nishing. Of these there are 21,038, being 51 per cent. of the whole, to whom the State stands in the place of a parent; they being orphans, or deserted, or the children of paupers not able to work. It is to create teachers for the education of these,-made children of the State by the law and providence of God, and by the common consent and practice of all ages and nations, and of those others made destitute by the vices or the misfortunes of their parents, whom the State has adopted, that your Lordships have erected this training school.

In the training of teachers for that object, labour is an essential element. Teachers of industry must practise it, and must be inured to it. A schoolmaster unable to work would be almost as much misplaced in his field garden as one unable to read and write would be in his school.'

Distinction between Schools suitable for the Destitute Classes and Prisons for Juvenile Criminals.

It will be almost impracticable, having due regard to reformation, to create more than a nominal distinction in the treatment requisite in pauper schools and that of district prisons for the correction and industrial training of juvenile criminals, and it would appear desirable not to create more establishments than are absolutely necessary. Any attempt to refine too much by maintaining nice distinctions would, I fear, only tend to complicate measures, which, if simplified, might be brought practically to bear upon the enormous amount of evil which has to be attacked.

I feel some hesitation in offering an opinion upon a subject on which I have little practical knowledge or information; but my impression is, that, as a general principle, all schools and industrial establishments for the destitute should be considered as of one class.

This would include all district or pauper schools attached to parochial unions--the present ragged schools and such establishments as Red Hill, Stretton-on-Dunsmoor, Quatt, Smith-street Westminster, Sheriff Watson's Aberdeen Schools, and any others devoted to the moral and industrial training of that lowest class of the population who have no means whatever of providing for themselves. With respect to juvenile criminals, I have already stated my opi nion that there should be district prisons or penal schools, with appropriate discipline.

As regards discipline in the pauper and penal schools respectively, I should take Parkhurst as a model for the latter, and the arrange ments at Red Hill, Aberdeen, Rhuysellede, and Mettray, as a guide on which to frame discipline suitable for the former.

Very different conditions will, however, have to be dealt with in counties and in large towns. The scattered population of the former cannot be so conveniently collected as where the numbers are more concentrated; the evils are, however, of less magnitude.

As regards the means of obtaining attendance, I can offer no opinion; but I am satisfied that the practice established by Sheriff Watson at Aberdeen has been attended with the very best results: and if measures for uniting the persuasive effects of feeding with instruction could be matured and extended, I conceive that it would

afford the means of making a greater inroad upon crime in large towns than has ever been effected.

The attendance at the school,' says Mr. Thomson, is wholly voluntary; but the child who is absent from morning hours receives no breakfast; absent from the forenoon hours, receives no dinner; and if absent from the afternoon, receives no supper. And, influenced by these attractions, the attendance on the whole is excellent -better than at an ordinary day-school.'

Liability of Parents or Parishes.

I have observed in a former Report that—

If the advantages gained by a boy in being committed to a penal school were appreciated by him, they would be so great as apparently to offer a direct inducement to commit crime for the purpose of obtaining them; and when it is considered how heavily the maintenance of a family presses on the poor, it might be anticipated that parents would even be led to encourage their children in crime, and that the course most likely to obviate these objections would be to render parents or parishes liable for the expense of maintenance. Under such circumstances the honest labourer, whilst exercising his discretion in the education of his children and deriving advantage from their labour, would see those who were disposed to neglect their families compelled to take care of them, or to pay others for doing so.'

There would, however, I fear, be great difficulty in the general enforcement of any such liability as against the parent, but if the parishes were liable there can be no doubt it would operate as a strong stimulus to all concerned. Each fresh demand would lead to the issue of peremptory orders on the part of local authorities, and much activity in the subordinates.

As it is very generally admitted that much of that which requires remedy among the crowds of children who infest streets of large towns is the result, to some extent, of neglect on the part of parents or local authorities, it would appear just that the State should not be called upon to bear the expenses of such neglect.

