[Samuel Hoare] [Society for the Improvement of Prison Discipline, and for the Reformation of Juvenile Offenders.]

Rules proposed for the government of gaols, houses of correction, and penitentiaries. Compiled from various acts of parliament for the regulation of prison, and selected from rules in force at the best conducted gaols in Europe : to which are added, plans of prisons on improved principles ; and a description, with plates, of A Corn Mill and Water Mill, adapted for the employment of prisoners. Published by the Society for the Improvement of Prison Discipline, and for the Reformation of Juvenile Offenders.

London, Printed by T. Bensley, 1820

1 vol. in-8 (23 x 14 cm) de VI-(1)-65 pages. 10 planches hors-texte (la plupart dépliantes). Voir le détail des sujets ci-après.

Cartonnage de l'époque plein papier gris, relié sur brochure, non rogné, étiquette de titre imprimée au dos (d'origine). 1 planche détachée. Quelques rousseurs et feuillets jaunis, néanmoins excellent papier de qualité (papier vélin de cuve). légères usures au cartonnage néanmoins solide.

First edition.
 
"The society for the improvement of Prison Discipline, in submitting to the public the following suggestions respecting the proper regulations to be adopted in Prisons, deem it superfluous to detain their readers by endeavouring to prouve what is already obvious, that the judicious mangement of Gaols is a subject of the utmost importance. An intention has been imputed to this society, than which nothing can be more foreign from its real purpose, that of making the interior of a prison a more desirable residence than the habitations of the poor ; the motives which actuate the members of the society are allowed to be benevolent, but the consequences of carrying their views of reform or improvement into effect, are supposed by some persons to be mischievous ; it is presumed that offenders are intimidated, by the miseries and privations they have experienced or anticipate ; if prisons, it is said, are rendered places of comfort, where food and lodging are gratuitously provided, they become incentives to crime and a recompence for its commission. [...]". (Preface, London, 1st January, 1820, Samuel Hoare, Jun., Chairman of the Committee).

Samuel Hoare Jr (9 August 1751 – 14 July 1825), chairman of the committee was a wealthy British Quaker banker and abolitionist born in Stoke Newington, then to the north of London. His London seat was Heath House on Hampstead Heath. He was one of the twelve founding members of the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade.

The engravings are : 1. Plan of a County Gaols for 400 prisoners. Designed by George Ainslie. 2. Plan of a Gaol for on hundred and twenty prisoners. G.T. Bullar architect. 3. Plan of the Chapel and sleeping cells. 4. Plan of a house of correction for sixty prisoners. G.T. Bullar architect. 5. House of correction for twenty eight prisoners. G.T. Bullar architect. 6. Ground Plan of a design for a Prison Corn Mill. 7. Crofs section of design for Prison Mill shewing the elevation of Machinery. 8. Crofts sectiloln of design for Prison Mill, shewing the elevation of the tread wheels and method of working. 9. Longitudinal section of design for Prison Mill, shewing elevation of Machinery. 10. Plan and section for a Pump Mill. (complete).

Very rare.