our free Parliament; that He had preserved to us the dispensation county were in a deplorable condition indeed. Guided by "Township throughout the Province of those principles of religion and piety, the Superintendents," seldom fitted for the duties of their office, Primary truest safeguard of the nation, and that not merely by fixed administra-Education languished, the faithful teacher, not being appreciated, left the tions in towns and cities, but by the self-sacrificing efforts of missionaries ranks in disgust, and the profession was filled with persons altogether in the back-woods; that He had preserved to us a national system educa unqualified to discharge the important duty of developing harmoniously cation from the humblest common school to the University, open without the intellectual and moral powers of the pupils over whom they were bar, hindrance or impediment to any one that chose to come forward; that placed. But under your guidance the scene has changed: unqualified He had preserved to us the blessings of an unbroken peace, under whose teachers have been dismissed or sent to school in order to prepare them to fostering influence the resources of our Province were being rapidly teach efficiently; faithful and well-qualified teachers have been aided in developed, and prosperity had attended our pursuits of manufactures, of procuring positions of greater usefulness to the public and profit to themcommerce and of arts. (Loud applause.) Three loud and hearty cheers selves; trustees have been urged to obtain the services of good teachers; were then given for the Queen, three for the President and Professors, parents have been encouraged to persevere in sending their children and three for the ladies, when the assemblage separated.--Leader. steadily to school; and above all, the rights of children have been sacredly guarded. In doing all this we are aware that you have encountered much petty opposition and many annoyances, but amidst all you have never flinched from the discharge of your duty. Besides your ordinary duties, to which you have faithfully and honourably attended, to the entire satisfaction of the great majority of the people, you have laboured diligently and successfully in organizing and sustaining Teachers' Conventions in different localities-a proceeding of the utmost importance to the teacher, and of incalculable advantage to the pupil. Fully appreciating your services, we, on behalf of the parents, trustees, pupils, and teachers of this County, present you with this purse, containing the sum of $100, not as a reward for your extra work, but as a slight token of our deep and heart felt regard for you as an active, untiring, and faithful Superintendent, in whose hands we are glad to see placed so much power to do good, and by whose exertions, solid and lasting advantages have been conferred on the cause of education, not only in this county but also in others throughout the Province. Finally, we pray that a kind Providence may so guide and shape your career that you may be an ornament to your honourable profession and a blessing to the rising generation; and, that you may have the happiness of seeing all your efforts crowned with still more abundant success, is the carnest desire of the friends of education in this County." AMERICAN MEDICAL STUDENTS AT CANADIAN SCHOOLS.-The British American Journal says:-"We are not much surprised to find that American Medical students are seeking the completion of their studies in our Canadian Schools. Those who are not sufficiently advanced to follow the army in some medical capacity must do so, to avoid the conscription act, the effects of which, while it would entail a remission of their studies, would at the same time compel a servitude in the ranks on the part of a large number. This is probably another reason superadded to that adduced by our daily contemporary, the Commercial Advertiser. What influence the deplorable troubles of our neighbours will exert upon the opening classes at McGill University remains to be seen. We quote the following from the daily periodical alluded to: On Saturday, 8 young men arrived in this city from Kentucky for the purpose of attending college. It is probable that many others in the States will avail themselves of the peaceful (condition of this country to pursue their studies in our colleges.-Toronto Leader. One gentleman from Kentucky, and a few other Americans, are attending the Medical School of Queen's College in Kingston. They seek freedom from the turmoil of war which distracts their own country.Commercial Advertiser. [A student from Missouri is also attending Victoria College this year.-ED.] Reply." LADIEs and Gentlemen,—I believe you have generally given me credit for not being at a loss for words, when it has been required that I should, in the discharge of the duties of my office, advise, censure, or reprove either children, parents, or teachers; and doubtless some of you may have thought me a little too ready and fluent on such occasions; but -QUEEN'S COLLEGE, KINGSTON.