GRAVEL. A philanthropist begs to communicate to the world the following simple remedy for the gravel: Dissolve three drachms of prepared nitre in a quart of cold water, and take half this quantity in the course of the day. Continue this medicine for a few days, and the complaint will be dislodged. It may be taken at any hour, but it is best after a meal. The greatest martyrs to this disorder have been perfectly relieved by this simple remedy. There is no quackery in the preceding prescription, which is offered to mankind from a feeling of humanity. VALUABLE DISCOVERY. The art of making emery, (corundum) which is an article of the first consequence in the cotton and woollen manufactories, and in white smithery, has been discovered by Pliny Earle, of the firm of Pliny Earle and Brothers, card-makers, in Leicester, (Mass.) It is presumed that after a few small manufactories of this article are established, the expense of which will not be great, that a supply can be furnished of a superior quality to that which has been imported. The manufacture of this article will make a considerable annual saving to the United States; and at a time when it is becoming scarce, it must be a pleasing circumstance, that one more article of prime necessity is reduced, for certainty, to domestic origin and manufacture. How far the raw material pervades this country, is not known; as yet, it has been found in but few places; it is, however, expected, that New-England will furnish an ample supply for ages; and it is supposed that it may be found in various parts of the union. Nat. Egis. TANNERS TAKE NOTICE. It was mentioned in a Bennington paper about one year ago, that a new method of tanning leather of all kinds had been discovered in that town. The principle of this new system of tanning was discovered by Alexander H. Avery, for which he has lately obtained a patent under the seal of the United States. In his patent he says, "I find that sheep-skins can be tanned in twelve or sixteen hours; calfskins from about twenty-four to fifty hours, after being deprived of their hair; upper-leather from two to five days, according to the thickness of the hide." He says this time is generally allowed for a cold solution of tanning, but by being heated, will tan something short of that time. His leather has been tried, and is said to be of the very best kind. He states that his method of tanning is calculated for a great saving of labor and other contingent expenses. In his method of tanning he is not at the usual expense of sinking yats in the ground, which is very expensive; he tans either in large tubs or square vats fixed out of the ground. Bennington News Letter. THE MAGDALEN SOCIETY. At a numerous and respectable meeting, on Tuesday evening; at the School-room, Mr. Thomas Eddy was again called to the chair, and Joseph George appointed secretary. The committee appointed for the purpose at the former meeting, reported a constitution for the government of the society, which having been read, amended, and adopted, is as follows: Viewing, with deep regret and commiseration, the wretched and hopeless condition of those unhappy females, who, with the loss of character, are deprived of the means of procuring honest employment, and, under the pangs of remorse, have no refuge from guilt, wc, whose names are hereto subscribed, stimulated by the desire and encouraged by the hope of doing good, have associated together for the purpose of establishing an Asylum, which shall afford to repenting victims of seduction the means of support and protection, and be so organized and conducted as to cherish their penitent dispositions, inspire them with the principles of religion and virtue, confirm them in habits of order and industry, and under the divine blessing, produce in them a radical reformation of life. To effectuate which design, we have adopted, and do hereby adopt, the following constitution: Art. 1. This institution shall be called the Magdalen Society of New-York. 2. All persons subscribing to this constitution, and paying the sum of five dollars, shall be considered as members of this Society. The annual contribution of the members shall be three,dollars; but any person subscribing and paying at one time the sum of twenty-five dollars, shall be exempted from any future contribu tions, provided, that after the first day of May next, no person shall become a member unless elected so by the managers; and that every person neglecting for the space of two years to pay his annual subscription, shall cease to be a member of the Society. 3. The affairs and concerns of the Society shall be conducted by twenty-one managers, who shall annually be elected by ballot; for which purpose there shall be a stated annual meeting of the members of the Society on the second Monday of January in every year, to be held under the inspection of three persons, who shall previously be appointed for that purpose by the board of managers. 4. The managers shall keep regular minutes of their proceedings, and seven of them shall form a quorum and be competent to the transaction of business. At the first meeting after their election, they shall choose from their own body by ballot a president, vice-president, treasurer and secretary, who shall hold their offices for one year, and until others be appointed in their places. 5. The managers shall have the power of making all such bylaws and regulations, not inconsistent with the constitution, as may by them be deemed proper and necessary, to regulate the admission of new members, for the government of the Society, and for carrying into effect the design of the establishment. Also, in case **of death, resignation, or removal of a manager, to supply the vacan cy by appointment from the members of the society, and in all cases of vacancy in any of the offices above named, to fill the same by a new choice. 6. The president, or in the absence of both, a chairman for the time, shall preside at all the meetings of the managers, and in all questions where there may be an equal division of voices, he shall have the casting vote. 7. The managers shall meet once in each month; but it shall be the duty of the secretary to call special meetings upon the requisition of the president, or any two managers. 8. The treasurer shall give security, to be approved by the board of managers, for the faithful discharge of his official duties, and shall at each monthly meeting exhibit a statement of his accounts. 9. A statement of the accounts of the Society shall be laid before the members annually at their stated meetings, and shall also be published in at least two of the public newspapers of this city. 10. The board of managers shall have power, at their discretion, to purchase or rent a house and lot of ground, or to purchase a lot of ground and erect suitable buildings thereon, for the purpose of the institution. 