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THE

REVIEW.

MONTHLY

MAY, 1833.

ART. I.-Du Systeme Penitentiare, aux Etat Unis, et de sou Application en France; suivi d'une Appendice sur les Colonies Penales, et de Notes Statistiques. Par MM. G. de Beaumont et A. DE TOCQUEVILLE, Avocats a la Cour Royale de Paris, Membres de la Societe Historique de Pennsylvanie. Paris: Fournier. 1833.

(Concluded from our last.)

THE moderate character of the discipline at Wethersfield appears to be quite sufficient for all the purposes of that establishment; but most persons believe that, as to the other prisons, it would be impossible to carry on the administration of them without the wholesome aid of the whip. This is the opinion of all the practical men with whom the writers have conversed on this subject in the United States, and particularly of Mr. Elam Lynds.

The legislative bodies of New York, Massachusetts, Connecticutt, and Maryland, entertain a similar conviction, for they have regularly authorized the infliction of corporeal chastisements. This punishment has also been sanctioned by judicial authority, as well as by the nation at large, through the organ of its juries, which, in several instances, have returned verdicts of acquittal in favour of such keepers as were indicted for whipping the convicts.

We have endeavoured, observe our authors, to describe with sufficient clearness the differences which are presented by the various establishments; and though they all admit, as a principle, the right of inflicting capital punishments, yet it is quite evident that there exists, in each of those prisons, peculiar circumstances which justify the adoption of a spirit of mildness or of rigour, as the case may be. VOL. II. (1833) No. I.

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