—At a meeting of the Board of Trustees held on the 9th instant, the Rev. John C. Murray, of Paisley, in Scotland, was unanimously appointed to fill the chair of Logic and Mental and Moral Philosophy in the University of Queen's College. The new Professor was a favorite of the late Sir William Hamilton of Edinburg, and his testimonials are of the very highest order. Throughout his College course he dis-be that as it may, I assure you that on the present occasion I feel utterly tinguished himself in all the departments of study, but especially in that which he will now teach. Since leaving College, he has made mental Philosophy his favorite study, having spent a year in Germany with that view, and having also filled the office of President of the metaphysical Society of Edinburgh. The Rev. Mr Murray is a son of the Provost of the Burg of Paisley, where he is not less esteemed for his amiable disposition than for his varied accomplishments as a scholar. He is expected to reach Kingston early in November to assume the duties of his chair. at a loss for language to give expression to the feelings of very great gratification you have caused me by the gift of this substantial token of your affection and esteem. I do value it very highly, not alone for its intrinsic worth, but for the assurance it gives me, that while in discharge of my duty, it has been at times my lot to reprove or advise, it has been so done as not to give offence to those whom I fain would benefit; and whose esteem and good wishes, if lost to me, would have given me much pain, for it is impossible that individuals should meet so frequently and SUCCESS OF A YOUNG CANDAIAN.-The St. Catherines Constitu. converse so intimately as we are required to do, without forming intimacies tional notices the return to that town of Dr. Jukes, who, in July last, went and attachments, the rupture of which would be very painful. Ladies and with a young son to England, the lad having been nominated to a cadet-Gentlemen, I pray you will accept my most grateful thanks, and I trust ship in the Royal Navy by His Excellency the Governor General. This this handsome expression of appreciation of my labours, emanating as it is the first instance in which a candidate for these honors has gone home does from both parents and teachers, will not only operate to stir me up for examination at Portsmouth, it being usual for Canadian rominees to to greater diligence, but will at the same time serve to fully convince you pass on the flag-ship at Halifax or Bermuda. The examination was held that though for a time your best exertions may not be recognized and at the Royal Naval College at Portsmouth in the early part of last month. valued as you or I may think they should be,-though for a season your Upwards of eighty boys presented themselves from the leading schools in only reward may be consciousness of having done the best you could—yet Great Britain, and young Jukes' name appeared fourteenth on the list of in time those for whom you labor will surely cheer and gladden you with successful candidates. This result is no less gratifying to the doctor than their approval. Allow me to say in conclusion, that it affords me great flattering to the lad's preceptor, the Rev. T. D. Phillips, of St. Catherines, pleasure, on the present interesting occasion, to return my sincere thank under whose care bis education began and ended, and to whose system of to the parents, teachers and trustees whose uniform kindness I have exinstruction it must be attributed. perienced while visiting the different school sections throughout this extensive County." NOTE.-The above Address and Reply were read before the Teachers' Covention for the County of Northumberland, held in Brighton, during the first week of August, 1862. The attendance was very large, and a deep interest was manifested in the proceedings during the whole session. The next meeting of Association will be held in the same place, during the week beginning on the first Monday in August, 1863. Teachers and friends of education from all parts of the Province will receive a hearty welcome. W. J. BLACK, Secretary of the Convention. COUNTY OF NORTHUMBERLAND.-The following Address was presented to Edward Scarlett, Esq., Superintendent of Common Schools for the County of Northumberland, at Brighton, on the 7th of August:"RESPECTED SIR,-We, the Teachers and Friends of Education, in our Annual Convention assembled, cannot allow this favourable opportunity to pass without publicly and officially expressing to you our deep sense of your many excellencies and kindness as a man, and of your faithful and untiring exertions as a Superintendent, in raising the schools of this county to a position superior to that of those in most counties of Upper Canada and inferior to none. When, seven or eight years ago, you were Board of Directors of this Institution have determined to establish during happily appointed to the office which you now hold, the schools of this the ensuing season classes for instruction in English, French, German, -THE TORONTO MECHANICS' INSTITUTE AND EVENING CLASSES.