Excerpt from A Letter on the Superior Advantages of Separate Confinement Over the System of Prison Discipline: At Present Adopted in Goals and Houses of Correction, Addressed to Benjamin Hawes, Esq., M. P., And Respecfully Dedicated to the Worshipful Her Majesty's Justice of the Peace for the Country of Surrey When I predicted two and half years ago, that prison discipline was sure to command the attention of the authorities and the public, I certainly did not contemplate so early and complete an establishment of the views I entertained. From the aspect of things at that period, the most sanguine could only suppose that we should struggle on for some years, contending with difficulties and prejudices which appeared to be all but universal, and therefore only to be eradicated by the slow acquisitions of observation and experience - the work of a few benevolent and able men, - it was to be expected that many modifications and changes would be tried with a view to the improvement of our prisons, and that repeated failures would be encountered before their errors could be made apparent to the public mind, and still more before the public could be brought to comprehend the necessity of altering altogether the prisons of the country, and a mode of discipline for which such extensive sacrifices had been made; you will, therefore, easily imagine with what delight I now contemplate the production of a chain of evidence and reasoning so conclusive, that it appears as if no room were left for cavil or objection, that the assistance of the legislature must be commanded by the wisdom of the measures recommended, and that nothing apparently remains but to carry them into practice by the enactment of a law founded on the principles so clearly developed in this report. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.