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NOTICES TO COBBBSPONDENTS . m ill W —We thank our correspondent , whose communicattonl ^ hed irtSS late for insertion this we ek . It will appear in our next number . ^ M ^^ H ^^ BMHHHHaMaMMMi ^ HMMai ^ B ^*^^^*^^^^^^^^^^^^^
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REFORMATORY RESULTS . Nine years have barely elapsed since the Legislature first recognized the justice and expediency of drawing a distinction between adult and juvenile criminals . While the viciousness of even the former may sometimes fee involuntary , that of the latter is almost invariably the result of ignorance and bad example . The natural tendency of mankind is to error . Acquisitiveness is the first law of nature . The first act of the new-born babe is
an attempt at appropriation . In its own defence , therefore , society is compelled to set limits to selfishness , the transgression of which shall be attended with pain to the offender . Thus mdbality is in the first instance conventional , and becomes , secondarily , a habit . In the middle classes this habit is planed down to a dead level , and assumes the name of respectability ; in the upper classes it receives a polish , and is called honour and gentlemanly feeling . ! For the purposes of society at large , simple morality will suffice . When the lower orders shall be induced to
practise strict morality , they will cease to be either a contrast , or a danger , to the more industrious , or more fortunate . The inauguration of these Saturnia regna was celebrated at Bristol on the 20 th and 21 st of this month , under the able presidency of Liord Stanley , and in the presence of a large concourse of intelligent and influential persons , in whose
eyes nothing human is common or unclean , and with whom payment of tithe is not the highest merit , or eating with unwashen hands the sin that cannot be forgiven . Their views are , in the highest sense of the word , catholic . Their object is to " comfort and help the weakhearted , and to raise up them that fall . " In such a cause who would not wish them God
speed r The excellence of their motives must command respect , even if the end they proposed to attain were quixotic and utopian . But experience has already shown that their object is eminently practical , that their eventual success is certain , and—a strong argument with not a few—that the process they pursue saves the commonwealth not only annoyance , but money . It is a financial maxim , said liord Stanley , that no tax is so burdensome or vexatious as
that which is capriciously distributed , and levied with equal irregularity . Such a tax , in its worst form , are the illegal acquisitions of the dangerous classes . Tho value of the robberies committed in Liverpool , in one year , ia eshmafced at 700 , 000 * . ; in London at 1 , 500 , 000 ? . The cost of the maintenance and prosecution of criminals throughout Great Britain is annually about 855 , 0002 . Uvery thief on an average makes about 100 Z . a year but aa ho disposes of his plunder for
about one-third of its real value , the tax he levies upon society may be rated at nearly three times that amount . His detection , apprehension , and punishment , inflict an additional loss of 621 . ; whereas the work of reformation , among juvenile criminals , is sometimes effected for 251 ., and never exceeds 421 . — inclusive of the outlay thrown away upon the incorrigible . In the year 1853 , the registers of crime exhibited 98 , 664 entries ; of which 26 , 804 were " for trial or tried at assizes and ses-_ . . * ^ «* . •¦ . .
sions , " 71 , 850 were summary convictions . Eleven and a half per cent , of this fearful catalogue was assignable to juvenile offenders under 17 years of age . And one-fourfch of all crime is committed by lads between the ages of 17 and 21—a period of life that embraces only one-tenth of the entire population . In other words , in one hundred
individuals of all ages there are ten lads , between 17 and 21 years old , who are guilty of as much crime as twenty-five persons at any other period of life . ? Of the 11 , 453 juvenile criminals committed in the year 1853 , nearly 4000 bad been previously convicted . At Manchester , in the nineteen years preceding 1827 , between onethird and one-fourth of the total number
were old offenders . Of the 12 , 000 to 13 , 000 committals at Salford and Leeds during the same number of years , 4000 were already acquainted with the interior arrangements of a gaol . And at Liverpool , of 14 boys taken at random , it was found that one had been committed nineteen times , and that a child only seven years old had , in the course of
twenty-four months , been thrice imprisoned , and for the fourth offence sentenced to transportation . These facts establish beyond a doubt the inefficacy of punishment , as at present administered , to deter delinquents from a repetition of their offence . This unfortunate circumstance is attributed by Lord Brottgham and Mr . Wheatlet to the law ' s
delay and uncertainty . The fear of punishment is in a great measure neutralized by the probability of escape . Even detection does not necessarily lead to conviction ; and even when a conviction is obtained , such a length of time frequently intervenes between the commission of an offence and its chastisement , that the idea of crime is not necessarily associated with that of pain . The latter is consequently no longer deterrent , and can never be reformatory . If further proof be needed , we would refer to the records of the model prison at Heading . In