-The The Chief Superintendent will add one hundred per cent. to any sum or sums, not less than five dollars, transmitted to the Department by Municipal and School Corporations, on behalf of Grammar and Common Schools; and forward Public Library Books, Prize Books, Maps, Apparatus, Charts, and Diagrams, to the value of the amount thus augmented, upon receiving a list of the articles required. In all cases it will be necessary for any person acting on behalf of the Municipal or Trustee Corporation, to enclose or present a written authority to do so, verified by the corporate seal of the Corporation. A selection of Maps, Apparatus, Library and Prize Books, &c., to be sent, can always be made by the Department, when so desired. Catalogues and Forms of Application furnished to School Authorities on their application. FORM OF APPLICATION FOR PUBLIC LIBRARY BOOKS, MAPS [Insert Post Office Address here.] Package No. 1. Books and Cards, 5cts. to 70cts each...... $10 66 No. 2. Ditto ditto No. 3. Ditto ditto No. 4. Ditto ditto No. 5. Ditto ditto No. 6. Ditto ditto No. 7. Ditto ditto 5cts. to $1.00 each...... $16 5cts. to $1.25 each...... $20 10cts. to $1.50 each...... $26 10cts. to $1.75 each...... $30 10cts. to $2.00 each...... $36 15cts. to $2.25 each...... $40 No. 8. Ditto ditto 15cts. to $2.50 each...... $46 15cts. to $2.75 each...... $50 20cts. to $3.00 each...... $56 Special Prizes, in handsomely bound books, singly at from $1.05 to $5.50. In sets of from two to six volumes of Standard Literature, at from $3.00 to $10.00 per set. Trustees are requested to send in their orders for prizes at as early a date as possible, so as to ensure the due despatch of their parcels in time for the examinations, and thus prevent disappointment. MAGIC LANTERN EXHIBITIONS TO SCHOOLS. T. J. WIGGINS proposes giving exhibitions of the Magic Lantern following certificate by way of introduction to them: SIR, The [Trustees, or Board of Trustees, if in Towns, &c.] of the .....School being anxious to provide [Maps, MR. Tchools in various parts of Upper Canada, and desires to add the Library Books, or Prize Books, &c.] for the Public Schools in the [Section, Town, or Village, &c.] hereby make application This is to Certify that we have been acquainted with the bearer, for the &c., enumerated in the accompanying list, in THOMAS J. WIGGINS, for more than Thirty Years, and know him to be terms of the Departmental Notice relating to for Public a good moral man, and that from misfortune in losing his sight, in so far Schools. The ... selected are bona fide for the ... ................ ..; and as to debar him from working at his trade, and also the loss of property by the CORPORATION HEREBY PLEDGES ITSELF not to give or an honest living,-therefore is recommended to the favorable consideration fire be now is exhibiting certain paintings, &c., for the purpose of procuring dispose of them, nor permit them to be given or disposed of, of a Christian public. to the teacher or to any private party, OR FOR ANY PRIVATE A. S. ST. JOHN, PURPOSE WHATSOEVER, but to apply them solely to the pur- RICHARD MILLER, poses above specified in the Schools of the ........., in terms of the Departmental Regulations granting one hundred per cent. on the present remittance. The parcel is to be sent to the Station of the ...... Railway, addressed to IN TESTIMONY WHEREOF, the Corporation above-named, hereto affixes its corporate seal to this application, by the hand of ... *this .... day of 186-. ......9 NOTE. Before the trustees can be supplied, it will be neces-Vasey's Classical English Spelling Book. sary for them to have filled up, signed and sealed WITH A English Grammar made Easy. PROPER CORPORATE SEAL, as directed, a copy of the foregoing And all Lovell's Series of School Books. Form of Application. On its receipt at the Education Office, the one hundred per cent. will be added to the remittance, and supplies of all the above just received. the order, so far as the stock in the Depository will permit made up and despatched. Should the Trustees have no proper The Trustees of the Section; Chairman and Secretary of the Board of City, Town, or Village Trustees; Warden, Mayor, or Reeve. Our NATIONAL SERIES are got up in a superior style.-Large All communications to be addressed to J. GEORGE HODGins, LL.B., LOVELL AND GIBSON, PRINTERS, YONGE STREET, TORONTO, I. PAPERS ON JUVENILE VAGRANCY, DESTITUTION, &c.