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the speedy exit of one whofe death he was, perhaps, himfelf witnels to but a few weeks before. month does not pals over, in England, without repeated executions; and there is fcarcely a vagabond to be met with, in the country, who has not feen a fellow creature fufpended from the gallows. We all know what little good effect fuch fpectacles produce. But, immured in darkness and folitude, the prifoner fuffers pangs worfe than death a hundred times in a day; he is left to his own bitter reflections; there is no one thing to divert his attention, and he endeavours, in vain, to escape from the horrors which continually haunt his imagination. In fuch a fituation the most hardened offender is foon reduced to a ftate of repentance.

But punishment by imprisonment, according to the laws of Pennfylvania, is impofed, not only as an expiation of paft offences, and an example to the guilty part of fociety, but for another purpofe, regarded by few penal codes in the world, the reform of the criminal. The regulations of the gaol are calculated to promote this effect as foon as poffible, fo that the building, indeed, deferves the name of a penetentiary houfe more than that of a gaol. As foon as a criminal is committed to the prifon he is made to wafh; his hair is fhorn, and if not decently clothed, he is furnished with clean apparel; then he is thrown into a folitary cell, about nine feet long and four wide, where he remains debarred from the fight of every living being, excepting his gaoler, whofe duty it is to attend to the bare neceffities of his nature, but who is forbidden, on any account, to fpeak to him,

without there is abfolute occafion. If a prifoner is at all refractory, or if the offence for which he is imprifoned is of a very atrocious nature, he is then confined in a cell fecluded even from the light of heaven. This is the worst that can be inflicted upon him.

The gaol is infpected twice every week by twelve perfons appointed for that purpose, who are chofen annually from amongst the citizens of Philadelphia. Nor is it a difficult matter to procure these men, who readily and voluntarily take it upon them to go through the troublefome functions of the office without any fee or emolument whatever. They divide themselves into committees; each of thefe takes it in turn, for a stated period, to vifit every part of the prifon; and a report is made to the infpectors at large, who meet together at times regularly appointed. From the report of the committee an opinion is formed by the infpectors, who, with the confent of the judges, regulate the treatment of each individual prifoner during his confinement. This is varied according to his crime, and according to his fubfequent repentance. Solitary confinement in a dark cell is looked upon as the fevereft ufage; next, folitary confinement in a cell with the admiffion of light; next, confinement in a cell where the prifoner is allowed to do fome fort of work; lafily, labour in company with others. The prifoners are obliged to bathe twice every week, proper conveniences for that purpofe being provided within the walls of the prifon, and alfo to change their linen, with which they are regularly provided. Thofe in folitary confinement are kept

upon

pon bread and water; but thofe who labour are allowed broth, porridge, puddings, and the like: meat is difpenfed only in fmall quantities, twice in the week. Their drink is water; on no pretence is any other beverage fuffered to be brought into the prifon. This diet is found, by experience, to afford the prifoners ftrength fufficient to perform the labour that is impofed upon them; whereas a more generous one would only ferve to render their minds lefs humble and fubmiffive. Those who labour, are employed in the partiçular trade to which they have been accuftomed, provided it can be carried on in the prifon; if not acquainted with any, fomething is foon found that they can do. One room is fet apart for fhoemakers, another for tailors; a third for carpenters, and fo on; and in the yards are flone-cutters, fmiths,

nailors, &c.

Excepting the cells, which are at a remote part of the building, the prifon has the appearance of a large manufactory. Good order and decency prevail throughout, and the eye of a fpectator is never affailed by the fight of fuch ghaftly and fqualid figures as are continually to be met with in our prifons; fo far, alfo, is a vifitor from being infulted, that he is fcarcely noticed as he paffes through the different wards. The prifoners are forbidden to speak to each other without there is neceffity; they are alfo forbidden to laugh and to fing, or to make the smallest disturbance. An overfeer attends continually to fee that every one performs his work diligently; and in cafe of the fmalleft refiftance to any of the regulations, the offender is imme