1852 , of 209 prisoners recommitted for separate confinement , 89 had commenced their career of guilt and suffering before they were seventeen , and collectively had since been sent to prison 403 times—giving an average of fully 4 £ times to each . Undoubtedly one great cause of the frequency of recommittals is the shortness of periods of confinement . In this country the average length of imprisonments does not exceed 50 days—long enough to confirm , but not to eradicate , evil tendencies . The experience of the Glasgow Bridewell during ten years fully supports this view . Of those committed for fourteen
days , 75 per cent , again found their way to gaol ; for thirty days , 60 per cent . ; for forty days , 50 ; for two months , 40 ; for three months , 25 ; for six months , 10 ; for nine months , 7 i ; for twelve months , 4 ; and for eighteen months , 1 per cent . ; whilo of 93 who had been discharged after two years ' confinement , not ono had , returned to his former practices . These statiatics likowiso afford encouragement for bolioving in tho possibility of reforming adults , though hardened in crime . Wo loam from Captain CnojrxoN ' H paper that in Ireland a wellconducted prisoner ia removed , some
months before the expiration of his sentence , to Government establishments , where a moral , social , and industrial education is imparted . A loan fund has also been opened for the purpose of assisting the poor wretch in his first struggles to obtain a fair footing . The Glasgow House of Refuge reclaims 85 per cent , of its inmates . Out of 137 cases from the Glasgow Female House of Refuge , 69 have done well , and of the others 38 are either dead or not traced . The Rev . J . I \ Hebs-• ^ ^ rt ll _ . ? J _?___ f % T
chel , the founder of " The Refuge" at Gloucester , speaks most favourably of the result of the experiment as far as it has yet been tried . This excellent institution is as yet in its infancy , and limited in its operation by the inadequacy of the funds at the disposal of the chaplain . But it professes to afford to male prisoners on their discharge , who have earned a good character during their imprisonment , " the means of separation from their former bad associates , a clean and
comfortable lodging at the lowest possible cost , a temporary home for such as are destitute , and the opportunity of seeking employment . " For the first fourteen days , lodging , fuel , light , and washing—and food , when necessary—are afforded gratuitously . When employment is obtained for an inmate he is allowed to remain one month , but is then charged Is . 6 cl . a week for everything except his subsistence . Thus far there has been no difficulty in finding
employment for mechanics or labourers , and in no instance have the employers had reason to repent of their kind-hearted credulity The great desideratum is to have work ready for the men on their discharge . Idleness is proverbially the parent of all mischief . This is the cause of the frequent relapses among the ticket-of-leave men . It is neither good for the criminals , nor just towards society , that these friendless and only half-disciplined Bedouins should be turned adrift without a
home or food , or the means of procuring either . Surely something might be done for these outcasts . There are thousands of acres of waste land in the British Isles that might be reclaimed by spade and husbandry and concerted labour , and there would be something in the occupation appropriate to the moral At
condition of the labourers themselves . first such labour might not prove remunerative , but it would certainly diminish the penal expenditure of the country , and such conditions might be introduced as should hold out hope to those who never before knew the meaning of the word . But this by the way .
The most effectual reformation , however , may be expected in the case of juvenile criminals . The causes of crime , we are told , are early ignorance , vicious associations , bad parents , intemperance , and a defective police , which so frequently allows guilt to escape undetected . But the most abundant source of crime is the viciousness of parents . In this sense , at least , tho satirist had good reason to complain that the present generation is worse than tho last , and sure to give
birth to one yot more profligate . The sinBof the fathers descend to tho third and the fourth generation . At Manchester , out of 100 children , CO woro sprung from dishonest parents ; 30 from profligato , but not actually diflhonost , parents ; and only 10 wore tlio first of their family branded with vice and crime . It is , therefore , most just and equitable that the parents should be compelled to pay for the maintenance and proper training of their children ; and it is satisfactory to learn that in 47 cases out of 69 this payment
is regularly enforcod . By an Act passed in 1854 magistrates arcempowered to send juvenile criminals—under 16 years of ago—on tho expiration of thoir sentence , to a Reformatory School for a period
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We do not undertake to return rejected communications . No notice can be taken of anonymous correspondence . Whatever ia intended for insertion must be authenticated by the name and address of the writer ,- not necessarily tor publication , but as a Ruarantee of his good faith .
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SATURDAY , AUGUST 80 , 1856 .
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There is nothing so revolutionary , because there is nothing ; so unnatural and convulsive , as the strain to keep things fixed -when all the world is by the very law of its creation in eternal progress . —Db . Abkoid .
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828 THE LEADE R . [ No . 336 , Saturday , ¦ %
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 30, 1856, page 828, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2156/page/12/
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