-(1) Vagrant Children in Cities and Towns. (2) Juvenile Offenders, (3) Lower Canada Reformatory Schools. (4) Roman Catholic Reformatories. (5) British Reformatory Schools. (6) Moral Statistics of London. (7) Homes or Houses of Refuge for Destitute and Neglected Children. (8) Extract from the Presentment of a Kent Grand Jury. (9) Evils of Street Education. (10) The Power of One Good Boy Canada. No. 12. PAGE benevolence should be invoked and encouraged to supplement the agency of our present school system. ......177 II. PAPERS ON PRACTICAL EDUCATION-(1) The Half-Day School Scheme. IV. MISCELLANEOUS (1) "Thanksgiving-Day." (2) The Crown Prince and V. EDUCATIONAL INTELLIGENCE VI. DEPARTMENTAL NOTICES AND ADVERTISEMENTS TITLE PAGE AND INDEX TO VOLUME XV. 181 Neither of the two former propositions having been entertained by the Government, to whom they were submitted, I proposed the last in a draft of a bill, accompanied by an explanatory letter, last year. The members of the Government before whom this measure was laid, retired from office before taking it into consideration, and I have not renewed it by submitting it to the present Government. There is, therefore, now no proposition under the consideration of Government, in respect to children whose school education is wholly ne188 glected. 183 183 185 VAGRANT CHILDREN IN CITIES AND TOWNS. Circular from the Chief Superintendent of Education to the Board of School Trustees in the Cities and Towns of Upper Canada. GENTLEMEN,-I beg to call your serious and earnest attention to the condition of those children in cities and towns who do not attend any school, public or private. Your obedient Servant, Toronto, 22nd Nov., 1862. I had hoped that when the public schools should be made free in our cities and towns, no persons in them would be 2. JUVENILE OFFENDERS. found to refuse or neglect availing themselves of such a privilege, facility, and inducement to educate their children. I Montreal journals call attention to the large number of juvenile offenders who have been tried at the sitting of the Court of confess the results of the trial have come short of my expecta- Queen's Bench in that city which has just closed. It is said tions. Very considerable numbers of children in these centres that a majority of the prisoners tried at this session were boys of population are growing up with no other education than a from ten to fifteen years of age. This is a somewhat startling training in idleness, vagrancy, and crime. The existence of such a class in any community is a public loss and danger, and ominous of future evil. It is perfectly clear, that making good schools free to all does not secure the education of all. reformatory institutions of the country answered the purpose for fact, and very naturally suggests the inquiry-how far have the which they were founded? The inquiry is of a provincial character, though it does not thrust itself on public attention in Upper Canada with the same degree of force as in the lower I have, at different times, submitted three propositions or section of the Province. The majority of offenders at our Nisi plans for the accomplishment of the object of free schools in Prins courts is, happily, not composed of the younger classes of cities and towns. First,-That as the property of all is taxed society. Yet it is a fact that hardly an assize court passes in for the common school education of all, all should be com- this city at which the Grand Jury does not refer disapprovingly pelled to allow their children the means of such education, at to the continual intermingling of young and old offenders in the either public or private schools. Or, secondly, that each cells of the county jail. That the evil, then, is felt, to some municipality should be empowered to deal with the vagrancy degree in Upper as well as in Lower Canada, is evident. How of children of school age, or the neglect of their education, to remedy this evil may well engage the time and study of social as a crime, subject to such penalties and such measures for its economists and those who have the direction of public affairs. prevention, as each municipality, in its own discretion, might In England the same matter has lately been the subject of from time to time adopt. Or, thirdly, that the aid of religious discussion. The question on which opinion differs, is not as no way could it be better used than in that we have now indicated. In Lower Canada, something of the same kind might be done. Municipal Corporations cannot, righteously, shake themselves free of the obligation which rests upon them, of taking care of the juvenile offenders, who, from time to time, appear before the judicial authorities. We by no means desire to remove from the shoulders of the supreme legislative body of the country the obliga tion which rests upon them. The attention of Parliament might profitably be directed to the subject, and municipal fathers would be doing a good service in rising above the petty squabbles, and the little trivialities in which they too frequently indulge, and take into their consideration so important a subject as that which has been broached by the journals of Lower Canada.