POSTSCRIPT.

February 1st, 1819.

I AM happy to have it in my power to lay before the reader, the latest account of the State Prison, or Penitentiary of Philadelphia; being an extract from the présentation of the Grand Jury for that county, in December last.

"On viewing the state of the prison, we observed with pleasure, the greatest order and decorum; the convicts appear to be well fed and cloathed, and their respective apartments comfortably warmed, and they are usefully employed in such vocations as are best adapted to their several capacities. This institution reflects the highest honour on the inspectors, and the keepers of the prison, and all who have any agency in its management. We nevertheless, have cause to regret, that a place more extensive, and more remote from the populous part of the city, cannot be fixed upon for a Prison and Penitentiary; constructed on a more enlarged plan, better proportioned to the growing population of our county, and such other counties as send their convicts to this place, to accomplish the term of their servitude. If the buildings and yard were sufficiently capacious, the convicts might then be so separated, that the whites and the blacks as well as the youth of both sexes (who more particularly claimed our commiseration) should, as far as practicable, be separated from the more hardened offenders. By having

a house sufficiently roomy, and but few confined in the same lodging-rooms, less opportunities would be afforded for the more hardened and vicious to corrupt the morals of their fellow prisoners.