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no vagrant act, and that vagrancy is not an offense there which, of itself, and alone, can be punished, as in England-but in the city of Aberdeen this power is possessed by the magistrates, under the provision of the local police act, and they gave the ad of their authority to the gentlemen who wished to extend the operation of the industrial schools to a class of children still lower in the social scale than those who were already in attendance. Accordingly, orders were given on a certain day in the year 1845, to the police, to capture every little vagrant boy or girl whom they might find in the streets, and in the course of two hours seventyfive were collected-and if you can conceive seventy-five dirty ragged little children, trained up in all sorts of vice and wickedness, and unaccustomed to any sort of restraint, collected together in our small apartment, you may form some idea of the scene of confusion and uproar which ensued. The whole of the first day was spent in endeavoring to bring them into something like order, and in furnishing them with the only thing they seemed to appreciate, viz.: three good substantial meals. When dismissed in the evening, they were informed that they might return the next day or not just as they pleased, but if they did not come back they would not be allowed to beg in the streets. Next morning, to the delight of all interested, almost the whole of them returned, and the system has been pursued from that day to this. When we begun this plan there were in Aberdeen 280 children known to the police, who lived constantly by begging and petty thefts. For the last seven or eight years scarcely one had been seen, cases do occasionally occur, but they are very rare. We have almost completely succeeded in extirpating the race of juvenile beggars in Aberdeen.

The next step in the history of our experience is perhaps the most interesting of all. Our establishment at first, of the boys' and girls' school, certainly cleared the streets of one part of the juvenile delinquents, but neither the worst nor the most dangerous class. Those whom we caught on the second occasion were those training up manifestly to fill our prison cells. Now what are the results as to them? The number of boys and girls in the schools last described are generally about 100-of those who have been at this school, seventy-one have since we opened been placed in situations where they are now maintaining themselves by their own honest industry: and what is perhaps still more satisfactory, of the whole 171 who have passed, or are now passing through our hands, not one individual has been taken up by the police for any offense great or small.

When the schools were first started-like many other new and untried schemes--they met with considerable opposition, but a few resolute friends stood by them. The first success was not very obvious, and after they had been opened about two years the funds fell off, and we experienced that "excruciating agony," want of money, which was referred to by one of the gentlemen who has preceded me, and, in consequence, the number of children in the schools was reduced to the lowest possible point. But by this time the scheme had begun to take some little hold of the public mind, and I am rejoiced to tell you that the working classes of Aberdeen came forward and expressed an earnest desire that the schools should not be given up, but that if possible they should be carried on and extended. They offered to raise subscriptions among themselves, and subscription papers were aocordingly carried round, both among the higher and among the lower classes, and I have to say, that of the whole amount contributed, two-thirds came from the hard earnings of the working men and the working women of Aberdeen. By this most happy and timely addition to the funds we were enabled to get over the difficulties which threatened us, and we have been just able to keep moving ever since. The total number of children at all the schools is somewhere about four hundred.

There are still two or three more statistical facts which I wish to place before the meeting. We were much annoyed in the county of Aberdeen by the number of juvenile vagrants who came out from the city. We employed the rural police to prepare returns to see what effect the juvenile schools were producing. The first return was not thought of until the year 1845. We were then informed that in that year (1845) the rural police apprehended 62 little children, or juvenile vagrants, who were traveling alone throughout the county, begging or stealing on their own account. In the year 1846, the number was reduced to 14; in 1847 it was further reduced to 6; in 1848 the number was again 6; in 1849 it was reduced to 1; and in 1850 it rose again to 2! so that we have pretty thoroughly disposed of that class of offenders.

It is a practice with us, as it is I believe in England, for women to go out begging through the country, attended by children, sometimes their own, and sometimes hired, with the sole end and object of exciting compassion, and obtaining additional alms. In 1841 the rural police stopped in the county of Aberdeen 1,203 of these persons. That number was gradually reduced year by year, until, in 1850, there were only 387-less than a third of the number we had nine years before.

There is another test which, with your permission, I shall furnish you. In the year 1841, before the schools were opened in Aberdeen, the juvenile commitments to the Aberdeen prison amounted to 61. In the year 1850, the number was reduced to 14. But I can give you a still more striking evidence of the value of these schools. In 1845 we were obliged, in a great measure, to close the doors of our schools, for the reasons which I have already mentioned. I have stated that in 1841 there were 61 juvenile delinquents; in 1842 the number was reduced to 30; and in 1843, when the schools were partly closed, the number rose again to 63. Now here, I think, is correct evidence of how the schools are working. Open the schools, and keep the children in regular attendance, and the juvenile vagrants disappear; juvenile crime is diminished-shut the doors, and they immediately reappear, flourish, and increase.

