prison. It was not that these children stood most in need of reading and writing, of learning their catechism, of committing to memory chapters from the Holy Scriptures they stood most in need of what had never yet approached themof something to touch, soften, and humanize their hearts and desires. I believed that, in almost every instance, these misled creatures had never in their lives heard words or tones of kindness or affection; that they never had dared to suppose that any one cared for them, or desired, for their own sakes, that they should learn to speak and do things that are right. I endeavored to show them their mistake-that there were people who felt for them, who pitied them, who loved them; who earnestly desired to promote their happiness both here and hereafter. These endeavors were not unsuccessful; and I found that as the heart softened and opened, so the mind expanded; and the reading and scriptural teaching, which, otherwise, would have been mechanical and irksome, were received with eager thankfulness, as something conducive to the great object of repentance and amendment.

Rev. T. Carter, Chaplain of the Liverpool Jail, spoke in reference to the inadequacy of the existing system of prison discipline to secure the reformation of juvenile criminals, and the present cost to society for the conviction and punishment of this class.

Liverpool has one of the largest jails in the kingdom. The commitments during last year were upwards of 9,500. Of that number, upwards of 1,100 were juvenile offenders, under sixteen years of age; and of these the proportion of recommitments amounted to more than 70 per cent. This one fact must give you some idea of the inefficiency-the utter uselessness of such institutions as the Liverpool jail for the reformation of criminals. Indeed-and I say it advisedly-if it had been the object in Liverpool to devise a scheme for the promotion rather than the prevention of juvenile crime, no contrivance could have been hit upon better calculated to accomplish that object than the Liverpool jail. And yet that jail has been held up as one of the best regulated in the kingdom, under the old system; and that I believe with justice; and if these are the results of one of the best regulated, I leave you to judge what must be the case with others, not so well conducted. Now, I must invite your attention to the manner in which these juveniles are treated. The course followed with them is to send them from the police court to the jail in the prison van, wherein they are mixed with offenders of all classes and ages. On arriving there, they are first taken into the reception room, which, I may state, on the female side has six compartments or cells opening out from it-three on each side; and sometimes there are as many as five persons crammed into these cells, which, when designed and built under the direction of Howard, were intended to hold only one. In these cells, girls are mixed with adults, and remain often from four o'clock in the afternoon until two next day, when they go before the surgeon, in order to satisfy him that they have no disease which shall disqualify them from mixing with other persons. When they have passed that muster, as I may term it, the juvenile offenders are sent into what is called the school class. In this class, there have been as many as sixty girls under sixteen years of age; and yet there are but twelve rooms or cells for them to sleep in, and here they are doomed to remain from half past seven in the afternoon until seven o'clock in the morning in winter, so that the inmates pass the whole of that interval in a situation where they can not possibly be under the control or supervision of the officers, and are left to unrestricted conversation, which you can readily imagine to be of such a character as not to tend to their edification. Now, it so happens, that with the best intentions on the part of the matron and the female warders, who have the charge of them, it is quite impossible to prevent the mixing of the unsophisticated with experienced thieves. There are many instances in which the same cell has contained five girls, one of whom has been under sentence of transportation-two others in jail, and convicted of felony several times before-while the remaining two were novices in guilt, and young in the career of vice. Now, what must be the result of such a state of association? It is right that the criminal should be reformed because I hold that the object of improvement is not merely the pun

ishment, but the reformation of the offender. And yet the very first step we take in Liverpool, with a view to that object, is to mix up children of seven or eight years of age-for we have one now waiting for trial who is not eight years old-with persons who have been for a long period hardened in a career of vice. When I tell you that I have one of my own children of the same age, I need not assure you that I never look on one of those poor little saplings without feelings of the deepest commiseration? These children are or have been, as dear to their parents, as mine are to me, and I feel that when they are taken into jail for the purpose of punishing their crimes and reforming them, you have no right-I have no right the country has no right-to put these unfortunate little ones in such a position as must inevitably issue in their utter depravation. Such, then, is the result on the female side of the prison; on the male side matters are no better. What, I would ask, can it be but ruinous and disastrous, as our jail returns exhibit? I have already mentioned the proportion of recommitments; and I can illustrate, from my own inquiries, the after careers of some of these offenders. I' take a page, then, at random from the school register of four years ago, and I find that of the thirty whose names are upon that page-not selected cases, but taken in the order in which they came to jail-eighteen have been transported; two are now in jail, having been frequently recommitted in the mean time; one out of the thirty is in employment; one has emigrated; two have died, one immediately after being discharged, the other shot in the streets during a public disturbance; leaving six, out of the thirty, whose history I have not been able to trace, but who, in all probability, have quitted the town and neighborhood of Liverpool, to visit Birmingham or Manchester, or some other large town. I find, also, that the average number of times in jail of these thirty is eight and a half; the average time spent by them in jail is fifteen months; the cost to the borough of Liverpool, on the average, is £32, 158.; while the further cost of transportation of those eighteen averages £48; the gross average expense of each of these thirty criminals being £62, 78.