diately caft into a folitary cell, to fubfift on bread and water till he returns to a proper fenfe of his behaviour; but the dread all thofe have of this treatment, who have once experienced it, is such, that it is feldom found neceffary to repeat it. The women are kept totally apart from the men, and are em ployed in a manner fuitable to their fex. The labourers all eat together in one large apartment; and regularly, every Sunday, there is divine fervice, at which all attend. It is the duty of the chaplain to converfe at times with the prifoners, and endeavour to reform their minds and principles. The infpectors, when they visit the prifon, alfo dỡ the fame; fo that when a prifoner is liberated, he goes out, as it were, a new man; he has been habituated to employment, and has received good inftructions. The greatest care is alfo taken to find him employment the moment he quits the place of his confinement. According to the regulations, no perfon is allowed to visit the prifon without permiffion of the infpectors. The greatest care is alfo taken to preferve the health of the prifoners, and for those who are fick, there are proper apartments and good advice provided. The longeft period of confinement is for a rape, which is not to be lefs than ten years, but not to exceed twentyone. For high treason, the length of confinement is not to be lefs than fix nor more than

twelve years. There are prifons in every county throughout Penfylvania, but none as yet are establifhed on the fame plan as that which has been defcribed. minals are frequently fent from other parts of the state to receive X 2 punishment

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HE long reign of Achmet Pafha el Jezzar, (the butcher), accompanied with immenfe influence and great wealth, might naturally lead to conceive, that, blending his interefts with thofe of his fubjects, he would have exerted his authority in promoting their happinefs. On the contrary the large plain near Acré is left almoft a marth, and marks of idle magnificence have been fubftituted for the ufeful cares of Agriculture. A triking contraft arifes between his conduct and that of the Shech Daher, his predeceffor, who raised Acré from a village to a large town, and doubled the population of the diftrict.

Jezzar was the firft governor in the empire who laid a tax on articles of confumption, as wine, grain, and the like. Even meat and fifh are materials of impost. He has erected granaries, a landable defign, but deficient in the execution; for the grain being ill preferved, and the oldeft ferved out first, it is not only difagreeable as food, but unprolific when diftributed for feed to the peafauts. These impofts form the peculiar revenue of the Pafha; the other refources arifing as ufual from the

tax on land, which amounts to about a twentieth of the rent, the capitation-tax on Chriftians, and the customs; which laft in this government are arbitrary, and neither regulated by the rules of the Porte, nor the capitulations entered into by Europeans. Nevertheless, the chief fource of the riches of Jezzâr is the Pashalik of Damafcus, which, by means of the ufual largeffes at the Porte, he contrived to add to his former government, a precedent very unusual in the Othman empire. His military force was once computed at twelve thousand; but, at the time of my visiting Acré, did not exceed four or five thoufand.

Till the year 1791 the French had factories at Acré, Seidé, and Beirût. At that period they were all expelled from the territory of Jezzâr by a fudden mandate, which allowed them only three days to abandon their respective habitations, under pain of death.

Paffing over the common, but juft rule of fuppofing, that in a quarrel of this magnitude neither party was perfectly free from error, it may be fit to inquire what motives induced this ignominious expulfion, when a fimple difmiffion, to be fignified by various other means, would have anfwered the fame purpose.

To this it can only be anfwered, that the character of Jezzâr is impetuous, and even capricious, on all occafions. Sometimes a warm friend, and then fuddenly a bitter enemy, equally, to all appearance, without any adequate reafon. As to the conduct of the French, themfelves and the other nations in the Levant accord fo ill, that I have never obtained a very accurate statement

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Statement of it. It feems to have he would acknowledge no conful, originated in the behaviour of a nor confent to offer them any drogueman of the nation, who indemnification for the lofles of the having in fome way offended the late factory. Pafia, was, by his order, fummarily firangled or hanged. The French remonftrated, and threatened him with an application to the Porte, which he did not greatly fear, and he punished, as he termed it, their infolence, (in afferting their undoubted right, according to the capitulations between them and the Porte), in this concife manner. Many complaints were made, fubfequent to this period, by the minifters of the republic at the Porte, but to no purpose: that court, in fact, was otherwife engaged, and it be doubted whether it could have punished the Pafka. The events that followed fufpended the profecution of thofe claims, which, as the merchants thus fuddenly banished had loft much, it appeared they had a right to prefer: but at length Aubert du Bayet fent a young officer of the name of Bailli to the Pafha, to demand redress in a tone perhaps rather too high.

