Note

The following extract from the Journal of Prison-Discipline and Philanthropy, for January, 1857, referring to an actual experiment of this kind in one of our States, may be adduced to illustrate the effect which would be produced in this respect by the hope of obtaining pardon on the manifestation of repentance and reformation:

"There are certain periods at which this pardoning tribunal holds its session, and those are known to convicts. The officers of the State Penitentiary of this same State assured us, not long since, that if one should visit the prison shortly before the assembling of this court, he might think the convicts were suddenly metamorphosed into the most devout religionists. The Bible is in sudden demand. The most demure expressions of countenance are assumed, and the lamb-like deportment of the prisoners would indicate a complete reformation. But let the same visitor be present the day after the court of pardons adjourns, and he would think the convicts had suddenly become demons incarnate. Some are favored in the dispensation of mercy; but others, vexed, chagrined, and disappointed, seem bent upon avenging what they call their wrongs; and it is a task of many days for an energetic warden to reduce them to tolerable subordination."