The Government now pay a large sum to meet the costs of trial and maintenance of prisoners; and it would be a proper distinction, if, instead of paying the whole, the parents or the immediate locality were held responsible for at least a portion of the expenses.

On this subject Mr. Thomson observes,

'Another alteration required is to enforce on able, but careless and wicked parents, the duty which lies upon them to feed and educate their children. This can be best accomplished by making the Poor Law Board or Union, or the Prison Boards in Scotland, liable for the expense to the industrial school in the first instance, but with recourse against the parents who are neglecting the first and greatest of their duties.

'Power must also be given to send to school all neglected children -all found loitering in streets and lanes-whose parents take no charge of them, but leave them to grow up as they may, untutored and untaught, save in the practice of crime. If the parents neglect to perform their bounden duty, then the State may properly step in,

loco parentis, and do the needful work; and surely this is no unjustifiable interference with the parental authority-it is only saying to the parent, if you will not discharge the duty you owe to your child, both in the sight of God and of man, we, the public, will do it for you; we will not suffer your child to grow up a torment to himself and to all around him; we would much rather you did your duty yourself, but if you will not, then we must.

By law, the burden of uncared for pauper children falls at present on the workhouse, but the poor-law authorities are not entitled to expend their money, unless under their own immediate control; and power must be given them to do so, through the medium of industrial school managers. This will be as advantageous as it is economical. Better for the public, who most eventually pay in one form or other, to maintain the child in an industrial school at 47. a year, than in a poor-house at 10. or 121, especially as the smaller expenditure gives every prospect of making him a useful member of the community, and the larger gives little hope of ever raising him above the pauper class.'

A good old Saxon principle, difficult to enforce in the present day, is adverted to by Mr. Carleton Tufnell in his report on Parochial Union Schools for 1851. He says:

Guardians are not always so open to considerations of ultimate as of immediate economy; and many a pauper who now, before his death, costs his parish 1007. or 2007. might have lived without relief, had a different education, represented perhaps by the additional expense of a single pound, been bestowed upon him in his youth. This is strictly retributive justice; and I think it would be good policy to increase its effect, and would give a prodigious stimulus to the diffusion of education, if the expense of every criminal, while in prison, were reimbursed to the country by the parish in which he had a settlement. What a stir would be created in any parish by the receipt of a demand from the Secretary of State for the Home Department for 801. for the support of two criminals during the past year! I cannot but think that the locality where they had been brought up would be immediately investigated, perhaps some wretch. ed hovels, before unregarded, made known, and means taken to educate and civilize families that had brought such grievous taxation on the parish. The expense of keeping criminals, as of paupers, must be borne somewhere; and it seems more just that it should fall on those parishes whose neglect has probably caused the crime than on the general purse.'

DISPOSAL OF JUVENILE CRIMINALS.

The real difficulty with criminals will arise on the expiration of their sentences; for it will be of little avail to instruct them or even destitute children, unless they are assisted, or satisfactorily disposed of on discharge. In making any such provision, however, for criminals, we encounter the objection made by Lord Denman, and a very serious one it is, when a boy's success in life may be said to originate in the commission of crime.

Morally and socially a great advantage would be secured by placing a boy in a situation and circumstances in which he could afterwards

earn an honest livelihood; and I think this consideration should outweigh difficulties and objections, which, perhaps, after all, would not have so much influence on the criminal population as might be anticipated. I should be disposed, therefore, to make the trial, and preserve the deterring effect of a sentence by subjecting the offender to a long course of discipline.

A certain proportion of boys who have been subjected to corrective discipline and instruction for periods of from one to three years might, after due inquiry as to the means of support and employment, be disposed of in this country. The efforts of Mr. Wright, of Manchester, prove this. The experience of the convict prisons, from which men are occasionally discharged, is also in favour of it; but I think the main opening will be in emigration.