We have, in addition to our proper schools, what we term a child's asylum, and this is an essential part of the system. It is a place to which any child found wandering or deserted is conveyed in a friendly manner by the police. It is attached to the House of Refuge, and the directors of that establishment give every possible facility for superintending the management of the children. The children are kept here until the committee meet. Formerly they met every day, but now it is not necessary to do so; they are summoned when required. Each case is investigated most minutely; if it appears that the parents are able to take charge of the children, or that they ought to do so, they are sent for and remonstrated with, and induced, if possible, to do their duty. If it appears that they have a claim upon any parish, then a correspondence takes place between the committee and these parochial authorities, and the child is sent to its parish; but in the greater number of cases the child is placed at once in one of our industrial schools. The object of this minute scrutiny is to prevent improper persons getting upon our very limited funds. We wish to keep these funds sacred for the persons who are really suitable objects, and who belong to the city. In all our schools the system is the same. As a general rule, the children learn about four hours' lessons in the day, four to five hours' work, one to one and a half hours' play, and three good substantial meals. Much has been said to-day, and the importance of the question can not be denied, as to the policy of compelling the children to attend these schools. Hitherto our experience has shown us that no compulsion is necessary beyond the attraction of the three substantial meals. Most of them were previously unaccustomed to a regular supply of wholesome food; they soon learn its value, and require no other inducement to return daily to their work and lessons; and I venture to say that the attendance of these poor children, the very outcasts of society, at these schools, is more regular than among schools of a higher class. With regard to time, I may state that they come in summer at seven and in winter at eight o'clock in the morning; there is then an hour or an hour and a half's religious and miscellaneous instruction, such as geography, facts in natural history, and occasionally a singing lesson. The children then spend a short time in play, and afterwards breakfast. From ten to two they work. At two o'clock they dine, and after some recreation they work from three to four, and from four to seven they have lessons suited to their different ages, and at seven they have a plain substantial supper, and a short religious exercise follows; after which the whole are dismissed to their homes. Now this plan of sending them back to their homes is a point upon which we have had many anxious consultations. The propriety of allowing them to return to their degraded and debased parents was questioned by many as being calculated to destroy the moral influence which the school exercised over them. But our experience tends to show that the reverse is the case. I frankly admit that it is a doubtful question, and many exceptional cases may occur; but we know also instances in which the saving knowledge of truth obtained at school has been communicated to the outcast parents through the little child. We think, then, that we have been successful in Aberdeen to a great extent, and, in

deed, even beyond the extent we hoped to obtain when these schools were first established. The two great principles which we have endeavored to act upon are these-to show the children from the first that we really and truly love them, and desire their good, and that all our exertions, whether in the way of teaching, or feeding, or remonstrating with them against evil conduct, are solely and only with the desire of doing them good, and that lesson the children themselves seem to have learned. But above and beyond this, we have sought to base our every step upon God's revealed word. We have been told truly to-day of the expense the public are put to in keeping the youthful convict in prison. If I remember aright, the lowest estimate was £18 or £20 a year. That is precisely our own experience in Scotland. But when we get hold of these children, and instead of sending them to prison, bring them to our industrial schools, we find the whole expense of teaching and feeding them is under £5 a year. And of that expense, on an average, about £1, 58. is saved to the school by the work of the children. So that we can bring up children-so far as man can do it-honestly, and industriously, and religiously, at an expense of £3, 158. per annum. Whereas, if you send them to the poor-house, they cost about £10 per annum each with us, and I believe a larger sum in this country. If they are sent to prison, we know that the expense is from £18 to £25; and if we send them upon the distant voyage to Australia, we know that the cost altogether amounts to a sum not much, if at all, under £300 sterling. Upon an average of cases, we find that five years' training in the industrial schools is sufficient to make the child a useful member of society; and suppose the expense to amount to £5 per annum, we have then the choice of making one of these children an honest and virtuous member of society for £25, or of sending him ultimately into a penal settlement, at a cost, including his previous training in crime, of about £300. It appears to me that there can be little choice to a wise man in the matter. Sir, I have often thought, when I have passed a little ragged urchin in the street, one of the numerous class who are being trained up to a life of crime and misery, "My poor little fellow, you are just a bill of exchange for two or three hundred pounds sterling, drawn upon the public of Great Britain, and the last farthing of that sum you will certainly cause us to pay before your career is ended." Much has been said to day of the expense of our prisons, but that is, after all, trifling compared with the enormous expense, and the serious loss the country is put to, by the depredations these persons commit. A single instance was alluded to, in which a large amount of plunder was carried off; and you yourself, Mr. Chairman, alluded to a case that had occurred in your own family. But it is not the plunder from the rich, and the quantity of plate, jewelry, and money, that is so taken, that creates the greatest amount of inconvenience; but it is the extreme suffering caused to the working and industrious classes by having their hard-earned property taken from them. If you look at the records of trials and convictions before judges, and in police offices, you will find that a large number of cases occur in which the property is stolen from this class. Many of them, too, are afraid to appear to prosecute, and no small part of those crimes are committed against the poorer classes of society, which never appear at all.