The cost of every young criminal to Liverpool is illustrated in a memorial of the magistrates to Parliament, asking for a reformatory school, in the following statement:-That the costs of apprehension, maintenance, prosecution, and punishment, was of

It thus appears that the average cost of these fourteen prisoners was about £63, 8s.; while I have shown that the average cost of thirty boys, who were not selected, bear in mind, as the worst cases; not taken at random, but in the order of their commitments, was £62, 78.; showing almost coincident results. And here I must inform you that I have not taken into account the cost of maintenance in the colonies, and the loss of property by the community. If I did it would add immensely to the calculations I have laid before you. And yet I may say, that in Liverpool jail, which was referred to by the late excellent inspector of prisons, Mr. Hill, as one of the cheapest in expenditure in the kingdom, the average cost per head of the prisoners is only £12, whereas in many other jails it is £15, and in some nearly double. But great as is the expense of juvenile crime, the charge entailed upon us must not be estimated solely by the expense incurred on account of the offenders whilst they remain in that category. After they reach the age of seventeen or eighteen, they pass out of the class of juvenile offenders, and become adults, their habits of crime becoming more fully developed, and the expense, of course, being greatly increased. I find that, taking forty-two individuals-male adults at this moment in Liverpool jail, who were first received there as juvenile thieves, the aggregate commitments amount to 401, or 9 times each on the average. The average career in crime was five years and four

months. These are all known thieves, and their cases are looked on (humanly speaking) as entirely hopeless. Under present circumstances the course pursued can only have a corrupting and vitiating effect upon those who have not yet arrived at years of maturity. Of the forty-two instances to which I have referred, there are six under sentence of transportation. One first commenced his career of crime at the age of nine years, and has been nineteen times in jail; and when I mention that, I need not bring forward any further proofs of the uselessness of all attempts at reformation, so long as there is not a radical change in the present vicious arrangements. There is another of twenty years of age, who, since being sentenced to transportation, has made a violent and determined attempt on the life of one of the officers of the prison. I will show the same results with the females. Out of twenty-six females, all of whom commenced as juveniles, I find that twenty-five have been in jail, on the average, seven times each; the other I do not think it fair or proper to bring forward as an average example, because she has been fifty-seven times in jail. The average time each is known to spend in jail is five years. Now, I think I have established my position that the Liverpool jail, although singled out for special condemnation by the inspector of prisons, is the most effectual institution that can be devised for transmitting and propagating crime. Such is the evil, and such its extent. What can we look to as its remedy?

Rev. Francis Bishop, Minister of the Liverpool Domestic Mission Society, submitted some remarks, which pointed out the preliminary training school for the young criminals of Liverpool.

