as the interior had been ; and the court or-
dered the clerk to make the requisite repairs and alterations. This
■was accomplished the same season at an expense of $822,70, of
which the town paid ^137. The balance was paid from the County
funds, as in the case of former alterations. By means of these al-
terations nothing remains of the first Court House but the frame.
In the meantime the stone jail built in 1811 was found, like the
old one, unsafe and entirely uncomfortable and oppressive to pris-
oners confined in it, and not in accordance with the philanthropic
views, which prevailed ; and it had heen many times indicted by the
grand jury. The legislature, in October 1844 therefore granted a
tax of six cents on a dollar of the lists of the several townsin the
County except the city of Vergennes, for the purpose of erecting a
new jail, provided the inhabitants of Middlebury would, before the
first day of February 1845, procure conveyed to the County of Ad-
dison a suitable piece of land, to the acceptance of Silas II. Jeni-
SON, HiRVEY MuNSiLL and Silas Pond, and appointed Samuel
Swift and Austin Johnson Agents, to superintend the erection.
The lot now occupied for that purpose was purchased and paid for
by the citizens of INIiddlebury, and accepted by the above mentioned
commissioners. The agents believing that, as the population and
business of the County should increase, and a more speedy commu-
nication by rail roads should be opened, the number of criminals
would increase ; and desiring to erect a prison, which would be ad-
equate to such an emergency, and not