ment of the sick within the last two years. There is a law that persons who have not been confirmed should be sent to the Bridewell and manufactory house for instruction. Here they are instructed and catechized, but associate amongst criminals. There are generally about twenty of these boys and girls in confine ment. The prisoners work eleven and a half hours daily, at sedentary employment chiefly, and not under sufficient regulation. In October, 1820, the quantity of work to be done by each prisoner was fixed; they are allowed the profits of working over-hours. If the work does not admit of being measured, they are paid in proportion to their industry. One of the punishments for idleness or riotous behaviour, is solitary confinement in a dark dungeon, which is moreover very damp and unwholesome; two beds are placed in this solitary cell. An allowance is made on leaving the prison of four skellings on every mile (Norwegian mile) the prisoner has to travel home; but this is not sufficient to support those who have far to travel. Arrest Prisons of the Fortified Town of Aggerchiem.-Rooms are appropriated to the confinement of state and military offenders, in different parts of the fortifications. These rooms are tolerably large and commodious, but damp; the dungeons are miserable, and very small, but considerable improvements have been made within the last two years, and stricter regulations adopted; the consequences are already apparent, and imprisonment for military offences are less frequent. Slaverion of the Fortified Town of Aggerchiem.-This is a prison for men only who have committed the most heinous offences, or who have already been sent to the house of correction for a repetition of smaller crimes. This prison was originally a corn magazine; the rooms are too small. The prisoners work on the fortifications, and in the town, at hard labour, watched by soldiers. About forty are generally employed out of the prison; nearly double that number generally remain, and are not compelled to labour; and many choose to be idle, though nearly starved in consequence. Improvements in the regulations are in contemplation. The punishments consist in flogging, in an additional load of irons, and in confinement in cells, or in the dungeon. The prisoners in common wear only a light iron clog on their legs. The closets, or cells, are behind the sleeping-rooms; the dungeons are dark and solitary. The offenders, who are punished by confinement in them, lie on straw, on the ground, and have nothing but bread and water. The period of this punishment sometimes extends to several weeks; but in that case they are removed to one of the upper cells every sixth day, and are allowed to walk in the air for ten minutes twice every day. This punishment is considered the most severe, but the most effective. The commander of the place is the superintendent. Three years ago this class of prisoners was confined in barracks, in different parts of the fortifications. There were no separate rooms for the sick, and many other deficiencies, which are now improved. The good effects of the strict system of discipline which has heen enforced for the last three years, appears in the fact, that of the 157 prisoners received in the five years from 1814 to 1818, 22 returned; of 187 who came in, in 1819, 1820, and 1821, only 3 returned. The proportion was before as 14 to 100; it is now as 13 to 100. The gaol at Apslo, though built only three years ago, is most defective. Dr. Holst has looked over the official returns of the state of the prisons, collected in 1815, and in all these prisons he finds many defects. A proposition for the building of new prisons was brought before the Stathing, in 1818, but from the press of other business was not persevered in. In the year 1821, another proposition for applying certain fines to the building of new gaols, was rejected by the Stathing: the criminals are now in the country obliged to be guarded in the magistrates' houses, at great inconvenience. In February, 1822, a committee of the magistrates of Christiana, with Dr. Holst, resolved that "certain funds at their disposal, should be expended in building a new gaol for that town, and that the Old Raad-hause should be sold, and the profits applied to the same purpose." This gaol is not yet begun. He also states, that the Assembly of the States at Ersvold had, in 1821, discussed the subject, and had ordered Mr. Krohg, a counsellor of state, a man of ability, to frame the outline of a criminal code. Extract of a Letter, dated Christiana, July 12th, 1823, addressed to the Chairman of the Committee. I received, some weeks ago, from the London Prison Discipline Society a parcel, containing six copies of your annual Reports, and I beg you to testify to the Society my most respectful thanks for this new mark of its favour. I have distributed the copies amongst persons, whom I know to be well disposed on the subject, and both they and myself feel ourselves much flattered by being in this manner kindly remembered by the Society. Some months ago, I had an opportunity of writing to you, and of sending you some copies of my book, lately published, intituled "Observations on the British prisons, especially with regard to the necessity for a reform of the treatment of prisoners in Norway," which I hope you have received. I am glad to tell you the fact, and I know you will be highly pleased by hearing it, that this necessity for improvement seems to be more and more generally felt; and that our Government has, even this year, adopted a very important measure which may certainly promote the true, or at least, the noblest end of the prisons-the moral reformation of the prisoners: I shall, in another letter, have the honour of giving you a more detailed account of this than the time now allows of. I have herewith the honour of sending you four tables, containing official statements. 1st. Of the number of persons tried in Norway in the year 1821, and of their imputed or committed crimes. 2nd. An account of the number of prisoners in the Houses of correction and Penitentiaries in Norway, in the same year (1821), and of the crimes of which they were convicted. 3rd. An account of the number of causes brought before the "reconciliating committees," and the police courts of Norway, in the year 1821, and how they have been disposed of. 4th. An account of the number of causes brought before the same courts, during the seven years, from 1815 to 1821. Respecting these tables, I think it necessary to add the following observations :-Many of the terms therein used, I have not been able to translate into the English language. Amt signifies a certain district of the country, whose supreme civil officer is named an Amtman. It answers somewhat to the shires and sheriffs in England, but I thought it better to retain the Norwegian words. Other words I have been obliged to circumscribe, or to use Latin words instead of them. In Norway, there are, as you perhaps may have observed in my book, two sorts of prisons for convicted and condemned criminals, viz. Houses of correction, one in each of the four principal cities of the country; and Penitentiaries, commonly and unworthily called Slaveries, (Slaverion) and established in the fortresses. In the first, there are both males and females, and in the last, there are only males. Many quarrels are attempted to be settled in a friendly way, by certain public committees, named "reconciliation committees," whose members are elected by the magistracy. Disputes are then settled, and many suits prevented. |