-Leader. The 3. LOWER CANADA REFORMATORY SCHOOLS. The director of this Provincial Institution, Mr. Prieur, complains, in a communication to the Minerve, that it is not sufficiently known nor appreciated in the country. The school was removed some time since from Isle-aux-Noix to St. Vincent de Paul, to a building which, we believe, was formerly occupied by nuns. number of pupils has increased from 22 in January last to 49. The establishment could accommodate 150, without increasing the number or salary of the teachers, the only additional expense being food and raiment. Mr. Prieur thinks that pupils who serve in the school short terms are but little benefitted and not reformed; they soon come back by relapse. He recommends judges to sentence young offenders to long terms, as the most merciful course to be pursued towards them. Long terms are preferable, not only in a moral but also in an economical point of view. The culprit has time to be apprenticed, within the institution, to a trade: this generally takes three years: then his labour becomes more and more profitable, and he is thus made to pay fully for his expenses. Finally, when he leaves the school, he is not only reformed in his habits, but able at once to obtain an honest and comfortable livelihood. The pupils are reported happy; and, as an instance of the excellent discipline they have attained, it is stated that the fruit on trees in their play-ground have been left untouched by them.— Witness. they have been in operation for very many years-but as to the qualification for admission, or in other words whether these institutions should be used as places of light punishment for boys who have been guilty of trivial offences-"who have stolen pence, or pulled up a mill dam, or made a hole in a wall or gap in a hedge, carried off a duck, or spoiled an apple tree, or knocked off a door handle, or unhinged a gate, or committed some other minor trespass upon the rights of man;" or whether they should be places of hard discipline for the same classes of the community-such discipline as requires a criminal nature for its subject, and a certain period of time for its test. It is not a little singular that the advocates of the latter view are men who, either as inspectors or managers, have been connected with, and may therefore be supposed to know something about, the working of reformatories. Mr. Sidney Turner in a recent "Report of the Inspector," condemns the sending of young persons to a reformatory who have not been guilty of some more serious offence than the wild freaks of many a boyish nature; and suggests that the cause of the incarceration of these juvenile delinquents is not always of a nature which has their reformation for its principal object. "We cannot wonder," says he, "that the temptation to get the child well trained and clothed and fed at the public expense should be found more powerful than a parent's natural instinct to avoid the disgrace and pain of the child's conviction and separation from her." A Mr. Kynnersley, of Birmingham, makes the same complaint, and warns the public that "it is absolutely necessary that reformatory schools should be reserved for those children only who, either from having previously been convicted, or from other circumstances, appear to be so far gone in crime as to afford little hope of being curable by any less expensive and less protracted system of treatment." We apprehend that the views of these gentlemen will be considered somewhat novel in this country. Here, at least, there are not two opinions as to what a reformatory should be-what the nature of its discipline-what the object it should have in view. A reformatory should not be a jail. Its name implies its character. A jail seldom has a reforming effect upon any criminal, be he or she young or old, who is once confined within its walls. In nine cases out of ten, it has the very opposite effect, rendering even more confirmed in sin and more sunk in the slough of degradation than before, those criminals who once become its inmates. Many a young lad, whose higher instincts and whose better qualities have been little more than bluuted by his first transgression, has been plunged deep into the mire of wickedness and depravity by being confined with criminals of more advanced years. It may, indeed, be said, there is no absolute necessity for keeping prisoners of all ages together. Perhaps there is not; but it is too frequently the case that it cannot be avoided. If it can-if a proper system of classification is possible-then, according to the views of the English authorities we have just quoted, reformatory institutions would be altogether unnecessary. This Mr. Sidney Turner, the inspector appointed to visit the reformais the rational conclusion from such premises. Yet it can hardly be tory schools of Great Britain, has presented his annual report. He supposed that these persons desire to be understood as favouring has to state that the number of young offenders in the 62 certified such a conclusion. We must naturally revert to the old idea-that reformatories