A large proportion of the prisoners work in a stone quarry without the walls; and the most painful sight I saw at Sing Sing were the sentinels placed on prominent points commanding the prison, with loaded muskets and fixed bayonets, who have orders at once to shoot a convict who may attempt to escape, if he does not obey the order to return.  I was told, however, an occurrence of the kind had not happened for years.

A number of the female domestics in different families in the village of Sing Sing, have been prisoners, and are now reformed and generally conducting themselves to the entire satisfaction of their employers.

There are few subjects more interesting to a civilized and Christian community, than that of prison discipline.  It will scarcely, at the present day, be denied that the only motives on which, in such a government, criminal law can be administered, are the public safety, and the reformation of the criminal himself.  Vengeance has not been delegated to man under the Christian dispensation.  It is too evident, nevertheless, that the principle of retaliatory punishment, irrespective of any considerations of public safety, or the benefit of the offender, pervades our criminal jurisprudence, both in theory and practice, and just so far as this is the case, is the last great object defeated, for his feelings are deadened, and his heart hardened by it.  The most depraved wretch has that within him which testifies that his fellow worm has no right to inflict pain upon him solely as a punishment, and his heart rebels against what he feels to be oppression.  On the more enlightened, the effect is equally unfavorable, for he contrasts the practice of his persecutors with their profession, and is perhaps conducted thereby to infidelity and despair.  One of the prisoners at Sing Sing, while contrasting the former with the present management, said, “We used to hear the gospel preached to us on the Sabbath, but see its doctrines trampled upon in all the conduct pursued towards us the whole week besides.”  How different the result where the law of love reigns!  At Sing Sing there are numerous recent instances where conviction on the minds of the prisoners that the authorities of the prison have no other object than their temporal and spiritual benefit, has softened their hearts, and thereby disposed them to the reception of that consoling faith in a crucified Saviour, which is the only foundation of true amendment of life.  How important is it that all the offices in a prison should be filled by persons of true piety; and where can such be more usefully employed?