PREFACE.

In glancing at the following work, the reader will find the subject of Juvenile Delinquency treated in connection with the present state and sources of depravity, the duty of society to care for neglected youth, the means by which accessions to the ranks of the vicious may be prevented, and the already abandoned may be reclaimed; and lastly, the various objections to the schemes proposed, or in existence, and the arguments that are urged in favour of them.

The aim of the First Chapter is to furnish the reader with the means of arriving at a correct conclusion on the present state and aspects of juvenile depravity. By a comparison of conflicting theories, and an attempt to reconcile counter statements with one another, it is hoped the reader will be convinced that juvenile depravity is neither on the increase, so as to occasion alarm; nor on the decrease, so as to justify indifference. The anomalous state of children in our large towns is, by admissions on all hands, shown to be the natural result of simple, but wide-spread neglect on the part of the classes above.

For the greater part of the information in the Second

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Chapter the author is indebted to the curious and elaborate work of Mr. Mayhew on "London Labour and London Poor;" which, in two massive and crowded volumes, printed in double columns, forms a complete cyclopædia of the habits, resources, and sufferings of the neglected classes. be specified, it was thought advisable to accept no statement that cannot be corroborated by the testimony of other writers, or of individuals conversant with the lower grades of the metropolitan or provincial populace. The scenes related in that work are so buried under a mass of miscellaneous, interesting, and uninteresting matter, that its value to the friends of outcast children is completely destroyed. It is hoped that the form in which those statements are now given, in connection with confirmatory evidence derived from various sources, will rouse society to its danger and its duty. Intemperance, like some other particulars, is lightly touched upon, simply because in its bearing upon the welfare of children, the subject has been so recently and so completely exhausted in Mr. Worsley's Prize Essay. It is not pretended, therefore, that every source of deterioration is fully discussed or even enumerated in this chapter. That this was simply impracticable needs no assertion. Those who would hear more on the subject should acquaint themselves with the work entitled "Social Evils," and others of a similar character. Some of the accounts furnished in this chapter expose scenes of vice so revolting that the writer anticipates censure from certain quarters. Indeed, he had erased and reinserted the paragraphs to which reference is made. Vice exists. To be known-to be felt-it must be fearlessly though cau

For reasons which need not here

tiously exposed. In removing physical nuisances, temporary inconvenience, though under aggravated circumstances, cannot always be avoided. It is a question worthy of serious consideration, whether one great cause of juvenile depravity is not the complete seclusion and almost inconceivable isolation courted and enjoyed by the dregs of the population? If this be undeniable, are we to assist in throwing an impenetrable veil over pollution? Will not the privacy sought by the vicious be conceded by the virtuous, if contact with filth and squalor is shunned, or the face is turned away from scenes that disgust and pain? The fear of offence which led the author to erase, was at length regarded as arising from false delicacy. The sense of duty which induced the reinsertion will, it is hoped, be appreciated by considerate readers.

In the Third Chapter the claims of destitute children are presented to the hearts and consciences of the reader. If the matter be regarded as not entirely new, it is hoped that the manner in which this important subject is handled will have a freshness about it that will revive and deepen impression.

The Fourth and Sixth Chapters will be considered, perhaps, too diffuse, as too full of minor details. But that practical results may be thus secured is an opinion in which others have concurred. The following extract from the prospectus inviting competition will be our best explanation of this peculiar feature of the above portions of the Essay: "State in detail the means whereby the objects above named may be obtained, and consider the consequences likely to follow from the adoption of these means to, (1) the children intended to be benefited; (2)