disproportionate dimensions. I have concluded, therefore, to suspend the further progress of the work, until the convenience of your Excellency will afford opportunity to instruct me upon the subject. All the Proposals for building and making the alterations required (excepting that which is accepted) exceeded the amount of the appropriation, from $205 to $275.

I am happy to inform your Excellency that the Institution continues to be favored with the usual good health, order and industry.

Most Respectfully,

Your Excellency's

Ob't. and Humble Serv't,

CHARLES LINCOLN, Jr.

Warden M. S. Prison.

STATE PRISON,

Charlestown, July 9, 1832.

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WORCESTER, JULY 11, 1832.

SIR :

Your letter of the 9th was received by me, through the mail of last evening. It is much to be regretted that so great an inadvertence should have occurred as the mistake in the admeasurement of the walls of an existing Building, by which the plan and estimates for the new Structure must be affected. Yet as the Contract is already made in conformity with the supposed dimensions of the old building, it must now be varied in such manner as to meet this unexpected occasion. The proportions and convenience of the part to be erected must not be sacrificed to the error which has been committed, in estimating the width of the present buildingbut old and new should be made to preserve the same relative proportions which were intended. Without making myself further responsible, than for this opinion, under the existing state of things, I feel no doubt that you will be fully justified in thus varying the Contract, provided it may be done within the limitation of expense which you suggest :—indeed, you hardly have any alternative. It would be wholly unpurdonable to destroy the symmetry of the building by a disproportionate arrangement of the parts, and thus, in fact, also defeat the very plan, which, in reference to its just proportions, was approved and accepted by the Council. For the excess of cost, beyond the appropriation, reliance must be had upon the wisdom and liberality of the Legislature, as, without further authority, the Executive will be restrict

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ed to the sum mentioned in the Resolve. I distinctly advise, however, that you should accede to the proposals of the Contractor, to increase the width of the Building to the extent, and upon the terms you have suggested, in the assured confidence, that, under the circumstances, no other course can be so satisfactorily pursued. I repeat, that it cannot be justified, to spoil the Building, by conforming it to an erroneous plan. It were better even, that it should not be constructed at all, than to do this.

It is with great satisfaction that I hear of the continued good health, order and industry which prevail in the Institution.

You will please to consider yourself at liberty to consult me at all times, when my advice or directions may be desirable.

With much esteem,
Yours, &c.

CHARLES LINCOLN, JR. ESQ.,

LEVI LINCOLN.

Warden of the State Prison.

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To His Excellency Levi Lincoln, Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and the Honorable Council:

The subscriber, Chaplain of the Massachusetts State Prison, asks leave to present the following Report in relation to that department of the Institution more especially assigned to his charge. In some of his previous Reports, he has ventured to speak, somewhat in detail, of the more prominent principles which should form the basis of every system of Prison Discipline. On the present occasion, it is his design to be brief, and to confine his remarks principally, to the every day occurrences and transactions of the Institution during the past year. First of all he would notice the goodness of God, in the uninterrupted order, industry and tranquillity which have prevailed in the Prison-and in that quiet and subdued state of feeling, which, in a remarkable degree, has characterised, with rarely an exception, its unhappy inmates. He is confident he can state with truth, that in no year since his residence at the Prison, has there been so little to interrupt the peace and quiet of the place, or so few outbreakings of a revengeful and unsubdued spirit. He flatters himself, that while such results are, in a great measure, to be ascribed, under Providence, to the faithful and discreet exercise of authority on the part of the executive officers of the Institutionstill, that something may be claimed for the influence of those means of moral and religious instruction which the Government of the State has so benevolently and liberally furnished by the Laws which she has enacted.

During the year which has just closed, there has not been, it is thought, so many instances of deep and permanent religious feeling as distinguished the year previous; and yet there has been no marked diminution of interest on the part of the prisoners generally, in the means of instruction furnished them-or of attention to whatever has been addressed to them whether in public or private. It is well known to your Excellency and Honors, that in the month of August last, this Institution was visited in a very unusual and alarming manner, with sickness. This visitation was sudden and overwhelming. During the stillness and quiet of the Sabbath, after the solemn services of the Sanctuary, this messenger of the Almighty entered the Prison. So rapid was he in the accomplishment of his commission, and so strong the arm which achieved his triumphs, that in less than twenty four hours, more than one hundred of the convicts were laid prostrate, and many of them, apparently at the very gate of death. Then it was, that every inmate of the Prison, however hardened and atheistical he may have before appeared, seemed to feel that a mightier hand than any of mere created power, was in the midst of them. Not a heart but quailed under the exhibitions of that power, which, as it were in a moment, had prostrated, not the weakest merely, but the strongest and most hardy of their number. Not a soul but felt that God was there. It was most interesting in passing through the crowded Hospitals, and the apartments, literally thronged with the helpless victims of disease, to notice the subdued and awe-struck spirit, the stillness and quietness every where exhibited. Previously to this fearful visitation, the Prisoners had had some notice of the fearful ravages of the Malignant