increased in the course of the year 1861 from 3,803 to which is the most generally conceived, and the most consistent with 4,337, including 186 placed out on license and not yet finally discommon sense that reformatories have a purpose distinct from that charged. In estimating the value and results of the reformatory of a jail; that the object is to take the oversight of juvenile delin- system, we look naturally to the number of young offenders comquents, who, by moral example, and the exercise of industrial habits mitted to prison year by year. Now, the commitments of persons should be led, as far as possible, from the ways of crime, and so set under 16 will be found to have decreased since 1856 about 43 per out on the highway of life as that they may grow up good and use- cent. in Englaud, allowing for increase of population. The number ful citizens. The principle, that it is the duty of the State to take steadily diminished from 1856 to 1860, but in 1861 increased above care of such a class of the community, will be generally concurred in. 9 per cent. over the previous year; and the number of adult com"Prevention is better than cure." It is much better to take a mitments increased still more. Various circumstances may have young lad by the hand, and lead him away from the paths of wick-contributed to this increase. There is scarcity of employment, edness, while he has a mind susceptible of good impressions, than be under the necessity of treating him, at a later period of his life, as a criminal. The Canadian government, acting on this principle, has established a reformatory in each section of the Province-one at Penetanguishine, and another at Isle-aux-Noix. The reports of these institutions show, that so far as they are provided with the means of fulfilling the ends for which they were established, they have done some good. But it must at once be apparent, how very very limited is their field of operations, and how many hundred instances of juvenile offences there are that never come within the purview of the managers of the reformatories. The institutions are too distant to be made available for the entire country. And to ask a goverment to establish such a number of these houses as would meet the requirements of the entire population of the Province, is out of the question. The thing is simply impossible. Under such circumstances it is a question how far the larger cities are justified in neglecting to provide for the care of that class of their inhabitants who, at no great cost, may be prevented from becoming hardened criminals. A House of Refuge was at one time built in this city, which might have included in the circle of its operations these little offenders; but the building is uninhabited, save by rats and mice. It ought certainly to be turned to some account, and in 4. ROMAN CATHOLIC REFORMATORIES. Six Roman Catholic reformatary schools in Britain receive £15, 154 from Government. The schools contain 882 pupils, with 87 officers, or one officer to every ten children. 5. BRITISH REFORMATORY SCHOOLS. which affects especially the class of discharged criminals-a class which is every year augmenting, and the increase tells very seriously on the amount of juvenile delinquency. The returns of reconvictions show how large a proportion of this class defy the efforts made for their reformation in our convict as well as our ordinary prisons, and Mr. Turner again expresses his hope that some means will be found for the more effectual surveillance of at least the habitual criminal offenders, the men who have lived for years on the produce of their criminal or vicious habits, and have made violence or theft their profession; it is perhaps to be regretted that their sentences are often so short. Another cause of the increase of the number of juvenile commitments in 1861, is probably the over-use of reformatories. Of the whole number sentenced to reformatories in the year, more than five-eighths were sent on a first commitment, nearly a fourth were under 12 years of age, and the commitments in a large number of cases were for very petty offences, the sentence being apparently passed rather in reference to what the child was likely to become from the bad example or neglect of its parents, or from its destitute circumstances, than to its actual criminality or viciousness. Reformatories are for those who are not curable by a less expensive and less protracted system of treatment. Until the parent is made to contribute to the child's maintenance in every crease. was the means of rescuing upwards of sixty unfortunate children from want and vice, in the first year of its existence. During the last session of the legislature, the "Boys' Home" at Toronto was incorporated by act of parliament; and in the last twelve months has effected a very large and steadily increasing work of good among the unfortunate class for whose benefit it is designed. possible case, Mr. Turner holds it desirable to refuse