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This gentleman, on arriving at Acré, April, 1797, wrote a letter in French to the Pafha, which he had the bizarre idea of finding fome Levantine drogueman to tranflate, verbatim, in the prefence of that perfonage. The terms, it feems, in which this letter was conceived were fo bold, that none could be found to prefent it, and the Pafha, under one pretence or other, refufed to fee the agent. On this Bailli retired to Yaffe. The anfwer Jezzar fent to the claim of the republic was, that private merchants were at liberty to fettle under his government on the footing of any other nation, but that

The celebrated Afad Pafha, mentioned by Niebuhr and Volney, left an only daughter, of whom, on her marriage with Mohammed Pafha Adm, fprang the prefent Pafha Abdallah. Mohammed Pallia Adm was preceded by Ofmân, and fucceeded by two of his own brothers fucceffively, the laft of whom, named Derwith, was expelled by the intrigues of Jezzâr, who gained his office, and married the daughter of Mohammed Palha Adm. This marriage of ambition, not of affection, terminated in a divorce a year after. Among other inftances of his bad treatment of this lady, it is recorded, that Jezzâr, meeting her one day in the houfe, where the happened to have cabcab, or Arabian pattens on her feet, pulled a piftol from his cincture, and fired it at her, faying, "Art thou the wife of an Arabian peafant? doft thou forget that thou art the wife of a Pafia?"

Jezzar retained his ill-won paflialik of Damafcus only a few years; his government was a continual fcene of oppreflion and cruelty, and he is fuppofed to have extorted from the people not lefs than twenty-five thousand purfes, or about a million and two hundred thoufand pounds fterling; and to have put to death near four hundred individuals, moft of them innocent. His own mifconduct and fufpicious defigns, when leading the caravan to Mecca, confpired with the machinations of his enemies at the Porte to deprive him of his office: but living monuments of his cruelty remain, in the nofelefs faces

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and earless heads of many of the Damafcenes. Thus driven from Damafcus, he returned to his former pathalik of Acré and Seidé, where he remains. This government, which he held along with that of Damafcus, he has retained upwards of twenty-feven years.

Jezzar was fucceeded by the prefent Pafha Abdallah, whofe adminiftration, though eminent, as before obferved, for equity, is yet liable to the charge of milmanagement of the public revenue, and of an indecorous timidity. Under the energetic fway of Jezzar, the facred caravan had met with no obftructions on its route; but that of the prefent year, not only found the refervoirs for water deftroyed or damaged, fo that many camels perithed for want of that indifpenfable article, but even the pilgrims were infulted by the Arabs, probably incited by the arts and malicious revenge of Jezzâr. By dint of bribes, however, at the Porte, Abdallah prevented his expected deprivation.

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had obferved travelling on foot with the caravan, but unconnected with any perfon, afked me for bread- How long have you been without it?" faid I. Two days," was the reply." And how long without water?"- I drank water

laft night."-This was at fun-fet, after we had been marching all day in the heat of the fun, and we had yet fix hours to reach the well. In their perfons the Furians are not remarkable for cleanlinefs. Though obferving, as Mohammedans, all the fuperftitious formalities of prayer, their hair is rarely combed, or their bodies completely wathed. The hair of the pubes and axillæ it is ufual to exterminate; but they know not the ufe of foap; fo that with them, polishing the fkin with unguents holds the place of perfect ablutions and real purity. A kind of farinacious pafte is however prepared, which being applied with butter to the fkin, and rubbed continually till it become dry, not only improves its appearance, but removes from it accidental fordes, and fill more the effect of continued tranfpiration, which, as there are no baths in the country, is a confideration of fome importance. The female flaves are dexterous in the of and to

undergo this application is one of

the refinements of African fenfuality. Their intervals of labour and rest are fixed by no established rule, but governed by inclination or perfonal convenience. Their fatigues are often renewed under the oppreflive influence of the meridian fun, and in fome diftricts their nightly flumbers are interrupted by the dread of robbers, in others by the mufquitoes and other inconveniences of the climate.

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