their parents and their families; (3) their parishes, neighbourhood, the Government, and the Christian community." The desire to carry conviction along with so important a proposal as the total abandonment of juvenile imprisonment has suggested the propriety of conveying not only the sentiments but also the words of official personages. Hence the numerous quotations that chequer the Fifth Chapter. Some of the opinions are not for the first time. made public. Nevertheless, reiteration, though not always to be condemned, has been avoided wherever practicable. Individuals desirous of further investigation will be gratified by a perusal of the work entitled "Reformatory Schools," which abounds in authentic statements on this subject. In the closing Chapter the reader is introduced to the principal objections that are urged against the various schemes that have been proposed, or are in operation, as parts of the great crusade of modern times against crime; and also to the arguments that are or may be employed to encounter the lukewarmness of friends, and the unfeigned or masked hostility of interested parties. M. H. JUVENILE DELINQUENCY. CHAPTER I. AN INQUIRY INTO THE PRESENT STATE OF JUVENILE "Read not to contradict and confute, but to weigh and consider. Some works are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be digested—that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention."-LORD BACON. times. § 1. NOTWITHSTANDING the multiplicity of subjects occu- Signs of the pying the public mind, it is highly gratifying to find a growing interest in all that affects the welfare of our race. In this phase of our social history we discern the signs of the times-signs we cannot but regard as auguring well for our country, and consequently, for the world at large. The age is peculiarly restless; a spirit of investigation has burst forth upon the world. Things that have for centuries been lying in peaceful obscurity, are unceremoniously drawn out of their retreats and thrust upon the public gaze. While the men and things of the remotest B Spirit of investigation. Effects ages are exhumed and brought out from the rubbish of successively ruined cities, the men and manners of the present age are subjected to a scrutiny and sifting process, peculiar to the nineteenth century. In this feature of our social and national history are perceptible the safeguards of our future prosperity. The immediate consequences of this prying spirit of the age are, inconvenience to some and alarm to others. Those who have lived in seclusion by prescriptive right, and those who have from their humble position in society escaped public notice, naturally enough shrink from the disagreeable and unwonted exposure to universal observation. The class, by no means restricted to a particular age or locality, who have, or wish to feel they have, an immunity from suspicions of danger, are alarmed at revelations of facts, the existence of which otherwise would never have interrupted their peaceful slumbers. According to a natural law, their fears are great in proportion to their former unconsciousness of danger. The slumberer of yesterday on the brink of a volcano is the alarmist of to-day on the broad and lasting plains that lie smiling in a secure distance from the seat of danger. Temporary pain, even of a distressing nature, seems always to usher in some great good to mankind. That pain has been endured. The "good" is coming. Say not that slow is its progress. Glance at the literature of the day. It teems with works on the welfare of the industrial classes-long overlooked, and when first brought into notice, despised. The lowest hovel sufficed for the honest labourer. But that time has passed away. When the people of every realm were crowding to witness the magnificent spectacle of a world's fair, they saw two model cottages for the poor, exhibited by the consort of the highest and worthiest potentate on earth. Time was when education was withheld from the labouring classes from prudential motives. Educate educate! is the cry of the day, or England's flag may be struck, and her sun set for ever in a sea of blood. We have caught the spirit of prophecy; "wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times." Our nobles are now the presidents of Ragged School Unions. Letters are now read by men of aristocratic blood from prosperous settlers in the remote fields of emigration who were ragged urchins or reputed thieves and prostitutes, thanking their noble friends for deliverance from something worse than death. the day. If we turn to the parliamentary literature of the day Literature of we find, in the diversified papers and ponderous reports in the blue books, volumes of facts collected from prisons and poor-houses laid before the legislature of the land. Here we see the immense pains taken to effect something for the dangerous or helpless classes. From such public documents and private publications we are made acquainted with the fact, that our highest judicial functionaries, some of the wisest and best of the clergy of the Established Church, are making the jail their enthusiastic study, and bringing their vast professional experience and hallowed sentiments of religion to bear upon the destiny of the most abandoned of mankind. the subject. We say not these things in boast. They are stated to Urgency of show the current that has set in in favour of attempts made by the philanthropist to elevate the degraded, and to save from prostitution the yet innocent of our fellowcreatures. Nor has too much been said on the platform, or written in our daily papers and periodicals, on such subjects. Still less has the silent and unobtrusive effort of the practical philanthropist been either officious or misdirected. "The poor can by no means, prudence, or foresight on their part, avoid the dreadful evils to which Times favourable. they are exposed. The circumstances that surround them inevitably produce sickness, improvidence, and recklessness."* You must raise them, help the willing to rise, and create a feeling of self-respect and proper self-interest in the breast of the voluntary outcast from society. If there be truth in these views, of how much greater importance is it to lend a helping hand to the friendless, homeless, abandoned child? It will be our object to lay before the reader in the ensuing pages the perilous and anomalous position occupied by the great bulk of the juvenile population of the country; the danger of contamination to the innocent and uninitiated, and the forlorn and desperate condition of those who have fallen into vice. The various plans adopted to nurture our youth, to reform our juvenile delinquents, to provide for the orphan and the pauper child, will be considered. Their failure or success, their excellencies or defects, will occupy our mind in connection with those remedial measures that are suggested by the very nature of the circumstances considered, or are proposed by the benevolent. The work before us-difficult as it is-is not what it would have been had the attempt been made some fifty years ago. The spirit of benevolent investigation has accumulated an amount of material which could have been produced by no isolated agency. For years the philosopher, the political economist, the statesman, and the Christian have, from diversified motives, been labouring in widely different spheres, to contribute to our stock of information. The numerous authorities appealed to in the course of the work, the various writers quoted, and the remarkable institutions referred to, will demonstrate the nature of our task. To a few some things may wear the Dr. Southwood Smith. |