We do not understand Dr. Given to maintain that the class of convicts, whose mental weakness unfits them for the discipline of separation, would be any better off in a congregate prison, unless they were allowed “to converse with hardly any restriction.” So that we are left to conclude, that some peculiar method of treatment, embraced in neither of the prevailing systems must be devised to suit the specific case of weak-minded culprits, in a separate prison, or we must expect them to become deranged. Now we humbly conceive, that the remedy for the supposed grievance in such cases is in the hands of the court, and should be applied in the terms of the sentence, and not in the process of its execution. The mental vigor of a culprit is as legitimately a subject of investigation, as his moral habits and physical constitution. If he borders on that state of imbecility which would exempt him from moral responsibility, the shade of guilt in which he is involved will be scarcely perceptible, and the punishment would of course be proportionably light. If on the other hand, the character and method of his crime indicate ingenuity in contriving and vigor in executing his criminal purposes, though he may be below par in his intellectual capacity, he must take his chance with other offenders, who may be better able to endure the retribution than himself. It is so all the world over. The punishment which many sins carry in themselves, does not adapt itself very nicely to individual constitutions and temperaments. One slave of the intoxicating cup may have far greater powers of resisting the temptation to indulgence than his comrade, yet they are found wallowing in the same gutter. Men of limited capacity have a much harder struggle for their daily bread than their more capable neighbors, but in the event of their feloniously taking what does not belong to them, we do not find special laws are enacted to meet their case. So in families, schools, and larger communities, general laws are established which operate unequally, but are on the whole salutary and wise; and so must it be in the discipline of every prison. The same degree of restraint, privation or punishment bears much more severely on some than on others, and while humanity requires us to alleviate, as far as possible, the miseries of public prisons, it can hardly expect us to forego the eminent advantages of a system of discipline, because it does not adapt itself to every grade of intellect and education. No part of the machinery of civil government is capable of such a nice adjustment.