In considering the measures necessary for the final disposal of the boy, more difficulties would, however, arise in an attempt to obtain satisfactory employment either at home or abroad, if he were sent direct from a prison, than if he were sent from an industrial school. To obviate this, I would recommend that a prisoner, having gone through a certain period of his sentence, in a district prison or penal school, sufficient, as a general rule, for his correction, and the acquirement of industrious habits, a portion of the sentence might be advantageously remitted, not only with a view to obtain the power of imposing conditions on his release, but to operate as an encouragement during the time he was under discipline. I should, therefore, propose that a boy should pass from a district prison to the district school, and be disposed of from thence on the plan now in operation at Red Hill.

Assuming that there were only one class of schools for paupers, an objection might be taken to this plan on the ground that children of honest but poor parents would thus become mixed up with crimal boys. If evil is to be apprehended from such a course, it might be greatly checked by classification; but, practically, I do not think much inconvenience would result. I found this opinion upon the experience of the Philanthropic at Red Hill, and upon some acquaintance with the character of the boys at Parkhurst.

A further reason against the validity of such an objection would be, that any boy, on discharge from prison, is entitled to go to his parish school, and to mix with all who attend there; or, if destitute, he is taken into the workhouse, or would be sent to a district industrial school, as a matter of course.

There appears no reason why the same facilities should not be afforded in a systematic manner. My own impression is, that a boy who has gone through one or two years strict discipline at a penal school or prison would be more exemplary in his conduct, more tractable, and, in all respects, better conducted than the class of Pauper children in such a school, who had not undergone such previous discipline and instruction.

In saying this, however, I would qualify it by observing that I Assume that such as were convicted of serious crimes, and the few prisoners who proved to be incorrigible, under a long sentence of imprisonment, would be specially dealt with, and not seut to the

pauper school at all.

The Act 17 and 18 Vict. cap. 86, for the better care and reforma. tion of youthful offenders in Great Britain, is a first step in the right direction, and, if due effect be given to its provisions, it may be anticipated that many of the more crying evils, which have been so long endured, may be diminished.”

There can be no more appropriate recorded fact to follow this extract from Lieut. Col. Jebb's Report, than that furnished by the next passage, extracted from The Ragged School Union Magazine, for November, 1854, describing the "Industrial Home for Outcast Boys, Belvedere House, Belvedere Road, Lambeth, Hungerford Bridge, South, London":

"To any one desirous of visiting the Institution, the only direction needful to be given is, to cross over Hungerford Bridge from north to south. He will see before him, as he approaches the south side of the river, a large board-surmounting a house which itself rises somewhat above the neighbouring buildings-on which is written the name of the Asylum.

Indeed, its situation is its best advertisement, as it so stands that foot passengers to and from the Railway must pass by its door. They constantly step in for a few minutes, which the Committee rejoice to perceive, as they well know that even a few minutes of personal inspection on the part of an intelligent visitor, cannot fail at once to reveal to him the spirit of energy and originality that pervades the establishment.

It is especially worth while to visit it just now, because of the marked and striking contrast between its older inmates and a batch of new comers-drove or herd would perhaps be the more suitable appellation, considering the way in which they were gathered together, and the place from which some of them were taken. Mr. Driver and a Member of the Committee having looked in one night, between eleven and twelve o'clock, at the well-known Night Refuge in Field Lane, were preparing to depart, when their conversation with the master turned upon the fact of a number of those who failed, for various reasons, to obtain admission into the Refuge, being accustomed to crawl through a hole just opposite-leading down somewhere beneath the raised roadway of Victoria Street-and remain under ground till morning. They then went over to the hole, and called out in order to ascertain if there were any boys there, and to ask them to come out and show themselves. Reassured, by the familiar voice of the Refuge Master, that this invitation was no move on the part of the police, they crept out one after another to the number of fourteen. After some conversation, Mr. Driver selected four of them, whom he told to come to him on the following morning. They came, and are now with him, as well as several others collected in a somewhat similar way. The next night Mr. Driver, happening to be again out in that direction with another of the Committee, pointed out the hole as the place where the fourteen boys had emerged from the bowels of the earth. Wondering what sort of cavern it must be to hold so many, the latter gentleman suggested an immediate descent. Whereupon, fetching a lad from the Refuge to