admission to children (not being orphans or really destitute) on a first commitment. Of the results of reformatories in the diminution and prevention of crime, he has to report that, after making allowance for unknown and doubtful cases, it may be taken as well ascertained that the treatment is successful in reforming at least 70 per cent.; and, considering that the system has had to deal at first with the more hardened offenders, the proportion may be expected to in- The great object, as is geneally admitted, of penal legislation It is rare to find in these institutions the dogged, downcast and of penal institutions of every kind, is to diminish crime; and look or manner which shows that the masters are more anxious to I am fully persuaded that no class of institutions, penal or reformabe obeyed than to be liked or trusted; there is generally a kindli-tory, is calculated to produce so large results in this way, and ness and consideration for the children which indicate right views of at so small a cost to the community, as those institutions (whether the work undertaken. It would be difficult to find a movement so styled "Ragged Schools," " Homes," or "Industrial Farms"), widely spread, and embracing persons so various in their religious which, seeking out the neglected and perishing children who otherviews and their social position, which has been carried on with so wise would grow up in our midst in ignorance and vice, afford those few failures and so little rivalry or dissension. Of the whole 1,031 unfortunate outcasts the necessary education and training to enable discharges in the year, only 18 boys or girls were sent away as hope- them to earn an honest living for themselves. lessly incorrigible; 90 went to sea, 22 enlisted, 110 emigrated, 660 went to service or employment or to the care of friends, 27 died, 15 were discharged on the ground of health, and 89 absconded and were not recovered. The expenditure was £98,638; the Treasury payments for maintenacce amounted £66,374; the parents' payments were only £2,439; contributions from the rates produced £4,750; contributions from voluntary associations and payments for voluntary inmates, £975; subscriptions and legacies, £14,136.-Times. Deeply impressed with the inestimable benefits resulting to society from such institutions, I submitted my views upon the subject to my colleagues and the Government, in a report presented to them in the early part of the year. In that report I advocated the establishment of institutions under the name of Homes," for the destitute and neglected children of the poorer classes; for those children, who, unless some such provision were made for them, would, of necessity, grow up in ignorance and vice. It was recommended that the Circuit or County Judges, and the Recorders of cities, should, under certain restric6. MORAL STATISTICS OF LONDON. tions and conditions, have authority to commit such children to "Homes," regularly established, for certain limited periods. That The subjoined calculations on this subject appear in a recently- the managers of the "Homes" should give the children a suitable published work entitled "Our Moral Wastes, and how to Cultivate training and education, and afterwards apprentice them to some them." "In the city, out of a population of 323,772 people, only farmer or tradesman, or otherwise put them in the way of earning 60,899 were in chapel on the census Sunday in 1851; in Lambeth, an honest living. It was recommended that the "Homes" should 61,664 out of 251,345; in the city, 31,575 out of 127,869; in be supported, mainly at least, by voluntary contributions, or by Marylebone, 77,055 out of 370,957; in the Tower Hamlets, 82,522 payment from the municipalities sending children to them, and out of 535,110; in Westminister, 49,845 out of 241,611; in South- that the aid of the legislature should be invoked for the purposes, wark, 31,879 out of 172,863; and in 1859 according to the evidence principally, of legalizing the establishments, and of conferring the taken by a Select Committee of the House of Lords, notwithstand- necessary power upon the magistrates to send the children to the ing all that has been done to induce attendance since 1851, there" Homes," and on the managers to retain the children for the were sixty-eight per cent absent in Southwark, and sixty per cent periods prescribed by law, and afterwards to apprentice them out. absent in Lambeth, of the adult population capable of attending the It is not my intention to repeat here, in detail, the facts and means of grace. To show the moral evil which these figures repre- arguments set forth in that report on the several topics above resent, it has been ascertained that, if we were to analyze the popula-ferred to. But there are one or two points connected with the subtion of London and compare the number of its individuals of each ject which seem to demand a few words of further explanation in class with an ordinary-sized