Rev. H. Townsend Powell, Chairman of the Warwick County Asylum, (who has given, without fee or reward, his time, attention, and talent, to the institution for twenty-six years,) gave the following account of the earliest reformatory institution of England, which is situated at Stretton-on-Dunsmore in the county of Warwickshire:

The institution commenced its operations in 1818, and in 1827 it was clearly ascertained that up to that period forty-eight per cent. of the whole number who had been subjected to the experiment had been permanently reformed. It was also made clear that a saving had been effected in the county expenditure, resulting from the diminished number of prosecutions, the cost of which was charged on the county rates. Under the second master, the proportion of reformations was 58 per cent. of those who had quitted the institution. Under the present master, it has risen to 64 per cent; and, if we take the latter part of his time only, since the last improvement in management has been introduced, it has risen to 68 per cent.

The system adopted is a system of kindness and persuasion, blended, nevertheless, with salutary coercion and correction. This is effected by daily

setting before him the comforts of a well-ordered family-by occupying and interesting his mind-by sending him on little embassies of confidence, and exciting in him a feeling of respect for himself and his own character, and inducing him to participate in that esprit du corps which regards the honor of the institution, of which he is a member, as if it were his own. * It is acknowledged by

*

*

all that "evil communications corrupt good manners;" and therefore all are anxious to separate uncontaminated juveniles from old offenders; but it is not so generally acknowledged that association is no less availing for the propagation of good than evil. I adopted the conclusion that association is no less availing for the purpose of reformation than it is for the purpose of contamination, and that the difference is this: where the preponderating moral influence is in favor of evil, there evil will increase: on the contrary, where the preponderating moral influence is in favor of virtue and religion, there virtue and religion will flourish and abound. This principle has been invariably borne in mind in conducting the institution at Stretton-on-Dunsmore, and I can not help thinking that if it were in a more favorable locality, and a power of detention, but without bars, and gates, and walls, were given us by law, we should be able to exhibit a yet more favorable result than any which has yet appeared. But, if we are to carry on our experiment on a larger scale, I would still urge the adoption of the suggestion contained in the memoir of 1827, viz.: that the institution should consist of one or more establishments, under the same general surveillance, but varying in strictness of discipline; so that the return of the criminal to honesty, should be accomplished by a coresponding return of liberty.

In pursuing this subject, we will introduce a particular account of the organization and management of several of the institutions referred to in the foregoing discussion, and will begin with the Rauhe-Hause at Horn, near Hamburgh, which may be regarded as the pioneer and model of all the others.

REFORM SCHOOL OF THE RAUHEN-HAUS,

AT

HORN, NEAR HAMBURG.

THE Redemption Institute, or Rauhen-Haus, at Horn, four or five miles out of the city of Hamburg, was established by an association of benevolent individuals, aided by a legacy of Mr. Gercken, in 1833, for the reception of abandoned children of the very lowest class. From the beginning it has been conducted by Mr. T. H. Wichern who has . made it the mission of his life, to reclaim this class from habits of idleness, vagrancy, and crime, by making them feel the blessing of a Christian and domestic life, and the pleasure of earning their own bread, and of doing good to others, by their own industry. His first step was to procure a plain dwelling, and to remove every thing from without or within which gave it the appearance of a place of punishment or correction; and in this house he has resided with his own family. Into the bosom of his own family he received three boys of the worst description, and in the course of a few months, nine others of the same stamp, making them feel at home, and yet with full liberty to go away if they wished, but recognized by him, and his wife, and his sister, as members of the same household, and fellow-laborers in the garden and the farm. By forgetting or forgiving the past, and encouraging every effort on the part of these depraved outcasts of society, to form better manners and habits, by addressing them always in the look and tone of heartfelt interest in their welfare, by patient and long suffering forbearance with their short comings, by touching exhibitions, at appropriate times, of the character and teachings of Christ, by regular instruction in the branches of an elementary education, by alternate recreation and employment, of which they receive the return not only in their own comfortable lodging and support, but in small but constantly accumulating savings, Mr. Wichern succeeded in working remarkable changes in the character of a large majority of all who became inmates of his family.

By degrees the establishment has been extended from a single house to nine, on the original plan of not increasing the size of each, so to impair its domestic character, and to make each family to some extent an independent community, having its own house-father and mother, its own garden, table, fireside, and family worship; and yet all the families uniting in larger meetings and operations, as neighbors and a community, and all looking to Mr. Wichern as the patriarch of the whole establishment. The following account of the institution is taken from the Report of M. Ducpetiaux, inspector general of prisons to the minister of justice, preparatory to the organization of the reform school of Belgium.