An insane man, whether a convict or not, must always be an object of deep sympathy. Whatever guilt attaches to him, we lose sight of it in the terrible calamity by which he is overwhelmed. The moment it becomes manifest that he has, through the visitation of God, lost the control of his intellectual faculties, so as to be exempt from the ordinary responsibilities of a reasonable being, all his relations to society are changed. The government which stood ready to charge home his guilt and demand his punishment as an offender, offers him protection and sympathy as a sufferer. The sword of justice is converted into a sceptre of mercy, and so long as this dark cloud overshadows him, the voice of the accuser is silent. We apprehend there would be much difficulty in distinguishing practically between those insane convicts, who might be received into the State Hospital as ordinary patients, and those who would require to be kept by themselves. So far as the safe custody of the dangerous class is concerned, the number would seem to be too small to justify the expense of “a separate building, (having strictly a prison character,) erected upon the (hospital) grounds,” as the trustees suggest. No class of prisoners are more ingenious or more untiring in their efforts to escape than the insane; and hence their safe keeping would be the chief point of consideration in the construction of a building for their reception. If separate provision is not made for all classes of insane convicts, we should much question the expediency of making it simply for the safe keeping of the dangerous. We would rather ameliorate, as far as possible, their condition as convicts in the cell, affording them extra diet, appropriate association, amusement, &c. Nothing would be gained by transferring them from a cell in Philadelphia to a cell in Harrisburg, provided they are to be strictly confined to either; and any relaxation of this rigor which their convalescence might warrant, would be attended with much less hazard in the prison-yard, than on the hospital grounds. But we have serious doubts, whether a general State Lunatic Hospital should receive convicts of any class. We are aware, that the practice obtains to some extent, but whether, in a majority of cases, the parties received can be properly called convicts, there is much ground to question.