⇒ A few copies of this pamphlet are still on hand, and may be had on application to the publishers, corner of Fifth and Minor streets, or to any member of the Acting Committee. [Illustration: See p. 112.] THE PENNSYLVANIA JOURNAL OF PRISON DISCIPLINE. VOL. VIII.--JULY, 1853--No. 3. ART. I.--THE FORMER TIMES AND THESE. It is said that every man has his niche. Of course there is a niche for every man, and among others one for _croakers_, and it is very desirable that they should never be seen out of it. We presume we have none of this sort among us, inasmuch as they would instinctively shun the council-chamber of those who look with a hopeful eye upon any and every legitimate project for human improvement. It is excusable in doting age to dwell with a sort of childish satisfaction on the scenes and associations of youth, but no man who is living in good earnest, can fail to be impressed and excited by the vast advance which has been made within an age or two in the condition of the human race. If there were nothing else to look at but the single institution known as the _Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane_, with all its wonderful agencies and appointments for ministering to the relief of the direst of all the ills that flesh is heir to, we should exclaim with gratitude to the Author of all good--How marvellous the change! It seems but yesterday that PINEL, with an intrepidity seldom equalled, ordered the restraints to be removed from _fifty-three_ confirmed lunatics who had been bound in chains and fetters--some for half a lifetime--and proved, to the amazement of their incredulous keepers, that kindness and confidence would assuage a calamity which restraint and violence only serve to aggravate. It was a signal triumph of humanity over ignorance and selfishness, and opened the way for a series of efforts, the benign results of which have scarcely a parallel in the annals of benevolence. If we imagine, for a moment, thousands of men and women, some confined like wild beasts in dens or cages, enduring the most cruel tortures at the hands of their nearest earthly friends, and doomed, for the remnant of their lives, to hopeless and unmitigated suffering; others wandering about half clothed and loathsome in their persons, exposed by night and by day to burning heat or the pitiless storm, teazed and pelted by the thoughtless and cruel, and shunned, from fear, by the considerate and humane; and others, still, the subjects of constant anxiety and commiseration to loving friends, who sought in vain for some alleviation of their grievous burden,--we have a picture of what was.