The State Prison of New Jersey is established on the principle of individual separation. The law provides, that "every convict shall be confined in one of the cells of the prison, separate and alone, except in such cases of sickness as are by the act provided for." That is, if the physician reports to the keeper that a prisoner requires a nurse, the keeper, with the approbation of the acting Inspectors, may employ one of the prisoners; and "whenever, in the opinion of the physician, the enlargement of any prisoner shall be absolutely necessary to the preservation of life," he may be removed from his cell, "but the prisoner shall in every such case be kept from the society of other prisoners, except such as may attend as nurses." No language could more clearly express the will of the Legislature that convict-separation should be the basis of the discipline. In addition to these positive requirements, the Inspectors are to embrace, in their annual report to the Legislature, "such remarks and statements respecting the system of _separate confinement_ and the efficiency of the same, as shall be the result of their own observation." The same act authorizes them to make rules and regulations for the prison as they may deem necessary and proper, "_consistent with the principle of separate confinement_ and the laws of the State." Now we might naturally suppose that a body of law-makers, receiving such a report of the condition of a body of convicted law-breakers, from those who are appointed to take care of them, would be slow to countenance any direct and palpable breach of the law by themselves; and yet it must have been known to the Legislature of New Jersey that the provisions of the law establishing the State prison, are rendered entirely nugatory by their neglect to provide means for executing them. They are supposed to know that the prison contains but one hundred and ninety-two cells, and that ten of these are occupied for workshops and store-rooms. A brisk walk of five minutes would supply the honorable the Legislature with demonstrative evidence that one hundred and eighty-two cells would not suffice for the separate confinement of two hundred and thirty-two prisoners, and hence they would see fifty cells (7-1/2 by 16 feet) occupied by two tenants each, against the peace and dignity of the Commonwealth (which has forbidden such association) and of course "against the form of the statute in such case made and provided."