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The Life of William Roscoe
Chapter XVI. 1819
Gamaliel Bradford to William Roscoe, [1823]
INTRODUCTION & INDEXES
DOCUMENT INFORMATION
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Preface
Vol I. Contents
Chapter I. 1753-1781
Chapter II. 1781-1787
Chapter III. 1787-1792
Chapter IV. 1788-1796
Chapter V. 1795
Chapter VI. 1796-1799
Chapter VII. 1799-1805
Chapter IX. 1806-1807
Chapter X. 1808
Chapter XI. 1809-1810
Vol II. Contents
Chapter XII. 1811-1812
Chapter XIII. 1812-1815
Chapter XIV. 1816
Chapter XV. 1817-1818
Chapter XVI. 1819
Chapter XVII. 1820-1823
Chapter XVIII. 1824
Chapter XIX. 1825-1827
Chapter XX. 1827-1831
Chapter XXI.
Appendix
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“I have seen,” says Mr. Bradford, the governor of the Massachusetts State Prison, in a letter to Mr. Roscoe, “your ‘Additional Observations,’ and I have read, with no ordinary satisfaction, your other writings upon the treatment of criminals and penal jurisprudence. Whilst superficial reasoners and disappointed theorists are cavilling against this new system of punishment (so worthy of this enlightened age), and endeavouring, with a spirit of Van-
212LIFE OF WILLIAM ROSCOE.
dalism, to go back to the practice of barbarous times, it is cheering to find such able and humane pens as yours engaged in the defence and support of it. The Edinburgh Review has more than once attacked this new method of treating criminals, and, in very decided terms, denounced the whole plan as faulty and injudicious. I myself had the boldness to reply to this work, and to contend against the doctrine advanced in an article in a former number, and I was pleased to find it better handled in your reply to an article of the same description in a succeeding number.

“I have some pride in believing that you do not essentially differ from me in ideas about this important subject. I perceive that you are not in favour of the present prevailing notion of solitary confinement. I am very sure this will not do, and that, on experiment, the advocates for it, and the community, will be disappointed. And what I fear is, that considering, without reason, and against proof and fair experiment, that the present mode of punishment, viz. confinement to labour, has failed, and placing all their hopes in this last resort of solitary confinement, the whole will be abandoned when this does not succeed.

“I have now been attached to this institution ten years, and have taken some pains to study and learn the effects of this kind of punishment, and its advantages and evils. I am satisfied that
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the clamours against it are groundless, and that society derives and enjoys great advantage and security from it.”