11. No alteration shall be made in this constitution, without the concurrence of a majority of all the members of the Society, unless such alteration shall have been recommended by the board of managers, and certified to the meeting by their secretary, or unless notice of the same shall have been given at the preceding annual mecting of the members, and certified in like manner; in either of which cases, such alterations may be made by a majority of the members at a stated annual meeting of the society. No apology is necessary for the insertion of the following most excellent CHARGE, lately addressed by his honor the Mayor to the Grand Jury. GENTLEMEN OF THE GRAND JURY, The duties, which you have now undertaken, under the solemnity of an oath, are of great importance to the community. Grand juries are composed of citizens, impartially and periodically selected from the great body of the people, for the purpose of inquiring into all alleged offences against the laws, in order to ascertain whether they be proper subjects of criminal punishment. The accused are then tried by a second Jury, which pronounces on their guilt. If the verdict be repugnant to law, or evidence, an appeal still lies to the Judges of the Supreme Court; and if this should fail, redress will be found in the clemency of the Executive. You will, therefore, observe the multiplied guards and checks which our mild system of jurisprudence has interposed for the defence of innocence. In tyrannical states, the judge is the minion of power, and the minister of uncontrolled caprice. Juries, there, are unknown; and the interval is short, between the prison and the grave. It is the prerogative and the pride of the American citizen, not only to make laws, but to execute them when made; not only to participate, in his character of juror, in the dispensation of justice in its first stage, but to control the ulterior decisions of the law, by judges indirectly chosen by its suffrages. Citizens are called upon to act as jurors, who rarely, and sometimes never, occupy any public station: and some, who are unwilling to encounter the fatigues and anxieties of public life, still consider it their duty to maintain the dignity of the trial by jury, by serving their country in the capacity of jurors; and let me add, that he who shrinks from this duty, who devises excuses to avoid its performance, or who retreats from it under the cover of privilege, has but an imperfect notion of this great palladium of liberty. Let our juries be composed of ignorant and vicious men, and no man is safe in his character, property, liberty, or life. Persecution and tyranny may then select their victims, and the ministers appointed to guard the sacred temple of justice, may become the willing priests to officiate at the sacrifice, and to superintend the immolation. The object of criminal jurisprudence, is neither vindictive nor expiatory; nor can it in strictness be contemplated as intended to reform; its policy and design are preventive, to deter from crime by the dread of punishment. If the criminal can at the same time be reformed, it will be considered a happy circumstance. But to degrade a man in the estimation of society, to brand him with an ignominious punishment, is to render him callous to public opinion, and generally speaking, to place him beyond the power of moral amelioration. And, as punishment cannot be executed without this debasement, reformation is rarely to be expected: and whatever sentiments of repentance may be professed or experienced, when confined within the gloomy walls of a prison, the prey of excruciating cares, and the victim of ill health; yet a change of scene, a translation to the bustle and temptations of the world, too often render these impressions of no longer duration than the causes which produced them. If reformation is not the primary object of punishment, and only incidental to its main design, much less can revenge be so considered. In a state of nature, where every man is the executor of the laws of nature, vindictive feelings will operate in the infliction of punishment; but where the power of punishing is transferred from the person injured to the functionaries of civilized society, who can have no personal feelings, then we have a right to expect, that the true object of punishment will be pursued; and that it will be so regulated and executed as to be the most powerful prevention with the least pain or personal suffering. Our criminal system is founded upon this idea. The punishment of death is applied to but few offences. No torture is permitted. No corporeal pains are inflicted. Hard labor and coarse fare in a prison, are the geral punishments: and if the convict be obdurate, solitary confinement soon compels obedience. The only reforms which can be made in the criminal law, refer to imprisonment before conviction, and to imprisonment after conviction, in the city prison. In the former case, the prisoner is, in presumption of law, innocent. He ought to be treated according to this presumption; and should, therefore, receive every indulgence and accommodation, consistent with the safe keeping of his person. In the latter case, great improvement may be introduced: and the nearer their approach to the system adopted in the state prison, the better. Uniformity in the discipline of our prisons, and in the treatment of the prisoner, ought to exist in all our criminal establishments, and to be applied indiscriminately. A clean state prison, and an impure city prison; a state prison of industry and of decorum; a city prison of idleness and bad habits; exhibit a shameful incongruity, and will naturally produce comparisons, disreputable to our police, and disparaging to our humanity. Whatever imperfections may exist, in this respect, that call for the beneficent hand of reformation, we may, however, be assured, that our prisons, generally speaking, are palaces, and our punishments, blessings, when compared with those that afflict mankind in the old world. The benevolent spirit, which animated the bosom of a Howard, was equally cherished by a Lownes; the sublime system which the former conceived, in theory, was carried into execution by the latter, in Pennsylvania. And this state followed the great example. It can, therefore, impose no obstacle in the view of humanity, for you to enter upon the execution of your duties, with a determination to pursue and present offenders, without discrimination. The guilty ought to be punished; their sufferings, without being repugnant to the feelings of benevolence, will comport with the great design of criminal jurisprudence. It ought to be your special object, to search out those parent offences, which produce greater and more flagrant ones, by infecting the character with incurable and odious depravity. A skilful physician will endeavor to probe the cause of the disease, before he applies the remedy; and if we can discover and suppress those prominent offences which produce contamination of the public morals, and lead to all kinds of crimes, then we shall have reason to congratulate ourselves upon having discharged a great duty, and in having effected a great good. It were visionary and ridiculous, to pretend that this can be done completely and effectually. As long as man is man, he will commit offences. And that moral quixotism which is apt to attach itself to men of benevolent feelings, but of little experience; which seeks its satisfaction in prescribing panaceas for all kinds of depravity, ought never to enter into the character of the maker or administrator of laws: and its prototype can only be found in the chivalric adventures of those knights of old, who went about to exterminate monsters and giants. But all evils admit of degree. If they cannot be removed, they may be lessened; their pernicious influence may be circumscribed, and their peculiar malignity diminished. There can be no doubt but that the most dangerous principles of depravity are taught and acquired in those schools of vice, called disorderly houses. Whether devoted to gambling, to drunkenness, to prostitution, or to obscene and wanton revelries, there young men and women are initiated into all kinds of wickedness, |