In four of the best streets, occupied by the honest and industrious working classes in Liverpool, there are 411 children between the ages of five and fourteen. Of that number 206 go to a day school; 29 to evening ragged schools; and 176 go to no school at all. Now, if we look at those streets which supply the inmates of the prisons-the worst class of streets-we find most disheartening results. An inquiry instituted about a year ago gave the following statement, which is equally applicable to the present state of matters. In Brick street, there were 436 children, between five and fourteen years of age, and of these only 51 went to school-some of them only to an evening school-leaving 385 who went to no school whatever. In Crosby street, which was referred to by the reverend gentleman who last addressed you, there were 484 children, between the ages of five and fourteen, only 47 of whom went to school, leaving 437 who received no education at all. In another of this class of streets, which is very populous, an inquiry was made yesterday morning. The street to which I refer is called New Bird street, and it was intended to have ascertained the condition of the whole of the inhabitants as regards education; but it was found that the time was too short, and accordingly only the first three courts were taken-not selected-but taken in order. Well; it was found that there were 119 children between the ages of five and fourteen; and only 3 out of that number went to school. Including the front houses adjoining these courts, we found that there were 163 children between the ages I have mentioned; and of that number 16 went to a day school; 4 to an evening ragged school; and no less than 143 to no school at all. Now, these are very startling facts, and I mention them merely to afford you a fair specimen of the educational condition of the streets of Liverpool in which the classes whose welfare we are met to promote, reside; and although I believe that the juvenile population of Liverpool is somewhat worse than that of great towns generally, yet I am afraid that the condition of Birmingham, Manchester, and London, is not greatly superior in this respect. My opinion is that we shall never be able to reach this class of juvenile offenders so as to operate effectually in diminishing their numbers, until we make the parents feel, and that through the pocket. They must be made to understand, by being required to contribute to the maintenance of their children, when they come within the grasp of the law, that they can not throw off with impunity the sacred obligations which the Almighty has imposed on every parent. I will say no more than that compulsory attendance must also be enforced on the vagrant class-that class who are on the high road to crime-by some such mode as that adopted in Aberdeen.

Mr. William Locke, Honorary Secretary to the London Ragged School Union, remarked:

It is now about eight years since a few friends in London joined me in the establishment of the ragged school union; but since then we have managed to increase the number of schools, in London alone, from sixteen to one hundred and two. We have now about fifteen thousand children, who are being taught in these schools; above one hundred and sixty paid teachers; and above one thousand three hundred teachers who give voluntary assistance. Now, although I have no wish to shrink from the work, yet I have come here to declare that we are not equal-depending as we do upon voluntary contributions alone-to the great task we have undertaken. It is true that in some of our schools we have the ragged now clothed, the dirty become clean, and the riotous made orderly, so that many who visit us can not see the difference between these and any other schools. These desirable results are brought about by collateral cases, such as the clothing clubs, the industrial classes, the mothers' associations, and kindred institutions, which come in with powerful assistance to improve the habits, appearance, and nature of the children. But still with all that aid, we are unable to cope with the great evil, or to put a check upon juvenile crime; and we feel that still there is a very large class we make little improvement upon. This class consists of vagrants, mendicants, and petty thieves, who require to be fed before they will be taught, and for whom more industrial, refuge, or feeding schools are required than our funds can sustain. There is, in London, a very large number of children coming under that category. Lord Ashley, in the House of Commons, some years ago, said there were 30,000 of them; but my opinion, at the time, was that the number was much larger. I believe that there can not be less than 200,000 of them in the entire country, and from this class, I am quite sure, come nearly all the juvenile criminals in our prisons. They are the very seed plot of crime. Now, how are we to meet this mass of vice and wretchedness? Many of them are starving in the streets; many of them are indeed "perishing for lack of knowledge as well as feed." In three points of view this great class have been considered, viz. :—as expensive-as dangerous—and as perishing; but there is another point arising from these; they are greatly to be pitied. With regard to the expense, no one can doubt but that it is excessive, not only as respects the property they steal, but in their apprehension, their trial, their maintenance in prison, and their transportation. We have information from some of these boys, who live by thieving, of the great sums of money they expend in the course of the year, that would astonish you all, filched from the pockets, or houses and shops, of the industrious classes. They are dangerous, with regard to society, in disturbing the peace and morality of the neighborhood where they dwell; but, in another sense, they are dangerous, viz.: in their evil example thus shown to the better class of children, and in innoculating others with their vicious habits. But they are also perishing, and the objects of our deep commiseration. They are without education or instruction of any kind; they are ignorant of all good they are criminal, in many cases, from dire necessity, and “ more sinned against than sinning." They are not, therefore, to be visited with the same kind of punishment we inflict upon adult criminals. Nay, I hold it to be now an acknowledged principle, that we should not treat as criminals those children who had no sense of right and wrong-and I very much doubt if we have any just right to punish children for breaking laws with which we have never made them acquainted, or for violating duties which we have never taught them to respect. Look for a moment at their pitiful and forlorn condition; in one night Lord Shaftesbury found no less than thirty-five of these poor children sleeping-huddled together under the dry arches by Field Lane, Smithfield. Night after night fancy these boys-or just picture to yourselves one of them herding there unwashed, unfed, uncared for by the thousands around-to snatch a weary sleep; and coming out from his hard, damp, comfortless bed in the morning-it may be in a cold, dull, winter's day-without friends, without a home, without a single soul in all the wide world to care for or to guide him. How, I ask, is it possible for such a lad, starving for bread, to escape the commission of crime? These children, without character and without any employment, must be vagrants or thieves in order to live-and therefore are they to be deeply commiserated.

