Notices of Meetings, etc.

Other notices deferred for want of

nness and is, and the n the rich, At the poor, em. Besides , the effects of The temptations r sale, and the John Macgregor, the want of saniof our large cities having any home; ce, and on ordinary and either gamble great amount of juvestate of the lodgingpersons slept in 470 ate crowding in these generally, are described

the value of the Ragged y Carpenter, (author of a s for the Children of the Juvenile Offenders,") as the s in the city of Bristol, that class, and that the ordinary

mous that it would not be safe for this country to abolish the punishment of transportation. He believed it would be impossible with the feelings of Englishmen to carry out a system of long imprisonments. To speak from his own experience, he knew that in sentencing a man to transportation, he was giving him the chance of redeeming himself, but after passing the longest sentence in his power (two years' imprisonment) he never went home comfortable." We cannot be surprised that the learned judge should have thus expressed himself, inasmuch as every day we see cases of burglary and robbery from the person, and being daily brought before our police magistrates, in which the chief actors have been the very men who have just completed a term of limited imprisonment. And, besides this, the loss inflicted on the public is enormous, by reason of a long-continued course of unpunished theft, and even if a fresh outrage be detected, it leads to the expense of a new prosecution. At the best, in ninety-nine cases out of one hundred, the end of the London thief's career is transportation, and not until he is deported from the country is society safe. Alas! that amid all these disputes our statesmen and political economists should forget the maxim with regard to those juvenile offenders, who so soon ripen into hardened criminals, that "prevention is better than cure." Sad it is truly to every patriotic and Christian heart, as Serjeant Adams declares, that "the thieves of London are as regularly an organized body as any other trade," and that as "there are a Company of Merchant Tailors and a Company of Goldsmiths, so also is there a Company of thieves." Yes! the training of children to acts of petty larceny is a regular trade in our midst. Many an "Oliver Twist" is being at this hour subjected to the discipline of another "Fagin," and this without a hand being put forth to rescue him from ruin. Thus it is that Serjeant Adams says, "Cases again and again came before him of those who had been traced from infancy, from their earliest crimes perhaps of stealing some small article and selling it to some men in the streets, in order to get a penny to go to the penny theatres, until they came before him and received sentence of transportation." And as the learned judge ranks among those "philanthropists" or "enthusiasts," who believe in the possibility of reclaiming the vicious and lifting up the children of poverty from degradation and misery, well might he with honest emphasis and earnestness give utterance to the memorable words which all the friends of Ragged Schools will heartily endorse, namely, that "this was from the want of a better system for juvenile offenders; they ought to take care of them before they got into prison, instead of wasting all their energies after they got there."

Our readers will therefore perceive that the great practical question is not so much whether transportation shall be abolished, so as to bring London to something like the condition of Paris, where, we are told, "100,000 convicts, convicts in the proper sense of the word, who had undergone their horrid punishment, reside"-but rather what is to be done with and for those children who, if left to organized training in crime, must become convicts in a short time; what is to be done with them and for them, so as to keep them out of prison altogether, and thus arrive at the best of all solutions of a disputed point by extirpating from our social soil that "root of bitterness" from which such fatal fruits have sprung.

It is a matter of congratulation, that in concert with the movement of Ragged Schools, Refuges, and Dormitories, and other remedial measures to which we adverted in our last number, (not forgetting the prospective results of "Ragged Churches," now fairly brought before the public mind,) that Committees of Inquiry of both Houses of Parliament have been making lengthened and minute examinations of competent witnesses, with a view to legislative and benevolent enactments on behalf of both "Criminal and Destitute Juveniles." Last year the House of Commons appointed a Select Committee for this purpose; its labours, which were interrupted by the dissolution of Parliament, have been again resumed during the present session. The evidence given before the Committee in 1852, now lies before us in a "Blue Book," published by order of the House. We are anxious to call the attention of our friends to some of the important statistics of crime and its causes as here set forth, together with some of those preventive and remedial measures suggested by persons of great ability, intelligence, and experience. The witnesses examined amounted to 22 in number, and the evidence, including an appendix, occupies 551 pages. A vast amount of valuable information is here submitted.

