There is no uniformity in the several States, either as to the appointment of Inspectors or the relations they shall sustain to the public on one side, and to the prison and its inmates and resident officers on the other. In some States they are appointed by the Executive, in others by the Legislature. In some they are popularly elected, and in others (as in Pennsylvania) they are appointed by the judiciary. Our own impression is, that the appointing power of this class of officers is most properly lodged in the executive department of the government. It is, in its nature, analogous to other duties of this department. It is in the exercise of purely executive authority that the convict is committed, and it would seem fitting that this same power should exercise a suitable control over him, directly or by agents of its own appointment. If the Legislature has exercised its functions in the enactment of the law, with adequate penalties, and the Judiciary has past upon the guilt of a transgressor and fixed the measure of his punishment, one would think the remaining part of the work is peculiarly appropriate to the Executive. There may be some advantages in giving the Inspectors the appointment of warden and other principal officers, but it is clear that we thereby lose an important check on both parties. There have been many instances of gross official misconduct by Inspectors of prisons, which would probably never have been revealed, had the appointing and removing power been lodged in their hands. It is obviously undesirable to place official parties in such a relation that each should be interested in concealing or palliating the neglects or misdeeds of the other. If each is made responsible to a third and superior power, the opportunity to practice collusion, as well as the temptation to it, is essentially diminished. But leaving this question for future discussion if need be, we propose to set forth briefly a few considerations which should weigh in the selection of prison Inspectors, let who will appoint them: And