town, say a town with a population of 10,000, we should find in the vast metropolis as many persons as even this very brief memorandum. would fill about two towns with Jews; ten towns with persons who work on the Sabbath; fourteen towns with habitual gin-drinkers; more than ten towns with persons who are every year found intoxicated in the streets of London; two towns with fallen women, to say nothing of those who are partakers of their sins; one town with gamblers; one with children trained in crime; one with thieves receivers of stolen goods; half a town with Italians; four towns with Germans; two towns with French; while there are as many Irish as would fill the city of Dublin; and more Roman Catholics than would fill the city of Rome. Nor is this all; there are as many publicans and beer and tobacco shops as would fill two towns of 10,000 each, open every Saturday; and if we allow only twentyfive customers to each place, as representing the amount of attendance for the day, we have 500,000 people say half a million of men and women thus occupied, while 384,015 only are attending the house of God! In London there are 20,000 public-houses, and beer and tobacco shops open on the Sunday, and only 750 Protestant churches and chapels for Divine worship. In Scotland, with the same population, there are no public-houses open on the Sunday, and 2500 churches and chapels where the people attend on the means and ordinances of grace. In London we have the concentrated essence of evil within a radius from the centre point of seven miles. In Scotland the iniquity that even there abounds is spread over a surface of 1500 square miles. 7. HOMES OR HOUSES OF REFUGE FOR DESTITUTE At the close of my separate report for last year, I very briefly adverted to the "Boys' Home," established at Toronto during the preceding year, by some benevolent ladies, for destitute and neglected children, and cited that institution as affording an example well worthy of imitation in our other large cities. Those points are "The necessity of Homes," and the "Classes of Children for whose benefit they are more particularly intended." NECESSITY FOR 'HOMES," &C. Canada boasts, and with reason, of the liberal provision which she makes for the education of her sous. She offers to all her children a good education, and offers it to them free of charge. But yet it cannot be denied that a large proportion of the juvenile population, and especially of that class of the juvenile population who, from their circumstances and position in life, most stand in need of training and education, derive no benefit whatever from our admirable school system. It is, indead, a matter of common remark that, in our large cities particularly, a great proportion of the children of the lower classes are utterly destitute and neglected, and grow up in our midst without receiving any education or training to fit them to act their part in life as honest and useful citizens.* The existence of this large and unfortunate class of the community is wholly ignored by society, until the wretched victims of neglect and cruelty present themselves before our magistrates, and become in due course the inmates of our jails and penitentiaries. But imprisonment in jail tends only to complete the ruin of the unfortunate child. So far from checking the growth of juvenile crime, the imprisonment of the young in jail is, in fact, itself a fruitful source of crime. The indiscriminate herding together of the young and comparatively innocent with old and hardened criminals in our common jails, has here, as elsewhere, produced in too many cases its natural fruit,—the utter degradation and permanent ruin of the more youthful and innocent prisoners. We, in Canada, The Honourable Mr. Justice Hagarty, in an able charge delivered to the Grand Jury of the City of Toronto, on the 12th instant," On crime and juvenile vagrancy in the City of Toronto." kives some statistics shewing the large number of children in that city who attend no schools, public or private, and the fearfully large number of committals to jail of children under 15 years of age. It would appear from the official documents cited by the judge, that the school population (that is, those from five to sixteen years of age) of the City of Toronto was 11,595, and that there were 2,777 (or nearly one-fourth of the whole number) not attending any school. The The "Home" above referred to, though upon a small and un-number of children under 15 years of age committed to the Toronto jail for the last pretending scale, and supported wholly by voluntary contributions, five years is frightfully large. The numbers are thus given by the judge:— 1858 71 1860... 153 1859 90 1861 73 Extract from the Separate Report of E. A. Meredith, Esq., Prison Inspector for the year 1881, In Montreal the number of youths of both sexes under 16 years of age committed to the city jail last year appear, from the returns furnished to the House, to be 137. |