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PRIZE ESSAY

ON

JUVENILE DELINQUENCY.

BY

C. F. CORNWALLIS.

"Οτι μὲν οὖν πάντ' ἄνδρα εἰκότως ἀποδέχονται περὶ ταύτης τῆς ἀρετῆς σύμβουλον διὰ τὸ ἡγεῖσθαι παντὶ μετεῖναι αὐτῆς, ταῦτα λέγω· ὅτι δὲ αὐτὴν οὐ φύσει ἡγοῦνται εἶναι ὀυδ ̓ ἀπὸ τοῦ αὐτομάτου, ἀλλὰ διδακτόν τε καὶ ἐξ ἐπιμελείας παρα γίγνεσθαι ᾧ ἂν παραγίγνηται, τοῦτό σόι μετὰ τοῦτο πειράσομαι ἀποδεῖξαι σὐδεὶς γὰρ κολάζει τοὺς ἀδικοῦντας πρὸς τούτῳ τὸν νοῦν ἔχων καὶ τούτου ἕνεκα ὅτι ἠδικήσεν, ὅστις μὴ ὥσπερ θηρίον ἀλογίστως τιμωρεῖται· ὁ δὲ μετὰ λόγου ἐπιχειρῶν κολάζειν οὐ τοῦ παρεληλυθότος ἕνεκα ἀδικήματος τιμωρεῖται — οὐ γὰρ ἂν τό γε πραχθὲν ἀγένητον θείη · ἀλλὰ τοῦ

μέλλοντος χάριν, ἵνα μὴ αὖθις ἀδικήσῃ μήτε αὐτὸς ουτος ηήτε ἄλλος ὁ τοῦτον ἰδὼν κολασθέντα· καὶ τοιαύτην διάνοιαν ἔχων διανοεῖται παιδευτὴν εἶναι ἀρετην· ἀποτροπῆς γοῦν ἕνεκα κολάζει. PLATO, Protagoras, c. 38.

"To reclaim men from vice, is a higher obligation than to punish them for their crimes. And what shall be said of the duty of a civilized and Christian State in regard to the reformation of the young and ignorant? If the State is the parent of all, shall not the soul of the child, abandoned by her, cry out from the dark depths of its iniquity for retribution? That voice will not go unheeded. The Government, which makes railroads, and digs canals, cannot plead poverty in answer to the moral and social necessities of the governed. When millions of dollars are invested in stocks, surely thousands may be devoted to virtue. If I thought it possible that any man could be insensible to this view of the subject, I might speak of it as a matter of political economy, and show that it is cheaper to reclaim a youth than to pursue an expert villain through life to the gallows.”— Message of His Excellency Governor Lowe to the General Assembly of Maryland, U. S., January Session, 1852.

ON THE TREATMENT

OF THE

DANGEROUS AND PERISHING CLASSES OF SOCIETY.

1. "WHAT is the best method of preventing juvenile crime, or, when committed, of reforming the offender?" Such are the questions we are called upon to consider, when the evil is already of such a magnitude as almost to induce despair. Yet there is encouragement even in the fact that these questions have been asked, for it is a pledge that if there be remedies within the reach of a great and wealthy people, those remedies will be applied. The Anglo-Saxon race has never been wont to sit down indolently under either moral wrong or physical or political evils, and this disposition in a people gives a reasonable hope that whenever a great wrong and a great evil for the present, and a still greater for the future, is once recognised, the active spirit of the country will at once be brought to bear upon it, and the plague will be stayed.

2. It is scarcely possible that any question whether of science or politics can be so entirely divested of connection with other questions of an important nature, as to allow of treating it as an isolated fact, to be dealt with without

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reference to any other matter; and in no case is this more true than in regard to that now proposed. Juvenile crime is but the blossom of a plant deeply rooted in our social institutions; and to deal with it as a matter of separate growth would be much the same as if a gardener, wishing to make his garden productive, were to cut off some of the buds from the bad fruit trees, and imagine that thereby he would find the rest produce a good crop of a superior description. Juvenile crime only tells that a large number of children are without that care for their well-being, morally and physically, which social arrangements are intended to provide; and we shall have to look deep, and inquire long, perhaps, ere we shall discover where the first fault lies.

3. In this inquiry not a few fallacies encumber our path, and must be cleared away before we shall be able to come to any just conclusion. These vary according to the parties by whom they are propounded. By some we shall be told that in “the good old times" vice and crime were rarer than at present; and that our remedy will be found in returning to something like the institutions of those halcyon days when the peasantry could neither read nor write, and spent their leisure moments in dancing round the may-pole, or playing at quoits or other manual games. Others will maintain that the political interests of the State have nothing to do with the moral and social condition of the lower orders; and, that though it would be a very good thing if they were all well educated, well behaved, and happy, yet the business of Government being to care for the material interests of the State, commercial prosperity must be looked to, the revenue kept up and economized, a sufficient force maintained to repel foreign aggression, and-the people must look to themselves. Some will insist that if religious instruction be provided,

or knowledge and industrial training are matters of

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