Some of these very boys we have succeeded in rescuing. Thank God for it. From one of them (I mean one of those found in Field Lane) who emigrated, we have a letter stating that he is earning 35s. a week as a printer in Melbourne, (a most gratifying fact,) and thanking, us most heartily for all that has been done for him. And will any body tell me that these children have not hearts, and can not be reformed? I could tell of cases, not by tens but by hundreds, in which boys and girls, taken out of the mire and the gutter-the very sweepings of the streetsas it were, have become honest and useful members of society. Out of some 400 boys whom we have sent to the colonies from various schools, we have hardly heard of a single return to criminal practices; but on the contrary, we find that in almost every case they are doing well, and earning an honest livelihood. As regards those children we can not reach-those who need to be fed, and even lodged, ere they can be taught-how can we expect to gather fruit from thistles, or to draw pure water from a muddy source? We may endeavor to reform them after falling into crime, and it is our duty; but the chances are that we shall only be partially successful. Would it not be far better to prevent them falling into crime at all? It was truly and eloquently said by Dr. Guthrie, that it is a beautiful sight to see the life-boat dashing through the waves to save the shipwrecked mariners; but much more beautiful was it to behold the lighthouse beacon which might prevent the wreck altogether. I perfectly agree with the committee on juvenile crime of the county of Aberdeen, a short passage from whose report I beg leave to read. They assert:

"That the present mode of dealing with juvenile offenders has not attained the end desired; that neglected outcasts, for whom neither the funds of the public, nor the generosity of private individuals, have cared, have been allowed to grow up in the midst of a Christian people, without any instruction in the first principles of religion and even morality, and are not, at least in the first instance, the legitimate objects of vindictive punishment-that it is just and right, before inflicting punishment, and branding for life with the character of a felon, to give the outcast child a chance of improvement-to put clearly before him the path of duty; and if after this training, he wilfully depart from it, then society has done its duty by him; and if he incur merited chastisement, he must, in his heart, acknowledge that he has deserved it."

This being the case, it strikes me that the work will never be thoroughly done by private benevolence. A great public good should be the work of the public. When I first took up the subject of ragged schools, they were merely evening schools, for gathering in from the streets outcast, neglected children. Such I still consider to be the genuine ragged school. But now, when we find it necessary for a large class to be fed, and clothed, and lodged, and cared for, and sent abroad, &c., &c., I am inclined to say I can not undertake all this. The parish or government must help us; and it is their duty, on the score of economy, philanthropy, and self-preservation, to do so.

A. Thompson, Esq., Chairman of the Aberdeen County Prison Board, made a short statement of the Industrial Schools in Aberdeen, established mainly at the suggestion, and by the efforts of Mr. Sheriff Watson.

We have now had an experience of ten years, the first of our schools having been established in October, 1841. We commenced that school with about twenty boys, and we gradually increased the number to seventy or eighty, which is about the utmost limit our experience leads us to believe an industrial school ever ought to be allowed to attain. Two years afterwards we established a small school for girls; that school has since been divided into two, and in each of these there are now from sixty to seventy scholars. But we found that, although we were able to accomplish a certain amount of good in the city of Aberdeen, still we had not by any means attained all the good we desired. We found the streets infested by little vagrants and beggars ready to commit all sorts of annoying depredations. We therefore resolved to avail ourselves of a local act of Parliament, by which it was provided that begging and vagrancy were crimes punishable by the magistrates. You will be perhaps surprised to learn that in Scotland we have