _separation_, however, may safely and should certainly remain intact. But there is another class of convicts whose case is embraced by a _proviso_. It is those who "develope such marked insanity as to render their continuance in the penitentiary improper, and their removal to the State hospital necessary to their restoration." In order to determine whether a convict answers to this description, a competent Board is appointed to examine and report. Now we will suppose a case is presented of a prisoner who was committed for _safe keeping_ merely. This is certainly not a case within the proviso. No matter how marked the insanity is, it was developed before commitment, and his continued confinement is, therefore, in no sense "improper." Competent authorities disposed of him with due reference to all the circumstances of the case, and the Act of the Legislature is not designed to disturb the acts judiciary.