It appears that, with the exception of those localities where remedial and moral efforts have been put forth, juvenile crime is fast increasing. But as Captain Williams, Inspector of Prisons for the Home Districts, said, the "scourge which principally affects large populations does not affect agricultural districts in the same degree. If there were no closely packed populations, gentlemen would scarcely be sitting there to suggest any means of remedying juvenile delinquency." Among the causes of crime enumerated, are orphanage and destitution, the drunkenness and brutality of parents, the augmenting magnitude of towns, and the greater separation of classes than in former times-when the rich, instead of residing in the suburban districts, lived amongst the poor, and thus exercised an important moral influence over them. Besides these, are the influences of "the gaff," or penny theatre, the effects of vicious literature, the love of mischief among boys, the temptations furnished by the exposure of goods at shop doors for sale, and the facilities for disposing of these goods when stolen. Mr. John Macgregor, in his evidence, considers "the chief cause of all to be the want of sanitary accommodation, which turns out all the youth of our large cities continually into the streets, and prevents them from having any home; compels them to resort on wet days to the beer-house, and on ordinary days to places where they meet in large numbers, and either gamble or do other things injurious to themselves." A great amount of juvenile delinquency also is traced to the crowded state of the lodginghouses. Lord Shaftesbury found that 14,000 persons slept in 470 rooms. The evils arising from the indiscriminate crowding in these lodging-houses, and in the dwellings of the poor generally, are described as fearful.

It is worthy of special notice, as illustrating the value of the Ragged School system, that, as is stated by Miss Mary Carpenter, (author of a well-known work on "Reformatory Schools for the Children of the Perishing and Dangerous Classes, and for Juvenile Offenders,") as the result of an experience of seventeen years in the city of Bristol, that juvenile crime arises from the lowest class, and that the ordinary

National or British Schools seldom or ever operate beneficially on this class. It is encouraging also to find it the opinion of the same witness, illustrated and supported by facts adduced, that it is "neglect and not poverty which is principally to be provided against," and that by proper means the lowest children may be brought under the influence of schools; and that were these children freed from those unchecked and urgent temptations which surround them, and moral and religious instruction brought to bear upon them, they would soon become a blessing instead of a curse to society. In truth, this conviction is forced upon the reader, whether he peruses that part of the evidence in which the hardening influence of the present system of prison discipline, as generally adopted, is contrasted with the reformatory results of Parkhurst and other prisons, and the Agricultural Reformatory Schools at Red Hill, as well as of those on a similar plan on the Continent or in the United States. With all this is to be coupled the unanimous recommendation of the witnesses for the universal establishment of "Penal Reformatory Schools" over the United Kingdom. We have also here presented to us the actual results of Ragged Schools in connection with industrial training and the religious instruction given in them, as well as the placing of youths, by means of Emigration and otherwise, in the way of obtaining an honest livelihood. On this last point the evidence of Mr. William Locke, the Honorary Secretary to the Ragged School Union, is as authentic and satisfactory, as it is impressive and reliable. He states, that since the establishment of the Ragged School Union, the schools have increased from 16 to 110, the voluntary teachers from 200 to 1600, exclusive of 200 paid teachers, who were not employed at first; and the number of children has advanced from 2,000 to 13,000. The extensive spread of these schools through the country, many of them assisted by the Ragged School Union, he also points out, and furnishes an account of his visits to the schools at Manchester and Aberdeen. As to results, the following is a part of Mr. Locke's evidence :

"We have, in many instances, done a great deal of good; the results are very gratifying; but we attribute most of it to the moral and religious instruction, and industrial training.

"We have had many children, who were formerly very bad characters, reformed: we have many placed out in situations, and doing well, who were formerly quite a pest to the community.

"The schools in London are all managed by local committees, who take a great interest in the children, and who are very anxious indeed to place the children out in situations whenever they can manage to do so; besides, we have emigrated in all about 360, and by the letters which have been received from them from abroad they are all doing well; those children, whilst they were here were earning nothing; many were vagrants or pickpockets, doing a deal of mischief, and cost the community a great deal of money by robbing tradesmen and so on; they are now earning an honest livelihood in the colonies, and, on an average, they receive from 10s. to 20s. a week, as well as their food.

"How long do you keep them in these schools before they emigrate?-At least twelve months in an ordinary school, or six months in the Refuge; they must likewise be well-behaved, and be able to read and write, and work at some trade. ***

"Parents in many cases appreciate properly the services rendered to their children, especially those who have emigrated; and some of these boys are writing for their parents to come out to them, and in some cases they have sent home money to assist their parents to go out and join them. In one case a lad has sent 107., and several have sent money to repay their outfit.